Alan & Pat Home and Away

Friday the 13th–A Lovely Day

2012-01-14T16:24:00.001Z

Despite its reputation as a day for disasters, Friday the 13th January 2012 showed us the best weather so far this year.

It was cold, crisp, there was no wind and, best of all . . . it was sunny.

So off we went to the hills above Haworth for a walk. This lane has some spectacular views across the valley and is quiet enough for a walk – the fields are still very muddy from all the rain. Incidentally, this deserted lane is a bus route.

The sun is so low in the sky at the moment that the contours of the land stand out starkly.

We came back by a different route to avoid the traffic jam that is Cross Hills and collected a short list of places to go back to, including what looked like a planned village but was Keighley Workhouse in days gone by.

Alan had this exciting Christmas gift from Dave and Tara. It is now mounted outside his study window. The bar down is the decorative leading on the window, not a precaution against falling out of the window!

I said in my last post that we were off to research paving for the front garden. Earlier in the week, we duly ended up at Gordon Riggs Garden Centre – not the one pictured on the front page of their site but the original one near Todmorden. I think we have decided on paving and tubs but it’s a bit too early in the year for setting things going.

Opposite is Bottoms Mill Shop and Cafe and we popped over for lunch – a bacon buttie for those who want to know. M’mmm! I think we appreciate that sort of food all the more because we don’t have it often.

In the shop, is this lovely antique which will play a tune if you put 20p in a slot. Isn’t it delightful?

January 2012 – Where Does Time Go?

2012-01-11T09:35:00.001Z

That was a rhetorical question and I don’t expect an answer – unless anyone has a better knowledge of ‘The State of The Universe’ than I do – or even more importantly than Professor Stephen Hawking does. Happy Birthday! to him – a few days late but I don’t suppose he will mind.

A quote from Hawking is "Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet." I like that and we will continue to try and meet that target this year.

I’d like to follow his advice literally as well as metaphorically so perhaps at least one meteor shower will arrive when we have a clear sky? The first didn’t so I have to wait till April to find that out.

We hope to make another trip to the USA this year for a family holiday and to see places we have not visited yet. It looks as if there will be 10 – 13 of us and finding a house we can rent for us all is difficult. After all, how many families nowadays plan trips with that many members?

We’ve also got a list of places to visit with the caravan this year that would require some manipulation of the space-time continuum to manage. We do like a challenge and are bidding on e-bay for a Police Box. Worth a try?

Alan’s book comes on apace and he still gets a lot of contact and information from his old students – I should, perhaps, call them Alumni rather than ‘old’! To catch up on them go to his website. It may take a bit of scrolling but we are hoping to improve that soon. Web technology has come a long way since he started it 7 years ago. In those days, you had to learn Dreamweaver to build a site and neither of us had the time or inclination to do that. This blog took me less time to set up than Alan’s site.

My venture of A Yorkshire Cook, born out of numerous queries about recipes and cooking has come on well. It is climbing the Alexa rankings nicely and visitors are beginning to comment.

As we get to eat the results of my experiments, Alan is happy. I’m enjoying writing it and also the photography – though food photography turns out to be a tricky new skill to learn.

The weather has been as unpredictable as ever! Far from the nasty snow and ice of last winter, so far, we have had mild weather. The rhubarb crop is hampered by lack of frost which is needed to set it into growth.

We have been lucky in a couple of weeks dominated by high winds. The most we have seen is the dash for freedom of local wheelie bins which may have caused problems for those who had to go out – we just hunkered down and waited it out. Then we handed a stray waste food bin, which had wandered into our front garden, to the recycling collectors when they arrived (a day late).

Halifax did make it into the national news when a dormer window was blown off, over a house, taking the chimney stack with it and crashing into the street!

Now we are beginning to put our heads above the parapet and today we are going on an expedition to find the right surface for our front garden. Small as it is, I can no longer manage it and it depresses me to see weeds and a tangle of growth. I kick myself that I didn’t think of this when we sorted the tiny back yard which has worked very well with a raised bed.

We hope to sort it this spring and leave me with a rather nice raised trough to play with. Photos will follow when we have the job done.

End of Year Round Up - 2011

2011-12-20T07:42:00.001Z

I can’t believe that it is nearly the end of the year. They do say that time passes quickly when you’re having fun – so I guess there’s a lot of fun in my life.

We seem to have spent a lot of this year chasing Charles Darwin. He came from Shrewsbury, where there is a shopping centre named after him – of all things!

And he left on his famous voyage aboard the Beagle from Devonport. Today we think of Plymouth as a famous sea port but Devonport was one of the three towns, East Stonehouse being the third, which were merged in 1914 to form the Borough of Plymouth in 1914.

We stayed with Rosemary and Mike for a weekend towards the end of October and visited the beautiful park at Devonport where this Darwin mention is part of a fountain.

We were so lucky with the weather and even managed a boat trip past the dockyards. The large building in the above photo is Babcock International where Grandson Dan is now an apprentice.

We made a return trip to Mackenzies Smoke House towards the end of November to stock up and to have lunch to celebrate Alan’s birthday.

The journey up went so smoothly that we arrived much too early and pottered round the lanes for a while, passing the ‘golf balls’ of Menwith Hill.

These geodesic domes house the very latest in communications and intelligence support to the UK and US. Nearby there used to be one of the more amusing of military eccentricities in the shape of HMS Forest Moor, a navy base on a hill which had to be named as ‘Her Majesty’s Ship’.

The biggest news of the autumn was the birth of Danika, a daughter for Victoria and Jay and sister for Darvik in Kentucky. Alan travelled over for a few days to meet her.

They stayed most of the time at Old Rice Farm in Victoria and Jay’s cabin.

Last week we travelled to Fountains Abbey which is in North Yorkshire for a dinner followed by a performance of ‘A Christmas Carol’ by The Pantaloons. We had a lovely evening and then a drive home on a crisp moonlit night. Perfect.

At home, we have both been busy on various projects. Alan’s website is popular in the Tourism world and among his ex students. He hopes to have a book coming out some time next year.

Pat has started to put her recipes and cooking knowhow onto a website – A Yorkshire Cook. It had been suggested by several people but the time involved has never been available till now. It is proving great fun and, of course, we get to eat the food.

In other family news, Layla is now at university, studying design. Tariq is studying for A levels and is specialising in literature. Kalif is working towards GCSE and doing well. Jon has joined a company which deals with cleaning up after emergencies and disasters. He is finding it more satisfying than his previous job. Kerry is enjoying organising music and drama at two secondary schools.

Rosie is still a teaching assistant, happier in her job after a re-organisation and Mike’s company is weathering the recession. As I mentioned earlier, Dan is an apprentice with Babcock, beating a lot of competition to get the position.

Dave and Tara are still in California and Simon is doing well at school. Their latest adventures can be seen here, including Simon’s Christmas performance at school – he’s at the back left in the video.

In the wider family, we have had two deaths this year. Orlando, Joy’s grandson, died in a light plane crash in May. It was a great shock as he had come back safely from Afghanistan when he was in the Marines and was a very fit and active young man.

Last week, Shirley’s brother in law, Bob, died after a long illness. Even though it was expected and he had beaten the medical predictions by a couple of years, it is still a sad loss.

We’re looking forward to a quiet Christmas. There will be Dr Who and plenty of relaxation. If the weather is good we will get out and about but that is not something to plan too rigidly at this time of year.

A Happy Christmas, everyone!

West View Park, Halifax

2011-11-07T19:41:00.001Z

West View Park does what it says on the tin. This is the view and it is due west towards Lancashire. Like so many people, we tend to neglect our local attractions but are trying to get round them.

Certainly, with the lovely Autumn sun and the leaves turning, we will not find anything better farther afield.

The park is on the west edge of Halifax and was proposed by two local businessmen, Mr H C McCrea and Mr E Robinson, in around 1894. The Parks Committee Minutes do not refer to the design of the park; it is implied that the benefactors, McCrea and Robinson, undertook responsibility for the park's layout. In July 1896 the park was opened. We forget how much we owe our Victorian ancestors for establishing such lovely green spaces in our towns.

Most of its ambitious design is now lost but it is still ‘a nice place to be’ and traces of the original design can be found here and there.

And this brave soldier from the Boer War has looked out towards Lancashire since at least 1905. Perhaps he anticipates a return of the War of the Roses.

Wainstalls and Luddenden

2011-11-02T17:12:00.001Z

This morning was so bright and sunny that we just had to get out and take advantage of the weather. We went past Mount Tabor and down a road which goes nowhere except past the popular Cat-i’th-well Inn.

We parked just before the Luddenden Dene Wesleyan Cemetery and walked along the narrow lane to the Cemetery where some orphans from Liverpool, brought over the hills to work in a local mill are buried. We visited the grave back in February 2010 and haven’t been back since.

One thing I hadn’t thought of before was the amount of room left on the stone for further burials.

It is a lovely spot with views across the valley. A shame that these children probably never got to enjoy the view.

At the other end of the Cemetery, where the modern burials take place, we found someone we had never heard of – though I wish we had known him as he sounds quite a character.

‘Sithee lata’ is our local dialect for ‘See you later’.

A Google later and I found that he was just known as Malcolm Lund of Wainstalls and died 31st March 2011. He left 6 children and a partner but I can’t find out anything else about him. If anyone knows more, I’d love to hear from you.

We walked on and I’ll just share some of the beauty with you – it doesn’t need words.

The last of the blackberries

A woodpecker lives here.

And home for lunch.

Pensthorpe Wildlife Trust

2011-10-20T14:53:00.001+01:00

A lot our readers will recognise some of the pictures on this post from watching Springwatch over the past couple of years.

We were discussing a possible visit to Westonbirt National Arboretum, where Autumnwatch is being filmed at the moment, on our way home from Plymouth next Monday – weather permitting.

That reminded me that I hadn’t mentioned our visit to Pensthorpe in the Summer. We spent several hours there and thoroughly enjoyed it. Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

Looking out from the observation gallery

Looking back to the observation gallery

Humans give way to birds

Part of the Millennium Garden

It’s not all birds

If you are near Fakenham, do visit. It’s worth it.

Daniels Flour Mill, Bridgnorth Shropshire.

2011-10-16T10:27:00.001+01:00

While we were in Shropshire, we visited Daniels Mill, just outside Bridgnorth.

It turned out to be another of those casual visits which became a highlight of the stay. The current miller gives an interesting and entertaining tour and actually sets the wheel turning and grinds flour while visitors watch.

Alan has written about the technical details here so I’ll leave them out.

To give you an idea of the scale, the wheel is 38 ft (11.6m) and is the largest cast iron waterwheel in England driving a corn mill.

The earliest reference to the mill is in the late 15th century, though it would have been much smaller and the wheel was probably made of wood. The present wheel was cast in Coalbrookdale in 1854 and installed soon after. The mill ground all kinds of grain for animal feed but, in common with many other small industrial enterprises, the mill closed when the last miller died in 1957.

Now, thanks to money from Grantscape, the wheel turns again and wheat is being ground for sale in Health food and speciality shops and, of course, it can be bought at the mill.

And very tasty bread it makes, too.

Shrewsbury Farmers Market

2011-10-08T10:04:00.000+01:00

David and Shirley were off home on Friday so we took the Park and Ride bus into Shrewsbury and went to see what the local producers had to offer before they left. The weather has changed for the worse and we had to dodge the odd shower but nothing too bad. There was a reasonable turn out of customers which gives me hope that the English are beginning to see reason. I’ve never been able to understand how people rave about the markets on the continent but turn up their noses at the ones here.

Tasting damson gin before lunch is not something we would usually indulge in but how can you refuse? It looks so churlish. I can’t give a link to Chilton Damson Gin because my Vodaphone mobile connection won’t let me link to an alcohol related site. I keep meaning to phone them and tell them I’m old enough to choose for myself but . . . Bizarrely, it will let me link to this site which features the demon drink!

The Damson Gin is absolutely wonderful – rich, fruity, smooth and has an afterkick like a mule, understandably as it is 26% proof. More than the one thimbleful we had to taste might have had us singing round the market.

Chirk Trout Farm and Smokery had a lovely display. As with MacKenzies, the smoking is natural and not overpowering. There are no nasty dyes used to give a bright colour and the food looks plump and moist. We bought smoked trout pasties for supper and the ladies from Chirk put them in their cool box for us till we were ready to go home.

Having had a sample of these ‘gourmet’ sausage rolls, we couldn’t resist buying a couple with pork, chillies and garlic.

These are not sausage rolls as we know them, Jim! For a start, the pastry is not the thick, dry flaky mess with a minimum of sausage inside that made me swear off sausage rolls years ago. It is thin and melts in the mouth. The sausage inside is thick and dense. Yes, I can taste the chilli and garlic but it is not overpowering. We really enjoyed them as a late afternoon snack.

Tong Church – in search of Little Nell

2011-10-07T17:08:00.001+01:00

Tong is a little village not far from Wolverhampton. The only thing we knew about it was that, in its churchyard is the ‘reputed’ grave of Little Nell. As it is on the way to Whitwick Manor, we stopped off expecting to spend ten minutes in the graveyard.

It’s not often that you find a grave for a fictional character but here is one.

The key is in the word ‘reputed’, of course. Charles Dickens did visit Tong where his Grandmother had been housekeeper at Tong Castle before marrying William Dickens in 1781. It is believed that he set the scene of the death of Little Nell in Tong.

The Old Curiosity Shop was a big hit in America and tourists started arriving looking for the grave so, in about 1910, a verger and village postmaster, George Bowden forged an entry in the church register of burials and set up the ‘grave’, charging people to see it.

Poor Little Nell! Her grave plaque has been moved several times to make room for ‘real’ burials.

We thought this was quite fun and were unprepared to be impressed by the church itself – perhaps we should do more research! Built 600 years ago on the site of an older church, it was founded by Dame Isabel Pembrugge, seen below carved on her monument.

The wreath of roses round her head is placed there on MidSummer’s day. Before the Reformation, it would have been placed on a statue of Mary, the mother of Jesus but a little thing like the reformation can’t keep down a tradition..

Part of our good luck was to be met by a local man who is interested in the Church and tends the churchyard as a volunteer so we got a private tour.

The most exciting thing about these monuments is that they show traces of the paint which once covered most of the interior of our churches.

