Going Unnoticed

The idea that Banksy managed to hang this fake piece of art along with its label in the British Museum for three days without anybody noticing greatly amuses me https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-44140200

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Arilx

Walking The South Downs Way

Not all of the South Downs Way I hasten to add....just a little smidgen! As ever there were things I was expecting to see with a goodly lot of surprises sprinkled in along the way too.

West Sussex is well known for its horse lovers. Hand on heart though I can honestly say this is the first time I've ever seen a sign warning me about them [bulls yes horses no]. It all became much clearer when I looked back up the hill and saw a series of jumps...that would explain why they might be going like the clappers on their descent.

With it being the end of August and more like an October day, I didn't really expect to see much in the way of flowers, but I'm glad to say I was proved wrong and many of the usual stalwarts were to be found. These two were new to me [assuming I've got the id right that is of course!]

Nettle Leaved Bellflower and Restharrow.

We'd started off from the small Sussex village of Washington and were soon away from the roar of the traffic and into the treeline. All around us I could see earthworks...some I recognised as Neolithic flint mines and others were described vaguely as "tumuli" on the map. Some perhaps are the remains of ploughed out burial mounds, maybe others were field boundaries or Ironage ditches. An aerial view would probably make them easier to decipher. This lovely little bridge we came upon seems to have a great age to it and that seemed to set the tone for the walk as we came to the settlement of Sullington.

The village itself has developed away from the original centre around the church and the manor, so what you're left with now is a remarkable set of buildings which has remained largely unchanged for centuries. In the first photo you can see how close the church is to the manor house. The ancient tomb just inside the door is believed to be one of the De Covert family who were lords of the manor. He was possibly a Crusader, but the crossed legs which is quoted in some sources as a symbol of this is a bit of a red herring as the style continued after the wars had ceased. He's certainly suffered rather over time, but I did rather like his detailed chain mail.

Next door is the Manor Farm which has one of the largest tithe barns in the county. It's such a big beast that Mr GBT couldn't fit it all in his photo. This, along with the workshop which now houses the new cafe [see yesterday's post], has been recently restored. The beams are inside the latter.

The walk's instructions told us to cross the A24 to get back to our starting point, but I'm afraid I didn't much fancy taking my life in my hands on such a busy dual carriageway, so we doubled back. Had we not we would have missed this final little gem tucked away at the summit of the hill. A memorial seat with a difference...a view from every side.

Upon recommendation we used this walking site for the first time http://fancyfreewalks.org/ The instructions were clear and accurate for which I'm most grateful. There's nothing like a grumpy Aril when she thinks she's nearly back and then finds she's gone wrong!!

Arilx

Finely tooled.

"Finely tooled"...meaning a wall finely decorated with tools perhaps? Perhaps not, but if the cap fits and all that. Another of those marvellous examples I find from time to time which are full of things you wouldn't normally expect to find in the make up of a wall! This one is outside a newly opened cafe called "The Workshop" which we came across on our walk on Monday. More details to follow.

Arilx

Knitting and Nattering

"Let's do the charity shops in Midhurst" my friend S said a few weeks ago....well who was I to argue eh.

Targets:

1. Cake - mission accomplished😋

2. Chatter- mission accomplished and some😉

3. Charity shops- mission accomplished. 😍 See evidence below

Whilst walking and talking, we discovered that the square in front of the church had been yarnbombed as part of the town's art week. It was the first time S had encountered the term and I don't think she was quite sure what to make of it all. I, of course, was in my element. It was just a stroke of luck that we caught it on the last day of the festival as I expect it will all be returned to normal by now.

All news now caught up on and the next meet up is already in the diary!

Arilx

Feeling the grass beneath your feet?!!

Yes literally....in shoe form. It's a thing apparently......don't ask me I've long since given up trying to understand the shopping habits of humans!!

The lady in the charity shop kindly let me take a photo when I was in Midhurst with a friend on Saturday.

Arilx

Rocks

Being a member of the local town's FB group has meant that, for once, I'm aware of this summer's  trend of painting stones and then hiding them for others to find..a bit like an arty form of geocaching! I think it's a charming idea and I'm sure we'd have enjoyed looking for them had the TYM still been a small person. It was with a hearty glug of glee that I spotted one of my own on the way home last week.....however, I was very mature and left it there for somebody much smaller and younger than me to find. Couldn't resist a quick shot though!

In other news I'm really pleased to report that my book exchange seems to be taking off well. There's over 50 members now and a goodly amount of book sharing going on. Several tomes have crossed the threshold here at GBT to find new homes, but as you might expect the odd new volume might have taken up residence!

