Seemingly trivial things that cheer you up
Comments
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Very crowded though apparently.pinno said:
I often drove the leafy route from mid Kent, Sussex, Wiltshire through to Marlborough/Salisbury and it is beautiful.lesfirth said:On the same theme. I live north Manchester and I have been to Clitheroe many times and I have been to Harrogate many times but I have never driven from Clitheroe to Harrogate. A few weeks ago I did . I never expected a nearly empty A59 would make me smile so much.
As Tashman says, what a stunning country this is.
Western Highlands are stunning. Ullapool area is something different. it almost has a Scandinavian feel to it in terms of light and fauna.
Northumberland is beautiful, particularly north of the A69 but along the Tyne is lovely.
There's parts of the Peak district, the Malverns, Shropshire, Warwickshire and across to the Brecon Beacons - all really nice.
It's amazing we have such a diversity of landscapes on such a small island.0 -
I really should travel more in the UK, but not in the South East as most of that is the bit Pross' comment is accurate about.pinno said:
It's amazing we have such a diversity of landscapes on such a small island.
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It really is. For all my love of my bit of France, the bulk of France is massively boring, and on the 900km drive from Calais, it only gets interesting for the last 40km. Drive 900km in Britain, and the diversity of landscapes - even if you do motorways - would be astounding, especially in comparison.pinno said:
It's amazing we have such a diversity of landscapes on such a small island.0 -
I have to agree with you there Brian, most of France is just in the way when i want to get to Italy.0
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veronese68 said:
I have to agree with you there Brian, most of France is just in the way when i want to get to Italy.
As for people in Devon and Cornwall having holiday homes in Brittany, I always wonder why... it's just like Cornwall, but with an even weirder accent. And you can't buy proper pasties or clotted cream.0 -
Lack of hedgerows is the thing I notice most. South of the Loire gets better and the north-east corner is quite nice. The peninsulars of Brittany and Normandy are OK but you don't generally travel through them unless taking the longer ferry routes I suppose. The Ardeche is still one of the most beautiful places I've visited (admittedly I'm not particularly well travelled) and the Dordogne isn't too bad either other than the amount of tourists.briantrumpet said:
It really is. For all my love of my bit of France, the bulk of France is massively boring, and on the 900km drive from Calais, it only gets interesting for the last 40km. Drive 900km in Britain, and the diversity of landscapes - even if you do motorways - would be astounding, especially in comparison.pinno said:
It's amazing we have such a diversity of landscapes on such a small island.
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I think the changing scenery is meant to be one of the appealing things about the coast to coast walk.0
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I'm doing a 30k running race tomorrow in the Elan Valley. I usually go through that area on the main A470, which is spectacular, but have never been around the race route so just "drove" it on Streetview. It's stunning which is just as well as with my complete lack of training I'm going to be enjoying it for a very long time! Would make a superb route for the Tour of Britain but they always stick to the A roads when they venture that way.0
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Pross said:
Lack of hedgerows is the thing I notice most. South of the Loire gets better and the north-east corner is quite nice. The peninsulars of Brittany and Normandy are OK but you don't generally travel through them unless taking the longer ferry routes I suppose. The Ardeche is still one of the most beautiful places I've visited (admittedly I'm not particularly well travelled) and the Dordogne isn't too bad either other than the amount of tourists.briantrumpet said:
It really is. For all my love of my bit of France, the bulk of France is massively boring, and on the 900km drive from Calais, it only gets interesting for the last 40km. Drive 900km in Britain, and the diversity of landscapes - even if you do motorways - would be astounding, especially in comparison.pinno said:
It's amazing we have such a diversity of landscapes on such a small island.
Yeah, Dordogne & Ardèche pretty, though they don't beat home
It still bemuses (and delights) me that it's virtually unknown to most British people.
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Due to train cancellation I had an unplanned road tour of the Severn Vale and Cotswolds yesterday, which was glorious. Pershore, Evesham, Moreton in Marsh, Stow on the Wold and then down to Swindon (which was less pretty).veronese68 said:
I really should travel more in the UK, but not in the South East as most of that is the bit Pross' comment is accurate about.pinno said:
It's amazing we have such a diversity of landscapes on such a small island.
