The Wilderness Downtown

H/T to Tim Leeson who tweeted this url and said it was one of the 5 best things he had ever seen online
http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

Guess where I grew up?

Not going to Greenbelt

Well I have been to Cheltenham many times. I know what a Festival is too,well I know all about the Festival Hall , the Filey Festival, Cropredy and Easter and Pentecost. All my Twitter friends seem to be in a Tiny Tea Tent . Colin and I are in our sitting room.  We are not wearing our wellies or queuing up for an eco burger  or a mug of Green tea.

We had a festival all of our own yesterday as we did a BBQ in the garden dodging the downpours and watched sausages nearly take off from the charcoal into the air as the high winds fanned into flame all but our enthusiasm.  Even Samson didnt choose to finish off the black crusted pork offerings or bits of well done kebabs.The rest of the afternoon 4 small under 6's and appropriate adults had a happening in the house, with seminars on Marble Magic,Songs of Praise and Walk the Plank.

Today we have cleared up after our Festival, bagged the rubbish and are already planning the next one.

I am however enjoying the tweets from #gb10. I know that God is the energy that brings order to the Cosmos

God is the energy that brings order to the Cosmos, says Keith Skene from Greenbelt Festival on Vimeo.

Twitter has brought me a vicarious visit. It has also taken me to General Synod, the sitting rooms of 5 people watching football, to one man on a bus home every day, to 3 people on trains, one great friend from a Starbucks every day, my cyber friend in Norfolk as she never stops ,my cyberfriend the Pastor as he writes his sermons and my own never rings but always twitters Godson as he gets his nipper to sleep. I don't have to go anywhere.

I've gone and put a blogroll on the Parish Blog

I hope the website team of which I am the humblest tea maker and biggest gob  will not mind that I have used my initiative . I've gone and put a blogroll on the Parish Blog. Pete Webmaster is away  climbing up to see the view of Tarn Hows  from fells covered in sheep droppings, clues left by a Mr Wainright, and lots of No Parking on this 1 in 3 minor road which is a single track  signs. Simon, headtaster  of Costa and Starbucks has left our team to organize the Youth Work of the Scottish Congregational Presbyterians on Twitter, Brian is in a caravan somewhere looking for Red Kites, and I have been left to play out with the Blogger Platform. We have an Emerging Team , but they have not all got PERMISSIONS .

So I have been into Gadgets , done it . I have been very careful to choose a mixture of blogs. I have been subtle too. I have not put it on the Home Page, but on the Faith Page.  I may not be discovered for years. Its on the Faith page at the moment. I am secretly wanting to be a correspondent in my own right with a Blogroll page-where Comments and Discussions will be vibrant, regular and the talk of  Passing of the Peace. What do you think of what the Churchmouse said, Is Frisby Wiske near Spurgeons Bible College, When does Ruth Gledhill do her ironing?Is Maggi Dawn her real name? all very spiritual.

Scampson

We love a visit to Scampson Walled Garden  . The drive  across the Wolds, Hunmanby,Wold Newton and all the villages from there to West Lutton, then dropping down to Wintringham and Wolds Way Lavender Farm is a delight in itself. We usually combine the visit to Scampson with a visit to the Lavender farm for lunch, and a stroll around the wildlife path. This year we found that it costs £3.50 to go around the Lavender fields . It used to be free, and we have sent many friends there .  Most people buy some Lavender oil, and have a sandwich and a cup of tea so we are very disappointed that we can no longer use it as a springboard to our visit to the gardens of nearby Scampson, which as a Modern garden is one of the best in the county, but where the lunch costs a fortune, and the tea cups are very thick pottery, my bete noire .

Just a few members of the Compositae for you

Starr Carr and Miss Witherington (Ripon 1966) and Ivy Drayton (Wandsworth 1969)

Thanks to the Guardian10 08 2010and Lorne Campbell for this picture of the Starr Carr House

Disc Barrow Winterbourne Stoke Group 1971

Colin shouted at me to come and watch the BBC news this morning , but it was the words Starr Carr which made me dash to watch. Within 5 minutes I had texted my  prehistory loving sister in Cheshire, planned a  trip to the site, planned a a revisit to the finds of the 1949 dig in the BM and recalled in a flash Miss Witherington.

