Whipsnade walk.

We took our doggie guest, Charlie, out for a walk yesterday. The weather was glorious, we didn't go far, just to the Tree Cathedral. It's very pleasant there, it's laid out like a medieval cathedral would have been and built by Edmund Blyth in memory of three of his friends.
All four had served in the trenches of World War One. Arthur Bailey and John Bennett were both killed in action during the big German push on the allied lines in March 1918. I have checked the Commonwealth Wargraves Commission site to try to identify these two men. I couldn't conclusively find them but using the dates of the German attack ( Operation Michel) of March 1918 I think Arthur Bailey could have been a Lieutenant with the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry killed in action on 24th March 1918 & remembered on the memorial at Arras aged 19 & John Bennett possibly a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Bn The Rifle Brigade killed in action on 28th March 1918 and remembered on the Pozieres Memorial. His age was 22. 
Blyth's third friend Francis Holland survived the war but was killed in a car crash in Canada in 1930.
Work on the cathedral was started in 1930, interrupted in 1939 as Blyth was called up to his old regiment. By 1947 when he was demobbed the site was very overgrown but by 1952 the first service was held there.
It was given to the National Trust in 1960, there's also nearby cottages called 'Bailey Cottage' & 'Bennett Cottage' which Blyth brought to give cheap holidays for people in London, Edmund Blyth lived in 'Blythwood' and died in 1968. His son Tom continued to manage the site until his death in 1978. He also gave nearby 'Windy Sales' to the Guide movement but these days the Scouts use it too.
There's 22 different types of tree planted here and 14 types of flowering shrubs, it's a place I often walked with our dogs and never disappoints.
Afterwards we repaired to the Old Hunters Lodge for a beer. The pleasantly cool Tawny Owl Ale by Tring Brewery was on tap, it slipped down a treat I can tell you! Popped in on Ella & Julian after as well.

Charlie.

Approaching the Tree Cathedral.

Tring Brewery's Tawny Owl Ale. 

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Charlie, obviously done in from his walk, with Ella & Julian.

      

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Silverstone

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Silverstone: Some friends of ours are attending a motor bike event at Silverstone this weekend & it reminded me that my Dad had been to Silverstone....

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Silverstone

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Silverstone: Some friends of ours are attending a motor bike event at Silverstone this weekend & it reminded me that my Dad had been to Silverstone....

Silverstone

Some friends of ours are attending a motor bike event at Silverstone this weekend & it reminded me that my Dad had been to Silverstone. Not to race any kind of bike or car but in his ongoing aircrew training between August and October 1944.
The unit was called No 17 Operational Training Unit (OTU), at this point in time they were flying Wellington bombers, one of the bigger twin engine bombers of the era. You can see below his results on his gunnery course. This included flying (in the rear turret of the Wellington as it didn't have a M/U position which he was to hold once converted to Lancasters))  with a British fighter (in this case a Hurricane) acting as the bandit. Instead of firing guns at it a cine camera was 'fired' at the bandit. You can see my Dad got 78.3%. I don't know what the pass mark was but there's an entry that states he would became 'an efficient air gunner.' Bear in mind the gunner would instruct the pilot to corkscrew to port or starboard to avoid the bandit & in doing so pulling extra G force whilst still trying to aim his guns!
I well remember him telling me of these 'fighter affiliation' exercises. He thought the fighter pilots were all mad as so close would they fly to the Wellington before the exercise that he maintained if he could have lent out of the gun turret he could have touched the Hurricanes nose!
 17 OTU was part of their build up to be aircrew with Bomber Command. My Dad had started on Arsons, a small twin engine aircraft, once with a crew he went onto Wellingtons, a bigger twin engine plane, then onto the big four engine beasts of the Stirling and of course the mighty Lancaster.
The flights marked in red on the  photo of his log book are night flights. The entry for 14/10/44 is rather interesting. It is designated a 'Sweepstake' operation.  Basically these crews, along with many others who were still under training were to act as a dummy bomber stream to confuse the Germans. The 'real' bomber force would also be flying out and at some stage the Sweepstake force would turn for home so the Germans had to split their resources as they wouldn't know which were the bombers out to attack them. It's worth stating again these boys who were still under training, were flying over enemy territory and liable to blown out of the sky very bit as much as their fully trained colleagues. But it wasn't included as an 'operational sortie'  by RAF officialdom.
By the end of the course he had flown 75 hours and 10 minutes in Wellington Bombers marks III & X. Next stop for them was Swinderby to convert to Stirlings, then in January 1945 to No5 Lancaster Finishing School and finally to 106 Squadron to fly operationally. As an 'effective air gunner' he did fire his guns 'in anger' as did the rear gunner when they were attacked by a Focke Wulf 190 fighter over Hamburg on the night of 21st April 1945 though for some reason it was not counted a 'combat.'

Air Gunners Flying log.  14/10/44 detail the 'Sweepstake' operation. 

