Tag Archives | Outdoor Activities

More evidence that the world has gone mad

By on June 22, 2011 in Home and Family, The Great Outdoors

Boy the Elder came home from school today with the following information. There are nine hundred children at his school between the age of 11 and 14 and they have a large playing field with lovely country views … which they have not been allowed to use for recreation at lunch or break time.

They have now been told that they may use the field in groups of no more than twenty two children at a time and, if they do manage to get a go, they have to wear hi visibility tabards.

I have nothing more to say on the matter, mainly because I can’t speak properly with my fist in my mouth.

Boy the Elder has only three more weeks left, until  in September, he starts at a school where getting dirty, climbing trees and roaming the grounds is positively encouraged.  And hurrah to that.

Comments { 21 }

Sunday Poem 88

By on May 15, 2011 in Culture, The Great Outdoors

I’m so sorry that the Sunday Poem is so very late today.  I was up at 5am helping Irish Alice cook breakfasts at her excellent new café at her fishing lakes at Yoke Hill Farm Fishery in Upper Benefield, Northamptonshire.

Boy the Younger and I got back home about 3pm in time for a short kip  before taking him to a roller skating party at 5pm.  I’m posting this poem and then I shall hit the sack myself.  Oh hang on, I’ve just remembered; I have an ice cold bottle of Sauvignon Blanc in the fridge and I intend to take the unusual step of having a glass of wine on my own.  I really must drink more….

Leader of Men – by Norman MacCaig – (1910-1996)

When he addressed ten thousand
Faces worked by automation
He was filled, exalted, afflated
With love and ambition for
His fellowcountrymen – in so far,
Of course,
As they were not incompatible
With the love and ambition he felt
For himself.  No sacrifice
Would be too great.  No
Holocaust.  No bloodbath.  He
Was affected by the nobility
Of his vision, his eyes were,
Naturally, blurred.

How was he to know
The mindless face of the crowd
Broke up, when he finished, into
Ten thousand pieces – except that,
When he went home,
He found the tea cold, his wife
Plain, his dogs smelly?

Comments { 3 }

Bank Holiday Weekend

By on April 23, 2011 in Slider

In which the Wartime Housewife discusses, Easter, Good Friday, the amenity of Welland Park, food mixers, crucifixions, St George’s Day, Hallaton Bottle Kicking and Simnel Cakes.

The last two days have been fairly varied and marginally calmer than my life usually is.  We all had a bit of a lie in on Friday morning and then my former common-law sister-in-law, Eliza, came round for a coffee and to give the chaps their Easter Eggs.  We decided to go to a performance of Stainer’s ‘Crucifixion’ at Rothwell Church in the evening, which seemed particularly appropriate being Good Friday.

Not that anyone would have known it was Good Friday.  My electric food mixer decelerated to a halt on Thursday and I had to buy another one in order to make Simnel Cakes for Easter.  I know, I know, I have a wooden spoon and I’m not afraid to use it but time is precious, it is.  I naively rang Argos to see if they were open on Good Friday and the girl on the end of the ‘phone came as close as she dared to saying ‘Errr yeah, durr?’ (you can add the irritating teenage inflection yourself).

Welland Park

When I went into Market Harborough it was clearly just another shopping day with every shop packed to the gills with people loading up trolleys for the oncoming siege situation of a Bank Holiday.  I bought my mixer, taking care to take out the extra 3-year cover, as the last two mixers have only lasted me a year each.  Well, a year and three days actually so they were JUST out of warranty. (Insert your own choice of compound swearing here).

I dropped the boys in Welland Park for a couple of hours and went home to make Simnel Cakes.  The delicious smell of hot cinnamon, nutmeg and fruit cake wafted around the house in a tantalising way as I rolled out the marzipan for the top and made the 11 balls for the disciples (twelve minus one for Judas Iscariot).

I left the last two in the oven and went back into town to pick the chaps up.  Welland Park is a wonderful facility just on the outskirts of Market Harborough.  There are tennis courts and bowling greens, a cafe for tea and ice cream and a massive play area for the children, as well as open grassed areas for ball games or sitting quietly under the trees picnicking.

But the most glorious thing is the gardens.  As you walk in past the tennis courts, there are the most glorious flowerbeds in complementary colours ranging from soft pinks and mauves to vibrant reds and oranges.  My favourite was a bed full of swathes of forget-me-nots in pink, white and blue with deep mauve tulips standing guard over their smaller, fluffier cousins.

As I walked towards the playground, I passed through the rose garden which has the bell tower from Symington’s factory as the centrepiece, and which has just been planted with tiny, intricately patterned box hedges.  In the summer the smell from this garden is heavenly from roses, lavender and the honeysuckle which boldly scales the trellises and archways round the edge.  We are fortunate indeed.