There are plenty of quiet bits of the South East worth visiting if you choose your moment: Seven Sisters and Cuckmere Haven; Romney Marsh; and the bit of the Thames Valley around Pangbourne are bits we keep going back to.1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
Playing in an orchestra for the first time in 18 months. Even better when this is the music we were playing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUM_zT3YKHs
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I hope you avoided Dunny on the Wold. It's a rotten borough.rjsterry said:
Due to train cancellation I had an unplanned road tour of the Severn Vale and Cotswolds yesterday, which was glorious. Pershore, Evesham, Moreton in Marsh, Stow on the Wold and then down to Swindon (which was less pretty).veronese68 said:
I really should travel more in the UK, but not in the South East as most of that is the bit Pross' comment is accurate about.pinno said:
It's amazing we have such a diversity of landscapes on such a small island.
There are plenty of quiet bits of the South East worth visiting if you choose your moment: Seven Sisters and Cuckmere Haven; Romney Marsh; and the bit of the Thames Valley around Pangbourne are bits we keep going back to.0 -
The trouble with made up place names is they struggle to compete with the real thing. I spotted a place called Cow Roast on the map the other day.elbowloh said:
I hope you avoided Dunny on the Wold. It's a rotten borough.rjsterry said:
Due to train cancellation I had an unplanned road tour of the Severn Vale and Cotswolds yesterday, which was glorious. Pershore, Evesham, Moreton in Marsh, Stow on the Wold and then down to Swindon (which was less pretty).veronese68 said:
I really should travel more in the UK, but not in the South East as most of that is the bit Pross' comment is accurate about.pinno said:
It's amazing we have such a diversity of landscapes on such a small island.
There are plenty of quiet bits of the South East worth visiting if you choose your moment: Seven Sisters and Cuckmere Haven; Romney Marsh; and the bit of the Thames Valley around Pangbourne are bits we keep going back to.1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
Bobby Crush.0
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Solomons Tump.rjsterry said:
The trouble with made up place names is they struggle to compete with the real thing. I spotted a place called Cow Roast on the map the other day.elbowloh said:
I hope you avoided Dunny on the Wold. It's a rotten borough.rjsterry said:
Due to train cancellation I had an unplanned road tour of the Severn Vale and Cotswolds yesterday, which was glorious. Pershore, Evesham, Moreton in Marsh, Stow on the Wold and then down to Swindon (which was less pretty).veronese68 said:
I really should travel more in the UK, but not in the South East as most of that is the bit Pross' comment is accurate about.pinno said:
It's amazing we have such a diversity of landscapes on such a small island.
There are plenty of quiet bits of the South East worth visiting if you choose your moment: Seven Sisters and Cuckmere Haven; Romney Marsh; and the bit of the Thames Valley around Pangbourne are bits we keep going back to.
https://forum.bikeradar.com/discussion/12846120/very-little-league-football-results
I rode from Naam round towards Bourton and then across to Evesham and then back to Naam one day. 70 very hilly miles. I was fooked.
But, it was an extraordinarily pretty route.seanoconn - gruagach craic!0 -
Medieval bench ends in churches. Especially when I look at the photos when I get home, and notice something I didn't see in situ. I this case, two small heads, right down at floor level, where they've been for 500 years or more: the one on the left is a green man, and I suspect the one on the right is a self portrait.
@rjsterry - it's Payhembury, if you're down and want to visit somewhere else. You'll have to look closely to find these though
https://brianchurches.wordpress.com/2021/09/20/payhembury-interior/0 -
Ooh, they're good. Will put them on the list. Medieval sculpture seems to be so much less self conscious than later stuff.briantrumpet said:Medieval bench ends in churches. Especially when I look at the photos when I get home, and notice something I didn't see in situ. I this case, two small heads, right down at floor level, where they've been for 500 years or more: the one on the left is a green man, and I suspect the one on the right is a self portrait.
@rjsterry - it's Payhembury, if you're down and want to visit somewhere else. You'll have to look closely to find these though
https://brianchurches.wordpress.com/2021/09/20/payhembury-interior/1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
Not quite what I meant, but that, too. I was thinking more of the style of carving rather than the subject. Top one is Indian, no? A wooden version of the bottom one was recently discovered when restoring All Saints in Hereford.pinno said:
https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/19494566.pictures-rude-hereford-church-carving-gone-viral/
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
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Dunno. Clearly some sort of commonly understood idea for the two to be so similar. Just read that the term Green Man was only coined in the 1930s, so some of the associations with paganism might be little more than guesses.pinno said:1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
There are lots of pubs called The Green Man though? Surely they can't all be from the 1930s on?rjsterry said:
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This one on the Euston Road was named in 1809 for a starter for 10
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Related to the term "woudmen" or "wildmen" which were often depicted in medieval grotesques
https://www.google.com/amp/s/wordhistories.net/2018/05/03/green-man-meanings/amp/
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More here, which also explains the 1930s reference (it's only a blog so not necessarily peer reviewed research.
https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2021/02/what-was-the-green-man/0 -
The OED seems to think there's a difference between the characters dressed in foliage in plays, and the imagery in old buildings:In outdoor shows, pageants, masques, etc.: a man dressed in greenery, representing a wild man of the woods or seasonal fertility. Cf. Jack o' (also of) the green n. at Jack n.2 Phrases 3.
Quots. a1716 and 1931 refer to the tavern sign of ‘The Green Man and Still’. N.E.D. (1900) comments that the sign ‘seems to have been suggested by the arms of the Distillers' Company, the supporters of which are two Indians. The sign-painters represented the Indian by a ‘Green man’ (in this sense) and this figure was afterwards replaced by that of a man clothed in green, a forester, often Robin Hood.’ (See ‘J. Larwood’ J. C. Hotten Hist. Signboards (1866) 148.)
1578 G. Whetstone Promos & Cassandra: 2nd Pt. i. vi, sig. H.i, (stage direct.) Phallax, Two men, apparrelled, lyke greene men at the Mayors feast, with clubbes of fyre worke.
1594 R. Wilson Coblers Prophesie sig. C1v Comes there a Pageant by, Ile stand out of the greene mens way for burning my vestment.
1600 T. Nash Summers Last Will & Test. sig. B2v The rest of the greene men haue reasonable voyces, good to sing catches.
1654 E. Gayton Pleasant Notes Don Quixot i. vi. 19 The strange Feasts of the Greenmen, Whiflers, Marshals, and his Ministers.
1687 M. Taubman London's Triumph 7 Green-men, Swabs, Satyrs, and Attendants innumerable.
a1716 Bagford in ‘J. Larwood’ & J. C. Hotten Hist. Signboards (1866) x. 367 They are called woudmen or wildmen, thou' at thes day we in ye signe call them Green Men, couered with grene boues.
1728 J. Smedley Gulliveriana 33 My Greenmen all, with Main and Might, Espouse Myself and Cause, And say, that all propos'd is right, By ancient Forest-Laws.
1801 J. Strutt Glig-gamena Angel-ðeod iv. iii. 282 The actors..were called monstrous wilde men; others were frequently distinguished by the appellation of green men; and both of them were men whimsically attired and disguised with droll masks [etc.].A representation of a man's face composed of, surrounded by, or sprouting foliage or branches, esp. used as an architectural ornament. Cf. foliate head n. at foliate adj. Additions.
Such images have been interpreted variously as depicting the figure of sense 1a or the nature spirit of sense 1b.
[1932 Folklore 43 360 There is also a couple of corbels carved with a face—in the mouth is a sprig of foliage on each side, moustache like. It is thought to be a ‘green man’.]
1939 Lady Raglan in Folklore 50 47 Seward, who has made a special study of the chapter-house at Southwell, where there is a number of ‘Green Men’, has found a great variety of foliage there.
1959 Times 7 Nov. 9 A famous pulpit..sharply and dramatically carved with angel, eagle,..and the sad heads of two Green Men with stems growing from their mouths and opening into stylized foliage.0 -
^ from above, 'whif(f)ler', one who whiffles, v. to think or behave in an erratic or unpredictable way; to blow or be blown fitfully or in gusts.
Whiffler, an alt name for PMINO Spaffer.0 -
As it happens, I photographed a 15th-century one today, at Spreyton:
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Being the 5th person to flag a spam post and seeing it disappear.0
