Morning Cycle

The rolling English countryside early in the morning sun is a grand sight, however if a developer gets his way this grand sight will turn into 1600 houses, plus Doctors Surgery etc.  The old railway walk will descend into just another litter covered backyard for thousands more people.  Since arriving here 21  years ago the population has grown from 30,000 to 40,000, the need for homes and the greed of developers would increase it by 30,000 more if they could.  The fightback appears to be holding at the moment, the first plan was turned down, the new one has faults and hopefully will not go ahead.  There are areas where such housing could be placed, this however is not one of them.

One man who would be happy is the farmer who I presume lives in this house.  He has been trying to sell up for years and who can blame him?  Farming is a hard life and easy money from the EU will end soon with no replacements on offer, even from a Tory Party that relies on farmer Jones and his vote, so selling the land for housing makes sense to him.  He will move far away I'm sure. 
The farmer requires a decent deal but housing will go against the needs of the locals for green space, and this development will join the town to the village and destroy the appeal for those living there.  Quite what the answer to this can be I know not.  
Just a wee bit further up the line they collected money to buy the land and use as a nature reserve, with added facilities for those health freaks looking for a place to exercise.  This is a good idea but money is not available for the land the farmer wishes to dump.  If only I had become the Billionaire I was meant to be...

Avoiding me at a distance were several horses.  The field here often has a horse or two, head down and uninterested in passersby, and I note rarely the same horses.  Maybe he trades them, hires them or just offers a field to feed them in. I don't know why?  The rabbits seem content with their arrival and look down their nose at the camera from a great distance, which is why there are no pictures of them.  This is the edge of the village which will be attached to the 1600 houses if greedy developer gets his way.  

  
The idea of rising early and cycling appeared a good one late last night, this morning it took on a different hue.  However my knees need the exercise so off I went, immediately unhappy about it, and in spite of the early morning traffic, the pain, the chill, I kept going and got some way up the old line before my knees began giving me their opinion of it all.  
The aroma early in the morn of the vegetation, the birds singing while hidden in the trees above, the glimpse of blue in the sky, all made for a delightful start to the day.  A dog was keen to make friends, the owner well she was less keen, while one other dog walker informed me the old industrial estate will soon be 125 houses, including flats!  I must agree with housing there as the place was almost empty of companies and gypsies were moving in, and that means vast amounts of rubbish left behind for others to clear.  Housing of the right type in the right place can be accepted.

Bluebells abound at the moment and it is a pity I am too far from the woods where they cover the land.  Yesterday I was shown pictures of woodland that was a mass of blue from one end to the other.  All I found were the poor wee things outside my door.  

Blossom is beginning to fail.  The bright white on some trees has fallen and these lovely red ones are turning a slight pink shade.  These are not long for this world so now is the time to picture them until next year.  The park was originally a house belonging to one of the rich folks who gave much to the town.  The gardens were very well organised, whoever planned them distributed a variety of trees around the place and after a hundred and more years some are beginning to fail.  The council have cut down several that were diseased or dangerous and have begun planting new ones in appropriate areas.  This blossom is quite new and is flourishing happily, hopefully all the others will do so also.

Home to find carpetlayers in the hall hammering away all day.  Just what my tired mind wants to hear.  However I fed them tea, once only in case they stay too long, and while doing this broke the kettle!  Since buying it there has been problems and now it has failed.  The bin for this and back to Tesco later for a new (cheap) one.  Yesterday I had to go there to replace the iron which died, the water dripped out the bottom alarmingly, and now more money is to be spent.  I wish I could survive as well as the Crows who I found feeding themselves in the town centre this morning.

Horses, Homes, and Hopeless Election

I was surprised to hear how many various animals were being saved by the animal sanctuary that parades in the town centre twice a year.  Beginning with donkeys they now have a variety of equine type creatures plus goats and cats and almost anything that gets dumped on them or saved by them. This was one wee pony happily stuffing himself and making friends with wee girls who found the special feed they ought not to have found, the pony liked them a lot.

    
Usually there are other animals, chickens, sheep etc, but the only other one that should have appeared, a donkey, was not in the mood and would not come to visit.  Anyone who deals with animals knows that they rule the roost, not you!  The man accompanying the animals and the table spread with things no use to me but helping to aid their funds was very helpful and chatty.  I have the link somewhere and one day will visit them on their home site if possible.  Remus

 
My landlord, now 86 years of age, has begun to forget things.  This is worrying for a man who has a sharp mind.  He has been diagnosed with early dementia of a mild type but that means little if you forget things constantly.  I begin to worry as to what this means for the home as we have no idea who would run the company if he gave up.  However today I have been tired and spent much time forgetting things also.  It is worrying the things that get forgotten, like switching of lights, oven, shutting doors and forgetting what I am doing while staring into a cupboard.  I am not sure whether this is age, dementia or just stupidity, it is hard to tell.  My typing is awful also, red lines appear constantly as the words do not spell themselves very well, I blame the laptop.  However if the landlord goes what happens to me then?  Ah well life is full of interesting developments.

