Eccentric Amblings and Ramblings From Gnat Bottomed Towers

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

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 th

"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

"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

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

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

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 wo

"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 bog

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.

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

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

Arilx

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