Vera Menchik, 1906 -1944 first Women’s World Chess Champion, 1927
This is Vera aged 16 in 1922, one year before she joined the Hastings Chess Club. Vera had come from Russia the year before, to live in St Leonard’s on Sea with her mother and sister. Vera could not speak English at the time, and so threw herself into playing chess.
I have wanted to take a typewriter for a ride for a long time, and finally got around to it. Unfortunately a dog scared the birds away almost as soon as I sat down to type a picture of them, so I’m afraid this trio is all I can offer. However not to worry, I brought my swimming kit, so all is fine and dandy.
The water is 16.6 degrees C, about as warm as it will get this summer. The safer seas and rivers app tells me the water is also clean enough to swim in. I never venture in these days without checking. Southern Water has an abominable reputation for dumping untreated sewage into the sea, and this year was fined millions for its misdemeanours. But today all is looking pretty nice.
This is tank-top guy feeling festive This is Crow, missing her friend Tank-top guySometimes when you miss someone, you just have to caw them up on the phone…and work out how to spend time together, in a corvid safe way.
I’m making things, not really typing, not really writing. This is from a photo we took of our shadows on a night walk last summer. Now the longest we’ve been apart since we got together and every day from now on until lockdown is over.