Changes

I was out in the back garden this morning. I have been watching one of the trees in the garden. This is a photo of what the tree looked like in September when I first arrived and as it was today.

The leaves have all dropped off and the tree looks totally bare, doesn’t it?

However when you look closely, this is what I saw:

Now why would this tree have new buds and growth on it at this time of the year??

Just curious.

I will probably be offline all weekend. We are off to Southampton for the weekend. The trip includes: a pantomime in Southampton, Winchester Cathedral, and Stonehenge (the real sized one). So wait for more photos and writings starting on Monday. I’m sure my camera will be very busy this weekend.

Madeleine

Friday, 28 November 2008

Beatrix Potter and Kents Cavern

One of the decorations around the Kents Cavern building was this sign:

Sign says:

“In 1893 the young Beatrix Potter was on holiday in Torquay with her parents. She had never seen a cave and begged her father to take her to Kents Hole (as it was then known) where he photographed her sitting outside. This experience may have been the inspiration for Mrs Twiggy-Winkles home, since her diary entry about the cave with it’s wooden door “flush into the bank” closely resembles the description in her famous story.”

Guide book says:

On 14 March 1982 a young woman called Beatrix Potter wrote about her visit. She and her parents were on holiday in Torquay and she described her first-ever visit to a cave.

“The caves.. were very easy to explore an only moderately damp. Papa got dirty...[and] slipped off a board into the sticky red clay”

Perhaps her experience of Torquay’s caves inspired her to write the story of Mrs Twiggy-Winkle, who also lived in a cave, a “door which went flush into the cliff”

So I did a bit more research and this is what I found on the net:

"…it is very easy to explore and only moderately damp."
The following is an edited extract from
THE JOURNAL OF BEATRIX POTTER
" I went on one singular suburban drive with mamma….past Anstey's Cove…and through a most dreary suburb named St Mary Church to Babbacombe…. I was so disgusted with my drive that I privately incited papa to going into Kent's Hole next morning by a way of a reviver."

" … I can imagine no more unlikely or unromantic situation for a cavern. It is in a suburb of Torquay, half way up a tangle bluff, with villas and gardens overhanging the top of a muddy orchard and some filthily dirty cows in the ravine below. I was pretty much exhausted when we found it, but by dint of eating cinnamon and the excitement of going into a cave, recovered."

"The dilapidated wooden door was flush into the bank. Outside an artificial plateau or spoil-bank of slate, overgrown. A donkey-cart was encamped and the donkey grazing, the owner a mild, light-haired young man was sawing planks."

"Papa inquired if there was anybody here? to which he replied with asperity 'I am', put on his coat and prepared to unlock the cavern. The donkey was apparently trustworthy, at least it was there when we came out."

"The proprietor ( I have already forgotten his name, which I regret, for he amuse me), hung a notice-board on a nail outside the door, to the effect that the Guide is at present inside the cavern, and scrubbed out certain derisive remarks which had been scratched on the portal during his last descent."

" I shall not go into details about the cave, which is well described in a pamphlet, and only remark it is very easy to explore and only moderately damp."

http://kentscavern.co.uk/visitors.html

The Drive to Babbacombe and St. Marychurch is not as dreary nowadays as it was in her day.

Wrote this just for interests sake. I am sorting through my photos.

Madeleine

Wednesday, 26 November 2008

Miscellaneous Sights

Browsing my photos, I’ve realised there are quite a number that don’t fit into little stories. So here are some of them.

I spotted this little miss in someone’s back garden in Babbacombe. Check out her bottom lip!!

I walked a bit further and here she was in all her glory.

I like this sign. This is called making sure the kids (or other smart alecks) get the total message.

Oh, yes and for people who are paranoid about germs when they use a public toilet, this is for them.

Just wave your hand in front of the button and the loo flushes itself. For washing your hands, you put your hand in a slot and eventually hot water came out and washed your hands. When the water stops, there was another outlet which blew hot air to dry your hands. I took a photo of the loo button but there were too many people around to take one of the neat little hand washing machine.

I didn’t actually notice this until I looked at the photo. Mama Spire and Baby Spire

When you grow up, you will be as big as me!!

