"I told you I was ill"
When the church refused to let Spike Milligan have those words upon his grave he had the last laugh and had them put on in Irish instead. Witty to the end.
Arilx
During the difficult months back in the Spring David and I had one of those 'what the hell moments' and booked ourselves tickets to see Professor Alice Roberts over in Guildford. Time has flown by and before we knew it there we were on the day itself. TYM lives over that way and with a shedload of leave to use or lose [he's been working very long hours over the summer] he took a well earned half day. Challenging weather ie heavy rain and Mondays can be a tricky combination, but we sussed it in the end and headed down to the National Trust's Dapdune Wharf.
The river Wey was made navigable between Guildford and the Thames in London way back in the 1650s. Quite a feat of engineering with 12 locks along the 15 mile route and all a good 100 years before the canals were dug in the Midlands. This particular stretch of water took flat bottomed barges which traded up until 1958 and would have been used to transport all sorts up into the city. There was a huge spike in demand for timber following the Great Fire in 1666. By the later 19th century Dapdune wharf was in the ownership of the Stevens family. They had 11 barges built for them between 1909 and 1940 of which Reliance pictured below is the sole remaining example.
These barges could carry 80-85 tonnes per trip and were pulled by horses. Sadly Reliance met a rather ignominious when she hit a bridge on the Thames and sank. Eventually she ended up rotting on the mudflats at Leigh-On-Sea from where she was rescued and restored by the NT back at her original Dapdune home where she'd been constructed back in 1931-2. Nowadays you can go round inside, but the ceilings are low so you need to duck down and living conditions were cramped. The bulk of the boat space was needed for its cargo.
Looking at those blue skies it seems hard to believe that it had been bucketing down only a few minutes before and we'd arrived on site looking like drowned rats! Nothing that a quick visit to the cafe and a restorative coffee couldn't sort out. Thankfully the weather held for the rest of our time there.
It's only a small place, but interesting nevertheless. TYM is not a member of the NT, but, as it's alongside the river with public access, there's no charge [except parking].
Someone somewhere has decided that I'm going to be encountering dragons on my two wanderings this week.🐉🐲 Fortunately the baby one is too little to breathe fire yet so I escaped unscorched from my encounter with it.😂
Almost inevitably last weekend featured yet more dancing from moi. This time we were at a very local quirky show which we have performed at for several years and it marks the end of our summer season. It changes year on year as to what's there and the best way to describe it is to expect the unexpected. This time it was the costumes and clothes on display which really caught my attention. Those wonderful jackets are made by a company which refashions old unloved garments. Their particular speciality is making new things from old curtains. I would have loved to have been parading around in something beautiful and colourful....alas my colour of the day [and technically not even a colour] was a nice and jolly funereal black❤😎
The final decision about us going wasn't made until Thursday, but I am delighted to say that we made it to Glastonbury to dance with Mythago. I'd expected to have a bit of free time, but in the end after we put in a long day Saturday and then climbing the Tor on Sunday for more dancing I was ready to stop. All of these were taken as we walked or taken between dances. Lots.of colour and fabulous to meet several sides from the West County.
David loves a map and is to be found quite often checking up stuff on Google. Usually it's me finding the oddities, but this one is entirely down to him. Last week he spotted the rather surprisingly named tourist attraction 'The Jelly Under The Bridge' in Horsham. It's free and open 24 hours a day and has even got its own set of reviews. Deerstalkers on and magnifying glasses in hand on we set off to investigate last night on our evening perambulation.
I am pleased to be able to report that it delivered on its promise. Have now discovered that it is regularly replaced...it's up on the ceiling of the railway bridge beneath a road [not very busy granted]. Nobody knows who's behind this spot of silliness, but I have my suspicions. We have a local spoof artist who likes to gently poke fun at the good folk of the town😂
Arilx
It's been a couple of months since I last put my moth trap out and on that occasion I got the shock of my life having caught the UK's largest moth https://gnatbottomedtowers.blogspot.com/2025/06/big-jobbie.html . This time round I caught a spectacles moth [first photo] and the golden triangle moth which was the size of my little fingernail. As I said from the sublime to the ridiculous😊
Hope everyone has a great weekend. Am pleased to say that we are off adventuring!
Arilx
"I told you I was ill" When the church refused to let Spike Milligan have those words upon his grave he had the last laugh and had...
