Postcards – Page 109 – TRAVEL WORDS

One Day One World Project: 07:00 – 08:00

6:47 AM

Sunrise in West Midlands, UK

I have been wanting to get up and take a photograph of the sunrise this week, but the weather has not been playing ball. Each morning that I have struggled to be awake this early (and those of you who have read my previous post for this project will understand that I am so NOT a morning person) it has been misty and the sky a total white-out. Not even a glimmer of colour in the east.

Light in the east?

As we are coming to the end of this time-frame, and I am already awake, I’m going to show you a bit of the area behind my house as well as the usual glimpse of in front. I live in a very quiet area in the old town of Ludlow and surrounded by quite a few holiday homes, so a lot of the time the houses nearby are empty.

At the back and not many straight lines here

Until a year ago there was a fully functioning pub to the left of me which was run by the Royal British Legion and the home of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes‘ Lodge and things weren’t always quite as quiet then what with live music and noisy punters; talking (why do people talk so much louder when drinking alcohol? An interesting correlation between the volume of liquid consumed and volume of speech), arguing and sometimes screaming, who were outside in the smoking zone that was practically beneath my bedroom window – that wasn’t great. But there was also a well-tended allotment with runner beans, cabbages, onions etc. and a sweet little home-made lean-to potting shed against the red-brick wall which was rather nice. Sadly this year with the closure of the pub the allotment has been unused and nature has taken over. This has meant poppies have flourished and all matter of ~~weeds~~ wild-flowers have grown.

Wild flowers flourish

Nature reclaims

The demise of the potting-shed

When I started entering this project it was May and the blossom was just beginning and it was the time of the Spring Fair, now it is autumn and colours are fading and we have just had the Autumn Food Festival – where has the summer gone?

Lisa of the blog NorthWest Frame of Mind has decided to run a different project over the next 24 weeks. To try to show what is happening in different parts of the world (if you all join in) at a particular time of day. If you would like to participate you have until next Saturday midnight to post a photo or write about what is happening in your part of the world. This week is between 07:00 – 08:00. I hope you’ll join in! See links for more details.

Only a few more hours left!

Tilting at Windmills

Let me introduce you to one of the prettiest towns in the Kent High Weald, only three miles from the famous Sissinghurst Gardens created by Vita Sackville-West. You may enjoy the many types of weather-boarding and architecture, independent shops, the narrow medieval streets and some interesting buildings all within an easy walk of each other including a beautiful church and a smock windmill. It is the picture of a small English town and on a warm summer’s day with church bells chiming and white sails shimmering, let’s go for a stroll around Cranbrook.

Cranbrook means ‘brook frequented by cranes or herons’. The name is first recorded as Cranebroca in the Domesday Monachorum of 1070, but as the name of a stream, not a settlement.

Leave the car in one of the free car parks and head down the High Street to the Vestry Hall built in 1859 as Cranbrook’s court-house with the Old Fire Station below. Now the Weald Information Centre.

Head up the steps on the left to St Dunstan’s Church. Outside on the tower is a carved figure of Father Time. Local legend says that he comes down every night and scythes the churchyard grass to keep it neat and tidy.

Opposite the church is Church House, formerly Dence’s School, which was built in 1567 by Alexander Dence. It was used as an elementary school for 300 years.

Carry on around the church and through the churchyard which leads into another small car-park and back into the town.

Stop to look at the decorative bricks of the White Horse public house on the corner.

Straight on down Stone Street you will catch glimpses of the windmill ahead of you.

and lots of lovely shops…

On the right hand side several narrow passageways lead off Stone Street. One passage passes Hatter’s cottage, which was William Tooth’s water-powered hat factory.

Pop around the corner to see Cranbrook School. John Blubery (d 1518) bequeathed funds for “a frescole howse for all the poor children of the towne”. The school received a charter from Queen Elizabeth I in 1574. It is now a co-educational grammar boarding and day school and still State-funded.

Retrace your steps and turn left onto St David’s Bridge where you will find a delightful Arts and Crafts House which used to be a restaurant. Originally a temperance coffee house with reading room the Old Coffee Tavern was built in 1890 by Clement Cramp (1816-1894) for working men.

Opposite is a row of white weatherboarded houses and The Chapel of Strict and Particular Baptists. Built in 1785, this is the oldest existing place of worship for Dissenters in the Parish.

