The road across the Wolds

 

2nd attempt at this post-due to using less than signs and mucking up the html.

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Travelling to Beverley to visit aged parent I have been James Bond today. The  journey from Hutton Cranswick to Watton takes a couple of minutes on the A164, so I was glad that finding the road blocked ,Police cars, ambulances ,Oh dear hope they are all right accident ahead ,I had the OS map to hand and found a neat by- pass. I love the potential of a  by-pass. 

You can play around with the Google Map as long as you like. I love it .

Let the reader understand: Country lanes leading off the A164 are just that. My Os map told me that I would be using a less than B road, with no fences , and acute bends looking like bird beaks From the air.

I cannot believe that travelling in the Watton to Hutton Cranswick direction  Sat Nav sent Juggernauts , White vans, and all the local tradesmen to avoid the Accident on the main road. 

At one place I had to reverse around what looks on the Sat maplike the bill of a bird, whilst coming towards me were about 20 lost cars, and behind me 20 more also having to reverse. My James Bond bit came later , as a vast lorry realised that the impasse of  narrowness would necessitate a tilt of 20 degrees from the vertical , up a bank to pass me.  I was not having any. I did the best reversing of my whole life.

I am now  brilliant at reversing, even round the bills of birds, that I am not an extra in a James Bond Movie, BUT I have managed to act the star role , plot the Script , Direct and take all the Credits. 
By complete contrast my Drive home across the Wolds  from Driffield to Hunmanby was an interlude . I was able in empty lanes to watch
the progress of the Rape Fields.

This time next week will do it

My Favourite tree , THE ASH the last to secombe, the first to leave Summer behind , the best to burn, the ancient and mythical, lines the route . David Hockney has been here with his Hand and  Eye and Heart.

I see the froth of the Blackthorn for miles and miles of laciest delight. I enjoy the Wolds farms proud in their shelter belts, names like Howe Farm and Refuge Farm. I am just in time for the Wolds Rush half hour, as the Farm children are picked up from Kilham school and Wold Newton School and wonder what red Volvo is doing  pulled into the road end of their drive. They cannot know that one  careful lady owner  already has History in the country lanes.

Is this typical?

It made me laugh, I think he ought to do this again with another random selection of people.
And again,
and again
-much better than the Election broadcasts!

We shop they drop

Sutton in Holderness  had at least 3 village Grocery  shops in the 50s and 60s. We always used Myers in Church Street. Nellie and Steve Myers were a vital part of  our family  network. Once a week one of us dropped the Order in . Mr Myers brought the boxed order in his car, to the back door of course. Cornflakes, sugar, cheese, butter,Stork, flour,Omo,  and biscuits every week. I have started to recall other essential commodities, and I am going to note them here for posterity and children doing projects on Postwar Childhood.

Lard, bacon, matches, firelighters, bundles of  kindling, oats, Surprise Peas,tinned spaghetti, 

A million housewives every day
pick up a tin of beans and say,
“Beanz meanz Heinz!”

Gibbs Dentifrice, Vim, Brillo Pads, Bisto, Oxo cubes, Birdalls Gravy Salt, Brown and Polsons  Cornflour,tinned Carrots, tinned Marrowfat Peas, Fray Bentos ,Corned Beef, (except the year of the scare), Tinned Pilchards, Tinned Sardines, Heinz salad cream, Tinned Stewed Steak, Carnation evaporated Milk,Instant Whip, Pudding Rice, Bournville Cocoa Powder,

Camp Coffee--on the bottle of Camp on tray, you could see the bottle of Camp on the tray, you could see the bottle of Camp on the tray-I love the notion of infinity of this idea.

For several weeks running my mother was perplexed by the biscuits that had arrived in the Order. One week it was Bourbon Chocolate Creams, another week Custard Creams , another Gypsy creams. We children were delighted.  Usually we had Marie or Malted Milk or Digestives.  Mother questioned Mr Myers, where are my Nice (pronounced to rhyme with Fleece) biscuits.?  Mr Myers said Oh , I thought you just meant Nice (pronounced to rhyme with ice) biscuits !

Of course the weekly order didnt last a week always. We children would be sent shopping down to the village for extra staples (which were then put in the Book-for the monthly account).We were sent with the Paraffin can  for a gallon of Pink Paraffin,sent for a Farmhouse white or a loaf of Procea. Mr and Mrs Myers knew us but were not familiar , they did not ask questions  or gossip, and we were schooled by our mother 'not to tell the village our business'. 

Shopping for our aunt in the village was more fun. We took her dog Tammy, then Bonny to Myers for her, tied them on the metal pole for the awning and bought fascinating products-Cydrax fizzy apple juice, crab paste, danish butter and Hovis. (Best of all was going to Fanthorpes the chemist to change the Soda Syphon over. )

We were not allowed to shop anywhere but Myers for groceries, and we children always wanted to know why we couldn't get stuff at Turners which was much nearer, and Mr and Mrs Turner were very nice too and more friendly.

So I have come full circle. I have just placed an order, paid for it and it has been delivered. I feel a bit guilty.  I dont want my small local shops in Filey to shut down.  So I have only bought staples, and things I can't get here,tins of shrimps, extra low Flora and Hellmans, frozen baby broad beans and oats milled in Congleton. 

In 1967, my mother discovered that by shopping at Frank Dees supermarket along Holderness Road Hull, taking the car, she could buy shopping much cheaper, and she discovered unusual and exciting items like Caramel wafers, Twix Bars and Blue Cheese, Jogurts and Knorr soup. Within 5 years most of the village shops ceased to trade, their livelihood had been killed by Supermarkets.

