St. Mary's Church, Selborne

Today's post is a continuation of the last two posts which saw us in Selborne, a small village in Hampshire. Next to the green is St. Mary's Church with its War Memorial outside.

There is something about a wreath that makes you stop and think of all that bloodshed - particularly during the First World War. A scene that was captured so movingly in the final episode of "Blackadder Goes Forth" when Edmund Blackadder, Baldrick,  Lt. George and Captain Darling go over the top.

The interior held many delights.

Although the Church did not have many stained glass windows - I liked the simplicity of this window. All too often stained glass windows in Churches almost make you dizzy they are so busy!

There wasn't a campanoligist in sight.

This is a really old Church - it dates back to Norman times.

There were some beautiful tapestry kneelers.

There were so many of these kneelers it was difficult to decide which two to take photos of!

On the way back home we drove past a farm and saw these two cows looking directly at us - so I asked the Other Half to pull over so that I could take a photo and hey presto - here it is for you to see. I love that white patch on the forehead and the black patches around the other cows eyes.

After we went past this farm we saw a pond and stopped the car to have a look to see if there would be any frog spawn - there was! We didn't have a container with us and so we couldn't take any. It would have been nice for Our Daughter to see the tadpoles growing and turning into frogs which we would then have given to our neighbour to place in her pond.  Our Daughter when she was small used to call our neighbour "The Frog Lady" - after we would find frogs in our garden, probably carried from her garden by our cats which we would then take back to her. We're lucky that she has a good sense of humour - she even signs off her Christmas cards to us as - "From The Frog Lady!"

Well, Our Daughter had her ESB exam today. She was picked up from school by the Other Half who then took her and a school friend to the local Italian Restaurant for pizza and  an ice-cream before they both came back to play and have a go on the Wii.

They were HAPPY as they had no homework.

Our Daughter never gives too much away so asking questions about the exam revealed only the following  "I think it went O.K." "I think the examiner liked me imitating the lisping Violet Elizabeth!"

Nothing more could be gleaned from her. I guess we'll have to wait for the results which are usually after the Easter Holidays. I know that whatever the result she tried her best and that's all you can ask, isn't it?

I have been very busy at work this week and feel a bit tired - I will sign off now!

Until next time.

June.

Selborne and Our Cat "Ruby"

On Saturday we stayed at home working with Our Daughter to help her put together a board for her ESB Presentation Exam on Thursday of this week. She has to give a short Presentation and has to have a board to point things out - I think that the board is to help the children during their presentations if their mind goes blank during their talk. There was a lot of double sticky back tape - it was a bit like something from Blue Peter with a lot of frustration thrown in when the sellotape got tangled up!

Anyhow, with the board finished on Saturday and with the weather man forecasting rain on Sunday I thought that it would be a rained off weekend and that there would be nothing for us to go out and enjoy. I therefore thought that I would do a blog about "Our Cats" - unfortunately , they must have got wind of the fact that the mad woman with the camera was on the loose as when I went to look there was only one of them still in the house - Our Dear Little "RUBY".

I know that you're not supposed to have favourites but she is pretty special to us. She suffers with some form of epilepsy and if you have never seen a cat having a fit it is quite scary. She dashes around like a thing possessed, frothing at the mouth, before collapsing and shaking violently - during these times we re-assure her and after a few minutes she comes round but will be completely disorientated for a good half hour - her eyes will be as big as saucers and she will walk around the room looking as if she has no idea where she is.

I have put more photos of her at the bottom of this post. In the meantime I will show you some photos from Selborne which we visited on Sunday as it did not rain as the weatherman said!

This mirror was on a wall to assist the home-owner to reverse onto this quite treacherous road. Although the Village is small it is a bit of a rat run and the road is quite narrow.

There are some beautiful cottages in the Village.

It is a pretty place.

Although the Village is small it has two delightful shops selling vintage furniture, lovely jewellery, etc.

One shop is called "Dandelion Wood" and the other is called "Poppy Charlotte."

Did I buy anything? I bought a big bar of Italian soap which smells divine from Dandelion Wood.

I bought one of my mums Christmas presents in Poppy Charlotte last year - a big felt flower corsage with a matching handbag. Due to the dreadful weather in December she had to wait until February to receive them. She said that it was worth the wait - so I guess she was pleased.

Doesn't this cottage look fabulous. When I say things like this to the Other Half he always says "We couldn't live there, the cats would be killed." I then say "And we couldn't afford it anyway, but I can dream!"

