Rambling round Rye

I am finally managing a blog post of sorts, my body arrived back from the USA two weeks ago but my mind has only just joined it! I thought I'd start with a post about Rye as this is the small New Hampshire town where my friends live. It has the advantage of being on the tiny stretch of coast which New Hampshire possesses and is both pretty and historically interesting. It was the first place in New Hampshire to be settled in by Europeans when a man called William Berry set up home at Odiorne's Point in 1623. C, like me, is keen on history and is a member of the local historical society. They have a small but interesting museum which we went to see on my first day.



The area did, of course, have people living there long before any Europeans arrived on the scene. This illustration shows members of the local Native American tribe - they are the Abenaki whose name means 'people of the dawn' in the Algonquin language.



You will need to click on the photo to be able to read this lovely description of Abenaki life before the advent of the white man, I find the final words very sad - regrettably sharing wasn't on the agenda as far as the new settlers were concerned.



These are arrow heads found in the local area, they are from various time periods and the Abenaki would have used both bows and arrows and spears to do their hunting. I was really pleased to find that the local museum had several displays about the Abenaki rather than assuming that the history of Rye only began when Europeans arrived.


This chest was owned by John Langdon Seavey who was born in 1793. It contains a blanket issued to his father,William Seavey,who was a member of Capt. J Parsons Voluntary Company of Rye during the American War of Independence.


An old handmade,wooden lobster pot - so much more aesthetically pleasing than the plastic versions used today. Lobster boats still ply their trade off the coast of New Hampshire and fresh lobster is available in pretty well every restaurant. To the amazement of my seacoast friends I don't actually like lobster all that much. It's extremely messy to eat and involves a great deal of hard work for not very much reward as far as I'm concerned :)



This is now a private house but in a former existence it was the Garland Tavern, My friend points it out every time I go and I have a feeling that it has some sort of claim to fame connected with the American War of Independence but I have absolutely no clue what and I may well have imagined it - it sounds good though doesn't it?



My friends aren't able to do much walking so each morning, with the aid of a little map of Rye, I did 2 or 3 miles around the town so that I got some of the exercise that I'm used to having. As I walked I took photographs of buildings and scenes that attracted my eye. This display was in a local garden shop and gave me pleasure every time I saw it.



The Jonathan Locke House dating back to 1838, Rye has many lovely old houses like this.



I passed this gorgeous tree every day either on foot or in the car. It was unusual in having its full Fall colour as New Hampshire is last on the list as the colour works its way down from Canada. This is my fourth attempt to catch the full display and, though it was the best I've seen up to now, I was still about 10 days too early for the full show.



These three little cuties are miniature donkeys and there are two more of them just out of sight. They have a lovely paddock attached to their stable and live a life of donkey luxury! Over the many years I've been going to Rye I've got to know many of C's friends, the donkeys belong to M and I always try and see them when I visit.



The same friends own a house at the beach and this is the view from the terrace - I never need a second invitation to spend time here.



Another tree beginning to get into its stride, the colours intensified noticeably during the time I was there.



C insisted on taking this photo of me! Every year a local church has a huge sale of gourds and pumpkins as a fundraiser. There's a stand selling homemade bread, cakes and pies too - I bought a pumpkin pie and it was very good indeed.



These are the large pumpkins which people use for general autumn decorations as well as for Halloween.



I loved this display inside the marquee - all the colours and shapes of the gourds and pumpkins really appeal to me. I wish they were available in these quantities in the UK.



Rye is still a very rural place, these fields are at the bottom of the road where C & H live and they belong to R, another of their friends who will be appearing again in a later post.


Another of the lovely New England clapboard houses - originally an old farmhouse but now done up and no longer a farm.



This is a gate made by C and H and sitting at the back of their house in the fence which marks the territory of their dog. I love it, it's so quirky and totally unique.



Finally, another thing that is unique in Rye - when I am in residence, the Union Jack flies once more on American soil!

