Here's what is going on in the Great Hall in Hogwarts this Halloween👻💀
Hope you have a great weekend.
Arilx
The life and adventures of a mildly dotty old bird.
Here's what is going on in the Great Hall in Hogwarts this Halloween👻💀
Hope you have a great weekend.
Arilx
Thank you so much for all your good wishes for the 'All Hallows' event. I am so pleased to say that the weather dried up for us and it all went off so well that we've already been asked to do it all again next year. We sold out quite a while ago, but there was huge demand for tickets still so I'd felt quite a bit of pressure these past few weeks. It's been all systems go this past few months as we also launched a brand new Viking story at the Butser Farm Equinox Boat burning we went to last month too. However, we have all lived to tell the tale. For me the magic was being up on top of the South Downs with the famous ancient Cissbury flint mines ahead of us and undisturbed Neolithic burials behind us as we called to the ancestors. Spine tingling stuff.
Despite this being my working Monday I have still stumbled across my own little piece of magic today with this fabulous homemade Halloween decoration just round the corner of GBT. It looked even more spooktacular in the wind and rain❤
Arilx
It was another of my precious Mondays off and I was due to be in London, but my lovely friend was called for a very important NHS appointment so understandably needed to postpone. Despite the weather not looking very promising I donned my waterproofs and boots and took myself and my inner four year old over to Nymans to enjoy their Halloween themed trail. Thankfully it's still term time here which just left me and a heap of toddlers spotting the spooky sites. As ever the National Trust staff have done a fabulous job and, as if all that excitement wasn't enough, I then decided to drive on to the next village because they always have a cracking new topper every time I get over there. I wasn't disappointed👻🦇❤👀💀😈
For a brief period as a student in Winchester way back in the 1980s I may have had a traffic cone in my room....I may have had a couple of small sweet sherries one night and dragged the dratted thing back. I do vaguely remember that it was a lot heavier than I had expected it to be and it had a yellow flashing light on top [which is what happens when you remove such items from a road working site] which kept myself and my room mate awake a lot. It wasn't that long before we returned the wretched thing to where we had taken it from and there ended my brief flirtation with cone 'ownership'.
Fast forward many decades and I got far more excited than I should have done on one tedious car journey when we were stuck in a traffic jam on the motorway for there before me were not only orange cones, but to my delight I realised that sometimes they can come in other colours...that day I saw them in purple💜, green💚 and blue💙. Mr GBT is well used to my batty self by now, but even he was a bit perplexed by my excitement on this particular occasion. There had been no more thrilling cone encounters since then until recently when I saw this.....
If I say it was outside a very famous studio and shaped like a wizard's hat that might give you a clue as to where I went for my birthday treat at the the beginning of the month. Once I've rifled through the pile of photos I'll write up a post about my visit which I'm happy to do now Halloween is looming up fast on the horizon. In the meantime I hope everyone enjoys a peaceful weekend. I have some spooky plans of my own lined up👻
Arilx
Am going for a slight twist on that famous Carpenters' song with today's twitterings. Yesterday's client was away so an additional day off....pouring here all day so what shall I do with myself. There are always chores to be done, but having decided that I'd done what I set out to do the walking boots and waterproof jacket went on and I went out to see what a rainy Monday might have to offer me
You may very well be wondering why on earth you're being shown a picture of a slug....I was very excited when I encountered this first thing lurking about in our compost heap. I believe it's a Green Cellar slug and rather a glamorous slug with those markings.
Unlike the Boomtown Rats' song I most definitely do like Mondays. For the first time since lockdown I have now got my day off every other week back which I initially gave up to be able to give a new client a weekly slot back in 2020. My logic back then was that my work rota was bound to change again soon and that I'd get it back. However, I was wrong and it was only a matter of a few weeks ago that it finally happened, but where it used to be on a Tuesday it's now a Monday. Already I've used my time to get up to mischief with various friends [more plans are pencilled in] and even on the weeks that I'm still working I've taken to building in a small local detour sometimes to fit a quick spot of nosing around to get that off work feeling. If it all goes well, then the plan is that I will finish for good next summer, but for now I'm just enjoying getting a bit of practise in 👏👏
Seeing as the weekend is fast approaching these are a couple of highlights from my most recent forays....titter ye not😆
I have passed this road sign a few times, but have never worked out exactly where it was so it was a complete joy to happen across it very much by chance. A knob in this context is, of course, a small and roundish hill.....
No doubt there are very valid reasons for not letting the sheep in now, but I do rather miss them. Have a magical weekend.
Arilx
Tempted by a Halloween themed treat much earlier this year we justified the cost by calling it my birthday treat. However, that was due to be a couple of days afterwards so on the day itself, whilst still wanting to go out, we kept it simple and followed the heritage trail around the Sussex village of Hurstpierpoint. It's not a place known to either of us which made the shared experience of exploring it more fun. Did I find any oddities in amongst all of its history.....well you'll just have to read on.
I could give you lots of history, but there's plenty to read online and instead you're getting my take on this place. What tempted me here in the first place was seeing a photo of the sculpture of the children at the fair which featured in my last post, but I do think the village sign is rather splendid too. Hurst is a Saxon word meaning 'wood and the other part of the name comes from the de Pierpoint family who hailed from Normandy. They trundled over with dear old William the Conqueror and held land here until 1431. It's thought that the chap below is one of their lot. He's probably Simon de Pierpoint and you can see his rather broken up tomb in the parish church. Apparently he's wearing a bascinet, a mail gorget, a gyphon, a baudrick and plate armour with knee coverage. This was what the best dressed knights were wearing in c1358 and if you understand what's before you [I am clueless] you can date these things by the style of clothing depicted,
'Children of the fair'...a beguiling septet of children depicted through the seven centuries of history during which time the St Lawrence Fair in Hurstpierpoint has run. Its charter was granted by Edward II in 1313. I adore the innocence of this piece. It's barely waist height and is the work of Sylvia Thornhill
Hope you have a lovely weekend. I have birthday adventures to bring you next week.
Arilx
Last Sunday I did not wake up with any intention of buying a painting. As you can see below things didn't quite pan out that way. My lo...