A Rocking Christmas

It's a cold frosty day today. Minus 1.5 degrees when I got up this morning. Every where covered in a hore frost. Despite the cold we decided we'd have a day out and as Rockingham Castle is fairly close by and was open for it's Christmas event this week that's where we headed.

Rockingham castle is 900 years old! Commissioned by William the Conqueror and for 450 years it was a royal Castle followed by 450 years as a family home, belonging to the same family for all that time.
The castle sits on a the top of a hill with sweeping views all round the Welland Valley. From the Gardens you can see across five counties.

Henry VIIIth granted the Castle to the Watson family who have lived there ever since. During the Civil War the castle was a Royalist stronghold causing the family to loose much of their wealth. The castle was badly damaged by the Roundheads. Thirty feet of the long gallery was totally destroyed by shelling and was never rebuilt. The long Gallery has still the original 1800's maroon curtains and wallpaper. It's lit with three hugh Murano Venetian crystal glass chandelier.

Ancient Norman door arches and slit arrow windows survive century's of alterations and modernisation.

Views over five counties in the Welland Valley viewed from the gardens.

During the Victorian era Charles Dickens was a frequent visitor. His novel David Copperfield is dedicated to Sir Richard and Lady Lavinia Watson and much of the novel Bleak House was written while he was a guest in the house.

The house was opened this week as a Christmas event. Staff were dressed in the costumes of 1849 and the rooms dressed for Christmas. The dinning room is all set up for a banquet, 1849 style with some magnificent silver center pieces.

It's been sunshine all day so we walked around the gardens first before the sun moved and sent them into shadow.

The gardens stretch around two sides of the house and the most impressive part is the 'Elephant' hedge. A double hedge of clipped Yews

The Kitchens are set for a magnificent Christmas feast 1849 style. Not a kitchen I would relish working in. Very labour intensive.

By the time we emerged from the castle grounds the sun was setting over the valley and the frost was returning covering the grass with a hore frost.

All Clean and Sparkly Again.

Rectifying the leaking water from our pond took allot of our energy. For a start there were many more tears in the liner than we had first thought. The thick clay soil we dug through to make the pond must have been the reason more water hadn't leaked out. I suspect the wretched heron is the culprit.

Anyway fish, water and mud removed the liner got jet washed and after much deliberation on how to proceed with curing the leaks, we ...... well 'Himself' really, found the unused liner from the shed and sourced some 'fish' safe silicone sealer and set to work patching all the tears and splits. If this didn't solve the problems then a much bigger task of replacing the liner was the only answer!
While the pond edges were accessible we decided to remove all the plants from the edges. The tiny leafed 'Mind your own Business' plants we planted to cover the edges had been over taken by a plant we bought years ago that is now banned for being such a 'rampant thug' When we bought it we didn't know it's awful spreading properties. I've sent ages on my knees ripping it out to try to control it to no effect. I know we still haven't got all the invasive roots but hopefully it will be easier to tackle now.

The fish, bless 'em, have been quite happy in their temporary homes, along with water beetles, rams horn snails and various other aquatic bugs we carefully saved from the mud off the pond bottom. So many fish thought. I thought only rabbits breed like that!

Water, fish, bugs and snails are all back in a pristine pond. Touch wood the water seems to be staying put. The only problem so far has been the wretched heron. This lunch time he had landed and was in the process of wading into the pond once more for his lunch before he was spotted and shooed off.

Now the pond has a random network of fine fishing line criss crossing the edges and the water. I hope he is suitably deterred otherwise I'll have to think up a more devious deterrent......

A Wet Affaire

The Pond in our garden, lovingly dug by ourselves over a month back in 1994, has been a source of delight, amusement, education, frustration and calm contemplation over the years. Many a cup of coffee has been drunk while sitting watching the wildlife it attracts. An emerging dragonfly was the inspiration for the design of a cake during my City and Guild Design course back in 1998. Grandchildren and friends children have sat on the little bridge over the stream with their noses a few inches from the water looking at frogs, tadpoles, beetles, dragonflies and even a snake.

Over the years the vegetation in and around the pond has grown increasingly luxurious. Each spring and it becomes more dense and each Autumn we struggle to reduce it.