For 20 years I have bought and still will ,my meat from  the likes of a local butcher as Adrian , my fruit and veg from Angela the greengrocer, and my Groceries from the same supermarket which has been Presto, Safeway, and now Mills. I have been doing a trial run.only of online Grocery shopping. I now know that I can do an order for my Aged Parent 30 miles away in Beverley, My Aged Cousin 200 miles away in London. I will be able to shop for them 

online.

It is perfectly easy to do, and carried right in to the kitchen at 8pm in the evening by appointment. Spouse and I had a lovely time ordering it, sitting side by side looking at the sheer range, what option excess.As the dust settles in my conscience and I work out whether I will ever shop this way again, I need to take serious stock of the ethics versus the convenience of Food Shopping online.  I hope that now that my other local Supermarket has become the Co-op , more of the fairly traded products I buy , and basics unavailable in Filey like Golden Granulated Sugar and organic apples (so I can eat the skin) will hit the shelves . My AGED ones , however , CAN  now be SORTED.

A day at the seaside.

You will know that Bridteacher taught  in Bridlington , East Yorkshire for 15 years. I have known Bridlington all my life, as it is an easy car ride from my birthplace in Hull. I have had a fondness always for beaches of clean sand, and for me a summer day is always profitably spent sitting on one, near one,or  above one on a cliff with a book. I  love the sound  of the sea, the smell of the brine laden air, the prospect of the changing skies, the continually moving landscape afforded by the tides.

My  nurturing and childhood were informed and moulded by all that a seaside resort offered a post war childhood, and indeed a post war parent. My parents had not been able to enjoy a beach from 1939 until 1945 because of the defences, barbed wire, pill-boxes and mines that protected an island nation. I don't know whether the thrill of the Piers of places like Southend,Brighton and Cromer were viable during the war, but I do know that in Yorkshire today only that  Saltburn -by -the -Sea  remains. Post war trips to the coast for this child of austerity were magical , delicious and risque. Here is why

• Fairgrounds
• smell of Hot dogs
• smell of fish and chips
• loud music
• crowds
• 'cheap jack' shops
• boat-trips round the bay

It seemed to me that fun though sitting on a beach was, it was the  vulgar stuff that appealed to the base nature of the child. Everything about Bridlington in the 50's, and 60's that I loved is still there now. That is why my parents only took seaside Holidays in select twee resorts like Sutton on Sea or Hornsea. They always said it was for the clean beaches, but I now know it was for the absence of 'kiss -me- quick'.

I remember when I was about 14 being terrified in case my mother found out the I had sampled 'Candy Floss' at Withernsea one afternoon.  

So to Easter 2010. Tastes change as maturity brings honesty. A trip on the bus(with pass) to Bridlington for Bridteacher, spouse and two small boys beckoned as a way to spend the day that grandparents are privileged to offer.

 View from Bay View Cafe on Boyes 2nd Floor

 Ill work backwards now.Spouse and I slept soundly for a long time last night. The Microwaveable Chinese meal for our dinner at 6pm last night was as much as I could have prepared.  Thank -you Imogen for supplying it when we agreed to have the boys for a night and day.The bus-ride back from Bridlington to Filey was very successful thanks to the benefit of hindsight, knowing where to sit. 

The boys sat on the front seat on the top of the 121 Double Decker bus and loved every minute.  They entertained all the pass holders out for a ride, the caravanners going  back to Primrose valley and the shoppers  for every minute of the 45 min journey home.  The running commentary  3 and 5 yr old boys perform effortlessly ,and  'whats that Grandma?', and to each other about what they were going to do in the next fast bit, and especially the next hill could have been recorded for an essay on Child Development. It is a great ride. The hill from the Hunmanby brow down to Muston is as good as a fairground ride to a small boy. 

I regress further. 

For several hundred yards along the traffic free promenade at Bridlington ,  you may worship at the Fairground shrines .Spouse and I recalled once again our austere childhoods where 'Common' was not done, but longed for by our inner children. So we did it with the boys, just a walk past it, with one ride worth every penny.It seemed a totally foreign place to us now we may have it but don't want it.

Before our stroll amongst the Las Vegas by the sea, where I had spotted several children I had taught over the years working the rides, we had a lunch at 11.45am.  We had been up since 5am , breakfast had been at 6 ish and the boys had been saying 'are we going to have a snack for 2 hours?'

BOYES for Good Value .

Never has the advert been so true.
The cafe on the 2nd floor of the Bridlington Shop (once Hammonds of Hull) is the perfect refined place for cheap lunch with 2 small boys.  Great chips, Tea in shiny pot , good china, perfect and attentive staff  and spotless loos-we customers of the North thank you. 

I am back at 11am now, waiting for 11.30 start to slow walk to lunch in Boyes. Spouse and I are tired already, after a disturbed night ,even tho the boys only woke a couple of times on their sleepover. We have been good grandparents, answered every question, been firm but kind, have remembered to offer frequent loo stops, have supplied very modest and tiny sweets.  We have realised that Bridlington harbour is fascinating to us but boring for Scarborian boys.We need a safe sit down.
 

Never have I been more grateful for remembering  Victorian Ironwork, seaside benches and Shelters in front of the landmark Ebor Flats. We managed 15 mins here with the boys having race after race after race, and never tiring of them . Safe , empty, lovely view of the sea and harbour and right next to the Public WCs (very clean). Years of working in Brid were paying off.

