Picture 1 is the pub Bungus has spoken of, on Mansfield Road, Sutton or Sutton Road, Mansfield. Often a moot point and although he has tried several times to describe it's location, I am still unsure. Maybe the pub has had a name-change - they so often do.He says the food is good, and we must try it.
Y and I have had a further day with Y's new laptop and we are both becoming more familiar with it. I know some people winge about Windows Vista, but 'speak as you find ' and I am warming to the programme. Many features are an improvement on XP and it is certainly faster and often more user-friendly. But, as we were saying the other day, some people criticise first and think later !
It seems that with Y having a googlemail account she is automatically on google-chat (in the old days one had to download it as a separate function). Grandchildren have discovered Granny on google-chat and have, from time to time during the day, called her on her own lappy. She loves it !
Nice chat to David. They are all fine and it was good to hear all the family and school news.
Picture 2 is simply a try-out with my 300mm Nikkor to see how effective the vibration reduction mechanism is in practice. The answer is "Very".
Standing on the front porch, I set to spot-meter and focused on the building works through a gap in the trees...... No tripod and the result looks surprisingly sharp to me. We are talking around half a mile away here.Some time ago Roy mentioned someone in need of a tripod. I think I now may well be able to spare one ! (from my collection of 3, plus a mono-pod).
During all this frenzy I cooked steak, chips, grilled tomato, egg and beans (a proper slimming Sunday dinner) and Y did a blackberry and apple crumble, with cream.
This evening we watched The Sculpture Diaries on Channel 4. Personally I find Waldemar Januszczak too irritating to watch for long but he did briefly visit James Turrell's installation in a volcano crater in Flagstaff, Arizona...... A couple of years ago Bungus and I were fortunate to be able to see his work at The Yorkshire Sculpture Park where he had created The Deer Shelter....... (My blog-post of 21st September 2006 refers)........... p.s... My filing and reference system isn't that good - but google's is !
Comments
bungus ..... How interesting to hear about Sandra having pins stuck in her. This should result I suppose in a small doll somewhere suffering extreme pain !
As you know I agree completely about the 'purposes' of Art/ Photography... In a couple of months Rob and I are sharing an 'evening' at the camera club and I am to talk about the effects of painting on photography, and vice versa. .... It is, after all, one of the few subjects where I do know what I am talking about..... Unless I did an hour on 'pentimenti' in Titian...... perhaps not 'eh?
Thanks for the info. about the humble hawthorn berry...... So many 'old wives tales' are proving to have a modern scientific basis.
I think you maybe right about the silhouetted bull. Incy explained who was responsible for putting it there ..............but I can't find his comment !!
Jill ...... Throughout my life I have called 'turnips' turnips, and for the past 25yrs Y has been telling me they are swedes. To be honest - I'm no longer bothered what people call them.
I've always thought that mangle-worzel was the name of a scarecrow played by Jon Pertwee.
Apart from liver (calf's or lamb's only) I dislike offal. Y won't eat it at all. .... But I cook pork-hocks, and take the lean meat only and press it into a sort of sliceable cake..... Always popular.
Y has just watched Tess of the D'Urbevilles and enjoyed it.
anonymousrob ....... How nice to hear from you. Sorry about the weather but good that the problems with airlines aren't affecting you.
Your communication sort of proves your dongle is working. Although I suppose you could have found a Wi-Fi hotspot or something.
Keep on eating and drinking ----it's kind of essential.
and re your p.s ..... I consider you and Bungus to be joint-editors of material coming from the Sports Desk.
reg .... what's wrong with baseball caps ? Unless on back-to-front of course !
Please tell Mo I fully understand about 'the picture' and I hope I didn't sound rude by saying I didn't want a new one.
Quotation time ...................
"If there were no God, there would be no Atheists"
5 comments:
Pity I can't Spell Grounsel or Bungus Sorry All.
The Bold Forester (pretentious name; why not The Elephant and Castle like the smallest pub I have ever been in - at Cerne Abbas *) which is on Sutton Road, Mansfield, some 10 minutes' walk from the town centre about halfway between the Sir John Cockle and The William IV (or ‘Jack-up-Steps’).
Not sure exactly where the Sutton/Mansfield boundary is but I think just east of King’s Mill which is in Sutton; Hermitage Lane in Mansfield.
