Springtime in May

A lilac felled in this week's storm. [1 off two felled ] 

A way of hiding an obtrusive manhole cover

Apple blossom time

Persistence pays for after 3 days of trying I finally loaded 3 photos.

Snowball tree.

Picture shows our long garden which is filled with flowering shrubs. Sadly a storm this week felled two magnifcent Lilac trees  ---I have other views but for the life of me I cannot manipulate this new Xanga to accept more than one photo at a  time. Sooner or later the penny will drop ---I live in hope    Ron   

Drama in Coventry UK.

Yesterday saw a mass evacuation of a major British city centre, with shops and offices abandoned and left as they stood.    The scene became like that of the Marie Celeste with the city empty and still.  Cars just left in the multistorey car parks .  Car here are usually parked on the roofs of buildings and so we had the strange sight of a  sea of abandoned vehicles all over the city centre --No drivers, they had fled!!

The reason --- a World War 2 bomb had just been discovered  and it was ready to explode. Now we reach the part that separates the Men from the Boys.   As it was growing dark , the Bomb disposal squad set off from their base 100 miles away to tackle this German piece of wickedness and make it safe

Eight hours later it was detonated without damage at 3 am.  Their names of those who toiled for us are unknown by the general public who slept soundly and safely in their beds, but I for one would say a big Thank You  to those lads who undertake in the middle of the night, to risk their lives at a moments notice, that we may rest securely.  

Ron. 

Shrove Tuesday

                         Today I had a once a year treat,  for it was Pancake Day.   Every year since as far back as I can remember I have been indulged, firstly by my mother and later by wives [both of them ]  who have prepared and cooked a dish of pancakes  [crepes].

Today was no exception.   As I sat down to feast on the delicious offering, I contemplated just how the simple things in life can give such great pleasure, and how such events cement the

bond between man and wife.   With all the trials and tribulations that life can throw at us, it is at moments like the eating of a simple pancake that make it all worth while

Far, far away in the mists time, the wives of the villagers would celebrate the arrival of Lent by racing through the village, tossing a pancake at least three times into the air. The winner being who arrived at the church door first.  The vicar would be waiting to greet them.

This be shown on TV tonight as a  news item.  I hope so for these odd happenings  mean a lot more to me than all the Razz a ma Tazz of the modern world.  

Our cat has a very long tail

   Motor vessel  Scillonia

Below is Mincarlo   Above is the subtropical Isle of Tresco

Tresco         Today’s epic starts a very long time ago, precisely seventy years to be exact.   I was then a young teenager aged 15,  about to complete my first year in industry. Yes, in those days most left school at fourteen and then began working a 55 hour week .  It was a then a very different world to that which pertains today. 

After work one evening, with my newly earned pocket money I visited a recently opened cinema to enjoy an evening’s relaxation.  Amongst the newsreels was a short film about a group of islands laying off the English coast called the Scillies.  Almost sub-tropical  they looked idyllic,  I made my mind up there and then, that when I was older I would visit and see these beautiful tranquil Isles for myself..

It was not to be, for a whole decade was to pass, ending with Europe in total ruins, before that would be possible. .My situation had changed too, for I was now an adult, married with a young daughter, and running our own home.  After five years of war-time deprivation we all needed a break.  The dream of the Scillies  had not been forgotten in fact it was stronger than ever. 

So it was that one summer’s evening we set off aboard a sleeper train on the long overnight journey bound for Lands End.  There to embark on the MS. Scillonia  for a week ‘abroad’  Only 35 miles into the Atlantic but technically we had left England for the very first time.

Quite a milestone in our lives,  since then our travels have taken us far and wide, over most of the Earth’s surface --- but that first time abroad was and is unforgettable.   

We were not to be disappointed.  After the state that post-war Britain was in, this  was to be a week of sheer heaven, an Archipelago with a host of islands to explore, good food to eat, we felt like prisoners being released  after a long term in gaol    To awaken in the morning with the view across the bay, the flotilla of small boats bobbing about on the crystal clear waters warms the cockles of the heart.

Sixty years have passed by now and I have never been back  except in spirit,  but my daughter

who came with us a child has.  Quite recently in fact, and stayed at the very same guest house Mincarlo,  with the wonderful views across the bay, were we  stayed as a family so many years ago.  Nostalgia?   No that was one of the things in a lifetime of natural errors, we all make ---which we got really right.

And the bonus for me ?   Thanks to the advent of the digital camera, a plethora of pictures for me to enjoy.  Strange is it not that,  but for a timely visit to a distant relative’s newly built cinema as a lad, I should never enjoyed the pleasure of knowing Britain’s outpost in the Atlantic ocean  ---The Scilllie Isles