The book, ‘Discovering Tong’ tells us that

“The whole Chantry is remarkable with its fan vaulting ceiling, which was originally painted in green, red and gold. The vaulting is very like that in the Henry VII Chapel in Westminster Abbey. The size of the Tong Chapel is much smaller, what could be achieved is restricted. It is the only surviving piece of medieval fan vaulting in Shropshire. On the east wall are the remains of a rood painting. Some of the colour is still quite bright.”

Our guide showed us another lovely detail. The roundels above are repeated many times and a wood carver got bored.

That gave us quite a chuckle and made the workmen of 1406 seem real.

Fossils and Wine in A Courtyard

2011-10-03T18:00:00.001+01:00

An unlikely combination brought about by a very hot day, a search for some Olympic history and a close encounter of the paleontological kind.

We went to hunt for The Raven Hotel in Much Wenlock, the scene of meetings between William Penny Brookes who started the Much Wenlock Olympian Games in 1850 and Baron Pierre de Coubertain who is often credited with the modern revival of the Olympic Games.

It was hot, we were thirsty and the rather smart hotel didn’t really take in passing trade for drinks. The Manager (owner?) kindly offered to serve us in the courtyard and out we went into the shade.

A couple walked through, obviously going to their room and my eye was caught by a large piece of rock in the man’s hand. Well, you know me! I’ll talk to anyone – after all, the worst they can do is ignore me. So I called out “that looks like an interesting piece of rock.”

It certainly was and the three of us spent some time in discussions of ‘fossils we have known’. Our new friend’s wife disappeared very quickly so I assume she was not so interested!

The rock was mudstone and absolutely filled with brachiopods from 400 million years ago when a warm sea covered the area around Wenlock Edge. A geology hammer were wielded and we were presented with a section of the rock.

The Manager looked on mystified at the antics but then became enthused when he discovered why we were visiting. He had a lot of information on the history of the Much Wenlock Games and we spent a fascinating half hour looking at pictures and mementoes.

Wenlock, one of the two mascots, is named after the village because of the history. If you think Wenlock and Mandeville are a little weird, you are not alone. Have a look at this site and be sure to scroll down to previous mascots. Perhaps ours aren’t so way out after all.

By the way, the wine was excellent.

Wroxeter Roman Vineyard – What a Difference A Summer Makes

2011-10-01T17:42:00.000+01:00

We called in at Wroxeter Roman Vineyard in May of this year and the vines looked so small and undeveloped that I couldn’t believe this is a Vineyard which is well thought of in English winemaking circles. Of course this just proves that what I know about grape growing could be inscribed on a wine label.

Now, they are just starting to pick the grapes. They tell us that this is the best year since they planted their first vines in 1991. The dry weather, with bright sunshine at the right moment, means that they expect to reach an ABV of 13% this year for the first time.

My good friend Wiki tells me that ABV means ‘alcohol by volume’ and 13% seems to about the average for wines from other countries judging by the supermarket offerings.

When we were there in May we bought a case of six bottles, some of which we really liked and some were not to out taste – as with every case we have ever bought. Needless to say, neither of us could remember which we had liked.

So we bought just one bottle of Regner which we had seen growing. It is not often we see the grapes before we buy!

This family business is an example of a clever man, David Middleton, taking a good idea and making it work. Glebe Farm was not making money as an agricultural enterprise but was attracting visitors to visit the Roman Remains which lie on it. Everyone knows that the Romans took the vine wherever they settled and certainly to England. On a visit to California, he had the idea of setting up a Vineyard on his land. The rest of the story you can find here.

Not resting on their laurels, they now make cider and, although they grow some apples, they are given some by people who do not want them. Everywhere we go we see old orchards, lost to production – we’re in one at the moment. Such a waste of natural resources when we are flying apples across the world to satisfy the supermarkets’ perception of what the public want.

Eley’s Pork Pies–The Best in The World*

2011-09-30T14:57:00.001+01:00

* According to our own expert consumer of pork pies who shall be nameless but there are only two of us and it’s not me so you may deduce to your hearts content.

They don’t quite claim it for themselves – just ‘world famous’. Alan dropped me off outside to stock up and drove round the block as parking in the centre of Ironbridge is almost impossible. Fortunately, we had brought the cool bag with icepacks or we would have been forced to eat them immediately. With temperatures hovering around 28C (82F) at the end of September, we couldn’t take chances.

And the verdict? I’m not sure about the world but the best in my experience – I think I need to try some more to be sure. Perhaps we’ll make another trip to Ironbridge while we are here.

Wenlock Edge Farm – A Food Hero from Rick Stein’s List

2011-09-29T20:08:00.000+01:00

Rick Stein (one of my personal cooking heroes) did a couple of TV series on Food Heroes. He visited small producers who were standing out against mass produced food and the pre-packaged uniformity of the supermarket shelves. There was a second series and two books. Rick Stein's Food Heroes and Rick Stein's Food Heroes: Another Helping'.

Among these was Wenlock Edge Farm between Much Wenlock and Church Stretton and lying just below Wenlock Edge itself. This is typical Welsh Marches country, that land which was Welsh or English, depending on which army was stronger. Small family farms, interspersed with stands of trees and a feeling of being in a land apart with people who stand on their own two feet and make their own fortunes.

We were attracted to the farm by the tagline that they made ‘proper sausages’.

We love ‘proper’ sausages – fried and served with mash, cooked in the oven with roast veg, in a batter as Toad in a Hole, in a casserole, in a sandwich . . . shall I go on?

It is fun, and a cheap hobby to try different sausages everywhere we go. So far the gold medal goes to Bobotie sausages from a Farmers Market at Horsemonden in Kent. So spicy.

So we bought some Pork, Plum and Ginger sausages which were delicious, cooked in the oven with carrots, onions and potatoes and accompanied by home made fruit chutney and broccoli.

The shop and working space are being rebuilt and they are working in a temporary building at the moment, so hats off to them for making us welcome and allowing us to watch as one of the butchers boned out a piece of pork and tied it ready for roasting. His hands flew and became a blur but I didn’t dare ask him to slow down as he was using one VERY sharp knife. In the end, two photos were worth sharing.

We asked one of the butchers where the pork came from and he pointed to Wenlock Edge.

“Just over that hill there.” That’s local enough for me.

Shropshire–The Devil is in the Detail

2011-09-28T18:10:00.001+01:00

We’re back on Haughmond Farm near Shrewsbury for two weeks. The weather is glorious with a temperature of 26C or 79F for those who haven’t been converted yet.

On our way across Shropshire in search of other things, we detoured to Hughley, made famous by A.E. Housman in A Shropshire Lad.

He wrote :

‘The vane on Hughley steeple
Veers bright, a far-known sign,
And there lie Hughley people,
And there lie friends of mine.
Tall in their midst the tower
Divides the shade and sun,
And the clock strikes the hour
And tells the time to none.’

Oops! No steeple and never has been. A.E. Housman had never visited the place.

The church was well worth a visit though, founded in either 12c or 13c, depending on which authority you consult, it has a beautiful rood screen.

After discovering the Three Hares window in Long Melford Church, I was peering at what little stained glass remains and saw this.

I can’t find anything about the history of the church or this devil – if that is what he is?

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

2011-09-24T10:42:00.001+01:00

I remember reading this book as soon as it came out in paperback in 1974. It wasn’t the first in the George Smiley series, in fact it comes near the end but it is the most famous, thanks to the 1979 television series, starring Sir Alec Guinness – known to some of you as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars series. When we heard that it was being made into a film, we were both sceptical that anyone could replace ‘our’ Smiley.

It’s like watching Dr Who. We all have ‘our’ Doctor and take a little while to accept the new one after regeneration. Gary Oldman as George Smiley? We shook our heads and tutted in true Grumpy Old Folks style.

Colin Firth as Bill Haydon? H’mm, possibly.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Peter Guillam? Maybe.

Kathy Burke as Connie Sachs? Yes, definitely.

We’re not great Cinema goers, in fact I can’t recall what we saw last or when it was. We usually wait for the DVD to come out so we can watch as often as we like (and pause it to get cups of coffee when we want them). This time, though, we decided to make the trek to Batley and see Tinker, Tailor on the Big Screen.

It was well worth it and, in my opinion, it is better than the TV series. Gary Oldman avoided channelling Sir Alec Guinness and, by the end of the two hours that the film ran, he was ‘our’ George Smiley.

Colin Firth was a believable Bill Haydon, arrogant and tortured by turns. No more than I would have expected from the definitive Mr D’Arcy.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays a very lively Sherlock Holmes in the current TV series but his portrayal of Peter Guillam brought out the essential qualities of calmness and determination that I recall from the book, proving that he is one of those rare actors who can stand absolutely still and still project his role.

We went to the 16:30 performance – us oldies, need to get home before it’s dark. There were about 20 people in the audience, most of them Senior Citizens and as we were leaving there was some chit-chat and it felt like a private viewing.

Oh, before I forget, the 37 year old mystery is solved. We now know who shot Bill Haydon.

As RiverSong would say “Spoilers.”

Sand and Sea–Caister

2011-09-22T08:32:00.001+01:00

Rain threatened the day we went to Caister on Sea, near Great Yarmouth on the Norfolk coast.

I vaguely recalled it as place of sand dunes and wind. I had remembered it accurately and, with the clouds scudding across the sky, it is as wild as I remembered with a stark beauty which borders on desolation. Why would anyone settle here?

Photo by A.R.Yeo

But settle they did and a small part of the evidence can still be seen in the middle of a modern housing estate. This Roman Fort dates back to the 1st century AD and there was, later, a Saxon Fort.

The attraction, as it was all the way down the East Coast of Scotland and England, was fishing. Herring was the major catch and, where the fishermen landed, smokehouses, warehouses, and net chambers were built and people settled. By the late 18th Century Caister was thriving.

The sea off Caister is a treacherous place with shifting sand banks offshore and, when a wind from the North coincides with a high tide, ships can be driven onto the sands and wrecked.

So another industry grew up alongside fishing – The Beachmen – who watched for any vessel in danger and set out to sea to salvage the ship and, hopefully, save the crew.

In 1794, The Caister Beachmen formed a Beach Company and built a 60ft watch tower to keep a 24 hour watch for shipwrecks.

By the early 19th century, dedicated lifeboats were being established and Caister had its first one in in 1845, manned by the Beachmen. The RNLI took over in 1857 and provided a second boat. It was certainly needed. Records show that on 28th May, 1860, no less that 8 ships were lost on the sands off Caister and a couple of miles down the coast, off Yarmouth, 14 fishing vessels with their crews of 156 men and boys were lost.

Perhaps I should point out that these ‘lifeboats’ were powered by oars and sails and the crews were by now volunteers – as they are today.

In 1901, nine crew were lost while attempting a rescue during heavy seas. At the time it was said, "If they had to keep at it 'til now, they would have sailed about until daylight to help her. Going back is against the rules when we see distress signals like that".

This response was translated by journalists to become the famous phrase "Caister men never turn back".

By the time we had taken a few photos of the threatening sky, the rain was falling so we retreated to the Lifeboat Visitor Centre and were very glad we did. For £2, we were taken round by the two gentlemen shown in the picture above – ex-lifeboat men themselves and treated to a cup of coffee and a sit down while they enthralled us with their tales of the sea.

We came away with a Souvenir Guide at no extra cost, having spent two hours in one of the best Visitor Centres we have ever visited.

We walked to the building housing the current lifeboat and found a volunteer just closing down but she let us in and we got a quick look at the modern boats and this tracked beast of a machine which hauls the lifeboat to the sea.

The most heartening thing she told us was that they have 6 young men training to be lifeboat men and carry on the work. That puts the tales of lazy youth that we hear so often into perspective.

I’ve written about the treacherous sands but now they are being put to use. On Scroby Sands, just off shore, now stand 30 wind turbines. They are 60 metres (200 ft) high and each blade is 40 metres (130ft) long. It gives you an idea of the size if I tell you that they are over 1.5 miles (2.5 Km) out to sea.

We left Caister in the rain, pondering the attraction the sea has for so many people, including us. This quote from John F Kennedy sums it up for me.

“We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch - we are going back from whence we came.”

Long Melford Church, Alice, and the 3 Hares

2011-09-10T14:25:00.001+01:00

Long Melford is a small village on the Suffolk/Essex border. It has a population of 3,675 at latest count, but it has a church which should, by its size, be a cathedral.

Completed in 1484, it is one of the richest ‘wool churches’ in East Anglia. The wool merchants were becoming rich at this time and building a church worthy of their lofty status was a common way of showing just how rich they were. An ecclesiastical building boom saw competition for building the biggest and grandest church.

Empty niches and blank panes of glass show where Cromwell’s soldiers passed this way.

But some stained glass survived and it is claimed that the figure in this window, The Duchess of Norfolk, was the inspiration for the Ugly Duchess in Alice in Wonderland.

The other quirky thing we found is this tiny roundel set in the window over the North Door.

Three hares and, if you look closely, they each appear to have two ears, but . . there are only three ears. You can see that it has been repaired since it was damaged during the time of Cromwell.

Of course, to Christians, this represents the Holy Trinity, ’three in one and one in three’, and it appears in many churches. If we hadn’t been so focussed on The Hounds of The Baskervilles last year, we might have heard of the 30 or so around Dartmoor.

I’ve discovered sine then that the three hares have a much older and more distant origin, the earliest example known is in a Buddhist cave temple in China and dates back to around 600 AD. It is now believed that it travelled the silk road, appearing in India, then from there up to Europe. It was on 13th century Mongol metal work, and on a copper coin, found in Iran, dated to 1281, in Synagogues and Churches all over Northern Europe

and has even been adopted as the Coat of Arms of Hasloch in Bavaria.

Why three hares (sometimes believed to be rabbits)? Well, the experts may rabbit on and on, but the Chinese, Japanese and Mexicans speak of the Hare in the moon, Egyptian myths associated hares with the cycles of the moon.

Who would have thought that a church in the English countryside would yield connections to China and Wonderland.

Essex Pigs–back from the brink

2011-09-08T17:15:00.000+01:00

Until the 1950s, this was a popular pig being hardy, cheap to feed and easy to keep. Big pluses to smallholders in particular. It was ‘improved’ during the 19c by deliberately crossing it with foreign imports and was popular in the UK till the mid 1950s. They were by no means confined to Essex though I remember scratching their backs with a stick when I was quite small.

In 1954, 488 British boars were licensed and 3,716 sows registered but the next year the drive for efficiency, as perceived by the experts, led to a report by the grandly titled ‘Advisory Committee on the Development of Pig Production in the United Kingdom’.

