Fancy a bit of ploughing?

 Monday 30th September 2024

 Much has prevented walking of late though I have regularly trudged around the village, but not noteworthy enough for a post here.

Since  retuning to scale modelling in Lockdown I  have made about forty kits. Skills have improved over that time, but certainly not exponentially. Disasters still happen but less frequently and I am spending less time crawling about on the carpet looking for a bit of plastic one millimetre long which has taken life from the tweezers imitating a well flipped tiddlywink. What amazes me is how far such a piece can travel after hitting the carpet.

However, after forty plus models my latest is in my opinion the best so far. This was an intricate kit demanding many skills now learnt along the way, and I managed to achieve satisfactory weathering  portraying a well used but cherished piece of farming equipment. The inital painting, prior to weathering, was less demanding with everything being a blanket grey. My blogging friend Alan will almost certainly spot some detail that I have got wrong or misplaced

I have made a bit of field scenery diorama for my masterpiece to sit on but it is not quite finished. I have been trying to find a 1/24 scale figure looking something like a farmer, either sitting or standing, but after much time on the Internet I have not succeeded. A further photo or maybe a video will appear when I have sorted this.

Whatever I choose to build I must have some respect for in its real life form and that certainly applies for The Little Grey Fergie. Although I have no farming background I have seen plenty still being used despite their now historic production period from 1946 to 1958. Harry Ferguson invented the Three Point Linkage which enabled different implements to be attached and that is still being used in updated form on  tractors today. Before Fergie many farmers were still ploughing fields with horses.

the Ferguson Club is well active and here is a quote from their website and if your imagination has been galvanised with you desperately wanting to learn more on this absorbing subject you can CLICK here.

The ‘little grey Fergie’ is the machine that’s widely regarded as being the one that changed agriculture around the world, forever. The brainchild of Harry Ferguson, this fantastically functional little tractor with its revolutionary three-point linkage – and the system of dedicated implements and support networks that he masterminded around it – probably did more for farmers across the globe than any other tractor you could think of.

I now have an English Electric Lightning aircraft on the way. Hold onto your seats!

Comment posting problem

 Thursday 5th September 2024 

TO ALL READERS

I am having computer problems at the moment and it is causing difficulty with comment postings. I hope to get it sorted. You may find a way of posting comments with your identity, but if not it does seem possible to comment as "Anonymous" and if you do that it would be helpful to identify yourself in the text.

Thanks.

C.

"Boots and Brews" 2 - Glasson

Sunday 1st September 2024 

I continue to cherry-pick from Boots and Brews. I thought I may find some previously missed terrain not far from home from this guide but I have covered most of the ground before  and today was no exception. The  first half of the walk from Glasson and down the coast to Cockersand Abbey is familiar but certainly worthy of repeat. From there this route heads inland to complete all on tarmac. I can usually tell from the map if roads will be well used or not, and I reckoned these would be quiet lanes. I was wrong.  Despite these roads not being a through route to anywhere I must have encountered fifty or so cars on the second half of this walk, as well as half a dozen huge tractors with gigantic machinery attached, forcing me to stop and step off into the edge of these narrow single track roads. A short section back on the Glasson canal was heaving with people on my way  back to the car park, where this morning at 9:45 I was one of only two cars and now there were fifty or so.

There were good views back to the Bowland Hills from the toposcope on Tithe Barn Hill, my high point at about 17.5 metres above sea level.

I was then off down Marsh Lane to access the coast path. A bunch of malevolent looking sheep interrogated me at one point,  like a bunch of hoodies in some undesirable suburb - "Are you looking at me!" I'm proud to say I managed to stare them out.

Just after crossing Jason Pool there was an enclosure in isolation in the middle of the field, about twelve feet square with reinforced concrete supports at each corner about eight feet high and the whole encased in wire fencing and  overgrown with brambles and shrubbery. I couldn't even guess what its purpose may have been, see photo below. Any suggestions?

