Great food. Good beer and good table service too. Phoebe gurgled peacefully in her pushchair as we tucked into our nosh - served on wooden bread boards.
Afterwards we meandered into the town, crossing a pedestrian bridge that is now festooned with padlocks. You know the ones I mean - where people have locked in their devotion to each other. It has become a worldwide phenomenon. The first time I ever noticed it was on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy several years ago.
I guess that the first couple who ever did this with a padlock were doing something quite unique and endearing but when you see many hundreds of padlocks clipped to the handrails of a bridge it seems a little irksome and rather odd. The uniqueness has been replaced with copycat predictability.
Bakewell is a popular town in the middle of The Peak District. We bought Bakewell puddings from Ye Olde Bakewell Pudding Shoppe but decided not to buy Bakewell tarts. It was not a market day and the school holidays had not quite started so the place was not overwhelmed with visitors.
Yesterday (Saturday) Shirley was out all day attending a hen do organised on behalf of lovely Caroline who we have know since she was two years old.
When I got home, Shirley was still not back so I made my own tea - cold chicken, new potatoes and salad. The weather folk said it had been the hottest day of the year so far 32°C or 89.5° and I can well believe it. Today (Sunday) will be equally as hot so there'll be no traditional Sunday roast in the evening. I have bought all the stuff needed for a barbecue - oh and a swede for Phoebe. She's gonna love that thing.
I googled "Swede" and was told it's a Swedish turnip. Is that the actual meaning of the word?
ReplyDeleteI might be wrong but I believe that Americans call it rutabaga. I have known swedes all my life but I have no idea if they originated in Sweden.
DeletePoor Phoebe. Here I thought she was getting some delightful swedish pastry to gum. Rutabagas?
DeleteMy son and daughter in law never used baby food at all. They just cut up whatever they were eating in to Iris sized bites. She really is an adventurous little eater at 3. She'll try anything. She'd probably even eat a rutabaga.
Fortunately I haven't seen the padlock thing here. Maybe I'm just too far in the boonies to have that activity here.
ReplyDeleteYou could start off the trend in Red Deer by affixing a padlock to one of your bridges. Remember to write on it KK = JK in a heart shape.
DeleteYou are a strange duck, offending tarts in Bakewell and picking raspberries from your bott.
ReplyDeleteYou know me well enough by now Bob.
DeleteThe huge number of locks on one of our bridges was making it unsafe and they had to be removed. A place in Perth, Western Australia, charges perhaps $25 to attach a lock to a fence.
ReplyDeleteNo one has to guess too hard about the tree and the direction of the prevailing winds.
I thought about the extra weight on that bridge in Bakewell. Ridiculous.
DeleteThis padlock business seems to have got out of hand; like pairs of shoes over telephone wires, they're everywhere. I like your tree, do you hug it?
ReplyDeleteI only hug it when no one else is watching.
DeleteYou were brave walking in Saturday's heat. It was over 30C here too and I only just coped with standing outside for 10 minutes to hang out the washing. Most of the day was spent indoors with the blinds closed.
ReplyDeleteDid you hang out Lord Peregrine's Popeye the Sailorman boxer shorts and your fishnet stockings?
DeleteNeeps and tatties is a popular dish in Scotland. It's 32 degrees in my polytunnel this morning.
ReplyDeleteScorchio in Costa del Sheep Shed!
DeleteYour last photo more than compensates for the first one. What a ridiculous idea, and a waste of padlocks! Sadly typical of the useless trends that take hold these days.
ReplyDeleteThey are like sheep following the fashion in my view.
DeleteI'm so over the padlocks. They're a nightmare and they put unnecessary architectural stress on bridges and railings. What is this fascination with swedes? (Seriously, in the USA we call them rutabagas and they're not at all something I'd think to feed a baby.)
ReplyDeleteSwede can be an introductory food - along with red pepper, broccoli, avocado etc.. It is about getting her used to different tastes and textures. So many padlocks! What a waster of the planet's resources.
DeleteInteresting re. swedes -- I did not know that. It makes sense to try to acclimate a baby to different types of food. Some children are so picky and I think it has a lot to do with never getting used to a wide variety of foods.
