Going back a year and a bit

In her blog Mille Fiori Favoriti Pat has featured the Brooklyn Bridge Park, which should be two thirds completed by 2013.

I walked along there in April last year, and met Leonie for a picnic lunch at the Manhattan Bridge end.

Photos with my old Fujifilm A303 camera, before it stopped working.  It was not underused!

And one or two family photos from around Easter 2010 as well:

Easter Sunday at Coney Island

Toddler in confined spaces

Flowers in wellies

July 2011

Just to compare and congratulate the gardeners for perseverance.

Feb 2008

Esperanto -

After talk about Harry's grandparents being in Paris for the conference in 1914 we have found quite a lot of postcards in Esperanto including the official one. The conference was curtailed and the delegates sent home as war was about to break out.

to be completed.

German biscuits

There's a recipe if you click here. .

And all because of a conversation yesterday.  They're a Scottish favourite,  renamed Empire biscuits after World War I.
Two shortbread rounds, sandwiched together with jam, and iced -  sometimes with a cherry on top. For a few minutes I was convinced the name was a corruption of 'Jam-on-biscuits', but the theory is that they are related to Linzertorte.

Meanwhile we ate a delicious aubergine and egg bake, and a Pavlova with raspberries, strawberries and blueberries. Many thanks to Alison and William for a lovely evening.

After the rain, the flowers

For some reason,whether modesty or sheer bloodymindedness, these clematis flowers were all facing the fence - I've manhandled them and twisted them back, supported by an old clothes-line-prop. 

Should we blame St Swithun?

One of those traditions my mother was so fond of passing on:

St Swithin's day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St Swithin's day if thou be fair
For forty days 'twill rain na mair

Here's some of the background from a bbc page.
St Swithun (Swithin) was a Saxon bishop of Winchester, who lived in the ninth century

Swithin died on 2 July 862. According to tradition, he had asked to be buried humbly. His grave was just outside the west door of the Old Minster, so that people would walk across it and rain fall on it in accordance with Swithin's wishes.
On 15 July 971 though, Swithin's remains were dug up and moved to a shrine in the cathedral by Bishop Ethelwold. Miraculous cures were associated with the event, and Swithin's feast day is the date of the removal of his remains, not his death day.
However, the removal was also accompanied by ferocious and violent rain storms that lasted 40 days and 40 nights and are said to indicate the saint's displeasure at being moved. This is probably the origin of the legend that if it rains on Saint Swithin's feast day, the rain will continue for 40 more days.

 Yesterday was fine and fair here - this morning it has been raining with intent. 

Of swimming, child-minding and other things

I went to the pool as Esther was doing her tri training on Monday. I swam 50 lengths in about three quarters of an hour. Mainly breast-stroke, as my crawl has become an effort again!   Memo to self - regular practice, my dear. 


I've loved spending time with not-so-little Joseph, climbing up slides or squatting on floors, taking him out to places where he can run around.  

But, touch wood, he has settled with Karen to look after him for three days per week - sleeping, eating and playing quite happily at her house.


So here I am, back home.

On yer bike. . .

for the first time for a while, just a very few miles - to Longdown Activity Farm - ideal for little people.  Esther ran back, with me cycling alongside - nice gentle pace for a cyclist!

Lepe Beach

My third or fourth visit to Lepe, and I didn't realise the connection to the D-Day landings in Normandy

Some of the remaining structures

The joy of sorting stones

Shame the sea is on a slope!

Marbled white butterflies in the wildflower/ conservation area, and lots of different wildflowers, then yellow poppies on the shingle

. . . more garden . . .

Poppies now removed, ground hoed and cleared and a few snapdragons and geraniums planted.  Not flowering at the moment, so it looks tidyish, but a little on the drab side.

garden time

The poppies have attracted bees . . .

. . . but now they've gone to seed.

A bounty of blackcurrants? 

Here is this year's veg (fruit?) plot.

