A Splash Of Colour

As I tootled along on my bicycle this afternoon I spied something which I really wasn't expecting - a field of peonies!

Although there's quite a bit of commercial flower growing around here, most of it takes place inside polytunnels, away from the prying eye of the camera. I've often walked by fields of peonies though, but usually they are cut while in bud and shipped off so that they open just before the shops sell them. This peculiar year though, whether through lack of pickers or perhaps because florists are not considered an essential service, they seem to have been left to flower in the fields. So, if you can't go out and buy them, at least you can enjoy them through these photos.


Take care.

A Sunny Stroll

I said in my last post that I was about to go out on a stroll, and the little road I'll show you today is just the start of my wander. It's a road I often follow as it opens up a couple of possibilities to follow fieldside paths to make a longer walk. It was also a place I often walked with the children who used wheelchairs at the school where I used to work.

The sign at the start of the road tells motorists to watch out for pedestrians and I'm happy to report that they usually do; it's only the residents who use this little dead-end lane.

There are some well-kept gardens along here.

And a few old buildings like the old granary above which stands near to...

….the old farmhouse above.

It's all looking very leafy at the moment.

There's quite a mixture of housing along here - old and new, large and small are scattered at various distances from the roadside.

A very small commemoration of the 75th anniversary of VE Day attached to a British Telecom pole.

The road starts to peter out here, and there are just a couple more houses. Crossing the road in the foreground is all that remains of a tramway that connected a cement and lime works to the main railway.

There's an apple orchard just here, which I photographed through a hole in the hedge a couple of weeks ago when the trees were covered in blossom.

Now it's the Hawthorn or May blossom that's stealing the show as the road becomes a narrow footpath between the hedges.

There are a few places where you can glimpse the arable fields which are the main land-use these days.

And that's it!

Take care.

A Rare Mix

Another glorious morning here on Planet Earth, at least on the small bit of it that I call home. As soon as I've posted this I'll be able to get out on another stroll and see the steady progress of Spring. Here's a rather mixed selection of things that have caught my eye lately:

As has become the custom on Fridays, there follows a piece of music that I've listened to during the week. Orchestra Marrabenta Star De Moçambique were primarily a band who played dance music on Mozambique's national radio station in the 1980s and 90s. They had a brief spell in the international limelight when a song by Wazimbo, one of the group's vocalists was used by Microsoft on one of their advertising campaigns. The song in the following video is by Mingas, the female singer with the band. Although I have no idea what the words mean it's a ballad with that rare mix of beauty and pain which some folk call the blues.

(with thanks to Robin Andrea and Roger over on New Dharma Bums who first suggested Music On Friday).


Take care.

The Path Behind The Church

Besides the footpaths which lead from one village to the next, there are many small paths in every village which owe their existence to quirks of history. In my village there is such a path, it leaves the road, leads around behind the church and then rejoins the road once again. It's just over a quarter of a mile (400m) in length and saves you all of a minute compared to taking the road, though it does involve climbing a stile, opening a couple of gates and crossing a footbridge. Why go any other way?

First we go over the stile next to the churchyard, then along a track between two rather old walls.

The wall on your left is made of flints, field stones and the odd old brick. It's held together with concrete and copious amounts of ivy.

On your right is the village church and its graveyard. It may looks as though I'm lying on the ground taking this shot, but in fact ground level in the churchyard is almost at the top of the surrounding wall. We've seen this before on our travels and is the result of the number of burials which have taken place over the centuries.

Looking back you can see how the wall has been pushed over and is now held in place by a series of buttresses. 

And very soon it's going to need some more support!

Our path opens out into a small meadow which, at this time of year, is frothing with the white flowers of Cow Parsley.

And here we get a view of the north side of the Holy Trinity Church. Like most village churches parts of it are very old, probably Norman, and then it's been added to, repaired and partly rebuilt over the centuries.

Then we come to a little footbridge crossing the River Mel, the river along which our village was built.

As you can see it's not a very substantial watercourse, but it did at one time power four watermills.

The meadow on this side of the stream is home to a couple of friendly horses, though they've learned over the years that I don't have any treats for them and a cursory glance is all I get from them these days.

