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Pictures 1 and 2 are courtesy of Brian Smith who owns the negatives. I don't think we know who actually took the pictures. The quality, in photographic terms, of snaps from the 1920s and 30s always surprises me and I am humbled to realise how little the 'craft' has progressed..... The equipment has improved I suppose but not the output. A bit like comparing Tracy Emin with Titian.
Not that I'm knocking Tracy. She can actually draw rather well and has creative ideas. A couple of days ago I saw a lengthy interview she held with Sir Peter Blake (of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album cover fame) and she did a sound and well-informed job. An important point is that he obviously liked her and her work.
The picture on the left will be around 1923 when The Old Market Square, The Council House and the tramlines were altered. For non-East Midlands readers - The Square has just been altered again. Many shout "waste of money" but personally I like the new square and, give it 50 years or so, people will be staunchly defending it against any suggested change..... Folks are like that.
Sir Nigel Gresley the man, stands at the side of his train, which makes Picture 2 an historic snap. The number was subsequently changed for reasons mentioned on the linked website - please clicky and the locomotive currently resides in the York Museum.
Picture 3 is a companion to Dennis's photo of the Spanish farmer's oxen. As you can see, here the farmer is actually ploughing...... I feel sure Dennis won't mind me quoting from his e-mail to explain the picture:-".....The tower is an old beacon, and they are all along the coast, but in a bad state of repair, and the government has suddenly realised that it's losing it's heritage, and the plans are to restore them, the first is the one at Nerja, which will be made into a tourist info office.....".
Not that I need to remind anyone that the same copyright rules apply as previously.
Y and I have had a busy day. The new laptop has been unpacked, plugged in, and set up and persuaded to run. It never is as easy as plug-in. switch on, and start using - is it? .....Finding e-mail accounts, setting clocks, deciding on names, installing some pictures, passwords etc........ A different machine, Windows Vista instead of XP so I didn't know where things were, but Y did remarkably well, and together we got there. Even 'shutting down' was so different it took me ages to work it out.
Comments
bungus ....... As you say, Jessica is quick-witted and obviously the master/mistress of the 'put-down'. A valuable if dangerous gift !
I can only wish you both well with scans, anniversary scans etc., and enjoy your barium meal. Are you permitted a 'doggy bag'.
Although I didn't mention it, my freezer labelling is also meticulous...... i.e "Watnall Pork & Leek sausages, wrapped in 4 links, 12th Sept 08"....... I can't post a 'link' I'm afraid, ha Ha!
A further Ashbourne expression was "Ays got t'munk on" which translates as "he has the monkey on his back" meaning "he is grumpy this morning".
To answer your question. RG flies by the seat of his pants, generally.
Jill ..... You are quite right to make the point ! Pikelets are nearly as flat as pancakes, while Crumpets are nearly an inch thick. Both respond well to about half a pound of butter though. If one is economising that is. ...
With you 100% over coffee being impossible without sugar, whereas sugar spoils tea.
Virol OK. And I used to quite like Scott's emulsion and Syrup of Figs too. My - don't these things stick in the memory ?
Another sepia snap for you today.
incy wincy ...... Me too. re Camp Coffee with condensed milk in it. Did you know that the Camp Coffee label had to be changed so as not to show the little black fella serving coffee to the white officer? PC again I'm afraid. What on earth was the harm in it?
Can't help with uses for hawthorn berries. Unless they keep a pet blackbird.
Now, on the other hand, I like the smell of hops, boiling or otherwise.
Everybody is enjoying your pictures.
Quotation slot .......................
Another sepia snap for you today.
incy wincy ...... Me too. re Camp Coffee with condensed milk in it. Did you know that the Camp Coffee label had to be changed so as not to show the little black fella serving coffee to the white officer? PC again I'm afraid. What on earth was the harm in it?
Can't help with uses for hawthorn berries. Unless they keep a pet blackbird.
Now, on the other hand, I like the smell of hops, boiling or otherwise.
Everybody is enjoying your pictures.
Quotation slot .......................
6 comments:
Diary:
Oh what a full and varied life we lead!
To King’s Mill again on Saturday for S to have pins stuck in her and be electrocuted while I drank coffee in Morrisons’. Then off to ‘The Bold Forester’ again for excellent value fish and chips and home in time for ‘The X Factor’ and Alex lying on the settee with all doors open, saying “It’s freezing in here.”
Another typical Jess-ism:
On Friday, Sandra had just said farewell to step-step-grandson Daniel (18) as he left to pursue his bassoon studies at Trinity College of Music in London. He will be sharing a house with 5 others – 2 male, 2 female and one of unestablished gender (do not read anything into that). To see him through his first weekend S had made him a dish of her renowned lasagne, his favourite food.