The Journey to Brid had been frought with danger, and stress. The back seat of the 121 bus did not work. The boys were too hot, too talkative,'why are their no seatbelts?, 'why cant we sit somewhere else?', 'when will we get there?'.  I stupidly said the elder one could ring the bell to get off. Younger one was cross.The driver did the journey at 50mph all the way,10mls  over the potholes, down the hills, up the hills, round the corners or so it seemed.

We live in a more sedate Seaside Resort.

Yesterday I  was gobsmacked when the owner of one of our  specialist small shops here in Filey was less than discreet. She was not racist but Londonist if that will suffice for the word which means running down Londoners who spend a small fortune in your shop. I hope she is the only small minded trader here. I did tell her that personally I liked London,  and was married to a Londoner. It is good in  these days when children do gap years in Oz, honeymoon in Cuba, whalespot in the southern Atlantic and settle back down in Yorkshire that seeing the world gives a broad view of life . We took our little boys only on a bus trip for 10 miles. They need to start to understand the world they live in does not revolve around the one small place where they spend most of their time.

Filey has not got much in the way of Fairground delights, it has excellent fish and chip shops and small cafes like Bridlington. In fact, Filey is in a little time warp really, in that you can not buy fish and chips after about 6.30pm, it doesn't at present have any large shops or supermarkets. For some people that is its charm. It depends for its economy, like Bridlington on the purses of Day visitors and Holidaymakers, many staying on nearby Caravan Parks. Bridlington is much more worldly than Filey, has many more empty shops, even in fairly recent malls. It needs an economic boost . A good summer will really help.   We have not only miles of golden sand, but oh, ROCK POOLS, we too need a sun filled summer , to boost trade, fill the holiday accommodation, and revive that sheer joy which is a day at the seaside.

Archdruid Eileen

How very clever -to know when to go.  Just when dependency has linked us.

My friend @wilbaric thought I was following a dubious site at first, so clever were her wheels within wheels.  I persuaded him she was as clever as Monty Python, as subtle as Piltdown Man, as well as being more popular amongst the discerning blog readers than The Churchmouse or Cranmer who are clever but not funny , and Deep Church who is so clever I don't understand it, and Bible in Broad Strokes who is clever and funny but hasn't done a post since January.(  I hope he is OK , we have enjoyed his take on the OT, in Filey)

So a fond farewell. I am lighting a tea light outside the back door, and showing you all a photo of the landscape inhabited by a Class 2 henge called Maidens Bower near Burton Fleming , just up the road from here. Nothing , like the Archdruid , is to be seen. It unlike her has been ploughed out.  She no doubt will reappear like the fantastic new Dr Who and we will all recognise it is SHE.

Showing Nick Blogger

This is how you do it Nick
Link to Fresh Expressions

I was going to delete this post as it was only  a demonstration of Blogger  for my highly educated son in law the computer whiz kid. He reciprocally showed me the new Fronter system that North Riding EA are trialling now. I'm going to leave this post however for my daughter Alice . These are the flowers you sent Grandma last week for her 90th birthday Alice. 


Now perhaps someone will show me Joomla.

Happy Easter

We had a lovely day today

 Last years Flower Spikes of my Echiums, saved to use as supports for Morning Glories or Canary Creepers

It has been too cold to Garden recently on the days when we have had the inclination and time.  I say WE because that is how it works here in our Kiaora Garden. We garden together, Colin and I. He is the arty one , arranging , moving around, buying BOLD , putting audacious plants alongside each other.  I am the ruthless getter ridder, the scientific gardener, messy , careless and haphazard. We make a perfect team. Just like the Easter Triduum.The days all go together and give the significance to the others.

Today is an in between sort of day. It was warm enough to start the onslaught on the garden. We have great rows (rhymes with cows) in the garden. Today it was Colin putting too many wrong hard sticks and lumps of cardboard in the Compost bin.  When I emptied it , to fill my Sweet Pea trench it was like opening a giant 100 L bottle of Brown Slime complete with those huge yellow slugs. It will be all right , will soon rot down properly, and the Sweet Peas will never know .Tomorrow, or Monday it will be me bringing clods of soil all over the newly swept paths or digging up Colin's Lily Bulbs. We had a great time. It was a day of knowing that something is about to happen.No family tomorrow, they are coming on Monday.

  It will be the first Easter Sunday without a family Occasion. Gardening doesn't usually happen on Holy Saturday.  I am cleaning the house , scraping Jersey Royals, making a Simnel Cake, a trifle, buying the Spring Lamb, doing the Mirrors, cleaning the best cutlery and so on. SO today was a real in between day. By Yesterday all the Easter grocery Shopping had been done.  I don't shop on Good Friday.Today just gardening.

We have made what they call a GOOD START.

Mostly we have had to remove the many dead shrubs. All my overwintering  Chard is dead. The first year I have had no Purple to sprout. I don't know how the October sown salad greens have all survived.  Maybe because they are some Japanese variety that last appeared in a painting of  a snow capped Mt Fuji by Hokusai.

Tomorrow we will be going on the Cliff Top above Filey Brigg at 7am for the 'Sunrise' service to greet Easter Morn.

I know that My Echiums are truly DEAD. The overwintering ones though covered with fleece did not survive. They were promising to be as magnificent as the ones in the picture. I have had to put them in the Brown Bin. 

I have told my Facebook Group 'I got an Echium Through the Winter 'that I didnt.

But this in between day is just that. I have remembered that I will have hundreds of seedings soon appearing all over the garden, easily recognised with the spots on the second leaves. I will get them through the winter for their 2+ years growth before astounding passers by again.

Guilt , Excuses or get it in preportion and wash the net curtain.

Some people must spend all their time cleaning, dusting and putting the Dyson round. Or, they can afford to pay a Treasure to do it.

