For Valentine’s Day, and to continue the intermittent theme of the various ways in which we commemorate our lives, some graffiti on a railway bridge between Little Bowden and Braybrooke – Caroline kissed Jess here 1999. I’m not quite sure how she (assuming it was Caroline who wrote it) could have done this. I sort [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Leicestershire’
Caroline Kissed Jess Here
Posted in Memory, This England, tagged Caroline, Jess, Leicestershire, Love Letters, Valentine's Day on February 14, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Folk Customs Of Old Leicestershire : Sprout Hanging
Posted in Buses, Fruit, Nature, This England, tagged Brussels Sprouts, Buses, Folklore, Foxton, Leicestershire, New Year on January 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
I happened to be waiting at the bus stop in the village of Foxton on New Year’s Eve, when I noticed this string of Brussels sprouts hanging from an adjacent hedge. As I nibbled abstractedly on a sprout to sustain me through my long vigil, I spotted a passing folklorist going about his business and questioned him about [...]
The Old Year’s Gone Away To Nothingness And Night
Posted in Arts, Poetry, tagged Burrough Hill, John Clare, Leicestershire, New Year, Poetry on January 1, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Let us end the holiday season (mine, anyway) as we began it, with some verses from John Clare, together with a wish for a trouble-free New Year (faint hope!) to all our readers. The Old Year The Old Year’s gone away To nothingness and night: We cannot find him all the day Nor hear him [...]
Welcome To Melton Mowbray …
Posted in Cookery, Cricket, Sport, tagged Food, James Taylor, Leicestershire, Melton Mowbray on December 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
So, James Taylor, what was it that first attracted you to Melton Mowbray … And very good they are too. More top reporting from Melton coming soon …
Best Illuminated House Award For Christmas 2011
Posted in Architecture, Arts, Church of England, Equestrianism, Religion, Sport, This England, tagged Christmas, Clergymen, Horse Racing, Illuminations, Leicestershire, Lubenham on December 29, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
And this year’s winner in the Privately Owned Listed Building category goes to the Tower House, Lubenham. You don’t get the full effect from a still photograph, but the pink light shoots upwards like mercury in a thermometer, then ends with a starburst effect at the top. The Tower House was originally an 18th century [...]
Hell No, We Won’t Grow : On Strike In Leicestershire
Posted in Politics, This England, tagged English politics, GMB, Leicester, Leicestershire, Little Bowden, Strikes, Stump Watch, Trades Unions on November 30, 2011 | 5 Comments »
I’m afraid to say that this month’s Stump Watch has had to be called off due to industrial action. So here, instead, are a few snaps of the march and rally in Leicester. I have to say that, as someone who’s never been on a demonstration in my life before, that I found it [...]
Stump Watch for September 2011
Posted in Nature, Trees, tagged Autumn, Leicestershire, Little Bowden, Spiders, Stump Watch, Trees on September 28, 2011 | 2 Comments »
As the number of posts in between the monthly Stump Watches seems to be dwindling a little, I sometimes have the suspicion that the Stump is turning into some kind of terrible Triffid-like thing that is determined to occupy and colonise the blog completely. One day I shall log on and find that the title has [...]
Crop Triangle in Lubenham
Posted in Nature, This England, tagged Autumn, Crop Triangles, Harvest, Leicestershire, Lubenham on September 17, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Another in the series The Curiosities of Leicestershire in Photographs. A perfect triangle of wheat in a field near Lubenham. Local historians, folklorists and UFO spotters have offered various explanations for this phenomenon. Prosaically, there is a drain concealed at the base of the triangle, and I suspect the combine couldn’t quite get around it. [...]
That Ragged Old Flag
Posted in Rugby, Sport, This England, tagged Cherry Tree, Flags, Leicestershire, Little Bowden, Patriotism, St George on September 14, 2011 | 4 Comments »
I see that England’s participation in the current Rugby World Cup in New Zealand seems to have led to a resurgence in patriotic feeling among the English, at least in the matter of which flags are generally on display. The brief vogue for Union Flags, which followed the Royal Wedding earlier in the year, seems [...]
Badger Encounters Society
Posted in Animals, Crime, Nature, This England, tagged Badgers, Big Society, Death, Leicestershire, Union Canal, Wind in the Willows on September 11, 2011 | 4 Comments »
A couple more snaps from my canalside ramble the other day. About a mile out from Harborough I came across this, on the towpath – and then, a few hundred yards further along, this – ************ `Such a rumpus everywhere!’ continued the Otter. `All the world seems out on the river to-day. I came up [...]