Derrick's MeMe - Not My Best Shot!

Derrick of Melrose Musings has organized a MeMe for today where we post photos that don't show our talents as photographers at their best. I have absolutely no trouble finding pictures that fit this category:) Above is a recent attempt to photograph my grandson George. The lesson here is always use the Sport setting when small children are involved!



Supposedly an artistic shot of the moon still visible in the morning sky - back to the drawing board I think....



I definitely need a spot more practice with the macro setting on my Canon - I've yet to take a decent close-up with it. I don't think Lord Snowden needs to start worrying just yet.....

This will be my last post for a while as I leave for the USA in the morning - well just London tomorrow actually. I'll be flying to Boston Tuesday afternoon, I gather the weather is OK there so I've packed shorts and t-shirts in hopes that we'll be spending some time at the beach. I'm hoping to catch the Fall colours this time too,this will be the fourth time I've tried but ever the optimist:) See you in October.

A Suffolk Birthday

It was my birthday earlier this month and I spent it in Suffolk with my younger son and his family. I decided to travel by train for once and discovered that most of the journey is through lovely countryside, the route goes down through Lincolnshire and then into the Fen country. I had my little Canon Powershot in my bag and I suddenly wondered whether it would be possible to take photographs through the window of a moving train and discovered that it is. You only get one chance and the quality isn't that great but I was quite pleased with some of them. Above is the marina at Ely and if you enlarge it you will see Ely cathedral in the background - one of these days I intend to go there. It was built by William the Conqueror and is a really beautiful building.


As we thundered through March I saw a low flying plane, then I realised there were three of them and that the big one was a Lancaster bomber and the two little ones were Spitfires - it was the Battle of Britain flight coming in to land at an airfield near March! It was the weekend of the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of WW2 and there must have been a display of some sort. I just had time to snap this photo. Edited to say that the two small planes are actually a Spitfire at the top and a Hurricane at the bottom. Thanks Roy:)



On the Sunday it was a nice day and we decided to take Gabriel and George to Jimmy's Farm which is pretty close to where my son lives. Jimmy Doherty rears rare breed pigs and there have been several documentary series' about the farm on Britsh TV. It's a really good place for children, plenty for them to see and do including these Red Poll cows.



We spent quite a lot of our time on the woodland Nature Trail, it's an ideal place for small boys to run about and bears like it too:)



Francesca plans to have an autumn nature table for them at home and we collected some specimens for it - acorns, sweet chestnuts, hazel nuts and a pretty bird's feather.



Once Gabriel discovered the little tractor we had a hard time parting him from it!



George enjoyed the woodland nature trail too, he's collecting sticks for the nature table:)



Gabriel and George both loved this living willow house and spent ages playing in it. We shall go back to Jimmy's Farm again as it's that kind of place, always different things to see and do through each of the seasons. On the photos it looks as though we have the place to ourselves but actually there were many family groups and also several coach loads of Brownies and Rainbows having a wonderful day out - they were very well behaved too.



My actual birthday was on Monday and in the morning we went to a small market town called Needham Market, it's an attractive place with quite a few small interesting shops and a great antique centre - the sort where there is masses of interesting, affordable everyday stuff to look at rather than an upmarket antique shop. I bought two 1950s copies of The Countryman magazine which I still haven't read because I managed to leave them behind when I came home! The one building in Needham Market that is truly ugly and uninspiring on the outside is the church of St John the Baptist. It looks neither old nor interesting and I wouldn't even have bothered going inside if it hadn't been for Francesca's mum. Once through the door though, you realise that it is much older than it appears. It was built as a chapel of ease in the late 15th century for pilgrims travelling to visit St Edmund's shrine at Bury St Edmunds and only became a parish church in 1901. It gives a real feeling of what medieval churches must originally have been like when there were no seats or pews and everyone stood through the services. There would be just one or two benches against the walls for elderly or infirm people and this is the origin of the saying that 'the weakest go to the wall'.



