Weekly Chat (non-Osprey topics) Monday, August 19, 2012

Happy New Week!

Diane:  A well deserved trip!  Hope you have a wonderfully rejuvenating and relaxing night away in the woods.  If you get your future sorted out, let me know and I'll try it myself.  :-) Oh dear, no apricot paint at Home Depot or Ace Hardware. Hmmm. I'm flummoxed.

Alicat: Hope you didn't wait any longer to take those antibiotics.

Alan: It's been hotter in some UK places than here. Bill Oddie, Simon King: Assume they aren't ancient rockstars. :-)

Lindybird: Nice to hear you had a lovely day with the kids.

OG: It's been very humid for SoCal these last few days so it feels hotter than it really is; will be home tomorrow (had breakfast with daughter this morning) so will get the ladder out early and tackle those oranges. Home-grown tomatoes are the best; great to have them in the midst of winter.

patriciat: Congrats on your trios good showing at Agility.

Have a good Sunday all. I really do have to spend time in the garden and not in the hammock.

Good Morning All:    Sunny and bright here, and we are hoping for another day like yesterday, here.

Thanks to Annette for starting us off - although I know its the 19th, as its my dear sis-in-laws birthday, I was under the assumption that its still Sunday, Annette!!!  Hope you get lots done in the garden and then can slump into the hammock, anyway.

Here are a couple more pics from the Flower Show:

First, a clever horse made from twiggy bits of willow....

   ~  if you look carefully, there are other smaller animals below.

And a clever display made by the Tatton Garden staff themselves, this year:  its a rocket which has landed on a barren planet but has made it come alive, so on one side its all bleak & grey,  and on the other side, there is wonderful jumble of every kind of plant, from all over the world, in a strange juxtaposition (sorry for such a long word on a Sunday Morning!).

~   a riot of colour and form!   I loved that one.

Have a good day, Everyone.

                                       FOR DIANE:  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I know you won't see this until tonight or tomorrow, but I hope you are having a truly wonderful time in the forest, and gaining inspiration from the wildlife and those lovely old trees! 

Linda : Thank looks suspiciously like one of the Thunderbirds craft. I wonder if they borrowed it for the occasion? LOL

F A B   Alan!!!!!

Didn't know it was Dianes Birthday:  here is a card for you Diane, Hope you are enjoying yourself on your special weekend:

Thanks for the reminder OG.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIANE

You have been showing some fabulous pictures of the flower show Linda. I did see some displays on the TV, especially the olympic ones. It is some years since I have been to Tatton but this year seems to have been extra special. Thanks.

Glad you have enjoyed them, BRENDA  - you must excuse me, as whilst I have been doing these and also looking at the nest (both juves on there at present)  I have been boiling dry a pan on the stove, meant for some hard boiled eggs!!

Hope you haven't ruined your pan, Linda

Thanks to Annette for starting us off into a new week.  It is warm and sunny here this morning, had a good breakfast, and OH is busy in the garage.  Cream Tea this afternoon – our last this year as we shall be doing something else next Sunday.  Then evening service – Minister is back from his hols.

Annette – I hope you will get some hammock time as well as doing a few garden jobs – and do take care up on your ladder picking oranges!

Linda – that willow horse is excellent – and I like the concept and contrast of the Tatton spaceship garden!

Good morning Brenda - I hope your weekend is going well!

I will continue with a bit more from Wanlockhead.  After its earliest exploitation in Roman times, the lead was rediscovered in the 13th century but for centuries, there was only a tented village where miners were brought (without their families) to work through the summer months, .  In the late 17th century, the local landowner invested in a smelter and  built “cottages” to house miners and their families – they were promised “housing provided” but these were very poor dwellings, and they had to pay rent for them, so the women had to work in near darkness, knitting etc to raise money for the rent.  The loo was the stream at the bottom of the valley, which was also the source of all their water at this time!

This is a very poor photo - time exposure without the tripod!  But it does show how dark and dreary the cottage would be, when the wooden shutter  (no glazed window)  had to be closed against the frequent bad weather, with just a little light from the central hearth, and no chimney for the smoke.  The roof was heather, sometimes lined with turf, and the floor was mud, which would run with water when it rained as the cottages were built into the hillside slopes.  The bed would be straw or heather, and low down on the damp floor!

In the nineteenth century, the one-room cottages were improved with the addition of a window, a stone floor, panelling, spring water and more home comforts such as the box bed (kids slept underneath) and a fireplace with a chimney:

Early 20^th century cottages had a second downstairs room for sleeping and a fixed stair to a loft where the children or a lodger (a single miner)would sleep. and individual outside toilets.  Of course, each time there was an improvement the rent was increased!

Wanlockhead part 2 - it wouldn't let me put this bit on the bottom!

Here is a view of part of the village, showing the few feeble trees growing in this “Highest Village in Scotland”.  

It is not a pretty village as the valley sides and bottom are strewn with the detritis of the lead workings, but there are some nicely kept cottages with gardens, and the current inhabitants are quite proud of their home in the hills.  The last commercial lead mine closed in the 1950s, but who knows what treasures remain here - silver and gold are both found in close proximity with galena (lead ore) and the gold from Wanlockhead is of superior quality - 22.8 carat!

Another hot and humid morning. We had a fan on, in the bedroom, all night.

I hope you will forgive me but although I have read all your posts, I haven't had time to reply.

Notices have been up in the village that the main road would be closed to traffic for resurfacing. The work has been delayed by 24hours each morning for a week. They started yesterday lunchtime and so the road is still closed until they return on Monday. This morning a large delivery van has become trapped in a country lane nearby to us. these lanes really are narrow and were never meant for big vehicles so chaos this morning. We couldn't even go to church this morning. I hope there will be no need for any emergency vehicles but they will just have to ignore all the road signs.

Diane, I hope you enjoy your night in the woods and return home refreshed.

Annette, You must find time to relax in your hammock after you have picked all those oranges.

OG, I am growing some tomatoes, but as my neighbour arrived with a large bag full yesterday, I am going to follow your instructions for freezing most of them. I have never tried before. Thanks.

Fantastic history lesson and photographs OG. Such an eye opener to see what people would suffer, just so they could work and earn a pittance. To get a job and a house for your family must have sounded ideal, until you had to live in such conditions and work so hard. No wonder they died at such an early age. Compare that with today, with those who refuse to work and are happy to live on the state.