OVER THE GARDEN GATE

[Thomo]

"Over the garden gate" was nearly "A different view", a look at life from a non political angle and the events that shape our bit of the world. It is Sunday morning and after a week of having to kickstart my system with copious amounts of bicarb, things are getting back to what passes as normal here. The sky has once again taken on the appearance of an Admiralty paint colour shade card and the sweater is being worn, there is a can of lager in the fridge waiting for the sun to rise above my own personal yardarm. I am not a keen sports fan and my only concession to athletics was long distance running at school, this got me out of playing football, the game that I have a strong dislike for. As for other sports, I was for many years a keen cyclist before becoming mechanised and taking part in club events at such places as Brough, Snetterton and Mallory Park, sponsored by a garage at Nelson who also furnished the AJS 7R, there's nothing quite like the smell of hot caster oil!!
The Olympics are drawing to a close and there will be a short break before the Paralympics start. The recent games have been a showcase for the kind of things that this country can do well regardless of the political and economic anguish that often dominates the media. Morrissey, whoever he is, is sickened by the public outpourings of patriotism, maybe the old wartime saying, "If you know of a better hole" applies. One thing that struck me was the humility shown by our Athletes in their moment of glory, they have done very well indeed and put some of the "Great" back into Britain. For the first time ever last night I was on my feet, jumping up and down and exhorting Mo Farah to give it all with a varied steam of expletives, some of which would have made a Marine blush. and he did us proud, they all have, third behind America and China is not bad at all when you consider the difference in our relative size. The Paralympics are special when you think about what some of the participants have had to go through, something I will be watching.
The events surrounding the death of a young girl at the possible hand of those she knew is sickening, such things are becoming far too common, In Greater Manchester there is a cause for concern now that warring factions have taken to using tactics that would be more at home in Damascus.
But it is still Sunday in this country, they who do not like it will have had their burnt toast and vinegar and be looking for the next thing to moan about. Part two of the Sunday dinner preps are complete, the Yorkshire pudding mix made and standing, the beef was roasted yesterday as this makes carving easier, and only the vegetables need to be readied. A sleepy Sunday, or it would have been, thanks to the local agricultural contractors the day for me started at 5.30 with their various masive machines going for gold down Gisburn Rd, could this be a new Olympic event?
So what are the rest of you doing today, Whats going down in your patch? Egad, this lager is good!

[Thomo]

The prismatic effect of an old vapour trail, splitting white light into its components, the primary and secondary colours.

[Wendyf]

A nice topic Thomo, and it seems just the place to mention that it's 13 years this weekend since we ventured down from Scotland and I am finally beginning to feel that we belong.
When I drove down here in my little van on the day of the solar eclipse in 1999 I had only seen the place once on a glorious spring day. I got a bit lost down in Carleton as a signpost to Colne was pointing the wrong way, and when I drove up onto the moor the sight of the cattle grid freaked me out a bit and I stopped to phone Col who had set off hours earlier with son, dog, three cats and a tank full of fish. He reassured me that I was on the right road and that soon after the next cattle grid I would see him standing waving in the doorway of our new home. It has been a joy and a delight to be here ever since despite the normal ups & downs of life.
Today we have been to Trawden show and I have bumped into a few people I know. My neighbour has been round to collect a dvd he brought for me on Friday of a 1970's BBC programme about Lothersdale. He knows I love local history so he thought of me as soon as he was given it.
Still an incomer but starting to belong

[Stanley]

Nice topic. I know what you mean Wendy about getting 'to belong'. I was lucky in 1956 when I was parachuted into the area because I was put in charge of the mobile shop and soon got to know the area and many people. That was when I first visited Lower Burnt Hill. (How can it be over half a century ago?)
It says something about my age but when I saw the title I immediately thought of the sketch Norman Evans used to do, 'Over the Garden Wall'. My version of this this week has been to inform my new neighbour, who used to play with my daughters at Hey Farm, that they say he'd look better if he grew the shock of fair hair he used to have instead of having a shaved head! Unfortunately he says it is long gone!
Life is busy and good. Walking Jack, writing and playing out in the shed fill my day. I have no time pressures or social calendar and the urge to travel left me some time ago, a trip over the manorial boundary is a rare event. This doesn't mean I am deprived, Barnoldswick is a lovely place to live. I met a lady in Valley Gardens who has recently moved to Barlick following the death of her husband who refused to come here. She was having a whale of a time discovering what the town has to offer and is delighted with her decision. I know what she means and wish her well.

[EileenDavid]

I love the name Barnoldswick, remember my dad working there for a company called James E Turner. Still not fit it in my agenda for a visit but the people seem really friendly. Eileen

[Thomo]

Good morning all. Barnoldswick, at one time the butt of musical hall jokes, or "Where is that" no one laughs at it now. I have lived in Hampshire, existed on Anglesey and seen many places all over the world, but when all of that ended, I could not get back here quick enough "HOME" it has all I need and holds many happy memories. We see all manner of things passing our garden gate, vintage cars and motor cycles, idiots a plenty, and over the last few weeks a marked increase in cyclists and runners, horses are a common sight as well with cheerful and polite riders. Yesterday afternoon two cyclists pulled up across the road, the bikes were clearly "top of the range" and one equipped with sat nav, after consulting this they asked for help "where is Westfield Rd" I pointed to the sign across from them, when they came over I asked where they were headed, they were checking out the park for next Sunday's Bradley Wiggins event, when this was organised they would possibly not have been aware of what this young man was about to achieve, Winner of the Tour de France and Olympic medalist, well done Bradley!
Barnoldswick has never been at the core of the global export market, Rolls Royce and Silentnight being the two main contributors, but yesterday I was made aware of a rather unusual venture, a small business just down the road recovers derelict tractors, gets them running and tidied up, strips them down to the basics, crates them and ships them off to Africa where they are reassembled and put to work again, useful initiative!!
This years weather has had an odd effect on our garden, all of the green stuff has grown like mad and in many cases hidden the flowers that should have been the crowning glory, this is now at last changing and the colour is there. There is one plant that had never flowered, a crocosmia, now at over five feet tall it has finally produced a lovely crop of blooms. Fluttering above all of this is our Union Flag, first raised during the Jubilee celebrations, then the Queens Birthday, my Birthday, Yorkshire Day and whenever the sun shone, it was sent aloft again when team GB won their first medal and has remained there since, twice it has been raised as a symbol of defiance, my next door neighbour says it should be there all the time, she is from Malta.
There is a "Coat of Arms" for Barnoldswick as I recall, a good motto should accompany this, any suggestions?

[Moh]

Ours is the same. Would the garage who sponsored you be the one who sponsored John Nutter?

[Thomo]

The garage was "Craven Motor Cycles" on Burnley Rd in Nelson, I do not remember who actually owned it. but I bought my first bike from Gott and Nutters here in Barnoldswick, Ken Nutter. Does this fit anywhere.

[Moh]

It was on Burnley Road but that name does not ring a bell - I will ask hubby when he gets back from visiting a friend who buys, does up and sells classic motor bikes. I know John Nutter worked there and road all over, also John Whitehead rode with him.

[Thomo]

Storms. Not one of natures most pleasant events unless viewed from afar, I watched one develop on Monday night, quite a long way off, Clitheroe or beyond maybe, it certainly was not heard in Bolton by Bowland as I was there yesterday and asked. This was seen from my settee at nightfall, I was aware that there were lightning flashes coming from the Clitheroe direction, but as the storm grew in intensity the flashes became frequent, each one illuminated the top of the storm cloud creating a halo of light above the cloud, someone was getting it big time, and it lasted for over an hour. Most of us understand that lightning is a discharge of static electricity from a positively charged cloud to a negative terminal point, frequently somewhere on the ground, but at other times it can go from its source to a negative cloud, not coming to earth at all, this is often called "Sheet Lightning" some believe that this sheet lightning is not accompanied by thunder, if you are a long way off, this may be so. A bolt of lightning travels from "A" to"B" back to "A" by exactly the same route then back to "B" again in a likewise manner, and at incredible speed, if it hit you the first time, it will hit you again, if you were lucky enough to survive this you would not have been aware of the gap between first and second. So what is the Thunder all about? it is all about heat and pressure. A bolt of lightning is extremely hot, about 20,000 degrees K, this when moving at the speed it does can increase to about 30,000 K, the heat expands outwards and generates pressure in the air creating a shock wave, this is what we hear, much like the sonic boom from an aircraft as it exceeds the speed of sound, the noise varies from the loud "crack" to the distant and long rumble dependant on how close the observer is to the lightning, to others further away the "crack" will come as a loud bang followed by the rumble and can be heard all around the lightning strike as the sound dissipates outwards. So the noise of the thunder is caused by the energy in the lightning, being converted from heat through pressure into sound, sheet lightning can be noisier as the bulk of the energy is directed earthwards prevented to a degree from going the other way by the clouds that were the cause of all this commotion. It is possible to a degree to gauge how close a bolt of lightning is to where you are by mentally measuring the time between flash and bang, this is approximately 4.6 seconds for every mile. Storms affect people in different ways from sheer terror to bland indifference, but an approaching storm even if you cannot see it coming can be detected by how you feel, this perception is greatly increased in animals and birds. To the human it can range from being totally unaware of the approaching storm to a feeling of anxiety and irritability, even a degree of nausea. It is strange, but some people will react to seismic activity even when it takes place on the other side of the planet, often manifested in the form of an headache, I have experienced this several times, last week it was Iran where the quake occurred!!
Yesterday we sallied forth beyond the gate and had a look around Clitheroe and the market, not much has changed there, most of the pubs are still open and there are decent shops, not too many takeaways but an increase in charity shops, there will be a torchlight procession shortly to welcome their own Olympic efforts. The drive home was via Waddington and Grindleton to Sawley and then Bolton by Bowland, two more pubs gone! but its a nice part of England.