The walk down the coast to Cockersands Abbey made this trip worthwhile and would probably have been better as a there-and-back walk to that point. I spotted what I thought was a decent sized yacht crossing the bay about half a mile out. Back home when enlarged I identified it as a Wayfarer dinghy. As dinghies go these are seriously seaworthy and I've read of folk sailing to Iceland in them from the UK

Plover Scar Lighthouse was prominent. It was built in 1847 but was severely damaged by storm in March 2016. An heroic operation had it dismantled stone by stone in exact order and rebuilt and reopened in May 2017. 

At Cockersands Abbey I met an Austrian couple. They asked me if they could do a circular walk back to their car, but when I showed them the map they couldn't even show me where their car was located on the map, so I couldn't be of much help. They were pleasant and we had some chat about the contrast between their picturesque Austrian mountain country snd this windswept seashore of desolation on the west coast of England.

Cockersands Abbey dates back to 1180 and there is information on the Internet if you want to delve. 

 I have a couple of previous visits here on this blog. Here is a an extract from February 2020 about a memorable walk of mighty wind, waterlogged terrain, and some exhilaration after one of our now frequent violent storms.  I was inspired to a bit of what one may (or may not) call blank verse:

The abbey of Cockersand more bedraggled than I.

 How long I ask has it here endured?

A modest red stone cube tortured by nine hundred years

Of violent storm. The camera is too unsteady in the gale.

There is a kind of thrill, but this is no place to linger

As I turn to complete this rebellious forbidden day,

And reflect on those of stronger heart who here spent harder days

And many harder months and years.

Turning back inland the rest of this walk was on boring tarmac which did not inspire me to any further comment, and perhaps thankfully for my readers more "verse."

Glasson dock from the car park.

This lock gives access to the sea and Morecambe Bay from the Glasson canal. A bit dodgy in a flat bottomed narrow boat I think?

The toposcope on Tithe Barn Hill.
 A bit presumptuous to give this prominence of only 17.5m. above sea level the title of hill?

They should be dressed in hoodies

Jason Pool on its way to the sea, and just beyond...

...any guesses?

Crook Farm. The way to the coast path just up left of the house - next photo.

I think this is Lighthouse Cottage. Interesting stonework and the angled window for viewing out to sea

Plover Scar Lightouse. I think it is accessible on foot at low tide

This derelict farmhouse just fifty yards behind Cockersands Abbey adds to the atmosphere of desolation here

It had been too hazy from the start to see the distant Bowland Hills but now skies had cleared just enough

Boring!

Looking down Glasson Canal on its way to join the Lancaster Canal.

Anticlockwise from Glasson

Boots and Brews 1 - Knott End

 Sunday 18th August 2024

The logistics of following the Eden Way posed too many problems. I may go back and cherry pick other parts. In the meantime  I have been filling in, and in a bid to find local walks on new territory I bought Boots and Brews by Beth and Steve Pipe: "walking,  food & folklore around Morecambe Bay."

At first glance this looked good. Short walks on mainly flat terrain and mostly circular. Perfect! I looked st the first one and plotted the route onto Memory Map on my Mac then saved it as a GPX, emailed it to myself and opened it on Memory Map on my iPhone and off I went.

Steve and Beth said start at the Pilling Amenity Area car park which I identified on the map not having noticed that the good guide had provided a grid reference.

At 9:30 on Sunday morning there were several cars and three Van Lifers already parked up, the Van Lifers apparently having been there overnight. The start was obvious because it followed the embankment overlooking Morecambe Bay but I couldn't make sense of the route description I had printed from the guide, but the route was so obvious I slotted down onto the sandy turf terrain below the embankment. Entrance to the embankment from the car park was blocked. After a few hundred yards I climbed back onto the embankment and just followed the rest of the route on my OS/iPhone map and never referred again to the guide notes. 

Later, back home, I looked closer at the guide to unravel the mystery of the poorly described start. There are two Pilling amenity area car parks and I had selected the wrong one. Furthermore, the guide followed the walk anti-clockwise and I had walked it clockwise. Something must be learnt from all that.

Distant views were hazy and there was a cold wind, but elevated on the embankment with extensive views and quite a lot of bird life 'twas all quite energising and so good to be out again.

I left the embankment at the second amenity car park, the intended start from the guide, and followed the quiet road back into Pilling. After crossing Broadfleet Bridge into Pilling I found a delightful bench for my lunch snack. At the end of a cul de sac tarmac lane at Beach House footpaths only faint on the ground followed fields back to the car.

