Daydream thread continues.....

RAS

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Yesterday, me and my DS saw what I think is my first wild black rabbit as well. Maybe I saw one when I was a teenager, I'm not sure.

Try walking up the top end of Swaledale sometime, on the higher paths. Never seen so many black wild rabbits as up there; well over 10 percent.

alfie_1

LIR..ive PM'd you

lostinrates

Alf, will reply later, i am having a minor sos myself.

RAS

It is raining again. We seem to get about one dry day a week, although it rains just about every night. Due to rain more or less every day this week!

So keeping anything growing is proving a problem.

harvested the garlic in a bit of a panic when I spotted a stem leaning over sideways. White rot. Amazingly it is only on two bulbs; the others are all OK. They are now drying out in the attic, each variety in quarantine. As long as they are OK, I have anough for the year.

Onions I am going to end up buying this year, for the first time in about a decade as they have not produced enough leaf to grow big and have now been attacked by slugs.

Am about to plant out some leeks, so hope they will compensate a bit. All the summer stuff is doing badly, badly. We are supposed to be showing runner beans at the weekend!!!!!!!!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Well a few people have the first flowers and one person has bean plants at the top of their poles. Some folk have something nearly a metre high and the rest of us have a few stalks where the slugs stripped the plants.

I was going to write something about this place http://www.markenfield.com/history/restoration/ the other week when people were talking about keeping old houses going. Spotted it in Ripon TIC last year after the last open day and made a note to try and get there. Sunday week started poor but brightened up, so I grabbed a sac and hit the bus. It is a mile walk from the main road so I needed a dryish day and the driver very kindly dropped me at the lane end.

There is a bit of hype - basically you can visit 4 main rooms and they have all been mucked about a bit, although much less than they would have been had the owner not joined the Rising of the North. As a result the 13th century part of the house was tenanted as a farm house and much used as grain store for several centuries.

There was once a small hall house over 4 vaulted rooms, then in the 14C, that great hall became the solar of a much larger hall built at right angles. lir might like this utility room http://www.markenfield.com/home/gallery/interiors/ - one of two 13 C ground floor room remaining vaulted?

It is clear that they have had to spend a lot of money just getting the fabric safe, sound and functional. Leaving the stone walls largely bare means that repairs are evident and the upper walls are still stained pink from lead-based seed dressings.

Despite the external stairs being ripped out, the roof on the great hall being raised in 19C, bedrooms carved out of the solar and the vaulting ripped out in 16C, it is still possible to see the bones of the 13 and 14C hall houses. Window seats have looked over the same hills for nearly 800 years and the chapel is open again.

I reckon living in the reconstruction must have been a challenge. And it may take another 10-15 years.

rhiwfield

Its rewarding to see sympathetic restoration of old buildings, especially when continuously occupied.

I wish the owners all success in completing the restoration for future generations to enjoy, especially as so much modern construction seems to be rooted in slash and burn philosophy.

Time for a rant.
Just had a carp day at auction

Dealers descended from somewhere richer than us and drove prices sky high.

Outbid time after time :mad::mad::mad:

AAAAAGH!!!!!

Itismehonest

It's also good to see a sizeable historic place still in the hands of a private family. It can remain a proper home.

We have a few around here which remain in private hands & they are always much more interesting than the saved-for-the-nation jobs which chose a period/look & dress places like stage sets.

Real homes have mixtures of contents taken from different periods. They don't freeze in time.

It also means that the family (or even another family) will be able to enjoy it as a home in the future whereas, once it goes to one of the 'charities', it will never be available for a family to call their own again.
Sadly, we have a number of relatively ordinary properties around here which can never be owned by anyone again without an Act of Parliament.
Some of them are of no historical interest whatsoever.


I hope maggie's glamping night is dry.

lostinrates

Gorgeous, gogeous house.

Davesnave

Super sized trailer, CTC! That sort would do us for selling plants from, should we ever decide to go on the road again.

Best of luck with the camping Maggie. Even if it is in a bell tent, you're braver than me. I'm a big wuss, so even if I can put up with roughing it in the day time, I need my home comforts at night, and especially first thing in the morning.

Impressive restoration at Markenfield RAS, though I'm always happiest exploring the gardens of old properties. My garlic is a disaster this year, with any amount of leek rust, but no white rot...I hope!

I am too tired to write any more tonight, but I hope the SOS was not too :eek: lir, and that you get your rabbit, lotus.

alfie_1

OOOOO ARE YOU OK lir ????

COOLTRIKERCHICK

The house is Beautifull, and has ITSME have said it is soooooooooooo nice that they house is still privately owned...

LIR hope everything is ok,

Maggie..... cant wait to hear about your glamping.....when ever i hear or read the word glamping, why do i think of glam rock, and spaced out hippie looking people:rotfl:

Rhiwie, what a bummer:mad: is there a big antique fair somewhere soon? so they are looking for stock? or prob they have heard on the grapevine that things have been going cheap there lately?

I had a list that came into work which had a list of local auctions that was hand written on a scrap bit of paper, I will see if it is still there, and pm you the setails written on it, I dont know how old it is, or if the auctions are still going, but if i still got it, it might be worth doing a bit of reasearch on them, you never know there might be a gem of an auction there for you...

Davesnave.......I think everyone locally I have spoken to regarding their plants /gardens have said the same thing, lads of failed veg and flowers etc, the only things that people are having sucess with is broad beans, that they planted last autumn, Loads of people havent even bothered with hanging baskets this year....so i do feel sorry for the independant grower/seller this year.

Lots of people are also saying this weather is going to cause a shortage of fresh fruit and veg, and the prices are going to be high:eek: