The people just up the road have recently had this enormous wall built, to replace an attractive and burglar-proof privet/thorn mix hedge about 7' high. The wall makes the house look like a downmarket prison. Where is Banksy when you need him ?This morning, due to inclement weather, we WoW-ed at our local Durban House, Eastwood where there is currently a stunning Photographic Exhibition by Alan Clayden FRPS. The exhibition is really not being given the publicity it deserves. WoW this morning was only 4 strong, Brian, Reg, Helen and myself and the quality of the work knocked us sideways. Reg says that Alan (a member of Beeston Camera Club) doesn't enter competitions and I can understand that. To have some incompetent judge making silly criticisms would be annoying. Inevitably some images were stronger than others but even the weakest was better than I could do - on a good day, with a following wind.
After the exhibition we popped round the corner to Colliers Wood, and we had around 20 minutes sunshine. I'm glad Bungus approved of yesterday's typo - subshine - as he says it is fairly descriptive of a sun that is trying but not quite succeeding. We seem to get a lot of it.These yellow Irises were most attractive. The chaps left me near the car-park where I was quite happy messing about with different lenses and trying, unsuccessfully, to capture a swift in flight.
After Colliers Wood we went to The Nelson and Railway at Kimberely for our chip-cobs. The Exhibition had given us lots to talk about anyway. The pub is justifiably famous and is a classic and we always enjoy our visits. Also, if you need it, it is a wi-fi hot-spot, and a free one too.
Y went down Nottingham on the bus to meet Sylvia for lunch. They went to Petit Paris - they always do. Sylvia can be a lady of somewhat set opinions.
Comments.....Jill .... I guess the problem with the 'poached egg' is probably a different soil. But it does seem that some people are successful with some plants while others are not. Bungus asks me to tell the story about the onions. He had tried buying plants, setting seed, and finally I suggested onion-sets to him. He tried them, and swears that when he harvested them they were smaller than when he set them !
He also can't grow runner-beans ! Everyvody else can, but Bungus can't.
The weather is awful isn't it and I guess Padstow is as bad as anywhere. Lucky lad, eating Rick Stein cornish-pasties which are, according to Reg, the definitive cornish-pasty. But around £6 a throw, like the fish & chips !
Thanks for your support over the Dutch School painting discussion. And Elaine will be thrilled with your comments.
Bungus ..... I don't know why you couldn't recognise the garden. Maybe it's too long since you were here. From the corner of the bungalow the view is looking over the road and over the football field.
Elaine will be double-thrilled with your comments, added onto Jill's, plus of course, my own.
The explanation of your apparent attack on Rembrant et al is adequate. And not at all 'bobbing and weaving'. I've never understood about this Belgian guy Chacun, who has a son with gout. You must explain it to me.
Re: Iceland. It's people are apparently the happiest in the world. A clever clogs on Radio 4 had also learnt that being a hairdresser is the happiest job. So, said journalist went to Iceland and interviewed a hairdresser. She was, as you would expect, quite a dismal lady ! Nice story though. Apart from the cold, spending the winter without any daylight and the summer without any dark must be unsettling.
AnonymousRob ..... Like you, I much prefer the company of women. But, as with everything, some men I get on with, and I dislike the occasional woman. But as generalisations go, I'm with you.
Y watched the big match and tells me it was a good game, if a little dull. It was nice appartently to see Beckham presented with his gold cap !
............................................
...... Sleep tight - catch you tomorrow.
.
It wouldn't be right to close without recording the death at 81yrs of the artist Beryl Cook. There are some stuffy art critics who haven't taken her work seriously but time will tell.
Beryl's work will still be around long after the petty winge-ers have gone. She has been an astute chronicler of the age, with humour and a unique skill.
We shall miss her !
Beryl's work will still be around long after the petty winge-ers have gone. She has been an astute chronicler of the age, with humour and a unique skill.
We shall miss her !
...... Sleep tight - catch you tomorrow..
Wow I'm the first one to post a comment... anyway, do you think theres any point us restarting our blog again? Its only me and dad who wrights on it, so all the pressure is on us.
ReplyDeleteY is coming over today,I have no dancing and I don't have to go shopping with Mum.
Looking forward to seeing you.
H xx
P.S. Please reply to the thing I said about the blog, I need to know from an expert!
There was a good obituary piece about Beryl Cook on Newsnight last night - I'm definitely a fan.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the name Colliers Wood I thought for a moment you had been London-visiting gain - we have a Colliers Wood in South London, quite near where I grew up in Battersea. I often wondered whether there had been any mining there in the past?
Perry has a similar glorious clump of yellow irises in his garden, they filled in a pond where the irises were growing, I think the ground must still be damp, the old arum lilies are still flourishing too.
Cuba - Carrie is in erratic touch with people she met there, apparently the infrastructure is not being maintained, Americans no longer go there for plastic and other surgery as they used to. I saw a prog. on tv, I think it was Monty Don in that series on gardens around the world. He wsent to Cuba, the municipal gardens were uncared for, but people had started forming a sort of commune in the towns/cities, anywhere there was waste land they were turning them into allotments and growing fruit and veg to supplement tbeir diets. I think this is what made me think that conditions were worse?
Interested that you went there, did you stay in Havana or a beach resort - or both? What did you think? And why did you choose to go there?