Now this is rather cool. This is an old walking trail half way down the cliff face. The whole face has been blocked off as it is crumbling and becoming dangerous. But you can still see the outline of what appears to be old walking tracks.

Here’s another bit

And this is where they are. Somewhere up the top of this hill (?), mountain (?). It’s not the greatest of photos, but does give an idea of where these pathways are.

The stairs from my room at the top

These were quite scary. Every time I went down, I felt like I was going to fall over the railing. I didn’t. But sure felt like I might.

While I was sitting at Torquay Harbour, I noticed that on the top of most of the poles, was this:

You had to watch where you sat or you would got shat upon. The gulls here were pretty bloody big too so I can imagine the size of their......

I found it interesting that Torquay was called “The English Riviera” and the platform I left from the train station was derelict. There was a building on the platform, but inside was nothing except rubble and rubbish. I do hope this is a winter thing and not what happens in summer when all the tourists come.

This is Tor Bay in Torquay. Nothing in comparison to Australian beaches.

I liked this one as well. A shopping centre. Now is that great or is that great !!

This building has had quite a history. Check out: http://www.torquaypavilion.com/

So that was some of the other sights I saw around Torquay and Babbacombe.

Madeleine

Tuesday, 25 November 2008

Bygones

My last touristy thing on my list of things to see and do. I’ve still not even touched on Torquay itself, nor any of the scenery around Babbacombe. I might get to that, I might not. You will all just have to wait and see.

Bygones is a replica Victorian street and museum. I didn’t take a photo of the outside of the building for some reason. I walked inside and it was like being taken into another world. The first thing I discovered was:

A man on a toilet. He told me to go away and leave him be. According to the guide book:

“It started life as a broom cupboard but as human nature everyone opened the door. It is now an outside toilet complete with an old cut up newspaper.

The occupant may become annoyed but it is worth opening the door for his comments”

Notice some of the background – the ginormous spider, cobwebs and the lamp.

From there you could see the Victorian street and what was happening on the street.

A family, the old man in a wheelchair, children, a couple of adults and the shops in the background.

All the shop windows had displays of items that would have been on sale in Victorian days.

The toy shop (which particularly interested me). There was quite a number of dolls house displays as well. In Victorian times, girls played with dolls houses and learned their housekeeping skills and boys played with forts and pretend battles.

Around the corner, you could see the boy selling hot chestnuts. If you pushed a button, he would do his spiel to try and sell his chestnuts.

There was also an organ grinder and his monkey. You can just see his monkey in the background.

A penny farthing outside the ironmonger shop

There was also a fantasy land with lots of moving things. Ferris wheels you could make move. This is the Vienna Wheel next to the Eifel Tower, in front of Buckingham Palace

The Gezunda, male and female (it gez unda the bed). Couldn’t resist taking this one. In fact, I learned the name Gezunda when I was first in the UK. Seems like no one else uses it except me, which makes me unique !!

There was heaps more. The last bit went into the war years and there was an Anderson shelter, a WWI trench with soldiers, and an amusement arcade with working machines. If you put a pound in a machine, you could get old pennies to operate the arcade machines.

This I think, is my favourite photo from Bygones.

We are off to Southampton, Winchester and hopefully Stonehenge this weekend so I’ve only got this week to clean up after my last trip and get organised for the next one.

Madeleine

Monday, 24 November 2008

Kents Cavern

Kent’s Cavern

Well that was an interesting excursion. I arrived far too early. I knew I was too early. The first tour didn’t start till 11 and I arrived at 10. Had a drink and read the souvenir booklet I bought. A bit more excitement when I tried to use my credit card to save the last of my change. It was declined. Three times. Damn! So I used the last of my cash and then worried whether I should have. The problem was I was miles away from any bank and I had walked. I was already starting to get sore and tired, so figured there was something wrong with the machine at the cavern rather than my credit card. I knew there was plenty on the card.

The guide, Alan, was excellent and was able to answer all the questions I asked. He also had some lovely little tricks up his sleeve. Like turning out all the lights and reminding us that this was what it was like for the cavemen and then showed us what they used for lighting. They couldn’t just light fires cause the smoke would fill up the cave.

