Land Hertfordshire

Looks Familiar? :)

Property Lincolnshire & Surrounds

Whaplode Example 300k 1/3 Acre etc

Country Property General

http://www.farmproperty.net/propsale.htm

Land
http://www.buildstore.co.uk/findingland/PurchaseMatrix.aspx

Smart Energy Ideas and Building Techniques

http://www.smartenergy.co.uk/What_they_are_showing.html

http://wise.cat.org.uk/wise/

http://www.touchwoodhomes.co.uk/gallery.html

http://www.ecobuild.co.uk/exhibit/who-visits.html

http://www.granddesignslive.com/home

http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/earthship.htm

Planning in General

Good site for general information to do with planning permission etc etc may be useful for future

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/

UK Log Homes - Example Suppliers/Info

http://www.strongwoodloghomesuk.com/page17.htm

Let's make a "Hobbit" of it..

To the good "'elf" of the present and future King, Queen and offspring of Hobbiton :) I hereby dedicate this Blog. God bless her and all who ramble in her :)
Love me XxxxXXxxxX

Placeholder for Writing Project Planning

Somewhere to start planning the (partially started) book/movie ideas

Woodwitch (Modern day Wiccan network with central charismatic figure controlling a network of subconsciously Wiccan females to no good end :)

Chronicles of Wayward Hall

Multi era archaeology/dark love/occult story set in Oxford and the Cotswolds

It's a huge task....:)

Tate a Tete

Ecce Ancilla Domini - Rosetti

AKA "Couldn't you afford a whole bunch?"

For some reason, on a wild whim I took a trip to Tate Britain today. I decided to drive as
a) No congestion charge on a Saturday
b) Some little known free parking slots right by the side of the gallery
c) The gallery is free too! (nothing to do with driving but there we go!)
Pulling up I reflected on a hypothetically similar situation from the 1880's when an equivalent art
lover would have alighted from his or her version of my carriage, horses snorting and sweating
almost as much as their passengers on this pseudo mediterranean summer day.

Confession : I've never felt  as though I truly belong in London. I imagine "Old hand" cosmopolitans pointing accusing fingers at my (imagined as highly visible) city novice inexperience. Then, however when I go I mentally admit, somewhat reluctantly, at how vibrant varied and jam packed with interesting places and
people it is and feel moments of almost superiority recalling that both my father and mother were born in the Greater London area after all, the former starting in 1899!! just 3 years after Millais death!

To the crux of the matter however and I found myself idly wandering through the "1500 to 1900" British art section on the first floor looking vaguely like an art critic. Moving from room to room there were glimpses both aural and visual of incongruously loud and modern fanzine photocopying sessions occurring in some of the great exhibition spaces. Earnest looking children in turquoise tee shirts scuttled about piling pamphlets into
publically accessible shelves in which only "they" were actually interested, quite bizarre...is it not possible to have a "Normal" reverential gallery atmosphere without some former art students' idea of "Integrating the community":)
After a while though the hypnotic pull of the preraphaelite room (14) became irresistable.
Startlingly simply put; there it was!...the painting I have idolised as my first and best glimpse of art in an old childrens encyclopaedia when I was around 10. Millais' Ophelia!..I ventured as close as I could without actually licking the glass. :) Simply breathtaking and doubly so as I imagined myself in the same proximity as the great man would have been when painting it. A type of superimposition of the revered ghost on my own body..shiveringly exciting....next to this to add glorious agony to why I had not visited for centuries..."Mariana" also by Millais, "Christ in the House of his Parents"  , "Ecce Ancilla Domini" -Rosetti, as well as numerous Holman Hunts etc.

In the next room a group of extravagently dressed partygoers were revelling in a private tour including enormous and considerably more coarse, almost impressionistic Millais' like "Hearts are Trumps", (recently restored superbly)..they were like a grown up Sunday School outing, off to have cucumber sandwiches and "Tiffin" afterwards, quaint in it's own way though..the things you see when you don't use your phone camera! :)

 

                                 Hearts are Trumps - Millais

Beaulieu International Autojumble Sep 2009 (New Forest)

This event (11th to 13th sep this year) just seems to come around faster each year and once it's arrived seems to finish faster too but (along with it's May counterpart) it is one of the most enjoyable "computer free" few days of the calendar and long may it survive..
Two notable occurences this year were my awful and unexpected cold/sore throat (NOT man flu OK ?!) and that it was probably the best weather we had had possibly ever, for this event. A third honourable mention also goes to Mr Jools Holland who apparently visited our stall whilst I was recuperating for an hour in the car park (asleep in the Landy!), ah well ironically if I had actually met him this time I would have maybe passed on my cold and ruined his seasonal debut on "Live with Jools Holland" a couple of days later!..fate was kind...

anyway a piccy enclosed of our good old red field stalls from a very similar, previous year..(rare that I don't take my camera but this will give and idea of the joy! and how much packing and unpacking have to be accomplished in the 3 day automobilia fest..:)

All Steamed Up! - Great Dorset Steam Fair 09

Well  seeing as I actually made it at last after long years of promising, to the Great Dorset Steam Fair a couple of weeks ago, the least I could do was share a picture. This was a lucky image from the atmospheric evening fair quarter of the giant site. Up to 30 steam traction engines line up alongside eachother sporting characters from yesteryear that actually live and breathe! and festooned with lights. This butts up against the giant modern funfair, quite a pull in it's own right but I for one know who comes out on top...enjoy..