I love Spring . I love all the seasons. Spring brings a lifting of the moods of those I live with.There are some downsides to Spring though , and I have known them all this week.

Firstly, the improved bright light shines up the finger marks on the doors in the sitting room, dining room , kitchen door , kitchen cupboards and front of the cooker.

Secondly the North wind doth blow and we shall have an awful mess in the garden. Such a lot to do!

Today is a very busy day ,I sit for three hours ,I sit for three hours and do nothing. I am supposed to sit for three hours and meditate on the events that are remembered today. Last year I sat and thought about Easter Sunday lunch, what time to put the Lamb in to time around Church,all very Passover but very much Sabbath Work. Then I thought through all the Good Fridays of my long ago Childhood still as yesterday.

• The crosses at St James Sutton in Holderness all covered with purple velvet bag things
• The altar frontals removed
• Exciting breakfast of Hot Cross buns
• one hour of the three hours with Mother ,on and on and on silence, boring
• Fish Pie for Dinner
• Jesus of Nazareth  on BBC
• Shops all closed after mid-day
• Father home from the Office
•  no having fun

Then I thought of our trips to Israel March 08, March 09.  Like Phil Ritchie in his blog 'Phils Treehouse'  a trip to Israel informs all you write ever afterwards. All I think about Holy Week has taken on a new twist.  It is not the visits to endless basilicas and churches in  that special land.  They only for me have acted as windows to the Bible narratives.  It is the LAND. To have walked in the land where Jesus walked, died and rose again in a place where strife and bigotry , politics, evil , good, and the Love of God are still tangible is the most powerful aid to Good Friday thinking that I know.

After the 3 hour service of Quiet Meditation today I am still busy. I might wash my net curtain in the sitting room tomorrow, I might make a Simnel cake , I might dig my trench for my Sweet Peas. I will be helping to decorate the church for Easter, the greenery is cut, and conditioning outside the back door in a bucket  and drinking up the water (from the lamb covered  chalk hills of the Yorkshire Wolds). I am already thinking about whether I will listen to 'St Johns Passion' on Radio 3 tonight.

Busy , Busy , Busy mind.
Here is the challenge

I am going to sit for 3 hours, quietly and prayerfully, stay awake (I dropped off at Filey Methodists Meditation in Song last Sunday), How will I do it? God Knows .

History Maker or Earthhour

 I am 63 years old. I felt at home when I went in to the Newsagents to get the Times this morning and recognized the  song playing on Yorkshire Coast Radio. So I said to Julie behind the counter' 

'I know this one, this is where I came in!'  She gave me a dutiful smile. I was in Halls of Residence in 1965. I know every single one of every Beatles song . We all do . All the young people in college from 65 -68. In those days we had to show our Radio Licence to the Vice Principal before we were allowed to use our Transistor Radios. Mine cost 25 s and was a bright red Fidelity. I had never spent so much money on something not shoes before.

During 'O' levels and 'A' levels I had to do my homework in our Dining room, sitting around the table with my sisters doing theirs. We had to sit there. We were not allowed to be anywhere else, even in the summer when it was not cold and we could sit in our bedrooms. The Dining room was a prison of heat, from the Coalite, and fear ,of scratching the ancient mahogany table. We lightened the confinement with judicial use of the Wireless. The Home service was allowed, and the Third Programme, and Alan Keith  of the Light Programme. Not for us though . We had Radio Luxenbourg on low- 208 the Station of the stars.When we heard the sitting room door open announcing Mother on her way to see we were OK we quickly turned the dial to Allowable air waves.

I was looking after Reuben recently, 3 years old, whose favourite phrase is '..puter Grandma?'. It was after lunch, I was exhausted. By 10 o'clock I had done Playdough, Crayoning, the Ladybird game, walked round all the Filey shops and been to the budgies. By 12 .30 , (we had had lunch at 11.45), I suggested books and a story and must have dropped off. Reuben meanwhile had sneaked off the sofa, opened the laptop, booted up , logged on and found Poisson Rouge .

My point is that no one seems to  mind these days if their offspring use the available media. Cbeebies, CBBC, Milkshake are available all day for small  children. I know blue stockinged mothers whose babes have CD players strapped to their cots so the little ones can access a Story CD at bedtime.
I however at 18 had to learn the latest POP songs by Stealth. It is a wonder I ever got through my adolescence without being ridiculed, so strict were  my parents. My grandchildren by contrast are fully media-ed up at 3 years old. 

So dear babes I am DOING THIS FOR YOU, I am showing you that I am in touch, and media-ed up.

I am not going to take it too far, my mobile is of the one piece variety. I do predictive text. I have just realised that the Digital Camera will do videos. I think I know what an ipod is. I certainly know what an iphone 3G S is because @Simon Rudiger has one, and I want one but realise I cant really afford the monthly tariff.

So in the next few days I am going to buy my very first Download. I don't have an MP3 player, at least I don't think I do, unless this PC is one. Anyway I am going to save History Maker to my hardrive, having paid for it properly, and then burn it to a CD as explained to me by @James Belshaw. Then I am going to give it to my young people who will love it and store it in their ipods or MP3 players   (I dont know the difference).
I haven't taken advantage of the generous offer/idea  of some Twitter friends to switch off my lights for an hour to save money /the planet because I needed the light to process this blog.

St Pauls Onslow Square

Imagine going into a church like St Johns, Filey.We are met outside by 2 young men ,could be angels, who say Hi Guys.  People are getting coffee , tea and cake (paying for it). Church is just an open space with cushion pads on the floor. Few settees around periphery (going to the wall!) for the olds. Loud young peoples music playing.Ten mins later the whole place is full of people on floor, chatting and drinking  and reading Sunday papers. 20 mins later the vicar-wearing jeans and shirt says 30 secs to go folks.