DeleteI personally think that padlock bridge is quite gross. Too hot to walk Rick this afternoon, he will have to wait until it's cooler this evening. Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon day sun.
ReplyDeleteI must be a mad dog but it's nice to know that I am not the only one who does not appreciate that padlock phenomenon.
DeleteI don't think many people realize how much a bunch of padlocks weigh and what they do to the structural integrity of a bridge.
ReplyDeleteThanks for clearing up what a swede is. I figured it was a type of food and you were not in fact feeding bits of a Swedish national to Phoebe but you do live in Sheffield so who knows:) I am unfamiliar with the diet of everyday Sheffielders.
I love that photo of the tree and all of the other ones of it that you've taken. It's nice to see it in different seasons.
It's finally cooled off here but it's too smoky to spend time outside because of all the forest fires. Feels like end times.
Sheffielders eat Canadians for breakfast.
DeleteCanadian bacon! So at what meal do you eat Swedes? Are Germans a snack? Americans an appetizer?
DeleteWe prefer a good Chinese or an Indian.
DeleteSwede? They're turnips. We always called them turnips. My wife doesn't understand me.
ReplyDeleteOn the contrary my good fellow - a turnip is something entirely different.
DeleteFirst time I came across locks attached to a bridge was almost 15 years ago in Cologne, on the large bridge leading across the Rhine towards the cathedral and train station. I didn‘t get it then and I get it even less now. Apparently the weight has become a real concern and it is now officially forbidden to attach a lock there.
ReplyDelete32C is rather hot for Yorkshire! The hottest I have ever experienced in Ripon was 29.
How did Phoebe like her Swede? Did you sing a swede song when you were feeding her?
As I was busy with the barbecue the swede duty was taken from me. She was a bit grumpy because her first tooth is coming through and so the swede tasting was not entirely successful.
DeleteI've never understood the stampede to get on the bandwagon - for anything, let alone a so-called symbol of love that is cold, closed, and would dent your head if it dropped on you!
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking some sweeter vegetables might be more successful for Phoebe, and therefore keep her encouraged to try new things in future. Also, not to inundate you with trivia, but did you know that our taste buds start out bigger and more sensitive to strong flavours, and then as we use them for years and years they get worn down and we tolerate and even like strong flavours better? There are always exceptions to the rule, though. Maybe Phoebe will be a broccoli and swede lover regardless :)
Frances is following guidance about the introduction of different foodstuffs. You are right to think of a padlock as something cold, closed and potentially dangerous if thrown. There's nothing poetic or inherently romantic about it.
DeleteThe whole padlock thing started with a shitty Italian romance novel and got picked up by the dipshits who read that trash and now evert fucking idiot in the world wants to proclaim their crotch heat with a dumb ass padlock.
ReplyDeleteThe novel is "I Want You' , Ho Voglia di Te, published in 2006. If you don't hate the Italians for wining in a shoot out, then you can loathe and despite them for spreading this evil "love locks" shitbaggery around the world.
I like the subtle and understated manner in which you commented upon the "shitbaggery" which is a new word to padlock into my lexicon.
DeleteLOL -- that is the best comment I've read in a while, Vivian!
DeleteVivian got Swiftly to the point.
DeleteDo the supermarkets over there make little "soup packs"? They do here, theres always a mangy bit of celery, a bit of swede, parsnip and carrot. They look like they would make soup for one person.
ReplyDeleteThe locks! silliness! They just become extremely ugly. Devotion is expressed every day. I bet most of the relationships represented by the locks are long over
Yes they do sell soup or stew packs. I have never bought one myself. Your last remark is one that I had also considered. I bet none of the ex-lovers return to unlock the padlocks.
DeleteI very much dislike the padlocks and what they represent, as well as the damage they do.
ReplyDeleteI guess that many padlocks represent loves that have since died.
DeleteProbably just as well, given the mentality of those concerned!
DeleteWe have such short memories. I think it was seven years ago when a bridge railing over the Seine in Paris collapsed due to the weight of padlocks. It was publicized back then but evidently needs to be shown again.
ReplyDelete