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BB1941
: Unusual Hobbies
Thursday
19th December 2019
Some
might think that one of Jeremy Corbyn's
more eccentric interests, that of taking photos of
manhole covers, is rather weird. Personally I see nothing
strange about it. After all, I have
my liking for photos of weather vanes of
which there were three today!
Similarly
Margaret has a thing about lines of washing
and Tony for many things including Lady
Anne Clifford and postboxes
Aware
of this latter BOOTboy
penchant, one of our regular readers, John
from Florida (well, from Manchester originally
but Florida is where he now lives in the
winter time), alerted us to an item in the
Guardian Newspaper (also formerly from Manchester)
entitled Postboxes of the Lake District - in pictures.
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This
was about a website by Tom White,
a photographer, who must have
a similar weakness as he has
produced a project entitled
Letter
to the Lakes.
Tony
was
amused to find that the "there
were two of us with a daft interest
in postboxes!!"
He
liked the pictures but was surprised
there was only one VR.
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What
other unusual hobbies were to be revealed
today? Well, I suppose that us actually
going out on a winter's day that threatened
rain might be considered as such but we'll
pass on that.
We
started from Levens, where a building site
had an enormous stone crushing machine.
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Leaving
the village, we set off up through the woods
then across fields on what ought to have
been a perfectly safe path over to Sizergh
Castle. Except it wasn't.
The
first thing we noticed about the herd of
cattle was that some of them had very large
horns.
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The
next thing we noticed was that many of them
had calves with them. They glared
menacingly and started making noises to
warn us off. Now, I am not normally
intimidated by cows but I know enough about
them to be aware that if they have calves
you need to give them a wide berth. However,
what to do if they are all strung out across
the field in front of you?
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That
was the dilemma facing us. I wasn't
too worried because I reckoned that I could
run faster than Tony but we needed to be
careful. Fortunately we all managed
to thread a path through that reassured
them sufficiently to reassure us.
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After
all this excitement, Terry and Stan contemplated
calling in at Sizergh Castle cafe but time
was tight so we pressed on up to Helsington
Church where the skies to the south were
now threatening rain.
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Another
of Tony's eccentric hobbies is exploring
church yards for unusual grave memorial
inscriptions. Here, there is a commonwealth
war grave that seems strange to 21st century
readers due to its use of the word "gay"
in its more traditional meaning. The
soldier's regiment was the Royal Artillery
Company. My father had a small
collection of military cap badges and my
favourite was that of the RAC, chiefly because
the wheel on the badge actually rotated.
We
continued along the edge of the scars, stopping
to allow Tony a quick snack at the top of
the track that drops steeply down to Barrowfield.
The
path back through the woods and cow-free
fields led us down to Cotes. Now I
don't regard model train sets to be that
unusual. After all, I had one as a
child and my brother had one in his attic
until recently. Rod Stewart is allegedly
one of the many grown men who continue to
enjoy this pastime. However few do
it outside. There, at Cotes, a model railway
track is being constructed around a house.
That is unusual.
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Not
as unusual though as Johnny Depp who takes
the prize for the most unexpected celebrity
hobby- collecting Barbie Dolls. Each
to his own.
There
is little else to report. We reached
the Hare & Hounds, in good time before
the rain set in, to indulge in one of our
more usual hobbies and enjoy a festive turkey
and stuffing pizza. On re-reading
that sentence I have realised that is ambiguous.
For the avoidance of doubt I should
clarify that it was a festive pizza that
had a turkey and stuffing topping.
Happy
Christmas to you all.
Don,
Thursday 19th December 2019
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