Eccentric Amblings and Ramblings From Gnat Bottomed Towers

You might want to double click this to see what made me smile when it came up on my FB feed. Hope you have a lovely weekend one and all. Arilx

[image from Pixabay] "You're mad, bonkers, off your head...but I'll tell you a secret, all the best people are!" This famous quote known to many is, of course, from the pen of Lewis Carroll. This mad old bird has scheduled a post for tomorrow, but is having a mini blogging break. I've been running on near empty for a few weeks now and am in need of a brief breather. Back soonxx Arilx

Recently Mr GBT and I attended a talk given by a local archaeologist in which he reviewed the findings in the district for 2017. There's a massive ongoing housing project here, so the archaeologists are called on site to record the area before everything is permanently erased. It had always been assumed that there was no Bronze or Iron Age occupation this far inland [evidence points to the dwellings being on the coast], but we now know this not to be the case as post holes and circular features indicating roundhouses have shown up. People have been living and farming here for millennia. At the end the chap who'd overseen the project asked if we had any questions. I asked him simply what he considered personally to be the best find [the soil conditions are not good for preservation here]. After a moment's consideration he replied it was a stone he'd found in the spoil. It was shiny and at first he'd thought it was just a bit of broken glass. He showed it to the

[image from Pixabay] I suspect I might be a bit of a nightmare when I'm out with friends and loved ones...I'm that person who always stops to read notices or further investigate anything which catches my eye....if it proves its worth then I'll go even further and take a photo. Some of my best finds have come to me this way....further investigations when I'm back at GBT have led me down all sorts of unexpected avenues and provided me with all sorts of stories. It's from this habit I learnt last summer that at one time dockers had their pockets sewn up to stop them from helping themselves to peppercorns when unloading the boats. It seems incredible that something we consider so everyday now could at one time have been so expensive. With that little nugget it would be a shame not to dig a little deeper and share a little more about these shrivelled little berries. Pepper and the trading of it has been with us for a long time. It's been used in cooking for

Why, you might well wonder, is the dotty old bird showing us a picture of a pot which has clearly seen better days?!! I'm delighted with my latest piece of free treasure which has been rescued from a client's garage where it was destined to be taken to the tip. Allow me to rewind. Last week I was chatting to and admiring a smaller version of this pot which was sitting on her kitchen side. She revealed that she had a bigger version, but unfortunately it had got badly burnt on the bottom at some point and was now no longer fit for purpose. She was delighted to hand it over when I confided that I had a cunning plan..... As of this week I've volunteered to do additional recycling sorting for Sussex Green Living. We get given a lot of plastic tops which are muddled in with other things or not suitable for the Terracycle Brigades we run. With a weird penchant for sorting and being a bit of a neat freak, this new role not only frees up others, but I can do it at my leis

Once you've heard Mr Kay's alternative lyrics it's difficult to unhear them! Hope you all have a smashing weekend! Arilx

As one with a fascination with and a natural affinity for the ancient sites in this country, it's been a real boon to find there is a whole series of short programmes about this very topic available on Youtube. They're quite light in style, but a good one for starters on the topic of our megalithic landscape. Hanging around on archaeological groups on social media has its pluses! Arilx

I have somebody over on the Strange Things Found in Churches FB group to thank for this little gem after I'd put this rather head scratchingly odd image up there. It's a window in King's College Chapel, Cambridge and looked decidedly unfathomable to me. Now I know it as "the swan with two nicks" [old spelling of necks] which denoted the loyalty of the life long partnership of swans. As today's Valentine's Day [which as usual I'm studiously ignoring] it seems rather in keeping with all things love/relationship related. Hope you enjoy your Wednesday whatever you're up to!💖 Arilx

No word of a lie.....I stood in front of this postbox a few weeks back and seriously wondered why the cipher on this postbox read Elizabeth VII! In my defence I was still very woolly headed and unwell, but really?! Once the fog had cleared and the farthing had dropped I registered that it was, of course, an Edwardian one....I know I "saw" one once but only because it was pointed out to me. I don't know if others are like me, but hand on heart I can honestly say that I only pay any attention when I'm looking for one if I've got a letter to post! This little revelation has piqued my interest so I've had a closer look at some of the boxes [there are numerous designs nationally] on my patch when passing. It's been a revelation to find that Horsham has the whole set bar the very and frankly unsurprisingly rare Edward VIII one [although it's very possible there might be one but I'm not so obsessive to be bothered to go looking specially. If you h

"Popping out for a pop of colour" most definitely was not on the List of Doom for yesterday, but you have to make hay while the sun shines especially at this time of year. Nymans is our nearest NT place and a godsend for when you just want to go out, but not have to think about it. It never stands still..the planting is constantly evolving, there's an ongoing ever changing cycle of exhibitions and development of the grounds. The latest plans [subject to fund raising] are the opening of the ruined sections of the house which were left standing after the distastrous fire in 1947. It was so life affirming to see the borders brimming with colour and as for the scent of the Daphne. I thought I had died and gone to heaven!  Take heart Spring really is within touching distance. Enough  from me....I'll just let the pictures do the talking. Arilx

With the recent news that the Bayeux Tapestry is coming over here [saw it in France years ago and it was amazing] thought this timely comic twist might amuse. Have a great weekend. Arilx

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will get you everywhere". Albert Einstein Arilx

Following on from yesterday's post a new public sculpture trail on the Green Circle was opened in October....naturally being a curious old bird I felt it my civic duty to go and have a snout! This zinc and steel creation is more interesting than it perhaps looks at first glance.It represents a railway signalman's lever and an interlocking between points and signals which was invented and patented by a local man, John Saxby. He was motivated to do so following two tragic crashes caused by signal failure on the London to Brighton Line [Burgess Hill is one of the stations] in the 1850s. It's the work of Jon Mills. A length of film made from a porcelain mosaic represents the life of John Bee-Mason and an incredible life it was too. He was an early leader in the field of filming nature as well as a war photographer. In the 1940s he developed a cure for rheumatism for which the sufferer had to be stung on the arm by a bee and he was an advocate of the curative power of h

"Bugress Hill" is what our family have called Burgess Hill ever since TYM inadvertently renamed it as a very small person. Although it's really not that far from here, I have only ever been once and that was for one of those interminably long and dull day long business meetings we've probably all had to endure at some point. I couldn't remember anything about it and I have to say a return visit yesterday probably explains why. Originally it was a small place which boomed with the arrival of the railway....everything is Victorian onwards and there is nothing which makes it stand out. What it does have though is the Green Circle..... This is a fantastic set of different wildlife habitats which have been joined up into one big loop around the outside of the town. In effect it has created one of those all important wildlife corridors which allow the different species to migrate between areas and now some of it has been designated an SSI. The mixed environments of w