There are plenty of Buttercups here, but not many butterflies about today, just a couple of Orange Tips and an unidentified Blue, none of which were remotely interested in posing for photographs.

More buttercups!

And even more! You can just about make out some of the dips and hollows in the meadow which mark the route of an old road which once ran through here and was known as Dukes Lane. Back in those times the road into the village split into two and passed either side of the church. One is now the road while this is now just a footpath.

At the other side of the meadow we pass through the little gate, then alongside the garden wall and back out on to the road again. The house that you can see peeking over the hedge is called "The Warren" and was rented in the summers of 1906 and 1907 by the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams and his wife, Adeline.

And so concludes our brief excursion. So much nicer than walking alongside the road!


Take care.

The First Of May

Nothing much to post about here, unless you want to know what I had for lunch (vegetable cobbler) or what the weather is like (showery, with a bit of thunder and hail thrown in). This must be the first May Day in centuries that the Morris men have not been up to welcome the dawn, though I wouldn't mind betting that someone was out doing a solo jig when the sun came up at 05:29 this morning.

Just two minutes of May Day madness from Beltane Border Morris who celebrate the pagan roots of the day. It was the best video I could find on YouTube and really captures the spirit of the dancers.

For those who like a little more culture here's a string quartet with a difference. Methera (the name just means "four" in the ancient counting system used by shepherds - "yan, tan, tethera, methera, pip") play mostly old tunes from Britain and beyond, but arranged for string quartet. This is a very English hornpipe in 3/2 time called "The Rising Sun", which comes from a tunebook published in the early eighteenth century.

Take care.

Back To College

No, lockdown has not been lifted, neither am I starting a distance-learning course. But, with a lack of anything much to blog about, I thought I'd take you on a brief jog around some of the colleges of Cambridge University which we've visited over the years on "By Stargoose And Hanglands". Most of the colleges are open to wander around for most of the year (in normal times) though they are always closed from about now till sometime in June as students are sitting their exams. Just a few of the most visited colleges make a small charge to look around. There are in all 31 colleges that form the University; we'll pop into just 14 of them....

 Christ's College

Christ's stands right in the city centre and has some of the nicest gardens to wander around, but despite this it's not visited by the hordes of tourists who descend on King's, Trinity and St John's. It was originally founded in 1437 as God's House, then re-founded in 1505 as Christ's College. It's by no means unique in being founded twice; it usually happened when a small establishment was given money to allow it to increase in size, or when the original set-up had run out of money.

Famous alumni: John Milton, Charles Darwin.

 Corpus Christi College

Not to be confused with Christ's (or indeed Jesus) College, Corpus Christi is one of the smaller, but also one of the wealthier, colleges. It's well worth looking around as it has the oldest courtyard of any of the colleges. Its library contains a priceless collection of Medieval manuscripts.
Famous alumni: Christopher Marlowe (dramatist), Archbishop Matthew Parker.

 Downing College

Downing was founded in 1800 to promote the study of Law and Medicine. It has a very different feel from the central colleges being set out around large lawns and mostly built in a classical style. It has the reputation of being the most ecologically conscious of all the Cambridge colleges.

Famous alumni: Sir Robert Jennings (President of the International Court of Justice) and the comedian John Cleese.

 Emmanuel College

Emmanuel was founded in 1584, originally to train Protestant preachers. It's just a few minutes walk from the city centre and has interesting buildings and glorious gardens, but unaccountably gets very few tourists (Sssshh! Don't tell anyone). 

Famous alumni: John Harvard (founder of Harvard University), Sir Richard Attenborough (actor and film-maker).

 Jesus College

It's full name is "The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge" but takes its modern name from the Jesus Chapel, around which it was founded from 1496. Despite its old name ending "near Cambridge" it's fairly central, the city having grown out to surround it, but it still has extensive grounds and feels like it's in the countryside.

Famous alumni: Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poet).

 King's College

This is what people picture (minus the ducks perhaps) when they think of Cambridge University. King's College Chapel is huge and far too big to serve the College. It's also one of the great buildings of England and a truly awe-inspiring space in which to stand. Of course you won't be standing there alone, though it's very seldom crowded and doesn't detract from the splendour at all. Don't under any circumstances leave Cambridge without visiting!
Famous alumni: John Maynard Keynes (economist), Alan Turing (computer scientist), Robert Walpole (first British Prime Minister) and novelists E M Forster and Zadie Smith.

