Star and Garter Hotel Kew Bridge

Currently on ebay at £0.99 what a bargain...how many of us have been in this hotel?

I was just thinking how weird it would be to go back in time and walk into the pub and order a beer. What do you think the locals would make of you?....Bearing in mind this was taken around 1905.

I'm not convinced the atmosphere in the pub would be much different than today. The pub is close to the river, which always makes things interesting. The "Outrigger" in Kingston was a river pub....

I've always been drawn to river pubs, perhaps its the sound of water or maybe its that they attract scoundrels, vagabonds and thieves..........

Its no longer an hotel....it looks as though its been converted to flats....amazingly the building has survived, two world wars, England winning the World Cup, The Miners strike, 3 day working week, Maggie, Blair, and SO FAR another coalition Government ..............check it out.

Suffragette

"Suffragette" Tucks Postcard currently on sale on ebay....(Look for me at Taxcredit1)
Votes for Women?.........Hmmmmm I'm still thinking about that one. Should it be allowed? Whatever next give them the vote and before you can count to 64 there will be a female Prime Minister...This obviously was a tough time for many women, interestingly the lady? holding the banner is characterised as very manly.....is that a moustache I can see?....The smug look of the rozzer to the left....Very provocative. Have we really progressed? I saw some horrendous footage recently of a Policeman whacking a young girl on the leg with his baton..(G20) ..I'm sure he was being provoked.....but hey minimum force.
There again the current Minister for Police...(it makes it/her sound more sinister) is up to her neck in scandal.....Where will it all end?.........................The bidding for this card is now up to £14.65 is that the same amount that was paid for a smutty video? Or a bath plug?. Why are we being misled?...It is usually to distract us from the real issues. Which gets me to the point that I was trying to mae.west......Its a really great bit of social history and that people were prepared to die for their beliefs should not be forgotten. Has the vote for women changed our society? Do we really live in a world that is a better place?......I keep thinking about the smug expression on the rozzers face. In our time frame his boss is a woman..................Now does that make things clearer?

West Langwell Spring Lambs 2009

West Langwell new arrivals Spring 2009, my Suffolk Cross came up trumps with twins. Each year she has been no bother at all. She was a gift to me when I started Crofting from my good friend Sandy Gordon.....Cheers Sandy!!












Not sure about this one......her lambs are just so small..........and vulnerable

The Three Musketeers

An afternoon at Paulos. We talked and drank and talked and drank. Not sure what we talked about .......I think we drank vin rouge.

From the left......Paulo, Smithy and yours truly.

Happy days, the sun was shining, the children and women were somewhere else. Just us three.

Misty Roses

I was playing some Tim Hardin the other day and thought of this.

Some years back I was on a river boat trip with some friends. Justin played guitar and sang all afternoon, his repertoire was amazing. Misty Roses, Brass Buttons...... reverberated around the water, we travelled from Thames Ditton all the way to Kingston and back. The boats name was "Bricks and Mortar" it is still moored on Ash Island, Molesey, and is being cared for by the beautiful Sarah.

This photograph is of an old decaying combine harvester. A machine that worked hard for a very limited period in the year, its sole purpose was to gather the crop. After that it lay dormant for another 11 months. Now it sits in a field, forgotten and neglected...."You look to me like misty roses".

Ardmore on your right and heading West for Loch Laxford. We nearly ran aground...the tide was very high and we hit some rocks with the propeller.....booom!. Very spectactular...dont want to do that again.....ever.

I looked for the life vests and found one....."Its mine I shouted!"....there were no women or children aboard...I was very tempted to make Johnnie walk the plank but he is bigger than me and he was the Skipper.....Needless to say we survived......Once more. What I must say is that Ardmore is truly a magical place....the Vikings and our ancestors would have sailed into these sheltered bays taking refuge from the gales from the Atlantic.

John Ross has a mussel farm not far from here.........the mussels are....the best I have ever tasted....keep up the good work John.

This was a perfectly good colour photograph until I decided to muck about with it.................................In hind sight I really like it........................... so here it is!

oZTralia

I was travelling between Cairns and Mt Isa.......This was the road. Mile after mile of red dusty hard ground.
By the side of the road (not captured on film) were thousands of empty beer cans....The aboriginals would get it together to collect these cans for the aluminium. Just occasionally I would spot a coke can and think "my god there's been a teetotaler along this way".

When I eventually arrived in Darwin....I found out that Territorians dont use Kilometers or Miles as a measure of distance.....they use the unit "Carton". A "Carton" consists of 24 cans of beer.....Therefore a trip from Darwin to Kathrine for example would be a 3 Carton trip, 150kms, or 72 cans of beer. This of course depended on how many people were travelling!.
If you asked how far it was from Darwin to Alice Springs????....Unknown................ because no one ever returned from Alice Springs to tell the tale............