And welcome to Hannah on the comments - perhaps you could comment on this blog?
The house with the wall - you are lucky it doesn't have barbed wire on the top and cctv cameras, they do round here....perhaps they are planning to grow plants etc. up it on their side of the wall which will eventually overhang onto the outside. I do like brickwork - it could be breeze blocks!
It’s a nice day today after a few unpleasant ones.
ReplyDeleteI like hedges but have nothing against brick walls either (although I seem to remember that I occasionally used to have). Get a bit of ivy and a wisteria going if you are not happy with it, and in 20 years time…
I can certainly understand older people not wanting a hedge to trim – we spend £100 a year on it.
Your yellow Irises remind me of Mull except that the picture would have been full of them there (probably because most of the ground is a bog).
It is understandable that you were too slow to catch the swift.
I do not remember the trees which block the view from your front window so much. Are they in your garden or is the shot foreshortened? That could put them on the other side of the road.
Emile Chacun was a Belgian who wished to be famous.
He tried cycling but could not catch Eddie Merx. He also tried writing but no one wanted to read his books. He was a hopeless detective.
I believe that Belgium gout, like chocolate (which is traditionally used to treat it), is better than most other forms.
The son grew up to be famous (in his own country) for being 5’9” tall.
I thought the England/USA match was largely tedious although the goals were good (esp the second one, which reminded me of Waggy). I kept switching over to ITV to watch the talent show (the best semi-final so far, last night).
I too mourn the passing of Beryl Cook. If nothing else (and I think there was more) she made people smile.
Rob:
Yes, the Dutch can be noisy but they are not allowed to show enjoyment.
Q: How do you know if a Dutchman has been smoking cannabis?
A: He is smiling.
I didn’t know they were allowed physically attractive women apart from the one who won Miss World but she was from some far flung Asian country so I never thought it really counted.
I have always generally preferred men’s company – the ‘Men Only’ Smoke Room at the Swan, Friday night in the pub; a couple of darts teams; Stags on a Saturday (but that all dates back to the 60s and WAGs were allowed out with us on a Wednesday night).
That said, some men can be intensely boring and should be avoided. Women generally change the subject frequently and without notice, which is confusing but less tedious.
We are generalising, of course.
Nice Haiku.
Here’s another:
Buchan and Len Shackleton
Seldom played for England.
They were too good.
I suspect the sunshine you saw last year was on July 3.
But we had some lovely weather a fortnight ago and it lasted at least 3 days.
I only like sun if I can find some shade.
Most revolutions are in sunny climes too (apart from the Russian one). Probably because people get annoyed when they are woken up.
Al Nino and Al Jolson (He could walk a million miles and I still wouldn’t smile).
It’s still Thatcher to blame. If she hadn’t held office we might still have had a Socialist Party.
If The Fanatstic Five find blogging too onerous, thay might consider sending comment to your blog. That’s my answer anyway.
Glad Jill feels much as I do about that and about walls.
Correction my definative Cornish Pasty is at the end of the pier at St Maws. Rick Steins overrated and over priced That two years ago. How much they are now I dread to think.
ReplyDeleteI, too, think the fantastic five should post on this blog. I would like to know, though, why there's only two of them?
ReplyDeleteJill - we went to Cuba because I'd been wanting to go for years. We had 5 nights in Havana and 9 in Varadero in an all-inclusive complex. We fell in love with Havana and out of love with the complex. We want to go back and would be happy to go just to Havana. It's one of my top 3 cities along with Paris and Venice.
Apart from photo opportunities, I wanted to go before Fidel died as I had always held the view that the Yanks would be in soon after his death and everything would change. Now I'm not so sure. The people seemed to be happy with their lot and very anti-American though they do get fed a continual diet of Anti-US, anti-Bush propaganda. Havana seems to be waking up to tourism and we found the locals friendly and helpful. We had been warned of dire consequences if we showed off our expensive cameras and jewellery but nobody bothered us. Things are changing and attitudes opening up to 'Westerners' as long as they are not from the US. When we said we were English we were greeted like long lost friends on occasions. Theoretically Americans are not allowed to go there since Bush became President. If they do they have to go via another country, maybe that's why they don't go for surgery? We spoke to some Canadians at Varadero who told us Cuba was popular with Canadians for two reasons; one was it was only a 3 hour flight and the other was that there were no Americans there.
I could go on but I'm starting to ramble. Maybe I should post a Cuba story every day or so for a while. You'll probably be interested to hear about our meeting with Gilberto so I'll post that tomorrow.
Maybe Cuba will get the millions from Venezuela that were going to go to London, now that Boris has scrapped the deal.
I like the Colliers Wood photo.
I thought Chacun was related to Mal Y Pense.
I didn't watch the Big Game last night and prefer to go back to my Irish roots for international football. That way I'm never disappointed. I did watch Britain's Got Talent; we think Amanda Holden has had a lip job. Why did the erotic magicians remove the eroticism from their act? I really enjoyed the Hoop La La act and was disappointed they didn't get through but there was some stiff competition.
I've been trying to write a haiku for Cuba. This is the best I can do so far; it needs more work:
Fidel, Raul and Che
Heroes of socialism
Cuban paradise
Rob