It was Masham Sheep Fair at the weekend, so my camera and my phone worked overtime. More another day- maybe.
My feature photo – from my camera – is appropriate: one happy farmer at the end of the day displaying all the cups she’d won. The one below is from my phone, and shows my favourite 400 Roses taking to the floor – well, the town square.
For Brian – Bushboy’s – Last on the Card
Today sees the last Square of the month, in which Becky has challenged us to find images celebrating Seven. I’ve chosen something quintessentially English. Yes, other drystone walls are available, but the sight of them marching across the landscape, identifying ancient field and pasture patterns is something I’ll always associate with a northern English landcape.
Thank you, Becky, for a month of fun and fellowship. And Squares.
Just over ten years ago, we moved back to England from France. And we had a plan. We’d move to Ripon. It’s a smaller town than Harrogate, where we’d lived before, and which now seemed a scarily huge megalopolis (population 160, 000) compared with small-time Laroque d’Olmes (population 2,700). We were quite clear. We wanted to be in town, so we could make use of public transport and be within walking distance of shops and local amenities. But first of all, we’d rent somewhere so we could take our time choosing the right place.
The very first place we looked at ticked none of those boxes. It was just outside a village with not so much as a shop, five miles from Ripon, has four buses a day, none in the evening and on Sunday. The place on offer was the upper floor of a house attached to a gracious 18th and 19th century country house, set among large gardens, a wooded area and pasture. We fell for it. And ten years later, we’re still here, with no plans to move on.
The gardens, the woodland are not ours, but we can use them freely. Our landlord lives in another house on the same site, while other family members occupy the bigger house.
Our house is probably no longer recognisable as the dwelling it once was, but parts of the original are still here. It was occupied from the 1200s by lay brothers from Fountains Abbey, who managed sheep and some crops. They slept in a dormitory – the first floor. The house was only re-configured so that it had separate rooms in the Victorian era, when it provided living accommodation for the servants working for the residents of the house next door. So much history here, yet most of it remains unknown.
Views from various windows
Why would we ever want to move?
For Tina’s Lens-Artists Challenge: Walking the Neighbourhood
Any UK readers will have had plenty of occasions to recite a favourite childhood ditty this week.
Rain, rain, Go to Spain,
James Howell, an Anglo-Welsh historian added this verse to the traditional English rhyme ‘Rain, rain go away/Come again another day’, as a reminder of the failed invasion of the powerful Spanish Armada in 1588. They had intended to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I and restore Catholic rule over England.
Never show your face again.
Like now, for instance. But we’re all safely indoors, so let’s peer out at a few rainy shots. I hope you have an umbrella.
Count the brollies in these two shots, and they’ll add up to seven.
And here is an all-too-typical English shot.
For Leanne’s Monochrome Madness.
And Becky’s Seven for September.
I volunteer at our local library most Monday mornings. First job of the day is the Pick List. A list of books reserved by readers in other parts of the county and held in our branch is circulated for types like me to find, then despatch in the next delivery van to the branches where they’re wanted.
And look what the first book on the list was yesterday. The Square of Sevens. Really? I knew nothing about it, but courtesy of Google, I can tell you that it’s a crowd-pleaser for lovers of historical novels, of crime novels and of thrillers. You can read all about it here.
Will Becky, Queen of Squares,put it on her reading list?
Out for a walk the other day without my camera, or even my phone, there, at the edge of the woods I spotted – a ring of shaggy inkcaps*. Some had ‘gone over’, but about seven were still young and begging to be picked for lunch. I hurried home with my bounty: inkcaps famously dequilesce into a horrid black inky mess if not cooked immediately.
I sauted a small onion in butter with garlic, added the chopped inkcaps, and – voilà – mushrooms on toast for our lunch. An unexpected treat.
* Coprinus Comatus: also known as Shaggy Mane or Lawyer’s Wig Mushroom.
For Becky’s Seven for September.
For this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge, Egidio urges us to share those images which epitomise what ‘fun’ means to us. I’ve settled for something slightly different. I’m going to showcase having fun watching other people having fun.
And I thought I might try an Alphabet of Fun, Let’s see.
Athletic aerobics: a community keep-fit session at the Festa de Gracia in Barcelona this year.
Bubbles and Books. Who doesn’t love chasing big bubbles? Or settling down with a really absorbing book?
Construction. And refurbishment, if it comes to that. One a would-be builder, the other, part of Masham’s Steam Rally earlier this year, working in miniature, to the delight of the crowd.
Dancing. Always good for a bit of fun, whether Catalan traditional, or English Morris-mixed-with-belly-dancing.
Exploring. In this case, discovering climbing and scrambling at Brimham Rocks.
Fairgrounds for fun: an old-style ride at Beamish Museum.
Gifts. This is one of my favourite photos, even if it would win no prizes for technique. A joyful moment at the Spanish Festival of Reyes – Three Kings Day – when my daughter was given a silly present for their equivalent of Secret Santa.
Harmony. Gotta have a little music to bring joy. And in England, that might well be in the form of a brass band.
Indulging and imbibing. A family meal, an evening round the table with friends, perhaps outside, in the town centre. What could be better?
J is for jugglers. Always guaranteed to raise a smile. Here are a couple from Ripon Theatre Festival.
Oh, I say. I think that’s quite enough fun for one day. Letters L – Z will have to sit and sulk. Their moment of fame may arrive. Or not.
I’ve not even mentioned the joy of spending time in the natural world. I’ll content myself today with a single sunset as my featured photo. A frequent evening source of joy when looking out of the bedroom window.
