Category: Nature

House for Sale

From the land it can’t be seen until you are standing high on the cliffs above – and from the sea, of course it is highly visible and a life saver, sending out its instantly recognisable series of flashes to warn ships off the treacherous coastline that forms the North Devon interface between water and solid land.

I’m talking about Hartland Point Lighthouse.

We parked in the car-park, paying our entry fee to cross private land to reach our destination. Then walked across rough ground watching the heavy skies, hoping the storm would not break over us as we climbed. Still we couldn’t see the light house…until we turned the corner and looked down.
There, crouched on the rock face, a beautiful lighthouse – a calm sea and on the horizon a storm gathering.

The lighthouse is for sale.

“Hartland Point lighthouse will be decommissioned following the installation of a more efficient solar powered LED beacon which will continue to ensure that this area of the coastline is adequately marked.. “

Fancy moving?

For this challenge

Ghoulish

I know I’m slow… maybe it’s because I don’t watch much TV, but at the weekend I discovered that Cadbury are making and selling creme eggs now and colouring them differently, using green… and marketing them as ‘Screme Eggs’ for the Halloween market.
(I really don’t like Halloween anyway: I am appalled by the amount of tat produced and don’t want anything to do with ‘trick or treating’ having seen what it can do to elderly frail nerves.) Continue reading “Ghoulish”

All at Sea

I had planned a blog about a local event that is usually well worth a visit and in preparation I moved the boat about 60 miles on Friday, about 30 miles on the Bay and 28 miles up the Chester river to Chestertown, Maryland, an interesting little town of some character. The event is the annual Downrigging Weekend which marks the end of the working season for many sailboats, the event attracts a large number of original and replica sailing craft, ranging in history from The Kalmar Nyckel a replica of the ship that established the first Swedish settlement in what was to become Delaware in 1636 through the Schooner Elf built in the 1880’s and still afloat. My personal favorite and a winter resident of Chestertown is the schooner Sultana a replica of a colonial revenue cutter built ten years ago from original lines taken off the ship when she was bought by the Royal Navy in about 1770.

We got in late on Friday and anchored opposite the Chestertown waterfront in time to see the firework display.  After that things got dark and interesting (well it is close to Halloween). A gale of wind and heavy rain descended, forcing the few of us who were anchored out to seek out the more sheltered local creeks to ride out the storm.  Saturday came slowly, bringing with it gale force winds and driving SNOW.  So far all the Saturday events have been cancelled together with my plan to take lots of good pictures of the various ships under sail.  The forecast looks none too rosy for tomorrow either but we will hang here in this creek and see what happens. More later.

Unusual Visitor

It’s been raining here for a few days, this morning it was sunny and warm. I noticed that the overnight geese were staying in the creek and took the camera to try to get some pictures. The geese are wiley creatures and always have “sentries” stationed around the outside of the group keeping their heads up while the others sleep or feed, anyway they saw me and all swam off over to the other side of the creek, leaving me only with another shot of the boat and some “specks”. Then camera in hand I spotted this guy on the floating dock.

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The Monarchy and Rangers – a Surf through two Nations

I am a regular reader of the ABC’s Drum – a fact that probably leaves most of you cold unless you happen to recall the occasional article that I have linked here for your amusement.

Most of the time the articles are too specifically Australian to be worthy of exposure on The Chariot, but today there is a beaut inspired by the imminent arrival of Betty and Phil in Canberra this evening for a short visit which will, at last, include Brisbane, and will culminate in the opening of CHOGM in Perth in ten days time.

Strangely, the piece – entitled “Long to reign over us – God save the Republicans” – was not written by an Aussie, but by an antipodean-savvy Brit; it’s a lament for the failure of republicanism in both countries, and a damning, but amusing, indictment of the movement’s shortcomings.

Having chuckled, I decided that I needed to learn more about this bilingual Brendan O’Neill, so I did a little armchair  surfing.   It turns out that the gentleman is the editor of Spiked, a UK web-site vaguely similar to the Australian Punch, a source that has also been linked here to the dismay of our more restrained members.

Now, this is where the story really takes off.

Now peruse the unexpected dénoument . . .

Autumn colours

While out and about on Saturday with my camera I found that the Autumn is arriving rather earlier than usual here in Oxfordshire, and looking around I have discovered this is due to the rather dry Spring we had here. The soil in my garden is still very dry and lots of growth has died back early, but there’s still a fair bit of colour.

Here, the cyclamen thrive under the cherry tree Continue reading “Autumn colours”

Wide Awake

My wife was on a girl’s night out and I was given the pleasant task of redecorating the toilet while she painted the town: you’ve guessed it right, red, white and blue. After finishing my chore I felt like going to sleep, instead I decided to watch some TV.
The satellite TV was on the blink and it would be days before a technician calls, however all was not lost, I still had Freeview on my television in the bedroom. The channels Freeview provides are limited but it’s either that or nothing and something’s better than nothing. Continue reading “Wide Awake”

The tree ~l~

To be present at a scoop is a newspaper man’s dream. My lucky strike has no photographic evidence because as I’ve said before it’s unsafe to prowl these woods with a camera; bushwhackers abound. Therefore, you’ll have to take my word for it that the following happened.

The remnants of Hurricane Katia battered our shores inflicting widespread travel disruption. Continue reading “The tree ~l~”

Tree stumps

The following picture show the large tree exhibition outside the Natural History Museum in Oxford. They are from the rainforest and dramatically show what huge giants are being eradicated across great swathes of various countries.

Continue reading “Tree stumps”