In my view, any organisation with 12 words in its title is likely to be bureaucratic and so it was. The members decided that pig farmers should concentrate on three breeds.

The Welsh

The large white

This originated in Yorkshire which was exported to Ohio in 1830 and is now known as the American Yorkshire – the most common pig breed in the USA.

The Landrace

To be fair, protection of rare wildlife, let alone farm animals was a new concept and the collection of wild birds’ eggs had only been made illegal a year earlier. Commercial interests were paramount and the idea that we should preserve diversity was not central to planning.

In 1967, the stud books of the Essex Pig were amalgamated with that of the Wessex and the breed became known as the British Saddleback.

It was considered that the Essex Pig was extinct. You can guess that I wouldn’t be writing this if that was true. John Croshaw, had refused to amalgamate his herd of Essex pigs (the "Glascote Herd"), which retained a pure Essex bloodline despite being officially registered as British Saddlebacks: Croshaw had carefully managed his stock to avoid inbreeding. The Essex Pig Society was formed in 1997 and Jimmy Doherty became involved in 2003. Alan has written quite a bit on the setting up of Jimmy’s Farm so you can read that on his site.

Jimmy Doherty is passionate about the Essex Pig and gave up a job in London to train as a pig farmer in Cumbria, where he met his future wife when she was working on the crew of Jamie' s Kitchen.

Jamie Oliver and Jimmy Doherty were childhood friends and share similar values. Jimmy is passionate about rare breeds and also about returning farming to a time when animals were cared for humanely and led more natural lives. The visitors, the TV shows and books come second to that and are ways to fund his passion.

The farm shop is expensive and my eyes watered at the price of some things but the meat is superb, local, free range and the animals have not been subject to long journeys in cramped conditions on the way to slaughter. I like that!

We had a lovely lunch in the restaurant – obviously with Pork from the farm. The staff were very helpful and pleasant and didn’t turn a hair at large parties of small children. I highly recommend it.

I wandered round a small garden while Alan set off to see ‘Darwin’s Garden’ which he found a disappointment and then went on the ‘Nature Trail’ which is the only part of the farm with an entry charge – but it is the only way to see the rare breeds.

Alan was a little critical of the ‘hidden charge’ to see what amounts to the core of the farm, the rare breeds. Basically there is free access with no parking charge to persuade customers to visit the shop and the restaurant, which is where Jimmy’s focus lies – promoting good meat. As you can see in the pictures above, there is a pleasant garden and plenty of seating for eating picnics.

As we were in the caravan with a very small fridge, we just bought some sausages made from Essex pork. They weren’t cheap but were certainly delicious and contained 93% meat.

It was a good day out and it was encouraging to see a positive outcome for one our old pig breeds. I’m always encouraged to see someone follow their passion and make a success of it.

Of course the fact that he is an Essex lad and I’m an Essex girl doesn’t sway my views!

Sutton Hoo – Myth, Legend and History

2011-09-04T10:48:00.001+01:00

A visit to Sutton Hoo, on the banks of the River Deben, has been on my wish list for a long time.

After the Roman Emperor withdrew his troops from Britannia in 410 AD, the power vacuum was quickly filled by tribes from the continent – the Anglo-Saxons I wrote about here. Within a century, Norfolk and Suffolk had become the Kingdom of The East Angles and ‘England’ was becoming a reality. Kingdoms, of course, need Kings and this is where the lines between myth, legend and history start to blur.

What we do know is that beneath the 20 or so mounds at Sutton Hoo, important people were laid to rest. When excavations started in the late 1930s, the outline of a ship was revealed and in it were precious items like the helmet above.

Scholars are mostly in agreement that the burial is that of Rædwald, the first king of whom more is known than his name.

Most of what we know comes from “Ecclesiastical History of the English People” , completed by Bede in 731 AD. I wonder what he would have thought of being able to buy a copy via the internet? Or of reading it on line?

The site is in the care of The National Trust, working with the British Museum and a great place to wander round with excellent displays in the museum and very friendly staff. I’ll just whet your appetite with a few more pictures.

Calder and Hebble Canal – Elland Lock to Crowther Bridge

2011-09-03T07:00:00.001+01:00

This is another beautiful stretch of the canal walked, or rather strolled, on a warm and rather humid day. The first of September and some of the trees are changing colour already. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t always rain in Yorkshire and the reservoirs are low so I think dry weather is hastening the changes in the leaves.

The building above, now a day nursery looks like an Escher design!

We left the canal at Crowther Bridge.

First going under the bridge.

Marvelling at the way the ropes have eaten into the stone.

And crossing back to the other side and the road by a footbridge as the original bridge is no longer safe.

Back to the Fifth Century – The Saxons are coming

2011-08-29T10:53:00.001+01:00

We left the 20th century and its planes and radar and went back nearly 2,000 years to see the traces our forebears have left on the countryside.

In the years after the Romans left Britain, new people arrived. Collectively known as Anglo-Saxons, they were from Germanic tribes and brought with them the name by which my homeland is still known – Englaland in Old English, England today.

At West Stow, near Bury St Edmunds, during a trial for sand and gravel extraction between 1965 and 1972, fragments of pottery were discovered and excavations showed the remains of an entire Anglo Saxon village. Though the wood had rotted, enough traces remained to attempt a reconstruction.

Now, archaeologists are a contentious lot and really love a good argument. Luckily for them, no Anglo-Saxon was likely to turn up and settle the debate so they turned the reconstruction into an experiment to see which building design worked best. The one thing they did know was that the huts were built over a shallow pit – it was a start.

The simplest would be having no walls so they tried that. The pit filled with sand and there was then no headroom. No worries. They tried again. Some remains suggested wooden floors so several huts were built with different construction methods.

The villagers lived in family groups and this was a big village with 69 huts, 7 halls and 7 other structures found. They were still in touch with their homelands as glass and metals have been found at the site which are not produced locally.

There were also too many loom weights for the villagers to have only woven their own clothes. They probably made them for trade.

These people were farmers and another day, we went to see the remains of much higher status Saxons at Sutton Hoo. To find out more about West Stow, Wiki is your friend.

If you visit on a day when re-enactors are on site, it’s a big bonus. One man was sewing leather gloves and I asked him what evidence they had for gloves in the period. “They had a word for them. In old English the word is glōf.”

That made the Anglo-Saxons feel more real.

Listening Ears to Radio Waves

2011-08-27T08:22:00.001+01:00

Denge Sound Mirrors - photo by Paul Russon, reproduced under Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license 2.0

These ‘listening ears’ or ‘sound mirrors’ were built in the 1920s and 1930s They were experimental as can be seen by the the different shapes of each of the three reflectors: one is a long, curved wall about 5 m (16.4 feet) high by 70 m (230 feet) long, while the other two are dish-shaped constructions approximately 4–5 metres across. Microphones placed at the focal point of the reflectors enabled a listener to detect the sound of aircraft far out at sea.

Unfortunately, you can no longer visit the site except as part of a guided tour and we were unable to arrange one when we passed through in 2010 while visiting Dungeness.

Radar (Radio Detection and Ranging) was developed for military purposes during the second world war – don’t worry, you are not getting a dissertation on the subject, you can Google as well as I can! We visited The Royal Airforce Air Defence Radar Museum. I’ve typed in its full name as there are several Radar Museums in the area.

It is difficult to believe that The Battle of Britain was controlled in rooms like this with young women pushing little markers across a plan. The site was operational till 1993 – with many upgrades and the Cold War Operations Room looks like a smaller version of NASA or Dr Strangelove.

One of the great names in early radar development was Marconi and I grew up near this tower at the research station just outside Chelmsford. It is a ‘Chain Home’ tower, that being the code name for the ring of coastal early warning systems built along the east and south coasts. It is the only fully intact system left and celebrated 70 years from the Battle of Britain in 2010.

Last but not least, Alan saw a demonstration of this website and it is his latest toy. I have been known to visit the site myself – purely in the interests of research of course.

Planes and Nostalgia

2011-08-26T10:49:00.001+01:00

It is an odd thing to be nostalgic for the sight of a bomber but this is no ordinary plane. The Avro Vulcan was a delta wing plane that looked magnificent in the air and enormous on the ground.

Growing up in Essex and surrounded by military air bases, I could recognise most military aircraft by sight or sound. As a child I didn’t think of the terrible reason they had been built but, by the time the Vulcan appeared above the peaceful fields in 1956, I did know and understood that, if ever this great plane flew in anger, Armageddon was nigh for it carried nuclear weapons. It is terrible to think of such a beautiful machine being designed for destruction.

To see this and many other aircraft, follow the instructions on the City of Norwich Aviation Museum site.

Norfolk Wildlife Centre

2011-07-31T10:24:00.000+01:00

Photo by Alan Machin

This handsome fellow is the caterpillar of the Swallowtailed butterfly. He’s rare and there were 20 of his siblings around on the flowers, though we only saw two.

It is a lovely area at Ranworth with access by boardwalk over the wetlands.

One this was all reedbeds, harvested for thatching but as thatched roofs became less popular, the trees moved in and changed the character of the area. Today the reedbeds are useful as a means of spreading the water in a very low lying area and avoiding flooding in built up areas.

Ranworth Broad is part of the nature reserve and is teeming with water birds. From the Visitor Centre, we watched life on the Broad for a while and also a pair of swallows nesting in the eaves, raising their second brood of the year.

The River and The Broads

2011-07-29T10:14:00.000+01:00

We went to Wroxham, which is not far from where we are based. We drove at a crawl through heavy traffic, turned into a busy car park and walked over the bridge. Then we looked at the crowds, looked at one another, turned and walked back to the car. We may have been influenced by the weather as it started to rain but I think we were really having a fit of the hermits!

It is a shame as, although it was always busy, the last time we were here it was no where near as commercialised. That’s what 20+ years does to a place.

All was not lost as we went on down the river to Horning, where Arthur Ransome’s ‘Coot Club’ begins.

Here the river takes a broad sweep and, while there were plenty of boats, it was not any where near as commercialised and the atmosphere was more in keeping with ‘messing about in boats’…

The only frenetic activity was the ducks and geese squabbling over bread.

A large part of the river and the dykes which connect it to the Broads is only accessible by boat and this pseudo sternwheeler runs a tour service which turned out to be well worth the money. The skipper gives a very knowledgeable commentary about the history of the area and the wildlife.

From reed bed

To thatch.

All along the river in the towns and villages are boathouses and moorings.

On the opposite side of the river, the moorings have no land access and have to row across the river to get to a shop or road. Even the local churches have moorings for people rowing over to attend services. This is where some people live on their boats. So long as they move for a day and a night every so often they don’t pay council tax!

Once you leave the villages, the reed beds stretch as far as the eye can see. Ranworth Church, on the horizon, came nearer and then receded as the river wandered lazily round bends and twists.

Eventually we came close to Ranworth before turning for home.

Back in Horning, we had a coffee in the garden at The Swan. Smart restaurants often have parking attendants but here we find a mooring attendant. The man in the blue shirt moors the boats for the visitors – just as well as we saw some very scary steering by day hirers.

We also watched this wherry set out from the local yacht club, hoisting its sails as it crept slowly and serenely down the river. Once, these were the workhorses of the area but now they are pleasure boats.

It is an amazing area, very low lying. We were 25 miles from the sea by the twisty river and only 1 foot (30 cm) above sea level. One wonders what rising sea levels will mean to this lovely place.

Cromer : a Real Seaside Town

2011-07-27T10:11:00.000+01:00

Cromer is on the North coast of Norfolk. It has everything you could wish for an English seaside town. There are miles of beach, cliffs, a pier, fish and chips and one thing more. Cromer Crabs!

The town had grown up as a fishing station over the centuries and became a year-round fishery, with crabs and lobsters in the summer, drifting for longshore herring in the autumn and long-lining, primarily for cod, in the winter, when weather permitted. The pattern of fishing has changed over the last thirty years, and it is now almost completely focused on crabs and lobsters. At the end of the 19th century, the beaches to the east and west of the pier were crowded with fishing boats. Now, about ten boats ply their trade from the foot of the gangway on the east beach, with shops in the town selling fresh crab, whenever the boats go to sea.

The last picture is a cheat because it shows Lindisfarne and was taken last year.

There are records of a ‘pier’ here in 1391although then it was more of a jetty. In the year 1582, Queen Elizabeth 1, in a letter to the inhabitants of Cromer granted rights to export wheat, barley and malt with the proceeds to be used for the maintenance and well-being of the pier and the town of Cromer.

Today, it still provides shows in the theatre at the end which are well regarded and have won awards.

The sun was bright, the people friendly and we had fish and chips. A result.

Sunset in Norfolk

2011-07-20T17:00:00.000+01:00

The land here is very flat – hence the term ‘big sky country’. This sunset had us out of the caravan with our cameras taking photos with lots of excitement and cries of “Ooh!”, “Aahh!”, “Wow!”. It was wonderful and the sky changed by the moment.

Red at night, Shepherds’ delight. It was true and we woke to bright sunshine.

Big Sky Country

2011-07-19T16:58:00.001+01:00

We’re down in Norfolk at Pound Farm (see above picture). Once again we’ve struck lucky with the site. A square lawn, enclosed by hedges and a friendly farmer as host.

The farm is at Hevingham which is between Cromer and Norwich and we are here for 3 weeks before moving a bit farther south.

Hevingham is not exactly a one horse town – it’s more of a no horse village with one antique shop, a post box, telephone box and a pub, which is now a restaurant catering for tourists. Oh, there is a church a mile or so away with a layby outside which sports a mobile burger bar. All of which suits us fine (apart from the burger bar which holds no appeal!) and it is nice and quiet.

The house was built in 1675 when Charles II was on the throne and is built of a lovely warm brick with red pantiles, which are typical of our East Coast.

Various boundary walls seem to have been rebuilt and incorporate flint (geologists will frown at that and tell me it is chert, but I’ll go with the locals rather than the academics any day). Some of the bricks are very thin and may have been salvaged from Roman buildings.

So here we are on our latest adventure. So far, we have had the weather station blow down in a gale, eaten fish and chips at Cromer, hastily left Wells Next the Sea in disgust at the overcrowding, spent a couple of hours in an independent Lifeboat Station, danced round like mad things photographing a magnificent sunset, oh, and lots of other things – will post again tomorrow.

