Sharing a chuckle.

One has been rootling around the charity shops in one's home town one has to admit. I was actually looking for a coat [no luck this time], but what I found instead was a selection of blank cards which will do for birthdays over the coming year. They had very unusual close ups of crystals and other natural images...a win on all fronts...for me price wise and for our local hospice. Ahem...and then there's this one which is in a class all of its own...it made me and the lady on the till greatly titter. I shall have to be a little more discerning when choosing who to send this one to methinks!

Might as well leave you with a very silly joke I heard from a Morris person yesterday to make your Monday go with a swing....


What do you call a three footed aardvark?


A yardvark...


Boom boom! Right I shall leave all you poor souls in peace for a bit!

Arilx

Airing your laundry in public!

It's perfectly fine I am not about to change the whole style of this blog into a bare all, confessional type so beloved of the modern day celebrity culture. I do, however, need to show my laundry in public...fear not it's clean. A light shower sent Mr GBT hurtling into the garden to bring in the washing...half an hour later I amused myself hanging it all on indoor airer...that was until something buzzed and I nearly took off......well wouldn't you if you pulled this out unexpectedly!!

 

I am pleased to be able to report that said dragonfly survived its adventure and has been safely released back into the wild down by the river.

Arilx

The Power To Shock

Sometimes it is the most seemingly innocuous of objects which has the power to shock me. Two examples have come to my attention recently.

St Laurence's in Lurgashall has a huge slab of stone sitting in its porch beneath a broken fragment of an ancient font. It is unremarkable and I thought not worth photographing. Since then I've discovered that this stone could be hired. Why you might wonder. It was used to cover newly dug graves to stop the bodysnatchers from taking the freshly interred corpse and is one of the few surviving Resurrection Stones. How terrifying that must have been for our ancestors having to face not only a bereavement, but equally the very real prospect that callous individuals would attempt to steal the remains of your loved one.

Or how about this one? A damaged comb which I saw a fortnight ago in our local museum.

This everyday item belonged to one John Haigh who is better known as the notorious Acid Bath Murderer.  A serial killer, he murdered and dissolved the bodies of his six victims in sulphuric acid. Although he was convicted in Lewes, he was arrested and charged in Horsham.

Without the historical context both objects would have passed me by unnoticed.

Arilx

It's the small things....

I've mused over the weekend's doings and reached the same conclusion that, with me, it always comes down to the easily dismissed and seemingly insignificant moments which mean so much to me and add to my quality of life.

The shared laughter over discovering that there really is a consumer for every product....prompted by this photo I now know that Purple Emperor butterflies are equally keen on doggie doo-doo.

Sitting on the bench looking over the millpond with a jointly prepared picnic whilst watching the red dragonflies [or maybe damselflies...I know not] managing amazing aeronautical feats worthy of any Red Arrow display and catching up on my friend's news. Growing up offspring's results to celebrate and TYM's recent flying visit to Calais to help out at the Refugee Charity's Warehouse.

Stopping to admire the vista of the beautiful South Downs laid out before us and enjoying the shared experience of spotting and then trying to identify our various finds....sometimes more successful than others!

And this to wind up my visit to Woods Mill.....a moment as we crossed over Steve's Bridge to pause and agree what a fitting memorial this was to a chap who was apparently a very special individual.

The moments spent with those family and friends who bring joy and warmth to my life is time never wasted.

Arilx

The Green Knight

Dappled sunlight filtering through the woodland canopy above transports you back to a time and place of ancient mystery and  magic....The Green Knight is waiting silently for the return of King Arthur....

Well actually that's a load of old codswallop isn't it....just me spinning a web of words! However, The Green Knight is not a figment of my imagination. Now I've come across a few eerie ruins in the woods in my time....decaying chapels, remaining walls of old cottages, but without a doubt this was a first. He, along with broken ecclesiastical stones, lies scattered around one of the woods in the Woods Mill nature reserve.

I'd gone for a jolly with chum E on Saturday and together we came up with all sorts of fanciful theories as to how they got there. As far as I can tell they were brought in by the then owner Arthur Peake. His intention had been to build an Italianate garden, but his plans never came to fruition. There is no doubt that the stones are genuinely old, but he took the secret of where they came from to his grave. He was executed in 1936 for supposedly murdering his chauffeur, Arthur Noyce. All rather surreal and definitely not what was on the agenda before my visit!

Arilx

"Bog" Standard?

No definitely nothing "bog" standard about these stunning nature themed murals which have been painted by an artist called Jane Mutiny. They are new this year and turn, what was an unremarkable toilet block, into a building of beauty.

This is at Woods Mill in West Sussex. I shall fill you in with a bit more detail in subsequent posts.

Arilx

Going out with a bang!

This made me chuckle....I have to wonder at my warped sense of humour sometimes!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Arilx