This summer though we have had increasing problems with it. A pump failure in mid summer started the catalogue of woes. The pump wouldn't come out of the water. The water lily roots had escaped their container and trapped the electric cable to the pump. The only option was to destroy the beautiful waterlily to be able to lift the pump. Sorting out the pump made us realise that a deep cleaning operation was required to remove the silt and dead alga. We also became aware we had a water leak. Over the sumer we tried different strategies to try and define which part of the pond the leak was in.

By Autumn we decided their was no option but to drain and clean the pond out and hopefully find and rectify the leak.

Himself set to work draining the water levels to make catching the fish easier. Ha!!! The fish thought otherwise and did their best to evade the net. Three tubs of fish sat on the patio. Had he caught them all? Eventually the silt in the water was so dense he had to give up until the next day to give it time to settle.

It looked an extremely sad sight. Still no indication of were the leak is yet.

Next morning there had been a frost the temperature recorded -2 degrees when I got up. The fish in the tubs hadn't appeared to have suffered any ill effects. The water left in the pond had settled somewhat and it was obvious that there were still fish to catch!

I set about catching the remaining fish, not easy, the mud soon stirred up and they came up in the net along with masses of smelly mud and I had to get them out quickly and into fresh water. Thank god for rubber gloves!

Power washing the sides to clean it the pond liner showed up our leaking problems. The liner was deteriorating and splitting. It shouldn't be, it was guaranteed for many more years yet. Now we need to decide what's to be done. Neither of us have the energy or strength to completely remake the whole pond and with last nights frost it's not the time to be doing a job like that. We decided to finish cleaning it out and refill to the split line, replace the fish until the spring.

Now, no one has ever fallen in, not even the grandkids, as I designed it to be as child safe as possible, but, while trying to remove some roots from the side 'Himself' slipped in. He was not best pleased. God that mud does smell!!! Hopefully that will be the last of our woes but the saga will continue

......

Another Day Out

After the brilliant day out in Lincoln on Wednesday, Thursday was a total washout, rain, rain, rain all day. So when Friday arrived with clear blue skies again we decided to make the most of them age have another day out.

We didn't quite get to Vancouver, but to the Vancouver Shopping Mall in Kings Lynn in Norfolk! The town was the birthplace of George Vancouver who spent 5 years exploring and mapping the west coast of British Columbia in Canada.

Lynn has even stolen the hanging flag idea that decorated all the districts of Vancouver, Canada!

After a satisfying hot lunch in the Cafe Roasta we headed for the Museum where I wanted to see the recently installed Seahenge monument.

This view is from a post card purchased form the museum and shows what the monument looked like when it was first discovered.

Back in 1998 this early Bronze Age structure, thought to be a religious site, was uncovered by a receding tide on the beach of Holme Next the Sea in Norfolk. The structure had been hidden for 4000 years and was given the term - Seahenge. Originally built on Salt Marshes before the sea rose and covered the area. The wooden structure consisted of 55 axe split tree trunks arranged in a circle with the bark out side and an upturned oak tree root placed in the center. The site was only visible at low tide and the ancient wood began to deteriorate with exposure to the air. A controversial decision was made to remove the timbers and preserve them.

The timbers were first sent to Flag Fen here in Peterborough then eventually to the Mary Rose site in Portsmouth for cleaning and preservation before being returned to their eventual new home in a special created display in Kings Lynn museum.

We spent a few hours in the Museum and I got chatting to another couple viewing the exhibits. Their accents first attracted me to them. Canadian and Vancouverites. Small world! On emerging into the town we revived with a Costers stop before hitting the shops.

I spent five years in Lynn during my student days when we use to go to the Majestic Cinema. It still survives today despite all the demolition of parts of Lynn to build a modern shopping mall. Above the cinema was a a sprung floor ball room where we use to go to dances on Saturday nights when we danced to live music from dance bands and groups. No DJ in those days.

The Saturday Market Place still remains. Every year around Valentines day a fair called 'The Mart' arrives on the square and that's were Himself and I had our second date so many years ago.

This large open space serves as a car park during the week when the market isn't using the area.

The Lloyds bank has survived in the same building but the building on the other corner is now 'Nandos'!

Along the High Street, the original main shopping street that I remember the building all remain much the same but the shops have changed. The large department store I remember as Jermyns is now Debenhams store. There use to be a shop called Woodcocks, a grocers/delicatessen with an old fashion Tea Room above the shop. They use to roasted their own coffee and you cold smell it on the street. A Purdys cake shop with another coffee shop above was were we use to go after night shift for a coffee and doughnut before retiring to bed for the day. All gone now but there's still a good mix of little individual shops .

The River Great Ouse runs along side the

town edge. Once the site of an important and busy Dock Yard now just a few small fishing boats remain. All the old dockyard have gone and the water side now has modern appartments and houses where the working docks were. I notices all have stout flood gates that would close to defend the properties from the sea.

We just had time to visit a converted ancient 15th century warehouse called Marriott's Warehouse on the Green Quay. It is home to the 'Wash Discovery Centre' as well as a gift shop and cafe.

This unusal sclupture stands along side the outdoor seating area for the cafe. The sun had set and it was getting dark before we headed for the car to hit the road home.

A winter trip.

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny break in a week of lousy weather so we decided to make the most of it. As the swimming pool has closed for some renovations we got away early in the morning after deciding we would make a trip to the City of Lincoln. Neither of us have visited the City for some years now. The journey was smooth and uneventful through the gently rolling Lincolnshire countryside.

Having found a place to park we came to the market place and the River with its modern sculpture that spans the river Across the bridge is a new Waterside Shopping mall that opens onto the main shopping street of Lincoln.

Once busy with traffic it's now completely pedestrianized and busy with people browsing the shops

After a reviving coffee break at Costers we set out to explore......

These are the narrow streets in the old upper part of the city. They get progressively steeper until you reach the Cathedral and the ruins of the castle built for William the Conquer, perched at the very top of the hill.

This is the start of a very narrow road called Steep Hill. Once the traffic use to go all the way to the top but now it has been pedestrianized thank goodness. At the top sits the Cathedral and Castle. Today we chose not to climb to the top.

Jews Court is one of the oldest buildings at the bottom of Steep Hill, the streets that leads up to the great Lincoln Cathedral, is reputed to be older than the Cathedral. Although there is no proof of it’s construction date the building was by tradition a medieval synagogue and central to Lincolns Jewry. Today, after surviving plans for demolition in 1930, it is the home of the Lincolnshire History and Archaeology Society. It also houses a book shop for new and secondhand books.

Next door is the 12^th Century Jews House, which was by tradition the home of the Rabbi. The Jews House is the oldest known surviving dwelling house in all Europe. Today the Grade 1 listed building is the home of an excellent Restaurant. It has just reopened after a fire two years ago closed it. The two years was taken up with complex planning applications due to the buildings status.

Looking at the menu outside we decided to have lunch here instead of 'Pensioners Fish and Chip' meal we saw near the market further down in the newer part of the City.

Lunch was a delight. An ancient building sympathetically modernised inside to a simple tasteful contemporary style. Crisp white starched tablecloths, faultless service and mouthwatering delicious food.

The food is prepared by the Chef/proprietor Gavin Aitkenhead and front of house is, manageress, Samantha Tomkins. We passed a good many eating places, pubs cafes and restaurants as we walked along the main shopping street but I'm sure we couldn't have made a better choice for our lunch stop than The Jews House.

For all the conservation work carried out on preserving the wonderful architecture of the city, across the road from this ancient building, on a once open piece of ground the planners have allowed a row of hideously bland architectural uninteresting red brick homes to be built. Their defence apparently- 'in a hundred years time they'll be quirky'. Personally I doubt if they will survive a hundred years!

After lunch we wandered back along the main shopping street. Past an eclectic mix of architecture from ancient churches..........

.....to Victorian Gothic ........ to hideous 1960's architecture..... to some of today's better contemporary styles.

This half timbered Medieval style building survives, now a cafe it is on a bridge that spans right over the River Witham that runs through the center of the City.

Although Lincoln has the usual the run of boring high street global chain stores it has retained a good mix of smaller individual shops with quirky goods for sale that makes a shopping expedition more interesting.

Despite my parents once living 12 miles north of the City and my sister once working in the city center Lincoln is a city I don't know too much about but is steeped in history. I think in retirement it will have a few more visits from us.