19 June 2022

Vestiges

Almost the longest day. I have just walked home from "The Hammer and Pincers" after the Sunday night quiz. It was all downhill and the sky contained vestiges of the day just gone with remnants of sunset peach coloured and fuzzy in the west. There will be so little truly dark night tonight - perhaps three hours at most. In Iceland there will be no darkness at all.

I love this time of year.

It was Father's Day today. We went out for breakfast with Stew and Frances and Little Phoebe. Her behaviour was as angelic as it was five hours later when we took her down to "The Dark Horse" where fathers could claim free pints.

Back home I received two Father's Day cards, six bottles of beer, a box of Maltesers and a Peppa Pig book titled "My Grandpa" which I read to Phoebe three times. For once Mistress Pudding made the Sunday dinner as I took a back seat.

I thought some more about our visit to Wiltshire . The White Horse of Westbury carved into a chalky down, the amazing craft shop in Devizes where the owner knew every item she was selling and our twelve hours in lovely Marlborough before heading home.

The White Horse of Westbury

Buttons in the craft shop in Devizes - "Make Do and Mend"

My shadow on Marlborough Common

28 comments:

  1. I miss my summer time up north when evenings lasted forever. But now they would just be a waste on me as I can’t stay up that late anymore.

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    1. When you say "up north" where do you mean Ed?

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    2. I did a ten year stint up in central Minnesota.

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  2. I like the long days. However , this year we have had nothing but heavy overcast so to say the least it's been dull.

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  3. I thought someone, or a group, should had made a new chalk figure somewhere to welcome our new millennium (1. 1. 2001), but no-one seemed keen on the idea. An opportunity missed. They'd all been too keen on celebrating 1. 1. 2000, which was (of course) the first day of the last year of the old millennium.

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    1. That would have been a great idea. You could have modelled for it - like the Cerne Abbas Giant.

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  4. I love those tubes of buttons, so rarely seen nowadays!

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  5. Your Father's Day sounds great!
    I love this time of year, too, when one is really reluctant to end an evening walk while the path is still so clearly visible, even well after sunset. Here, the weekend was not walk-friendly - way too hot for that at about 36 Celsius and no woodland worth mentioning in the immediate Ludwigsburg area.
    I did walk for about an hour last night, though, and it was beautiful out on the fields. As soon as I turned back into town it was like walking into an oven.

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    Replies
    1. Oven-fried or Baked Meike would enhance any restaurant menu.

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  6. That's a very tall shadow! The white horse is pretty amazing. I love looking at buttons, I used to spend hours searching for just the right ones for baby items I'd knitted or sewn.

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    1. It's not a tall shadow, it's just that I am a very tall fellow.

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  7. Does Shirley know about your mistress?
    At least she can cook.

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    1. Even though they live in the same house, Shirley has never seen her.

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  8. I remember buttons in those long tubes too - so many styles and colours to choose from. Unlike nowadays when they come of a piece of card and there are never quite enough on one card, so you end up buying two!
    Are you sure you're not wearing stilts in that last photo YP! Being so tall must make you much in demand to reach things from the top shelf!

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    Replies
    1. It's hard to get trousers to fit. My inside leg measurement is twenty two feet.

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  9. A bottle of Glenfiddich was my present.

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    1. Didn't your sons also make handmade Father's Day cards for you?

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  10. I didn't realise that counties could win horse awards too, or that you had such long legs.

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    1. There are several white horses in Wiltshire. My long legs were helpful in lineouts when I played rugby.

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  11. Did you have a cream tea at Polly's restaurant in Marlborough? It is a pretty town and one more fact for you in the college there is another mound, that has also been identified as prehistoric.

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    1. I understand that that was where a reviled headmaster was buried in the dead of night. Marlborough High Street was a joy to behold and so prosperous even today. For your information there is now a Premier Inn on the southern edge of the town - that is where we stayed.

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  12. Happy Father's Day, Mr. P.! Sounds like a pretty perfect one.
    I, too, love the buttons. And the horse, of course.

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  13. Happy Father's Day, Neil. Sounds like you are a good Dad and Grandpa!

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    1. I do my best Ellen. These are the roles that mean the most to me.

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  14. Sounds like you had a great Father's Day! How old is that white horse? I'm guessing not too old as it seems laid out with some kind of grid pattern? I was just looking at Devizes on a map, thinking about potential summer trips!

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