It is a new pub (ie, since the 60s) but not a new building. I think I already said that I cannot remember what it was before (it looks like a school but wasn’t – Moor Lane School is immediately opposite).
The Forester has pleasant, child- friendly outdoor spaces (part roofed for smokers) as well as a welcoming ‘pubby’ atmosphere inside, unlike the Widow Frost (Wetherspoons) which, to me, resembles a works canteen.
So far as the food goes, I would say that in quality it compares with, eg, Wetherspoons, The Snooty Fox, and the Bird-in-Hand. So, not haute cuisine, but, with a good selection of main course between £5 and £8 including 10 at 2for £8, it offers excellent value.
*
When a friend and I cycled around Wiltshire, Hampshire, Devon and Cornwall in the late ‘40s we stayed at a Youth Hostel in Cerne Abbas. The facilities were primitive not to say filthy but our bedroom window looked out at the wonderfully endowed Giant on the hillside just across the road.
The only pub in the village, The Elephant & Castle, had just one room with space for perhaps a dozen people to sit round the bar billiards table. The locals were welcoming and the beer poured from large jugs. Trev asked a ninety year old lady customer to have a drink: "Ooh, thanks me dear, I'll 'ave a port & lemon; I b'aint know 'ow long it been since I 'ad a port & lemon."
Your long distance photo is very good if not very interesting.
Not that I am suggesting you should aim for something ‘spicier’ or ‘spyier’ but the opportunity is there!
I missed The Sculpture Diaries this week. Drat. I enjoyed Easter Island the week before – and the lowdown on Mount Rushmore.
It was Jill, I think, who raised the matter of the wooden bull silhouette being an advert.
The only problem with referring to Swedes as Turnips is that they are different in taste, White Turnips being peppery, rather like radish in my view, esp when raw.
I love lambs liver with bacon or onions or both; invariably going for it if it is on a menu. The rarer calf’s liver I think is also very good as are chicken livers. I enjoy lamb’s kidneys too, either on toast or in a steak & kidney pie, and the best part of a rabbit is its kidneys - but you would need a lot of bunnies to make a good meal.
Pork hock is fine and I once wrote a rather indelicate song about it (Let Go of My Pork Hock). Braised ham hock is delicious too, provided that it is not too salty –good served with mashed spuds or colcannon.
Jill:
I presume Victoria Coren is the daughter of the late Alan.
I don’t know whether your ignorance regarding Locust Podge, etc, is accounted for by geography or age. I was born in ‘31.
But no doubt aniseed balls, kali, whipped cream walnuts (the cream was different), and Rowntree’s Motoring Chocolate bridge the gap between us?
You are right about Swedes but I think everybody north of Leicester calls them turnips. Even in the north we don’t consider eating mangolds unless the ground is frozen too hard to dig them up.
(My dictionary says 'mangel-wurzel [short for mangold-wurzel]' which I find somewhat comical).
I don’t recall pigs’ trotters being off ration. Perhaps your grandfather was in the Home Guard with a butcher?
I had enough of Agatha Christie years ago. Did you watch Wire in the Blood? Nasty as ever.
I agree about Fiona Bruce, a less intrusive approach seems more appropriate.
Rob:
Good to hear from you.
Well, we’ve had better weather than you over the weekend I amnaged to mow the lawn at last which is not a lot of consolation with the Stags losing. But none of the Notts teams had any success. And surely any northern team beating Man U is to be applauded? I thought Stoke were unlucky – Liam Lawrence seems well up to Premiership standard.
I had to miss ANOTHER good ‘do’ today; Sandra’s sister’s / 2nd husband’s 25th anniversary at an eatery in Ruddington (compensating for their politically appropriate low-key wedding). Sandra put aside her ‘pain & woe’ to go, and thoroughly enjoyed it – a civilised and enjoyable lunch with an hour between main course and pud for a ‘ratpack’ type crooner to entertain, then a few amusing enough speeches followed by dancing till she left at 8.00.
No faighting though, youth.
(I have to confess that I have never actually been to a wedding where there has been a fight. Perhaps fortunately as, if I had consumed enough war water, I might have become involved – quite probably as a peacemaker and they invariably come off worst).
Reg:
I think Huntz Hall who played one of the of the Dead End Kids was the original ‘civilian’ wearer of a baseball cap; not back-to-front but skew-whiff.
Your 'Grounsel'/'Bungus' comment reminds me again of the following interchange:
"I got some chips."
