Kindness & the Cucumber

As I walk to the village, there is a little nook on the corner of West Street and Spring Lane where the kindly people of Olney place the kids hats and mittens they find on the walk-ways.

Last week, a blue one litre thermos flask graced the nook.  It sat forlorn with lid off as if someone had sat down for a cup of tea and then wandered off leaving their picnic behind.

This week, there was a 1/16 of a cucumber, complete with cling wrap?

I had to take a photo.

1/16  of cucumber still in its cling wrap  . . . .??

Golden Moss in Olney

We are in the northern hemisphere now so the water goes down the plug the wrong way and moss grows on the north side of trees!

This tree at the Bridge over the Ouse at Olney in the UK had me disoriented for a moment.

This beautiful golden moss is on the south side of the tree.  But  it’s on top of the branches.  They would have started off facing north.

It will be interesting to see if the moss suffers from greater exposure to the light.

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Spring at the Bridge over the Ouse at Olney

Daffodils are in full bloom marking, I understand from experienced retailer, Kim Thonger, proprieter of art gallery, ICETWICE, the time when women go shopping!

Today, I walked down to the Bridge over the Ouse where the King’s men and Cromwell‘s Army had one of the many battles you find marked across the rivers of southern England.

On the side of the bridge, growing out of an island or the water itself (I didn’ t think to check) was a bush just coming into bloom.  There were some buds, that looked like buds, and some of what I can only call  fluffy things!

Oddly, as I walked home, I noticed the florist had little acacia bushs in pots complete with their little fluffy yellow balls.

These white fluffy balls, I have never seen before.  Does anyone know what they are?

Emberton Tapestry

Excursions & history

Last Thursday evening, I got in my little red car and beetled off two miles to the next village of Emberton to a historical association dinner.

The ‘sausage dinner’ had been advertised on the community site of Olney and I had mental idea of a casual barbecue-like affair where a handful of people mill about, shuffle some papers, and retire to the pub after a couple of hours.

Emberton is just off the A509.  I’ve passed it often but I’d not been in before and I had to drive around a bit looking for a  lot of cars and the look of a public building.  So I arrived late and guess what, it was a sit-down dinner, boarding school style, 8 people to an oblong table!

Dinner was indeed sausages donated by a specialist butcher, served with mash, mushy peas and onion gravy.  There was a large gathering of about 100 people who knew each other quite well and who were very comfortable in each other’s company.

The purpose of the event was an annual slide show when they review the past calendar year with a power point show of pictures of births, weddings, retirements, parties and house extensions marked by pictures of world events.

The hosts were the Well & Towers historical association who take some trouble to record the social history of Emberton and who took advantage of the gathering to recruit volunteers to collect data for their own local census.

The Emberton Tapestry

Some ten years ago, the town collaborated to make a large wall tapestry of  the village.  It hangs proudly on the Institute wall and that’s what you see in the picture!

Tucked away in North Buckinghamshire

Drive from London to Edinburgh up the M1, and you ‘d be forgiven for thinking England is very industrial and rather dull.  Around an hour out of London, take J14 (to your left), swoop around a confusing roundabout with zero visibility in the style of English roads and you will find yourself in the English countryside of North Buckinghamshire.

You have a while to go, though, before you find me!

Go past the Holiday Inn, quite a way, till you come to another roundabout.  Go round the roundabout and exit at 3 o’clock.  Almost immediately go through another roundabout exiting at 12 o’clock and admire!  We are getting rural now but we are still on a double carriageway.

Keep going till you get to another roundabout and exit at 12 o’clock.  Then follow your nose but keep your speed down.  The limits drop suddenly to 50mph and then to 40mph.

Olney

Eventually you will see the spire of St Peter and St Paul’s Church where the hymn, Amazing Grace, was written.

This is where I live.  Well not in the church, but in the amazing town on Olney on the River Ouse.

Olney100

This month we’ve started a read-write website on the Ning platform.  We’ve called it Olney100 because we’ll look after neighbouring towns too.

Come for tea or at say hi on the net!

Do come and have a look and tell me what you see!  If you would like to leave a comment, sign in with olney 100 at gmail dot come with the password olney100

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This is where I stayed and where I would recommend.

White Cottage: friendly, well run b&b, with WiFi, parking, inhouse bar, and collective dinner on arrangement.

Town Chambers in Newport Pagnell: serviced apartments that are fresh, clean, newish, with WiFi, washing machine, parking, and pubs and supermarkets nearby.

http://www.thewhitecottage.net/index.php

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I get up a picture and map later.