We met for lunch at Peter and Janet’s meeting up with a number of former Walker employees. At the lunch party were John, Peter, Steve D, Ann, Steve & Rosemary B, Tessa & Pete R, Their better halves being Carol, Janet, Kathy, Chris, Dagmar & Robin (who was a late arrival turning up in his & Tessa’s 2CV). We were all very full after an excellent roast beef joint cooked by Peter.
The weather again held good, not sparklingly hot, but sunny and no rain.
Monday was Ludgershall Bike Night. We arrived after shortly after seven with friends and parked (our car) on the verge. There were still a few bikes arriving when we arrived. Our friends, who used to be bikers, were amazed at the number and variety of bikes, from modern to vintage. My pictures are mainly of Harleys, because I wanted to email some pictures to another friend, Jon.
There were various stands there, including the Oxfordshire BMW owners club, fish and chip vans, burger vans, a bar and hog roast. The event is short because most bikers like to leave in day light.
Visited the Ludgershall Village fete held at the Old Rectory. The weather turned out reasonable, so I was able to site outside and eat my promised cream tea. We spent quite a time there, exploring the gardens and woods which back on to the Marylebone / Birmingham Snow Hill line. The vegetable garden is pristine, no weeds, neatly tilled and presumably no rabbits. There were also a number of vintage cars and vintage tractors. Jim was doing tractor rides around the gardens.
Another lovely day after our Oxford day out. Today we visited Waddesdon Manor. It was heaving with people. We ate lunch in the Stables. There was a wait to be seated, difficultly in finding a table for the six of us.
The flower displays at the Aviary and Parterre were gorgeous. Such vivid colours.
A Buzzard visited our garden, sitting on the fence between the paddock and the garden. As I approached, the bird flew off and sat on the fence further into the paddock. It then flew into the next door field. In the process the Buzzard was mobbed by the Red Kites. A bit of a change, the Red Kites themselves are normally mobbed by the Jackdaws and Rooks.
Last year, I met up with a few ex Walker people at the Kings Head in Aylesbury. Brian V had just recently retired and was having a leaving drink for those who worked, or were still working, in the Aylesbury office (now closed.) This photograph came to light from the original Walker Inventory Management team. Chris, Glyn, Jean (later to become Mrs Glyn), Brian V himself, Tina and Tessa.
Rosemary dropped SadGit Richard G and me off at Ludgershall at last year’s Bike Night. The Bike Night is held every year. Hundreds of motor bikes turn up for the evening at this small rural village in Buckinghamshire. As you can see there are hundreds of people wandering up the village road looking at the bikes, admiring the machines, chatting, drinking beer and eating. This year the evening was warm, still, and fabulous. Cheese, biscuits & red wine were waiting at home for us following Rosemary’s resumed chauffeuring duties.
Visited Bletchley Park today with Valerie and Norman. This was definitely not the best day to go, Fathers Day. The exhibitions were busy, overflow parking was in a nearby school.
We had been to Bletchley Park, years ago. Several restaurants have been added since then. With lottery funding a working Bombe machine has been recreated. This was demonstrated with an explanation on how it works. We next viewed some excellent displays which went into greater detail of the decoding process. I never managed to get around the whole of the site. I will be visiting again, the tickets allow free entry for a whole year. The National Museum of Computing is on the same site. They house the replica Colossus machine along with other old computers. This is definitely on my wish list.
Next we walked around Bletchley Park House, where there was an exhibition of the The Imitation Game film. This is complete with Bombe machines used in the Benedict Cumberbatch film. These don’t work, just the dials rotate with the electric motors behind. The sound engineers used the recreated Bombe for sound track on the film. Wrens who had worked on the real machines back in World War II say it does make the correct sound.
We did make a second visit to Bletchely Park when Richard and Andrea visited us. Rosemary, Richard and I visited the park (Andrea was off at a Conference). It was less busy, but still busy. This time we saw a few other huts. One very amusing one was the use of carrier pigeons for intelligence purposes. Did you know there had been undercover spy pigeons? Each side was shooting down pigeons, or using birds of prey.
Waddesdon Manor Christmas Lights 2015. Bruce Munro’s installation of lights at Waddesdon Manor called SOS, This is his final year of three years at Waddesdon Manor. The lights on Waddesdon manor were by Woodroffe Bassett design. We visited with Ian and Julie. Lovely warm evening for December. You must watch the video to hear the sound track associated with the lights in the tent.
I have been meaning to see Mars, Venus and Jupiter for the last few days, but been thwarted by not waking up and the clouds. First saw them at 2.00am on Saturday morning, saw two bright objects in the sky, low to the horizon. I thought the other object must still be below the horizon. So went back to sleep, to wake at 4.45 am to find cloud.
After the Kingswood fireworks, I set the alarm for 4.45, prepared the camera and went to bed. Woke and it was misty, but the stars were still visible. This time I saw the two bright objects high in the sky? Where was the third. Puzzled, fired up google Night Sky and searched for Mars, Venus and Jupiter. Duh, of course Mars was not as bright as Venus and Jupiter. The red planet was easily spotted with binoculars. Here is a photograph of the planets, from left to right they are Mars (red), Venus (the brightest) and Jupiter.
Mars, Venus and Jupiter on 1st November 2015 a 5.42 EDT, Kingswood, Bucks, UK