Continuing up Hill Road with Hill House on the right. Dating from the late middle ages, when the town was the centre of a thriving woollen industry, Hill House is a medieval clothier’s house. Note its lovely door.

We have now arrived at Cranbrook’s windmill which is the tallest surviving smock mill in the British Isles. Built in 1814 it dominates the town. It is still in working order, grinding wheat regularly to produce wholemeal flour which can be purchased from the mill shop. The Windmill is usually open Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday afternoons in the summer. Note: not on a Monday.

Stepping into Cranbrook is like stepping back in time.

If you enjoy a walk, short or long, then you may enjoy visiting Jo’s Monday Walk where you are in for a treat.

One Day One World Project: 03:00 – 04:00

a ghostly story

I have written several posts about Ludlow Castle, but now that we are in the middle of the night perhaps it is time for a slightly darker tale?

The castle is reputed to be haunted by the twelfth century Marion de la Bruyere. Legend suggests that the fair damsel Marion, who lived within the castle walls, was besotted by a knight called Arnold de Lisle who was an enemy of the castle’s lord, Josse de Dinant. Although he had been captured together with Walter de Lacy during a previous attack on the castle, de Lisle persuaded Marion into giving him a piece of knotted linen which the men used to escape from their prison.

One fateful night some time later when de Dinant was absent, Marion sent Arnold a secret message saying that the castle was almost empty and that she would leave a rope dangling for him to climb in. De Lisle, who was more intent on capturing the castle than romance, gained access to the castle and left the rope for a hundred of de Lacy soldiers to climb in and capture the castle, murdering the sleeping garrison in their beds. Marion, whilst in the arms of her lover, was woken by the screams of the dying men and realised that she had been betrayed. She snatched her lover’s sword from the table beside her and ran it through him, then filled with grief and shame she threw herself from the Pendover or Hanging Tower.

Stories vary somewhat regarding the ghost itself. Some say if you visit the tower at dusk on quiet evenings her ghost can be seen, but if you go on the anniversary of her death you can hear her scream as she falls to the rocks below.

(Sorry Lisa, I struggled with this time period – but things can only get better…)

Lisa of the blog NorthWest Frame of Mind has decided to run a different project over the next 24 weeks. To try to show what is happening in different parts of the world (if you all join in) at a particular time of day. If you would like to participate you have until next Saturday midnight to post a photo or write about what is happening in your part of the world. This week is between 03:00 – 04:00. I hope you’ll join in! See links for more details.

A Heavenly Highway…

A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that is caused by both reflection and refraction of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky.

In a double rainbow, a second arc is seen outside the primary arc, and has the order of its colours reversed, red facing toward the other one, in both rainbows. Between the two bows lies an area of unlit sky referred to as Alexander’s band.

One Day One World Project: 02:00 – 03:00

nature’s fury

Thunder crashes through my dreams like a sledge-hammer, startling me into wakefulness. It growls like a caged-in lion pacing, it bangs furiously and then grumbles away, sometimes near, sometimes far. The lightning strikes and I start counting; one thousand, two thousand… the gods come tumbling out of their beds above my head shattering the stillness of the air, deafening me, wakening the entire neighbourhood.

Lightning flickers around the edge of the town, circling dangerously close, lighting up roofs and chimneys then forking down to the earth. So bright I can see it with my eyes closed. Red, yellow on the insides of my eye-lids. Afraid to open them in case the retina is damaged by the flash. So vivid that night becomes day.

Then the rain starts; fat, heavy drops falling slowly, hesitantly onto the still warm tarmac and dry tiles. The hissing begins; raindrops steadily increasing in pace, straight as stair-rods, rapidly filling the gutters, turning the road into a river, gurgling down the fall-pipes and creating fog above the river. The smell of rain in the thick air. It stops. It starts. It stops.

Everything is still. The air is so heavy. Listening, holding its breath. In case the fury returns.

(Storms over the UK – July 2014)

Lisa of the blog NorthWest Frame of Mind has decided to run a different project over the next 24 weeks. To try to show what is happening in different parts of the world (if you all join in) at a particular time of day. If you would like to participate you have until next Saturday midnight to post a photo or write about what is happening in your part of the world. This week is between 02:00 – 03:00. I hope you’ll join in! See links for more details.

(Photo source: Mark Kidsley
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.)