We had an athletic meeting from Stockholm on TV yesterday. This reminded me of the one time holder of six world records from the USA.
Owens name has become iconic as a result of his exploits in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. The stamp comes from the Celebrate the Century series for the 1930s.
From Great Britain I have chosen an Ox-Eye Daisy from 1967.
As a boy in the 1940s I used to walk and fish in the River Chater in the village of Ketton in Rutland. In those days I could follow otter hounds as they went hunting along the river. I'm pleased to say that they never found any.
There were two rivers in the village in which I was born - both will feature in this Challenge. If you walked down Bull Lane in the Rutland village of Ketton, to get to Algate, the path took you across a footbridge over the River Chater.
River Chater at Ketton from the Sinc Bridge looking north
I must confess that I never knew the bridge had that name, but as children we used to paddle in that stretch of water. I was more familiar with the river upstream beyond the bridge over Church Road.
River Chater Bridge
That footbridge was not there when I was a boy. Further upstream was another footbridge reached by a path over the road from the Railway Inn beyond the church you can see in the background. It was from that bridge and the banks of the Chater that I fished for dace and caught minnows in a jam jar baited with bread.
From age 11 my route to school took me left over the bridge and along the road as it swung up to the railway station where I took a train each day down the line to Stamford. From the station there we crossed this bridge -
Town Bridge over the River Welland
I always thought that the river on the left was the Chater and the one from the right (just visible) is the Welland. The land in between is Stamford Meadows which used to be the place where a Roman ford crossed the river.
When we go to Cornwall to see our grandsons we always finish up having coffee at 'Down by the Ferry' in Padstow. From there a favourite walk is along the estuary of the River Camel.
Although the Camel rises on Bodmin Moor it's the Camel Trail along the estuary that we know best, from that is this bridge -
To where it meets the sea at Padstow Bay
Buster loved it too.
And even my wife went swimming on one occasion.
The only shot I'm allowed to show
We waited all day here but the camels never showed up!
Photo attributions:
River Chater from the Sinc Bridge: June 1999 ex geograph.org.uk by Humphrey Bolton - CC BY-SA 2.0 licence
River Chater Bridge: 27 April 2007 ex geograph.org.uk by Graham Horn - CC BY-SA 2.0 licence
Bridge over River Welland: ex wikipedia Commons - CC BY-SA 3.0 licence
Sketch Map of River Camel & its tributaries: 25 February 2010 by Andy F - CC BY 3.0 licence
This is the house in the Rutland village of Ketton in which I was born, eighty years ago next month.
The house of grey Portland stone and roof of Collyweston slate still retains its old character. I remember it in the 1940s and 1950s when the front had a grey wooden fence, a garden gate and a double gate across the drive at the left. It was fun to swing over them from one side to the other.
On either side of a concrete path to the front door were lawns each with diamond-shaped flower beds in their centre. At nine or ten, I had to cut the edges and woe betide me if I snipped off any flowers. They were in more danger from flailing sticks used to swat bumble bees attracted by the asters.
A rambling rose covered the head-high, wire fence between the lawn and drive. A small gate from the drive near the house opened onto a stone path crossing the front to the lawns and flower beds. Right of the house was a short path from the pavement into the garden of the landlord; he kept a beady eye on us especially as our Airedale, Punch, had killed his cat when it trespassed on ‘his’ lawn.
The drive up the left continued to the back boundary fence and contained a gate through which you could enter a stonemason’s yard – but only if he wasn’t there; he wasn’t keen on kids pinching his apples and plums from trees which were covered in the dust from the monuments and gravestones he made. Those houses you can see in the background on the left are where that stonemason's yard used to be, The tree on the left is the apple tree I used to climb. As you can see the wooden fences have gone, replaced by those stone walls. There are no gates. It had no name. Now a nameplate (not visible in the photo) proclaims it to be 'Saddlers Cottage'. My father's family were saddlers before the motorcar came along.
Carmi wants us all to feel nostalgic this week so I have dug out some shots of the village where I was born. The pictures are of the house on the High Street in the Rutland village of Ketton, where we lived until the 1950s. The photos were taken in 2009.
100 High Street, Ketton
In the late 1940s there was a wooden fence and double gate and no stone wall. The small box hedges did not exist, and a single gate and path led to the front door.
A separate building existed where the stone wall on the left is now. The main road from Stamford to Leicester ran by the front of the house with a single white line down the middle - not the hatched arrangement shown above. The bollards in the next photo were not there either.
Why should I get nostalgic about a stretch of road like this?
Well it was 'our' football pitch which ran from the telegraph pole on the left to just beyond the car in the distance - no one had cars then!