So far two election leaflets for the County Council have dropped through the door, one Tory (who will win) one Labour.  I glanced at both wondering whether it was worth bothering to read them as they always say the same things and do what they wish anyway.   This area always vote for the Conservative in spite of the facts as the rich middle classes (of whom there are many) outnumber the divided poorer lot.  UKIP, the fascist/protest/numbskulllittleenglanderpeople  have taken some votes from the Tories and run them close last time, however Brexit has killed them and the Labour Party with its non-leader offer little in response.  What a state politics has got itself into.  The national UK government is abysmal with no opposition bar the SNP and local governments are abysmal with not enough people willing to come out and vote to remove the chancers while we can. I could read the leaflets but think recycling them will do the world more good.

 

Bike or Horse?

So the sun has shown up again today.  The weather was hot when I hobbled across the park, bar the northerly wind of course.   Once out of that it was indeed hot.  Just the sort of day to pedal the bike about, travel up the old railway, early of course, or wheel around the back roads.  It may even be similar tomorrow.  Naturally I am not fit enough for this.  The bug still has me coughing, the calf is still to touchy to cycle with although I have attempted some exercise, my weight tells me I have to!  Warm weather is what we sick folks require at this moment.  How light the head becomes when the sun shines, it chases away those depressive feelings some suffer, cheers the heart, and sadly, encourages young men to play bad music loudly from their cars as they pass, windows wide open!  The show offs in their open topped BMWs, vintage Jaguars and such like will be out at the weekend, they will be making money today, probably from the likes of you and me.  The weekend will see them gather wherever they can show us their wallet I suspect.  Not that I'm jealous in any way, obviously.  Once I get the bike cleaned, oiled, tyres pumped, seat adjusted, and the energy levels up then I will get out there and watch the rain clouds gather....

Someone preferred this method of travel this afternoon, and the weather was there for her.  Just married at the register office and driven around to the hotel for the booze up reception and  fight family gathering afterwards.  It strikes me that being taken around the streets in the sun by Brougham would be a pleasant experience.  (That isn't a Brougham by the way) A slow meander through country lanes, rather similar to cycling but without all the effort, a warm sun and good company, that would make a nice day out.  As long as others do the work!

Butchers, Bakers & Candlestick Makers.

I like this picture, though I can't trace where it came from. Wounded men, around 1915, heading back to hospital.  Walking wounded from many regiments.  Note the shorts on one, the kilt on another, the bandages, the tickets authenticating their wounds.  I like this because it shows them together, all for one, probably in pain, being held up for a photograph for the folks back home.  

I was given a list of dead Great War soldiers details recently and have been adding them to the website I raised for them, Braintree & Bocking War Memorial,  and am intrigued by the types of work in which they or their relatives were employed.  Quite a few appeared to be 'sons of a horseman on a farm,' which makes sense in this country area.  However when did you last see horses in daily employment?  At the time of the Great War farms were dominated by horse drawn equipment and a large number of men were employed in their care, a ploughman being a very skilled operator. Agricultural labourers also abounded and one or two who served had that delightful (ha!) work as the war began.  Dunfermline Co-op did use horse drawn vehicles even in the early 60's, and the 'St Cuthbert's Co-op in Edinburgh had them in the early 70's if memory serves me right, although few were still in daily use.  Occasional Brewers Drays are seen in various places throughout the country. Horse grooms and ploughmen just don't exist as such today.  

I am also intrigued by the change in the shopping patterns.  Several men were sons of Grocers, others were Butchers and no such shops appear today.  Actually I am wrong, a butcher still exists here but the only Fruit & Veg left are stalls on market day.  These shops, along with almost all Bakers, have now been replaced with large supermarkets containing pretend Bakers, Butchers and the like instead.  While many women enjoyed the flirting that resulted in the shopkeepers desperation to obtain their cash it also meant a trek between several shops, sometimes a distance apart, although it did make them fitter than today's lass who has to spend time at the gym to keep her figure.

Foremen in the Boot Factory or employees of a Mat Factory also appear,  and it is many years since we stopped making boots in the UK.  I'm sure someone still does somewhere by even the great factories in East Anglia have long gone, probably to China.  Who makes Mats?  India I wonder?  Even those employed by the big iron foundry, who employed large numbers of females to make munitions, or Crittall's and their famous steel window frames, are a distant memory today.  Crittall's existed a few years ago, I almost had a day's employment there myself, but moved away and I am not sure it still operates today.  The iron foundry, like the rest are now housing estates that leave people  struggling to pay the mortgage.   So many businesses that men fought four long years for no longer exist, and those that do, like agriculture, have changed immeasurably in the century that has passed by.  Once thirty or more men worked on a  farm, now there is only two, with a third to power the machinery during harvest time.  House painters and Publicans have not changed that much, neither I suspect have solicitors!  The street layout is similar but the buildings that survived two wars, and not all did, are much changed.  Hopefully we can discover how many men obtained their jobs again once they returned, in many places they did not!  