Pilling amenity csr park. Van Lifers in evidence.

Initially I was below the embankment on the right but soon climbed up there

On the embankment

This large group of birds clustered together kept moving  en-masse twenty yards one way, then back twenty yards again, all very strange. Below, close up

They look like Mallard with that blue feaather, but there is also the white one in the background

Zoom to Pilling church. Sunday morning - the bells were ringing, all a bit haunting

Zoom to Heysham power station

Crossing Broadfleet Bridge into Pilling

This boarded up building was the Golden Ball pub. In my days in Preston it was a "destination" for many from afar. A local couple told me planning permission was being sought for house building

A deluxe lunchtime stop

Back into fields after this short tarmac leading to Beech House.

This ancient tractor looked as though it had taken a bath in dirty oil. It was chugging away operating wood cutting machinery. I asked what model it was but couldn't hear properly except that it was an International. And also something to do with "76" but whether that was its date or identification number I know not.CLICK TO ENLARGE

Hard going up the edge of this wheat field

Routine, cars, sport and music.

Tuesday 13th August 2024

Son W had his bariatric operation on 9th July after waiting more than three years. It has taken until now to get back to something like normal, if there is such a condition. There have been more medical appointments both for him and me but for the moment they have become less frequent and we are back to a vague routine. Routine is strange, when it is in place there is a tendency to resent it to some extent because of its relationship to boredom. But, after a period of problematic activity, it is welcomed when it returns. 

Model making has been on hold during the period, but I have now returned and finished  the Fiat 500. It is not one of my best. During the lay off period it was left on my worktable in strong sunshine and some of the paintwork has been affected, but I have allowed it to join my little collection of what I regard as iconic cars, so it has now joined the Porsche turbo, the Lotus seven, and the Citroen 2 CV.

The next project is well well underway. The Auto Union type D from 1939 is for me one of the most exciting looking racing cars ever produced. The design was by Ferdinand Porsche, with his characteristic rear mounted V 12 supercharged engine., The Type D won over eight major events in the 1938/39 season before the outbreak of WW2. That was an era of flamboyance when drivers had little protection and could be seen leaning in their cockpits as they cornered at speed.

The Matchbox kit dates back to 1983 and from a video I have watched there are probably some fit problems but I haven't got that far yet.

The finished Fiat 500. Not one of my best. There were problems getting the body shell fitting over the chassis/engine part and a lot of handling of the body messed things up, and paintwork was damaged by long periods of strong sunlight whilst left unattended for several weeks when I was handling more pressing matters.

The engine turned out  well. Its door can be left open so it can be seen

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Work in progress. The 3 litre V 12 supercharged engine for the Auto Union  Type D.

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Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen

I am one of a six person book reading group. We meet in rotation, monthly, at each-other's houses. Last week Tony was sat next to my CD shelving. He pulled out a CD from the hundred or so. Why I don't know, but I said to his wife Mary I bet that is Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, and so it was. Tony then  mentioned that Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony 1946/48 had been performed a few days ago at the Proms and I remembered I had recorded it. I was not aware of this monumental work, and when something is discovered anew like that it has added value on that first acquaintance Goodness knows what are the logistics of putting on this extravagant performance with its variety of obscure and conventional instruments and several specialist soloists, but it is all worth the BBC licence fee in one hit.

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Our return to routine was also  progressed be the finalising of the Olympics.

Impressions:

I have much respect for the two BBC teams headed by Clare Balding and Hazel Irvine and their well informed ex Olympian colleagues. However, they were far too often left for long periods to fill in and chatter away so that even their broadcasting expertise was stretched to the point of frequent repetition and less meaningful comment - I did feel for them at times, but they battled on.

No comment about the boxing gender thing. Far too contentious.

The Olympics overall as always for me were compelling and accentuated by only coming round every four years.

Two clichés stick in my my mind:

Not really a cliché, but used perhaps first by Michael Johnson and then picked up by many others - the word "jeopardy."

And, "He/she left it all on the track/in the pool"

And, when some unfortunate performer is miles behind with no hope: "He/she's got s lot of work to do."

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