Eccentric Amblings and Ramblings From Gnat Bottomed Towers

The warden of the local nature reserve very kindly opened out of hours for us and took us on a guided walk around the reserve earlier in the week. Seeing wildlife in the evening is not something I get the chance to enjoy very often so it was a delight to see a skein of grey lag geese flying overhead to their night time roost. "Don't open your mouth" he warned as they swept above us. At this time of year they are moulting and the mill pond around which the reserve is based is full of shed feathers now. Time spent in the biggest hide revealed a very proud Little Grebe with his youngster paddling along in front of him. The female has made herself scarce by now but he continues with his parental duties. The two were the same size [quite dinky actually] but with different markings. We caught a glimpse of sandpiper and the back view of a kingfisher as it shot off away from us. This year's brood of herons were also at the water's edge. The adults have already headed

It's been gloriously sunny here again today and this fellow has been catching the thermals high above the main roads near here looking for road kill to scavenge. How can I be this precise you may wonder? I haven't miraculously morphed into the next Kate Humble but have instead been on an evening walk at our local nature reserve and I am merely parroting the words of the warden who led it! Mr GBT dashed out and photographed the buzzard when he caught sight of three of them circling above GBT. I have often seen them but didn't witness this spectacle this morning. Arilx

"Wondered if you might be interested in doing a bit of voluntary work for the National Trust over at Uffington?" asked a dancing chum a few weeks back. Remembering my manners to not bite his hand off, I didn't need asking twice and so it was that a car full of some of my Mythago chums travelled over to Oxfordshire yesterday. Discussing it we'd come up with a cunning plan to make a day of our trip and frankly I haven't roared so much with laughter in some time. We're all Druids and to say we can be quite earthy at times may be the understatement of the day but let's cut the waffle shall we Aril! My suggestion was a quick stop off at the Seven Lambourn Barrows. This is a discovery Mr GBT and I made a few years ago when we used to travel up from Sussex to visit my late MIL who was in a nursing home near there. It doesn't seem as well known as some of the other ancient sites in the area and I've yet to ever find anyone else there at the same time e

I'm currently in a catch-up/review phase so am looking at different options and tweaking things. This is quite a regular thing with me as I don't like to stagnate. In a bid to claw back a bit of time...or put it another way stop twonking about unproductively I've closed my social media account and posts here may be a little less frequent. One of things I have been doing is editing and sorting out my backlog of photos. Whilst doing this my funny old brain puts all sorts of strange connections together [my wiring is quite off beam sometimes!] and ideas for future material. Today's content is a product of one of my simple observations. Always partial to a contrast I clocked these signs on my travels. The one referring to the sat nav is one I've only started seeing in the last few years. It is very much of now and hopefully has saved a few unsuitable vehicles becoming stuck in places they were never designed to tackle in the first place. This is the first time I'v

The dare devil teen has completed his latest thrilling quest this week[the next one is a 10000' skydive]. He's climbed the roof of the O2 and fortunately for him, the weather was perfect and the views across London were stunning. This time he was helping special needs young people on an outing for a local charity that he volunteers for in his spare time. Discussing the details of his trip he gave me a few juicy facts about the construction of the Millennium Dome as it was then. The tidy part of my brain immediately sat up and took note...it does so like a bit trivia about symbolism! The dome is 52 metres high representing each week of the year, 365m wide for each day and has 12 spokes representing both the months and a clock face as a nod to its siting on the Greenwich Meridian. These deliberate links between key numbers and structural elements of a building has put me in mind of the Rushton Triangular Lodge in Northants. It's a place I have only read about so far, but

Buying a new hat when I danced at the recent Eastbourne Lammas Event wasn't part of the plan for the day. Most of Mythago wear hats between stands, but it's not obligatory and I have a bit of love/hate relationship with them [hats that is not Mythago]. I've already had one abortive attempt at finding a suitable hat and bought one from Ebay, However, when it arrived it was huge and I felt really self conscious so that eventually made its way into a charity shop bag and out of the door. This one though is lovely. It fits me a treat and is not too showy. I think it's also the only red one on the side- from memory all the others are black. The lady behind these creations trades as the Henna and Hat Lady and most of our creations are far more outlandish with a definite Steampunk bent. The first one I tried on had a raven and a cup of tea on it! These are more typical of her  http://raggedphoenix.wixsite.com/ragged-phoenix/single-post/2016/07/08/Stix  One of my fellow da

These stripey petunias simply made me feel cheery. I have never seen this yellow version before and I snapped them on a whim whilst I was going about my business a few weeks ago. Arilx

I'm at a pivotal stage in life here where our teens are flying the nest and a few couples I know have decided to divorce. Until the first court was set up in 1857 it was extremely difficult to obtain a divorce and back in the 19th century it would cost £3000 [15k in today's money]. Wives were still considered as chattels and it was the custom in some rural areas for husbands to sell their wives as they would any commodity. Leading his wife round the market with a halter round her neck monies would be exchanged and she would leave with her new partner [sometimes a complete stranger but often already her lover]. Tales abound of drunken celebrations ensuing after successful transactions and it being a satisfactory outcome for all parties with the ending of an unhappy union. The outcomes could be surprisingly...some women went on to happily marry their new partners, others ran away/married other men or some returned to their original spouse. The last known instance of wife

A quick one from me, but one to amuse and warm the cockles of your heart.....baby pandas getting up to and into mischief. Aww Arilx