After he had left, Sandra remarked to Jessica, “First one gone. I don’t suppose we’ll be seeing much of Daniel from now on. Next it will be Alex, then you.”
“And then Josh,” said J, (Josh is 6) “But you’ll be dead by then.”
Blog Comment:
I agree that it is impossible and unjust to compare Tracy Emin (or Damien Hurst, or other conceptual/installation artists) with Titian, as their objectives are quite different.
Although painted portraits can still be valid and impressive (in the case of Bacon or Freud for instance) the camera has taken their place (for me) when the aim is to create an accurate ‘likeness’ (and the camera can do much more than that, of course).
I can appreciate the skill in modern examples done in the traditional manner but, for me, they tend to have no significant emotional effect.
Your mention of ‘old beacons’ reminds me that there are towers in the north of England - to warn of approaching Vikings or Scots, I think.
Blowed if I can remember what they are called.
I would have expected you to be, as you are, meticulous with your labelling (no wonder you have to get up so early). You are unlike Sandra – if she gets a home-made pie out of the freezer she never knows whether to make gravy or custard (hyperbole).
Liked the ‘link’ quip.
In Ollerton area too, folk get ‘the monk on’. We have never understood the derivation – certainly did not connect with monkeys.
I understand you fly by the seat of your pants; XXL of course.
I accept that Jill is technically right about pikelets/crumpets but in north Notts the only ones seen in the 30s/ 40s/50s were thick ones and called pikelets, just as Swedes (Neeps to the Scots, Rutabagas to the Americans) were called turnips. Turnips were referred to as ‘white turnips’ and never grown or used by anyone I knew until I met someone from Manchester who asked my eldest stepson Simon to fetch her some from the greengrocer's, “They’re little round white things, like golf balls or a bit bigger,” she told him – he came back with 3lb of mushrooms.
I first saw thin pikelets in Nottingham in the 60s, tried them and didn’t think they compared with what are now known, even here in Indian Country, as crumpets (lovely with butter and blackcurrant jam. But, for me, a little butter goes a long way on pikelets/crumpets, whereas a generosity is needed on muffins).
Disagree about sweetening; I like just a bit of sugar in tea and a spoonful in coffee. But both without milk, of course.
I could cope with Syrup of Figs when deemed necessary - but without enjoyment.
More follows.
Jill:
My mother told me, far too late, that she had always wanted me to be a journalist. Not like her to be so naïve; she obviously regarded it as an honourable profession dedicated to always telling ‘the truth’. Therefore, I would be happy for Jessica to be a columnist. But more like Victoria Coren please (although I would prefer her not to be a professional gambler).
On the other hand, she may become a grasping landlord (remember Rachman?). She and her mum are currently living with us. We are overcrowded so mum’s boyfriend has bought J a caravan, which stands on the drive, to give her a ‘retreat’ in which to do homework and entertain her friends.
Granddaughter Alex (18) who lives some half-a-dozen miles away in a 'one pub, no-other-facilities' village with no transport, asked J if she and a friend could stay in the caravan on Friday night. They found it so convenient that they offered J an eagerly accepted fiver to stay a second night. with the idea of repeating it, say, once a month.
From such little acorns…
Geography changed, I think in the 60s/70s. To me it was all about knowing the names and location of foreign countires, major towns and cities, rivers, climate and produce. Suddenly, it became a school trip to Mansfield and conducting door-knocking sociological surveys in different areas of the town (council/private estates).
Like you, I keep maps and reference books handy although the internet is more up to date.
And yes, our children and grandchildren have no idea of their own location in time and space.
Some friends took their children for a fortnight abroad when very young. Sandra asked the 5 year-old boy, “What did you enjoy most about your holiday?” to which he replied “The Mars bar on the plane home”.
I think the goodies I mentioned (tiger nuts, etc) were all prewar.
‘Just’ William Brown made licorice water from Chewing Wood – I tried it and it was horrible (nothing like Pernod although I have never understood why people think that aniseed tastes like licorice).
Did anyone else start to learn French from the HP sauce bottle?
As I write this, someone is talking on Radio Nottm about brawn (previously discussed) and tripe & onions and other offal dishes. I detest tripe & onions although I have enjoyed, many years ago, cold honeycomb tripe with chips and lots of vinegar. Gelsthorpe’s, the tripe dresser’s from whom the tripe was purchased, was also a chip shop that fried in beef dripping.
Brains can be tasty (on toast or as part of a mixed grill). I have never tried chittlings, cow heel, pigs trotters or sweetbreads. A farmer friend once brought me a non-matching pair of young bulls' testicles which, as instructed, I soaked in brine overnight and fried in bacon fat. My second wife, who had been to visit her parents in Chippenham, arrived home as I was about to start the frying. “What’s for tea?” she asked, to which I was able truthfully to reply “B*******”. I found it too rich a dish, however.
