Be I Hampshire, be I bu%%ery, I be Isle of Wight! So the ditty goes. I love the IoW and have spent some very happy times there following in the footsteps of Barbara Jones and Pennethorne Hughes. There are treasures around every corner and if, like me, you like furniture of the street type then I am sure you will like these. It was very warm back in August and I seem to recall we also stumbled across the delightful Jolliffe's of Cowes on our way for some superb fish & chips.
I should have posted this yesterday to coincide with St Davids Day but all things are a little on the late side here at Straker Towers. We have just returned from a delightful break in Pembrokeshire - a county I know well and love dearly, but just like Norfolk it takes an age to get there. You think you are almost there and bang! Another few hours to go.
My trusty Shell Guide and Pevsner always accompany me on such trips, nothing has been produced since that even comes close to them. One of the joys of the Shell Guides is doing a modern day comparison with the superb photographs of Edwin Smith or Piper - I am pleased to say that in Pembs not a lot has changed.
I have not visited St Davids cathedral since I was a child and on this particular day it was absolutely deserted - my mission was to view the 60 heads in the cathedral quire. Now, it didn't help that I had recently watched the utterly brilliant MR James story The Stalls of Barchester........if you know the story you will of course know that carvings form a great part of this chilling tale. I was the only one creeping around the quire. It was dimly lit and the day was dreary - needless to say the carvings were amazing including those of the green man on the stall seats. I looked over my shoulder more than once I can tell you.
They are pristine and probably in the same condition as first carved over 500 years ago. Each about the size of a 50p piece.The majority are of human faces and about twenty are of the grotesque. People or animal? Not sure really, very similar to those stunning stone carvings at Kilpeck where I have lost many an hour in wonderment. The joy for me is wondering just what, who and why?
A run on reading matter over the last few weeks - as per usual, the most expensive for the cost of a pint (and not your inflated London pints at that!). The norm is around a pound or two, sometimes less.
All of these were found in the book town of Hay on Wye in the cheaper less frequented back passages and nooks on our recent holiday jaunt. I was particularly pleased with Going Fishing (letters to a brother angler - 1925 Arrowsmith). I cannot speak highly enough of this book and to find two copies in one day is quite something. I was only recently recommended the book after leafing through friend Ferney's copy and took an instant liking to it. Some things are meant to be. Such lovely chapters as: A Norfolk Mill Pool, My Favourite Spot, Winter Roach, Catching and Cooking, Two Chubs and Another, The Verb to Stret-Peg, A Hint and some Animadversions, The Sixteenth, Sultry Days. The list of enticing chapters goes on and it is a superb read. I have no intention of ever going trout fishing in the streams of Natal (signed presentation copy from the author Neville Nuttall), but who could resist a book with such a splendid jacket for £2? Not I.
England Parish Churches by Edwin Smith and Olive Cook just continues to fuel my passion for the country church and a superb guide to Canterbury Cathedral by Rena Gardiner for 50p. You can do no wrong with a Puffin Picture Book, especially if SR Badmin is involved and I need not tell you what a delight Follies, Grottos and Garden Buildings is.........splendid!
What is there not to like about Terri's Takeaway in the delightful market town of Hay on Wye? I don't know what it was before it served treats to the masses on a Friday night with a full on attack of the beer munchies but what a delightful looking shop front. The flowers which adorn it look like fried eggs ready to be burst by the toast. The corbels are just as lovely.
The furniture below, which was spotted just by chance, is fitted to a wonderful azure blue door surround. Not sure what Jones the Mercer did though - cloth merchant perhaps? Hay is full of architectural treats. The glazed animalier tiles that adorn the facade on Booth's bookshop are a wonder to behold. Far too much to take in as so much time has been spent browsing and looking for treats of the bookish kind. The bargains that could be found in Hay in years gone by are few and far between these days. The dealers are fully tuned in to the Internet - unlike my first visits in the late 1980's. I did find some gems this time around though and right under the noses of the hardened dealers.........more of this in a later post.
