Year End - 2013

 I’ve been out moving my geocaches around and this photo is from Bratley Wood, New Forest, where one of them is hidden.

Near Bolderwood, New Forest

 
A Sunday morning turned into a real adventure. Two ponies helping me repair a puncture. There’s a really long story to this photo, but there just isn’t space to write it all down. I did get it repaired eventually.

Lunch at Eastney Cruising Association, Southsea. We met up with our Portsmouth friends for lunch on a beautiful day.

Stuart, Geoff and Glyn

         Sybil, Joy and Sue                              Geoff and Glyn

     

         Sue and Joy                                          Sybil and Sue Jones

     

Ready for lunch

Another day moving geocaches around. The weather was very overcast and it looked like rain, but held off. This is a view from the top of the ‘submarine pens’. On the left is a straight track which is known as the ‘line target’ and the pond to the right is a watery bomb crater. This area during the war was a test bombing range and these are some of the features that remain. If you want to know more Google ‘Ashley Walk bombing range’.

   

I’ve been leading rambles for the New Forest Ramblers recently – I didn’t get the weather right for this one.

November on Bournemouth seafront overlooking the sea – fantastic weather

Geocaching on Holt Heath near Wimborne Minster.

As you can see this is wonderful weather (21st Dec.) - the following day (today) the weather is terrible, rain and high winds. We found all 5 caches.

Oldie Photo – so old it’s black and white

Stuart and Sue in the early 70’s

Sue and Stuart wish all our readers a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Cambridgeshire – Brampton

After Norfolk we moved on to the Willows Caravan site in Brampton, close to Huntingdon. We were  going to Houghton Mill Caravan club site, but this was cancelled at short notice due to waterlogged grounds. Thankfully David and Carol helped us find another site near them, very quickly. As you can see from the photo it wasn’t busy. It did have very warm facilities with lots of hot water for showers and washing up.

The River Great Ouse – close to the caravan site

Visit to Cambridge on the guided bus route.

David, a bloke I don’t recognise, Carol and Sue

Cambridge scene

  

Boat station by Magdalen Bridge.

 

Kettles Yard - Between 1958 and 1973 this was was the home of Jim and Helen Ede. In the 1920s and 30s Jim had been a curator at the Tate Gallery in London. Thanks to his friendships with artists he gathered a remarkable collection, including paintings by Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Alfred Wallis, Christopher Wood, David Jones and Joan Miro, as well as sculptures by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Constantin Brancusi, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth.

                                            Inside the house

  

Welcome break on a geocaching trip.

By the river

Sue and I had another visit to Cambridge on the guided bus route. We sat in the usual OAP seats, top deck at the front, to get the best views over the Cambridgeshire countryside. Sue chose to do retail therapy in Cambridge while I went for a walk to find some geocaches and to take a few more photos. En route I visited the  The Sedgewick Museum of Earth Sciences. It’s full of old fossils (no jokes, thank you) some of them very impressive.

Deinotherium giganteum, found locally, was one of the largest land animals. It is related to the present day elephant.

Large Ammonoid

 

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Mathematical Bridge

Trinity College

 

Sunday lunch at the Axe and Compass

We spent six days altogether in Brampton and were well looked after by David and Carol, thank you.

Oldie Photo

Der Schornsteinfeger-The Chimney Sweep. There are still chimney sweeps today and they wear the traditional attire of their profession. Supposedly, if you shake hands with a chimney sweeper, it will bring you good luck. He was sweeping our chimney in Dortmund.

Norfolk - Roger’s 70th Birthday

Shortly after arriving at Broadlands Caravan Club site, Norfolk, we were whisked off to the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts by Roger and Margaret. Here we are resting between exhibitions.

 

In the café is a Lotus 72 a Formula One car designed by Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe for the 1970 season. Lotus headquarters are nearby in Hethel.

 In the centre there is a permanent display and and at the time of our visit supplemented by ‘Masterpieces’.   ‘The exhibition encompasses over 270 masterpieces across the media, including painting, furniture, sculpture, design, jewellery, textiles and a wealth of stunning treasures.’ We found this very interesting especially as it was based on the artistic heritage of East Anglia. We also found a few items by Margaret Howell, fashion designer, Sue and I were at school with her. She now has shops in London, Tokyo and Paris.

The items below are from The First Moderns:
Art Nouveau from Nature to Abstraction.

Orchid Brooch By George Fouquet 1898 to 1901

Buckle c. 1903-04 René Lalique
Gold, enamel, opal, sapphire

The day of our visit was actually Roger’s birthday so on returning to the caravan he had to blow out the candles on the birthday cake. It wasn’t big enough for 70 candles!

  

Roger persuaded me to help out on the wherry, Albion, on their volunteer morning. My only task was to remove the name boards, 10 screws in all. Albion was being prepared for taking out of the water in the near future.

I went on a bike ride/ geocaching trip. This took me passed Thurne and its dyke drainage windmill.
The mill was built in 1820. In 1949 the mill was taken over by Bob Morse and eventually restored with the assistance of the Norfolk Windmills Trust.

River Bure – St Benet’s Level Wind Pump across the river.

On one of our geocaching walks near Winterton-on-Sea we came across this campervan which looked as though it was a ‘work in progress’.  I should think this is the only piece of art which needs an MOT.

 

 

 

Many of the towns and villages in Norfolk have these decorative signs.

  

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside. Hemsby Norfolk

  

At Roger’s birthday party

Roger                                                         Stuart

 

Margaret, daughters, Emma and Becky, and grandson

 

The Royal Arcade, Norwich

Colman’s have been making fine quality mustards in Norfolk for nearly 200 years and this tradition is celebrated in Colman’s Mustard Shop & Museum in The Royal Arcade.

We visited the Time & Tide Museum in Great Yarmouth with Roger and Margaret. It is set in one of the UK's best preserved Victorian herring curing works and the smoke smell still lingers. Sue in an old alleyway mock up.

Sue, Stuart and Margaret – does this count as an oldie photo?

A big thank you must go to Roger and Margaret for looking after us so well.

We were away when the big storm came through, fortunately it was not as bad as it was in the south of England. We had taken the awning down and made preparations so everything was OK.

Coming soon the second part of our trip away ……