We Decided The Tree Needed A Few More Bits And Pieces,

so after Diana left for work,

 I was on my way back to Woodcote Green Garden Center,

 a quick look at the orchids,

 and then into the Christmas section,

 it may seem like it was a long way to go,

 but the selection of Christmas goods they have there,

 and trees suitably dressed,

 is huge,

 each section having a predominant theme as far as colour is concerned,

like this one, blue and white, 

 or traditional,

the shelves were full to overflowing,

 also some tinware,

 Christmas goodies,

 back home, selection made,

and this is our little tree fairy, tomorrow Diana will pop her atop the tree,

 for the rest of the afternoon I was up stairs visiting Skara Brae,

 uncovered by a storm in 1850, Skara Brae gives a remarkable picture of life 5,000 years ago, before Stonehenge was built,

 we visited the site in September this year,

 as usual I played around with the colours,

 before finishing up with a black and white,

 and a old fashioned look,

 we were now nearing John O'Groats, on the ferry from the Orkneys, 

 this is the modernised hotel and guest house,

 next to the harbour,

 lots of color,

 black and white,

and a nod to older cameras and films, 

after my evening meal and as tomorrow is the fifth of November, I decided to watch the first episode of Gunpowder, and it was excellent, I will rewatch the first episode again when Diana is here, and we can then watch the whole series, in case you do not know it, here is the nursery rhythm, of which there are many versions of the rhyme that have survived in different parts of England since the 17th century, most begin with the same or very similar words, this is the basic form:

Remember, remember, the Fifth of November

Gunpowder treason and plot

I see no reason why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot

after that there are very different verses that may be included, this one form 1870,   

 Remember, remember!   

The fifth of November,

The Gunpowder treason and plot;

 I know of no reason

 Why the Gunpowder treason

 Should ever be forgot!

 Guy Fawkes and his companions

 Did the scheme contrive

 To blow the King and Parliament

 All up alive.

Threescore barrels, laid below,

To prove old England's overthrow.  

But, by God's providence, him they catch,

With a dark lantern, lighting a match!

 A stick and a stake

 For King James's sake!

    If you won't give me one,

    I'll take two,

    The better for me,

    And the worse for you.

    A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope,

    A penn'orth of cheese to choke him,

    A pint of beer to wash it down,

    And a jolly good fire to burn him.

    Holloa, boys! holloa, boys! make the bells ring!

    Holloa, boys! holloa boys! God save the King!

    Hip, hip, hooor-r-r-ray!

for a fuller view of the background to the plot, this is a good read of it, Diana called, so off to the bus stop, 

we returned home just before 11.00 in the evening, so it was feet up for the first episode of Gunpowder, I will only be making one post today as very early in the morning I have an appointment at King's College Hospital, the fist visit to remove the tooth that my dentist could only partially remove several weeks ago, and with that we were off to bed.

I Played Househusband Today,

dusting, hovering, all of the usual things,

I spent the rest of the afternoon watching a YouTube fest, I had no idea there were so many interesting bits and pieces to watch, today stationary steam engines, the big one at Kempton Park, marbling and a few hobbies, as it happened the printing company I worked for back in the 1960s had a marbling section, as the company restored old books and had at times to provide custom marbled endpapers, also I had a chat with Alan, after my evening meal I decided to watch Gunpowder, and it was excellent, I will re-watch the first two episodes again when Diana is here, and we can then watch the whole series, which is what I said way back in November 2019, in case you do not know it, here is the nursery rhythm, of which there are many versions of the rhyme that have survived in different parts of England since the 17th century, most begin with the same or very similar words, this is the basic form:

Remember, remember, the Fifth of November

Gunpowder treason and plot

I see no reason why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot

after that there are very different verses that may be included, this one form 1870,   

 Remember, remember!   

The fifth of November,

The Gunpowder treason and plot;

 I know of no reason

 Why the Gunpowder treason

 Should ever be forgot!

 Guy Fawkes and his companions

 Did the scheme contrive

 To blow the King and Parliament

 All up alive.

Threescore barrels, laid below,

To prove old England's overthrow.  

But, by God's providence, him they catch,

With a dark lantern, lighting a match!

 A stick and a stake

 For King James's sake!

    If you won't give me one,

    I'll take two,

    The better for me,

    And the worse for you.

    A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope,

    A penn'orth of cheese to choke him,

    A pint of beer to wash it down,

    And a jolly good fire to burn him.

    Holloa, boys! holloa, boys! make the bells ring!

    Holloa, boys! holloa boys! God save the King!

    Hip, hip, hooor-r-r-ray!

for a fuller view of the background to the plot, this is a good read of it, Diana called, so off to the bus stop, returning home it was feet up for a New Tricks, one from Have I Got a Bit More News for You and we were off to bed.