The Blue Bell Inn pub was located on the right hand side of the road. My pal Harry's father ran the pub and used to take him to watch Leicester City play. In those days, the Premier League did not exist and Leicester played in Division 2. Jack Lee and George Dewis were two well known players (to Harry at least). This mean he had first choice and was always Jack Lee, leaving me to be George Dewis. This combination dates our games as Dewis left after the 1946/47 season, when I would have been 10. And in case you did not know Leicester City, 5000-1 outsiders, won the Premier League title yesterday, just over two weeks before I reach 79. Now we live near Middlesbrough and have to wait a little while longer to see if they gain automatic promotion to the Premier League - one more match to play, which they need to draw or win against Brighton on Saturday. Come on Boro! For other nostalgic feelings check the links at Thematic-Photographic-369.
My theme this year will be wild flowers. Most of us will be aware of the flowers that grow in our gardens but what surprises me is how few of the wild flowers that I know. I pass them every day but rarely look at them. Well this year will be different - even if many of them may fall under the letter 'X' for unknown. A-Z Challenge 2016 - A As a boy in the second half of the 1940s and the early 1950s I used to walk our dog up this road.
Barn near Ketton on Barrowden Road
(Ketton in the English County of Rutland was where I was born)
A short distance past the barn the road turns a sharp right towards Tixover. However a dirt road continues straight on.
Barrowden Road looking towards Fox Covert
On the right the verge is wide enough for the horse-drawn caravans to be parked by visiting gipsies. I was under instructions to be careful there as they were always trying to 'buy' our dogs.
I don't remember the road being so poor back then and I knew Fox Covert under the name of Barrowden Woods.
In spring the woodland floor used to be covered with white flowers rather like this.
Anemone nemorosa (in forest near Radziejowice, Poland)
The common name for these flowers is the wood anemone or windflower. In Greek, anemōnē means "daughter of the wind", from ánemos the wind god.
They have always been anemones to me.
Anemone nemorosa (Wood Anemone)
The woods were also a good place to find wild primroses - but they don't begin with the letter 'A'.
Photo attributions
Barn near Ketton on Barrowden Road and Barrowden Road near Ketton - 23 June 2006, ex geograph.org.uk, by Kate Jewell, CC BY-SA 2.0
Anemone nemorosa in forest near Radziejowice on Poland - 30 March 2007, by Tomasz Kuran (aka Meteor 2017), CC BY-SA 3.0
Anemone nemorosa - March 2007, Wikipedia Commons, by Lilly M, CC BY-SA 3.0
As I'm in my second childhood and my memory is not what it was, Carmi's theme this week has caused me some problems. I've shown the house where I was born on more than one occasion.
100 High Street, Ketton
That stone wall didn't exist back then and there was another empty building behind it to the left, Our front had a double grey gate and a grey wooden fence; a rose-bedecked trellis lined the drive where box hedge is on the right. There where no hatched white lines on the road, just one line down the middle.
The traffic island didn't exist either; although this is main road from Stamford to Leicester, during the late 1940s it was safe enough to use it as a football field - with a tennis ball of course.
The oldest photo I have of me is aged 12 in Stamford School boxing team.
Stamford School Boxing Team, 1949
Just in case you cannot recognise me:-
My pastimes in my second childhood include watching and counting the birds in our garden and photographing them when I'm quick enough. Some just pose.
Wood Pigeon at the birdbath - 24 January 2015
even during the RSPB's Great Garden Bird Watch.
My wife says I'm playing when I'm out with my camera and uploading what I've taken to my computer. Here's one I took yesterday.
Two of five wind turbines - from Dent's Lane, Kirklevington
Not only do I play with Thematic Photography I also take part in Sepia Saturday. This week this involves me playing with some poster memories of my time in Stavanger.
QEII visiting Stavanger - July 1980
The structure on the left is the topside deck for the Statfjord 'B' platform under construction at Rosenberg Verft where I was working. I was too small to be seen in the photo and regret to this day never having a camera with me to take my own photos - not that I would have been allowed on the helicopter from which the shot was taken.
However my second childhood memory has been good enough to find the souvenir poster we were given.
Back in November 2011 I went fishing on Sepia Saturday here.
Alan's prompt this week shows three miners on a fishing trip, but by the look of them they are relaxing, telling fisherman's tales.
I first when fishing when I was a young boy, a minor in fact. However it wasn't as long ago as this.
Children fishing for minnows with net 1882 - Van Ingen and Snyder
Our technique was to use a jam jar on a length of string; the bait was small pieces of bread inside the jar. The skill was to cast the jar into the river without losing the bread. It wasn't very long before fish would enter the jar after a feast but then you had to pull the jar out of the water quickly with the fish inside.
The most common fish we caught this way were small minnows and sticklebacks like these -
Minnow (3 March 2008 - Freddy Kreugar)
Stickleback (Ellen Edmondson & Hugh Chrisp)
If we were lucky we would lift a stone and find a Miller's Thumb.
