Local Explorations (by sarah)

Sunday Lionel (Alaric's Dad) took us out for lunch and an explore of the local area - it turned out that we have already discovered some of the attractions he'd wanted to show us like Hetty Peggler's Tump and the country park we like to hang out in! But we had a fun filled very sunny day.

It started with him and Alaric mowing in the morning as Barbara (Al's aunt wanted that done before we disappeared to enjoy our selved - I had gotten confused and thought we were all going out for a picnic).

Once mowing and the like had been completed we headed out to Sheepscomb - the neighbouring village to a Pub called the Butcher's Arms. We had attempted to go there once before but there had been no parking avaliable so this was a first. It was glorious weather and you can see across the valley - this is one of Lionels favourite views:

Alaric as always couldn't quiet leave work behind and so was found on the found for some of the pub visit!

But there were many shanagans involving Jean's pink hat!

It was pleasant waiting for the food which was really nice and we chatted about the local area and writing and things - I learnt some interesting things about a guest house that existed in Sheepscomb around the world wars but I'll disguess that on Salaric Cooking at some point in the future! But it did lead to a disgussion were I discovered our friends getting married next year! Yay!!!! 🙂

Jean made a friend called Emily and they bothed chased Alaric around loads and Lionel bumped into oour neighbour in the pub!

As always I had my carmera on me and so found things to photograph!

There was a humourous moment when just after announcing the fact there was a dog turd near our bench I almost knelt in it :/ Lionel then prodded it with a stick until it went away - though at one point this almost flicked it across the pub garden!

We then went on a drive about and he showed us where there is a Roman Well lurking though we didnt get out and walk down to it.

We eventually ended up at St Mary's Church Edgeworth mainly becuase Lionel likes the big mansion next to it (the place has its own steps into the church yard!) but I was in heaven with the photo oppurtunities!

There was a lovely lynch gate with sheep beyound!

Inside was fantastic with the blazing sun outside - the light coming in through the stain glass windows really was something to behold.

I found some interesting features on some of the gravestones - including a skull which I thought was interesting and got me thinking about a story line.

The entrance we came in was marked by this lantern which again just said something to me - I love the contrast with the blue sky and the day just seemed ripe to take pictures - even if I only have a happy snappy!

Jean loved exploring the graveyard and called it an adventure! She also announced that we were the Graveyard Girls - which I thought was a cute name for a girl goth band to be honest!

Lionel and Jean found some topary 'chickens' which they insisted on feeding - Lionel is of course obsessed with chickens so it seemed most apropraite.

We then got back in the car and continued driving - I was quiet tired at this point and begain to doze in the car which annoyed me as I wanted to take in where we were going and things.

Eventually we ended up in Cirencester (famed for its Roman roots), now we have explored this place but mainly just the main town bit as it was when I was still on crutches. Lionel took us to a great park/estate thing which appeared to have a castle at its gate!

Apparently the path goes on and on and is very french in the feel of it!

We would have gone futhure but as always - I needed the loo so we had to go on a toliet hunt! But I did take more pics on route!

I'm glad I did need the loo though becuase it ment we found a fantastic outdoors swimming pool which we plan to visit frequently (I think the helpfulness of the gate staff in telling us where they're loo was and not charging us anything really made me feel like this would be a nice place to spend sunny days!).

After that we headed back to the car for more driving about and being shown things - one of the things Lionel wanted to do was find a Ford he used to go over lots - we found something in the right sort of area and they asked me what I thought - I felt uneasy so Lionel got out to check and thought it looked a bit deep - this was becuase we were a road over from where we wanted to be and the nice lady in the house we were outside came and told us so and how to find the ford!

We found it and it had a white duck with orange beak on it that Jeany got a bit obsessed about! She's still talking about it now!

Lionel pointed out more road turnings with churches that are nice down them (not sure how much of it I will remember mind!). He took us to Syde Church purelly becuase it is titchy!

Syde Church

I'm sorry but the churchyard was a bit squished too and I couldn't get a good angle for the whole church.

But there was an excellent gate which I just had to take photos of:

There was a door that said Danger on it - and so naturally I came round the corner to find my family had climbed up the steps :/

Interestingly I then found another skull on a grave stone that looked somehow reminiscent of the one from the previous grave yard - this added fuel to my story idea.

And just as we were getting back in the car I noticed this fungus on a tree - anyone know what it is?

Off we went again and we headed towards a hill I have often seen and the Church that looks like its positioned where a fort should be - this is Churchdown and the Church is St Bartholomew's and it had a kissing gate which Jean learned the name off and then proceeded to enchant all the pensioners but informing them that it was a kissing gate :/

There is the most fantastic view over Cheltenham ever from here!

Again there was a mirrade of photo oppurtunities including some funky grave stones - though I didn't find any more skulls this time - there was however a sun dial which I thought was an interesting thing to have on a grave.

Jean and Lionel had fun investigating this fantastic bench!

There was also more interesting lanternage about which again lent a magical air to the day - I couldn't find anymore skull gravestones but as the evening service was about to start I didn't really have enough time to look!

Apparently the church is built on the site of a Roman temple dedicated to Jupiter.

Thirsty we headed off to another pub me and Alaric have only seen the car park off - the Edgemore.

Again there was an impressive view:

It was a fantastic day even if I did spend alot of time fretting about not having sunblock - and guess who was burnt?!

Alaric argues that he wasn't burnt becuase it didn't hurt :/

Jean off course was fine! I was being hen peck mum and stuff making her sit in the shade and wear her hat all day!

