The M27 will be completely closed in both directions between junctions 3 (M271) and junction 4 (M3) this weekend – from late evening Friday 31 January to early morning 3 February.
This is the third and final closure required for the replacement of the Romsey Road bridge. More details can be found on the Highways England website. [Read more…] about M27 Closure 31 Jan – 3 Feb
Gran, with daughter Jane, and soon-to-be son-in-law Stuart, is back home at The Ridge late on August 2nd 1962 having spent an exhausting time helping to move Jane’s belongings from her old flat in Gordon Rise, Mapperley, to her new Nottingham flat, to be shared with Stuart. Gran describes the flat, as “a quarter of a very large Victorian House, about one hundred and fifty years old, and the rooms are spacious”. She has also been driven further north, to Leeds, to meet Stuart’s family, including his sister Maureen and her daughter, “to try on the dress of the littlest Bridesmaid, Caroline, who looked enchanting and will quite likely steal the limelight on their Wedding Day”. Once home, on the 3rd, she addresses her now long-departed Adrian, to whom the whole journal is dedicated:
Your birthday beloved, and you would have been fifty if you had been spared. I have not been able to go to Memory Down, or indeed, to have marked this special day in any particular way this year but you have been in my thoughts continually all day. It has been a busy one for me.
A letter from Barry, saved between the journal’s pages, tells her about a parcel of plant specimens that he has sent to her: “…you may even be able to paint some of them if you wish”. They follow, he says, “a fabulous day’s hunting in Bedfordshire yesterday… I took my bike on the train to Luton and then cycled about forty miles”. Unfortunately the specimens arrive “unfit for painting” but they make Gran’s mouth water, all being new to her – Purple Milk-vetch; Wild Liquorice; Sulphur Clover; Great Earth-nut, and many more. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 113)
Philately is the study of postage stamps, stamped envelopes, postmarks, postcards, and other materials relating to postal delivery.
Now you could join the Philatelic Society in Chandler’s Ford.
Welcome to Southampton & District Philatelic Society – Chandler’s Ford Section.
[Read more…] about Local Group: Southampton & District Philatelic Society – Chandler’s Ford Section
Time away from usual routines is a necessity. Whether it is for holidays, taking time out to go for a really good walk with the dog, time to think, to take a metaphorical deep breath and refresh your batteries, is vital.
Dear Supporters,
It’s that time again to reflect on the past year and to look forward to the New Year ahead. Sat here at the Eastleigh Basics Bank reflecting on 2019 for me brings a real sense of thankfulness, pride in our community and also hope for more in 2020.
It’s remarkable to me that when the local churches gathered a small group of volunteers to start a local food bank in 2011, nearly 9 years later we have now not only fed 18,500 people for a week, but continue to operate entirely through the hard work and dedication of volunteers! They are to my mind an amazing group of individuals, who faithfully give of their time, week in week out all year round to support those in our community facing very difficult circumstances.
[Read more…] about Support Eastleigh Basics Bank – Helping Local People in Crisis
A new CD of choral music by Hugh Benham, director of music at St Boniface CofE Church, Hursley Road, has just been released by Convivium Records as disc CR050 – Hugh Benham: Sacred Choral Music.
Copies may be ordered from Hugh at H.Benham@Soton.ac.uk at £10 – delivery is usually possible within a day or two. CDs are also available (as are digital downloads) from the Convivium Records website. [Read more…] about Hugh Benham: Sacred Choral Music
It’s July 3rd 1962 and Gran’s second, and much longed-for holiday in Scotland is about to begin. Her companion, Pauline Muirhead is not delayed, as Gran had feared; she is there at Euston when Gran, met first by Barry at Waterloo, arrives in time for their ten o’clock departure for Perth.
Once beyond Lancaster, she really feels that she is “in the north”, delighted by unfamiliar flowers such as Wood Cranesbill and Melancholy Thistle, seen by the railway line.
However, with Beattock Summit passed, she is less impressed with Scotland’s visible industry:
We stopped at Carstairs and Motherwell, passing Shield’s Colliery and others with the attendant hideous slag heaps, which are a blot on the countryside, though slightly improved when herbage covers them.
Beyond Coatbridge and Larbert, she has kinder things to say about the area in which I now live:
…the most beautiful scenery as we looked across at the Ochil Hills with the play of sunshine and cloud shadows upon them. We could see Wallace’s Monument, in which is his sword, commemorating the Battle of Bannockburn.
Numbers in writing? What role do they play? In maths, obviously, but writing?
