Holidays

We don't have thanksgiving but we harvest festival which is similar. Sort of.

G.

 

Up here it is only marked in churches, nowhere else. Is it a bit more of an event down your way Jack Sparrow?

 

@Irmemac Not really. I remember doing it in Sunday School. It's a nice idea. It's a better tradition than knocking on people's doors begging for treats. There's too much taking and not enough giving in this world.

Rocky Balboa never celebrated thanksgiving. Perhaps it was his Italian Roots.

G.

 

Ooh. We have the straw bear festival locally in January. I think that may have been a harvest related thing. At the end they set fire to the bear a la The Wicker Man. To the best of my knowledge they let the man out of the costume first.

G.

Ps I once saw the man walk home still wearing his costume with the head part removed.

 

Head part of the costume, I hope! We don't have any traditional local celebrations or festivals round here. Really sad. Other parts of Scotland do, like scarecrow festivals.

I completely agree with you that harvest thanksgiving is a lovely idea. Too seldom are we thankful for what we already have. I do, however, like Halloween, but don't like the current expectation of children coming to the door just expecting big handouts. I always make them do a partypiece, and give them a few sweets, but some people give out loads of stuff and money too!

 

In our village the children only go to the houses that are decorated. I don't mind that idea.

A couple of years ago I wanted to do a Haloween party. It ended up as an Autumn meal with decorations. Anyway. My friends couldn't make the actual day so we did it a week early. I'll do that again in future. Do it early and pack it all away before anybody notices.

On a different note. Today I saw this in a shop



G.

 

Just a reminder , as the pound to Euro rate drops to a new low . Order and collect your Euros before you go to the airport . I order mine on line from the Post Office and collect at my local branch next day , this is normally the best rate you can get . The airport bureaux de change , always give rip-off rates . Southampton airport is only giving £0.86 to a Euro !

 

September 9th. off again, another trip. this time Costa Rica. for a week only. hope they have face clothes. We are staying in a place that sleeps 6 people, so plenty of towels. using one of our timeshares. seems pretty. one of those resort type places. pool etc. still need to do some research this week. And that is it for the balance of the year. Will stay home, till May 2018.

 

Checked around and it seems I caught the last 75 mackerel from along Chesil when I was there for the Melplash Show.

So a change of plan, off fishing at West Bex, Dorset for some cycling/photography at West Somerset/Exmoor tomorrow.

Got my 26" wheel folder in the boot ready for an early morning departure and hoping this will prove useful getting to Flying Scotsman vantage points with no car parking.

Going back next month for the Red Deer rut.

 

Make sure you'm on the right side of the track

Virgin train ruins view of Flying Scotsman - AOL UK Travel

 

It's single track, will be passing by 4 times a day, and I'll be near a station with a level crossing that'll slow it down, sussed out 'my pitch' earlier this year.

 

Will give you the royal wave @Scrungee as we pass you by as we ride in style on the Flying Scotsman

 

I missed the chance of the perfect photo of the Jacobite train a few years ago. I put the passengers on the train at Fort William. It plodded off slowly. I drove off to glenfinnan where I stopped for a mooch around the Bonnie Prince Charlie memorial (a once in a lifetime opportunity not to be missed). I heard the train chugging up but it's a long climb to the viewpoint so the train passed over the viaduct ( see Harry Potter) so it passed before I got myself in position.

As the train was now ahead of me I trundled off again. I soon passed it was way ahead in no time. Eventually I came across a layby between the road and the track. At this point the train would have been meandering through the countryside. If I had stopped I could have taken the perfect picture of the train with smoke bellowing out and nothing in the background to spoil the view. As I had never done that journey before I felt it prudent to get to the end as quick as possible. I arrived in Malaig in good time to meet the passengers off the train.

These are the opportunities that have to be taken.



G.

 

I should be around on Wed for every FS run, the BL 10:00 > MH 11:07, MH12:18 > BL13:25, BL14:13 >MH 15:20, MH17:00 > BL18:07

and on Thur morning (might be raining) for the BL 10:00 > MH 11:07 and MH12:18 > BL13:25

So if you're on one of those I should have some pics, probably taken on the approach to Blue Anchor from Dunster.

 

@Scrungee we are not riding her this week as we want the ride near to our anniversary day.

Evidently When we get to BL we have to park up and then go to a marquee where our tickets will be checked and we can if we wish buy refreshments and FS gifts and then we will be taken to our carriage.

We haven't been able to get on line since we left home last week as the kids hammered the wi Fi with their gadgets on the campsite here in Somerset and it all went haywire but someone who knows about this sort of thing went up a ladder and sorted it although it is a bit slow at times but luckily most of the campers left on Sunday when their tents got wrecked n the gales that passed through so we have a nice green space in front of us

We are also trying to find out which named steam train is pulling us back from Minehead as the one that was going to do the task isn't going to now.