Doing a cartwheel.

I'd made plans with my friend H to walk on Sunday weather permitting and all that. At the beginning of the year I'd found out about a bit of a hidden gem in the Surrey Hills which is a short drive from us here, but I'd decided to hang fire until we'd had a goodly dose of winter rain. Now that might sound like a contradiction in terms, but if you want to see one of these at their best then you need a good water flow!

This is the Tillingbourne Waterfall which, although manmade and on private land, is situated right next to the public footpath. It's just north of Leith Hill which is always very busy with walkers and cyclists, but this area of Wotton Common which is just to the north of it is unexpectedly peaceful. We saw the one lady dog walker twice and that was it! In a wooded area you can expect to see trees and we weren't disappointed.

However, even factoring in the dotty speeding sign from yesterday it was like a gift that just kept giving and we stumbled across several other little immensely unusual and quirky details to please.

This is apparently known as a lamp box style post box. I've certainly never seen one shaped like that before and I don't seem to see the Edward VII ones all that often either for that matter.

We came across this little family group of scarecrows along a deserted lane. Our first thought was that they were part of a competition, but the explanatory note on the gate made it clear that they've been there since 2013. If you double click it you can read the text.

At last we get to the cartwheel...a literal cartwheel converted into a garden seat. The owner was actually in his garden at the time, but he very generously allowed me to take a photo when I asked him!

Loved every minute of our four mile wander!

Arilx

Keeping to the speed limit.

I do try to keep to the speed limit [obviously I'm not perfect] when I'm driving, but this one was always going to prove a little tricky when walking in Surrey yesterday! Since getting back I have discovered that this is one of a series of quirky details that have been added to amuse visitors to the De Vere Wotton Hotel which is further up the road.

Arilx

In the fireplace.

We don't have a fireplace here in our modern 3 bed shoebox bar the teeny ones in the dollshouse. If we did I would have this in a heartbeat. I can't even really explain to you why it appeals to me so much.  I just adore the homespun charm of the stitched foxgloves. Seen recently on my travels.

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend. We have the Repair Cafe tomorrow so I shall be kept out of mischief doing cleaning refills for people. It's the launch of our Climate Change cafe too in the afternoon. I've not had anything to do with this project, but may well poke my nose round the door to see what it's all about.

Arilx

Plastic free tree.

If you are going to choose a real tree for Christmas you can keep your single use plastic down by taking an old duvet cover with you to put it in....stops the needles getting everywhere in your car plus you don't have to then dispose of the plastic they often come wrapped in. This is not my own idea I hasten to add...simply repeating what seems like a very sensible tip. We have a fake one here at GBT, but this gorgeous one is at Nymans.

Arilx

Unseasonal

The sensible side of my brain says that people will want to see Christmas related material in December...the silly side of my brain says people really won't mind if you show them unseasonable pictures of a modern twist on the traditional corn dolly in December. Can you tell which side of my brain won😉

The Weald and Downland museum is currently running a fascinating exhibition all about the folklore of the harvest. We arrived early on Sunday to give me time to go and take a look before we performed. There were some amazing examples of more familiar corn dollies, but these ones captured my imagination. I truly never expected to see a chain saw made from corn! They are the work of Matthew Rowe.

This fellow is a harvest devil which is supposed to look like sheaves of corn that have mischievously come to life.

I will put out a few more appropriately themed posts as we get further into the month...well that's the intention anyway. You know me though chaps anything might catch my eye in the meantime and goodness only knows what paths I might meander off on!

Arilx

Pick & Mix

Chatting to a lady I was at school with a few days ago, we were reminiscing about how we used to spend our Saturdays. As a young teen I always met my friend W [we're still friends now] outside Boots at 2.30 and even now if we have a catch up over a coffee in town we chuckle and repeat the meeting time and place! Frankly I think my son would be flabbergasted at the sheer amount of time I must have spent poring over the album covers in the local record shops and flicking through the sheaves of posters. I guess his equivalent would be scrolling through his phone! A lot of this stopped when we all hit the magic age of 14 and got Saturday jobs.

I worked in a local artisan cheese shop for several years whereas several friends worked in the local Woolworths. In its prime it was a place that seemed to stock anything and everything you could imagine.  A firm favourite of mine was the pick & mix sweets. Now I was an aniseed twist, pineapple chunk/cola cube kind of girl, but we all had our personal favourites which we'd carefully fill our bags with. It simply amused me today to see this very much updated and more adult version in the supermarket today. It looked rather pretty and festive. Perhaps it's a good thing that I'm not particularly keen on them so I wasn't tempted!

Arilx

Have a hart!

I may just have mentioned a gazillion times that I'm a Morris dancer....the one thing that is different about Mythago is that we perform myths and legends. One story is Herne the Hunter, but we haven't been able to do it a while because the original white hart went awol and never returned. Eventually I decided to ask for any willing volunteers in the side [we have some really talented people] to help me make a new one as frankly I wouldn't know where to start!

As ever the side came up trumps and I spent a couple of hilarious afternoons back in the warm weather bent over double with laughter as I and L got sticky up to our elbows manhandling glue guns and some purple stuff that is used to make casts for broken limbs. It's a pickle to use because it gives you about 2 minutes working time from the minute you open the packet and wet it before it sets like concrete😀 For a while it was known as the "purple moose" and it sported a mismatched pair of yellow and blue pingpong ball eyes...L just pinched them from her cats toys!! Once the basic construction was completed I gladly stepped back and L unleashed her artistic talent to create a rather fabulous replacement beast for us.

I was lucky enough to be the white hart for its inaugural outing at the tree dressing event at the Weald and Downland museum yesterday [you might recognise the place as it's where they film "The Repair Shop"]. L asked if we could take a few shots as she couldn't be there to see it, but am happy to say she'll be wearing her handiwork at Stonehenge when we dance there on 21st for the Winter Solstice.

This was the official one...but there's always one naughty peep who decides to photobomb and here's the evidence😈.

Next on the list for replacement are four masks which have worn out [they are 20 years old] so four of us are getting together after Christmas to start on them.....should keep me out of mischief! Until tomorrow.....

Arilx