December 2012

In and around Ringwood in early December we had quite a lot of flooding close to the River Avon. Unfortunately, the river flows close the town centre so quite a few properties were affected. Here you can see ponies on the meadows struggling to find something to eat.

   Flooding across the meadows

   

Ponies by the gate

Flooding in the Bickerley

    

Making the most of a sunny day – a walk around Mill Lawn, north of Burley. It was very wet and wellies were a necessity.

   

The route we took – about 2 miles in total

Tony and Ellen visited us for lunch. We went in search and found 2 local geocaches.

    

We were invited by Glyn and Sue to their very nice new home in Portchester and then on to Eastney Cruising Association, Southsea for lunch.

   

Joy, Sue, Sue, Sybil

Geoff and Glyn

   

On the 12/12/12 there were a few geocaching events to celebrate the last calendar alignment this century. It was a flash mob type meet (or should I say ‘flashcache’) arrive exactly at 6pm flashing a torch. About 30 cachers turned up which was a good turnout for a winter’s evening. We dispersed at 6.15pm and some people went to the pub. Guess where I went?  Some cachers had been to an event earlier in the day which was at 12 minutes past 12.

    

Keeping to the geocaching theme, Sue and I went geocaching on the next sunny day. Sue just about to have her packed lunch.

This is a map of all the caches we did. Wimborne Minster town centre is towards the bottom right.

On Tuesday 18th I took the motorbike to Calshot on Southampton Water. There is somewhere to stop and watch the ships, boats, ferries etc. go by. There is a RNLI station here and the semi-rigid was out of its boat house. The survey vessel was also rushing about which I think might have something to do with the positioning of the buoy for the lifeboat.

Also at the end is the old coast guard tower which is now run by volunteers attached to NCI Coastwatch. For more information on them the website is www.nci.org.uk/calshot

     

Calshot Tower from below

 Oldie Photos

Gromitz, North German coast about 1977

     

Dortmund Garrison/Cornwall School closure celebrations 1994

 

Sue and Stuart wish you all a Merry Christmas and a 
Happy New Year

 

Next year’s blog will be at http://thebuchans2013.blogspot.co.uk/

Dorset Days – Early November

Schools half term is over so off we go!
Not too far this time, in fact, just around the corner to Poole. We rarely go to Poole and the Purbecks so this seemed an ideal opportunity to get down there, especially as the bus stopped at the site gates. We had the choice of the X53 to Poole or Weymouth and Exeter or the ‘40 Breezer’ to Swanage or Poole.

We stayed at an excellent site which has superb reviews. At this time of year it is very well priced. It can be found in the Best of British brochure (or online).

The entrance

To the bus

     

Stuart on the Twin Sails bridge, opened in March 2012

View from the bridge towards the RNLI HQ

        

We have not seen the bridge in the ‘open’ position, but if you look for photos on the internet it looks very impressive.
Sunseeker, the boat builder had these motor yachts for sale – we couldn’t decide on which one to have – so have left it until another day. Maybe one of the new apartments at Poole Quay would be better?

 

A trip to Swanage was rewarded with these less than flattering photos.

                                

Much of the stone for London’s buildings and monuments came from this area and was shipped from Swanage to London. The ships had to come back in ‘ballast’ so some of London’s unwanted items were brought to Swanage and used around the town.

Post from St. Giles and Bloomsbury

Portland stone Ionic columns – it is not known which London building they came from.

Sir John Bankes (castle owner) was Lord Chief Justice to King Charles I. When civil war broke out it was left to Lady Bankes to defend the castle in 1643 and 1645 through two sieges. She was finally overcome by the treachery of one of her own officers, Colonel Pitman. Following an Act of Parliament, the Castle was then blown up from the inside by engineers.

 

Instead of the bus we took the car to Studland and parked by the Bankes Arms where we started our walk to Old Harry Rocks. About 2 miles altogether. On the return leg the Marines/SBS (not sure which) were jumping out of a Hercules into Studland Bay and were then picked up by inflatable boat. They only jumped in threes so it took a couple of hours in total.

Old Harry Rocks

Sue on Godlingston Heath

 

Stuart by Agglestone Rock on Godlingston Heath – the rock fell over a few years ago. I’m holding my GPS so I can claim this as an Earthcache. Sue was very pleased with herself because we covered just over 5 miles walking that day.

 

We finished off our week by visiting Rockley Park, just north of Poole. This area would be inundated with people in the summer, but as you can see there is hardly anyone around. If you think we had good weather whilst away you would be right. We had sunshine most days and frequently we could sit out to have our coffee and teas. However, we did wear wellies for our walks as it was usually very wet underfoot.

Oldie Photo – Stuart in Yugoslavia 1983 – not changed much?

 

 

Where’s the Deckchair Attendant?

Sue and I went to Harry Ramsden’s for my birthday meal – I like fish and chips!
Outside of Harry’s was this deck chair. It is the largest one in the world  at 8.5 metres high, 5.5 metres wide and it weighs in at 6 tonnes! I didn’t get to sit in it.

To continue with the blue sky photos, here are a couple from one of the rambles lead by David and Lyn. At one stage David had to find another route due to recent heavy rains. David whilst exploring other possible routes found himself up to his thigh in mud.

 

With the present government initiative of free cavity wall insulation we, along with other neighbours, have had our cavities filled. I wasn’t too happy seeing the chap standing on top of the conservatory – I didn’t think it was that strong.

 

A spaghetti of hoses

Last weekend we visited Maggie and Andy in Gloucestershire. We still have the blue sky, but the temperature has plummeted, hence the winter woollies.

View towards the Severn Estuary and Wales from Uley Bury

On Sunday morning we went to Gloucester Cathedral to see
‘The Architecture of Cloth, Colour and Space’ by Anna Glasbrook and Ptolemy Mann. We liked the two dimensional work, but the 3D work wasn’t to my liking. However, the new oak lectern and chairs in the nave were very impressive.

Coloured discs

Looking up at the coloured cloth

At the cathedral

More of the exhibition

 Oldie photos – Dortmund 1991

Assembling at David and Carol’s prior to the Masked Ball at the Mess.
Sue made four of the masks.

Stuart and Sue

Partygoers

  

Maggie and Andy