Sea shells, filled with moss, and covered in dripping from their meat. Two gave a surprisingly good light. Quite amazing really. I’m always amazed at the ingenuity of human beings.

The problem with taking photographs in the cavern was that with having a specific time for the tour, I didn’t have time to set up the shots as I would have liked. So I fuzzed quite a few of them and quite a number didn’t show the scale of the whole adventure. I would have loved to be on my own and taken lots of time with each shot. At this stage I’m only deleting the really awful ones and will see what I can do with some of the others when I have more time.

This is apparently a baby mammoth’s molar. Like children, lose their molars, apparently, so did mammoths. Imagine the size of THAT baby !! We saw a molar from full sized mammoth near the end of the tour. I’ve left the hand in to give an idea of size.

Now that’s one big tooth!!

The bit I like in my souvenir booklet is:

“Throughout that time the local climate was often very wet and layers of silt and mud were sealed in my stalagmites. Discarded and lost debris from ancient visitors became trapped and buried by this gradual filling up of the cave, which thus became a giant sandwich with tools and bones buried in the silt.” Kent’s Cavern Prehistoric Caves, Souvenir Brochure.

So that tooth became part of the sandwich and has been laying amongst the silt and mud for hundreds of thousands of years.

The first people to start to excavate the caves worked with picks, shovels and a donkey. They cut out any number of tunnels, finding fossils. The problem was that in those days, they tended to use dynamite to blast out the harder bits and so probably lost a lot.

This is what it might have looked like.

Apparently some of the places were so small, they had to pick the smallest man, cover him in goose grease and send him through to make the passage bigger. To make sure he didn’t get stuck, the would tie a rope to his leg so they could pull him back if he got stuck. Or that’s the story we were told !!

Over the years, constant dripping water would eventually form stalactites (from the top) and stalagmites from the bottom because of the deposits of calcium carbonate. Eventually, they join together and form pillars. Like this one:

I mean how kewl is THAT!!

This was the only bit that was behind glass. It has been there for hundreds of thousands of years and in another few hundred of thousand years, the stalactite and stalagmite will join and become a pillar like in the previous photo.

We even got a photo of Madeleine in amongst the cave people, snuggling up to her cave sister.

I had a lot of trouble getting down and then back up again. I was worried I would knock and break one of the models!! But there is Madeleine, in Kents Cavern, Torquay, Devon, UK.

Madeleine

Friday, 21 November 2008

Living Coasts

I had seen blurb about Living Coasts, both on the net and in brochures and was of two minds. It is basically a zoo for water animals, birds, fish etc. They are all in enclosures, and are tame, fed by humans. The purpose of the place is to prevent these creatures from becoming extinct and to protect them from human beings.

I’m never sure of how much good this really does. Extinction happens often because the species is not fit to live in the current world. If we don’t allow them to become extinct, the next evolution may not happen. However, as a human being, who loves animals and watching them, I like the idea of being able to see creatures I would never possibly have a chance to see. And for future generations to see what I can see in my world before they become extinct.

So I took another 170 photos and will be spending weeks sorting through them and deciding which ones are worth keeping and which ones I should delete.

Both of my two minds are glad I went.

My initial impression was not all that great. Work men were busy in the entrance, ladders, tools all over the place. I know these things are necessary, but....... Also, it was built as a place for at risk species. There was a lot of hype about the risk to various species and several long ramps to the first exhibit – all hype. So my first impressions were – Stop pushing me !! Stop trying to brainwash me !!

Then I came to the penguin enclosure. I’ve not seen penguins before, only pictures. And I’m in loooooooooove. Otters still top the list, but now I think penguins come number 2 on my list of favourite outdoor animals. I can’t just say “animals” cause Ally and the cats might read this and feel hurt.

I took heaps of photos and the little buggers put on a show for me. They dived into the water and pretended they were high speed dolphins, zooming up, out of the water, and then diving down again!! Here’s one of the photos.

Damn!! I missed. I have quite a number of pictures of the water. The little buggers were moving far too fast for me to catch them. There was another couple there and he managed to catch them on camera.

Sign

Here’s a little guy heading off to the beach for a swim.

He/she has a very determined look on her/his face.