Guy Fawkes Night

Remember remember the fifth of November. Gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder. Treason should ever be forgot! Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent. To blow up king and parliament. Three score barrels were laid below. To prove old England's overthrow. By God's mercy he was catched With a dark lantern and lighted match. Holler boys, holler boys, let the bells ring. Holler boys, holler boys, God save the King. Traditionally on November the fifth bonfires are lit all over the UK to celebrate the discovery of a plot to overthrow the King of England, atop the fire a effigy of Fawkes himself, a reminder to all that treason will never be forgotten. Nowdays most towns have a large firework display rather than a bonfire, for a full rundown on Fawkes and the plot go here or here,

As A Kid,

back in the early 1950s,

there were very few organised firework displays, all that would happen is that you would invite a few friends round or go to their homes and watch a back garden display, in almost every town a toy shop would sell fireworks for a few weeks before that special day November the 5th, which was always known as bonfire night, I had never thought much about the shops selling the fireworks until I saw this video of one that caught fire in preparation for the Diwali festival, I have not managed to find out where this video was taken but sincerely hope that no one was injured, back to November 5th,

Remember, remember!

    The fifth of November,

    The Gunpowder treason and plot;

    I know of no reason

    Why the Gunpowder treason

    Should ever be forgot!

    Guy Fawkes and his companions

    Did the scheme contrive,

    To blow the King and Parliament

    All up alive.

    Threescore barrels, laid below,

    To prove old England's overthrow.

    But, by God's providence, him they catch,

    With a dark lantern, lighting a match!

    A stick and a stake

    For King James's sake!

    If you won't give me one,

    I'll take two,

    The better for me,

    And the worse for you.

    A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope,

    A penn'orth of cheese to choke him,

    A pint of beer to wash it down,

    And a jolly good fire to burn him.

    Holloa, boys! holloa, boys! make the bells ring!

    Holloa, boys! holloa boys! God save the King!

    Hip, hip, hooor-r-r-ray

and to all in the UK Happy Guy Fawkes Night!

The Beer Coastguard Rescue Team,

have a bit of a job on their hands,

as a huge container was spotted off of the shore at Axmouth, near Seaton at 08.11AM and is believed to be carrying 14 tons of Lark cigarettes, police have warned that it is not a free for all and the public should not remove any of the cigarettes, the Police and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency was informed that containers were lost from a Maersk cargo ship on Valentine’s Day as it crossed the northern stretch of the Bay of Biscay in stormy conditions, more than 500 boxes fell into the water – most of them were empty and are thought to have sunk - as high winds hit the ship during an attempted passage from Rotterdam to Sri Lanka, thankfully none of the crew were hurt but the loss of the containers is thought to have been one of the biggest ever losses suffered by Maersk,


years ago I remember watching a film of a similar indecent, Whisky Galore, where a ship floundered off of the Scottish coast and the locals tried to liberate the thousands of bottles of whiskey on it, the strange thing was that the film was based on a couple of true events the first, the Loch Sheil, the 'Whiskey Wreck' – 1877, Thorn Island, Pembrokeshire, the 1218 ton rigged sailing ship was carrying gunpowder and a cargo of 7000 cases of beer and whiskey, most was picked up by locals and hidden in cliffs or buried for years, two bottles of whiskey turned up in the roof of a house in 1950, the crew survived and the only casualty was a local who found some of the whiskey and drank himself to death, 

this wreck was then followed by another shipwreck, the 8,000-ton cargo ship the SS Politician which sank off the shores of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides in 1941 and inspired the book and film Whisky Galore, back to Beer in Seaton which I visited with Steve from the UK when he was running a marathon there, I wonder how many cigarettes will be handed in?

Maps Have To Be Accurate,

and as towns, cities, rivers, coastlines and buildings altar over time,

they have to be upgraded, a serious business, but just occasionally a cartographer can fool his or her fellows, by a slipping in a small 'extra' feature, like this marmot or bear shown above, the Swiss Federal Office of Topography (Swisstopo) has employed professional mapmakers for 175 years now, but only now are some of the illustrations being discovered decades after they were embedded in the maps, why would they do this? And how did the hijinks begin? 

from the full article,

'watching a single place evolve over time reveals small histories and granular inconsistencies. Train stations and airports are built, a gunpowder factory disappears for the length of the Cold War. But on certain maps, in Switzerland’s more remote regions, there is also, curiously, a spider, a man’s face, a naked woman, a hiker, a fish, and a marmot. These barely-perceptible apparitions aren’t mistakes, but rather illustrations hidden by the official cartographers at Swisstopo in defiance of their mandate “to reconstitute reality.” Maps published by Swisstopo undergo a rigorous proofreading process, so to find an illicit drawing means that the cartographer has outsmarted his colleagues,'

above on the Swiss border a French nature preserve proudly shows off a fish, for the full article have a look at the hidden pictures in Swiss maps at Eye on Design, I wonder if cartographers to this day are still incorporating their hidden features?

We Both Walked To The Bus Stop,

354 For Diana, a 54 for myself,

I should say I am only making one post today, firstly I took lots of photographs, secondly the video editor that worked perfectly yesterday, had a hissy fit today, so it took a lot longer than usual for this post,

the sky did not look good, luckily we both had our waterproofs on,

my bus arrived first, so I was off, leaving Diana at the stop for her 354 to go to work, for myself I alighted at This 'N' That, in Croydon Road, I had a chat with Donna inside,

outside bargains galore,

looking through the box of postcards was fun,

next over the road to Kingfisheries, I had a chat with Graham and looked at some of the new fish that had arrived during the week,

next a bus to Eden Park and under the railway bridge,

to St. John's church in Eden Park Avenue for a model railway show, as it happens I had been here before, in October last year, and also April this year, both times I enjoyed the show so much I wanted to see it all again, 

entering the first hall, accessories and other goods were for sale,

like these DVDs, at Heritage in Motion,

this stall, Kitorama was not only showing model trains but all manner of vehicles and planes,

at Doug's Model Trains & Tools,

you could not only buy completed track side buildings,

also on offer were different shapes of brass,

and profiles of plastic that modellers use,

as well as new tools,

everything that a budding modeler could possibly need,

I hate to say it, but these reminded me so much of one of my frequent trips to the dentist,

opposite was Harrison Brown Models,

with lots of items of interest especially for making the backgrounds like trees and other features,

the Network Railway Society were also here,

with a fine selection of mugs and other memorabilia,

next a look at the stall of David Wills,

a huge selection of new and used items,

engines,

and carriages a plenty,

I made my way along the other side of the stalls passing Julian Bowden's stall,

and that of Kent Model Railways,

next through the door,

and into the hall where the layouts were,

the first Medway Quay,

the layout is some 16 feet long,

the area modelled at Tonbridge is at the end of a small canal from the River Medway leading to a wharf which has a light railway link for loading unloading goods act, at one time gunpowder mills supplied to the ammunition works at Woolwich,

I liked this so much, a youngster getting interested in trains rather than a Game Boy or whatever it is that kids spend so much time on nowadays,

I continued walking,

taking photographs along the way,

it was so nice stopping and looking at the trains and the surroundings of each layout,

absolutely amazing,

I arrived at Fawcett Street,

this layout 48" X 16",

Oakbourne was next, including a nice river,

and buildings,

these I especially liked, with their gardens backing on to the track,

this layout was huge, it was the Hornby Dublo Mainline display,

track crossings like this are complicated enough, but with the Dublo system there is a third rail, but it is great to see that modellers are keeping the 3 rail system going,

behind the scenes at Beckwick,

although difficult to see,

all of the station lamppost are lite with mini bubs, as indeed are the red stop lights on the buffers,

this is a huge layout measuring 24ft  X 2ft,

the model is a fictitious location situated in Southern England, some forty miles from London, the line opened during the mid 1880s as the railway network spread throughout the country, 

the current setting is served by all three types of motive power, set during the post war years into the mid 1960s,

Corkscrew Green, this is a delightful N gauge model, and in case you can not read the sign,

yes you can drive your own train!

unfortunately,

the sunlight made the photographs have a bit too much contrast,

but the good news was that I had a good chat with the operator of the model,

I arrived at Modbury Torr,

the layout is some 10 feet long,

with a coal yard,

and shunting engines,

this was another amazing layout Saltgrabe,

I have not been able to find out much about it,

but the layout had a moving bucket system and a underground section which you can see in the video at the end of the railway post,

I finally stopped at the last display, I must admit I looked at so many others, and some how did not take any photographs, must do better next time,

at Brinklow not only were there trains but also canal narrow boats, the blue boat was shop bought, but the red boat was built from scratch,

the layout is based on a section of the Trent Valley Railway between Rugby and Nuneaton,

the layout operates in the period between 1948 to the mid 1960’s, a little modellers licence is used in the running period, 

I have made a couple of short videos, I tried to make it one video, but there is a limit to the size the blog lets me upload,

so two short videos it is then, what a wonderful way to spend a few hours, and marvel at the work patience and dedication of so many railway modellers, wonderful, as it happens I was asked if I had a model railway, well in case you do not know whilst living in Thailand I did have a railway room, and here it is below,

great fun, Diana was invaluable making all of the trees and countless mugs of coffee! I already have next years date in my diary, I will be back on the 1st. of April 2023 for another train day! if you are interested in going the show will take place at St, John's church, 251 Eden Park Ave, Beckenham BR3 3JN, the show is organised by the Beckenham and West Wickham Model Railway Club,

on the way back from the railway exhibition I stopped off at Lidl in town,

we were running short of rum, again!

a nice display of cut flowers,

as well as some potted miniature cyclamen,

I had hardly arrived home before it was time for my evening read and sherry,

some smoked salmon for my starter,

followed by a delicious curry that Diana had made for me, 'Cheers!', I watched a Midsomer Murder which finished just as Diana arrived home and the next one started, so we watched that over a coffee and a nightcap, rounding off the evening with a Poirot, which was strange as it is normally shown much earlier, but there it is, with the end of that we were off to bed.