What possible role could they play in fiction, say? Surely there it is about the prose, how well the characters are created etc. Numbers turn up all over the place in writing.
Incidentally, the inspiration for the title comes from an old phrase hammered into me when I was learning division many moons ago at school. I had to look for numbers that “would go” into another number – e.g. 2 into 4 will go (twice!) and say 2 into 5 will go (twice but with 1 left over). Anyone else remember that style of teaching?
On to the use of numbers in fiction then…
Returning to The Ridge late, on April 11th 1962, after playing Badminton, Gran is surprised to find Jane there. Excitedly, she writes, “She had brought home her Wedding Gown, the loveliest, daintiest creation of Nottingham Lace in a design of roses”. And two days later, in Winchester with Jane, she purchases the material for her own dress.
The family gathers for Easter. Gran has made a Simnel Cake, and Jane and Stuart arrive at The Ridge late on April 19th.
“Just as we were finishing lunch, rather late”, Gran writes on the following day:
Barry, Julian and Ricky burst in upon us, a day earlier than expected but, happily we were able to find enough for them to eat, and afterwards all went down to Beaulieu Road, which proved a most enjoyable expedition.
There they hear their first Cuckoo of the Spring but I do not remember this so much as the entertaining but accidental reverse somersault off the top of a five-bar gate, which I performed, when Stuart, attempting to hurdle it, whacked it with his foot, knocking me off my perch!
Easter Day is April 22nd and after lunch, the New Forest is their destination again. Julian is anxious to see Rufus’ Stone but his Dad is keener, as Gran tells us, to find a particular moss:
After parking the cars, we walked along the valley in which were the trees on which Barry’s moss was said to grow. He was lucky, for following directions read in a report, he went straight to a certain Beech tree and found the moss Zygodon forsteri, which is one of the rarest mosses in Britain and only known from five Beech trees in the Rufus’ Stone area. It is dark green, with soft leaves and grows in the clefts down which moisture seeps.
Image Credit: All pictures were taken by Allison Symes.
Do you enjoy days out over the winter months? I do.
Okay, I prefer them when it is not howling a gale and pouring down with rain, but there are usually enough of such winter days where I can get out and about fairly easily.
What I find the hardest to cope with is the lack of light at this time of year. It makes me feel tired so much earlier in the evening which can be a pain! I am looking forward to the longer evenings and it won’t be that long before we start noticing the evenings are gradually extending.
This is a great time to plan what you would like to do in the garden for the rest of the year. Take a note book and walk around the garden. Look at seed catalogues for ideas of what to sow.
Midwinter is a tough time for wildlife in the garden. Make sure there is a continuous supply of food and fresh water. Knock snow off branches, especially conifers, if they are bending under the weight.
Later this year Hampshire County Council (HCC) will be introducing a registration scheme to use the county’s Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs). Barriers and Automatic Number Plate Registration (ANPR) systems will be installed to allow access only to vehicles with a pre-registered number plate. Non-registered vehicles will be subject to a £5 charge – for each visit. [Read more…] about Registration required for Household Waste Recycling Centres
Happy New Year!
I must admit the days when I saw the New Year in are long gone… I take the view now Time can get on without me nicely thank you while I have a decent sleep! After all, it does for the rest of the year.
What the New Year brings me is a new calendar and I usually go for a Border Collie one. The one I’ve got for 2020 has a picture of my favourite breed of dog for every day of the year, guaranteed to put a smile on my face every day of the year too!
What’s yours? A question asked in bars around the country; whisky, gin, beer. In another context, the question is not asked, because most of us are not interested, but the answer is given at length. What’s your disease?
There is no one so proud as the, now recovered, person describing how baffling and serious their disease has been. ‘None of the doctors knew what it was; I even saw the professor and he did not know.’
I eavesdropped on one such conversation at a drinks party. The man described his symptoms well and insisted that the disease was a mystery. I interrupted and asked, did he suffer from diarrhoea and vomiting about two weeks before the illness started? How did I know? He had not realised that this was the start of the illness. [Read more…] about What’s Your Poison?
Gran’s opening entry on January 1st 1962 is:
An owl was calling when I roused this morning, and the snow and frost remained in undisputed control after the coldest night I remember, with certainly the lowest minimum temperature I have ever recorded, only fourteen degrees!
She spends a restful day indoors, listening in the early evening to a televised concert of Johan Strauss’s works, given by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, while Jane and Stuart, staying at The Ridge for a few days, explore Farley Mount.