A hundred years is not a long time when looked at from a historical viewpoint.  Much similarity remains, but the world is a very different place.  Cars now growl where horses plodded, long working hours are replaced by shorter hours and long paid holidays, heavy labour is much reduced by machinery, and women do all the shopping in one day, making him carry it to the car and drive her home.  Washing machines and Microwaves, electricity for all, and the wonder of radio & TV would frighten the ploughman more than they would the horses.  While rail travel enabled long distance travel most folks did not venture far, today they holiday in Spain, or even Hawaii.  The NHS heals most of the sickness soldiers took for granted and dole money and pensions are a godsend to one and all.   The men pictured above may well have survived the war, although that looks very much like a 1915 picture, and they would have benefited from the advances.  What would those who did not survive think if told today I wonder?  

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Dawn Sunshine

A night of peaceful slumber, broken only by the town drunk yelling at his personal windmills, saw me wake twenty minutes before six. The bright sunshine brought out the deep green in the grass all across the park.  Birds chirruped as they danced through the branches, nibbling the buds on the trees, high overhead an airliner sped east, leaving an ever so slight trail across the bright blue of the morning sky.  I decided to rise, threw aside the newspapers that I had kept to keep me warm all night, and left the damp park bench in search of breakfast.  

Having fought two crows and one raven over the leavings from a polystyrene food container I reached for the bike and decided this might be a good day for exercise.  Before leaving I checked the e-mail and slung a cup of cheap tea down my throat.  Actually slung was the correct word as I dropped it and spilt tea all over the laptop! "Dearie, dearie me," I said.  That explains the tea stains on the page you are reading.  

While the rising sun blinded those heading towards its rising this did not prevent the north wind from chilling my hands as I raced slowly along the old railway line.  I was so early only two dogs were walking their owners at that time.  This fine brown horse awaited me as I neared the village, although to be fair, he neither awaited me nor was interested in me, and he refused to show me his best side.  His mate, not shown, is not shown because he made a point of showing me his worst side, and emphasising this in what I would call a needless manner!                                                

 The farmhouse in the distance is typical of many houses around here.  From what I can gather some go back many, many years although inside they are sometimes much adapted as they are not always that large.  The mud caked floor tends to be expensively tiled, sometimes old flagstones still exist.  I notice that the rooms were usually small and wonder how many would live in such a place?  The occupants would most likely be the 'better sort,' so imagine what the farm labourers possessed!   Some look very good indeed but the half million required to buy one is quite steep, and these houses are usually right on the roadside, this was fine in 1750 with an occasional highwayman, herd of cattle or stage coach passing, not so fine with boy racer and his mates today I warrant.

Later I took my stiffening muscles to 'Chris & Jim's' to take a weight of my mind by having my hair cut.  I was surprised they remembered me as it has been so long since I entered the place.  By far the best barbers around, and it is no wonder they are popular!  It does however appear to me that  one of the few shops that open and survive are hairdressers or barbers!  There must be nearly two dozen around here, mostly aimed at women of course, but today men appear so fussy over their hair.  Footballers show their increased wages loosens their fashion sense by appearing on the field in wilder and wilder hairstyles.  The more absurd they appear the more likely some twat will copy them.  Of course young players not only copy fashion the hair identifies them on the field, and a good game will be noticed by those that matter.  An old trick which still works.  Proper men of course just let their hair grow Hippy style, although we did worry about 'split ends' a lot......

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Remus Memorial Horse Sanctuary

As the market was closing today I wandered around looking for dropped coins and or discarded vegetables for my tea.  As I entered the glorified shopping area I noticed a stand with two very smart black Shetland Ponies for the 'Remus Memorial Horse Sanctuary.'   The centre is a great place to show off a variety of organisations and events, usually terrible I must say, however  once or twice a year this sanctuary appears in the centre.  There usually is a sheep, goat or pony or two, and today we were presented with these ponies.  

The Remus sanctuary was named after a horse of that name that had been tied up and left for up to four months by the owner.  It appears the horse had not been fed or watered in any way for thirteen days and was very emaciated. When rescued the horse was in a frightened state, collapsed and was manhandled into the rescue vehicle where it lay in a sad state.  Remus died the next day from internal bleeding.  This does happen all to frequently, and in Britain, a country famed for the love of animals!  

The animals on show naturally attract a crowd and donations are received gladly, although she nearly broke my arm helping me to donate.  It's not often I am turned upside down in a shopping centre by two strapping lassies!  It is however a very good cause. http://www.remussanctuary.org/

Shetland Ponies

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