 Newnham College

The idea of women being admitted to Cambridge University took a long time to come about and Newnham, a college for female students, was part of that process, being established in 1871. It's only 10 minutes walk from the touristy part of Cambridge but not on the average tourist's radar though it's actually one of the most beautiful colleges with great gardens.

Famous alumnae: Rosalind Franklin (physicist), Dame Iris Murdoch (novelist), Sylvia Plath (poet).

 Peterhouse

The oldest (1284) and the smallest of the Cambridge colleges. It has a large area of parkland and gardens, which most visitors never find, and a wonderful show of daffodils in early Spring. Like many of the colleges there's very little to tell you that you are allowed to wander around, but nothing to tell you you can't.

Famous alumni: Charles Babbage (computing pioneer), Sir Frank Whittle (inventor of the jet engine), Thomas Gray (poet), Michael Portillo (politician and TV presenter).

 Pembroke College

Like almost all Cambridge colleges, Pembroke has increased in size over the centuries since its founding, which in the case of Pembroke was in 1347, hence there is a wide variety of architectural styles. A pleasant place for a wander, quite close to the main area for tourists but not that much visited.

Famous alumni: Pitt The Younger (youngest ever British Prime Minister), Ted Hughes (poet), Edmund Spenser (Elizabethan poet).

 Queens' College

Dating from 1448, Queens' is one of the group of older colleges to be found right in the centre of Cambridge. It may not have such grandiose buildings as nearby King's but its courtyards have a quirky charm and it always seems rather more laid back than some of its neighbours.
Famous alumni: Erasmus (theologian), T H White (author), Stephen Fry (comedian, actor, writer) and Michael Foale (astronaut).

 Selwyn College

The college was founded in 1878 to commemmorate the life of George Selwyn, who was the first Bishop of New Zealand. It's situated a little way from the centre, close to Newnham College.
Famous alumni: Malcolm Muggeridge (journalist), John Selwyn Gummer (politician).

 Sidney Sussex College

Go Travel round the town, my friend, whichever way you please,
From Downing up to Trinity, from Peterhouse to Caius; (pronounced Keys)
Then seek a little College just besides a busy street,
Its name is Sidney Sussex, and you'll find it Bad to Beat'

(E H Griffiths 'A Song of Sidney Sussex', 1900)

It's still beside a busy street today, just across the road from Sainsburys supermarket, but I'd bet that for every thousand townspeople who've been there to shop for groceries only one or two will have looked around Sidney Sussex College. Which is a pity because it's full of history and with an unexpected garden, tucked in among the bustling city streets.

Famous alumni: Oliver Cromwell, many of the Bletchley Park codebreakers.

 St John's College

One of the biggest colleges with a proud history going back to 1511. It's a glorious place with much to see, though it does attract many visitors. As a result you're perhaps not as free to wander where you like here and you'll find yourself guided through on a designated route between the buildings. Having said that you will see all its major attractions - of which there are many.
Famous alumni: William Wordsworth (poet), Ben Johnson (playwright), John Herschel (astronomer), Thomas Hobbes (philosopher), Frederick Sanger (biochemist), William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson and Thomas Babington (anti-slavery campaigners).

Trinity College

The last college we'll visit is also on the main tourist trail, though it seems to absorb them a little more easily than neighbouring St John's. It is the largest college in either Oxford or Cambridge Universities and it has produced an incredible number of influential people such as...

Sir Isaac Newton (scientist), Ralph Vaughn Williams (composer), Alfred Lord Tennyson and Lord Byron (poets), Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein (philosophers), William Thakeray, A A Milne and Vladimir Nabokov (writers) as well as twelve Prime Ministers and thirty-four Nobel Prize winners.

Thus concludes our wander around some of the colleges of Cambridge University. If you want to find out more there are posts on all of the above on the blog and you can read them, should you so desire, by clicking on the Cambridge University tag just below.

Take care.