Found in an Oxford Shoe shop

The other Thrupp Community Woodland

This is the other Thrupp Community Wooodland. The car park is marked on the wrong side of the canal but its no biggie its over the lift bridge. The Woodland can be accessed over Sparrow Gap Bridge which is along side The Jolly Boatman. It is possible to see deer here but not as often as in the other one. http://narrowboater.blogspot.com/2010/01/thrupp-community-woodland.html

Hampton Gaye: The Manor House

   If you are looking at the footbridge in the last post from the same position I took the picture you have already seen the manor house. But just in case here are some pictures I took on my last visit there.

  

 

And the remains of the old paper mill.

Footbridge

Just one of those images that caught my eye. If you ever visit the ruined manor house at Hampton Gaye you will probably cross this bridge.

Make a stand

We should all make a stand for what we believe in.

If you cant make a stand yourself I could let you have this one. ;~)

I want a job

It’s simple. I have no preference for what I do as long as it is fairly paid and fairly managed. I already work for the council for free but that don't pay the bills.

But no, every one wants to know what career path I am taking what goals I have. There is no space on the vast forms for saying ‘I just want to pay my bills’.

If you are going to pay me to work for you I will be loyal, diligent, honest and reliable. I will work what ever hours are needed to do what you want and will not take time off except in exceptional circumstances. I am not black , I am not disabled, I am not gay. I am 59 I have no goals other than reaching the end of the month with money in the bank. I don't see why, when you will drop me like a hot brick if it suits you, you need to waste my time and the worlds valuable resources getting me to fill in 30 page application forms, when the information you need prior to interview will fit on one page and you can find out the rest at the interview (that’s what interviews are for).

Why are companies so insistent on telling me that they are equal opportunities employers, like it was their personal idea and not the LAW. I am a WASP (white Anglo-Saxon protestant) but nowhere on job application forms does it allow you to say that. That is surely against my civil rights. I am being excluded because of my nationality, my culture and my religion. No company that interviews me will know any thing about me because all the personal questions they ask do not apply to me.

Lets cut the crap if you want me to sweep up you do not need to know my inside leg measurement, you do not need to know my grannies knicker size. What about a sensible application form that doesn’t ask for all the information that is already in my CV. All that is being achieved is that I waste my time writing a CV. When I could be doing something useful like knocking on doors.

Mine, mine, mine, mine

Result methinks!

This used to be a nice grass verge. Until itinerant moorers decided it should be a car park. A passing pedestrian moved this old concrete post up to the back of the blue van that made this mess and so far this week the van hasn’t returned.

Bloody Vandals

In days gone by hedgerows were trimmed by gangs of country boys with mattocks shears and a host of other implements to do a good job of of cutting back excessive growth. The finished job was neat and tidy and the cuttings were burned on site or removed.

Enter the flail.The flail does the job of trimming by simply bashing the trees/bushes to smithereens. Leaving an ugly mess that is dangerous to wildlife and domesticated pets.

A flail consists of great chunks of steel spun round at a rapid rate of knots attached to an arm on a tractor.

     

The  end result is this . . . . . progress is what its called most of us would probably know it as vandalism.

Signage

One reason why people take no notice of the

‘PLEASE CLEAR IT UP‘

signs is because the signs themselves are small and inconspicuous. If the signs were  3-4 feet across and included ‘£1000 PENALTY’ errant dog owners may feel obliged to comply.

 

If the signs were right then there wouldn't be 50+ of these in 30ft length of tow path all seemingly by the same hound.

The same would apply to speeding boats. The signs ask boaters to slow down in relatively small writing rather than telling them in big letters. By the time a boater reads this sign he has already passed about 15 moored boats on official moorings. It is actually set lower than the roofline of a narrow boat.

No sign has any effect unless a. it can be easily seen b. it is properly positioned c. in the case of these two signs they include the penalty.

From the Clacher stable

If you have not yet seen MUDDY WATERS books from Dan CLACHER, have a watch of Jolly Boatmans Lesson. This is only a prototype but who knows where it will go.

Ooooo a flood!

Common place in these parts. Yet people are falling over themselves to buy the cottages. The Thrupp car park well and truly flooded. Annie’s Tea Room is to the left and dry The three cottages are to the right, dry, but only just.

Thanks to my American Friend Dru

WHERE DID THE WHITE MAN GO WRONG? TOUGH TO ARGUE WITH THIS ONE .

Indian Chief "Two Eagles" was asked by a white U.S. Government official, "You have observed the white man for 90 years. You've seen his wars and his technological advances. You've seen his progress, and the damage he's done."

The Chief nodded in agreement.

The official continued, "Considering all these events, in your opinion, where did the white man go wrong?"

The Chief stared at the government official for over a minute and then calmly replied: "When white man find land, Indians running it, no taxes, no debt, plenty buffalo, plenty beaver, clean water.
Women did all the work, Medicine man free. Indian man spend all day hunting and fishing; all night having sex."

Then the chief leaned back and smiled "Only white man dumb enough to think he could improve system like that."

Hamish and the Falkirk Wheel

Windlass Publishing have just released the latest Muddy Waters book Hamish and the Falkirk Wheel by Dan Clacher.

These delightful books are pure children’s Shakespeare. You must add this to your collection of Muddy Waters books or I will tell your children to scream the house down.

As before the graphics are excellent and the story well crafted. The books have gone up in price to £3.99 this is not greed on the part of the publishers but rather they need to stop ‘giving them away’ The earlier books barely covered their production costs.

Thrupp Community Woodland

One of the two Community woodlands around Thrupp. Deer hunting grounds if you have a camera. Annie’s Tea rooms and the canal are to the left of the car park. 

Disgusting!!!

There seem to be a habit developing with some dog owners that sees them tossing their dogs doings in the canal. Personally I find this practice abhorrent. Dogs do not sh*t in canals as a natural function. so why do people think it is OK for them to throw their faeces in the water? Of course no respectable boater would do this would they? Well I thought not but I have seen many doing it.

Whilst we as humans try not to be in the canal at any time, when we do have a mishap the last thing we want to do is swim around in dog poo soup.

Imagine how horrified I was when I noticed that those perpetrators upon finding the water iced over are still tossing their dogs waste onto the canal (see pic below).

There is a legal requirement for dog owners to remove dog waste from the area. That either means put it in a dog bin as provided by councils and other interested groups or take it home and dispose of it there. Let’s be serious one wouldn’t clean the garden of droppings by putting them in the ornamental fish pond so why chuck it in the canal?.

If the council take a dog owner to court there is a £1000 fine attached to it.

Ice Rescue

Every year when the canal freezes over the Fire Brigade rescue team practice ice rescue techniques.

Very entertaining for bystanders and rescue team members.

 

THRUPP IN THE SNOW