January 2nd dawns, and she remembers, “Our little Ricky is seven today – it is incredible but true!” Jane has a two day conference in London, and then, on the afternoon of the 5th, she and Stuart, Gran says, “went to see Compton Church, where they are to be married in August…” and on the following day they try to start plans for the Wedding Reception at the Winchester Hotel at St Cross. “It was not very satisfactory”, she writes. However, the next day, “Jane and Stuart went to see Potter’s Heron at Ampfield… with a view to Wedding Receptions. Stuart was charmed by it and it is fairly certain that this is where their Reception will be”. The pair departs for Nottingham that afternoon. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 110)
Fifteen years to the day after the terrible Tsunami swept across Sri Lanka, another powerful natural phenomenon struck awe and even fear for some of the rural people. The morning sky turned dark.
We had travelled upcountry to a place called Naula, close to the line taken by the total eclipse of the sun. Our friends packed a welder’s visor in their overnight bag. I thought David, an engineer, was planning to do some welding when we reached our destination, but it was his wife who had the foresight. She follows events in the heavens and told us of the eclipse.
When the time came there was cloud cover which was fortunate for me as I managed to take photographs of the eclipse through the clouds. In between the clouds, we observed the eclipse through the visor.
The cook and some of the staff where we stayed thought it was an intervention of the gods and wanted to go to the temple. Many people did visit temples, churches, kovils and mosques but it was the schoolteachers who could tell them what was happening. We collected the staff and let them all have a look through the visor. One of our Sri Lankan friends explained what was happening, but I am not sure we convinced them all.
I hope 2019, despite all the upheaval, has been reasonably good for you and 2020 may prove to be better still. My favourite gag I’ve heard so far on the theme of the New Year is:
Why are shortsighted people looking forward to next year?
Answer: Because they will finally have 2020 vision”.
Okay… that one’s never going to win any awards…
As ever the last year seems to have flown by and it’s time to take a look at how things went, writing wise, this year.
October 26th 1961 is Julian’s last half-term day with his Gran at The Ridge. She takes him train-spotting on Shawford Station. On the nearby downs she makes notes of the plants and birds she sees, and she gathers some Gladdon Iris foetidissima seedpods to use as a Winter decoration.
Jane arrives at The Ridge, spending the night on a bed made up on the dining room floor, and she is able to take Julian and Gran to Winchester the next morning, for Julian to catch the train home. Gran writes. “I waited anxiously to hear that Julian had reached home safely – he seemed such a little boy to travel alone – but Barry was meeting him at Waterloo”.
Gran, devoted Royalist, is pleased to record this on November 3rd:
A special announcement on the Television brought us the good news that Princess Margaret, Duchess of Snowdon, gave birth this morning to a son, who will be Lord Lindley, and both are well.
Three days later, suffering with a migraine and still depressed by family difficulties, she nevertheless, at the end of the day, says, “But reflecting now… I can find some cause for uplift of mind and spirit”:
…there was evidence of the intelligence of our Tits, though not altogether appreciated by Jean Hockridge, that is well-known to me and not in the least resented by me. They had pecked holes in the metal caps of her milk bottles and had taken some of the cream, and had done their utmost to tear out the lid of a carton of cream but had, I think, been interrupted. I do not believe they would have given up the attempt.
This behaviour, by Great and Blue Tits, appears to be a thing of the past, as milk delivered to the doorstep nowadays is usually homogenised and is thus without the tempting “cream on the top”, which was nutritionally worth the birds’ effort in securing. I think the birds must have first discovered this food source when doorstep milk, frozen in the early morning cold, expanded and forced the metal tops off the bottles.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 109)
Written by Greg Walker, Principal Director of Music, The 14th Eastleigh Scout and Guide Band.
Here’s our talented group of youngsters at The 14th Eastleigh Scout and Guide Band showing what we can do, along with a mass choir of Scout and Guide Shows from all across Hampshire, with our cover of ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’... we hope you enjoy it – we had GREAT fun recording and making it.
It seems that pretty much every singer has recorded a Christmas song. Some are originals; some are covers (which may or may not be better than the originals). Some of the songs are quite enjoyable; others are less so.
Here are some of the less well-known songs that have made it to my Christmas playlist. You may or may not agree with my somewhat erratic and eclectic selection.
I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas by Gayla Peevey is possibly the oldest recording in the list. This is such a fun song that it is permanently on my MP3 player – proving, perhaps, that a Hippopotamus isn’t just for Christmas but for all year round. [Read more…] about Christmas Songs
