A Bridge Too Far

OK, this is probably the most famous land-mark in my little hometown of Marlow - our bridge.

It crosses the River Thames with Marlow on the Northern side (left in the picture) and Bisham (pronounced Biss-um) on the Southern side. Marlow is in the county of Buckinghamshire and Bisham in Berkshire.

The bridge was designed by William Tierney-Clark and built in 1829. Tierney-Clark designed many suspension bridges including the first such bridge to span the Thames in London, Hammersmith bridge, and his most famous design, the Széchenyi Chain Bridge across the Danube in Budapest, Hungary. Marlow bridge is an identical but much smaller prototype for that bridge.

The view above is from Higginson Park (see my close up post) and shows All Saints Church on the left - it's one of the most famous views on the River Thames.

Here's a picture taken from the bridge showing the church and the construction of the bridge

(that's me in the red coat!)

So - Do you have one of these?

If you're interested there's more about the bridge here

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All right Mr DeMille...

I'm ready for my close up!

...can you guess what it is??

It's this -

a wonderful huge London Plane tree in Higginson Park on the Thames in Marlow. Taken this afternoon on a wonderful Spring day....look - no coats!!!

I have a very strange obsession with the texture of wood and cannot resist touching wood if I see it anywhere....

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The Frogs say "Spring is here"

They have been enjoying Springtime in my pond and this is the product of their "activity"

also in my garden

Daffodils -

Fosythia -

and Rosemary

all in bloom VERY early. Wouldn't expect to see most of these until mid to late March and they've been out for a couple of weeks already. All our news programmes are talking about climate change and global warming and Spring coming earlier.

We've had a very mild, very wet winter here in England and things never really stopped growing but I still love to see that Spring is on the way and I'll be able to get out in my garden planting things soon.

Antique Sewing Machine

OK - this looks like it's becoming a category in it's own right and, as I couldn't join in the "unpolarized plug" (we have different plugs completely in the UK) I CAN join in with this one .... and mine's so old it doesn't have a plug of any sort -

what's in the box?

...my sewing machine. Bought for me by my dad at an antique fair at least 15 years ago, possibly longer. The box is a wonderful piece of furniture in it's own right (get's used as a side table I'm afraid) and the machine inside is beautiful too. (and it works - ok it only does straight stitching and you have to crank it by hand but the tension is perfect!)

Don't have one of those, but I have one of these...

As I'm in the UK our electrical plugs/sockets are completely different. So, as I didn't want to be left out on this one, I thought I'd share a picture of one of our electrical plugs.


You'll see ours have three pins - live, earth and neutral. The extra pin is the earth which grounds the appliance should it become live. Also you can't really see but the third pin is slightly longer and this is to open an internal gaurd in the wall socket which prevents little fingers exploring when the socket is empty!

I am astounded by the amount of these in my house, it's something that has become an issue to me over the years - thinking about how much energy I use in my everyday life and how much of that is really necessary....something as ordinary as an electrical plug can make you look at things in a different way...just think every time you push one into a wall socket - Do I really need to use this appliance or could I do without it?

The energy is gonna run out sooner or later.....sorry, I'll take my eco-warrior hat off now....!

World's Largest Occupied Castle

This is Windsor Castle which is about 15 miles by road (10 miles as the crow flies) from the spot I sit here in my lounge.
Windsor Castle is the Queen's official residence and is the largest occupied castle in the world. We took a visiting American friend for a look around Windsor Castle last summer and here are some more pictures

A Stand of Flamingo

Hi there, I've just joined this game and I'm really keen to play. I looked at the current posted categories and thought "Oh Great....I am in rural England in February, where am I going to find a flamingo?"

I searched on the net to find where the nearest flamingo might be - an animal park in Oxfordshire about 70 miles away, not really in my neighbourhood. I decided to think laterally...perhaps there is a bar or a business called "The Flamingo" nearby...no luck.

Then this morning I realised, I have not one but three flamingo (a stand of flamingo is apparantly the correct collective phrase) here in my very house...so here they are:

These flamingo are in my cocktail cabinet right here in my lounge and they even have a palm tree to shelter under!

Wendy