Friday, 24 April 2009

Friday.





I don't quite know how I've managed to do this. In the past whenever I've tried to get this computer to put more than one photo on my blog the machine has laid its ears back, dug its hooves in and refused to cooperate. Now when I tried to get it to publish a photo of Moulton pack horse bridge, it publishes the wrong one, and three other photoes not remotely connected with what I asked it to do!!!!!!! However you get the idea of the bridge. It's a XIVth / XVth century pack horse bridge which used to carry goods traffic between Bury St. Edmund's and Cambridge over the river Kennet. There was also a ford beside the bridge for wagons and carts.
This morning we set out to go first to Gazely where I delivered and set up a clock I'd been repairing. Our friend the owner was out at a pottery class, but her son James and his wife Freja had stayed in (they and their three daughters share a large house with Mama). Freja very kindly made coffee for us whilst I set the clock in beat. Then on to Cambridge, where we had lunch and went on to Addenbrookes hospital where we saw Ann's sister-in-law Erica, who was very poorly but very much herself. She explained that she found talking painful and very tiring, but asked us to talk to her and she would enjoy listening and could nod or shake her head when she felt she would like to give an opinion. Gentle conversation for a while, then by request I read to Erica for ten minutes or so. Also told her of an incident that had occurred on our way up to her. We got into a lift on the ground floor of the hospital and were joined almost immediately by a nurse and a young man (well, in his early forties I should think) in 'scrubs'. As he was carrying a gas cylinder I asked him which floor he required, and he answered by saying 'It's Mr. Horner, isn't it?'. I admitted the charge and he said that about twenty five years ago I had shown him how a crossbow worked and had allowed him to fire a brass barrelled blunderbuss, which he had never forgotten. He told me his name, and I tried to be polite, but it must have been clear that I had no real memory of the incident. After I'd cudgelled my memory for a while the retrieval system started to work and I did in fact remember the incident and the bloke. I then asked a friendly (and helpful) nurse about him and she told me he was the anaesthetist on the floor below and offered to take a note to him. I scribbled an apology, and explained that I had remembered the incident, on the back of a business card, and the nurse took it off to him so I hope he will get in touch. What a very good memory he must have to be able to pull my name out of it at such short notice. Got home about 5pm. Ann's now having a short kip (I hope) as we are going to the preview of the annual Art Exhibition in St. Mary's Church at 8p.m. More later perhaps, if I'm still awake when we return.
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8 comments:

Lori Skoog said...

Talk about the sky! Nice shots, and such a strong blue. I love the way you write Mike...it feels like you are right here.

Crowbard said...

I take it the tide was out Mike, the ford appears extremely shallow and even the Kennet seems a little sluggish?

Is that a barrage balloon Mike? How long ago did you take this picture? I haven't seen one of those aloft since 1945!

Unknown said...

Thank you Lori. A friend who reads my blog regularly says I write just as I talk.
Hi, Carl. You forget that the area has been drained since that bridge was built - By Mr. Vermuyden in the mid 1600s, althlugh I think there may have been times during this last winter when the ford had water across it. I think it's probably a bird. I was trying to take photoes from the car as Ann was driving along. Some worked - some didn't, and I'd no intention of publishing that one, but the machine too over. Cheers, Mike.
P.s. Love to Judy.

Crowbard said...

Sorry Mike, I hadn't realised the location you were photographing was on the Bedford Level drained by Margaret (of Lakesend School custard fame) Moden's many-greats-grandad - nor from the car.
I suspect the 'barrage balloon' is no more than a serendipitously shaped smudge on the car window. I thought the 'tether' looked a little out of line although the inflatable keel and stubby wings were quite convincing.
Do please give our kindest regards and good wishes to Erica next time you visit her.
LuvBruv.

Unknown said...

Hi Carl.I'm on the level when I say that Moulton is not on the Level, it's near Newmarket, and I think it's well within the area that the Bedford Level drained.
Regards, Mike.

Crowbard said...

I'm inclined to believe you're on the level and have bent over backwards to prove it! Er.. don't you usually lure me into a bet after reminding me that you're on the level?

Do you remember Margaret Moden doing the bucket full of water twirl in the playground. She swung it full overhead circle without losing a drop. (Obviously inherited the water management genes of her Dutch forebears!)
Was it Mrs Kirton who put the lumps in the custard before Margaret smoothed things out? As a kid I thought Mrs Curtain should be drawn over the window - it was her chintz pinafore which confused me.

Unknown said...

Hi Carl. Mrs. KIrton was a very good cook - she just couldn't make custard; well only the lumpy variety. Some of her custard would have had to be eaten with a knife and fork in order to cut the lumps into manageably sized pieces. Her husband, George Kirton, was a very good horseman, ex army, cavalryman in the Boer War. Going back to the ford at Moulton, if you enlarge the photo you'll see there is a depth post beside the ford, so I think both the ford and the packhorse bridge are both occasionally in use.
Cheers, Mike.

Crowbard said...

Hmmm... your right, I hadn't spotted that and it's over 3 feet tall, but I'm still not betting either way that it ever gets wet, not even when it's raining.

Delicious, this cold humble-pie, thanks.

PS Didn't George Kirton drive the horse and trailer for the Sunday-School harvest trip to Welney, Tipsend and back to Lakesend Chapel one year?