I am actually really looking forward to exploring all the little churches around here - and think Alaric's going to be sad about the amount of space my photos take up on the server!

Funerals – an update (by sarah)

Barbara did get to attend Linda's funeral - it was a big mix up that she wasn't 'invited' and they were upset that she wasn't being more involved and things like that - it would have been comedic if it wasn't so tradgic :/

Apart from that we still have these sick children coming to visit next month and she also wants us to go an visit a termanily ill friend of her's in Devon with Jean (the lady has grand kids so they can play). I think that the number of deaths is starting to wear her down abit even though she says she's used to it 🙁

Personally I think the kids will be hard to deal with on an emotional level 🙁

Another Funeral (by sarah)

Today is the funeral of a family friend, he died at the beginning of the month and there had to be an inquest and things - me and Al only met him once when we made him a birthday cake and assorted other things back in the autum. The son of one of Barbara's friends he seemed very nice and we had been corrasponding via letters and cards since.

Obviously we found out too late to go to the funeral and Barbara said yesturday even she wasn't sure if she could make it. Barbara's not having a good time with funerals at the moment, in that her friend who died the other week is having a closed funeral for family only - this I personal feel is a bit harsh as they saw an awful lot of each other and Barbara was on the list to be phoned incase of death and now she can't even go to the funeral :(.

Stupid as it seems this is making me very very nervous about everything - due to human nature we look for patterns and this pattern is one I don't want to see.

I feel very sad about Simon as the death was a bit of a shock.

A Sense of Deja Vu (by sarah)

Alaric left for London yesturday to fly out to Santa Clara for a MySQL conference thingy and within an hour of him leaving my mother asks me if I knew a neighbour - I say yes and then ask why.

She said Barbara had asked her if she had known Linda and when she had said no Barbara had just walked off.

A sinking feeling begain in my gut - Linda was a very sick woman and I was awere she hadn't been to visit for a while but then she always had spurts in hospital and stuff. So I went over to talk to Barbara and she said 'you didn't know my friend Linda but she dies yesturday.' I've been making preserves and giving them to Linda for about two years and her and her husband used to come found for a lot of meals with Barbara - we tracked down foods she'd had when she lived abroad that she couldn't find like tofu and balsamic glaze.

So I had to explain that we did know her and then deal with the fact that this was actually one of Barbara's closest friends in the village. She was very sick and apparently refused the dialysis that could have kept her alive for a bit longer 🙁

After that I found out from Barbara that some terminally ill children are coming over in May to visit and she would like it if me and Alaric could be around to take them on an outing.

I came back to the Bakery feeling troubled - I had one thought I could not shake - please god don't let this be another September. Family friend/villager dying - that was how it all started.

September - the catastrophic month - four funerals, three in one week.

Fear clinched at me - who was I going to loose? Who that I felt deeply about would be leaving me next? Stupid and idiotic, I fought the stupersticous thought. A pattern repeating, encircling me. Alaric away on business and the messages of death begin to arrive.

Insane thoughts - edged with tears for Alex once more.

Obviously no more such messages arrived but Barbara came over later that day to give me some cool gardening bits she had been sent for free/by mistake and didn't know what to do with and some recipies she'd cut out for me.

She also bought round a job advert - something she had cut out a while ago and forgotten to give me but seemed to be the perfect job for me - geologist, very local - Birdlip - walking distance really. It was the company Alex was working for when Alex died.

I saw the name of the company and thrust it back at her, 'no thats Alex's job' I cried - I don't even know if it was I just panicked as soon as I saw the company name.

'Oh he's that close is he?' Barbara asks - then she went on to ask why he hadn't been round for dinner or to visit recently. I couldn't say anything.

She carried on talking and then said - 'oh this company is the one that was involved with that poor boys death in that trench is it?'

I managed to say, 'That was Alex' and then ran out the room and locked myself in my room and cried.

Jean came and found me and 'hugged me better'. I still feel just so raw about it all. I'm wondering how often this is going to happen 🙁

Ada Lovelace Day: Barbara Snell (by alaric)

For Ada Lovelace Day I'm going to write about my aunt Barbara.

She's never been one to be arbitrarily limited by society - in the 1950s, she went and toured the world on her own; which was quite something for a woman in her early 20s to do!

She's retired now, but her career was in linguistics. In particular, she was a technical translator, translating equipment manuals from other languages to English; I've never obtained a full list of the languages she knows, but (from memory) all the main European languages, Russian, and Japanese have been mentioned.

Anyway, she happened to be working for Xerox when the job of translating some documentation relating to the Xerox Star came across her desk.

At the time, translators worked with typewriters; they'd type up a first draft of the translation, with lots of corrections pencilled in as they went along, as it's quite common to find you want to revise something you've already translated when you come to write a later paragraph. They would then have to type up a better copy incorporating the corrections; but this might then come back with amendments proposed by the marketing department or other stakeholders. So the translators spent a lot of time doing menial work.

So imagine Barbara's excitement when she read the manuals for an electronic word processor... So, never one to let convention stand in her way, she petitioned the management to let the translation department have some. This request was eventually fulfilled, and as she predicted, translation became a lot more efficient...

But Barbara continued to be vocal about the opportunities for computers to help with translation, driving developments within the company and starting a series of conferences on the use of computers in translation, which is perhaps why Xerox is considered "is the private company that has contributed the most to the expansion of machine translation"ref.

This was all about when I was being born, of course. But when, around 2000, Barbara retired and closed down her own translation business, I had the chance to take my pick of computer equipment as she was clearing out the office; I took away a 486 that became the home router - but I always wished I'd managed to claim her Xerox Star...