A delightful sign to finish - well it made me chuckle anyway and one to add to my long list of corkers that make me laugh, the Captain blush and the nippers wonder what an earth is going on!
Not only do I bring you a rather fine looking vane in my occasional series of such items but a little bit of corrugated too. Deep joy! This splendid sight is beside the River Wye of course.
We haven't had a Friday Ditty for an age, so here we are with one for the holiday season. I can't seem to get this one out of my head at the moment - probably due to the landscape I am currently relaxing in.
I always have a healthy reading pile on the go. During the holiday season I do try to keep it realistic, so here it is for this holiday period. I also include a film which will be viewed at some time as, this year, we have not migrated east to our usual haunt of the North Norfolk coast. We are in the shadow of Black Hill - made famous in that most superb book by Bruce Chatwin. So, as you can see, the film of the book is essential viewing as I have not seen it for many a year. Little Toller Books continue to release every book I have ever dreamt of........I don't know how they do it, but they are utterly brilliant. I thought it would be nice if someone published a book on mermaids - they did it! A book on Rena Gardiner I thought would be rather fine - they did it! The list goes on, but for the next week or so I am looking forward to reading Black Apples of Gower along with the other titles you see above. Happy holidays!
It's been a long old slog since Christmas. Not much time off for R&R so the weekends are even more welcome - crack open the beer. The Norfolk ales are just hanging on in there, last few now....and the home brew of course!
We like a nice weather vane or weathercock here at Straker Towers - this is a corker. Somewhere along the North Norfolk coast. Any ideas? No prizes I am afraid, you can just bask in the glory that you are a clever clogs and noticer of such treasures!
After basking in temperatures late last week of nearly 22C on the North Norfolk coast it was a shock to the system this week to be hovering around the 7C mark in the day back home in West Dorset. Lighting fires and hunkering down with a glass of something pleasant are now the order of the day. We are now entering the season of slow cooked stews, pot roasts and pike and perch on the river. Pass the port Gramps!
What a disaster. We returned from our jolly east to find everything in the garden going full pelt. Cucumbers the size of a mans arm, pumpkins just below footy size 5, tommies everywhere and tasting amazing, spuds still doing well .............but the fruit, what has happened? It's the dreaded brown rot in the plums that's what.
I was so looking forward to eating these as I remember seeing the tree overladen last year just before we moved in. The plan was for jam, chutney, crumble and the most heavenly dish of all - plum bread and butter pudding (give it a go - I love it cold too). They will all have to be picked and disposed of. Luckily the apples are not showing much in the way of rot, so we may just about get away with it.
We did some splendid plum picking up near Burnham Market - Opal, Violetta, Sanctus Hubertus and one I have never heard of before, Blue Tit ( bottom right - this was not quite ready, but looked an incredible colour).
As if by magic a spot of rude fruit cropped up too - what a mighty fine rear!
All is not lost as we will raid the family orchard up in Gloucestershire for our plum fix and we did bring back a big bag of Norfolk plums which are now sitting in the freezer.
I had my first date slice from the rather good deli in Cley next the Sea about fifteen years ago. The Captain and I had a winter trip to search out, what was then, a rather unknown corner of the country for us and to also find the spot where BB painted a winter view of the famous Cley Towermill, marshes and River Glaven for me. It was one of the last paintings he ever did, but unbeknown to me at the time it was one of his "regular" pieces which he produced a few times a year for the market. I treasure it and we have been back every year since that first trip. Each year is like an adventure and we cannot imagine a time when we don't do it.
So, this humble date slice is riddled with memories for me - they all come flooding back when I bite into it (usually with a cup of tea). The good thing is The Captain and the nippers don't like them, so I don't end up losing half of it! Disappointingly there was a period when they stopped doing them, but they are well and truly back now. A friend brought me back a little box of them one year, just to keep me going you understand. How lovely is that!
It's no good - my belt is already in uncharted waters and then The Captain, with help from the nippers with icing, produces this little lot to get us through the next few days. I'll just have to do my bit like a good trencherman and get stuck in. Pass the butter please. Happy Easter!