A band plays in the middle of the floor(3 guitars-LOUD) worship for 10 mins, then sit down and on settee at front where altar rail once was Nicky Gumbel interviews Andrew White-for 15 mins or so-all seen on huge screen as well. Lots of gentle evoking of HS. Then more worship, prayer-all together praying for Middle east out loud, then all close eyes as call to ministry time and a call for anyone not a Christian yet-then music -people prayed for but not in out front way, Time to leave -90 mins felt like 5.

No I didn't take any pictures, I did , but then it came up on the screen about no pictures and switch off mobile phones so I erased the ones I had taken . I leave you with a picture of a Peter Jones  window display. I also worship here.

Great Railway Journeys. Sheffield to Leeds

Great Railway Journeys I have done (6)
I had intended to make this a Great Railway Journey ,after all, this lover of train rides, this discerner of the track side had never been to Sheffield before. I was not disappointed only enlightened, enraged,amused and informed.

• Now I know why Filey is the goal for the retired of Rotherham
• Now I know how Geography should be taught
• Now I know what Urban Distressed means
• Now I know what Regeneration means
• Now I know how Japanese Knotweed spread

So then. The approach to Sheffield Station is very upbeat.It is Known as Sheaf Square, and was an obvious regeneration project, water, steel, light,easy  perambulation, like part of an installation at the Saatchi. I haven't taken a picture of it. I need to see it on a gorgeous sunny day, when I have an hour to wait for a train, or like the Blinking Eye in Newcastle when coloured lights are playing. It will be a treat to look forward to.

My train to  Leeds was of the Metro variety. Empty until Meadowhall , it filled with shoppers who disgorged in dribbles until Wakefield, then filled with young people, and single Dads on their day for Access, with small children with hand held computer games, whilst Dads did Facebook on their iphones.  I felt I was in a different world . Even the older people were all texting and talking to their Christmas list , whilst I thanked God for the family playing football Top Trumps with their 2 boys . I was the only person with nothing to do but look out of the window on this 60 minutes amongst Everyman of South Yorkshire.

I have never seen so much for  ticking  in multiple choice Geography GCSE boxes.

1. Signs of an industrial past ,present , or future?

Answer all three in this recycling plant CP Booth , buyers of all types of scrap metal.

2.  What signs of Regeneration of the area can you see from the train? 

a)Leisure facilities  b)Housing  c)Agriculture d)Economic Growth e) Art and Design

Answer all five

a)Leisure Facilities-Track for exercising your 4 wheel drives

b)Housing

c)Agriculture-Mushrooms or Chickens?

d)Economic Growth-New Retail Park

e)Art and Design -New office block and  Great Graffiti

Now I know it is cold March, no leaves on the trees, and all the bushes and herbage is as bare as it could be BUT the litter, rubbish, dumped fridges, bikes and old plastic items nestling at the side of the track was seriously PLENTIFUL. If it thought it would be unobserved  , or is just loitering for the arrival of the Refuse Services it is going to be depressed. I have NEVER  seen such TRASH since Slumdog millionaire.

The 2 highlights of the journey were

1.the Salt Depot. I have wondered for years what the use of these dome shaped constructions is? I have thought Planetaria, Nuclear Laboratories, Wheels of Death. The one on the Carnaby  Industrial Estate  has truly fascinated me. (See Hull to Filey  blog). How simple the answer. A salt depot. I feel I've found a pearl of great price.

2.The neat Allotments near Wakefield-and not a hint of Chris Beardshaw.

And so to Leeds.


 Leeds to Scarborough -no rubbish, just rabbits, pheasants, and fertiliser bags tied to sticks waving away the pigeons and crows.
And the Japanese Knotweed. That's another post!

Delirious , Yes I am

Insomnia

I have done everything I usually do

• turned over
• been for short walk to bathroom
• prayed through the alphabet twice for people whose name fits the letter. This time I even remembered an X
• gone downstairs and made a cup of de-caf tea
• eaten 20 black peppered cashew nuts, or maybe 25
• been on Facebook and looked at the pages of all the friends I havent noted for the last 6 months
• been on Facebook and seen the pictures of my new great-and as yet un-named niece born yesterday, sorry the day before yesterday.  It is 3 in the morning so its technically Today for me.
• been on Facebook and tried to chat to the only 1 person online that I knew but by the time I had pressed his name he was offline 
• put some socks on as my feet are cold
• decided to go back to bed and try again

The Staffordshire Hoard

I am really thrilled as Cheshire sister has just phoned to tell me that the recently discovered Staffordshire Hoard is going to be on display in the Potteries Museum in Stoke on Trent from 13th February until 7th March.

I am planning our visit.

The Staffordshire Hoard website   has 659 Photos are of the artefacts .I have chosen to download this picture of a strip of gold,with the inscription from Numbers Ch. 10 v 35 and reads:

"Surge domine et dissipentur inimici tui et fugiant qui oderunt te a facie tua", equivalent to:

"Rise up O Lord, and may thy enemies be dispersed and those who hate the be driven from thy face." 

This could be the beginning of an Orthodox prayer suggests one of the comments on the Flickr site hosting the pics. You may download pictures from the 'portableantiqities' Flickr pages as long as they and all the partners in the 'Staffordshire Hoard' project get credit for them . Of course they do. The pictures are all fantastic. The website shows just how far Open Source benefits the user and the creator.

It has to be one of the best presentations I have ever seen promoting anything, since my love affair with the Sparklehorse website a few years ago.