Waiting for your offspring's exam results is akin to having the Sword of Damocles hanging over you I have decided. Neither is particularly pleasant, but I am pleased to be able to report that the teenogre met the grade for his second choice of university and is off to study up the other end of the country next year. His Ma and Da can now heave a sigh of relief. Would you care to join me for a free drinkie to celebrate. Sadly we have already quaffed the bottle of champers so all I can offer you is either coffee or the rather intriguing Earl Grey and rose petal tea. Both donations received from kind freecyclers this week. The teen will no doubt be out on the lash celebrating whilst frankly all his Father and I desire is an early night and the restored ability to sleep!!! Arilx

I spent yesterday doing a final clean for my chum Icebadger by way of a thank you for all her hard work in making my coloured tatters and as it was technically my day off, I decided to carry on up the road to the village where I spent my formative years.  Parking up near our old house which was a new build back in the day [we're talking 1970] I cut through the churchyard. I don't often visit, but when I do I like to note and pay my respects to the little girl who died in 1975 aged only five. I was a few years older than her, but I remember her short time at school before she lost her battle to cancer. It still saddens me. Then it was off down the steps opposite and across the road to the Six Bells. I have much happier memories of this pub garden. During the summer months we used to go there with our parents and a set of family friends and just relax. My sister and I thought we were the bees knees with our Coke in a bottle and a packet of crisps. This was always a hug

17th August is apparently Black Cat Appreciation Day. A certain black cat called Humphrey begs to differ....look at the sadness upon his little face.... Forced, yes forced, to sleep in a small space below the airing cupboard for obviously we have no available beds, chairs or even a settee upon which he could rest his weary head [nothing to do with him being too lazy to heave that great girth of his up onto a higher surface you understand]. Then there's the face of betrayal.....meant to induce guilt into the heart of the hardest human. Oh why do you suffer so poor, dear Humphrey. Is it because that wicked owner has donated the three lots of cat food pouches she was given to the local rescue centre from whence you came.....I'm afraid their need is far greater than his for he works hard to retain his tubbiness despite me keeping him on the diet dried food for he has a penchant for petit f[o]urs between meals....that is little furry things with four legs. Sigh. Out o

A dancing friend mentioned in passing last week that she had a dress which was too small for her, but she thought I might like. She brought it along at the weekend and I am delighted to say it had its first outing yesterday. It's got a tie waist so is more fitted than it looks in the picture.  As you might imagine I am cock-a-hoop with my new threads and have been able to press into service a little matching cardi which I bought from a jumble sale last year. It was so kind of her to think of me. Arilx

#TeamGB. I could be up there with our incredible team if only they introduced this as an Olympic event....I just know that I could win gold! Arilx

Other than giving the names I'll let the pictures do the talking. All these were seen along the unsprayed edges of the fields up above Clun. These little corridors allow the wildlife a breathing space in which to thrive. Orange Hawkweed Bistort Field Pansy Pineapple Mayweed [it smells faintly of pineapples if you squeeze the flowers] Wild Angelica Common Fumitory Arilx

Perfectly sums up how anxiety works. Arilx

Olympics addict signing in here. Can't help it but everytime it happens I'm there glued to the coverage as much as I can decently get away with. The internet and additional channels have only made it worse. Hell yeah though it's good to have a passion [maybe not an obsession granted] and I have absolutely no guilt whatsoever. If you want to join me I'll plump up the cushion, crack open the vino and maybe even go wild and open a few packs of savoury snacks! This fellow sits above a doorway in Bishop's Castle.  Arilx

Fear not no doom and gloom here! Just a recently discovered blog about a chap who wombles treasure from other people's trash after they put it out on the pavement to be collected as refuse. Some he cleans up and sells, some he offers for free at his garage sales and other items he passes on to those who can make use of them rather than letting them sit in landfill. Although I don't have the quite the same opportunities here as this chap does in Montreal, it's got me thinking about the contents of GBT many of which have come to me via freecycle, friends and family. The balance between new and used tipped in favour of the latter years ago. Specific examples which were destined for landfill are an interior door complete with puppy gnawed edges no less that Mr GBT filled and then painted, our stainless steel kitchen sink again intended for a skip and more recently our kitchen bin that I found abandoned near some dustbins locally. Once everything had been cleaned up it was a

Hello my name is Aril and I am crisp monster....except crisp packets are not recyclable oh apart from ones that come in cardboard tubes [where there's a will there's a way....snigger]. I still very occasionally buy them in the foil packets, but in a bid to reduce my landfill rubbish yet further I have donned my thinking cap and come up with a couple of solutions. Cleaning the cupboards before I went away I found an opened packet of popping kernels. They are slightly out of date but what the heck. They are a much cheaper option than any premade stuff and I hope to have a bit of fun experimenting with new flavours over the next couple of months. First off was salt and smoked paprika. Though I say it myself very moreish....even the teenogre gave it the thumbs up when he staggered in from a long shift on Saturday night, scarfing down a bowl full before he shot back out of the front door on some secret social mission. This was yesterday's savoury snack of choice. Marmite and

"Every flower must grow through dirt." Laurie Jean Sennott These are all in the front garden of a house I walked past on my way home from the town centre at the weekend. They remind me of a holiday in Brittany. Always gorgeous. Arilx

Lusciously lovely locations beginning with L from our recent hols. Highlights from each over the next couple of posts. Starting with Ludlow.....it was the first official slow town encouraging the slow food movement and it certainly has that relaxed vibe to it The castle has had a turbulent history. At points it's been owned by the crown and was the property of Richard, Duke of York and later became the property of his son Edward IV. It was seized by the Royalists at one point during the Civil War and has also served as the Council of the Marches in Wales. Nowadays it is run by English Heritage.  Naturally we paid a visit to St Laurence's [you have to earn your stripes as a church crawler you know!!]. It is particularly well known for the incredible set of misericords it boasts, but I shall show those another day. This I rather like. It's the Housman quilt which was made by the Borderers Patchwork and Quilting Group to mark the centenary of "A Shropshire L