There is a green with these delightful cottages and just out of shot to the left is the Church which I will put on a later post. There we have it our trip around the Village of Selborne. There is a lovely walk just beyond the Church but the area was quite muddy and so it is one to return to when the ground is hard underfoot and not too squelchy!

Back to Ruby. She is very easy to get into a posing mood. All I have to do is ask Our Daughter to get a ribbon or a piece of string and she is enthralled and poses beautifully. The other cats well ... they just scarper ...

I mentioned earlier what the Other Half says about lovely houses which are near to a road - that they are often fatal to a cat. We should know that this is true as we have lost three cats in the last 15 years to the main road. The cats love being outdoors though so it's always difficult to say that you will have cats and keep them indoors.

On Saturday the Other Half was talking to our neighbour whose cat we hadn't seen for a few days. He was a lovely cat - an RAF sort of blue colour - hence he was called "Biggles."

They had been away and their son had taken the cat to their home to look after - he had run out into the road and been killed. A terrible shame.

A few posts ago I told you that I hadn't travelled beyond Europe apart from a visit to my friend in Japan when I was 21 years old. She is still out there,  married with two children. I understand that she is O.K. as according to my mum someone had heard her talking about the disaster on a local welsh radio station.

The disaster certainly puts life into perspective. The Japanese are a very resilient nation. Although there is disaster surrounding them everywhere they go about in a dignified silence. Seeing the sea looking like sludge travelling very rapidly and smashing everything in its path was just so shocking. I can't imagine for one minute what it would be like to loose everything. There was a man in the paper yesterday who had been rescued from the roof of his house which was the only part of the house that remained, it had floated 10 miles out to sea - he had apparently witnessed his wife being carried off by the tsunami to her death - unimaginable horror.

Hard to believe that the earth can cause so much carnage in such a short space of time.

A time to reflect and appreciate what we have ...

Until next time.

June.

Gilbert White's House and Garden, Selborne

Today we went to Gilbert White's House - mainly for a relaxing walk around the garden. The house is situated in the village of Selborne. He is best known for writing "The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne." He was born in 1720 and believed in studying living birds and animals in their natural habitat which was an unusual approach at the time, as most naturalists preferred to carry out detailed examinations of dead specimens.

Although it is not a large garden - it is a lovely place to while away an hour or two. We had visited the house previously and so, this time we decided that we would visit the garden and bring the dog with us as dogs are allowed on a lead.

There are no photographs of the dog as he wouldn't listen to his name being called - there were too many things to see of interest and to try and chase! The birds in the trees must have been laughing at Our Crazy Hound trying his best to jump up and catch them - he's a dachshund so has short legs and was on a lead = no chance.

Talking of chasing - On our way to Selborne we drove past a lavender field, out of the corner of my eye I thought that I saw something moving which could have been a black and white domestic rabbit. I mentioned this to the Other Half who wasn't convinced and I began to think that it may have been a plastic bag blowing in the wind. There was only one way to find out, turn the car around and go and have a look. When we arrived at the field all three of us immediately realized that there was a domestic rabbit running loose in the lavender field.

We got out of the car to try and see if we could catch it as otherwise it risked being run over as there was no hedge to the field. Suffice to say we didn't catch the rabbit but for a while we resembled something of a sketch from "Benny Hill!"

The peace and tranquility of the gardens.

I had hoped that the daffodils would have been open but they were still in bud.

Our Daughter did some tree climbing.

There were many clumps of snowdrops.

Many trees had cones.

There we have it, Gilbert White's garden. A shame that the daffs weren't out but a nice, relaxing day out apart from the mad dash around the lavender field to try and catch the rabbit who had escaped from its hutch. We chased it back to its garden which was next door to the lavender field so I hope it has the sense to stay there as being mainly white it would be easy prey for an owl, hawk, buzzard or indeed a fox.

After our trip around the garden we then had a wander around the Village and popped into the Church before driving home to help Our Daughter practise for her ESB (English Studies Board) Examination on Thursday.

She has to read from a book of her choice, recite a poem and give a presentation for three minutes.

She has chosen a Just William book - "Still William" and has chosen the Chapter - "The Little Girl in White" - William's introduction to Violet Elizabeth!

The poem is "The Kitten at Play" by William Wordsworth and her presentation is about Evacuation during the Second World War - hence our recent visit to the Imperial War Museum in London.

I hope it all goes well for her on Thursday!

Until next time.

June.