STRAWBERRY FIELDS (29/04/11)

We were out at six this morning looking for the Goosander ducklings. never found them. It’s a holiday in the UK as we have a royal wedding. The fishermen were out , doing what they do best……….seems to consist of chucking hooks, line and weights all over the river bank to the detriment of pets and wildlife. I was under the impression that barbed hooks and lead weights had been banned. It appears not as I had to remove a hook from the dogs leg a month or so back.

    This is a crossbreed duck, she looks a little like an Eider from her head shape.

   This Mallard seems happy enough with her. I was going to title this post ‘THE ODD COUPLE’ but decided, bearing in mind the day, it might have appeared churlish and opinionated. I would have been devastated had you gone away with that impression………All sweetness, light and tolerance am I!… I would have taken the camper down to London and parked on the Mall for a good view………I’m sure none would have objected but the dogs bark at horses and carts………..wee devils, bark at everything! I didn’t want to spoil their day.

   My little gift to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge……..not a Strawberry field……..it’s Dandelions really, me, just messing about….. I quite like it………..see I missed a dock leaf. Sorry! As Muslims say ‘Only the Lord is perfect.’

We are in Westgate, I have internet but very slow so no map. It’s halfway up Weardale. We have been here before but Phil Gates at CABINET OF CURIOSITIES has posted from here at least twice and recommended I visit the old lead workings………that’s tomorrows job. Today, a quick wander round the village, very quick as Alfie has a bad foot. So bad he is limited to right hand tiddling. He caught a claw in the cage at the Doggy Salon tried to get out when he heard my voice………..Daft Dog!………….He’ll survive.

.Teachers, bar two, never taught me anything.  Well reeding……okay… riting and the biggest skill of all… Sinicism……somehow, I just knewed to ignore them. The two that torts me everything. They were tolerant and taught me the biggest thing I ever learnt. Keep your mind open but always question what an expert says………..I question why children who are not working on farms or up chimneys need forty weeks holiday a year!

I could also have called this post Desolation Row but that would have been equally unfair. It is a grand spot. Would be superb if the schools were open……a vain hope

No money nowadays to maintain the Methodist Chapel the lead is all gone. Probably from the roof as well.

The privy at the back of the Chapel. It may have been a stable but it looks like a posh privy.

A bricked up door in a ruin…………….Get a grip lad………….I’m trying, very, very, trying I am.

         Still Trying…………….what's left of the filling station………….now pull myself together. Remember it’s a day for celebration.

The English cottage garden…………..now that’s better……………As Her Majesty would say. ‘One is getting there.’

   The Allotment………….We Brits know our place……..this is a superb example of what Joes Averages can do with a small piece of rented land. I can assure you this is tidy and given another month will be superb.

I hope you all have a magical weekend. It’s May Day Monday…..I will not be joining in with the broadcast rendition of ‘The Red Flag’!!!!. The Queen has two birthdays. She is born again,  radio plays her song. It’s a dirge compared to ‘Flower of Scotland’. All these holidays…………..enough to drive one who is on permanent holiday insane.

I’ve read and edited this and realize…….I am just a republican. Good job I live in a tolerant society…………not that tolerant, infanticide is strongly disapproved of.