Season's greetings

 

Saturday, 18th December 2021

Compliments of the season to my readers

Here he is delivering my Christmas present

Army Land Rover and Katie's cat

Weather and other happenings have conspired against walking recently but modelling progresses steadily. Here are some illustrations for the Army Land Rover I am making..

Instructions for basic chassis assembly

Now assembled - colour original plastic of kit

More chassis detail assembly and engine installation

Now primed and painted. Quite a lot of intricate work here

Engine assembly

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I keep my eyes and my ears on the alert for endless thoughtless and sometimes meaningless use of our English language. For a long time now I have been aware of almost everybody "going forward", but yesterday I was taken aback by someone "coming forward."

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KATIE UPDATE

Katie's cat

I'm not sure about the odd eye. However it reminded me of a powerful but sad short story by Damon Runyon which I think was called Johnny One Eye and I believe later made into a film noir.

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Hunting Percival Jet Provost T 4

 Monday 29th November 2021

A while ago I made a model of the RAF Chipmunk trainer. I say I "made" but it was such an abysmal mess it has been put back in the box it came in. However, I have put that behind me and continuing with the theme of RAF trainers I have since made a Jet Provost, see photos below. It is a brave modeller who shows such photos which much enlarge reality showing all the imperfections. To illustrate how dramatic that can be see the the second photo and particularly if you click to enlarge you will see an overrun of black paint on the nose which in real life is almost imperceptible. I will be doing a little touch-up

I had discovered that Aldi were selling some of the Airfix 1/72 kits at £4.99 (Amazon current price £14.95) and that is how the Provost was sourced These kits even include the paints! I have said that I need to have a personal feeling and affinity with any models I make, and the same for subjects for the Photoshop paintings I have done. But, lured by such a bargain I also bought the Messerschmitt 109 and that is now nearing completion.

Provost cockpit

Trigs 103 - Weets Hill plus 3

Tuesday 23rd November 2021

Talbot Hill (Pennine Bridleway)                   SD 835 479     190m

Weets Hill (Pendle Way)                               SD 857  448    397m

Thornton Hall Farm, Thornton-in-Craven    SD 897 480     195m

West of  Chipping                                          SD 606 431     197m

A more enjoyable day.

From the free car park in Gisburn a short but perilous one hundred yards up the pathless A682 took me to a tarmac farm lane.

From the farm a couple of fields on a public footpath and a short climb and I was at my first trig and then back to the car.

The Moorcock Inn south down the A682 is no longer, it has been taken over by  Hamish’s Café and Bar. I parked on the car park and wanted to ask permission but nobody was about at 9:50 am until I attracted attention and entered for the best cup of coffee I have had for a while. I had a good welcome from Fiona the new owner and daughter of late father Hamish : read all about them HERE it is all very interesting and the café is certainly worth a visit and even a diversion if not too near - long may they reign. 

A link path to the cul-de-sac road leading to Weets Hill starts from Hamish's leading uphill over fields to the road. and the edge of moorland. A short trek on the Pendle Way takes one to the summit of Weets Hill.

The majority of summits have some sort of 360 degree view but Weets seemed to have something extra. I had a strong sense of being at the centre of a huge circle with  uninterrupted horizon all the way round. I was so taken with this sensation I took a full circle video - see below. There was a small commemorative plaque at the base of the trig pillar (see photo) but Internet failed to enlighten.. Twenty yards to the north a substantial bench stood above a grassy slope where  half a dozen or so stone  inscribed commemorative plaques rested where presumably ashes were deposited. I’ve not seen anything quite like that before on other summits.

Another drive and I was parking cheekily on the car park at Thornton-in-Craven golf club. A path passed by St. Mary's Church incorporating a massive cemetery. A descent into a cosy wooded  valley with an old clapper bridge over the stream followed. I was then crossing and climbing the golf course on a path shown on the map but not apparent on the ground. The path emerged onto a steep pasture and climb up to the trig.

My chair came into action again and I sat in comfort with a ham sandwich and some potatoe salad left over from the day before. ‘Twas all comfort, the chair is becoming a valued item.