Let’s start with a Roman Bridge, in Córdoba. It’s called the Roman bridge, because it was first built during the Roman colonisation of southern Spain. But it was overhauled in the 10th century. Then in the Middle Ages. Then in the 16th and the 17th centuries, when a statue of St Raphael was added. Lights were added in the 19th century, and it was pedestrianised in 2006. It’s a wonder it can still be called the Roman Bridge. But it can. The 14th and 15 arches are still the original ones.
We’ll leap forward to the Renaissance, but stay in Spain, in Valencia, and visit the Puente del Mar. Flooding in the River Túria swept away an old wooden bridge, so in 1591, it was replaced with this:
Stone, brick, wood: all these were the traditional bridge -building materials of choice down the centuries. Until the Industrial Revolution here in England, whose original epicentre was in Coalbrookdale, thanks to its wealth of natural resources all conveniently in the same area. The world’s first iron bridge was built here in 1779.
This bridge is the grandparent of almost all bridges built – in the UK at least – since then and into the 20th century. Here are three: Vauxhall Bridge, completed in 1906; the Tees Transporter Bridge, completed in 1911, and the Tyne Bridge, completed in 1928.
Let’s leap briefly into the 21st century, and look at one of the bridges in Valencia’s assertively future-facing Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, created between 1998 and 2009.
And finally, the Millau Viaduct, sweeping more than 300 metres above the Tarn in southern France, designed by Norman Foster and completed in 2004. Like Valencia’s Science Park, it’s a destination in its own right.
But we can’t leave without mentioning the featured photo: London’s iconic Tower Bridge, open to traffic since 1894: both road traffic, and when regularly lifted, to river traffic beneath. The photo demonstrates why the extra height is necessary: that’s HMS Belfast in the foreground.
And to finish off, let’s stop at something that’s even older than bridges as a way of allowing travellers to cross water. Stepping stones. These are at Redmire Force, and are still a popular way of crossing the River Ure.
For Leannne’s Monochrome Madness#17: Bridges
Exactly seven years ago today we were in Poland, the country of my father’s birth. And we’d fetched up in Krakow, where were were staying in the former Jewish quarter. The feature photo shows the view from our window. Yes, advertising the Jewish Museum was an image of the menorah, the seven headed candelabrum which has become the symbol of Judaism. Here’s the post I wrote on 16th September, 2017.
Here we are in Krakow. And here we are, staying in the former Jewish quarter, Kazimierz, once a completely separate town.
How come there were so many Jews in Poland by the early 20th century? They formed, for instance, 20% of the population of Krakow by the beginning of WWII.
Blame the crusades. The Polish kings at the time declined to get involved. Jerusalem was so far away after all. So there were no crusaders from Poland in the routine persecution of Jews that took place in those so-called Holy Wars. And Poland became a place of sanctuary.
Along came the Black Death. Citizens from all over Europe looked for someone to blame. Jews, obviously. Jews needed somewhere to flee. Poland, obviously. Poland somehow escaped the Black Death, so didn’t need to persecute Jews at that time.
Over the centuries, Jews did well in Poland. Well educated by their rabbis at a time when education was far from universal, they prospered. They tended to live together, in harmony with their Christian neighbours.
Then Hitler came to power. As he occupied Poland, he began his all-too familiar persecution, then extermination of the Jews. But in Krakow, the factories were short-handed. and Jews were required as slave labour. 3000 Poles were forced to leave their homes in the Podgorze area, and 16,000 Jews moved in to the ghetto it became.
One of those factories was Otto Schindler’s. 1000 Jews who might otherwise have died lived because of his protection – he could have managed with 100 workers. This dark period is remembered in Plac Bohaterow Getta – Ghetto Heroes Square, where 70 chairs symbolise absence, departure. This Square was the place where Jews were executed, or sent to almost certain death in the local Concentration Camps. Another sobering day.
Other posts I wrote during our holiday mentioning the Jews in Poland include:
For Becky’s Seven for September.
This week, Ritva has proposed Common Objects for this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge. I’m offering a few, such as these coffee shop cups and saucers in the feature photo, served to us by a barista who clearly thought we were Baby Bear, Mummy Bear and Daddy Bear out to enjoy a morning coffee.
Back home, here’s our washing line: featuring the underwear of a colourful guest. And then the washing line itself – or rather its shadow- on the ground below.
Here are common objects put to less common uses. Like these cutlery items re-purposed as decorative works of art in a restaurant in Premia de Mar.
Then there are pillar boxes. I do like the first one, transformed into a slightly surprised face. And the second, from Ripon, reminding us of the D Day commemorations earlier in the summer.
Then there are the everyday things that have become display items. The garden tools in a display of Edwardian gardening implements at RHS Harlow Carr; the padlocks re-purposed as love tokens in Liverpool; and the toilet bowl that’s become a planter in Saltburn.
Let’s finish off with a clutch of jolly handbags parked by the dance troupe 400 Roses as they entertained us all in Masham during the last Sheep Fair.
I am joining Becky and Brian on a mission to get rid of that subscription pop-up box that appears every time someone leaves a comment on your posts. Can you go to ‘Newsletter Settings’? You will find it listed in the main Settings menu on the Dashboard. Then unclick the one that says ‘enable subscription pop-up for commenters’. You may not even be aware that you have this feature enabled – I didn’t. But it’s an irritation we could all do with getting rid of.
From Pyrenees to Pennines 
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