Nat.Trust Mansfield Evening - 68F - East Wind

John and Yvonne have reached Avignon where they intend to say for a couple of days. They are certainly doing a 'grand tour' almost, and I think the mobile-phone pictures are great.

I haven't yet printed one at A4 as Brian suggests, but I intend to when I've got a minute.

Blood Test this morning, again, and then a few bits of shopping and we had sausages & mash with lots of veg. Decided against gravy because it's so fattening. It's OK for Jill to have a lake because she is so slim. But I'm getting there. Three belt-buckle holes so far. Mind we did have bramley apple pies for pudding. BUT NO CUSTARD. Thought I'd got my caps-lock stuck. And all we shall have for tea is a healthy sandwich. This evening is Mansfield National Trust monthly meeting and our lecture is to be about Newstead Abbey which, for us is only 4 miles down the road - less if you can sneak in by the Annesley Entrance. Both Y and I love Byron anyway and Y did so much work for Hucknall Heritage and was instrumental in having the brown and white signs to his tomb at Hucknall Church. It is a place of pilgrimage for many - including Greek people because of his efforts on their behalf. I have always loved his lines in Don Juan about the sea captain, explaining why it is best not to under-rate gay people. He wrote-

"The mildest mannered man

that ever scuttled a ship or slit a throat"

Picture 2 is a left over from yesterdays walk along the disused railway lines and Brinsley Headstocks.

I realise I was shooting into the sun but I quite like the silhouette; it makes them look suitably dramatic and forbidding.

Y was saying it must be valuable building land but she supposed there was a danger of subsidence. Not so, I explained. Coal was never taken out under the pit yard and colliery buildings. Let other people worry about subsidence. Phrases about 'own back yard' spring to mind but they aren't suitable for a family audience.

Short blog because we shall be off to Mansfield quite early. This appealed to me :-

"Many would be cowards if they had courage enough"
.
- Thomas Fuller

Saw a real honeybee on the window this afternoon. A photo will follow. I popped her in a tumbler and released her out of the back door.