It was now decision time. I had only planned to visit these three but I was well ahead of schedule so sat- nav was instructed to take me to Chipping where an isolated  trig stands to the west. It was only five minutes walk from the lane but it had to be done. I now only have six remaining.

I think Autoplay plays the next video - can't find out how to stop it but if you press the Replay symbol at left bottom it will replay my video

Looking back into Gisburn on the way to the first trig

Gisburn trig.

Sheep wondering about the approaching shambling figure.

Having made their assessment they turned and fled. 

Early morning sun on distant hills, taken from the trig - worth enlarging with a click

Hamish's Café - worth a visit (Ex-Moorcock on the
A682 south of Gisburn)

On the way to Weets Hill

Out onto Weets Hill's moorland at the end of the tarmac road, all on the Pendle Way

Weets Hill trig, first sighting

This embedded in the base of the trig

See video above for the full pano.

The bench below the summit with commemorative plaques In the grassy slope, not easy to see in the photo but there were about half a dozen

Zoom to the cement works at Clitheroe

On the way to St. Mary's Church and trig beyond at Thornton-in-Craven

The pleasant dell with its clapper bridge

Crossing the golf course. My trig is with the mast atop the distant hill

Although this trig was only five minutes from the road near Chipping it provided this arty image - worth click to enlarge

I think the Hungry Trig Giant has passed by, or perhaps more mundanely another incompetent attempt to steal the bronze mounting in the top of the pillar

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Anybody out there who may have used Anquet mapping after having used Memory Map? 

I would be interested to hear comments.

Gloster Meteor final

Saturday 20th November 2021 

The Gloster Meteor is finished:

PLEASE CLICK TO ENLARGE

And below - ground crew servicing an engine

By the way...

 Amazon keep making recommendations for me. See below, especially : "...for indoor plants."

You can ask previous purchasers to answer questions before you buy. I was thinking of asking,

 "Would this be suitable for growing cannabis?"

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WORK IN PROGRESS

My Gloster Meteor

Click to enlarge.

Trigs 103 Monubent plus 2

 Sunday 14th November 2021

Monubent Head     SD 803 512    183m

High Ground          SD 876 550    221m

Flambers Hill         SD 877 522    219m

Ok, this was a pleasant enough day out with another roadside trig and then a 7 mile walk with 935 feet of ascent to mop up the other two.

Monubent Head involved a minor trespass. There was a gate from the road into the field. The trig was nestled into the hedge and I reckon I could have touched it from the road anyway. It was so well concealed I thought it had been removed until I was right on it.

It was obvious that we are now back into the Mud Season. Eighty percent of this walk was on squelchy cattle trodden fields and  I  rate it only five out of ten. Views were poor in dim light and low cloud on higher distant hills. There were several places where the path was obstructed. At least two gates were chained with a nut and bolt link so rusted as to be un-openable and I had to climb over. At another point two gates a couple of feet apart were locked and I had to climb one, descend in between then climb the other. At another point the path crossed a wall which had obviously been damaged by others climbing over in defiance at a non existent stile, despite GPS saying this was the exact crossing point. I climbed over with difficulty cutting my hand on a sharp stone. At two other places the path was impassable because of barbed wire fence but detours of a couple of hundred yards fortunately found gates, but it was frustrating. At two other gates I had to un-knot some of that awful hairy string I'm often berating. Once knotted it is difficult to untie because stray strands remain in the knot and at one I just lost my temper and gave it a great big tug breaking the remaining threads.

There are a total of 77 trigs on this map sheet and it is not surprising that the odd ones don't make for much of an outing, but the better ones have certainly made up for that. I now only have 10 left to do.

Monubent Head

The descent from the other side of this bridge was steep slippery, and booby trapped with brambles

Variation on the pink stuff - perhaps green is more of the moment?

Public footpath? Climb one, descend in between then climb the other

?

Note the rusted up bolt, bottom left

High Ground

Flambers Hill. I deployed my recently acquired chair for lunch just after this

Ignore trig top right. Today's at Paythorne and the blue route

Quite a lot of wandering from the paths for blockage diversions and woeful navigation on my part