British bits and bobs

  "Bits and bobs" is a term here used frequently for miscellaneous stuff.  One of our hosts, showing us around her kitchen said of a drawer:, "just bits and bobs", in a vintage store, a pile labeled "bits and bobs", that sort of thing. You probably know this, but Great Britain, aka Britain is comprised of Scotland, England and Wales - that island and its contents.

They cut skeleton keys, too, here -- because they're fully in use.

This "heritage" breed of pig had sparse curly fur.  

This highland cow (very hairy, long horns) was sharing a field with us while we walked along a
coastal path in northern England.  Gentle beast.

We're in the land of men in skirts - nice.

Livestock here is quite varied, and the operations/farms are pretty small scale.  In a national park bookstore I came a cross a book that had the 80 typical breeds of sheep to spot in northern England (like a beginner bird identification book).  Of pigs, we've probably seen 20 species; of cows, likely 20 or so.  None of the big herds or feeding lots of the US.

This is an all-in-one hand washing machine, a "uni-wash".  Button on the left is soap,
center is water, right button is dryer, all in a package about 2 feet by 1 foot.

This photo is from Scarborough, and the little rainbow boxes along the water are rental  sheds to store one's beach stuff. These are about 5X10X8 feet, and sell for about 40K Pounds  (about $60K), although some are available for just summer  weekly rental. 

This beachfront skateboard park has no grafitti.  !!

On Father's Day (same here as there) we went to Rievaulx Abbey (they're mostly all ruined, thanks to Henry VIII), and there were folks re-enacting the music of 15th century traveling musicians.  Fascinating stuff, mostly because it included excellent history lessons and perspective.  Among the gleanings:  most of our musical instruments and their names, are of Arab origin, brought back from the Crusades, including violins, lutes, drums, pipes.  Trousers have reason to be called "pairs".  The term "canter" describing one of the gaits of horses, derives from the Canterbury pilgrimage trail.  My ignorance is vast.

These medieval drums are called knackers, and are of Arabic origin.  Hence the term "knackered".    

Musicians with 15th century instruments -- homemade bagpipes, drums and lots more.  

An overshoe that allowed one to keep one's boots/shoes dry while walking through the dewy meadow in the morn.  15th century design.  

A pair of trousers -- literally.  Each leg tied on individually, not joined in the middle, hence the pair terminology.  Things changed in the next century, but the terminology remains.

An abbey gravesite that fit perfectly.  

The Sage music venue in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (River Tyne in the foreground) had folks climbing down its side.  We never figured it out.  

Descending.  

The Brits do bird suet in balls.  

Angel of the North, a huge (20X54 meters) copper and steel sculpture in northern England.  

We went to the very odd Museum of Victorian Science in a tiny town outside of Newcastle.  It was a genius science guy, Tony, who sat the two of us in a tiny room chock full of Victorian-era science machinery, and demonstrated and explained to us the rudiments and finer points of radiation, X-rays, magnetism, telegraph development, and so much more, for two hours.  Truly fascinating stuff.  And a weird experience.

Tony, weird science guy generating electricity.

Tony's glowing globes -- reflecting different sorts of radiation mixed with minerals.  

Royalty scarecrows in a garden.  Queen on the right with lady-in-waiting helping her.  

Never seen such a huge crab, of Japanese origin, in a lovely little museum in Newcastle.  Steve just in back of it.
Stuff of nightmares.  

Double helix out of shopping carts.  Newcastle, outside a lovely pub.

Eggs for sale at a flea market in norhtern England.  Lots of people  have hens.

An overworked bubble machine taking part in an Aero (candy bar) promotion.

Quail eggs again - first we'd seen outside of Portugal.  Yum. And homemade haggis, below.  Umm.

We visited Edinburgh's Central Library - nice place, with a decent collection, and they're still hiring (unlike most libraries we've visited in Britain, which are experiencing closings and cutbacks).  They also acknowledged Andrew Carnegie with a marble bust and a plaque.  He was a Scot, and did as much for British libraries as he did for the US ones.

Whaat? Signage in Britain and some exercise options

The signage has been interesting in Britain.  Some sort of different, some informative, some unfathomable.  Here's a bit.

This was one of the first signs we saw as we were struggling our way from Gatwick to Rudgwick.  Whaat?  As it turns out, "cats eyes" are the bright spots in a divider lane's markings.  This learned through the internet.  

Naked lights -- unlensed, I believe.  So no sparks.  

I just liked the visual in this one.

Budweiser, a Czech import.  

This was in a public bathroom that cost 20pence (about 30 cents), and it was the handwashing devide -- all in one bowl -- follow the signs above.  Pretty compact, economic and cool.

Still haven't figured this one out.

They use the term "crawler" to describe the slow lanes on the high grade inclines of highways .  Signs read "use  crawler lane", and this one.  HCVs and HGVs are big trucks (hybrid cargo vehicles and heavy goods vehicles).

Sorry,  . . . 

These signs are solar and sometimes additionally wind powered, and flash when cars approach.  It also comes in a speed version, that flashes "slow down" when over the speed limit.

These two signs in the town of Scarborough, a port town in NW England ("are you going to Scarborough Faire . . . parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme") helped me realize how little I know about real fish.  No idea what some of these are - - and they were all available at this shop on the wharf.  Jellied eels?  Roll Mops?  Woof?

I thought this was nicely gentle.  Besides the ovbiously disabled,  "Other people may also need to sit more than you do."  Nice.

This was at a metro station at a town called Wallsend, which is the eastern end of Hadrian's wall , which  provided a barrier between Roman England and the northern barbarians, the Scots.  All the signage in the metro station was in English and in Latin, the language of the Romans.  Nice way to underline the heritage.

We went to a weird Victorian science museum -- really weird, a 2 hour presentation to just Steve and me that took place in a tiny stuff-filed room of an 80-year old science guy.  It was interesting, and included these ephemera related to the radiation section of his demos.

During the 40s, radiation was thought to be beneficial and so the above, and below.

And finally, about exercise.  I ran across an early 1900s exercise machine, similar to our stationary bikes, but made to simulate horse riding, for men and for women.

for men

women had to do it sidesaddle, of course.

the machine itself

One afternoon on a drive back to our place we happened across a cricket match.  We stopped and watched for a bit, and never did figure it out.  There was lots of running, the pitching was surprisingly not fluid, and otherwise not much action.  But they had a good time, it was a lovely day, and there was pretty much scoring  of "overs" and "wickets" , and lots of encouraging banter and gentle heckling of the opponents.  And pints afterwards.  Life is good.