A Nostalgia Trip

Yesterday was Sunday, whooooo what a difference to last weeks snowy Sunday, Easter day. This Sunday dawned a bright clear and sunny day. Not too cold either. We made a quick decision to go out and enjoy it. Usually we would head towards Norfolk but we rashly decided to go north instead.

The traffic on the winding road to the coast was minimal and we arrived in Skegness at about lunch time. Should we find a pub serving Sunday roasts? Nah we're at the seaside - lets have fish and chips. We veered away from the sea front to a chip shop called Salts and had lunch. In Victorian times the land around the coastal fishing village of Skegness belonged to the Earl of Scarbrough. His Agent saw the potential of the long stretch of sandy beach and the arrival of the railway to the area and in 1877 drew up what was one of the first town plans of Skegness, renowned for its tree-lined avenues.
Between the 1880's and 90's the Pier, the first development of the gardens at the seafront, the Clock Tower, the Parade and seafront hotels were developed In the early 1900's Skegness emerged as a primary destination for the East Midlands "Day Tripper". This peaked in 1921 with the railway carrying over 450,000 day trippers on special day excursions.
In the 1930's the foreshore was laid out with formal gardens, swimming baths and boating lakes and in 1936 saw the opening of the first of the highly successful Butlin's Holiday Camps.
The 1930's, 40's, 50's and 60's were the heyday of Skegness seaside resort

A rapid increase in static caravans occurred, rising from 12,500 in 1962 to a peak of 21,066 by 1974. This led to the development of Chapel St. Leonards and Ingoldmells as holiday centres. With the increase of the caravan trade came the rise of 'Penny arcade games' and all the shops selling all manor of cheap 'tat', well that's what I call it!
In 1978 the Skegness Pier was devastated by storms, leaving the pier head isolated from the shore and unusable. This section was eventually demolished.

Much of the sea front parade fell into decline during this period and in the last ten years much improvement had been attempted.
When we were small kids we both came to Skegness several times each summer. Me with my family in my Grandfathers little car, crammed in like sardines. Braving the long queues of traffic along the winding road into Skegness. Dave and his family flying in their Cessna plane up from the small airfield in Spalding marsh to the little airfield north of Skegness before Ingollmells.
Off on a jaunt to Skeg. above and a donkey ride for young Dave below.

A very young Monica on the beach in 1947 The 'Jolly Fisherman' and the slogan - 'Skegness is so Bracing' Symbolised Skegness for me during my childhood. Someone has vandalise this statue of him. They've pinched his pipe! Or is it another 'PC' atrocity!

The Jolly Fisherman is 100 years old this year and the 'Worthy's' in the town council decided to 'Disneyfy' him to be less 'threatening to the children!

Well, the donkeys still give children their first taste of 'riding' along this stretch of beach. They've been banned in many placed as a health and safety hazard.

Much of the beach has altered since the hurricane in 1985 when the Sandbanks out to sea in the Wash shifted and altered their shape and therefore the the way the tides sweeps in and out of the beach. When we were children the sea was nearly a mile from the front promenade and never came close to it when the tide was in. The sea now comes inshore much closer than before so the beach sand had been heaped up and dune grass has been encouraged to grow.

The amusement have now spread along the front into the former Pleasure Gardens. The Amusement park on the North Shore with it's massive wooden big dipper roller coaster has disappeared.
The sand now covers the old concrete steps down to the beach along this stretch of the promenade and to the right of the prom is a massive car park. Not a garden in sight. There's a better beach to the north.

On the advertising board we found this poster. PJ Proby!!! In the 1960's he was Britain answer to Elvis! and we thought he was dead!!!!

Couldn't resist an ice cream. Well we were at the seaside!

It had been about seven year since we were at Skegness. I can't say it's been a great visit and I don't think we'll be rushing ti visit there again. Best remember it as our childhood memories.

.....and so to Boston.

...........leaving Skegness we decided stop in Boston instead of driving straight round the ring road around the town center. We hadn't been there for a few years either. Bostons another 'Old Town' but it's manage to modernise it town center without destroying allot of its historical buildings.

The Boston Stump, the tower of St Boltoph's church, is a landmark that can be seen for many miles around the Fens. It's reputed to be the tallest Parish church in England. On a clear day it can be seen from Hunstanton on the other side of the Wash.

Boston dates back to Saxon times and is a port on the river Witham. Today fairly large ship still come in and out of her port.