Smoked in the Dales

2011-07-01T18:30:00.000+01:00

We do most of our fruit and vegetable shopping at Keelham Farm Shop, which is just up the road from us and, increasingly, our meat and fish is being sourced there as well.

We took a decision a while back that, as prices were going up and our income wasn’t, we would rather have less meat and fish but keep buying good quality – which is how we found produce from Mackenzies Yorkshire Smokehouse in Keelham Farm’s cooler.

The smokehouse is not far from us, right up in the dales at a small village called Blubberhouses. So we loaded the car with a cool box, some money and our appetites and set off to sample the delights of it’s restaurant and shop. After some delays and detours caused by road repairs because of a landslide, we arrived just in time for our reservation.

I haven’t quite got up the nerve to take photos in a restaurant yet so I can’t show you the delicious meal we had but there are pictures of the restaurant and a menu on the website.

Then to the shop to fill the cool box with smoked mackerel, smoked tuna, smoked salmon, smoked meat, smoked sausages, smoked paprika – well, it is a smoke house! All the produce is fresh and so I was shopping for the freezer.

The picture above is, believe it or not, a kipper. Forget the bright yellow, dry fish sold as kipper in most places. This is pale, delicate, moist, delicious. It is half a pack and plenty for the two of us with a poached egg to boost the protein.

Such a simple meal, quickly cooked and served with new potatoes and peas.

And I’ve still got the other half of the pack in the freezer. I’m off to browse in my cookery books.

What Lovely Weather

2011-04-18T10:36:00.001+01:00

We’re still stuck at home by various commitments but it has given us the opportunity to explore more of the local area. It seems crazy that there are places only two or three miles away which we have never explored properly.

Yesterday we went to the end of the ‘Halifax Arm’ and walked along the towpath. Years ago, the Salter & Hebble Navigation had a spur serving Halifax. All that is left is a short section from the Watermill Restaurant on Salter Hebble Hill down to the junction with the main canal.

After passing under the Wakefield Road, the complex of locks at the junction appears.

At the end of the series of locks and basins is this Guillotine Lock.

The horses would have been led through this tunnel while the boat was hauled under a road bridge by the men.

This is the next section to Cooper Bridge where the Huddersfield Broad Canal connects. That is for another day!

Sherlock and the Baskervilles

2011-04-11T14:40:00.001+01:00

Dartmoor, Sherlock Holmes, The Hounds of the Baskervilles. They all go together and we spent a few happy hours last September, chasing the sites which inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

This building, now a Visitor Centre, was a hotel and Conan Doyle based himself here when writing the book.

“He swept his long arm towards the huge mottled expanse of green-splotched bog which stretched away until it merged into the russet slopes.” Fox Tor which was a bog where many had drowned.

Abandoned copper mines have drained some of the water downhill now. There is a whole deserted and tumbledown village at the end of the road.

Catching Up for the New Season

2011-04-05T12:10:00.001+01:00

I’m sorry to have been missing in action for so long. I had to leave this blog in limbo while I dealt with other priorities and it got shuffled off the list.

We left you while we were in Devon and will catch up on that later but I’ll just give an overview of what has been going on over the past six months. This may take several posts!

Alan went to Cuba in early October to speak at a conference. He’s written an account of it here so I’ll leave you to read that at your leisure.

This is the last photo of Mac, taken while we were in Devon. The day after Alan flew off to Cuba, Mac collapsed while we were out walking. He recovered enough to get back to the car but he curled up on a chair in the sitting room and couldn’t manage the stairs that night. He was no better the next day and Sunday night I sat downstairs with him.

On the Monday, I took him to the vets and he confirmed that his heart was in a bad way and that we would have to keep him confined to the house if I wanted to prolong his life.

Mac lived for his walks and his quality of life would be so poor that there was no option but to help him over the last hurdle of his life.

If it should be that I grow frail and weak,
And pain should keep me from my sleep,
Then you must do what must done,
For this last battle can't be won.
You will be sad - I understand,
Don't let your grief then stay your hand,
For this day, more than the rest,
Your love and friendship will stand the test.

RIP Mac.

Exeter Quay

2010-09-14T21:42:00.001+01:00

We went to Exeter Quay on Saturday with Rosie and Mike and had lunch there – the best chips we’ve had in many a long year.

It was made prosperous by the wool trade and had the inevitable decline in the 20th century but has been very well restored. The two large buildings are warehouses, well restored and converted.

We spent a couple of hours wandering round the area, soaking up the sunshine and enjoying the views. Highly recommended – and not just for the chips.

View Larger Map

There are a few more pictures at Picasa.

Travelling to Devon

2010-09-14T17:27:00.001+01:00

View Larger Map

We set off in good time, last Tuesday, 7th Sept, to drive to Devon. We could have done the journey in a day but it only takes one hold up and we could have ended up driving down narrow lanes in the dark – not much fun with the caravan attached.

We stopped to eat our packed lunch at a motorway service station. Some of these provide a special parking area for caravans (of varying quality). Otherwise we park in with the trucks. Oddly enough, we like that! The bays are big and wide, the trucks park neatly within their bays and are quiet. We have strict laws which limit the time in any 24 hour period which truck drivers may be on the road so there are always a few trucks with curtains drawn round the cab while the drivers sleep and the rest are eating or cleaning their windscreens. It’s fun to recognise trucks from all over Europe.

In the main car parking area, people are often careless about parking and we are spared the loud domestic arguments about choice of stopping place and/or choice of food and/or general outbursts of bad temper. As for the children, released for the first time in hours to run free – I can’t blame the kids but they can be a loud and unpredictable menace, running wild. I can’t see why some people travel if they find it so stressful.

We stayed a night in Gloucestershire at a tiny place called Ham. We chose it for it’s location but were delighted with the site and the surrounding countryside. We could just see the River Severn and there are lots of places worth a visit nearby. Next time, we will spend a few days there. We’re stopping there for a night on the way home at the end of September and will take photos then.

The next day we drove on. The only event worth mentioning is the torrential downpour we drove through. It was the worst rain either of us have ever driven through and we couldn’t even see the road markings. The only thing to do was drive slowly and pray – I think Poseidon did well out of that!

We arrived at Elburton in good time to get set up with (hopefully) an unobstructed view of the appropriate satellite for TV reception.

Doing a double take

2010-09-06T07:21:00.001+01:00

I think I’ve finished sorting photos – all 12,000 of them! That’s what digital photography leads to. Anyway, I found some odd signs to share. Yes, I know – I’ve got a twisted sense of humour.

At Chillingham, we parked in an area reserved for the cattle.

Seen at the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge – look carefully at the little sign at the top for an explanation.

The not-so-secret Nuclear Bunker in Essex.

A road sign in Warrington. Watch out, the Welsh are coming!

I feel sorry for the person this addresses!

But it’s all right if you have a history of back problems or are pregnant or have had recent surgery.

Velocity is a ‘jet boat’ at Whitby, in case you are wondering.

I hope you have a chuckle.

Happy Memories of The North York Moors Railway

2010-09-05T10:55:00.001+01:00

Those who were on the family holiday in Scarborough in 2006 may remember posing for this photo. We were travelling on the North York Moors Railway to Whitby. Note that Dan has his fishing rod and bucket ready.

When we passed through Goathland on the recent trip to the area we were lucky enough to see no less than two steam trains in the Station. A quick right turn and a desperate drive to the other end of the small (and very full) car park was undertaken and Alan was away, camera at the ready.

Getting out of the car park took something like a 12 point turn and a bit of breath holding but was worth it.

Staithes

2010-09-04T09:09:00.001+01:00

Staithes, on the North Yorkshire coast, relies now on the tourist trade for its existence. Once it was a thriving fishing port and mining area with Alum, Ironstone and Jet being extracted locally. Today, potash is still mined nearby.

The line of houses clinging to the sides of the valley in the picture above follows the only road down to the harbour – a narrow lane and very steep. Visitors have to park up at the top of the hill near where the old railway crossed the valley on a tall viaduct. The building of this was delayed after the Tay Bridge disaster – you’d need a head for heights to ride this line.

Map reproduced under a GNU Free Document Licence

A railway ran all along this coast. Now, all that remains are the stations, converted into private houses and the occasional buttress where a bridge was anchored.

There are a few more pictures on Picasa.

Where are we now?

2010-09-03T17:48:00.001+01:00

This year, we were unable to get away till April due to the long period of snow and freezing conditions – unusual for the UK. Since then, we have spent 56 nights away.

Since we returned from North Yorkshire, there has been a mad rush of dealing with house maintenance, catching up with friends, preparing for the next trip, a couple of business meetings, and dealing with our various other interests and commitments.

I haven’t caught up with all the posts about North Yorkshire, sorry. I have been too ambitious in thinking I could keep up with fairly long posts as we go along. The main problem has been dealing with the sheer quantity of photos we are taking! Sorting them and a little post-production work – cropping, straightening (!), compressing the ones we decide to use, uploading . . .

In other news:

As Selfridges announced Christmas shopping 145 days before the big day, Alan decided to send his letter to Santa early.

Yes. That is a weather station and here is Alan ~~playing with it~~ testing it at the caravan store.

He’s got to make sure it works. Now he needs to write his thank you letter and stay a good boy so Santa won’t take it away.

In other Alan related news, we’ve heard today that his airfare is covered for travelling to present a paper at a conference in Cuba in November. We’re delighted!

We went to see Joy last week (family will know who I mean, for anyone else, she is Alan’s Mother’s cousin). She’s still as sharp as ever, though getting around is an effort. Alan is in touch with her most days as they play Scrabble (though they are not allowed to call it that for legal reasons) via the internet. Joy plays with several people and has about 20 games on the go at a time. I said she was still as sharp as ever!

So, to answer the question in the title, we are at home for the moment but leaving on Tuesday, 7th September, for Devon where we will meet up with Rosie and her family and hear all about their holiday with Vicky and her family in Kentucky.

My next mission (should I choose to accept) is to clear a large shelf above the basement stairs. It is an extremely useful place to put things for our resident lodger, Justin Case, and I think he needs evicting from there. That will probably mean Alan making yet another trip to the grandly named ‘Household Waste Recycling Centre’ – colloquially know as ‘The Tip’. I think I’ll have another cup of coffee first.

I’ll leave you with a gorgeous sunset from our caravan site in North Yorkshire.

And I thought changing a light bulb was simple. Wrong.

2010-08-24T23:19:00.001+01:00

It sounded so simple. Our main kitchen light decided it didn’t like me any more when I came down this morning – no, I wasn’t up THAT early but we had dark cloud and heavy rain.

Of course, we didn’t have a spare. The empty box sat on the ‘landing strip’, AKA the top of the shoe rack in the hall where we couldn’t possibly miss it. It had been there for some time, muttered over when dusting, forgotten when going to the hardware store.

So, this afternoon, Alan set off for the hardware store and wandered round, empty box in hand, looking for a replacement. I should point out at this point that light bulbs in the UK have an option of two fittings – as above, screw thread or, as below, bayonet fitting.

Sorry for the quality. Not my photo but posted under a GNU Free Documentation License, Our bulb was a screw thread, one of at least two sizes that I know of!

We had forgotten that a new EU (European Union) directive has come into force that incandescent light bulbs can no longer be sold. They use ‘up to’ five times as much energy as the low energy bulbs.

Pro.
1. save electricity – thereby saving fossil fuels. According to experts they will save 60% of the energy used by light bulbs in the EU.

2. A low energy bulb lasts ‘up to’ 10 years.

Con
1. Low energy bulbs cost something like 6 times as much as the incandescent ones. This is a cost no one can avoid.

2. The low energy bulbs contain a small amount of mercury and under new regulations for hazardous waste, councils are obliged to recycle low energy bulbs at a cost to the tax payer, over and above the cost of the bulbs.

3. The EU has now admitted that the claims for equivalent brightness have been overstated – On a website intended to answer consumers' questions about the switch to energy saving bulbs, the European Commission states: "Currently, exaggerated claims are often made on the packaging about the light output of compact fluorescent lamps. For example, a 11-12 Watt compact fluorescent lamp would be the equivalent of a 60 Watt incandescent, which is not true. The light output of 15W compact fluorescent lamp is slightly more than the light output from a 60W incandescent."

We already have low energy light bulbs in most lamps in the house – we do TRY to be green – they vary in brightness and time taken to warm up.

Summary

1. I like being as green as possible. I do believe we have a very short time frame for stopping climate change.

2. I object to the cost of low energy bulbs.

3. Perhaps this bulb – if it really lasts 10 years – will ‘see us out’. I’ve tended to see light bulbs as consumables and have never thought about their life spans.

4. Mercury is a nasty element in any quantity.

5. I hate and distrust any claim which is ‘up to …’.

Tall Ships – Hartlepool 2010

2010-08-24T09:16:00.001+01:00

We’ve seen the Tall Ships leave harbour twice before, from South Shields and from Liverpool, but it’s always such a grand sight that we timed our trip to North Yorkshire to see them again.

Each year, the ships visit four European ports and race the first and third legs of the journey and sail in company for the middle leg. Hartlepool was the last port the 67 ships visited this year.

In the ‘Historic Quay’ – worth a visit in it’s own right – the ships were moored along the side. The picture above, taken from the landward side, shows just how tall they are.

There was lots going on with many people in costumes but the real attraction was the ships themselves, thronged with young sailors, 50% of whom were 15 – 25. Some of larger ships had crews of 200.

The first event was held in 1956 as a farewell to the sailing vessels which were obsolete. 20 ships raced from Torbay in Devon to Lisbon in Portugal.

Alan has written about the developments after public interest was stirred by the event here.

Alan went alone as those sorts of events are not suitable for small elderly dogs and I spent the day relaxing on site in sunshine (coffee and a book = heaven) while Alan got wet several times and took over 250 lovely photos for me to enjoy when he got back.

I’ve posted more photos at Picasa – but not 250!

Perhaps, when the oil runs out, we will see more of these elegant vessels being commissioned and be glad that the skills to sail them have survived.

Travelling north again – The North York Moors

2010-08-07T18:00:00.001+01:00

We’re off again, this time staying on a site near Stokesley in North Yorkshire – though I don’t think I should say the name of the county too loudly as this is one of the many areas in England which was slotted into a ‘new’ county during a reorganisation in 1974. That was Cleveland (pronounced kleevland). Cleveland was an ancient name for the area but, in true bureaucratic style, the new county didn’t cover the old area exactly.

