Eccentric Amblings and Ramblings From Gnat Bottomed Towers

We'll be cracking open a bottle tonight.....afraid it will be without any finesse whatsoever! This was performed by the wonderful Sally Ironmonger and Brian Carter from Rochester at the folk club last weekend. Great fun and more than a passing resemblance in style to the late and greatly missed Victoria Wood. Have a good weekend chaps! Arilx

Sometimes I just crave a bit of innocent and straightforward fun. The promise of an exhibition of Quentin Blake's drawings and 10 huge frogs inspired by his "The Story of the Dancing Frog" fulfilled that craving rather nicely.  Perhaps I was the oldest kid there by about 50 years, and maybe I only whooped with joy inwardly at the corny play on words or resisted the urge to climb upon them knowing that it might be a tad unbecoming at my age. What I am sure of though is that I enjoyed it as much as any of the small people there!! M C Hopster Kenny Froggers Margot Frogteyn Charlie Stone Riverdancer Sam Badansa Lily del Pond Tad Pole Disco King Lyn D. Hop Frog Astaire What a break from the more usual Christmas themed events to entice the families to visit....NT's Nymans gardens in West Sussex. Arilx

"Blooming" as in flowers that are still blooming in November! These lovely fuchsias and other ones, which I don't know the name of, are still valiantly soldiering on in Nymans garden. A pleasure to see at this time of year when it is often dark and drained of colour. Arilx

The time had come and we could put it off no longer....our side of the fence wasn't going to withstand another winter of high winds and bad weather so we had it all done this week before the really inclement conditions are upon us. The fencing chap wasn't in the least bit surprised when we asked if he could leave a special hedgehog hole at the bottom to allow these little prickly marvels an access point. Apparently this is an increasingly common request. Next stop a house for the hoggies. When we moved here we always had hedgehogs in our garden. Sadly I don't know if they still come. Our visiting bird numbers had also dropped dramatically, but persistence with the feeders has paid off and we've enjoyed visits from long tailed tits and nut hatches along with our more regular visitors this week alone. It's a hive of activity on there these days and I had a robin shouting at me yesterday. He kept flying over to the empty seed tray and then scolding me. I took th

Much as I hate to admit it I do share more than a little of the sentiment expressed in the above photo. Perhaps I'm just very cynical but all those glossy manifestos are to my eyes just a marketing ploy to get my vote...what is promised and what is actually delivered are two very different beasts. Stepping aside from the mainstream parties though it doesn't mean to say that I don't derive a little mirth from the the looming election...... In my innate wisdom and sheer nosiness I decided to peruse the entire list of all the candidates standing in the country...all 222 pages of it. It made for some interesting reading....I've narrowed it down to my two favourite parties. Church of the Militant Elvis are proposing that there should be a free neutering for all stray cats and Boris. They have suggested that Noel Edmonds should be brought in to negotiate Brexit after all the experience he has amassed in his years of hosting "Deal or No Deal" With regards to

"Angels fly because they take themselves lightly." G.K.Chesterton Have a fabulous weekend. This is from the church in Thakeham, West Sussex. Arilx

"The most remarkable thing about my Mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found." Calvin Trillin Murphy's Law states that if you are making a cake on a wet Wednesday afternoon in October it will rise to perfection.....unless it's for a special occasion and then the dratted thing will sink in the middle. Yes I've made loads of successful sponges, but that's what happened to me. After a bit of a tantrum I made a much better one and the offending item got stuck in the freezer until I decided what to do with it. We had friends here for lunch on Saturday and after mulling over what I could make for pudding I decided to press that cake into service as the base of a Black Forest Trifle. I thought I'd got away with it until my friend asked me what I'd used for the base...ok confession time! She laughed like a drain and agreed that she too can't abide waste. This is the prope

Back in Petworth Park again there's a chestnut tree that came down in the Great Storm in 1987. Rather than remove it the trunk has been tidied up a little and left in situ to be reclaimed by nature and enjoyed by lots of children climbing about on it. We took five minutes out of our time there to photograph the patterns and details which would otherwise have eluded us. It's so easy to miss the beauty that's right there under our snouts sometimes. Arilx

We have been blessed with a couple of sunshine filled Sundays here in West Sussex of late. Such days are interspersed with many more that have been dull and grey so I've been out taking full advantage of the beautiful light! Reading up about Petworth Park [not far from here] I stumbled across their "Ancient Tree" walk. Boots on....... There's something about a British autumn that just makes my soul sing. It lacks the stunning colours of the New England Fall [which blew me away when I was there years ago], but the palette of golds and russets is very rich on a bright day. Unfortunately I'm a bit rubbish when it comes to identifying trees, but we saw many new ones on our amble round including the pin oak, the red oak and the scarlet oak which are native to North America. The red ones below are Swamp Cypresses and were planted in the park in 1638. This Common Lime is 600-700 years old and is completely hollow. Apparently though it's still got s

Just a lowkey weekend spent with friends on Saturday and then with Mr GBT's sister and hubby yesterday. Lots of tales exchanged and calories consumed and no photos bar this one. My SIL has recently added to her pack of doggies [she stopped working a year ago]. Alongside a very venerable old terrier and 10 month old Pebble the beagle she now has this little lady. River is 12 weeks old and after a couple of hours of furious playing and fun with Pebble she was ready for a cuddle and a nap with me. She's at that scrummy stage of having a huge puppy tummy! Puppy snuggles are a marvellous way to spend time I find! Arilx