The Towns claim to Fame

In 1620 a group of pilgrims from Nottinghamshire set sail to the America's from Boston's Port in the Mayflower. These were the Pilgrim Fathers who settled on the east coast of America

This old building originally called Shodfriars Hall a beautiful old 15th century timber framed building. A theatre created during a 19 century remodelling was the place where Arthur Lucan who became 'Old Mother Riley' made his debut
Boston has retained so many interesting buildings quaint little lanes and it celebrates its history

The River Witham runs through the center of the town.
Georgian Edwardian and Victorian terrace houses still line the streets

The Old Customs House with it's Flemish design faces the quay side

We had a lovely couple of hours wandering around and admiring the architecture and old building in Boston. As it was five o'clock on a Sunday afternoon it was quite and peaceful.

Surfleet Seas End Or The Res.
Travelling on we made another nostalgic detour to The Surfleet reservoir where the sluice gates separate the river Glen from the tidal side of the river.

This is where Dave's family had a summer holiday home and where the eight children with no adults spent their idyllic summer holidays. Swimming, fishing and playing.

The view along the Glen from the sluice gate above and below the sluice gate on the tidal side below.

This is the side of the their holiday home. At the time it was the best site there, commanded a view straight down the river. There were no barriers along the lock sides then and there was a diving board on the river edge

On the bank this side of the river was a small concreted paddling pool fed by the river water.

When Dave was small and before he learnt to swim he often fell in the river and was fished out by his elder step sister. He has such fond memories of this place and liken it to a 'Swallows and Amazons' childhood.

The Frosts Survivor

My rhubarb is doing really well. It's been growing away quietly under a large plastic tub. I keep having a peek at it to see how its growing. It survived the snows and bad frosts of last week and I'm hoping to pull some for a dessert this weekend. Not too sure yet what sort of dessert, not the usual rhubarb crumble though, but probably poaching the stalks in a ginger sauce. I've had it in my garden for three years now and I hope this spring I'll have enough to make some rhubarb and ginger jam.

It think these red stalks and lime green leaves just unfurling really so look stunning. Almost too good to eat. We always had rhubarb pies and tarts as a kid but it fell out of favour with the 60's generation. Now it enjoying a revival and most comes from an area of Yorkshire known as the Rhubarb Triangle where it's forced in pitch black sheds and harvested in candlelight.

A Resurgence of the Rhubarb.

In its heyday the area known as the "rhubarb triangle", between Leeds, Wakefield and Bradford, boasted about 200 farmers and was recognised as the world's centre for growing the fruit. Grown in pitch-black sheds and harvested by hand in candlelight, rhubarb grown indoors is generally considered to be sweeter in taste than its outdoor variety.
The forcing process was discovered by chance in the early 19th Century, but it was Yorkshire which became the first place in the world to build special sheds to grow it in 1877.
Popularity grew over the years and hundreds of tons of rhubarb were regularly taken on the "rhubarb express" train to markets in London. During World War II, the government curbed the price of the fruit to make it more affordable to the masses when you could buy a pound of rhubarb for just a shilling. (5p) Huge amounts were grown to feed the troops and everybody grew rhubarb in their garden.

Now there are just 12 rhubarb farmers left in the Yorkshire triangle but they are enjoying a revival of the fruits popularity

The peach tree has now emerged from under the fleece covering protecting it from the frosts. I'm hoping for some warm weather soon to encourage the bees to fertilise the flowers or I'll have to go around it with a paint brush! I really hope I get a crop of peaches this year.

I'm amazed the marsh marigold in the pond is flowering as profusely as it is . It's been encased in ice several times over the past few Weeks as the temperature dropped several degrees below freezing causing the water to ice over.

No sign of the frogs yet! I hope the grass snake that has been slithering and swimming around in the pond over the last few years hasn't scared them off completely. It's not been good for frog spawn in the last two years as they have arrived early and spawned but then a late severe frost has devastated the spawn and hatched tadpoles.

It's Been a Funny old Easter!

..................or I'm Dreaming of a White Easter...........................

Brrrrrrr........Any Easter bunnies hopping about this Easter will certainly have suffered from frost bite!

Saturday We woke up to this. So, the forcasters were right for a change! Luckily it didn't last long. the thin covering over the ground soon melted leaving me a very soggy lawn.

