TRAVEL WORDS

One Day One World Project: 08:00 – 09:00

The Bells of Ludlow

Oh, come you home of Sunday,
When Ludlow streets are still
And Ludlow bells are calling
To farm and lane and mill,

Or come you home of Monday
When Ludlow market hums
And Ludlow chimes are playing
‘The conquering hero comes’

~ partial from The Recruit. A. E. Housman (1859–1936). A Shropshire Lad. 1896.

The tower of St Laurence’s contains one of the finest rings of 10 bells in the country. The bells are rung in two distinct ways: by the bell ringers on Sundays and practice evenings; and by the church clock which is controlled electronically and chimes tunes four times a day. The clock chimes a different tune for each day of the week and it plays the tunes at 8am, 12pm, 4pm and 8pm.

Shaun Ward, clerk of works at St Laurence’s said “The clock tells people to go to work, have their lunch, have a break, go home and go to bed.”

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 08:00 – 09:00. I hope you’ll join in! See links for more details.

Strength in Endurance

endurance

the ability to endure an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way.
the capacity of something to last or to withstand wear and tear.

(please click image to enlarge )

These two trees in a nearby field endure the different weathers of winter, spring, summer and autumn, year after year, often for hundreds of years. You have to admire their strength.

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!

Bodiam Castle

In the south-eastern corner of England you can find several impressive castles – Hever, Leeds, Dover, Rochester, Deal and Bodiam amongst them. Historically the region has always been vulnerable to attack from foreign shores.

As we were staying in the Weald of Kent for a few days, which is on the East Sussex border, we decided to take the historic steam train from Tenterden to Bodiam and walk to the moated castle, often glimpsed from the road when passing by. We could have driven there in about 10 minutes, but sometimes it is nice to take things slowly and enjoy the journey as much as the destination.

In 1377 French ships raided the Sussex coast, causing widespread damage and panic among the local population which led to the building of nearby Scotney Castle. The French later raided nearby Winchelsea in 1380, so when a new French invasion threatened in 1385 Sir Edward Dalyngrigge (one of Edward III’s knights) applied to King Richard II for a license to fortify and strengthen the existing hall he lived in.

Having been granted permission he decided to build a new sandstone fortress near the River Rother, which at that time was navigable to the coast. Though its primary aim was defense, Dalyngrigge made sure that Bodiam was also a comfortable abode, as much a fortified residence as a military stronghold. And of course a visual symbol of his wealth.

Bodiam Castle is considered to be the finest example of medieval, moated, military architecture in Britain.

Postern Tower

Chapel

The Servants Kitchen

In the Buttery and Pantry

Gate and Portcullis

Murder Holes

North-east tower

The East Tower

A gargoyle

Read This!!

Carved face

The French invasion never took place, and Bodiam’s impressive defenses were never tested until 1484 when the castle fell to a siege by Richard III.

Do you have a favourite castle?

One Day One World Project: 06:00 – 07:00

I haven’t done well with the project during the early hours, and I am a week late with this time slot, but last weekend I was called in to look after my three English grandchildren whilst their mother (my daughter) was whisked off to Bruges for a romantic weekend. Whilst there the opportunity for a post for the project presented itself when I was rudely awakened between the hours of 6 – 7 am due to three factors:

Aircraft – my daughter lives on one of the flight-paths to/from Heathrow. Fortunately it is not one of the busiest flight-paths and the planes are still quite high at this stage. But when you are not used to this it is quite noticeable.
The not-quite son-in-law’s alarm clock. Set to 6:15 am so even if I could ignore the planes, the incessant buzzing of the alarm pulled me from the depths of sleep. No matter what buttons I pressed I could NOT stop that damn alarm from operating.
Birds. Not just any birds. My daughter’s neighbour runs his own zoo. Or at least it seems like it. In addition to the chickens he has always kept, there are now white fan-tail doves coo-cooing away and an aviary containing cockatiels, parakeets and other screeching, squawking flying objects that start their day around 6:45 am.

Because it was warm and I always like fresh air, the bedroom windows were open. On Saturday and Sunday though, when the alarm went off I got up and closed the windows so that the noisy bird squawks were slightly dulled, so I suppose the alarm was useful in one respect. As for the children. No problem.

Cockatiel-Rico-001 — By Bensem51 (Own work (own photo)) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

When the happy pair returned I was asked whether I’d be willing to child-mind again – “of course”, says I nonchalantly, “once you have moved.”

Do you have any noisy neighbours?

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 06:00 – 07:00. I hope you’ll join in! See links for more details.