So . . . I pulled up some poppies, transplanted some tomatoes, harvested (!) a dish of blackcurrants and pruned the bushes.  They're in large pots, but I don't expect miracles.  Time will tell.  I checked my compost pot and it's full of worms working hard.  Then I shifted containers around - a few quite large, most small and mostly full of flowering plants. 


There's a noticeable difference in leaf colour between the tomatoes which I planted in the ground two weeks ago, and the ones which were in the trough until yesterday. 

Travel by train

. . . and are Northerners really more talkative with strangers?. . . or are my preconceptions showing?


I travelled from Southampton to London without chatting - my fault to some extent, nose in book, sitting in those 'bus seats where you only see people's backs! 


I took the tube and managed to avoid eye contact in the regulation manner. Why doesn't Waterloo station display an obvious tube map?  If it had, I could possibly have caught a train an hour earlier, but no matter,  I wasn't in a rush this time.


Later, waiting at St Pancras, I was seated on that metal tube in the upstairs area. Why doesn't Saint Pancras have enough seats? Walking by, just off the train from Derbyshire were a couple who are friends of my brother and his wife. 


On the train heading north, lots of smiles - and towards the end of the journey, the very friendly trolley man (from Nottingham area) chatted to the family at the table opposite me, asking where they were from - Switzerland.
Ah ha, so that's why I thought they were speaking German, but couldn't understand it!  So I tried my rusty German out! 

Ponies 1 - Donkeys 0

The cutest troop of donkeys with a couple of foals were wandering along a track near Deerleap, minding their own business.  Then sound of hooves thundering on the dry ground - New Forest ponies on the warpath. They chased the donkeys off, then calmly resumed grazing again. 

Toddler's world

hand-prints on wall . . . banana face mask . . . multiple poly-cacophonic music . . .buggy to playground . . . swing . . . climb the slide . . . down . . .slither . . . spin the wheel . . . tic - tac - toe . . .sounds great . . .fall asleep in buggy . . . sort the gravel . . .

who needs toys?

Ferns, foxgloves and fritillaries in the forest

The forest, ferns, foxgloves pink and white, silver-washed fritillaries and white admirals. 


I had to identify the fritillaries from online pics, but they fit the description - swooping flight, large, brilliant orange butterflies in sunlit woodland in summer.  Common in the South of England, very local further North.

A silver-washed fritillary pausing briefly

The white admiral was on brambles - a surefire way of distinguishing them from the similar-at-first-glance purple emperors of Fermyn Woods.


The hottest day of the year so far. A sticky five mile walk near the New Forest Wildlife Centre, from Deerleap Car Park.

 for details and map check this link

Whipsnade Zoo

Great views . . .

Tuesday 21 June 2011


Spacious and set in beautiful countryside - enough of the tourist-brochure-speak already!  Celebrating Joseph's first birthday on a deceptively burn-inducing day - not so  much sun as wind.  Just noting this until I upload one or two photos later.

blowin' in the wind

The first things we saw were the flashing colours as (trained) parrots flew free among the trees - no pics from me, it took me an hour or so to get into photo-mode.

photo-call

children's zoo

one of the less exotic species

A pigeon paddled in Berkeley Square.

Thursday 16 June

Peacocks or hens...

Today's unusual sight was a couple of these birds out for a stroll along the Corby Road from Gretton. Luckily for them, the motorist coming up behind them was quite happy to slow down!

No photo - I was driving too.

Eclipse eclipsed by cloud

promises
a blood-red moon
strange portent
totally eclipsed
by clouds


or

a strange portent
promises
a blood-red moon
totally eclipsed
by clouds

Poppies

... are spectacular this year. 

A field  at the top of the hill from Harringworth to Gretton.

Clutter - and what to do about slides?

Why is it so hard to throw things out? Once I'm in the mood, it's easier - been going through old photographic slides from my father's stuff!  I've chucked everything except for the ones with people on. Now how do I make slides visible without a viewer?