In 1996, the county was abolished and Stokesley is now in North Yorkshire. In common with other areas, some of the people who live there feel a little annoyed about having their identities changed by politicians! Some people would still like to call North Yorkshire ‘North Riding’, which was the old name for the county.

We’re right on the edge of the hills and have a lovely view from the caravan. Today, we went up the Bilsdale valley and visited two lovely sites.

Claybank had a viewing platform, complete with little plaques which were memorials to people who had loved the place and several indicated that their ashes had been scattered there. Far from seeming morbid, I thought it was a lovely idea.

The couple in the car next to ours had scattered seeds on a wall on the edge of the car park and several chaffinches were happily enjoying the gift.

The Lost Book

2010-07-26T17:06:00.001+01:00

They say curiosity killed the cat so it’s a good thing we’re human and not feline or we surely would both have used up our nine lives years ago.

I’ve heard the groans from Librarians when they tell tales of requests for a book, vaguely remembered. “I’m looking for a book I read once where the hero was Fred, or it might have been Ted. He was a soldier or something, perhaps a cop. It was set in a town somewhere – I think.”

Alan has been looking for such a book for, literally, years. All he could remember was that it was set in Malta in World War II and featured 3 planes known as Faith, Hope, and Charity. He read it when he was a boy (many years ago) and it disappeared in some clear out or house move.

He scoured bookshops in Malta, searched online, asked Maltese friends. I checked with a Children’s books forum I belonged to. No one had heard of it. Then a few weeks ago Alan put the right query into Google and up it popped – ‘Island on The Beam’. With a title, he searched again and found 2 copies available for sale.

You will not be surprised to hear that he ordered both. One is now on a bookshelf and the other went off today off to a friend in Malta.

Alan tells the whole story at his website.

Down House: Charles Darwin’s Home

2010-07-25T09:54:00.001+01:00

This is a small island, as Bill Bryson says, and we had an example of that on our trip to Kent. A few weeks ago we were near Shrewsbury where Charles Darwin was born, now we were to visit Down House where he lived for 40 years from 1842 till his death.

He wrote ‘On the Origin of Species’ here We tend to only hear about his Darwin, the scientist and, especially, about his voyage on The Beagle but there was obviously much more to the man.

I love the notes he made when he was deciding whether to marry his cousin, Emma Wedgewood. On a scrap of paper, with columns headed "Marry" and "Not Marry" he listed his thoughts. Advantages included "constant companion and a friend in old age ... better than a dog anyhow", against points such as "less money for books" and "terrible loss of time."

Despite this logical approach, the marriage was happy and they had ten children. Unfortunately, two died in infancy (not unusual for the period) and he was grief stricken by the death of his daughter, Annie, when she was ten.

The upstairs of the house is devoted to a very fine exhibition about his work and family. He was a devoted father and spent more time with his children than most men of his time, including them in his observations of butterflies and providing them with a large wooden slide which attached to the stairs.

Outside, a lot of work has been done to restore the gardens to their plan in Darwin’s day – though that is an ongoing scheme.

There are more pictures at Picasa.

Brook Bungalow CL

2010-07-10T07:12:00.001+01:00

This lovely orchard was our home for the two weeks we spent in Kent. Like all Certificated Locations, it only takes 5 caravans or motorhomes and we had it to ourselves for most of the time we were there.

The owner and two young couples live there, running a small holding and they have made it an idyllic place to live or stay.

As well as the orchard (which is old but is having some trees replaced with young ones), there were several separate areas with seats, one by a pond and one by a large aviary – which didn’t photograph well, sadly.

We tucked ourselves well away at the back of the orchard, put up the awning, without the walls, and virtually lived outside for the fortnight. The site’s location was perfect for us, only 14 miles from Maidstone where Jon and his family live and near Sissinghurst, not far from the coast and only a few miles off the A21 straight down from the M25.

We will make it our base whenever we travel to that part of the country. Oh, and the real bosses of the enterprise are these magnificent cockerels who are the product of a small Bantam father (who was camera shy) and a rescued battery hen. They are twice their Dad’s size and strutted around the orchard several times a day, crowing proudly. I’d never realised that cockerels have different voices. We could tell them apart by their call.

A few more pictures are at Picasa.

Sissinghurst Castle Gardens

2010-07-09T15:14:00.001+01:00

Sissinghurst Castle Gardens are claimed to be the most visited in England. Certainly they were incredibly busy on the Monday we went along. Visitors from many countries and all ages thronged the garden with cameras and notebooks – this is a ‘Gardeners’ Garden’ and has been influential, not just in designing stately homes but for many small gardens.

Vita Sackville-West and Sir Harold Nicolson found the property derelict in 1930. Harold wrote in his diary that they found a vast accumulation of rubbish: ‘rusty iron, old bedsteads, old ploughshares, old cabbage stalks, old broken-down earth closets, old matted wire and mountains of sardine tins, all muddled up in a tangle of bindweed, nettles and ground elder’.

From this unpromising beginning, they created a beautiful garden. Harold was a classicist and laid out the structural scheme of the garden, dividing it into a series of compartments which could each be viewed separately. The lime walk was his pride and joy.

Vita was a romantic and the planting which fills the flower beds shows it. Possibly the most famous ‘room’ in the whole garden is the White Garden.

The couple first opened the garden to the public in 1938. The proceeds raised £25.14s.6d and Vita nicknamed the visitors 'shillingses', as one shilling (5p) was the admission price. There are accounts of visitors encountering Vita working in the garden and chatting to her. She gave cuttings to visitors and enjoyed correspondence with some of them.

Vita died in 1962 and Harold and her two sons decided that the best way to preserve the garden was for ownership to be transferred to the National Trust. This was completed in April 1967.

We took 183 usable photos between us and a few are up on Picasa. I wish we could share them all with you.

Biggin Hill Airshow 2010

2010-07-07T18:00:00.001+01:00

The picture above says it all! A Spitfire from WWII with the latest Eurofighter Typhoon maintaining formation while doing circuits and manoeuvres over the airfield. It was quite awe inspiring to see the two aircraft from such different eras flying together.

The visit was part of my birthday treat on reaching my three score and ten. I didn’t know where we were headed until we were on our way, though I did know we were going somewhere with my children and their families.

It was a great day with a wide variety of displays of aircraft, old and new, and glorious weather into the bargain.

Ten people made for a serious encampment and a serious amount of catering (Thanks, Kerry).

The finale was a flypast by a Lancaster Bomber as we headed off to Allington Lock for dinner and a walk by the river.

Of course no birthday is complete without a cake and one was duly provided.

More family pictures on Picasa and also more of the airshow.

Thanks to Alan for the liaison, Mike, Rosie and Dan for driving all the way up from Devon and Jon, Kerry, Layla, Tariq and Kalif for organisation and the picnic. Thanks also to everyone for making it a memorable day and being willing to miss the last episode of Dr Who in the current series!

All pictures, here and on Picasa were taken by Alan or Tariq – credit where it’s due.

Dungeness – Desolation and Renewal

2010-06-25T17:15:00.001+01:00

When Alan asked me to sum up Dungeness in one word, I answered “Bleak”. We visited on a bright sunny day with the temperature hitting the high 20s centigrade and I was proved wrong.

Dungeness is a Headland formed of a shingle beach on the south coast of England. It is one of the largest expanses of shingle in the world and harbours 600 plant species – a third of the species found in England.

The sea has gradually receded and continues to do so and there have been five lighthouses here since 1615, each one farther out than the last.

The latest of these looks very modernistic and replaced one only a few yards inland which is now open to the public.

Alan climbed the 169 steps to the top and reported a glorious view. I, very sensibly, stayed below with the dog and just enjoyed his photos.

The large building in the background of the first photo is a Nuclear Power Station. To be more accurate, 2 stations. The first is decommissioned now and the second has had its life extended to 2018. It may be part of the reason I chose ‘bleak’ as a description of the area. Everyone knows of 3 Mile Island and Chernobyl and the fear of a nuclear accident is always with us.

For my older readers, there will also be the memories of the Cold War when missiles were ready to unleash the power of the atom in anger. We were told we would have a 4 minute warning and speculation about the results of a nuclear strike were in all the media. We can’t forget that time.

Derelict sheds and rotting fishing boats show the social and economic changes in the area. Trying to be balanced and not to fall into the trap of believing that the ‘old times’ were the ‘good times’, fishermen had a hard and dangerous trade, venturing out into a treacherous sea without guarantee of a catch. Perhaps their children will have longer lives by not following in their fathers’ footsteps?

There is still some fishing being done along the coast and we saw a van at the local farmers’ market near our base, selling local fish when we visited this morning.

Now some of the old tarred, timber cottages have been sold to people who are deliberately dropping out of the rat race. Among them is Prospect Cottage where Derek Jarman spent the last 15 years of his life creating this beautiful garden. The plants are all local. For those who don’t know of him, he worked as scene designer for some of Ken Russell’s films, made his own rather avant garde films, including ‘War Requiem’ starring Sir Lawrence Olivier. Olivier came out of retirement to act in the film and it was the last role he played.

Jarman also worked on videos with Marianne Faithful, The Petshop Boys, and The Sex Pistols – I wonder if he is the only person to cross the cultural divide between Olivier and The Sex Pistols?

He died in 1994 of an HIV related illness and his garden has become famous to many more people than he would have dreamed of. Slowmotion angels has some good images of him, his work, and his garden.

In a way, the visit was a disappointment. The landscape calls for horizontal rain or, better still, fog. I’ve seen it in both moods and ‘bleak’ is not a criticism. Now I’ve added another view, different again - but not better.

There are more photos on Picasa.

Oh, I’ve just remembered! Some episodes of Dr Who were filmed here in the 70s.

Shropshire round up

2010-06-18T08:58:00.001+01:00

We packed quite a lot into the 10 days we were in Shropshire and are hoping to return to visit all the places we didn’t see.

One day we drove up Long Mynd. I took no photos on the way up as it was not possible to stop. We drove up a narrow lane which is not maintained in winter. First gear all the way up, a terrifying drop inches from my window, hoping we would not meet anyone coming down! The views from the top were glorious. We drove down the less steep road to Church Stretton. More views on Picasa.

Last summer, Tara sent me a small glass with ‘Pray for me, my husband collects trains’ on the side. I’m not sure if I should fill it with whisky or put a votive candle in it. Either way, it made me laugh and I know she understands – like father, like son!

Alan visited Bridgenorth to see the station on the Severn Valley Railway and I stayed at the caravan with Mac. A few of his 142 pictures are on Picasa. They weren’t all of the railway!

We visited Sunnycroft, a small National Trust property with David and Shirley. We were there to see some of the Leek Embroidery – not embroidery with leeks as one friend willfully misunderstood it – but embroidery by the Ladies of the Leek Embroidery Society. There wasn’t as much of it on display as we hoped but the house was interesting. I’m afraid they didn’t allow photos in the house although we had understood that all National Trust properties do now.

Shirley’s great grandmother was a member of the Leek Embroidery Society so there was a family interest in the visit. Sunnycroft’s last owner, Joan Lander, worked on the embroidery of the Queen’s Purple Robe of Velvet at the 1953 coronation. She also ran a business from the house, selling embroidery kits and, by another of those strange coincidences, I remember seeing them in Libertys and Selfridges in London and being a bit snooty about the idea of using a kit!

‘Britain’s Bayeux Tapestry’ was worked by the ladies of the Leek Embroidery Society. It is an accurate copy, except for the fact that all male genitals are missing – even those of the stallions! It is on display in Reading Museum and is on our list of ‘must visit’ places. The best site I have found with an account of the work is here. Illustrations of the Tapestry can be seen at the Reading Museum site.

Acton Scott Farm Museum

2010-06-18T07:10:00.001+01:00

The Farmyard at Acton Scott Home Farm

We visited Acton Scott Farm Museum for the first time in over 20 years while we were in Shropshire. Alan has covered a lot of the story in ‘A Richer Earth’ so I will try not to duplicate.

In addition to the farm and the glorious countryside (we were lucky with the weather), a lot of trouble has been taken to show a glimpse of the life of country people in Victorian times. The attention to detail is superb.

The kitchen at Home Farm

Yes, the man sitting on the left really is drinking a cup of tea and chatting during a break from his job as a guide and farm worker. The three people in the picture were totally relaxed in their costumes and chatted comfortably with visitors, answering questions and providing information in a friendly way.

Visitors to our house will recognise the airer over the fireplace as identical with one we still use.

The zinc bath, hanging on the wall outside the kitchen is very familiar to me. I was brought up in a small house without a bathroom and we had one which was brought in every Friday night. The water was heated in a large brick built ‘copper’ with a coal fire underneath and transferred by a bucket to the bath.

Such changes in my lifetime. Today we even have a shower and hot water on tap in our caravan.

The estate was the centre of the community. The building above was the school. Built in 1866, the school was in the left of the building and the Schoolmaster lived on the right. Up to 60 children came to this school, some walking 4 miles each way. The school closed in 1951 and now it is a cafe. A large party of schoolchildren laughing and joking outside. The looked clean, healthy and happy. I’ll bet none of them walked 4 miles to school.

There are more pictures on Picasa, including the requisite baby animals for you to ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ over.

Wroxeter Roman City (Viroconium)

2010-06-12T07:15:00.001+01:00

It is difficult to believe that this lovely pastoral scene is typical of an area that was fought over for centuries and, as with Northumbria, the Romans set garrisons here.

Viroconium began as a Legionary fortress – in this area, the borders of Wales were very fluid – and grew into the fourth largest city in Roman Britain. covering 200 acres and having 2 miles of walls. What we can see today is enclosed in the circle highlighted in the plan above. The rest is below ground and new excavations continue.

The area open to the public was the centre of the city with the baths, forum and market. Baths, to Romans, didn’t mean a private room. These were at the centre of public life and very sophisticated. A visitor could use a cold bath (the frigidarium), a warm bath (the tepidarium) and a hot bath (the caldarium). Not until the 20th century did bathing again become a commonplace and enjoyable activity.

The basilica, illustrated above was an exercise hall and meeting place. 245 feet long and 66 feet wide, it had marble columns supporting the roof.

Today, all that remains above ground is an area of white gravel to show the boundaries and darker circles where the marble columns stood - and one imposing stretch of wall.

Leading to the baths, this wall is one of the largest remaining free-standing structures from Roman Britain. It is difficult to get a sense of scale and, as usual, we were looking for the mood of the place and nearly missed the opportunity to add human figures to give a sense of scale.

The above picture shows the entrance to the baths themselves.