I have just found my handbook to the Sutton Hoo Ship Burial. It says '1968 Margaret Bruce 'inside and  my 'Early Medieval Designs Pattern Book' 1995. They are going on my bedside table next to my Thomas a Kempis, Derek Prince and my current detective novel (gruesome Swedish and rather good). I shall sleep tonight thinking of curly patterns, border patterns, my trips to Iona and Lindisfarne, and the Lilla Cross on the North Yorkshire Moors .

As coincidence would have it , a new series has just started up this evening on BBC1-one of the Dimblebys having a trip round the world looking at artefacts showing that these fair isles were a cradle of World Art History. To be fair I had no idea that the earliest surviving  Complete  Bible the Codex Amiantinus ( Vulgate) housed in a Florentine library had actually been written in Wearmouth or Jarrow.  A facsimile may be seen in Sunderland . I am going there too. Seeing the  electronic copy of the Lindisfarne gospels for the first time was a revelation. You can do this at home now on the 'Turning the pages 'facility on the British Libraries website. Oh , I am so not going to be bored.

I have dug around in the garden here for nearly 20 yrs. I have found bits of old pocket watches, clay pipes, lots of nails, a cat skeleton, and bits of what might be horse harnesses. No flithers, no Roman tiles, lots of shards of domestic Victorian and Edwardian pottery are all I have to offer.

Westminster Libraries

I am very impressed . I do not have to bring my PC to London when I can get an hour a day here at Westminster Library just near the Chelsea  flat ,free, warm and quiet, with 2 USB ports . All I had to do was join the library, which any UK Citizen may do. They are open until 7pm every night but Saturday too,
I am very impressed. My bus pass takes me all around London.
I am very impressed. The 1 day Travel card allowing me to get to Aunty Jean quickly by rail (16mins) at East Croydon only costs £5 for the off-peak day.
I am very impressed.

The wood between the worlds.

Great Railway Journeys I have  done  (5)

I cant really say that it is a great journey from Brighton to East Croydon, not like going all the way to St Pancras on First Capital Connect.I travelled on a frosty , sunny day. That should have been enough to suggest scenic views of field and woods bathed in winter light and shiny with frost but it just wasnt. Once again, the windows were so dirty that no photo would do actual justice to the charm outside. I glimpsed really pretty scenes between Wivelsfield and Haywards Heath, but may only tell you about them.

After Haywards Heath the recent snow melt had encouraged small pools to look like 'The wood between the worlds '  in the first Narnia story , in events order, 'The Magicians Nephew'. This part of the great Narnia Chronicles has always appealed to me. I have spent the last 50 years spotting 'woods between the world' from railway carriage windows. Todays one ,  was not quite right , as in the book it is not winter in the wood, but it had a narnian feel, albeit in a fleeting glance. My best Narnian 'wood between the worlds' is just south of the railway line after Burton Agnes and nearly at Nafferton , one of my other great railways Journeys. Here I record  that I wrote about it before Michael Portillo did, and I mean the Hull to Bridlington line.(see September Archive)

My search will continue. I am a devoted collector of views of the world as seen from the windows of trains, buses and cars. I am even thinking of taking a wash leather with me on my rural rides.

East Croydon meanwhile is as far removed from Narnia as Jadis was from victorian London. I love the new urgency of its approach now that the Tram links are completed. So I have taken my beloved spouse a la Bishop Baines standing as if waiting to go to Sutton.

The Dancing day is here

On this  Day of all days, I remember Max Fargus telling the housegroup that met in the home of Joan Priestley and Jean Wright, that the Incarnation was for him the most special of all times.
Here in Multicultural, Secular, New Age  and exciting Brighton where everything goes, no-one is excluded ,wear what you like, no shock Brighton, the baby thing , stable thing , virgin thing, magi thing actually has a unique resonance .
I have just read again Luke 1 and 2. It is in this place the most ordinary of stories. That is the Genius of the Incarnation.

Graham Community Choir

Age guidance

My 10 years as a bookseller , 40 as a teacher, 35 as a mother and 60 as a bibliophile give me the right to have an informed opinion about the Publishers Association's idea , also they say informed , and researched, to embed Age Guildance on the cover of Books marketed for Children.

I can see the future

• 10 yr old children will be guilt ridden for reading Owl Babies for 5 yr olds (   ISBN-10: 0744531675)
• 3 yr olds will have inflated egos because they know Old MacDonald Had  a Farm (ISBN-10: 0859536629) by heart when it is for 4 yr olds
• 12 yr olds will not dare read Cops and Robbers (Allen Ahlberg)  ISBN-10: 0140565841
• The North/South Divide  will be replaced by those who have read Shadowmancer and those who have read Wormwood 
• 8 year olds will be putting brown paper covers on 'How I live now'
  
• Teenagers will be re-catagorized into sub groups

1. Teenage single Mums
2. D I N KY s under 20 in own flat 
3. DINKY s under 20 living with her Mum
4. Earnest Oxbridge  Hopefuls
5. Oxbridge Hopefuls
6. Earnest Gap year to Asia 
7. Earnest Gap year to Australia
8. Earnest Gap year going to work in Next for a year
9. Gap Year
10. 18 yr old  at College doing Media Studies
11. 18 yr old at College doing Bricklaying
    
12. 18 yr old at College doing nothing
    
13. Young Sun readers
    
14. Underclass
15. 14 yr old gang group member hanging around Mills Metro every evening
16. 15 yr old gang     group member hanging around Filey Bus Station every evening
17. 16-18 yr old young people with Saturday jobs, still living at home, going to football/Sea Scouts
18. 13-16 yr old young people doing their homework and looking forward to being a Lifeguard on Filey Beach in the Summer as soon as they are old enough
19. Young musicians  who  hope their band will become famous
20. 10-12 yr olds who look 15

 I can imagine all the Shelf talkers and dumpbins  Wrays will have to get . I can envisage the Data bases with their fields increased a hundred fold as books are re grouped and written.  There will be Childcare for teenage Mums (Aged 16), Childcare for Young Mums in their own flats(Aged 18), Vampire novels for 13 yr olds, Vampire Novels  for 14 yr olds Vampire Novels for Parents, It will be a logistics nightmare.

