This story saddens me a lot...
Red squirrel dies from deadly pox
but I take hope from the last paragraph:
In February 2007, the Scottish Executive awarded a two-year contract to investigate the development of a vaccine against squirrel pox virus.
Last weekend, the weather was a bit dodgy so we decided to visit Alston and have a poke around the shops.
As well as the wonderful purple hippy palace owned by these folk (complete with “extremely open” doorsign!), there’s a great bookshop there, which I can’t find any trace of one the web. It’s one of those places which has the feel of being someone’s home, with every room stacked high with books of all descriptions; there are lots of them in Wigtown. So, I bought this fascinating book for 50p, published in 1945 but still in excellent condition, “Cooking and Nutritive Value” by A. Barbara Callow.
Anyway, this bookshop also has in one of its back rooms a table with piles of photograph albums – in fact they are used to display old postcards. The higher-valued cards seem to be those which have been unused and perhaps were collections kept by wonderful gentlemen hoarders like my grandad; but the ones I love looking at are the ones with personal messages on them, each a tiny history lesson in themselves.
I spent ages looking through them and in the end bought three postcards and the book, spending a grand total of four English quids. Bargain!
So here’s the first one I have chosen to investigate here:
Sent to Mr J. Marshall, Clifton Street, Hartlepool.
The halfpenny green stamp is franked Hammersmith, September 13th, 1909 at 12:15.
The photo is captioned “The Flip-Flap, Imperial International Exhibition, London 1909”. The image shows what looks like an early thrill-ride, which according to this site “carried riders 200 feet (60 metres) up into the air”.
The message reads:
19 Worlidge St, Hammersmith Sept 12/09
Dear Jim
Just a line to say that I have got a start at Hightons Islington 20 minutes walk from Kings Cross, 53 hours a week, wage 39/9d a week. I go to work by train every morning. Mrs G sends her love to you all. Hoping you are all well as this leaves us all at present. I remain your Old Pal Jack Garton
Last weekend (end of April) we travelled to some wonderful bluebell woods.
The first was Carstramon Woods, parking here and heading up into the woods. Some fantastically great oaks here, as well as Scots Pine. The stars of the show of course were the bluebells. We had a good meander through while listening to the wonderful birdsong and watching the butterflies wake up as the day warmed. On the way back to the car we had a brief face-to-face with a doe deer, and when driving away we had to brake hard to avoid hitting a red squirrel. Unfortunately on both occasions I didn't have my camera to hand...
For lunch we stopped at the Gem Rock Museum in Creetown; good food here, shame the website fails to mention this. The menu includes Gemrock cakes and 21-Carat Cake...! The shop is as interesting as the exhibition in my opinion... but I didn't want to spend much money so had to resist spending too long in there!
Next was to Wood of Cree Nature Reserve, parking at the main carpark. This was a slightly longer walk which included a waterfalls and lots of wildflowers.
We hung around at the otter viewing platform for about 40 minutes but didn't see anything, all the time reminded of that kitkat advert with the pandas!
Carstramon Woods:
Wood of Cree Nature Reserve:
For B's birthday, we travelled over to Wooler, and included some rock art and good eating. Perfect!
First stop was Prudhoe Castle to visit the prehistoric rock art, and to be honest the best things here are outdoors - the museum inside is fairly crap unless you have to entertain kids. The ruins are interesting, complete with staircases that go nowhere and wild flora outside. Some good pictures here.
After climbing Ros Castle we visited Chillingham Churchyard. Another interesting graveyard, Robert Jopson had a lovely headstone:
Here LYet hthe
Body of Robe
rtJopson of
Hebburn who
died the 4th of
august in the
year 1730
in the 64 year
of his life
My friends go home
& ceace from tears I
Most ly hear til christ
A peares
<= Wild Garlic
Chillingham Churchyard:
<=cool swirly eyes
West Weetwood Farmhouse: 
<= "Leeky roof? What leeky roof?"
Routing Linn:
<= wood sorrel and waterfall
<= opportunistic primrose
<=spot the cotyledon leaves
Maelmin Trail:
Aldi, Lidl. As Harry Hill says, "you've gotta have a system".
But which is which? I visit both. They have spread like a rash throughout Britain, and on my travels I know where a few of them are; I often go to the one in Marton in Middlesbro, another on a road in Gateshead, the one on the road into Dumfries. There's two of them in Bishop Auckland now (but, that's probably one of each type!)
So which came first? Was the first one so successful that the second is a copycat? Did they simultaneously dream up similar names and logos?
Yeah I buy stuff there. I like the cheap chewing gum, the jars of salsa, the chocolate shampoos, the biscuits... it's different to things you'd find in other supermarkets but that doesn't mean it's rubbish. I'm certainly not a snob when it comes to getting a bargain! But don't buy the veg, it's shit.
If someone asks me where I got it from, I have no idea which one, so I will say Aldidl.
Surely it's in their interests to try and be different? But maybe not, if you are used to one and you visit the other, they look identical inside, and the goods are sometimes even the same but with different labels. So it's a ruse!
Anyway I've done some in depth research (ie consulted wiki). Aldi is German, so is Lidl, so that's no help. Apparently Lidl copied Aldi! Aha... and Lidl is actually a real name, whereas Aldi is from the name Albrecht (presumably).
Will this help me? Will I remember if the one on the Viaduct in Carlisle is the family-named copycat or the original?
So, Lidl = named copy. Aldi = Original.
OK! gawd... I have no idea why I care...!
Posts