  

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Friday Night Dinner.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Friday Night Dinner.: Not the comedy series though as usual it descended into chaos! No, it didn't really, we had an  excellent evening with Gary & Ellie...

Friday Night Dinner.

Not the comedy series though as usual it descended into chaos! No, it didn't really, we had an  excellent evening with Gary & Ellie who came over to dinner.
Just had veg & shop brought dips as a light starter and then I cooked the Rick Stein recipe I've done before of baked sea bream Rota style, though I couldn't get four bream so got bass instead which worked equally well. Follow this link for the recipe :http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/baked_sea_bream_28386
Pud was a little different, called Austrian Cheesecake it was a Mary Berry recipe  there's no biscuit base so it was good for Tara & Gary. Basically mixed curd cheese (philli), ground almonds, polenta, egg yolks, sugar, then added the whisked egg whites. Baked for 30 minutes & then left to cool for an hour in the turned off oven. Very tasty though I say so myself!
I tried to get a different  beer to go with each course rather than wine. Both the veg & the Rota bass call for a light beer, though unfortunately I got light wheat beers but Ellie & I enjoyed them! A fine Hobgoblin ale called King Goblin accompanied the pud, at 6.6% it was quite pokey. I'll have to try the different beer with  courses again I think. Anyway a brilliant evening!

Chopped parsley to add to garlic and salt to rub into the fish.

 

Onions, garlic, bay leaves, green peppers cook away.

Four beheaded sea bass  and the Rota mix in the mortar.



Austrian Cheesecake.



Chopped peeled tomatoes now added to the mixture.

Served up and ready to go!

Cheesecake cut.

G,E and Charlie our house guest this week.

Don't drink beer? Then come to Dunstable Beer Festival, we don't drink beer there either!

Thought we'd try Dunstable Beer Festival again to see whether things had improved and sadly they haven't.
Got there about 7pm on Saturday ( surely one of the busiest nights) to be told all the ciders were off, so no drink for Bev & no reduction in the entry price either! The bar was very busy, as you'd expect. Well apparently the organisers didn't expect as there were very few staff to serve the thirsty punters.
Eventually got a beer from the rapidly decreasing choice & went outside to sit on the hay bales. Said hello to a couple of bods we haven't seen in ages, I'd found a booklet with all the beer selections in but as most beers were running out it seemed a waste of time bothering to read it. Fought my way to the bar again  and waited.....and waited. At one point there was only two people serving. Waited and waited, a chant of 'we want beer' went up somewhere to my right. After around 15 minutes I gave up waiting & suggested we went down the pub, which we did.
It was a total farce. I really wanted to support this local event but  there was too few staff, too few beers and ciders ( though some ciders were brought in from the nearby Asda!) and for christ sake get an indoor venue, but don't bother on my account, I won't be going again.

Our one and only beer at the festival.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Last dig of the year.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Last dig of the year.: For me anyway as the very last dig booked is when we're on holiday. Back to Shillington, this time to a very early 17th century house, ...

Last dig of the year.

For me anyway as the very last dig booked is when we're on holiday. Back to Shillington, this time to a very early 17th century house, unfortunately extended in the 1960/70's with nothing in keeping.
Our 1m test pit was put in just behind the house in line with the original building, & off we went!
A very mixed bag we got! It's always good to find things, anything quite honestly as it keeps you going but the archaeology we got was all mixed up. The top few contexts were full of all sorts, it was probably all mixed up when the house was built, so we were finding the ever popular Victorian blue & white pottery, clay pipe stems and part of a bowl along with some medieval grey wares, dating to around the 13th century and loads and loads of peg tile. Roofing tiles infact ( one for Alec there!)
Probably the nicest find was a small glass bottle after a little research I found it to be a Victorian ink bottle. Got down to 0.50m and the notorious clay started to appear which is a real bugger to dig. It won't sieve either so you have to break it up by hand.
Called it a day there & retired for post dig analysis at the Musgrove Arms, the guest beer today was a very light and citrusy brew called St Edmunds, a Greene King beer at 4.2% in strength. It was indeed another refreshing golden ale.
 Day two saw us dig another context but finds had pretty well dried up, so under glorious sunshine a half section was dug to take us down to 0.7m where we called it a day and  after lunch began the tedious bit of the back fill. It was a very good dig but I found it frustrating that our finds were so  mixed up. It didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know but was still great fun!
All finished we repaired for a final post dig analysis. It's been a great years digging & I look forward to next year where I know Derek has already got us some gigs lined up!

 

 

 

 

V

 

 

 

 

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Robert Owen

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Robert Owen: I was in Newtown in Powys the other day with time to kill before my next appointment so I wondered round, which didn't take long, then ...