The piles of tiles shown above were under the floor of the hot and cold rooms and a floor would have brought them up to the level of the entrance.

Our hats are taken off to English Heritage who have given us a glimpse into the centre of Viroconium while excavating and preserving the remains of much more.

There are more photos on Picasa.

Coalbrookdale – Coalport China Museum

2010-06-11T08:43:00.002+01:00

Taking photos of exhibits behind glass is not easy but a post about Coalport China has to include at least one to give at least a glimpse of why Coalport was so successful.
When a Canal was dug to connect the mines and ironworks of Blists Hill with the River Severn in the late 18th century, a new settlement grew up on the banks and was named after the coal which was the main cargo carried on the canal.
Among the varied industries which grew at the site was china production and the museum is in the remains of the old works. Coalport china is famed for vivid colours and intricate painting.
The intricate shapes were formed by ‘slip-casting’. The ‘slip’ – a liquid mix of china – was poured into plaster of paris mould which absorbed water from the clay. The clay form came away from the mould as it dried and shrank.
For complex shapes, separate pieces are cast and joined with slip afterwards.
Firing took place in several stages in the distinctive bottle ovens, protected from the soot and flames by fire-clay boxes called Saggars, placed in the kiln at the centre.

China production moved to Stoke, Staffordshire in the 1920s and Coalport china is still produced as part of the Waterford-Wedgewood group of companies.
Today, Coalport is a sleepy village again – apart from the visitors to the museum and people staying at the Youth Hostel which now occupies part of the old works.
More pictures on Picasa.

Coalbrookdale – Blists Hill Victorian Town

2010-06-10T07:10:00.001+01:00

Coalbrookdale is in a narrow gorge, formed when the River Severn changed course after the last ice age.

With clay, iron, coal, and limestone easily accessible, it was the site chosen by Abraham Darby to experiment with smelting iron using coke instead of charcoal. This enabled greater quantities of iron to be produced, sparking new developments and the first iron bridge was constructed by the third Abraham Darby in 1779.

Coalbrookdale by Night, 1801 (Public Domain)

Now it is a World Heritage Site and has 10 museums in an area of around 6 square miles.

We visited two of them – Blist’s Hill and the Coalport pottery museum. It was a long day! Blist’s Hill has grown since our last visit and is worth a full day in its own right. The admission price covers all the museums for as many visits as you like for a whole year (like Bletchley Park) and we will return later in the year to see more.

A street scene

Pouring pig iron

The Doctor’s surgery

Since we took 189 usable photos between us, a further selection is on Picasa.

Haughmond Farm Caravan Site

2010-05-30T07:18:00.001+01:00

Set in what was once an orchard beside the farmhouse, this Certificated Location is probably the best we have stayed at so far. There was plenty of room, a lovely setting, and a friendly owner.

The farmhouse is typical of the area and we could see it from our ‘van.

We watched squirrels chase a magpie away from ‘their’ lawn. Blackbirds fed just outside our door and robins were nesting in the hedge behind us. Under the eaves of the house, swallows had built a nest and were busy in the early morning, catching insects and returning to the nest to feed their young. We heard owls at night and the dawn chorus was an early wake up call at around 4.00 am.

It made a great base for the surrounding area and we shall return later in the year to catch up on all the places we didn’t get round to in the 10 days we were there.

David and Shirley joined us for two nights and it works really well. We all go out together in the day but spend the evenings separately – except for a celebratory glass of wine to toast David’s birthday, which was a few days after they returned home.

There are more pictures on Picasa, including some of our new awning.

Haughmond Hill - Contrasts

2010-05-30T06:34:00.001+01:00

650,000,000 years ago, the south of England and Wales was 60 degrees south of the equator and part of the continent of Gondwana. Scotland and Ireland were several thousand miles away at the equator.

Earlier Precambrian volcanoes stood at the edge of a coastal plane and erosion washed sand and pebbles downstream, depositing the layers which form Haughmond Hill today.

In the late Precambrian, the horizontal layers were folded to become almost vertical. Hills were formed which, in turn eroded. This was so long ago that there were no animals or plants, and so no fossils.

Since then, the area has been under a tropical sea, washed by melting ice, a swamp, and a desert. When the last ice age retreated, 18,000 years ago, ice sheets scoured the hills into rounded shapes and the River Severn settled into it’s current easterly course through the Ironbridge Gorge.

There are two main types of Precambrian rock on Haughmond Hill – Greywacke and Conglomerate – with different uses. Crushed Greywacke is about the best road surface, remarkably non-skid. Conglomerate is crushed to be used in concrete.

Both rocks have been quarried for centuries and some was used at Haughmond Abbey. In 1950, large scale quarrying started and will continue till 2020.

It sounds like a disaster but, because the quarry is being dug down into the hill, you wouldn’t know about it till you reached the edge – carefully fenced, I hasten to add. Instead, a trail leads to it and a viewpoint explaining the geology, the workings, and the wildlife.

The rest of the area is beautifully wild but with good paths. We walked Mac there most days.

There are more photos at Picasa.

Haughmond Abbey

2010-05-22T19:54:00.001+01:00

Haughmond Abbey is just a couple of fields down the hill from out campsite. What we see today are the later buildings – by which I mean from 1135 onwards to the 15th century.

Founded by a group of hermits towards the end of the 11th century, the formal founding of an Augustinian Abbey took place in 1135 and the foundation prospered with the help of wealthy patrons and royal connections.

Like many abbeys and monasteries, Haughmond owned a great deal of land and, acording to the records, owned 26 mills in Shropshire at the end of the 13th century.

This is not the Abbey described in the Cadfael books. That was a Benedictine Abbey and is in Shrewsbury.

The Abbots Hall (above) must have been rather impressive and certainly shows no financial constraints, being built to impress.

Before the community was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1539, things had gone downhill. Financial irregularities, novices not receiving proper instruction, a ‘woman of ill repute’ was twice reported as visiting the Abbey, and boys had been found in the dormitories!

The site is in the care of English Heritage nowadays and is a peaceful place to wander and reflect.

More pictures on Picasa

Haughmond, Shropshire

2010-05-20T21:31:00.001+01:00

We’re staying on a small site at Haughmond’s Farm, next to Haughmond Abbey, on the side of Haughmond Hill.

The actual campsite is in an old orchard, surrounded by tall hedges. The apple trees are in bloom, there are birds singing, sheep baaing – you get the picture. We are only 3 miles outside Shrewsbury but it feels deep in the countryside.

I was about to describe the drive down as uneventful but seeing a fox confidently striding across a large field just next to the motorway is certainly an event.

Tuesday morning was spent settling in and erecting our new awning. We bought a very cheap, small one when we first had the caravan but it was too small to be of any use so we have been looking for a new one.

We finally decided on a Swedish Omnistor Caravanstyle. It has three walls that fit onto a canopy so (we hope) giving us the best of both worlds.

Of course, the instructions are just drawings, giving no clue to some of the details so some of the erection was trial and error – a trial of good temper as well! If you have ever bought a flat pack from IKEA, you’ll understand.

In the afternoon we drove round the lanes nearby to orient ourselves and looked for traces of the old Shrewsbury Canal which was dug in the 18th century and was part of the network which served Coalbrookdale.

We’ve visited Haughmond Abbey and several other local places. David and Shirley joined us today (Thursday) and more will follow.

We’re off again!

2010-05-16T07:39:00.001+01:00

We’ve been home for four weeks now and, apart from the Railway Children Anniversary, not much has happened to write about. It’s been a domestic few weeks, interspersed with progressing other projects, a little socialising and sorting problems.

We have been having outages on our broadband access – several times a day – and finally got frustrated enough to call Virgin Media. We now have a new router and a new monthly package which is giving us a faster download speed AND costs a few pounds less than our previous one. So far (touch wood, cross your fingers) it is working well.

Of course, installing it was an occasion for head scratching and muttering. Alan managed it eventually. Well done!

A nice thick manual was provided, one page of which was in English. While we’re on the subject, why do these tech people assume that us ordinary folk understand their jargon? Don’t bother to answer. It’s for the same reason that street signs don’t always make sense – the people who put them up already know the way!

The freezer packed in! We stuffed it with newspaper and phoned a local repair firm. A very reassuring engineer came out and fixed it. Apparently, this model has an occasional fault and the cooling system builds up ice on the vanes, behind the back panel where we couldn’t see it. Much work with a steamer cleared it but I was a little concerned when he told us he gets called out to four or five of this particular model each week.

Once it is cleared, it rarely recurs so I should be thankful, I suppose. If anyone has a Hotpoint FZA80 freezer, take note!

We’re off to Shropshire tomorrow for a couple of weeks, staying at a site near Shrewsbury and hoping to spend some time at Ironbridge and visit several other sites in the area.

This time, we’ve checked on mobile coverage and the site has a good signal so we should be able to get on line easily. I need to start gathering things together now and get the caravan loaded so I can watch the Monaco Grand Prix.

A Czech Mystery

2010-05-06T16:39:00.001+01:00

Some years ago, we went to Prague for a few days and visited the Národní technické muzeum v Praze (National Technical Museum in Prague). Among the displays were some beautifully restored classical cars.

But something was wrong. The Czech Republic is a landlocked country situated in the middle of Europe but these cars had right hand steering wheels. They were designed for driving on the left hand side of the road.

Sherlock and Doctor Watson immediately investigated. Little grey cells went into overdrive, Kojak sucked a lollipop – sorry, I got carried away there.

We asked a museum attendant. This was more difficult than it sounds. Our Czech was limited to the few phrases needed to get around. His English was nearly as non-existent. It took some time, a little German, some pointing at our phrase book, and a lot of gesticulation to get the answer.

According to him, after the Nazis invaded in 1939, Hitler decreed that Czechoslovakia should drive on the right – NOW! That made sense and we knew that the same thing had happened in Austria.

There the matter rested till last Saturday when The Guardian published a review of a book about China. To illustrate the book, a picture of the Caiyunba Bridge over the Yangtze was shown, with one, lonely car in view – definitely driving on the left, though China drives on the right. Closer examination (and a flurry of googling) showed that the car was on a slip road and the photo was probably taken in 2007 when the bridge was opened.

That led us back to the Czech issue of changing the flow of traffic from left to right. We discovered an article on Wikipedia which claimed that the Czech government had planned to change to driving on the right‘within a reasonable time’ as early as 1925 and had just not got around to it. H’mm! No sources given. In fact the article had a header saying that citations were needed.

More searches revealed quotes from the Wikipedia article, often lifted verbatim (plagiarism is rife on the web) and nothing with authoritative sources.

Short of contacting the Czech Embassy, who may not know as the Czech Republic was part of Czechoslovakia in the period we are talking about, it remains one of the many little niggling mysteries which constantly plague our inquisitive minds.

Unless you know the answer?

The Railway Children – Forty Years On

2010-05-04T10:03:00.001+01:00

If there is anyone out there who has not seen the 1970 film, The Railway Children, where have you been for the last forty years?

Written by Edith Nesbit as a serial for The London magazine in 1905, the book was published in 1906 and the story was adapted for television by the BBC in 1951, 1957 and 1968. The film, directed by Lionel Jeffries, came to the big screen at Christmas 1970 and was a great success. Since then, it has appeared on television on holidays, was produced as a video and then DVD. Now there is a new remastered DVD, produced for the 40th anniversary. I will not linger on the 2000 version of the film as I haven’t seen it and don’t particularly want to. Like countless others, the 1970 film is my version and I am quite satisfied with it.

If you watch it and don’t get a lump in your throat at “Daddy! My Daddy”, you really need to get in touch with your inner child.

The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, where the film was made, staged a celebration during the May Bank Holiday Weekend and re-enacted some of the famous scenes on each day with the help of local actors and, of course, we had to go!

It was a strange sensation to see the actors, in their costumes, mingling with the crowds of visitors. The railway is not far from us so we went on the Saturday, assuming it would be quieter than the Sunday or Monday. Unfortunately, the weatherman decided to aim one of his forecast ‘scattered showers’ right on Oakworth Station after lunch. This developed into a full downpour, mixed with hail, so we retreated home. Alan went back again on the Sunday and took more photos in better weather.

More pictures at Railway Children Re-enactment and Railway Children 40th

Steam trains, nostalgia, beautiful countryside and people enjoying themselves – perfect.

Statistics can be Beautiful

2010-04-26T07:16:00.001+01:00

OK. That probably put off half my audience – I don’t care. We are all subjected to a constant stream of statistics, whether we like it or not, unless we opt to ignore the outside world, which is increasingly hard to do.

In the course of the eruption of the Icelandic volcano with the unpronounceable name – spelt Eyjafjallajoekull - I came across Information is Beautiful a site by David Candless. What impressed most is that the graph shown is version 3. On the Home Page is an apology for getting the original numbers wrong. He corrected them.

Even if you have no time for statistics, take a few minutes to look at the various visualisations (also known as graphs). They have a beauty which transcends the data. I’m impressed enough to put his book on my Amazon Wishlist.

In particular, try The Solar System Music Box. If you click on the graph, you will get an inkling as to why mathematics and music are so tightly intertwined.

The key benefit is that the data is made available. Even if you don’t have the skills to make use of it, it is there for those who have and that gives it authority.

Trust me, if there was any doubt, someone would have brought down the site in flames by now. Statisticians are as prone to confrontation as anyone else!

The second site is one which is a spin-off from a print UK newspaper.

Scroll down to ‘Tax receipts since 1963’. Note that beneath the pretty – though worrying – illustration there is an invitation to ‘Download the data’. If you see this offered, you should be able to trust the graphics.

As Lawrence Lowell, the President of Harvard University wrote in 1909, “Statistics are like veal pies, good if you know the person who made them and are sure of the ingredients”.

Northumbrian Miscellany – New and Old

2010-04-23T07:09:00.001+01:00

Kielder Water – a ‘new’ beauty spot

The largest artificial lake in the United Kingdom, the reservoir was built in the 1970s to provide water for industry in the North East of England. That industry has long gone but it has now come into its own as it has underground springs which keep it topped up whatever the rainfall levels. They say there is enough water in the lake to give 1 cold shower to every person in the UK – I do wonder at the mindset of whoever came up with that illustration.

The lake is surrounded by Kielder Forest, which is the largest human-made forest in Europe. It is a beautiful area and well used by walkers, sailors and fishermen. We spent some time by the lake and also travelling to various viewpoints. There are more pictures on Picasa and Alan has written a little from a Tourism Management perspective.