The real hidden secret of this church though is the double hammerbeam roof which is mentioned in Nicholas Pevsner's 'Buildings of England'and he described it as 'the climax of English roof building'. Apparently it's the finest double hammerbeam roof in the country. The leaflet in the church suggests that you lie on the floor and look up and then you get the impression of looking at a ship's hull - and it's quite true. I did and you do! It's thought that it may have been crafted by shipwrights brought in from the nearby coast.



As always in Suffolk many of the houses in Needham Market are painted in pretty colours especially the Suffolk pink which was originally made by mixing animal blood with lime. I loved this tiny cottage which must originally have been a 'one up and one down' and looks as though it was tacked on to the end of this row as an afterthought.



This hare is my birthday present from my husband bought in one of the lovely little shops in Needham Market. I absolutely love it.



My birthday cake baked for me by my lovely daughter-in-law Francesca, she gave a little party for me and I had more cards and presents than I've had for years. Gabriel and George had been practising singing 'Happy Birthday' and the cake was delicious. It was a really lovely birthday weekend.

Autumn's Riches

Autumn seems to have arrived very early this year,the woods have that lovely early morning earthy smell and the equinoxial gales are certainly with us at the moment. The woodland floor already has a scattering of fallen leaves and there is a slight chill in the air as I take B Baggins for his walk first thing. Most of the photographs in this post were taken in Lancashire towards the end of August as I walked Mr Dog along the Wyre estuary. Above are rowan berries, rich and opulent in the sunlight. Mixed with crab apples they make an attractive but tart jelly which can be served with game or lamb.



I was struck by the sheer abundance of all the berries this year, these blackberries have still to ripen but they look more like bunches of grapes than brambles - it will be a wonderful harvest for all the birds and small creatures who rely on the hedgerow fruits to see them through the winter.



The size and quantity of the sloes was encouraging - you may be seeing some purple berries, I am seeing several bottles of sloe gin! The sloes need a frost on them really before they are used but if my source here at home isn't as generously covered as the ones by the river then I shall be going over in October to pick some of these.



These beautiful, glowing red berries are quite definitely for admiring only - the berries of the woody nightshade are poisonous but nevertheless it's my favourite of all the autumn berries.


These are the pretty flowers and unripe berries of woody nightshade which scrambles about using other hedgerow plants for support.



Elderberries beginning to ripen, these can be turned into elderberry rob which is wonderful for winter coughs and colds. This is on my to do list before I go off to the USA at the end of this month.





Hips and haws both beginning to ripen and just as prolific as all the other autumn fruits. The haws are the berries of the hawthorn and can be used to make wine, rosehips are a rich source of vitamin C and rose hip syrup was doled out regularly in winter when I was a child to help keep colds at bay. During WW2 children were paid to gather the rosehips so that they could be made into a syrup by a company called Delrosa. This was then supplied to the mothers of young children through the local baby clinics.



All these were growing within the space of less than a mile along the river estuary, the path has the salt marsh,mud flats and river on one side and the hedgerows and fields on the other. It's not only rich in wild fruits and flowers but in birds of all kinds especially waders and wildfowl. As the tide is going out or coming in it is an absolute paradise for birdwatchers. I see hundreds and hundreds of birds sometimes, I only wish I had more idea what I was looking at. It's a walk that is always full of interest for Bilbo Baggins as well as me, he meets lots of other dogs and loves racing about and playing on the salt marsh. I like walking on the salt marsh too when it's dry enough, it's covered in all kinds of specialized plants including sea lavender, sea asters and glasswort which was used in glassmaking at one time. It also keeps you fit as there are a lot of little creeks and gullies that have to be jumped over and one or two that are wide enough to encourage one to make a detour. Discretion is definitely the better part of valour at these points as I have no wish to suffer the embarrasment of having to scramble out of a deepish and very muddy crater and totter home looking like a drowned rat! Always assuming that I wasn't a drowned rat of course, the creeks fill up when the tide is in and frequently stay full too!