[PanBiker]

I love a good thunderstorm, the sheer power of the forces of nature are fantastic to behold and a reminder of how insignificant we are when stacked up against such forces. I had a very close encounter with a lightning strike once during a Summer thunderstorm when I was fishing on the canal at the roller bends between Southfield bridge and East Marton. A pylon that carries the grid across the cut at that point received a direct hit, I was about 50 feet away at the time and to say that my hair stood on end would be somewhat of an understatement. I will never forget the overpowering smell of the ozone released as the pylon earthing system took the hit dumping the strike to earth. The cables either side of the pylon flashed with plasma discharges between the conductors accompanied by the loudest ear splitting crack I have ever heard. I was about 19 at the time and I think my time for doing a 100 yard dash down the cut bank would probably have given Usain Bolt a run for his money once the instant adrenalin rush kicked in. Very scary and of course nothing you can do about it if you are unfortunate enough to personally be the shortest path to earth. An experience such as that certainly gives you a health respect for the phenomena.

[Thomo]

You are right about the effect of a "near miss" Ian, I have had two at under 10 feet, one on Ingleborough and the other at the top of Ghyll fields. Another one was far more memorable. On a Sunday afternoon in the 60s a group of us were in the front room of an house on Rainhall Rd, listening to music, from the window you could see the storm approaching from over Kelbrook, the strikes were coming forward in almost a straight line, an older member of the family came in to watch and was learnt with his arms on the window sill, he said "the next but one will be close" he was wrong!. There was a tremendous crack and what looked like blue water running down the window, and then a smell of burning and I was thrown half way across the room. The hair on Bills arms was singed, the TV cable which ran through the room had blown out at three foot intervals and the TV itself was a smoking wreck in the back room. The storms in Singapore and that area are something else, at certain times you can almost set your watch by them, from the veranda at the end of the hospital ward that I was in, you could watch them approaching over the jungles to the North, twice a day. At sea the ship becomes the main conductor with spectacular but less dangerous results, Awesome. Here right now the threat is diminishing as it is raining heavily, this dissipates the energy in the clouds and results in large raindrops. Wet Wet Wet.

[Thomo]

Just after my last post something happened that bore out my comments about "Barlick Traffic Madness" I turned around from the PC in time to see a great wall of water come over the front gate, cars are passing at high speed, hitting the water that was already on the front path, over the kerb and obvious. Anyone on the pavement here and beyond would have been soaked. One car has just hit this water and lost both wiper blades, stopped right outside, just long enough for me to get a pic which I will post later.

[Thomo]

For a fair chunk of my working life I was used to seeing waves, you expect them when at sea. Early in 1973 we were en route to New Orleans, we were the largest ship in a small group, soon after leaving the Western Approaches and heading into the North Atlantic we ran into a great storm, the smaller vessels turned about and headed for Plymouth. My ship HMS Blake an helicopter command cruiser, HMS Devonshire a GMD and a large fleet tanker Tidepool kept going. The storm at force 11 was the worst there had been in 10 years and lasted for six days and nights. At one point our ship reported nil sightings of Devonshire, it transpired that they couldn't see us either. In my office aboard Blake was an inclinometer which was displaying a roll of 33 degrees Starboard through to 35 degrees Port, very uncomfortable and tiring. My mess was over the Aft engine room almost at the mid point in the the length of the ship and our main problem was the rolling. The poor seamen who had a mess right up fwd were not only feeling the roll but the plunge and rise a distance of 60 feet. I have a photo taken from the Admirals bridge 65 feet above the normal waterline and it is looking up at the top of an oncoming wave, scary. When the storm abated we made for Bermuda to anchor and take stock of the damage. On the flight deck there had been a prototype helicopter handling machine that we were taking to America, gone, all £125,000 worth, the Starboard seaboat had broken free and had smashed to pieces against the Shipwrights workshop, the masive davits that were there for the seaboat were bent over at 90 degrees. On Devonshire, the helicopter had broken free in its hangar and was a total wreck, there was also a large amout of lesser damage and many sailors injured. In the Arctic on a small Frigate we had to be strapped into our bunks to keep us safe using octopus straps, just enough give for one to experience zero gravity. During that time when I was ashore my home was only 200 yards from the beach at Eastney, at the back of the beach was a ridge of pebbles sand and grass, one evening a look out of the window revealed waves coming over the top of this ridge and it wasn't long befor the sea was at our garden gate, thankfully it ended there but was along time in going again. On Anglesey for a time my home was at Bull Bay and had a view out to sea and Liverpool Bay, it was a bank holiday weekend which was to see a raft race in the bay on the Monday, my son took part in this. It was a beautiful day, but at 3.00 the next morning we were all out trying to save what we could of the boats that were moored in the bay or on the beach, 90% were total wrecks, one, a 35' yacht just bought by a retired sailor with his pension money, was up on the promenade and so badly damaged it had to be cut up in situ, it had smashed its way upwards through the seawall. I must confess though, living here in Barlick I never expected to see waves coming over the front gate!!

[Thomo]

"Its been a f funny old day G G G Granville", Arkwright aka Ronnie Barker, Open all hours! Here its been a funny old weekend in which several "Hats" were worn. Chef, Technical Advisor. Car park Attendant, Tourist Advisor, Travel Information Advisor, Local Animal Welfare Rep, Observer and Wine Taster, Copier of Old Maps, and Wine Taster, Mechanic and yes Wine Taster, Washer up and cat feeding and welfare operative. Saturday saw much use of the cooker, a beef joint to roast, A lasagna to cobble together, and Cod in butter to prepare as a treat for our cats and visitors/ex strays, this was rewarded later by a visit from Izzy whom I was concerned about having not seen him for seven days (see "So what is a cat").Saturday went well and it didn't rain. Sunday, early getup for the Bradley Wiggins event, I did not know that they were going to exit Victory Park by the back door into Greenberfield Lane, so we missed it all, or did we! At the front gate it was all happening, many people lost or trying to park on the bus station unaware of its true purpose. There were in fact not just cycle races taking place, there was the regular race to get into or out of Barlick with vehicles at speed going in opposite directions. This was slowed to a degree at about eleven o,clock, a UAV came down Gisburn Rd at decent speed and with flashing lights on the roof, something was coming, The noise grew louder and from the top of the road appeared a convoy of old tractors, there must have been thirty, some restored others not so, but impressive nevertheless, we are used to seeing tractors, but not so many at once. Then three extremely beautiful, and well dressed ladies looking for the Park but heading for Bracewell, I thought I was getting old but this made me unsure!! A tot of rum restored sanity, and then when the internet thingy proclaimed "Britain Swelters" it rained again, just enough to be annoying, and a good time to prepare the dinner, yes its still raining.

The Outside, looking in.

[Thomo]

For only the second time this year, this evening we have seen bats over the garden and in front of the window, marvelous little creatures from lane ends laithe. In past years this was every night, and there were always swifts and house martins a plenty, not many this year.

[Thomo]

Due to much pressure I have had to neglect this topic for a while, nor has much been done outside. The volume of traffic increases with each day as does the attendant noise, only the mainline buses have diminished in numbers. I have got to know several of the regular drivers over the past few years, there are two that stand out, one is Polish who's name I cannot remember let alone pronounce, but a really nice chap. Born in Poland but educated in Moscow, he trained as a radiographer but loves is new job in his new country. The other is a great big Russian bear of a man, once a regular in the soviet army, he is also happy with his new lot. Thinking about this man put me in mind of something that happened in the early 60s, I worked for Boltons Decorators then, and one Friday morning Eric sent me on a "rush job" just up the street from the shop, front downstairs room to re-paper asap. I was fast when it came to this sort of thing and was finished by about two in the afternoon, thats 12 rolls of wallpaper. The customer was overjoyed and exited and bringing me a drink explained the panic, he was a Russian who had escaped Russia several years earlier, but had to leave behind his wife, this woman had managed to obtain permission to leave the USSR and was arriving that evening, I have seldom seen a happier man, the Vodka was good as well!!!

[PanBiker]

Thomo, was this on Wellhouse Road? I am trying to recall the gentleman. I lived on Craven Street then which of course is just round the corner from where you worked at Eric's. As an aside, I used to love the paint mixing machine in the shop, wonderful to the eye of a young un, lots of knobs and levers and a joy to behold the shaking after colour mixing.

[Thomo]

Got it in one Ian, midway up the row above Boltons shop on Wellhouse Rd.