Black Midden Bastle - a complete contrast

A ‘Bastle’ is a fortified house and this one was built in the 16th Century on a hill in the wilds of Northumbria. Within the strong walls, farmers found security for their livestock on the ground floor and for their family above. It is a reminder that this was once border country, wild and lawless, and there are more castles and fortified houses in Northumberland than any other English county.

We drove down a narrow country lane seeing no signs of life. Although a signpost said 1 mile, it was very much a country mile! Apart from the sheep, we had the place to ourselves on a glorious day - perfect.

If you look at the top photo closely, you can see where the original narrow door in the gable end has been blocked and the two ground floor doors are later additions.

We spent some time just enjoying the stream at the foot of the hill while Mac investigated the exciting smells.

As ever, there are more pictures on Picasa.

Alnmouth, Northumberland

2010-04-20T23:21:00.001+01:00

Inhabited since Saxon times, it is difficult now to believe that Alnmouth was once a thriving trading port, exporting grain, and notorious for smuggling. Late in the 18th century, there were 16 granaries in the small town.

John Wesley is said to have visited in 1794 and noted that it was “famous for all kinds of wickedness”. No sign of that when we were there in the morning!

Its other claim to fame is that during the American War of Independence, John Paul Jones attacked the town in 1779, firing a cannonball which missed the Church, landed in a field and bounced onto a farmhouse roof.

On Christmas Day in 1806 during a great storm, the river changed course to the North of Church Hill (seen below), cutting it off from the village. The Church, which had fallen into disrepair, was finally demolished by the storm. Ships found it more and more difficult to get into port, then the railway between Edinburgh and London was built and Alnmouth lost its trade.

Now it is a seaside village with wide beaches and dunes. I sat for a while on a bench overlooking the beach in the spring sunshine, just soaking up the peace.

We drove up the coast from here past the Aln, meandering like a textbook geography lesson across the plain behind the dunes and cliffs.

More pictures at Picasa.

Winter’s Gibbet

2010-04-20T07:52:00.002+01:00

Winter’s Gibbet really needs visiting on a stormy night with an uncertain light – possibly with an owl flying silently across the face of a ghostly full moon just as it comes out from the clouds. However, it was a bright morning when we visited so you’ll just have to imagine it.
The gibbet stands on a wild moorland road, once a drove road from Scotland to England, above the village of Elsdon in Northumberland, a severed head still swinging from it. The head is a fibreglass one, fortunately. It is a grisly memorial to William Winter, the last man in England to be gibbeted. Winter was a gypsy and noted criminal. In 1791 he was charged with the brutal murder of an old woman who lived at Raw Pele, nearby.

He and his two women accomplices were executed in Newcastle and the bodies of the two women were handed to the surgeons for dissection but William was put on display here and left for months, until his clothes had rotted away then it was cut down and the bones scattered.
It was believed that rubbing the gums with slivers of wood from a gibbet would cure toothache and this one gradually disintegrated and rotted away.
Around 1867 Sir Walter Trevelyan of Wallington ordered a replica with a wooden body to be erected. The body was often used as target practice and eventually only the head remained. Even that was frequently stolen and in 1998 the entire gibbet disappeared for a while. A joker left a miniature one in its place with a sign proclaiming that it would soon grow, given the rainfall!
It is said that the sound of rattling bones can often be heard there, especially on stormy nights, and that the ghosts of William Winter and Jane and Eleanor Clark can been seen running from the old tower at Raw Pele. There are more photos at Picasa.

Lindisfarne (Holy Island)

2010-04-19T07:32:00.001+01:00

David and Shirley set off across the causeway The tide coming in

For with the flow and ebb, its style
Varies from continent to isle;
Dry shod o'er sands, twice every day,
The pilgrims to the shrine find way;
Twice every day the waves efface
Of staves and sandelled feet the trace.
-- Sir Walter Scott

There is something exciting about a tidal island. The 3 mile long causeway is generally clear from about 3 hours after high tide until 2 hours before the next high tide and we checked the tide tables, but there is that little frisson of fear as you look out of the car to see the mudflats and the water lapping gently only inches from the road. Some people do get it wrong!

Lindisfarne is a small island and most of it is sand dunes but the tiny village (less than 200 people live there) has Lindisfarne Priory, at its centre. Founded by St Aiden in 635 AD, it has long been in ruins but is a quiet and peaceful place, even with tourists wandering round. It wasn’t always so. The Vikings sacked the island in 793 AD and it was noted at the time that

“The heathens poured out the blood of saints around the altar, and trampled on the bodies of saints in the temple of God, like dung in the streets.”

In 875, the monks fled the island because of more raids. The priory was re-established in 1093 as a Benedictine Monastery but suppressed by Henry VIII in 1536. Some of the stone was used to build a fort, which is now Lindisfarne Castle.

We parked at the large public car park outside the village and walked the dogs before catching the little shuttle bus into the village itself.

Alan and I opted to visit the priory while David and Shirley visited Lindisfarne Castle which was refurbished by Sir Edward Lutyens early in the 20th century.

As we crossed at low tide, Alan and I went back again another day to see the tide come in, so the first two pictures were taken on different days – you’d never know!

There are more pictures at Picasa.

Hadrian’s Wall Chesters and Vindolanda

2010-04-17T11:45:00.001+01:00

Hadrian’s Wall near Housesteads – a classic view

Hadrian’s Wall is a Roman fortification running for 117km (80 miles) across England from Wallsend on the East coast to Bowness on Solway on the West coast. Hadrian was the 14th Emperor of Rome and had the wall built for reasons which we can understand today. Firstly, it reduced raids by small bands of Picts or Caledonians who lived in what we now know as Scotland. It seems that cattle raiding was the national sport and continued after the Romans left right up to the end of the 16th century. Secondly, as with the wooden palisade across Germania (roughly, the north of Europe), it signified the frontier of the Roman Empire to the North. Thirdly, Hadrian was probably looking for a ‘monument’ to his reign and to appear strong to the folks back home in Rome. Does that sound familiar?

Hadrian had a shrine erected in York to Britain as a Goddess, and coins showing a female figure as the personification of Britain, labelled BRITANNIA were issued.

In Germania, the boundary was a wooden palisade but there were not enough trees in this area of England so the Romans used whatever was handy. In the East, this was stone and the wall was 3 metres (9.7ft) wide and 16-20 feet high. Needless to say, a lot of the stone has now gone – recycled by later generations! ‘Green and mean’ is not a new concept.

Reconstruction of Milecastle at Vindolanda

Every mile (or so, depending on geographical features) was a Milecastle with a garrison of just a few dozen troops. There were also intermediate turrets used for observation and signalling. The Milecastles had gates to the North and South – perhaps for easy access to fend off raiders. Some historians suggest that there was trade between the North and South. Given that the troops were here for long periods, one can imagine all sorts of alliances with the locals, there were certainly marriages and the resulting sons following in their father’s footsteps.

We visited two major sites with David and Shirley. The first is Chesters Fort, known to the Romans as Cilurnam. Oddly enough, David and Alan visited this site first in 1956 – and so did I. Did we see one another? We’ll never know.

The Barracks at Chesters – note the larger rooms for Officers at the far end and the drainage ditch along the middle.

There is a lot more to see now than in 1956, thanks to English Heritage. The fort is situated where the wall crosses the Tyne river and the abutments of that bridge can still be seen on both sides of the river.

We can thank John Clayton for most of the preservation of what remains of Hadrian’s Wall. Son of Nathanial Clayton who was Town Clerk of Newcastle upon Tyne from 1785 to 1822, he succeeded his father in that post – do I hear calls of “nepotism”? Be that as it may, his father bought Chesters Estate, in the grounds of which Cilurnam stood and covered the remains in order to have uninterrupted landscape to the river.

From 1834 John began buying land to preserve the Wall, at a time when the wall was little understood. He even had some restoration work carried out.

Clayton’s enthusiasm helped preserve the central stretch of Hadrian’s Wall which includes Chesters, Vindolanda and Housesteads. He was immortalised in a painting by William Bell Scott which hangs in nearby Wallington Hall.

Picture reproduced from Wikipedia Commons

It shows a Centurian overseeing the building of the wall but the face is that of John Clayton. More photos on Picasa.

The second site was very different. Vindolanda is basically an excavation in the raw and I would not recommend it for anyone who has mobility difficulties.

Administered by a Trust, whose aim is ‘to excavate and preserve the Roman remains associated with the land owned by the Trust’, we found it fascinating but confusing as there is little interpretation on the site, though there is a good display in the entrance area. It’s almost like being invited to watch a private dig.

I was amused to see that the few interpretation panels were in four languages – English, Latin, French and German. A nice touch. It is a huge site and we didn’t see everything as we ran out of time and had left the dogs in the vehicles. There is a museum down in the valley which we didn’t get to, to our disappointment. This houses a collection of finds including some writing tablets, the best known of which is the birthday party invitation from Claudia Severa to Sulpicia Lepidina asking her to attend her party on September 11th " to make her day more enjoyable". This is the earliest surviving writing between two women in Western Europe.

The Vindolanda Trust has a Roman Army Museum just down the road which we would also like to have visited – we’ll just have to go back one day. More Vindolanda pictures can be seen at Picasa as well as a couple from Hadrian’s Villa just outside Rome from when we visited.

Alnwick Gardens

2010-04-15T07:19:00.006+01:00

Alnwick Castle is nowadays known as the setting for Hogwarts School in the Harry Potter films but has it’s own history as the seat of the Dukes of Northumberland for 700 years.
We missed on the castle as we were only in the area for a short period and we were all keen to see the gardens. Developed over the past ten years by the Duchess of Northumberland, the gardens have been controversial. Many people wanted a more traditional approach and there was a legal battle when English Heritage objected to the design and demanded a ‘restoration garden’.

I’m usually in favour of Conservation but the gardens were derelict, needed a large amount of money to restore or redesign (£42m is a figure quoted) and needed to pay their way for upkeep – there’s not much point in investing that much money if they are going to be neglected down the line.

The result is a garden which treads the fine line between ‘garden’ and ‘visitor attraction’ and succeeds. The casual use of these toy diggers by children to scoop up overflow water from the fountains and trundle it around is a joy to see. Many must be regulars as they were in wellingtons.

Similarly, the use of some very clever fountains was enhanced by the way children (of all ages) were enjoying them without fear of being told off was a refreshing – and amusing – sight.
There are places where the serious gardener can find inspiration, especially a rather good knot garden. I found it admirable that so much has been done in ten years.
There is a good cafe – in design as well as choice of food – as well as the usual shop and plant sales. I’ll admit my eyes crossed at the price of admission but it was worth it, with more to see than our limited time frame permitted.
More pictures on Picasa

PS - I got the entrance fee wrong as Alan quoted Gardens and castle. The garden entrance was in line with National Trust fees. Sorry - eyes uncrossed now.

Nunnykirk Caravan Site

2010-04-12T17:01:00.001+01:00

This lovely setting is just South West of Rothbury and nestled next to the Font River. It is the first ‘big’ site we have used – 84 pitches – and we had some reservations as to how we would like it. It has turned out very well, possibly because we are out of season. They were full over the Easter weekend but most people had left by the time we arrived on Easter Monday.

David and Shirley’s motor home is on the right here and we are on the left. Rather fun having relatives ‘across the road’. The pitches are all grass which we like as it gives a less regimented feel to the site. That was a slight problem when we arrived as the ground was very muddy and vehicles were getting bogged down, which is why we are parked so close to the road. That is not a criticism of the site but a moan about the weather – which has cleared up steadily since we arrived.

Several miles from the nearest shops, this site would not suit all, but a fish and chip van arrives on Friday evening, a butcher delivers on Saturday and modern caravans have fridges so it is not such a problem. The only drawback for us was the lack of mobile phone signal. It is strange when you think that we would not have considered that important five years ago but it feels strange being out of touch.

Most people using the site have dogs – in fact we feel caninely challenged in only having one! The dedicated dog walk shown here is well used.

Peaceful, beautiful countryside, Impeccable facilities, the caravaners are as friendly as we have found elsewhere. A site we would recommend. We liked it enough to extend our stay till Wednesday.

Northumberland and out of touch

2010-04-08T17:37:00.001+01:00

We’re staying on the perfect caravan site, nestled in a valley by a stream, surrounded by trees.

Except for one thing. No mobile phone signal, no mobile internet access and dodgy satellite access.

It’s a weird feeling. For us, it is an inconvenience; for Shirley it is more annoying as her brother-in-law is ill and she is out of touch.

As we drive out each day, we have mobile phones at the ready. “No signal, no signal, no signal. . . . Signal!” Only then can we make contact with family and friends.

Getting internet access is even more of a problem as the signal strength does not equate with the ability to stop the car. The roads round here are narrow, like a switchback and littered with ‘hidden dips’ – that is where you think you are over the crest of a hill and the ground suddenly falls away.

But, here we are. Thanks to this array which is right by an official parking area.

We suspect that some of it is associated with the nearby Otterburn Army Training Area. If so, we may end up with a visit from some official persons who suspect us of being terrorists! Watch this space. If they grant us internet access, we will launch an appeal to cover our bail. You know we are innocent.

If all is well, we’ll be posting on a superb new garden (Alnwick) and the first house in England to be powered by electricity (Cragside) and Hadrian’s Wall (the last outpost of the Roman Empire).

My purchase of a really good rain hat seems to have worked. I wave it at the sky every morning and, each day is better than the last. If this continues, we may stay a few days longer.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Caravan - Nuts and Bolts

2010-04-04T18:43:00.001+01:00

Alan has fitted an adjustable bracket to hold the TV, freeing up some much needed shelf space. As a consequence, he now knows more about the intricacies of bolt sizes than he really wants to and we have a nice collection of spare bolts. You can no longer go into a local hardware shop and buy one bolt to try. They come in packs of 6, or 10 or 12 – allocated in an arbitrary manner by length x thickness x head size - and we only wanted 3.

The chances of getting it right first time are N to the power of Y (take away the number you first thought of) = 0. The sizes don’t quite fit the thickness of the partition (even though both are metric) so he has had to include some washers – Again, not sold in the numbers we need.

Alan is about to get a customer of the year award at B&Q.

We also removed the microwave. Why I thought I needed one, I don’t know! I must have had a brainstorm. I hardly ever use the one at home, except to warm plates and for quick scrambled eggs. That has freed up a much needed cupboard but left us with a pristine microwave to store at home. With a good sized cooker with 3 burners, grill and oven, I really have enough cooking facilities.