Made it.

These birds kept hanging around and they were beautiful.

This is, apparently, an Inca Tern. Those white bits on the side of their face stuck out like the ends of a moustache. Rather cute. Obviously tame because wherever I went, they were there. This one was literally that close to me when I took the photo. I didn’t use the zoom.

More birds. This one is called The Black-necked Stilt

This is a Pied Avocet. Dig the beak on it.

I almost got myself locked in for the night. I finished wandering through, and thought I might go and have another quick gander at the penguins. So I asked someone if I could, they said, yes, that was fine. So I headed back to the penguins. You walked up and around a couple of ramps and then through a dark space which gave some information about the penguins. When I got to the door to the outside and the penguins, it was closed up tight. So I turned around and came back only to find someone in the process of closing the door in front of me. She was as surprised as I was. She didn’t know the door in front had been closed.

Anyway, we had a bit of a chat and apparently they are working with some Australians involved with the blue penguin and were possibly getting some next year. She was saying that the people had suddenly realised that with the small colonies in Australia that if some disease hit them, it could wipe them all out so they were negotiating with European places to take some of the captive ones to prevent this from happening.

We have the spectacled eider

Some very comfortable South American fur seal.

They are apparently, Oscar, Grace and Tunanta, don’t ask me which one is which though.

And last but not least, this is a Macaroni Penguin. Dig the orange tuft on his/her head. He was telling someone off when I snapped this one.

Again, these are only a very few of the photos I took.

Hope you enjoyed them

Madeleine

Saturday, 22 November 2008

Babbacombe Model Village

How to describe the experience? I’ve been to Cockington Green near Canberra and this was just as impressive. Different. But still incredibly delicious and delightful. The only words I can use to describe what I saw today.

I’m curled up in my B&B, television on, looking at my photographs from today. Cockington Green covers more physical area I think. When I was looking at the outside of Babbacombe, I couldn’t imagine how it could be any good. There just didn’t seem to be enough space to have a decent sized exhibit. When I walked in, I was gobsmacked. I took about 300 photographs and would have probably taken more except my battery decided it had been overworked and kept flashing red at me. So when I finished I had to return to my B&B to put battery on charge (and me as well – talked about exhausted).

There was no international exhibit as at Cockington Green, but there is lots of humour in this exhibit. There is a bit of humour at Cockington Green, but Babbacombe has humour in each exhibit. All you have to do is to look for it.

Check this one out.

This is Ed’s Hot and Cold Snacks. The dog going in the back of the van is wagging his tail, he thinks he’s about to get a treat. And his tail really moves. That’s how I know.

And I want one (or two) of these. A dark green and a light green wheely bin.

I’m not quite sure what the signs mean, maybe before I post it I will find out.

But there are lots of signs, many/most humorous. This one,

which is part of this scene

I could be heard laughing out loud on quite a number of occasions.

While I was waiting for the Village to open, I met up with 5 women who were on a special tour for seniors. They go by bus to a town, wander around and do their own thing, stay overnight and go back the next day. These 5 had come to Babbacombe and Torquay for the day. We were going to wander around together, but they went much quicker than I did so we lost track of each other. I met them again, waiting for their bus outside the Village and then again later in the day at the shops in Torquay. Very nice bunch they were too.

In Philpotts Garden Centre

One of the gardeners is having a little kip under the bushes. You can almost hear him snoring.

On the beach, people are sunbathing

Some wearing more clothes than others.

Stonehenge the miniature that I really wanted to see. I’ve not seen the big one yet, but I’ve seen a miniature of it.

So like Cockington Green, the designers have humour as well as talent. The designers of these models have more interest in how people interact with their surroundings. I was just looking at my photos from Cockington Green, and there are far less people involved.

I like this one.

Check out the mummy:

I’ve done a very, very quick run down of 300 photos here. I can’t post them all. Different from the Australian version, but equally great. Would love to come back again. In a few weeks time they are having their Christmas “Winter Wonderland” where the exhibits will be covered in snow, with lights ablazing. I would love to come to see it. It’s possible. I’m not all that far from Oxford. We will see.

Anyway, that’s all for now folks.

Madeleine

Thursday, 20 November 2008