The Grange - And you can sleep here too!

We went to an Open Day a few weeks ago at a place called The Grange owned by the Landmark Trust. My Dad would love it! You can actually book to stay for a week or weekend. And it is just down the road. Imagine the whole place to yourself! Here's a story from The Guardian on it. The view from the Grange would be very similar to the view at left - the one I see every morning, noon and night!

Another place of interest is the Walpole Bay Hotel. It's a living museum in that it is still being used as a hotel. FAMOUS people stay here! We visited last weekend after making some purchases at the Cliftonville Farmer's Market. Decided to get a coffee (yes, coffee, not tea!) and sit on the terrace. We walked around inside after our java fix and poked our noses in some unoccupied rooms. It is not exhorbitantly priced and it really does have lovely sea views. (I quote from the website) - The lift was installed in 1927 and has worked perfectly ever since. The service record from 1927 through until 1939 is written, in pencil, on the bare plaster wall in the machine room and to our knowledge the only time it ceased to function is by human error and never mechanical failure. Cool huh?

DB and I are off to see a screening of the movie, (sorry film) called Gypo in Canterbury later this month. It stars Paul McGann of Withnail & I fame and was shot entirely around Thanet. The cast and crew stayed, or filmed, or both at the Walpole Bay Hotel.

Bullets, Bombs and Unexploded Shells

You are never too far away from history around these parts. We ventured off for a walk to the area around Kingsdown, just west of Thanet by about 20 minutes. Instead of walking on TOP of the cliffs we walked at the bottom of the cliffs. Seems there used to be a lot of MOD training in this area so we were warned about the DANGER OF DEATH should we walk on the wrong side of the fence. And other signs said that YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

It put the fear of God into J-Rock though! He seemed to get his strength back at the end of the walk and was seen wreaking havoc on the street signs!

Trip to London tomorrow if the weather is good. We want to go the the Guard's Museum near Buckingham Palace as J-Rock's paternal grandfather was a Grenadier Guard. Grandad served under Monty and was in Italy. So some pretty gruesome campaigns.

In other news, Christmas is full steam ahead over here. Forget Hallowe'en (although it is getting to be a bit of a bigger deal) cuz Christmas is THE THING! Already, chocolates, cookies, decorations and aisles of cards lining the supermarket shelves.

And ahoy all you Palmerston Squares. A team of knitty parents is knitting up a blanket full 'o squares to be raffled off in the spring to raise money for the school. Out with your needles and start creating an 8 x 8 inch square in chunky weight yarn. The blanket has its very own blog - go see!

National Moth Night!

Twas NMN last night. We had our trap (above) up and running (as we do every night) in the hope that we could capture some target species. Well, kinda slow last night. As The Moth Man and J-Rock opened the trap the best moths turned out to be the Vapourer (below) and the Canary-shouldered Thorn (above). So in mothing land not a very good (aka slow) night.

In observance of this night we also went out and 'glooped' some trees. Gloop is a sweet sticky substance you paint on trees. The recipe is pretty simple - rotten bananas, beer, treacle - and let the whole mixture fester for a few weeks. Certain moths love it but none were going for it last night save for the odd Crane Fly and Earwig. We found a few moths just flying around which were quickly caught by J-Rock using the Frannie Move. What's the Frannie Move? It's where you see a moth flying around, no net is at hand, you quickly grab the moth out of thin air, identify it, then let it go. Very handy if you are in the pub, down the town or in the car!

Birthdays Birthdays!

Happy Birthday E-Rock, A-Rock, P-Rock and Minnow Lady! Eat cake everyone. If I could I'd send you all Mars Chocolate Muffins. But can't so here are some Cake caterpillars instead.

Rainy day here today and end of work and about to head down to pub but not before a discussion of moths and cups of tea.

A Mars What?

Yes. it's true. I just had to buy this to believe it. A Mars Bar Muffin. Bought this on the way home from picking up J-Rock at school. Cost £.80. At a whopping 387 calories per muffin it can hardly be described as 'nutritious'. It tasted pretty good but then I only had a small corner. I remember Marj on the Marsh once saying that if you always cut things in half then you still enjoy it but with half the calories...Good advice? Hmmm....

Besides, what is the legal definition of a 'muffin' vs. a 'cupcake'? Hey Sister Freelander maybe an IRQ?