The weather's been really strange today. Seven and a half hours of sunshine despite the early snow. One minute the sky would be a beautiful clear blue then it would rapidly change to heavy dark clouds before equally quickly returning to a clear blue sky.

The morning post delivered this book from Amazon. I found it on the site last week and thought it looked interesting.

I'm definitely going to have a go knitting some of these patterns. So there'll be a few pairs of socks in present parcels before long! I'm on my second pair right now. I love this colourful wool...................and this is the little jacket I made for Josh I gave him it last Sunday at his Christening.

Easter Sunday. The morning dawned very dark and drawing back the bedroom curtains revealed an even heavier snow fall. This was a blanket covering of about 2 inches. The most snow we've had in this area for over two years. It stopped soon after nine o'clock thankfully allowing the sun to emerged from behind the dark clouds. By midday most of the snow had melted away.

Most Easter morning you usually find me in the kitchen cooking for a family lunch. This year we've no guests. I had pulled a large leg of Lamb out of the freezer ready to cook but every one has prior engagements this year so Dave and I tuck into a beautiful tender roasted joint all by ourselves.

Time for Daisy's Annual Bath!

We normally hear Daisy scratching about in her hibernation box and get her out. Some years she's been out in early February. This year she's been really quite, so I decided it was time to fetch her out last week. She's been slowly waking up in my studio conservatory for the last two days. Today I decided she was awake enough for her annual bath and spruce up. I bathed her in a shallow bath of warm water, dried her then oiled her shell with olive oil. After this shes weighed and measured. This spring she weighs 5.1 kilograms. She was only half this size when she first adopted us about 35 years ago. She appeared in our secure garden one summer. No one seemed to own her and no one claimed her so we've looked after her ever since.

Its always a struggle to get her to eat after hibernation but mostly I win. Only once have I had to haul her off to the Vets. This year she's not been too bad. I always tempt her with green grapes, her favourite food, but she needs hand feeding first before she decided to get stuck in and will only feed when shes warm. That's during the afternoons in the spring. later when she ventures outside I leave her to feed as she wants. She likes to crop the dandelions and daisy's from the lawn. Hence her name....Daisy!

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I've really been enjoying watching the BBC's series 'Larks Rise to Candleford'. I've never read the book or books but I hope the BBC commissions more.

The 'No 1 ladies Detective Agency' by Alexander McCall Smith, screened on Easter day made another hit for the BBC. There more planned for next year. This feature length film was the Director Antony Minghella's last work and the soul singer Jill Scott was a brillant casting as Mama Precious Ramotswe.

Easter Monday
There was no snow this morning although on looking out the conservatory window there was a thin sketchy layer of slush so there must have been some earlier. It's been another sunny day with brief periods of dark clouds.
We decided we to go over to Tixover to visit Sheila this afternoon. Shes in a Care Home after suffering a devastrating stroke in 2006. She does enjoy Daves visits, although communication with her has got progressive more difficult.
It's cold but looking increasily spring like. The hedgerows are becoming greener. The field in front of the Care Home have the sheep back with their lambs always a Ahhhhh...... sight.
On the journey to Tixover we saw two Red Kite soaring over head on thermals. These protected birds of Prey have been a sucessful special reintroduction program for 'Natural England' over the last few years. They were released in Rockingham Forest futher west in the County and are suviving well.

Is it really the First Day of Spring???

It's the first day of Spring today and does it feel spring like .......does it heck! It's freezing out there. OK, so the suns shining, well, in between short sharp rain showers it is........... but, the winds a blustery, ear biting, north westerly. Not a day for a spring walk in the park, unless your a fan of rosy cheeks and frost bitten fingers.

My little peach tree is absolutely smothered in these gorgeous pink blossoms this year. I've had to wrap it in a layer of garden fleece to attempt to protect it from this weekends predicted bad frosts and snowy weather. I do hope some of the blossoms manage to fertilise and survive. The peaches from this tree are so sweet and juicy albeit quite small. It's planted in a sheltered part of the garden and on a south facing wall, so fingers crossed.

Its also Easter Good Friday, a day for lovely fruity spicy hot cross buns. I know ........... they'll give me the most awful indigestion, but they do taste so good especially sandwiched with a thick layer of naughty but nice English butter. Better break out the Zantac!

Easter hasn't been this early since 1913 and wont be again until somewhere about 2200. Another piece of usless information I thought you'd like!