Jack in South of France from a slide - attempt 1.

Jack, my dad, in the 1970s, I think  - in which case,  he was in his (early?) fifties.
I did this on an improvised lightbox, with plain white paper as base - slide placed on top.  You can see the texture through the slide. I used my 'normal' lens, not macro.  I shall try tracing paper for my next experiment.

Then I pruned some packs of photos of my mother's - I reckon that when the person who took the photos is dead, the scenery is meaningless.  And if any of the photos are works of art - if the photographer doesn't do something with them, no one else will.
Simplicity before all? In fits and starts.

Rain

Of the softly dripping constant variety - just what the thirsty soil and plants needed.  Then we had a brief very heavy downpour late in the evening.

Squatters?

I'll add a picture of the 'neighbours' from Mill Pool Cottage

all ready to fledge in early May! 

More birds...

Moor-chicks, and goslings - greylag geese (?) at the boating lake. A goldfinch on the telegraph wire in front of next-door's house.  Lots of martins flying around, though none has claimed the nest under our eaves so far.

Then two red kites who disappeared as soon as I thought 'camera'.

Middleton Railway

 Inside one of the locos in the Engine House.

It's changed from the 'everyone heaped in an open truck' days - oh - 35 years ago.

On Saturday you can ride by diesel power to Park Halt, where you have the chance to see the loco uncoupled from the carriages and routed via points to the other end of the train. On Sundays the train is pulled by steam.
We had a wander through the woods, where the bluebells were pretty well over, the odd red campion was showing, and speedwells were plentiful.

I finished the day with a cup of tea and a couple of postcards, and stocked up with mini biscuits before taking an almost hidden slip road to the M621, heading East, via the M62 and then the A1 South.

A bullfinch

In Golden Acre Park, Leeds.  The first I have seen for some time, and startlingly bright, with a black head.  I was chuffed to get a recognisable photo of it, though small,  but alas it is blurred. Too blurred to keep, and post.Two other birds - I think were green woodpeckers, though I'm more used to seeing these singly in more open ground.

So here's a pic of the fountain near the cafe area.

and a blast from the past:

Alas, he didn't have hair of such a glorious colour - more of a dirty blond at the time. ;-)

Gliding

At Sibbertoft, near Husbands Bosworth, Leics.

My second time,  pulled up from a winch to 1600 feet in a few seconds.  The crack of the cable releasing. The glider flattens, and you grab back your stomach to watch the scenery around and below.
Views as far as the Malverns, Bradgate Park and Corby.

Coming in to land

Glider down below

...and a poem from prompts (19.6.2011)

by any reckoning

this was no weather to fly

cross-winds meant danger

to an unpowered machine

wait a week, they said

so we did

by their reckoning

it was fair weather to fly

the wind was head on

giving lift to glide

come along this evening, they said

so we did

strapped inside

glider wired to the winch

stretched, tense, taut

the machine moved

faster

up

steeply

stomach?

a thousand

fifteen hundred

feet

bang

the wire drops off

we float on air

no noise but wind

below us

a tapestry

stitched with silks

and woolen thread

the earth

the wings tilt to turn

nose down

or up

and round

ready to land

with a bump

so short

and now

it’s time to sing in doorways

and wait for the next time.

Easy bird-watching

This guy must be the one from two years ago who lost all his head feathers - skullcap we called him, though maybe capless would have been better.
Bold as brass, and perching on the shed roof waiting for raisins.

This hen may or may not be his mate, but they certainly know where the food is.

Leicester

A new shopping mall, the old Guildhall and cathedral complete with notice 'Parking for the Bishop'.
Posh restaurants and an empty pub with soft white rolls to eat.
Watching the traffic while walking across the bridge, part of New Walk.
A pause in the park - an Oval oasis.
A trip to the Art Gallery and a tiny bit of shopping.
Photos by the man in the computer shop - nice close-ups of a moth and a frog among others.
Variety - I shoulda taken my camera too.