England – Page 3

Happy Returns

https://app.portsmouth.co.uk/story/full_page_image/2nd-january-2025-page-17_4f1407dd/content.html

A warm tale for the new year.

Perhaps, only in England …

Let Down Again

https://app.portsmouth.co.uk/full_page_image/11th-october-2024-page-4_4f0207dc/content.html

A few years ago this site was the home of Marconi Underwater Systems. The site was closed, and the Marconi buildings and surrounds became derelict. The site has remained an eyesore for many years.

Around 2012 I, as a member of the Waterlooville Residents Forum, attended a presentation on behalf of a potential developer. At that time, per the presentation, the plans were to build a 60 bed hotel and restaurant. They also planned a car showroom and a drive thru restaurant. The developer went to great pains. He assured us that the drive thru was not going to be another McDonald’s.

Outline Application APP/12/00652 was submitted 4th October 2012. The recommendation was that permission be granted for this application. Since that time, the Marconi (BAE) buildings were demolished but the site remained undeveloped.

Until that is, along came Lidl and, yep, McDonald’s. But the remainder of the site remained untouched.

And now the council appear to have given the go ahead for a new KFC, Aldi, and Costa.

It’s not as if our little town doesn’t lack for coffee shops and cafe’s. As for fast food drive thru’s, we are surrounded. Nor are we short of Aldi stores, we actually have seven within a ten mile radius. Costa Coffee is even more pervasive with ten in a four mile radius.

There is a significant amount of residential construction in and around Waterlooville. With all the new residents I would agree that there is a need for eateries. But I would argue that there is a greater need for entertainment centres. Waterlooville residents frequently call for a cinema complex / bowling alley. Sadly nobody hears the call

And so, the construction of these three businesses leaves me disappointed. I feel that we, the residents of Waterlooville, have been let down again.

Last Knockings

This is pretty much the last knocking of our tomato crops this year. There are just a few green tomatoes yet to ripen.

We have had a good crop this year, but sad to say, it could have been better. We sort of screwed up.

We have two pyramid planters, but we, by mistake, planted bush/trailing varieties in one.

Oh well, lesson learnt. Overall, we are pleased, and the flavour of homegrown fruit and veg is always superior.

These varieties are all very sweet, but the little orange ones are sooper sweet.

View From The Conservatory

View From The Conservatory

This squirrel was keeping a watchful eye on me after beating a hasty retreat from the neighbours cat.

View From The Conservatory

View From The Conservatory

I’m a lumberjack and I’m OK
I sleep all night and I work all day

He’s a lumberjack and he’s OK
He sleeps all night and he works all day

Well, thank you Monty Python.

Today, we have the guys taking down a dead tree, which is threatening to fall in mine and my neighbours backyard.

The tree doesn’t belong to us but we couldn’t cope with the bureaucracy of dealing with the Highways Agency, who moved their boundaries, and the local council, who have not “adopted” the remaining, abandoned, strip of land.

So, we have taken matters into our own hands.

The tree is a goner.

View From The Conservatory

The slow worm (Anguis fragilis) is a reptile native to western Eurasia.

These legless lizards are also sometimes called common slowworms.

I disturbed this one whilst mowing my lawn.

View From The Conservatory

Grey squirrel with an albino in the background. The albino has been hanging around for a few weeks now.

Thirsk

This is a post that I intended to publish last year. But, as is often the case, time and stuff got in the way. This is from April, 2024.

Last year we were invaded by a contingent from our Australia based rellies. They arrived mid April and we elected to take a trip up to York for a few days.

We spent a lovely few hours in Thirsk, a pretty market town located about a forty minute drive north of York in the Vale of Mowbray. Thirsk is the hometown of renowned vet and author James Herriot. Thirsk is depicted as Darrowby in the TV series.

We parked in the market square and were immediately immersed in a friendly, genteel atmosphere harking back to past times. A reflection of rural england at its finest.

We were, however, pulled back to modern times, surrounded as we were by numerous knitted or crocheted “toppers”, a much more historically recent creation.