When the pair of you are actually hobbit sized I can't tell you how satisfying it is when you get the long shadows with the low sunlight at this time of year. It looked like we'd grown into giants last Sunday! We're back to our normal short selves now, but we enjoyed it while it lasted. Have a fantastic weekend everyone! Arilx

"What!" I hear you cry...I thought you were a gnat bottomed blogger not some spendthrift. Fear not for I have not been kidnapped and exchanged for a Mrs Jingle Bells [I like a slug of festive spirit, but don't go mad!] all of a sudden. Instead the issue is that I cross thresholds of retail outlets that haven't seen my custom all year. I don't buy hugely extravagant gifts or many of them for that matter, but when I do I try to make sure that I've put thought into it. The downside to all this is that I see things I rather fancy owning too and all of a sudden I find myself with something I hadn't planned on. This happens every year, but one outlay is usually enough to settle the material girl down enough to stuff her back in her box! This is this year's unexpected little treat..... I couldn't decide which side to show so both it is then. However, things are not quite as bad as they seem. Yes it was a spontaneous buy, but the lining in my ol

The bird table we put up last year is proving to be quite a hit with our avian friends these days. When the noisy boys [starlings and pigeons] aren't around we get a good range of the smaller ones and we've been enjoying the antics of the nuthatches and goldfinches recently. Even when the squabbling masses are there the quieter birds have learnt to quietly perch on the far side of the feeders where they can fill up without interruption and competition. You do learn a lot about the pecking order by observing them as we do with our morning coffee. Last week one of blue tits broke rank and uptipped the balance. Clearly fed up with the pigeon's [I like pigeons by the way] vast backside taking up the whole of the table and not allowing it a chance to get at the tasty mealworms it pecked it on the rump. The pigeon was so startled that it flew off in shock! Bluetit 1 Pigeon 0 Arilx

This war memorial bench is the work of Simon Smith and is outside the Great Hall in Winchester. It's a WWI soldier's kit and was installed to commemorate the estimated two million soldiers [of different nationalities] who passed through the city's transit camps during the Great War. I have Alison Davidson to thank for this level of detail. She wrote the design brief for the piece and commented when I posted the image in a FB group. Arilx

Sonnet Not with vain tears, when we're beyond the sun,  We'll beat on the substantial doors, nor tread Those dusty high-roads of the aimless dead Plaintive for Earth; but rather turn and run Down some close-covered by-way of the air, Some low sweet alley between wind and wind, Stoop under faint gleams, thread the shadows, find Some whispering ghost-forgotten nook, and there Spend in pure converse our eternal day; Think each in each, immediately wise; Learn all we lacked before; hear, know and say What this tumultuous body now denies; And feel, who have laid our groping hands away; And see, no longer blinded by our eyes. Rupert Brooke, 1913

I'm not offering anything in the way of wit or wisdom [as if!] this Friday....just good wishes for an excellent weekend and a slice of calorie free chocolate cake. A family member had a birthday last weekend. Arilx

I have been unashamedly borrowing ideas from the Japanese form of darning called boro. When I clean other people's houses I wear my oldest clothes....sadly I do not apply this same logic when cleaning my own and I splashed bleach on the front of this denim skirt. The first instinct was to put it straight into the recycling, but having recently learnt just how polluting clothes are, I had to have a rethink. This is how I've fixed it. I'll probably just wear the skirt at home. It's never going to win me any prizes, but I'm quite happy with the result. Arilx

After literally years of talking about going to our local folk club it took an invitation from a friend to see this group to get us there at last. This is Alden, Patterson and Dashwood from Norwich who performed a couple of fabulous sets.  They've been the support act for the more well known band Show of Hands. If you're wondering what the instrument is it;s a dobra which is more commonly seen in Blue Grass music. This is their "Little Red Canoe". As for us we've pledged to go back again [it's on every Sunday night] and if we get our act together we might even join! Arilx

This is the lantern Guy Fawkes was carrying the night he was caught in the cellar in the Palace of Westminster. This pivotal moment stopped Fawkes from igniting the gunpowder.  I shall be watching the fireworks from a bedroom window....Humphrey will be hiding underneath the bath. Unlike me he's not a fan! The lantern is in the Ashmolean Museum. Arilx

Shopping...these days it's something I do when needed [although the occasional ahem spontaneous buy does sometimes get under the radar!]. I never was one for shoes and that hasn't changed so it was somewhat reluctantly that I set out to replace my well loved, but worn out black boots. Frankly I didn't relish the experience. I went into a handful of shoe shops to see what they'd got in stock and could very quickly see that nothing appealed nor did some of the prices. A quick tour of the chazzas only produced what I would term fashion boots with skyscraper heels or made out of unsuitable material like suede. Believe you me I can find that single puddle within a five mile radius and step in it. I've ruined suede before on the first wearing so am not to be trusted. Arriving back at GBT I was a bit hacked off with the whole thing,but being a woman on a mission I decided to give Ebay a whirl. Now I'm not the right person for online bidding and have only used the

This rather amusing little sign has appeared on the wall of a local restaurant. Hope you weekend consists of something good and nothing bad! Arilx