In the evening, we collected Eliza and headed off to Rothwell to hear ‘Crucifixion’.  It’s not an easy piece of music and it was performed admirably by the choir and the two soloists, particularly as quite a proportion of the choir can’t read music.  There are some familiar hymns in it and the congregation joined in which was most enjoyable.  It’s a very moving piece and just the thing to round off Good Friday.

Today, I dropped the boys off with their father and headed into town, which was even more packed than it was yesterday.  I bought some wide ribbon to finish off my cakes then returned home and ate my lunch whilst watching a repeat of James May making his plasticene garden for The Chelsea Flower Show.  St George’s Day appears to have been completely forgotten in all the excitement of Easter and a Royal Wedding.  I shall have Mushrooms for supper (after Dr Who, of course – hurrah!).

Tomorrow morning, I am driving down to London to pick up The Aged Parent and take her to Sister the Second for Easter Day.  I am hoping for many Lindt Bunnies for I have been a good girl all year.  So far anyway…

On Monday it is The Hallaton Bottle Kicking and Hare Pie Scramble.  Hip Hip Hurrah!

Comments { 5 }

New Season Gardening Tips

By on April 16, 2011 in Slider, The Great Outdoors

Heavenly blossom in the churchyard of St Nicks

A Blackthorn Winter:  You may have noticed an awful lot of blackthorn in blossom.  This heavy blossom usually follows a hard winter and country lore says that you shouldn’t put new plants or vegetables in until the Blackthorn blossom is dying off as there are still likely to be frosts.

Hanging Baskets:  Now is the time to sort out your hanging baskets.

Tip 1.  Line hanging baskets with old tea bags – they hold water and release nutrients for the plants.

Tip 2.  Old jumpers make super liners for baskets and look jolly as well.

Tip 3.  You  can avoid covering yourself in water when you water your baskets by putting a handful of ice cubes on top of the soil every so often.

Evergreens:  Clip and prune evergreens and flowering shrubs and give them a good mulching,

Mulching:  Mulching can be done with all sorts of things.  Try to get as many of the deep rooted perennial weeds out as you can for the best results.  The mulch must be thick enough to deprive the weeds of air and light.  You could try:

Carpet squares or lengths with holes cut in for the plants

Newspaper laid in thick layers then covered with straw can later be dug into the soil if necessary.  Alternatively you can cover the newspaper in bark or gravel

Old lino or vinyl floor covering is superb

Grass cutting laid 6” thick are an effective mulch round the bottom of currents or raspberries to keep down annual weeds

Seeds:

After sowing seeds, put a stick into the ground at the end of the row then place the seed packet or a label into a jam jar and put it upside down onto the stick

Individual seeds can be planted in tea bags and kept moist.  When they sprout they can be transferred directly into the soil without upsetting the roots

Seedlings can be protected from pests with plastic bottles, using the end with the cap on so you can allow air in

Soot:  Lily of the Valley enjoys being fed with water that has been mixed with a couple of tablespoons of soot.  Leeks will grow stronger if you add two or three handfuls of soot to the soil when you plant them

Wildlife:  If you are planting for the new season or moving your garden around, try to have an area with a bit of hedge where insects and small animals can shelter.  Also reserve a small area which can go a bit wild, including some logs to encourage beetles and suchlike

Comments { 2 }

Burrough Hill, Leicestershire – a lovely day out (and it's free!)

By on March 7, 2011 in The Great Outdoors

Ancient ramparts at Burrough Hill

Borough Hill is one of our favourite (and free) places to walk, winter and summer alike.   To get to it, you have to park your car at the bottom (there is a small charge for parking) and walk along a farm track, past pleasantly smelly cow sheds and farm machinery, past a field full of hairy cows with big horns and through the gate to the bottom of the hill.

This is an Iron Age Fort, rising up out of the Leicestershire landscape, near the village of Burrough on the Hill, just south of Melton Mowbray.  It is 690ft (210m) high and on a clear day, one can see several counties.  Its bowl-shaped grassy top makes it excellent for kite flying, model aircraft and running about and falling over.  The land around  is predominantly arable but there are cows and sheep grazing the land on and  immediately round  it.  This also provides plenty of dried sheep poo which we never fail to enjoy throwing at each other.  We know how to enjoy ourselves in the country, I can tell you.