Robert Owen

I was in Newtown in Powys the other day with time to kill before my next appointment so I wondered round, which didn't take long, then I saw signs to Robert Owens tomb. I didn't know the name so I bumbled over in the general direction of the sign.
There's a very ruinous church of St Mary. The grave stones have been taken up and set along side the path around the inside  the church & there's graffiti & damage to a large tomb within. It's bit of a mess quite frankly and all looks rather sad. However........go outside the church  and there is the renovated tomb of Robert Owen that is in much better nick than its surroundings.
I hadn't heard of him though from this grave somebody had! He died in 1858, his grand tomb put in place in 1902 and restored to its former glory in 1993 ( there's a plaque stating this, unveiled by Labour MP Ann Clwyd)
He was one of the great social reformers of Victorian Britain. Born in 1771 in Newtown, moving to Manchester he was employed in the mills   and eventually owned a mill in Lanarkshire. Unlike alot of mill owners he looked after his employee's. A shop he opened for his workers sold products at little more than cost, he brought in bulk and passed on his saving to his customers. He was undoubtedly a supporter of workers rights and helped the plight of the poor, he was also instrumental in the Cooperative movement. He died on 17th November 1858 in the Bear Hotel in Newtown, a man of the people if ever there was one.

The man himself.

View of the River Severn at Newtown.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Apple Butter

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Apple Butter: The Memsahib made a very tasty jam type thing the other day called Apple Butter. It's really nice, basically you batter the bejesus out...

Apple Butter

The Memsahib made a very tasty jam type thing the other day called Apple Butter. It's really nice, basically you batter the bejesus out of a load of apples, add the same weight in sugar put in some spices like cloves & cinnamon then put the whole lot into a slow cooker for about nine hours.
The result is a very flavoursome, perhaps surprisingly very concentrated flavour of apples and Christmas. I 've had it as a topping to porridge & its absolutely delicious!

The finished article.

Looks like chutney, which does contain apples come to think of it.  

Start of the process, apples, peel and all, blitzed to buggery in the Easy Pull hand food processor.

The start.

 

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Another refreshing golden ale.........

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Another refreshing golden ale.........: So sayeth number two son when I sent the attached photo of the beer pump from which I partook tonight........do I need to be more descripti...

Another refreshing golden ale.........

So sayeth number two son when I sent the attached photo of the beer pump from which I partook tonight........do I need to be more descriptive in my eulogy to the great gods of beer? Maybe he has something though it has to be said that Saxon Gold brewed by the Battlefield Brewery of Shrewsbury is , well........  golden and refreshing 3.8%  in strength and the hops used happen to have the same name as a favourite band of mine-Magnum! 
Strange journey this morning as my satnav took me very close to Banbury and therefore Cropredy where we have enjoyed the Fairport Convention Festival for the past three years. We elected not to go this year as not only did the line up leave us unmoved but we really need some guaranteed sun on our backs so a trip to Spain later on in the year is instead of Cropredy. We will of course miss all the Cropredy Chaps  and all the fun we have there. Meanwhile read on.......
In Telford tonight, very bad planning as I wouldn't usually want to be the wrong side of Birmingham on a Friday but sometimes you just have to do it, sustained with a good meal of asparagus with a quail egg & bacon then  slow cooked beef ribs with mash & broccoli  and finally a very good cheese board  full of local Shropshire cheeses helped ease the pain. Dig coming up this weekend, stay  tuned!

    

An idiots guide to an Idiot: The joy of..........watching a rubbish film

An idiots guide to an Idiot: The joy of..........watching a rubbish film: The Memsahib & I had a hectic week last week. We both flopped onto the settee Wednesday evening & watched a very interesting progra...

The joy of..........watching a rubbish film

The Memsahib & I had a hectic week last week. We both flopped onto the settee Wednesday evening & watched a very interesting programme about sweet makers through the ages. They were at Blists Hill in Shropshire where we have been so made it all the more interesting.
I suppose we both just vegged out abit & were still sat sitting there for the next programme, a film called 'Man up.'
It was a rom-com I suppose. It was British which was different in itself and starred Simon Pegg, I've liked some other stuff he's been in, 'Hot Fuzz' for instance & 'Run fat boy run' which certainly passed the time, so I was prepared to give it a go.
It's basically a forty something bloke (Pegg) thinking his twenty something blind date is infact a thirtysomething bint (Lake Bell) who has, in a series of misunderstandings met him instead of the other girl (Ophelia Lovibond). They get on like a house on fire until she eventually owns up......so they don't get on for while, meet his soon to be ex-wife and one of her loony friends (superbly played by Rory Kinnear who seems good at playing slightly strange characters) who is still holding a candle for her.
After saying goodnight, he realises he's been a complete arse & tries to find her again, she is after all the love of his life. After a ridiculous  ride & run through South London ( I think) he finds her & of course, after a heartfelt speech they fall into each others arms, end up having bit of a grapple & on cue the credits roll......................A bigger load of old cobblers I haven't watched in along time but it was a pleasant load of old cobblers and whiled away our hectic day.

 
  

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Stir Fry.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Stir Fry.: I like a stir fry but as usual its all fits and starts, that is to say we don't have one for ages, then I get all enthusiastic and we h...