When I was teaching 8/9 yr olds in Battersea in 1968 I read  the class 'The Magicians Nephew' and 'The Lion the witch and the wardrobe' (C S Lewis) and a mixed ability class had little  difficulty understanding the language. I read 'Danny Fox'(David Thomson) to 5yr olds in Surrey in 1987, 'Danny Champion of the world'(Roald Dahl) to 10yr olds , 'The Hobbit ' (Tolkien) and 'The Horse and his boy'(CS Lewis) to 8yr olds in Wimbledon in 1970. I read 'Silly Verse for kids' (Spike Milligan) to every child I ever taught, also 'He wishes for the clothes of Heaven '(Yeats) and most of the poems in Verse and Worse, (ed Silcock).

When I taught yr 6  in 2005-7 in Bridlington they could not understand the language of the Hobbit, or C S Lewis. My (Bright) English set enjoyed the Lemony Snicket novels. My 8yr old class in 2003 enjoyed Danny Fox, and my Special needs children aged 11 (Behavioural difficulties) lapped up Ahlbergs 'Cops and Robbers(over and over again), and 'Fantastic Mr Fox ' has been enjoyed by all age groups.

There is no such thing as the right age to read a book. A child alone will try a book and read on if they like it. A class group need something pitched  at the Group , but I have never believed that pitching at the less able learners gave the best' value ' to the group.   We  read Eothen by Kingslake , and A tale of two Cities aged 11, I don't think that would happen in yr 7 now, but I like to think Alex Rider Novels, Michael Morpurgo, Malorie Blackman, Paul Gallicos 'Snow Goose' would at least be interesting , and they may be read mostly between the ages of 8 and 14, but I would never put an age on them.

I read all the Steinbeck Novels when I was a teenager (13-16), I read them all again (21-25) , I am reading them again (63) . I get a different joy each time.

I think everyone should read 'Cold Comfort farm '. I finished it last night at about midnight. I simply could not put it down. I realised that when I read it last (when I was about 15) although I loved the story, most of the 'send ups' were lost on me. Similarly I love reading what children are reading . Chris our Filey Librarian keeps me informed. My son,has discovered the joys of reading in the last few years. His told me to read  Larklight. I loved it so much, and yet it is in the Childrens section of my local large Bookstore.My son is 31.

It has always been OK for children to Access 'Adult 'Non Fiction  '. Sometimes I prefer the Non fiction from the Childrens Section. The catagories Adult and Children will do for me.

Where I will put the graphic Novel of Franz Kafka's 'The Trial ' I know not, probably put a brown paper cover on it or hide it at the back of a shelf somewhere, as I do with books I don't want anyone to read! Everyone should at least look at the Graphic Novels  , and the Manga  comic books. Are they for adults? Are they for Children? I will promote anything that popularises the written word,of FICTION  which is for EVERYONE . I even think we should all have a copy of the Manga Bible, Ive given mine away already, must get another one.

Rex Whistler in Pickering

Seven of us in Filey Parish went to a conference in Pickering last Saturday. It was a grand day out. I love a change of scenery ,a trip to somewhere near but not familiar enough to be commonplace. I hadn't been to Pickering this year. The Organic shop used to pull us with its feel good to the environment ,don't eat chemicals attraction. I now think that to drive 20 miles to get apples and veg for 2 on a regular basis is not actually helping our carbon footprint , now I know what that means. So until my helpful, friendly and personable local greengrocer gets some organic apples we tread the pray against harm and wash the fruit thoroughly path.Of course we tell all our summer visitors to go to Pickering.  It is a delightful day out from here,castle, railway, junk shops, wall paintings , Beck Isle Museum, Pottery and great shops.

Our day Conference was on Pastoral Prayer Training. The speaker was excellent, BUT the HALL was fantastic. When I asked the organiser how much the hall had cost , I could see the cogs in his mind whirring. I wasnt going to ask him to justify his expenses at all, I simply thought the VENUE was great. It had everything

• Comfy upright chairs
• decent crockery
• Pristine loos
• Interesting and Charming Community Millenium Tapestry
  
• Lots of free parking around (in winter!)
• a beautiful feel
• a view of Pickering Beck through the vast  picture windows

I kept thinking during the lunch break, What can I hire this hall for? Too far for party for grandchildren, or BeverleyMothers  90th birthday,maybe ok for Parish Away day! I will store the info in one of the reservoirs of my memory.
One thing however rankled.

THIS PICTURE

It is awful, it spoils the room, DOES ANYONE LIKE IT, if so COMMENTS PLEASE.

I love the work of Lorenzo Quinn.............

Todays Insert Maglet inside the Saturday Times has made me think about sculpture. It features  the  Mexican- Italian sculptor Lorenzo Quinn. I've always enjoyed the visual arts, and though have not roamed the world and taken in many architectural gems or sculptures to make me competent to discuss them I can easily tell the world What I like and Why.

