The brighter side of lockdown

EasMid

Well-Known Forumite
As @BobClay said, it’s the MSG ( mai jing(sp) as many call it) A really tasty addition to any dish. We use it instead of salt in most cooking. Lovely stuff but not the healthiest option when you spoon it in.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
My mobility zone expanded dramatically on Monday - from a 5km radius to the whole county, plus up to 20km from base into other counties. This covers more than I would normally be doing anyway - i generally only use the western half of the county and my preferred supermarket is 18km from here, in the next county - I may make a foray out there tomorrow evening.

In the meantime, I decided to celebrate my freedom by going to the bog.

This involved some roads which are not up to the usual standard around here, despite them being public highways. Surprisingly, I discovered that the Street View car had traversed to whole of my intended route, so I could make a reasonable assessment of the suitability of the terrain for me and my bike. It looked plausible.

The Street View pictures suggested that I could expect this sort of carriageway, which, indeed, was what i encountered for about 70% of the few miles of the route "between tarmac sections".

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However, the first kilometre is the most heavily used part, traffic falling off as side-accesses are passed - it also provides emergency/maintenance access for the railway - so, that part has been aggressively 'gravelled'.

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With "tarmac slicks" on, this was an entertaining ride, but I didn't actually fall off.

Eventually, I exited the improved section.

It struck me that, apart from the greenery, you could make a reasonable spaghetti western here.

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Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
It being a nice, warm, sunny, calm day, I decided to go to the bog again.

On my way along the initial access road, I came across this gate - the steady breeze, blowing across the drain holes for the galvanising, was creating a loud, unearthly howl* - encountering it on a dark night would be a little unnerving.

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There is a loop through the interior which looked interesting. The Street View car has been in about a third of the way from each end, but omitted the centre section. I put this down to it perhaps being a bit wet at the time, but I discovered that the "Darien Gap" is actually due to the only half-real path bridging the gap being a farm track that involves theoretically trespassing - it's the track on the left of the 'river' here, and further along, the deep ruts would stop anything four-wheeled that was more domesticated than a tractor.

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The right-hand side is currently just about traversable on foot, but that would, on an annual basis, be a rare status. To be fair to Google, neither route was viable for the sort of civilised hatchback that they normally seem to use. The driver had turned round before reaching a point where the cause of the difficulty could be seen in the images, for the sake of not ending up bogged down in the middle of nowhere.

Even going up the 'public' side on foot would involve negotiating your way round a few obstacles like this.

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* The railings on Sainsbury's car park will sometimes do it, too.
 

BobClay

Well-Known Forumite
Bit of 'peat' cutting going on ? I remember as a kid watching my Grandad cutting peat with a peat cutting narrow spade type thing. All for the fire.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
The promise of another nice day led to my first (half) day out.

Twenty miles, taking in a lot of back roads to what was a very major establishment in its day.

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This is not the original building, having had some issues with Vikings and various fires, but this dates from around 1380.

One of the original head chaps at the site got the place organised and then decided, in 739, that he would head to the European mainland and sort them out, too. This led to him founding the city of Salzburg, where he is commemorated by a statue on the cathedral.

In recent decades, there has been a continued interchange between the two places.

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The local school here, being named after him, has annual exchanges with a school in Salzburg, despite not having German on the curriculum - that doesn't seem to present any difficulties, though.

I wouldn't be absolutely sure of the population there these days, but it can't be as much as three figures - like having Coton Clanford twinned with a place the size of Worcester.

In the adjacent field are the remains of even earlier occupation of the site.

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The return journey was a zigzag to record the interesting railway bridges over the main line.

But, that is for my other forum...
 

Thehooperman

Well-Known Forumite
Had a lovely walk from Fairway along the Sow, then back along the canal to Radford Bank and back along Lichfield road and Queensville. Unfortunately Bee couldn’t come because of her back condition affecting her legs :-(

I was surprised that the Radford Bank wasn’t open with their largish garden and the Spit only had a few customers. I would have boosted their custom but I was driving :-(

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EasMid

Well-Known Forumite
We’ve been on a bit of a health kick for the past few weeks (apparently) that has involved reduced alcohol intake. I’m surprised how so little alcohol can have such an effect. Should make for a couple of cheap nights next week ( or a couple of embarrassing ones).
 
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