Monthly Archives: July 2018

The Game Fair at Ragley Hall 28th July

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R and I were up early to attend the second day of the Game Fair at Ragley Hall. The event celebrates the countryside, shooting, fishing and hunting. We were inside the fair before the opening time of the stalls. Traffic was not too bad. We had a long wander around all the stores. Some neat outdoor cooking systems, including a wood fire semi-portable pizza oven. The price put us off it!

Of course, we checked in at D B Guns to say hello to Dawn and Brian. I am happy to say they were very busy, so couldn’t stop and chat.

We ate lunch on the food alley which has masses of vendors selling goodies, and of course beer and cider in one of the many bars. Food most definitely has improved in recent years.  A few years back we complained is was only hotdogs and burgers.

We watched the dogs agility show. It was not a competition but a showcase from the Kennel Club. Fun, loved the longhaired dogs when the jumped.  There were also a myriad of retriever competitions going on as well.

We missed out on the ferrets, only seeing a pile of ferrets sleeping at the bottom of the cage. Rosemary was interested in the fly tying, I have some photographs of the flies, she was interested having read a book about a thief who stole a whole load of old and rare bird skins from the Tring Museum and sold these to collectors. Many of which ended up being turned into fishing flies.

It was a hot day, though a rain storm arrived at the end, so we left mid-afternoon as did so many others so rather tedious getting out of the place.  I think next year we may go for the three days and stay in the campervan. There is plenty of other entertainment in the evenings.

Great Saling, Sudbury and Gainsborough 25th – 26th July, 2018

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Gainsborough HouseWe visited Richard and Andrea at their home in Great Saling. We walked around Sudbury and visited Gainsborough’s House to see the many portraits & landscapes painted by this artist. Many were donated by families paying off their inheritance taxes. We even purchased a new frying pan for use on our portable induction hob.

In the evening, driving to our supper destination, we were alarmed to encounter fire-engines racing off to a shout, which was a parched, harvested field, up in smoke. Our evening meal should have been in a community-owned pub, but sadly, it was boarded up & for sale. Instead we ate in The Finchingfield Lion. We’d visited the same pub a few years ago to see the Tour de France procession go past.

The next day we walk around the Salings, taking photographs of some of the many interesting houses.  Andrea whipped up a delicious salad lunch. The afternoon proved too hot to do much else, other than sit in the garden.

Trip to Norwich 17th – 19th July, 2018

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Waterway to Hickling Broad

Rosemary and I visited Ann & Liz in Norwich for an amazing couple of nights. We took our own bed, Morrison the campervan, because the house was full with the residents plus Bob’s daughter and her son, who were also visiting.

The weather treated us well with yet more sun. Ann’s grass was brown from the drought, Earlham Park almost looked like a desert. Were the newly planted trees in the park going to survive? The cost of planting them versus then never watering them in the drought, was a tad odd.

On our second evening we went to watch an amateur production of Tomfoolery,(a musical revue based on the lyrics and music by American mathematician, songwriter, and satirist Tom Lehrer), at Sewell Barn Theatre. Very ably produced with magnificent performance from the cast. I soon understood the meaning of the many pigeon decoys scattered around the theatre. Only downside was the small theatre which was rather warm.

Earlier in the day we had gone to Martham Ferry Boat yard to see the work which Nick had been doing. He is building new electric day boats for hire, and of course hiring them out. We went for a cruise to Hickling Broad, then back and up to Horsey Mere. We were in one of his diesel-powered boats, all the electric boats having been hired out before we arrived. We did come across one of Nick’s electric boats; it glid silently past us like a ghost.

Much Ado about Nothing

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We had an invitation from Ravi and Maggie to see a Shakespeare play being performed in Ely Cathedral. Rosemary was very interested, I was a little dubious having fallen asleep in the last play I saw by the Bard. Well in any case it was a night away, Rosemary wanted to go and who am I to argue, and Ely cathedral is a beautiful grand building.  Oh and the sun was shining.

We drove on up and got immediately were caught is some traffic delays around Cambridge, major works building a new interchange for the A14. Be warned this will take several years to complete. Checked in, at the Poets House Hotel and Restaurant, into a huge room, with huge copper bath and separate shower, overlooking St Mary’s Street and The Green. Car parked, and we walked down to the River Great Ouse and sat beside the river in front of The Cutter Inn with a pint in one hand and a very large BLT sandwich in the other. Just as we were settled, out host walked by, Ravi was on his way to Cambridge to give an Economics lecture but would be back for the evening.

We were not the only guests, Andrea and Richard were also on their way and met us at the Inn for lunch. Maggie the other host also materialised, and we sat and nattered.

We did a little shopping in Ely city centre, viewed some frying pans that might have been suitable for Morrison, but ended up not buying. R also rummaged through a few charity shops. I was barred from entering Fat Face. Next, we ended up back at the hotel, changed and made our way to the Cathedral for the play, Much Ado about Nothing. I didn’t realise how small and intimate this performance was going to be. I had incorrectly assumed we would be in the main body fo the cathedra. But no, there were about 40 of us watching, seated on either side of the chancel, with the actors in between us. Oh, we were so close to the actors we could reach out and touch them. Indeed, some lucky/unlucky audience members were picked on and used as props.

The play is quite complex, but luckily, we had read a Wikipedia entry as we were driving up to Ely, so we had some idea of what was happening. The actual play is set in Messina, but this performance was set in France after the WWII with a mix of French locals and English squaddies and commanders. It started off with a short farce all spoken in French, I became extremely worried, thinking I was going to have to concentrate hard to understand a complex play in a foreign language which I had failed four times at O-level.  Luckily, it all became clear, the farce ended, and the play started with a mixture of English and French and a bit of Allo Allo!  The company abbreviated the play a little removing a few characters, but the essence was there. It was fun and funny with no chance of me falling asleep.

The company performing the play [Antic Disposition specialise in showing plays in Cathedrals in intimate settings. They also perform the plays in the UK and France and have both French and English actors.

After an interesting evening we headed down to Ravi and Maggie’s home for a late-night repast before heading back to the hotel for the night. The next day we had breakfast with Ravi, bade Maggie goodbye and headed home for an even longer delay on the road around Cambridge.

 

Bike Night at Ludgershall

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Bike Night

It was bike night at Ludgershall again. Lovely warm, dry, sunny evening for the event. As is usual, a thousand or so bikes turned up for the event. Various bars, fish and chip stands and hog roasts materialised to keep us fed. As well as motorbikes, new and vintage, there were quite a few other vintage vehicles and some Steam Punk.