Where had they been?

I came upon a couple of Crown coins whilst clearing some stuff. They were in the bottom of a tumbler with pens and similar things put on top of them. One was a Victorian one the other was a George V Jubilee year (1935) I can remember that year very well. We were taken down to a marquee tent in Salthouse Field; there we were all given a 'Coronation Mug' 

The Victorian Crown 1889

                                    The King George Jubilee crown.

We also had a tea 'picnic' meal, it was all a bit confusing. As far as I can remember there were some members of the local council there and some clergy. (Complete with a few speeches) 

I don't recall if I was still at the national school then or if I had already gone 'up' to the new school in Highdale Avenue. Probably still at St Andrews School though.

One day maybe I will go into the library and check with the Mercury for '35.

I wonder what the crowns would be worth today? 

Double Steam Sunday 2^nd August.

What a day it was too. 1^st it was Tangmere with the Par Duchy Express outing.

Running from Bristol to Cornwall.

Tangmere running in to Yatton station to pick up passengers.

Not quite so many train spotters here as the last time I came down. Then I had a nice place set and at the last moment a chap taking videos plonked himself right in front of me. As I already had a couple of shots of Britannia I just took over his head. When he started panning he got a few pix of my chest before he stopped. Justice, he spoilt my shots – I spoiled his.

Folk waiting for the Par pick-up.

There were quite a lot of people waiting there. They loaded on pretty fast and then off they went again.

They had the green light and away they go.

Next loco didn’t stop at Yatton it was a straight run down to Weston-super-Mare. Trojan was hauling the Torbay Express on her run down to Dawlish.

                                              Spotters seemed to be a little perplexed

Trojan appeared to be a little late coming through Yatton station. Whether this was so I don’t know. I kept my position high up on the footbridge. Eventually she just shot through without any trouble.

 I managed a few high speed pix but before I had time to change my zoom she was gone.

What Next.

Quite a few years ago now, I used to keep and also breed tropical fish. Always providing that you kept catfish in a fish tank and no other variety you could nearly always keep a few tropical snails. Ideal for an aquarist because they kept the inside glass of a fish tank clean.

The snails lived in the water never coming out except to lay their eggs. This they did in the cover of the fish tank, then promptly returned to the water. The young snails as soon as they had hatched made their way back down into the tank water. The snails grew to about the size of a golf ball when adult, care had to be taken because a dead snail could very quickly contaminate even a 20 gallon tank. Apart from that it was easy to see that all was good. But it was important to check every time you fed the fish that the snails were fit and healthy.

Striking Lucky.

Having finished scanning Joe Ruddy's negatives to JPG photographs I had decided to take them back to Jane on Tuesday. I changed my mind though and having to get another loaf set off for Jane's with Joe's photo work in a bag to leave for her together with a DVD disc.

I noticed on my way in, a strange - to me - little plant growing; just a scatter of perhaps 5 or six. I hadn't noticed them last year so when I was getting back to the car I very quickly pulled up one to take back and photograph. It was Vervain, Verbena officionalis, 
The tiny flowers only about 4-5mm in size  ran up though a spike of buds.
I must keep my eyes open to see if I can later on get pictures of the seed growth. 

Leaves had a rather ragged appearance so I took only a couple of shots of them.

The flowers on closer examination were very pretty white centred turning to a rather delicate shade of pinky-red at the petal tips. 
Of this plant Culpeper says:---

Government and Virtues]

This is an herb of Venus, and excellent for the womb to strengthen and remedy all the cold griefs of it as Plantain doth the hot. Vervain is hot and dry, opening obstructions, cleansing and healing. It helps the yellow jaundice, the dropsy and the gout; it kills and expels worms in the belly, and causes a good colour in the face and body, strengthens as well as corrects the diseases of the stomach, liver, and spleen; helps the cough, wheezings, and shortness of breath, and all the detects of the reins and bladder, expelling the gravel and stone. It is held to be good against the biting of serpents, and other venomous beasts, against the plague, and both tertian and quartan agues. It consolidates and heals also all wounds, both inward and outward, stays bleedings, and used with some honey, heals all old ulcers and fistulas in the legs or other parts of the body; as also those ulcers that happen in the mouth; or used with hog's grease, it helps the swellings and pains in the secret parts in man or woman, also for the piles or haemorrhoids; applied with some oil of roses and vinegar unto the forehead and temples, it eases the inveterate pains and ache of the head, and is good for those that are frantic. The leaves bruised, or the juice of them mixed with some vinegar, doth wonderfully cleanse the skin, and takes away morphew, freckles, fistulas, and other such like inflammations and deformities of the skin in any parts of the body. The distilled water of the herb when it is in full strength, dropped into the eyes, cleanses them from films, clouds, or mists, that darken the sight, and wonderfully strengthens the optic nerves. The said water is very powerful in all the diseases aforesaid, either inward or outward, whether they be old corroding sores, or green wounds. The dried root, and peeled, is known to be excellently good against all scrophulous and scorbutic habits of body, by being tied to the pit of the stomach, by a piece of white ribband round the neck.