Hi-Tech or not, we’re still getting to grips with using the caravan and are continuing to move things round and adjust how we store them. I suppose it’s like moving house when you shift the furniture and ornaments around till you have them just as you want them. Then circumstances change and you move them again. Perhaps it’s just me!

Of course we had hoped to have many more nights under our belts than we have. Once again, the best laid plans of mice and men have gone awry. We’ve had local commitments and then bad weather since before Christmas so last weeks trip to Buckinghamshire was our first foray this year.

We’re off again on Monday to Northumberland (that’s north of here, between Newcastle and Scotland for anyone geographically challenged) and meeting up with Dave and Shirley – Alan’s brother and his wife – for five days. They will have their motor-home.

If the weather improves (cross fingers, touch wood) we may stay an extra few days.

Storage is the main issue in a caravan. Believe me, clutter really shows up in the small space. There is a big locker under one of the single beds which now holds the table and chairs for sitting outside - if we ever get the weather to do so,

We were tempted to leave them at home till the summer but Murphy’s law will ensure that the weather will turn glorious if we do. Perhaps we can fool the weatherman by hiding them under a bed?

Pigeons at War More from Bletchley Park

2010-04-02T09:07:00.001+01:00

German Camera Pigeon, WWI, licensed under Creative Commons

I came across this odd subject while looking for something else – not an unusual occurrence on the internet - and was reminded of it when we visited Bletchley Park where there is a room dedicated to the subject.

Pigeons have been used to carry messages for centuries and all participants in World War I made use of the Homing Pigeon’s ability.The British alone employed about 9,500 birds.

The Second World War once more saw the major powers make use of the Homing Pigeons and Britain used 250,000.

Each bomber had 2 pigeons on board and, if shot down, released the pigeon with a message giving the co-ordinates of the plane and many lives were saved this way. The pigeons returned to their home lofts and their owners found the nearest telephone to send in the message they carried.

Secret agents, inserted into Europe carried them and they were even parachuted to resistance groups.

Pigeon Parachute at Bletchley Park

During the D-Day invasion of World War II, many soldiers were sent with a pigeon beneath their coats. This was a period of radio silence, so the use of pigeons for relaying messages was needed. The pigeons sent back information on German gun positions on the Normandy beaches. Thirty-two pigeons were awarded the Dickin Medal, Britiain's highest award for animal valour.

Just in case our American readers are scratching their heads at the primitive Europeans, you used them too and a bird named "G.I. Joe," flew 20 miles in 20 minutes with a message that stopped U.S. planes from bombing an Italian town that was occupied by British forces. He was awarded the Dickin Medal.

American Pigeon carriers at Bletchley Park

Books we read in March

2010-03-31T09:54:00.001+01:00

We’ve read :

‘A Kentish Lad’
by Frank Muir, published by Penguin 1997

You’ll need to be of a certain age to remember Frank Muir. I first remember him in a BBC radio comedy programme called ‘Take It From Here’, which ran from 1948 to 1960. I listened to the series with my parents, sitting round the solid fuel stove in the ‘living room’ and too young to understand the humour. I soon grew into it and, later, watched out for his name in the ‘60s and ‘70s.

The autobiography is a pleasant and easy read – not dramatic – but a chance for him to tell many funny stories and recount his experience of many fascinating people.

If you watched British TV comedy in the ‘60s, ‘70s or ‘80s, Frank Muir probably had a hand in your favourite programmes and this book will bring back fond memories.

Pat read it. Alan dipped in and out.

‘Monster Island’
by David Wellington, published by Snowbooks Ltd. 2007

This book was passed on to me by Tariq, a zombie mad grandson in a book swap for some Sci-fi. To be honest, it is what we used to call pulp fiction, but, hey!, I gobbled up pulp fiction Sci-fi when I was his age and look how nice I turned out.

It is simply written, with the classic premise of zombies taking over the world and is set in New York. It rolls along very nicely, telling the story from two view points, and has some unlikely heroes in a group of girl warriors crossing the world from Somalia. Just over half way my ‘willing suspense of disbelief’ wasn’t quite strong enough to carry me through, but I was sufficiently interested to see how it ended that I did finish it.

There are 2 sequels - ‘Monster Nation’, which is really a prequel, and ‘Monster Planet’. I will read them at some point as a bit of ‘light’ relief – but not at bedtime.

Pat read it.

‘Writing in an Age of Silence’
by Sarah Paretsky, published by Verso, 2007

Sarah Paretsky is the creator of the doyen of feisty, independent female private eyes – V.I. Warshawski. I knew nothing about Paretsky till I read this series of essays, though it is obvious from her novels that she is familiar with the poorer districts of Chicago and that she writes a real page turner – every time.

I learned that she grew up in Kansas in a town obsessed with the threat of Communism (this was the McCarthy era) and more than a little racist. She went to Chicago to do community work and witnessed and was involved in the Civil Rights Movement when Martin Luther King was in the city.

This is by no means a fun book, in fact is it bleak in places as she shares her journey in politics and social justice but she writes with such dazzling clarity that it is not easy to put down. In fact, I read it in one sitting.

V.I. Warshawski, Kinsey Millhone, Kay Scarpetta and many other feisty heroines have changed the face of crime fiction forever. It’s nice to know that Paretski walked the walk as well as talking the talk.

Reading this book sent me off to her website and I discovered that I’ve missed some of her releases. I will be rectifying that soon.

Pat read it.

‘Demelza’ and ‘Jeremy Poldark’
by Winston Graham, published by Pan

Ross Poldark’s woes continue. Demelza’s start. Alan read both of these.

Alan also read Churchill’s Wizards which was mentioned in February.

Pat re-read The Honor of the Queen, the second in the Honorverse by David Weber. The series was outlined in February.

And finally NOT read was ‘Top 40 Bad books’ by the American Book Review .

I haven’t read their reviews because they want to charge me $35 for the privilege (only $24 if you are not ‘foreign’).

Quite frankly, from what the Guardian has to say about the reviews, they sound pompous and egotistical. I don’t necessarily revere ‘Great Literature’ just because I’m supposed to, but really – to say that ‘Women in Love reads "like someone put a gun to Nietzsche's head and made him write a Harlequin romance" is a bit much. Could the reviewer do better him or her self?

I’m inclined to agree with Alison Flood of The Guardian that “This is all a bit say-something-controversial-for-the-hell-of-it for my taste.”

The Rollright Stones and The Stones of Blood

2010-03-30T09:40:00.002+01:00

The Kings Men Stone Circle

Tom Baker as Dr Who, a screenshot from ‘The Stones of Blood’

The Kings Men is a nearly perfect circle,104 feet across, made up of 77 stones of heavily weathered, local, oolitic limestone. It is believed that there were once 105 stones with just one entry but, in the 3.500 - 4,500 years since it was constructed, some have been removed, possibly for local building use. Legend has it that you cannot count the same number of stones more than twice. We didn’t try!

The tallest stone

The stones range in height from a few inches to 7 feet (see picture above) The circle is (roughly) the same age as the Stone Circle at Stonehenge, and considered the third most important stone circle in England after Stonehenge and Avebury, though an 18c visitor wrote that this is ‘but a molehill to a mountain’.
The circle lies on an exposed ridge towards the Eastern edge of the Cotswolds, alongside an ancient trackway (now a country lane) known as The Jurassic Way.

No one knows why it was built or what it was used for, though theories abound. Religious site, astronomical calendar, astrological calendar trading post – take your pick as many ‘experts’ have done through the years but something about it seems to bring out the mystic in some visitors.

Across the lane is The King Stone, believed to be of Bronze Age origin, so younger than the Kings Men.

The King Stone

The irregular shape is not just the result of weathering but by the tradition of chipping off small pieces as good luck charms to keep the Devil away. It is believed that it was much bigger when it was erected.
As with the Kings Men, it is on the ridge and attracts some religious feelings.
Long Compton from the Ridge A wreath left at the foot of the stone
The last in the series of megalithic monuments on the site is The Whispering Knights. The Knights are a group of 5 upright stones about 400 yards away from the Stone Circle.

These are the oldest stones and are a 5,000 year old burial chamber.

As you would expect, there are several local legends associated with the stones. If you are a young village girl who wishes to see the image of the man you will marry then you must run naked round the stones at midnight on Midsummer’s Eve. It is also said that if a young woman fails to conceive she has only to visit the stones at midnight and give any one of the circle a hug. It has never been known to fail – or so they say.
One story concerns an ambitious king marching northwards with his army. At Rollright he met a witch who addressed him:

‘Seven long strides thou shalt take, and
If Long Compton thou canst see
King of England shalt thou be’

The king strode forward confidently, but on his seventh stride the ground rose up in a mound hiding his view of the village below. The witch then went on:

‘As Long Compton thou canst not see
King of England thou shalt not be
Rise up, stick, and stand still, stone,
For King of England thou shalt be none
Thou and thy men hoar stones shall be
And I myself an eldern tree.’

And so the petrified king stands rooted to the windswept hilltop with his circle of soldiers and the five knights, plotting treason, behind him.
Despite being ‘a molehill to a mountain’. the Rollright Stones are all the more remarkable for their setting and lack of intrusive tarmac and modern buildings. Managed by The Rollright Trust. great care has been taken to maintain the natural setting in which the stones have stood for so long. Neat and informative signs tell as much as the average visitor would want to know.

Trees are being planted and a discrete path laid to allow wheelchair access.

We met other visitors, families, students and people from as far afield as China. Everyone was friendly, quiet and respectful of the site. There was NO litter. Entry is £1; just put the money in an ‘honesty’ box when the site is not manned.
The Stones of Blood was the 100th story in the series, Dr Who and the Rollright Stones were used as a setting – though transferred to Cornwall for the purpose. It was shown in 1978 and was in the series of stories ‘The Key to Time’. A good enough reason to visit even without the history.
More pictures at my Picasa Album

Caravan leveller – a nifty gadget

2010-03-29T13:44:00.003+01:00

It’s actually a sop to Pat’s creaky joints! A caravan has to be levelled when based on a site – the last thing you want is to roll out of bed or have a pan slide off the cooker. It’s simple enough to do with an attachment to an electric drill to wind down the ‘steadies’ as the legs are called. You then check with a spirit level to be sure.
The problem for me is that you really need to kneel to get the drill under the caravan and see what you are doing. Now, I don’t do kneeling – or, more accurately, I don’t do getting up easily once I’m down.
The system we have had fitted is the Caralevel made and fitted by a very clever man, Peter Pearce, in Buckinghamshire. We stayed overnight in his land and left the caravan for the day while we visited Bletchley Park.
We also met two Gloucester Old Spot pigs – who left at the same time as we did to be turned into pork and bacon. Believe it or not, they are brothers though they look so different in size.

We are completely wowed by it. Just turn the key and a clever computer adjusts the steadies till the caravan is absolutely level in all directions. I suppose we will take it for granted eventually but, when we arrived at this site – Huntsmill Farm – we just stood and watched and gloated.

Of course, my creaky joints are just an excuse for playing with another gadget, really.

Bletchley Park – Station X and more

2010-03-26T18:16:00.002Z

Bletchley Park is somewhere we have wanted to go for years. The tale of one of the most secret operations in Britain during World War 2 did not come out till the 1970s and the site was nearly lost in 1991 when there were plans to demolish the dilapidated mansion and redevelop the site.
Then, in 1992, Milton Keynes Borough Council stepped in and, thankfully, made it a Conservation Area. A few days later the Bletchley Park Trust was formed to maintain the site as a museum devoted to the codebreakers. The site opened to visitors in 1993 and we’ve been muttering “We must go there.” every time we travel South.
It was well worth the visit. The workers were housed in huts, the early ones of wood but the motley collection added to with brick buildings as the workforce increased.

In addition to the story of the code breakers, there is now a computer science museum, a Winston Churchill display and a lot of other exhibits about World War 2. It is all beautifully displayed, staffed by friendly volunteers and in a lovely setting.
It seems that something about the war which started in 1939 brought out the best of minds – Alan Turing, Ian Fleming and many more. I wonder if it was the last time that individualism and eccentricity were valued? Today, if a man was so absent minded that he threw his empty coffee cup into the lake because he couldn’t think what else to do with it, he would be ‘diagnosed’ with something and probably never reach his potential.
What is really fascinating is not just the achievements of the staff, but the sheer scale and successful secrecy of the establishment. By 1945, some 9,000 people worked there and, in the course of the war, over 12,000 people were employed (of whom 80% were women).
Churchill never shared the secrets of the code breakers with the Soviet Union and the story was not revealed till the 1970s. It seems that no one talked and they say that some are reluctant even now. There are stories of couples getting married who had both worked there and who never told one another what they had done in the war.
One woman told her story to the BBC WW2 Peoples War archives – which I recommend as a source of fascinating tales of ‘real’ Brits during the period. Joy Ettridge (1) wrote her story, as so many did, with an air of slight surprise that anyone would be interested.
“In 1942 I went to work at Bletchley Park, - Bletchley Park, BP, Station X, Ultra, Enigma - they were names which meant nothing to the world at large then, or for thirty years to come. National security and the Official Secrets Act saw to that.
In wartime no hint of what went on within the perimeter fence of Bletchley Park escaped to the world outside, and strict internal security meant there was virtually no contact between different ‘sections’, even between different rooms within a ‘section’, except at the highest level. That secrecy was maintained until the 1970s - and, indeed, some of my former colleagues still prefer to remain silent about the specific work which they once did, even amongst themselves.”
She goes on to tell how her husband was recruited.
“My husband, Hugh, whom I first met at the Park, received, literally out of the blue, a letter telling him to go to Bletchley station and ring a certain number.A car was sent to fetch him for interview. He was an Oxford M.A., had lived and studied in Germany and was fluent in the language. He had also just obtained his Yachtmaster’s certificate and had hoped that these qualifications would fit him to take part in secret landings on the coast of occupied Europe. Someone must have thought of another use for those qualifications: he found himself in Naval intelligence at Bletchley Park. Recently I’ve learned from other people that they were recruited in the same cloak-and-dagger way, via the summons to Bletchley station.”
There really is more to see than can be coped with in one visit but the entrance fee gives a year’s season ticket for as many visits as you like. Will we go back? You bet!
Acknowledgements(1) Copyright Joy Ettridge at WW2 People's War. The site is an online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The archive can be found at bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar'