The snooker is over with John Higgins, "The wizard of Wishaw", just edging out the young pretender, talk about tension. It's been the best world championship in years, I know 'cause Jill told me.
Adderley is not the most photogenic of villages being mostly new build with a few older cottages tucked away. It now has no facilities at all, the small shop/post office is closed and even the village hall appears to be under threat but it does have one great plus going for it, it sits in perfect countryside.
On our wanderings around the lanes we did find an abundance of wild flowers:-
Cowslips or St. Peters Keys, I can remember meadows yellow with them in the spring, now they are all ploughed up and sown with a mono-culture of grass suitable for silage, progress I suppose.
English bluebells,
a wood carpeted with them is a sight to knock your eyes out and the scent......
The humble daisy or days eye, the old name for it. People complain about having them in their lawns, Philistines.
Jill tells the time with a dandelion clock, it was five minutes slow. Anyway I've got a watch, it is kinetic, waterproof and accurate to a second in a year or some other ridiculous figure, I look at it sometimes to see what day it is.
The only interesting edifice in the village, it is a four faced sundial, it must have been moved at sometime because each face has traces of at least two gnomons, unfortunately there isn't any information about it that I can find, must check Wikipedia.
* "Ne'er cast a clout till may is out", is the old wisdom and here is a may tree in full blossom so it is now safe to stow away your thermals. It is a common misapprehension that "may" refers to the month whereas it actually refers to the may or hawthorn tree. What a source of dubious information I am but as there is nothing more solipistic than a blog what I say goes. For any readers in the Americas a vest is an upper body undergarment, not a waistcoat. Clout is an old term for a vest, that splendid Scottish dish, a cloutie dumpling derived its name from being wrapped in an old vest for a pudding cloth. Oh what culinary delights these islands have produced.
Bendigadig passed us today just as we had finished tying up between locks eleven and twelve on the Audlem flight, as usual with fellow bloggers just time for a quick hello and they were off up the flight. Later I was approached on the towpath by a very pleasant antipodean chap who had spotted the boat and admitted to reading the blog whilst on the far side of the world, very pleasing that my humble efforts are appreciated, even at a distance, thank you.
It is not strictly true that Adderley has no facilities, alongside the top lock Simon and Allison have just started up their farm shop,
the eggs we bought yesterday were still warm, having been plucked from beneath some very surprised hens and the sausages, oh my. Just try their homemade cakes, in fact if you ever pass this way treat yourself to some top notch produce. Unsolicited recommendation for smashing food from two lovely people.
No comments:
Post a Comment