John Hurt must have had a VERY gullible audience or an unusually positioned appendix!
The bull silhouette could be an advert for the corrida? Or, as you suggest, Oxo or Bovril.
Incy Wincy:
No, not Camp Coffee – too overburdened with chicory.
Googling again:
Hawthorn Berries
(Crateagus oxycanthus)
Used to promote the health of the circulatory system, treat angina, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure and cardiac arrhythmia and has been found to strengthen the heart.
Hawthorn is widely regarded in Europe for the early stages of heart disease and has been used for a number of ailments including angina, myocarditis, arteriosclerosis, nervous conditions like insomnia, and diarrhea. It has also been indicated for strengthening blood vessels, vascular insufficiency and blood clots, restoring the heart muscle wall, lowering cholesterol and to aid digestion.
It may have been an association of ideas but I always liked the smell of Mansfield Brewery, even from a mile away. Could have been the hops but more likely the malt, I suspect.
I like the picture of the Council House. I've got my name down for one.
My wife likes tripe & onions, I wouldn't kiss her goodnight when we were courting (what a nice word) after she had them for supper. she likes brains & all the other things two. I'm not keen at all.
I like thse Jessica-isms - keep them coming.....I don't read Victoria Coren, but I know of her.
I was born in l937 so am possibly just that bit younger than you, hence I don't know about all these goodies you describe.
Swedes to me are orange, turnips (which we are not so keen on) are white. Do we eat mangle-worzels, or is it only cattle-feed?
I used to visit on old lady with my granny, she made hawthorn wine, I was only allowed a sip. The two old ladies drank it by the cupful, said it was for their hearts, so perhaps it was!
We are not at all keen on any sort of offal, I don't think I ever cook any. My Mum used to like liver and bacon, but my Dad and I didn't. I remember my grandfather coming home on a Saturday night with cooked, breadcrumbed, pigs trotters, which he loved. This was during the war, perhaps they were off-ration?
I am being spoiled with these sepia and black and white photographs.....
R has been out all day wandering up and down the South Bank, part of the Thames Festival, there is a lot of live music of all different sorts between London Bridge and the Festival Hall. He went yesterday, has met a lot of people he knew, there was a thought |I might go today but apparently there is absolutely nowhere to sit, so I opted out. We have had two lovely sunny days here - real Indian summer.
Tonight I don't know whether to be harrowed by Tess of the D'Urbevilles or irritated by Poirot (which has a very good cast). I know I can record one, but it just isn't the same....And I don't like Fiona Bruce doing the Antiques Road Show either, she is too pushy somehow.
My ex-Manchester friend says 'he's got a cob on' meaning the same as the monkey phrase. Cannot think of a London equivalent!
I don't know about the Viking towers, Bungus, but on the south coast there are Martello Towers built to repulse Napoleon.
Greetings from Calabria where the weather (today any way) is very English. We have had a wet, dull, grey day and, as I write, it's still raining. But it is warm. The weather since we arrived has been hot with temperatures up to 35C.
Reg, we didn't fly with XL and are not in Greece; any hopes we have of being stranded forever in this beautiful country will be short-lived.
Maybe more later - it's time to eat and drink (yet) more wine!
Best wishes to all.
Rob
Rob and Elaine Glad you
are o.k.
Tom Groundsall, VInce Rooker and Alec Glass, all send there congratulations to you and Elaine
Bungas 'Wear' the Bowry Boys the original wearers of base ball caps?Which I hate.
How nice to hear, via Reg, from Tom, Alec and Vince. I'm pleased you are still in contact with them all Reg, via 35PC no doubt. For the uninitiated that has nothing to do with computers and a lot to do with photography (35 = 35mm film incy wincy but I bet everybody's digital now.)
Elaine and I have just been talking, as in talking not blogging, writing, e-mailing or texting, to her eldest son in Hucknall. We are still in Calabria. The wonders of modern technology.
Am I in charge of the Sports Desk these days? It will suffer if I am! Saddended to see the Stags lost and Liverpool won. But Panthers won again last night; haven't found out tonight's result yet.
Even I enjoyed the wedding cake and I don't like that type of fruit cake. Denis (only one n RG!!) and Joan were absolute stars in all their help and support for us in the lead up to the wedding. We shall never forget their kindness and we shall never pay their bill! At the end of the reception we gave Joan some flowers and, typically, she said "why are you giving me these, I haven't done anything." Oh yes you did, and you know you did.
It's a shame Bungus couldn't make it as we didn't have a fight; some of Elaine's relations know how to look after themselves if the need arises. I would've been cheering on the winners.
Catch you all leter.
Rob
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