Ethnicity

One thing I have noticed about being here and not Canada and probably more so Toronto, is the lack of ethnicity. I mean after settling in for the past few months I can probably count on my fingers the number of people with racial characteristics different than my own...You kinda start to notice it after a while and miss it! Case in point. We have a Bar Mitzvah coming up in our family (a Jewish coming of age - 13 years). So I just thought I would get a nice card because, as I have written before, the Brits are a little card crazy. You can go to the card shop and get a card for every year up to 25 at last count! Anyhow, I thought I would need a good amount of time to spend in the shop trying to CHOOSE! hahahahah. No Bar M, never mind Bat M, never mind Rosh Hashanah , never mind Yom Kippur...nada.

So I posted a photo of some Anglo-Saxon Anchors and Cannons!

Washing & Walking & Pubs

Went walking on the weekend to some local woods and it was very nice. A local stream was found and a game of Pooh Sticks was on! J-Rock & DB were the usual winners...

After our exhausting game we did the usual thing and ended up at the pub - And the next day the same again - long walk-pub - except J-Rock was at school but he joined us later on. Lucky boy, he was picked up from school by the Almonds and taken to the local Amusement Arcade where he won loads of pennies apparently, then to a Chippy, and then to the pub. How sweet is that? No wonder he balked at homework! Stormy seas as we drank our our libations sitting on the patio....

Below is my very first Lighthouse! Not perfect but it will be able to help with the washing-up! Is that a good thing? I think I'd rather be making the mess or the tools for washing rather than the task itself. I think I am not alone!

Letter Boxes can be Fun!!!!

Hey look what we found - Only just, though, as the cipher was covered by a Boot Fair sign and we had to lift it to take the picture. Anyone know the significance of this cipher (besides She Who Knows All About Letterboxes and Knitting)?

5K Fun Run for the Pilgrim's Hospice

Just got in from a 5K Fun Run which J-Rock and I ran near Margate in aid of the Pilgrim's Hospice, at noon. J-Rock ran the whole distance! Quite a feat since his previous long distance had been 1k! Beautiful beautiful day, light wind, sunny, and warm. Bill Bolton Arena hat kept J-Rock cool! very cool! Here are the photos.
I'm waving in the last photo - Unfortunately, J-Rock is hidden behind his red hat:

My Canadian Connection (and Work is Good to Me)

Before I left to come over here (DB is doing a 6 month sabbatical in England) my work very generously provided me with some going away gifts that I have found to be very useful in my travels around and about. First off, I received a key ring with compass attached that is handy for the old bike keys. I also was provided with a bag which I find very useful for my lunch and pound coins! Finally, I received a Tea Towel, which as everyone knows is extremely useful when it comes to dirty tea cups! So there I have it. I also received a flag which I did not bring over as I am sure it would have been confiscated or broken en route. The foody bit to this posting is that scones and cream and jam were on the party menu. And, I have not had better scones since! Honest. So it just goes to show that Canadians can sometimes out do the Brits!!!

And Just Down the Road...

Just down the road is a big cabbage field. Sometimes it is planted in sprouts or wheat. Maybe come the winter the sprouts will get planted. Anyhow, you get a wonderful view from the cabbage field of Pegwell Bay and area. Unfortunately, this area may soon be planted in houses which is not so nice. Houses are not cheap - take a look at these prices. Double the £s to figure approximate Cdn dollars. And that's 2 hours out of London by car or train not including time spent in traffic 'queues' or train delays.

Also, just had to show this lovely picture of a Tomato and Red Onion Salad we enjoyed the other night. Paired the salad with BBQ'ed Mackerel fresh from the sea. Very nice and oh, so local!

A Party and Some Wine!

Since the weather has been rather well, bad...we have been toodling around looking for interesting indoor haunts. We happened on this winery near Staple, Kent. Two brothers operate it and the winery has won some awards. We had a taste or two and were able to ask many questions like his opinion on plastic vs. cork (likes plastic), tetra pak vs. glass (tetra can't sterilize economically), pesticides vs. organic, English wine availability in the shops (more expensive and people go for the cheaper stuff from France and beyond - a bottle of English wine sells for about £5 and you can get a decent bottle of wine from France for £3 (ie) Little Penguin from Australia is selling for £3 at the moment).

We had a cake - DB turned 45! All who know DB will appreciate the fact that he "pleased himself" yesterday and did what he wanted to do. The weather was lousy but he managed to go birding and play guitar (he's got an electric guitar loaner with amp from a friend). Strangely enough, he said he doesn't often get a chance to "do what he wants to do"!...So, the cake. Our Kind Hostess made the base - a Victoria Sponge base don't you know -, I made the butter icing and J-Rock made the design of the moth. It had a marzipan (pronounced mar-zee-pan over here) body. DB received wishes from near and far including a debut issue of Hello! magazine from the Freeholders - get yours now it features the Trudeau kids and the latest on Paul and Heather.