A Fire and A Fortress

My plan on the morning after visiting the Waterhouse exhibition was to go to the Tower of London and spend most of the day there and catch a late afternoon train home. I was able to leave my luggage at the hotel which made life easier, I couldn't have done any sightseeing if I hadn't been able to do that. As the Tower didn't open until 10am I decided to get off the Underground at Monument and have a little look round the area where the Fire of London began in September 1666. You can enlarge all the photographs so that you can read what is on the plaques etc.



The fire began in a baker's shop on Pudding Lane and burned for three days destroying virtually all of the medieval City of London. The city was rebuilt using brick and stone as the building materials rather than the wood and wattle and daub of the medieval buildings. This is the period in which Sir Christopher Wren built St Paul's Cathedral and over 50 other London churches. Many of these were destroyed or damaged by the second Fire of London in the Blitz of 1940-41.


Charles ll was the king at the time of the Great Fire of London and he commissioned Sir Christopher Wren to build The Monument to commemorate both the Fire and the rebuilding of the City. It is 202 feet high which is the distance that it stands from the site on Pudding Lane where the fire began. On this site originally was the church of St Margaret, Fish St which was one of 86 churches destroyed. The really amazing thing is that, in spite of the huge amount of destruction,only six people died.



The base of The Monument - I've never actually climbed the stairs to the top of it. It's a spiral staircase and no place to discover half way up that you can't manage to go any further !



This is St Magnus the Martyr Church which is mentioned on the plaque in the previous photo. The original church was one of the first to be destroyed and this one is the replacement designed by Wren. The clock dates from 1700 and used to hang over the road to Old London Bridge which ran through the churchyard to the right behind the white van.



The Tower of London is over 900 years old and was built by William the Conqueror soon after his victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The original part is the White Tower on the right of the photograph which now houses the Royal Armouries Museum including suits of armour worn by Henry Vlll. I didn't go in there - at least, I did go through the door and took one look at the rugger scrum inside and the huge queue edging slowly up the stairs and rapidly changed my mind!



The entrance to the Tower is over a bridge which is where the drawbridge over the moat would have been in medieval times. The archway leads through the Byward Tower built by Edward l in the 13th century. As you can tell by all the umbrellas it was raining pretty hard and not your ideal sightseeing day. The Tower is a huge place and I'm afraid I didn't follow the recommended route as set out by the guide book but wandered about indiscriminately here and there picking out the things that interested me.



The word 'Medieval' is always a surefire draw as far as I'm concerned so the words Medieval Palace on a signpost acted like a magnet and off I went up the steps and into St Thomas's Tower which, with the Wakefield Tower and the Lanthorne Tower, are known collectively as the Medieval Palace. St Thomas's Tower was built by Edward l between 1275 and 1279 and was where he had his living quarters on his visits to the Tower. This is a reconstruction of his bedchamber using replicas based on original 13th century furnishings and decoration. And very nice too!



This is Edward l's private chapel which was through a small door leading out of the bedchamber.



Outside again I headed towards Tower Green. This is where ten people were beheaded including three Queens - Ann Boleyn, Catherine Howard and Lady Jane Grey who was only 16 years old. Only the most important personages were executed actually inside the Tower precincts and another of these was Queen Elizabeth l's favourite, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. The many others who suffered the same fate were taken to the public execution block on nearby Tower Hill. In the foreground of the photograph is the execution site memorial. You might be surprised to know that the last execution in the Tower took place as recently as 15th August 1941 when a German spy was shot by a firing squad. The building in the background is Waterloo Barracks which was built in the 19th century and is now the home of the Crown Jewels.


There wasn't one particular place where prisoners were kept at the Tower, they were squashed in anywhere there was room. In the Beauchamp Tower the walls are covered with graffiti carved by prisoners over the years, most of them date from the 16th and 17th centuries.Some are really elaborate and must have taken years to carve but I suppose that time was one thing they had plenty of! The photo needs enlarging and isn't that great even then as there were spotlights all over the place which create a lot of glare.