"Where from?"
"The Baccaruda"
"It's the Barracuda."
"I know, but I can't say Barracuda."
It falls to me, as joint-editor of the Sports Desk, to keep the Panthers flag flying high. 4 wins out of 4; next up the dreaded Steelers. Sorry, Bungus, you've got it wrong; ManU beating any team is good news. The Stags are still doing well and they need to get their revenge on Crawley in the return fixture.
Nothing wrong with wearing your baseball cap back-to-front when you need to keep the sun off your neck. Today we had an hour on the beach sunbathing; my body has started turning pink. No photos are available I'm glad to say.
Thanks, Jill, for describing me as debonair. I reckon I don't scrub up too badly. As everyone agrees, Elaine looked stunning in the photo and even better in real life.
We are communicating via the dongle. 3 finally got it working. They needed to set up roaming access which no one ever told us when we bought it and the (no) help desk obviously didn't know when Elaine rang them the other day. It's good to know it works though.
So, incy wincy, how are the wedding snaps? I presume you have them back by now and I hope you haven't carried out that threat to kill yourself if they were no good. I have every confidence that they will all be worth 14 out of 20!
Rob
Re Brian’s picture of the Council House I think it is from his collection of whole plate (8.5 x 6.5ins) glass plates. The camera would have been huge and very heavy but what really intrigues me is the camera position. It was obviously taken from an elevated position and I can’t think of any building it could have been taken from. It is interesting that Queen Victoria’s statue which was built in 1906 does not appear in the foreground.
Incidentally it must have been later than 1923 as the building is the new Council House which was started in 1927 and finished in 1929.
Like Graham, I too like the new square much better than the old one which I always thought was drab and uninteresting. We now have a much more modern and usable space as was evidenced by the recent Nottingham Eye and the Ice Skating Arena.
.Following our disappointing chip butties at a pub which has always served good quality bar food in the past I have been doing a little research as it is rated very highly by Camra (not digital) and is one of the best real ale pubs I know with a constantly changing selection of well kept ales..It is apparently one of four pubs owned by Bartsch Inns, a small local company. Lunch times were always busy with workers from nearby firms in for a pint and nosh. There were always specials on the board at good prices. Perhaps more importantly it had a landlady who always seemed to be around keeping an eye on things.
I think there must have been a change in management as I noticed that there were two male names over the door!
They did bring us a further plate of chips after we complained but by then the tiny cobs had been eaten and the damage done. Will these people never learn.
Speaking of pub managers, Greene King in their wisdom appointed a new one at The Three Ponds. Having taken back my first pint of dishwater and then my alternative choice which was like vinegar I suggested he should taste it but he said it was a waste of time as he only liked lager! Another pub bites the dust.
Your new equipment looks like a sort of spying device, G......but very clear picture.
Bungus I do remembr motoring choc. aniseed balls and whipped cream walnuts - also sherbet fountains.Not kali?
Grandfather was a firewatcher (ready with his stirrup pump) on the Town Hall Roof, waiting to put put incendiaries. Don't know about a butcher!
I fell asleep in the sculpture programme.....watched Tess, quite enjoyable, but not riveting. Thought Anna Massey was the best thing in it. I agree with the D.Tel - the mud looked to clean!
I watched (and paid attention) to all 3 episodes of the Kevin Whateley serial 'The Children' - found it a tad confusing, not 100% sure at the end who did kill that revolting little girl, I think it was her father's new wife - anybody confirm this?
We have a large pub over the road to us, it was very run down, didn't serve very good food, wanted re-furbishing. It changed hands, has obviously had a lot of money spent on it, is now called The Old Station House (it is Victorian, and next to our local SW Station, which had a Victorian Villa as a ticket office/waiting room in the past - that has been sold off and developed into offices, we have to sit on the platform now. When we first came here there was a Ladies Only waiting room with a coal fire, a Ladies and a Gents, as well as a ticket Office. We now have a machine on the platform. This is progress?).
Sorry, I digress. The Old Station House is apparently on the verge of closing - no customers. It is the food I think - we went there once, looked at the menu and left....It is basically Greek/Mediterranean and expensive.... If they did good, 'ordinary' pub food we would be over there at lunch time.
We have a fish restaurant just by us - take away is £8.00 (huge portion, we share one) same thing in the restaurant is £10.00. Top notch fish and chips though.
Rant over.....
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