What you can see from the top of Burrough Hill

In fact, Borough Hill has a long association with sports and leisure activities.  As far back as 1540 local people would converge on the hill on Whit Monday for competitive games such as races, shooting and wrestling, as well as taking the opportunity for a dance.  These entertainments were abandoned  in the 17th century, and apart from a brief  revival in the 18th century they tailed off.   The Whit Monday Games did happen very occasionally after that and may well have happened as recently as 1955.  Someone should start them up again – it would be glorious.

However, for about 70 years  in the 1900s, it became a popular spot for horse racing, especially the Melton Hunt Steeplechase.  The bowl shaped nature of the hill made it a perfect natural grandstand for spectators and there was even a race horse called ‘Burrough Hill Lad’ which rejoiced in the connection.

Marauders

This fort was built with ramparts of stone but faced with turf, and knowledge of other hill forts would suggest that there would have been a strong wooden palisade.  Natural erosion has occurred but also stone was taken  for road building in the 17th and 18th centuries, so there are lots of gaps in the ramparts now, which provide excellent stalking opportunities for imaginative and bloodthirsty boys and girls.

Archaeologists have excavated the site on several occasions since the 19th century and there have been finds dating from the Mesolithic period which would suggest that the site was in use long before its function as a hill fort.  They also found pottery and coins of Roman origin which indicate that the site was still in use in the 4th century AD.  In more recent excavations, they found a cobbled road, the remains of a guard house and evidence of large timber gates at one end of the entrance.

Hill forts were not only defensive structures, they also shouted loud and clear that these were communities to be reckoned with.  In some ways they fulfilled the same purpose as small towns would today,  in that they were centres for economic, political and religious purposes, albeit with fewer people.  Hill forts were also useful rallying points for markets, festivals and the election of leaders and there is some evidence to suggest that they acted as protected grain stores for the locality.

Nowadays the hill not only provides recreation for walkers and lively children, but also important habitats for plant and wildlife.  Wild Thyme, Milk Thistles and Lady’s Bedstraw are to be found there as well as species of Waxcap fungi and other specialised fungi which thrive on sheep and rabbit dung.    The gorze bushes are a delight, not only to look at and smell, but they also protect the slopes from grazing.

Birdlife thrives: Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Kestrels, Linnets, Yellowhammers, Tree Sparrows are all to be found there, and you can imagine the joy on a summer’s day of lying on your back, listening to supersonic, singing skylarks  high in the sky.  Hares and Muntjac are to be seen in the open grassland and the rabbits build burrows large enough to shove a small child into.  Believe me, I know.

Sunshine on a rainy day at Burrough Hill

Comments { 5 }

Snowdrops

By on January 28, 2011 in Home and Family, The Great Outdoors

What a vision of hope on this beautiful, crisp, sunny afternoon.

Snowdrops at Skeffington

Comments { 9 }

London – Part 2: The West End

By on November 30, 2010 in Home and Family, The Big, Wide World, The Great Outdoors

Now before we go any further, if you are planning a cultural / sightseeing/ shopping trip to a big city, and money is at all limited, the first thing you must do is to pack a picnic.  As I mentioned yesterday, eating at the site of an accepted landmark is reckless and foolhardy.  Their sole purpose is to fleece hapless tourists of their hard earned euros / dollars/ yen and no amount of weeping and cries of “I’m not a Tourist, I’m a Free Man!” will melt their hardened capitalist hearts.  Trust me, I’ve tried it.  Backpack, picnic, flask of cocoa; thirty quid more in your pocket to spend on fridge magnets and fudge.  That was Top Tip No. 1

Oxford StreetWe left St Paul’s and headed along the Central Line to Oxford Circus, where we emerged into a throng of more people than I have ever seen in my life, despite being a Londoner by birth.  Apparently, last Saturday is the busiest Saturday of the year.  Top Tip No. 2 – do not visit the West End of London on this day. 

In the past, Selfridges department store has had the most fabulous window displays; marvellous dioramas of fairy tales or children’s stories, or cats or something, all with moving figures and sparkly stuff.  This year there were groovily arranged piles of merchandise with mannequins with Betty Boop style heads on.   Boy the Younger liked it because it was bright and colourful, but Boy the Elder and I felt that we’d walked a sod of a long way to see a Shrine to Mammon.  We wandered around the store for a few minutes but were totally overwhelmed by the people and the stench of perfume nearly set my asthma off.

We went back into Oxford Street and walked slowly along, looking at all the shops and enjoying a variety of people you simply don’t get in Market Harborough.  Remind me another time to talk about hats.  A lot of the shops were having a fun with their displays and there were loads of hospitality girls and demonstrations going on.  Debenhams had a fashion show in their main window which was brilliant, hosted by a really gregarious and attractive person who, whilst showing off some really nice gear, nevertheless had his tongue firmly in his cheek. 

Window display at HamelysWe bought some freshly baked triple chocolate cookies from a tiny shop in an arcade and proceeded with all speed to Regent Street for the Hamleys experience.  The windows there were really lovely; huge bears in clothes doing baking and moving about.  That’s more like it.  There were so many people trying to get in, that there were security staff on every door, stairwell and escalator and they were letting the shoppers in in batches when enough other people had left.

It was completely overwhelming and again, although the boys loved it, there was none of the sense of ‘specialness’ that one used to get in Hamleys, the feeling that you were in a special place full of special toys.  We have a toyshop in Leicester called Dominos which is equally good and considerably cheaper.  I gave the chaps £5 each to spend as they saw fit; BTE bought an Airfix model and BTY found a Lego figure which he adores … which was lucky as there was precious little else they could have afforded.  Top Tip No. 3 – support your local toy shop, if you are still fortunate enough to have such a thing.

Regent Street lights

Home beckoned, and we sauntered down Regent Street, enjoying the ‘Narnia’ themed lights, to Piccadilly Circus.  It was quite touching how excited BTE was to see the huge flashing advertising board on the corner in real life and to see Eros silhouetted against it.  We fought our way onto the tube and settled into the inevitable monologue of BTY reading out every single station name and counting the number of stops left until Hatton Cross.

We arrived back at the Aged Parent’s at about 7 o’clock, to be greeted with steaming plates of sausages and mash, tired but thoroughly excited by our day.  When Granny asked the boys what had been their favourite bit, I was hugely gratified when they answered (with absolutely no prompting from me) that it had been St Paul’s.  With the triple chocolate cookies coming a very close second.

Comments { 10 }

London – Part 1: St Paul's Cathedral

By on November 29, 2010 in Home and Family, The Big, Wide World, The Great Outdoors

We had the most wonderful time in London.  We got to the Aged Parent’s gloriously warm house  late morning, and headed into town for lunch and an afternoon of cruising round the shops.  The day was finished nicely with fish and chips and the DVD of ‘Nativity’ – I sobbed throughout, as usual.

We got up relatively early for a Saturday and headed into town on the tube.  The Boys get very excited about going on the tube, particularly Boy the Younger who oohs and aahs at every bit of dark tunnel and every bit of decorative tiling at the stations. 

Our first stop was St Paul’s Cathedral.  I last went there in 1982 so it was a glorious revelation for all of us.  The first revelation was the entrance fee: £12.50 for me and £4.50 each for the boys.  As I was standing, swearing vilely at the information board, a very kind Guide pointed out that if we nipped across the road to the Tourist Information kiosk, they would give us a tourist map which had a 20% discount voucher.  Therefore, entrance for we three plus a guide book came to just over £21.  It had better be good, we thought.

It was.  We were given ipod thingies which had the most extraordinary guide, including film footage and choices of information so you could tailor your visit completely to your own interests.  Boy the Younger had to show me how to work it, of course.  It’s really hard to describe the wonderfulness of it, particularly as you aren’t allowed to take photographs but one of the highlights for me was seeing William Holman Hunt’s painting ‘The Light of the World’ which I find unutterably beautiful.

St Paul himself

Naturally we trudged up the stairs to The Whispering Gallery and whispered frantically to each other – thankfully wheezing works just as well.  There was also a Eucharist Service performed while we were there which was lovely and what was even nicer was that virtually every hour, the clergy asked for a moment’s peace for prayer and contemplation which made me somewhat less inclined to order the merchants from the temple.

Boy the Elder then decided that he wanted to go up to the next level, The Stone Gallery.  This involved another hundred or so stairs, so he and BTY skipped up with the camera with instructions to photograph London.  They came down with some smashing pictures and demanded that we make an unaided attempt on the summit, aka The Golden Gallery.

Taken by Boy the Elder

Now, I went up there in 1982 and came down every step on my bottom, pausing periodically to change my underwear, and I only did it then because I was trying to impress a boy.  I had forgotten just how hideous it actually is.  The dome of St Pauls is actually in three parts.  There is the inner dome which is above The Whispering Gallery.  There is then a conical structure on the top of that, around which is built the outer dome which is the familiar and iconic image of St Paul’s. 

Also taken by Boy the Elder

In order to ascend to The Golden Gallery at the top, you have to climb a narrow, open fretwork, iron spiral staircase which winds its way between the cone and the outer dome.  On either side and below, it just drops away into darkness.  There are narrow platforms which serve as passing places, but otherwise you just go up and up and round and round in a way of which Dante would thoroughly have approved.

We got about a quarter of the way up when BTY did what I was desperate to do, but couldn’t because this time I was trying to impress MY boys.  He burst into tears and wouldn’t go any further.  I can’t tell you how relieved I was.  We scuttled down and ran straight into the crypt for some refreshment.

And that is where the horror started. 
I jest – but can I just tell  you that a mug of tea, a plain scone, two tiny tubs of fruit salad and two Fantas came to £14.95.  Another change of underwear please.

I will tell you about The West End and our arrival at home tomorrow.

Comments { 9 }

Out and About

By on November 26, 2010 in Home and Family, The Great Outdoors

I’m afraid there will be no post on Saturday for two reasons.  Firstly, as I sit here on Thursday night, in my dining room with no heating, with the temperature outside nudging -2o, I can see my breath billowing against the computer screen and my hands are shaking so much that I keep mis-typing.  I have prepared the Sunday Poem but that is as much as I can do for you my friends.

The second, more pleasant reason, is that by the time you read this, me and The Boys will be on our way to London for the weekend.  We will go out with The Aged Parent, with whom we are staying, on Friday afternoon, then on Saturday we are going into town to see the sights.  I’m going to take them to Hamley’s Toyshop (taking care to make them wear extra underpants – just in case), then to see the Christmas display in Selfridges windows and then we shall hop on the tube and have a look at St Paul’s Cathedral.  We were watching Mary Poppins yesterday, so I might just dress up as a chimney sweep and pounce on them from an alleyway with a tortured Cockney accent.  Or maybe I’ll take their tuppences and…

On Sunday we’re meeting up with my sisters in St Albans to visit the walnut tree which we planted in Victoria Park as a memorial to our father who died a few years ago.  We don’t often get the chance to meet up all together so I’m looking forward to the visit and a pleasant lunch.

I’m off to pack for the weekend now, after which I will snuggle up in my warm bed.
Thank God for electric blankets.

Comments { 6 }

Hiking it up – or should that be camping?

By on November 19, 2010 in Health and Beauty, Home and Family, The Great Outdoors
I have to be up at a disgustingly early hour in the morning because Boy the Elder has decided, at the last minute, that he is going for a day’s hiking in Wales tomorrow.  This activity was offered by The Scouts last month and he initially declined because he was worried that it would be too demanding, but then a friend rang and said “Oh go on!” I also suspect an added incentive is the presence of a certain Girl Scout who is much admired by BTE and his chum.

My sons love being outside and are very active – show them a tree and they’ll be up it like a squirrel after his nuts, but they are not sporty.  Boy the Younger has attained a greater degree of mastery over his limbs than BTE, which helps, and he approaches sport with rather more vim and vigour than his brother, but they are both devoid of any competitive edge whatsoever.

One of my favourite examples is when BTE had his first Sports Day and one of the races was a Fancy Dress Relay.  The children ran along, stopping every so often to put on a hat, then a waistcoat then some trousers etc.  My son ran to the first pile and put on a hat.  He sauntered nonchalantly along the track to the pile of waistcoats, decided that the one on his pile didn’t co-ordinate with the hat, so he went to the pile in the next lane and took that waistcoat instead.  The same happened with the trousers and the scarves.  He arrived at the finishing line looking like a 5-year old Beau Brummell, but he was not popular with his team mates.  I ignored the smugly sympathetic looks on the faces of the fathers in running shoes. 

I had high hopes that he might be gay, but his earlier, fastidious approach to personal grooming has vanished into the mist.  His Scottish cousins call him Swampy. Q.E.D.  I offer him plenty of motherly advice to guide him safely into the world of mutual attraction, for example:-

You’ll never get a girlfriend/boyfriend if you don’t:-
 keep your knob clean and fragrant
clean your teeth
change your socks / pants / ways
spray something on your hair to make it look as though it’s deliberate
stop walking/running like a tangled marionette

A male contemporary of mine once said that he wished his mother had told him things like that, but he seems to have turned out perfectly fragrant and upright without her help.  BTY is a far cleaner child in that he will spontaneously wash on a weekly basis without any threats or growling from me.

Still, at 06.30 on Saturday I will be depositing BTE in the Minibus of Hope for a journey to savour the delights of  “the famous Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall in the Welsh borders for a demanding day hike in the Berwyn Mountains, to the summits of Cadair Berwyn (830m) and Moel Sych.  Scouts will walk in accompanied groups, with the opportunity to practise navigation skills and work towards the Hillwalking Activity Badge.”  

I confess that I’m slightly worried that he won’t be able to manage it and will end up holding the others up  but I hope I’m proved wrong.  The Girl Scout may well prove to be the incentive he needs to build up his stamina.  Let’s hope he’s washed his……….

Comments { 22 }