Hope you all have a good weekend.

Arilx

Views from the village.

A few more images from our walk around Selborne. That blue smudge in the second picture is some type of blue butterfly honest!

The church has all manner of treasures in it including these gorgeous ancient floor tiles. They're roped off to protect them from damage.

I am given to understand that this is a Knight's Templar gravestone.

St Francis feeding the birds.

Roundels from the Gilbert White memorial window. I don't know if it's just me,but some of those creatures look decidedly malevolent with those rather cold staring eyes! Think I prefer the leaves myself!

The Selborne Yew was struck by lightning in 1990 and this is all that remains of this venerable tree. Thankfully a cutting was taken and the original lives on in the sapling.

Always love a weather vane, but an interesting comment left by Thelma yesterday about Gilbert White believing that they hibernated under water [a common misconception of the time] has left me wondering if this is why this one with swallows was chosen.

To finish...a charming hand painted shop sign which just caught my eye as we got back to the car. It was a lovely place to spend a day catching up with family.

Arilx

Gilbert White

"You are more able to see with your own eyes than any man I know"

John Mulso [personal friend of White's]

The man himself...Mr Gilbert White posing with his pet tortoise Timothy [he also had a spaniel called Fairy Queen who quite often strayed and a pony called Mouse]. As the local curate in Selborne, he might never have come to national attention had he not been a keen naturalist in his spare time. All the changes around him were a source of fascination for him and he spent many hours observing the wildlife from his revolving hide [a converted port barrel] set up in his grounds.

[This is a copy of the original]

All his observations were recorded in letter form and eventually he was persuaded to publish them in book form. The original manuscript is now held inside the house. You can now read it for free from here http://gilbertwhiteshouse.org.uk/manuscript/

The house and grounds are a delight. Plenty of information without getting too bogged down in detail and several little lighthearted inclusions which gave a more rounded impression of Gilbert White. He was certainly a man with a dry sense of humour who enjoyed his wine and entertaining.The rooms themselves have retained that homely feel and it is as if he's just out of sight round the corner still. This is his study where the magic happened. I couldn't help but wonder what he'd have thought had he known that his work was to influence the likes of Darwin further along the line. 

We took more photos, but I just wanted to create an impression rather than give you a blow by blow account of our visit. For those thrifty souls like me there's a two for one entry voucher here which we took full advantage of https://www.hampshireattractions.co.uk/vouchers/ Just to warn you when you get the email link you need to download the file and then open it with your internet browser and then print it out. It took us an age to suss it as it's not clear it's a web page.

Arilx

Mysterious Kitchenalia

It's been an age since I've put up any mystery objects, but I encountered a whole gamut of them on my weekend jaunt. Some were familiar yet these were not. Any ideas?

Thankfully each had its own set of explanatory notes. I'll put the answers up tomorrow for those who'd like to know.

Arilx

In order of appearance the items were a candle mould, a rolling pin for crushing things and a pineapple shaped icecream mould.

The Selborne Rake

Certainly a new twist on the usual blue plaque. It made us laugh and had us scratching our heads. It just seemed rather odd, but even though my SIL commented on how funny it was that Black should have lived opposite the 18th century naturalist Gilbert White in Selborne we still didn't realise it was a spoof. Now armed with online research it's obvious when you add in Gilbert and Sullivan to complete the jape😄 Even though he never existed Mr Sullivan Black apparently is still capable of leaving some very droll comments on his own dedicated twitter account https://twitter.com/sullivanblack3?lang=en

I think I shall never tire of this bonkers stuff which finds me!

Arilx

For some strange reason....

That boy of mine thought it necessary to ping me an email from the pub in Fittleworth [West Sussex] with the attached photo of this he'd seen whilst out walking with my Dad....just 'cos he thought it'd be the sort of weird thing I'd like.....spot on son!

Hope you all have a good weekend!

Arilx

Life

Arilx

A Strange Juxtaposition

Kirdford is an utterly charming small Sussex village which seems to be unable to make up its mind where it stands on the subject of imbibing alcohol. Facing the church....

to the left hand side you have the Half Moon pub. This is owned and run by the former model Jodie Kidd and has a good local reputation for its food.

Or to the right you have this classic sign. Its origins are lost in the mists of time, but it's very possibly a Temperance movement plaque or somebody with a huge hornet in their bonnet about the drinking habits of others! I think I might have suffered from the legs filling with water at some point in my misspent youth!

I'd gone over in pursuit of a specific gravestone, but it evaded me and instead we have an entirely different blog post content to the one I had a vague notion of writing!

Arilx