Bookshops

When I first came to Cambridge about 50 years ago, there were far more bookshops than now. The biggest was Heffers with several shops scattered across the town. Heffers is now owned by Blackwells of Oxford I think. I guess many people buy their books on the internet instead (in the main, I do), although browsing through books is still a pleasure.

In 20 years' time what will we do?

There are still a few independent second-hand bookshops around. One of these is David's shown in the photo. This has remained much the same over 50 years.

Westgate, Canterbury

The Westgate Canterbury is the oldest city gate intact in the country and dates back to 1379. Very impressive. It’s the last surviving gate of the original seven medieval gates in Canterbury. 

We stayed near here earlier this week.

Canterbury Cathedral is covered in scaffolding.

Old Lapthorn?

This "photo" is probably about 160 years old. It is on a hand tinted metal plate found when clearing my mother's house when she died some years ago. I had no idea it existed. She looks like a distant relative - maybe my great great grandmother. She certainly looks like a Lapthorn.

Some years ago I met a Lapthorn who moved away from South Devon (where most Lapthorn's are found and where I come from) in the 1700s: he looked just like my uncle!!

UK Earthquakes

Thankfully, we get few serious earthquakes in the UK. Big ones are rare. The website below keeps records of those that have occurred recently.

See https://earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/earthquakes/recent_uk_events.html

Homelessness in Cambridge

In recent years we seem to have seen an increase in rough sleepers on the streets of Cambridge. For a fact, some are "on the make", tapping in to the many tourists we see here. Some are mentally ill people who seem to have fallen through the cracks and are rough sleeping.

With so many jobs locally, people should not need to rough sleep. "Can you spare a few pennies please?", is the call. Rather than give directly to people who may spend the money on drugs, I prefer to regularly donate to a homeless charity. This way you know the money is really helping. There is little doubt that, for whatever reason, there are some genuine people who need help.

Speech and Language Evolution

At one time I would have been appalled by the overuse of "like" and the fact that younger people tend to go up at the end of sentences. 

Then I realised that speech and language are always changing!  You have only to observe how much speech has changed in the last 100 years. I expect if we heard speech from 500 years ago we would struggle to understand it.  

And to think how languages have evolved in the last 1000-2000 years! No, we have to accept that speech and language will be forever changing.

2020 Kitchen Poster

Since 2012 my wife has made a kitchen poster summarising the previous year.

It is surprising how the grandchildren change.

Late?

This clump of daffodils is on the winter walk at Anglesey Abbey near us. Usually, these are the first to appear. One year, they were in full flower in November!

We went there yesterday and were quite surprised to see that this one (the first) was only just coming out.

SPAM

Earlier I saw a message supposedly commenting on an old post. Clearly the person had never ever read the post and this was blatant advertising. The message has been deleted as soon as I was aware. The same will always be deleted, so go play with your Christmas toys instead child.

"Our" Windmill

Well, it is not ours, although our elder granddaughter thinks the land around it is part of our garden. When we say, "play in our front garden" she makes a beeline to the windmill! Not many can overlook a lovely windmill whilst eating breakfast!

This is the windmill this morning in bright, winter, sunshine. Next year it is 200 years old. The hedge at the bottom of the photo is in our garden.

Christmas Bikes

Our local bike club decided to meet up near "our" windmill. We don't own it, but as it is right outside our house we class it as "ours". All the riders were in Christmas clothes although I was not sure about Santa arriving in a car. Perhaps his reindeer were having a day off or on strike.

Strictly

This BBC TV show has become an institution on dark autumn and winter evenings. It has now ended.

According to the internet we are now at the point when evenings get no darker, although it gets darker in the mornings for a few more weeks yet.

It is funny how we just adapt. In the summer we have light evenings until at least 10pm. At the moment it is dark before 4pm! We really see the difference by the end of January. I like the seasons.

Warhorse On Stage

Yesterday we went with the village theatre group to Wembley to see Warhorse on the stage.

Many years ago we saw Warhorse on stage and I was appalled by the dreadful Devon accents and the appalling, so called, Devon village. The stage production was  really good and far better than the film. This time, I just pretended the village was in Wiltshire!

Barclays Bank and Post Office cash withdrawals

Apparently in the UK, Barclays Bank has had a change of heart and decided, after all, to continue to allow people to get cash from their local post office.

Unless I am mistaken Barclays usually makes billions each year in profits.  Our local branch of Barclays closed over a year ago and getting cash from the Post Office has been a real help.

We know about one disabled lady who would have to walk twice as far for cash if the Post Office stopped its link with Barclays. I suspect Barclays go lots of complaints.

Barclays - you must have been stupid!!

Starter Homes

In the upcoming UK elections I am a floating voter still to make my mind up.

I was not impressed that the National Audit Office (an independent think tank) has said, according to the BBC, that not one of the 200000 starter homes promised by the current government had been built!! Promises!

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50296672

Old Cottage

Yesterday we did a walk around part of our village. This cottage was extended a few years ago. The extension is so good it is hard to tell what is old and what is new. I think it dates from the early 1800s, but I don't know.

Ely Riverside

It seems ages since I posted to this blog. At the weekend we did a delightful walk at Ely. The River Ouse runs through it and Ely looks good even when the weather is dull!

Yet More Houses

We moved to this village in 1975 when the population was just over 4000. It is now over 6000. 

Wherever there is a gap more houses get built. These cater for the well healed and rarely for ordinary workers. For example, the space in the photo has recently been built on. At one time it was a pub carpark.

Autumn Crocus

Earlier, we came across this lone autumn crocus in the village. It demanded a quick photo, which I took with my phone.

My first photo with the smart phone was over-exposed, so I went back again with the "real" camera.  This is better and captures the colours.

Roses, Catalona

Although we were only there earlier this week, our holiday seems an age ago! Roses, where we stayed, was a delightful place.

It seems SE Spain has had some bad floods. Luckily the weather was very good for us, as the photo shows.

So we don't forget when we get senile, I have made a blog. See https://roses2019.blogspot.com/