The massive marble statue in the stair well of the Hull Church Institute used to fascinate me in the 1950's.  I wonder what happened to it. I cant remember its subject, though It must have been something Biblical.  It certainly was of epic proportions from the eyes of a small girl.

The Body Parts above are the remains of a colossus of a statue . I took this picture during my Grand Tour in 1974. Actually I saw so many statues, bits of statues, backs and rude fronts , Etruscan vases and fountains that I was immune to them after a few days. When I lived in London it was the same with the V and A. It did not take me long to work out a strategy for viewing the Visual Arts, and getting the most out of the experience. It used to go like this

• take a bus to town  that stopped right outside the  gallery or museum of choice
• Decide before going in which  room(s) were the plat de jour
• follow the plan and go directly to room of choice.  Do not get sidetracked by glimpse of another room.
  
• Enjoy. Sit down on every available seat, bench or plush ottoman looking thing. 
• Go back to object you really liked  and have another good look. Buy a Postcard
  
• Find coffee shop and powder room. Spend as much time as like  watching the world go by.
• Go home via Laura Ashley or Biba (that was in 1968-72) or Peter Jones (this is now) Another bus is necessary.
  

 I spent most of the School Holidays doing paintings, sculptures, stained glass, furniture, drawings and what are now known as installations, f k a kinetic art.

It still goes like that. Now it is much more fun.  I do not have to pay for the buses.

The Saachi Gallery off the Kings road is now a firm favourite. That is because they do not mind if you take photos. Their exhibitions are free. They are foreign mostly , and you come out thinking that people are the same the world over.

I am already planning my trip to see the Lorenzo Quinn sculptures .I think I can fit it in en route to Brighton next month. In Berkeley Square the above 'Give and Take ' will be on display. It is a celebration of the Sculptors 20th Wedding Anniversary. The man is a genius, and I can tell that from just looking at Google Images. My definition of a genius is someone who thinks of something so simple you wish you had thought of it.  The online catalogue is a good idea. Not quite such a page turner as the one of the Lindisfarne Gospels, but a symphony of black and white.

Writing this has enthused me. I want to tell you all about my trip to the Walthamstow tapestry  last month, the colour is a clue.I want to be reminded of my first trip too to the Degas Little ballet dancer , complete with her tattered tutu. I want to show you the Plaster bust of my ancestor, archived here on an earlier blog. I want to show you the latest creations of my spouse from his Ceramic mornings. I am going to show you a small sculpture done by my second daughter when she was a teenager. It will get you thinking.

From the parish blog

My Reading Group

The founder member of my Reading Group asked us today when we actually began to meet,so we looked at our book list and realised that we have been meeting since 2003.  We started with Cider with Rosie, which was an excellent first book choice.  Most of us had read it before, and like all great novels may be savoured again and again.

So here we all were . We meet as always on the first Friday in the month in the warmth and luxury of Filey Library. I was looking round the table as we all sat tonight waiting to hear what we all thought of The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian. Four of us and the redoubtable Filey Librarian , now a much appreciated friend and mentor have been talking about the books since that very first meeting. We none of us knew each other. The common thread was that we all knew the Library and She of the Books. The joy of the group is that we are not bound by other ties that bind. Any threads between us are purely optional, and no between meeting threads affect the interaction of the monthly group.

Both my sisters belong to a Reading group in their libraries.  They are not as good as ours. Cheshiresister gets her reading list a year in advance.  Now I ask you what fun is there in that?  We sit there like schoolgirls waiting for the next copy of Romeo as the books are brought out from under the Library counter, a neat pile, spines in, secret still .Then at revelation there are gasps and outbursts, as those who have read it before smirk, and those who have never heard of the author wish they had.

At Hullsisters Reading group there is a domination of know it alls ,with superior speech, and an academic zeal. At my Reading group we do not exactly show off, we just have restrained foreknowledge and know that it will be revealed as our turn to speak comes , like a rabbit out of the magicians hat.We all know each other well enough to have a good time, almost a girls night out without the night.The joy is that we really have no idea of what any one will say. J like me love detective novels, but I never can read one and and think that she will like it too, I am always surprised by what she says.  Some months I agree with every word she says. Next month we are poles apart. We are all so completely ourselves.

.

Mostly we read novels. Last month we didn't. We read Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama. I didnt get around to reading it, and neither can I fathom how Barack Obama got around to writing it with all the Career building he was doing at the time.

We do not discuss the minutiae of  grammar , we are not longwinded, we speak plainly and from the heart. We have three authors amongst us. One should be published and cannot get a publisher, one is self-published. Our group is an eclectic mix of personalities too.  We would not get on at all if we had to work together, or share a kitchen. We laugh alot. The dynamics of the group are expertly fuelled and channelled by our Filey Librarian, whose leadership skills are maturing nicely.

I have  just looked at my list of the 60 or so books we have shared over the years.  The one that everyone hated was Shadowmancer by Graham Taylor, local vicar turned author, writing about Boggle Hole and Robin Hoods Bay with christian undercurrents. I loved it. The one that everyone loved but I hated was 'Nobbut a lad ' by Alan Titchmarsh. Not a patch on' A Yorkshire Boyhood 'by Roy Hattersley I thought.

'Suite Francaise' by Irene Nemirovsky has to be the find of the decade in Book Groups.

'Random Acts of Heroic love' by Danny Scheimann is the book that everyone  thought was so clever, but I didnt get.

'Half a Yellow Sun' by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is probably the book that I would make all young people read. For me it explains the problems of the world condensed into the experiences of one  or is it three African Countries.

What did we think of 'The Double Bind'? Well we do not agree in any way with Selby Library's Book Club who loved it, except for J.