When I decided to do Prehistory at College as a  second subject diversion from the lab , where I spent hours looking down Microscopes and staining things with Delafields Haematoxylin, Miss Witherington , our lecturer on Prehistory was in love with her subject. She passed on to me a yearning to know all I could about the  round barrows , long barrows, enclosures, and cup and ring marks in any area where I set my feet for more than a day. Thanks to her, I did courses on the sites of Anatolia- and all sites within reach of Wandsworth with  Ivy Drayton , another wonderful  teacher and an inspirational encourager. With Miss Witherington I did every Prehistoric site near Ripon, went to Thornbury aligned Circles and Devils Arrows at Boroughbridge. With Miss Drayton to Coldharbour Iron Age Fort near Dorking and Abinger pit dwelling. 

 I have thought for years about how a teacher sparks off in a learner something which becomes a lifelong JOY. Both these enthusiasts taught me to appreciate lumps in the ground, aerial Photographs, topography and a desire  to make sense of few clues.  It is because of them that I traipsed around  Amesbury and Winterbourne Stoke  alone with a camera in 1971. It is because of them that the trip to Beverley past Argham and Maidens Grave is a fascinating thought starter.

Ditch at Stonehenge 1971

You could walk right up to the monument in 1971

My sister Susan told me about local sites, Duggleby Howe, and the Chariot Burials.My children always call out' Long Barrow' Mum every time we pass a Covered water reservoir. They have not forgotten a childhood of being dragged to Belas Knap or Waylands Smithy. Colin has been known to put his foot down, literally when I call out that looks like a round barrow as we drive past a mound with a ring of trees atop.

I am supposed to be gardening this afternoon , and then tidying and cleaning before Housegroup comes tonight. I think Ill go and find my 35ml slides I last used when I taught 4orange History in Wimbledon Chase Middle School in 1973. I'll scan them in for us all.

My sister Susan is coming on Saturday , I know she will be in the car with me to the Carrs before I can call out Lake Pickering.

Bowl Barrow Winterbourne Stoke Group 1971

Filey Crab and Samphire

It doesn't take much to have a really good time . You need newspaper, an old hammer, some cocktail sticks and a Filey Bay crab from Lovetts.

Every time my grand -daughters are here with us , I am asked every day 'When are we going to have a crab Grandma?' 

I forget that even a trip to a Fishmonger is interesting  for some small children .Even the buying of it fascinated my small girls, wanting to know why one buys a male crab for claw meat, why do you have to have it opened in front of you, how do you tell its a male? The Samphire is   something they have not tasted before, and we buy just a taste to go with the crab. Sitting under the pergola on a warm August afternoon, salad made,and the promise of chips from Browns , we sit and  attack the crab . We pick it and eat bits as we go, discuss the barnacles on the legs and the dead man's fingers. It takes just the right length of time to occupy  5 and 6 year olds. 

Crabs featured in  my childhood too . I was sent to the Hull Indoor market to buy crabs for my aunt in Sutton. I had to get it just right! We would have Crab salad teas  at Church Mount, and I was always sent next door to give Mrs Rook a crab sandwich. Last week my neighbour gave me a lobster to cook and eat. That was so easy to do-much more white meat, but did not have the fiddle ,teaze and prod that dressing a crab entails. 

Its been a Sea food week. We were given a whole Filey Bay salmon on Saturday too. It was so big I could not get it in the freezer so had to cut it up first. Only a few boats take up the task of line-netting these fish looking for a river . Visitors to Filey are entralled by seals basking off the Brigg, but realise not that they are after the salmon.

So only a few more days with small girls staying  , to remind me of wonderment in everyday things, and reminding me not to take them for granted.

I have been given a Crucifix too, made from the cardboard in the scrap box.