Bullhead of Miller's Thumb (June 2009 - Hans Hillewaert - CC BY-SA 4.0)
These were good at camouflaging themselves in their surroundings. One would fit easily it the palm of your hand.
The river did not have to be very deep for these activities, although we rarely waded like this.
Children search for minnows (Ronald Laubertson - US Fish and Wildlife Service)
We never used a net and girls were not allowed.
In previous posts I have mentioned that I was born in the village of Ketton, in Rutland - England's smallest county.
River Chater at Ketton, where I used to fish (June 1959 - By Humphrey Bolton - CC BY-SA 2.0)
River Chater Bridge, Ketton (April 2007 - By Graham Horn - CC BY-SA 2.0)
The stone bridge was built in the 17th century and restored in 1849. The footbridge did not exist when I live there back in the 1940s. The Chater here was too fast flowing for fishing with jam jars to be successful.
Later I took to fishing with rod and line in the River Welland which was on the outskirts of the village. The Chater joins the Welland at Stamford c. four miles down stream. However my interest in fishing faded as I became too involved with sport - and discovered girls!
The last two weeks we have been staying with our daughter in Michigan and it was in lake in her property that, as I'm sure I have told you before that I caught my largest fish.
Bob's catfish in 2006
No, I'm not pulling its tail to make it longer.
I have not been able to get away from fish this week. This one was the most colourful I've seen.
Aquarium in a Chrysler service centre, Lake Orion
And just to prevent me bragging about the size of my catfish I was taken to Oxford Township's Library to see this monster.
I think he was looking for the exit!
His companions in the tank were more like the roach I used to catch in the River Welland.
My fisherman's tale is almost done so I'll leave you to search out others at Sepia-Saturday-253.
Those who read my post last week will remember that I was born in the village of Ketton. You may even remember the blue car in this picture.
Stocks Hill, Ketton looking down the High Street
That blue car in the distance was near Mr Robinson's, the cobbler's house. The monument in the centre contains a water tap at the far side. It was erected to commemorate the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887. But I am in danger of digressing from this week's prompt
which contains three 'coppers.' The house on the left in the photo of Stocks Hill is occupied by the village policeman. It just so happens that I knew three of its incumbents before I left the area - PCs Swann, McDonald and Hodgkinson, and the latter's daughter (over whom I will draw a discrete veil) All this was was nearly 60 years ago - a time, in those pre-decimal days, when the currency of the realm was based on pounds, shillings and pence . As a boy I was always pleased to have three coppers in my pocket.
A Farthing (1/4 of a penny)
Halfpenny (Ship design)
Britannia on the reverse of the one penny coin
(Images scanned by Retroplum; created by HM Government))
Why is it that these designs beat the modern coppers every time? OK, officer - I'll go quietly, no need for handcuffs, to check the links at Sepia-Saturday-251.
I've shown the house where I was born before, but here it is again to identify a missed opportunity.
Saddler's Cottage, Ketton
The missed opportunity is this:
High Street, Ketton
Just beyond that blue car, two houses down from my boyhood home, the entrance door was down two steps and railings prevented you from falling off the pavement into the window of Mr Robinson's shop.
We would stand for hours watching him work and could clearly see what he was doing - all his tools were laid out neatly rather like this.
Shoemakers and cobblers tools (Joseph Allen Skinner Museum, South Hadley, Massachusetts) (9/6/2013 by Daderot - CCO 1.0)
Mr Robinson (I never knew him by any other name) would have looked lost in a big workshop like this.
Recreation of a cobbler's workshop at Amberley Working Museum, Nr Arundel, West Sussex
(10/04/2009 - by Basher Eyre - CC BY-SA 2.0)
Mr Robinson was a very small man and but you could always see and hear him working away - and ideal model for Petula Clark.
In May 1994 another much larger shoemaker was making the news.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 - 17 May 1994 (Source NASA, STSci and ESA; a NASA Hubble Space Telescope image)
The comet's 21 icy fragments stretched across 710 thousand miles of space (or three times the distance between Earth and the Moon). When the picture was taken the comet was 410 million miles from Earth, on course to collide with the planet Jupiter in mid-July.
Jupiter showing Shoemaker-Levy 9's impact sites(Source NASA, STSci and ESA; a NASA Hubble Space Telescope Telescope Camera image)
The brown spots mark the places where fragments of comet SL9 tore through Jupiter's atmosphere in July 1994.
Having gone from home to space, perhaps I have digressed enough as I wouldn't want to be subject to "The Cobblers Cure."
(From Wellcome Images, a website operated by the Wellcome Trust - CC BY 4,0)
This is a post inspired by
The last thing for you to do is see whether others have produced a load of cobblers too by visiting the links at SS250.
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