On the left of the photo is the doorway leading into The Bloody Tower and the walkway in the centre is called Raleigh's Walk because it is where Sir Walter Raleigh took his exercise during his 12 years as a prisoner here.



There were prisoners and then there were prisoners at the Tower - this is the room where Sir Walter spent his time furnished as it was during that period. Not exactly a bread and water regime I don't think:) Apparently his family were allowed to visit frequently and his son Carew was born while he was a prisoner! Obviously walking wasn't the only exercise he got!! He was in there accused of treason in case you're wondering...



I seem to have the knack of often being in the right place at the right time invariably purely by chance. I was wandering around Tower Green again when I heard marching feet and turned to see two guardsmen marching smartly round to the sentry box ready for the changing of the guard - the soldiers spend two hours at a time on duty in the sentry box. That's a long time when you have to stand there wearing that heavy bearskin and without moving regardless of the weather.



The ravens are an integral part of the Tower, there is a legend that if ever they leave then the White Tower will crumble and great disaster will befall this country.
It has an interesting origin,according to Geofrey of Monmouth's 'History of the King's of England' written in 1136 an ancient British king called Bran Hen was killed in battle and requested (presumably before the battle!)that his head be buried on the White Mount as a talisman against invasion. The Welsh word 'bran' means raven and the White Mount is where the White Tower now stands. One gathers that William of Normandy wasn't regarded as an invader:) One of the Yeoman Warders is Ravenmaster and has specific care of the ravens who have their own Raven's Lodgings. They also have one of their wings clipped just in case!



This is Traitor's Gate - not the entrance to the Tower that you would want to use in Tudor times! Ann Boleyn, Sir Thomas More, Catherine Howard and many others were brought along the River Thames by barge, passing under London Bridge where the heads of recently executed prisoners were tastefully displayed, and in through this water gate to climb those steps and face imprisonment and death. It actually had a much more cheerful start in life as it was originally built as an entrance for Edward l's royal barge.



I am standing looking through the archway under the Bloody Tower towards Traitors Gate. The portcullis of the Bloody Tower is still visble and the timber framed building over the top of Traitors Gate was built as lodgings for Ann Boleyn before her coronation. By this time it was mid afternoon and the sun had finally come out, but it was time for me to leave so that I could retrieve my luggage and catch the train home. I could have spent much more time here had it been available, it's well worth a visit if you ever get the chance.


Fortunately I'd given myself plenty of time to get back to the hotel because as I walked back towards the Underground I saw a sign which said 'oldest church in the City of London' - well, I couldn't not go and see it could I? The church is All- Hallows-By-The-Tower and there is still an arch from the original Saxon church of 675AD remaining down in the Undercroft. This is where the headless bodies of those people executed on Tower Hill were brought and William Penn the founder of Pennsylvania was christened here in 1644. US President John Quincy Adams was married here too when he was the American Ambassador. In 1666 Samuel Pepys and Admiral Penn, the father of William Penn, climbed the brick tower of this church and watched as London burned.



All Hallows has strong maritime connections, there is a Mariner's Chapel in the South Aisle and all over the church are models of ships, they are all tokens of thanks for cargoes safely delivered and voyages safely completed. I wish I'd had more time to look at these.



In the Undercroft under the Saxon arch is the best preserved piece of Roman tessellated pavement in London, it was once the floor of a Roman house.



The Undercroft was a little Museum full of all sorts of fascinating bits and pieces from an altar that had accompanied Richard ll on the Second Crrusade to this barrel which is the crow's nest from Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship 'The Quest' which he used on his last Antarctic expedition. It's a little jewel of a place and there was nobody else there!
I shan't be posting or commenting for a couple of weeks now as we are off to our house on the coast for the rest of this month and it's a computer free zone there.