So there you have it . If you suffer from "Wheezings", "Morphew" or are "Frantic" according to Culpeper here is your cure. As he also says that it is a help against the bitings of serpents though I reckon a lot of the cures were in the minds of the patients rather than in fact.

Catch it; or; Lose it.

Well one thing I did right any-way. I saw that the Black Medick had blossomed and the seeds were beginning to show.

So I snipped off a little bit of the stalk. This shot shows part black and part green seed heads.

This one has all black heads and ready to disperse ready for next years plants.

Culpeper has nothing to say about Black Medick.

So called because the seed when fully matured is a black colour.

So minuscule are they that they do not show  when they have changed from the green of the standard head.

These full green heads are from a flower and will gradually change to a black colour.

As will these that take the part of the flower cluster on the little plant. Miniature in size the flower is only around 4 to 5 mm yet has a simple beauty, brilliant yellow in colour and when it has matured and turned into a green shadow of itself is is hardly noticeable. I was lucky in that although I have a scatter of flowers growing on the lawn this little plant was isolated by itself on the cement by the side of the car parking spaces. I swooped and took a sample to add to my clamp and photograph.  

And only just in time.

Last week I noticed an unusual plant growing along the side of the pathway. It was Yarrow, AKA Nose Bleed, Millfoil, or Thousand Leal. Latin name Achillea mellifolium, Of this plant Culpeper says :---

[ Government and virtues.]

 It is under the influence or Venus. An ointment of them cures wounds, and is most fit for such as have inflammations, it being an herb of Dame Venus; it stops the terms in women, being boiled in white wine, and the decoction drank; as also the bloody flux; the ointment of it is not only good for green wounds, but also for ulcers and fistulas, especially such as abound with moisture. It stays the shedding of hair, the head being bathed with the decoction of it; inwardly taken it helps the retentive faculty of the stomach: it helps the gonorrhea in men, and the whites in women, and helps such as cannot hold their water; and the leaves chewed in the mouth eases the tooth-ache, and these virtues being put together, shew the herb to be drying and binding. Achilles is supposed to be the first that left the virtues of this herb to posterity, having learned them of this master Chiron, the Centaur; and certainly a very profitable herb it is in cramps, and therefore called Militaris.

A veritable panacea if we believe all. In any case I kept my eyes upon it because it was getting close to the time the contractors were due to cut the grass again. Finally I decided to cut and take photographs although the flower heads were not fully developed.

I took a series of pictures reasoning to myself that I could always cut a flower head again later. BUT when I got back from getting my pension and making an appointment for a 'starvation' blood test together with a follow up for the doctor a week later; I found that the contractors had been. No more Yarrow, The lawns were bare - no clover showing, no daisies, no creeping buttercups; just grass  I had won one, but lost half a point. Now I will need to wait until next year I expect unless by some chance it grows out again and the flowers set, before the next visit of the contractor's team.

No-one likes death.

I came across these pictures that were taken well over 25 years ago. I don't like death, nor do I care for useless killing. Those folks that are against breeding mink and carry on by letting them loose out into the countryside, are not considering what they do to the balance of nature.

Mink by their very nature are killers. Far be-it as far as I am concerned to let the animals loose. They can't feed themselves and by the time that some of them can survive they become a pest to local farmers.

In this instance they had started to raid a duck rearing pond. If I had a choice I would rather see ducks and ducklings swimming around than not see the mink - because they would hide from view - when I was walking in the countryside.