Golly What a Day!

 Like Robin Hood's final arrow our Sherwood holiday has come to and end. We will miss the Westworldy isolation of Centre Parcs and it's gated life of swimming and bikes.

Before reality was allowed fully back in we stopped off at the RSPB Sherwood Forest Centre, the modern epicentre of the Robin Hood legend.

Theres lots of spot-on info about Robin, Marion and the Merry Men, including the wedding place, the TV appearances and the movies! My favourite is the Sixties Disney cartoon! What's yours? 

The Centre has a fabulous collection of Hood movie posters on the walls. There's so many films! 

There's Robin's tackle everywhere too.

The man, the myth.

What a legend!

Pop culture, TV appearances, wooden swords and fancy goblets.

Even Dr. Who! Not an episode I know. You?

The famous forest

The big merry car park

One of the many robin cafes and shops

The famous forest of Sherwood

And the main attraction, short of Robin himself, it's his tree! 

For serious Loxley lounging .....

The Major Oak.

It's 1100 years old.

Now that's impressive!

Have you got an old tree nearby readers?

Centre Parcs: Futureworld

It's 32 years since we were last at Centre Parks in Sherwood Forest with our then 8 year old daughter but with a new generation of Grandchildren to holiday with, we find ourselves here once again.

The basic concept has stayed the same, chalets in a forest for staying in and car-free woodland roads for cycling on. A simpler life, which feels safer, but unfortunately costs a packet.

If you can ignore the fleeting notion that you're in the Truman Show or Westworld, there is something here in this concept. There's no doubt in my mind that a car-free village like this is a helluva lot of fun for families, you g and old alike. The cycling alone is so refreshingly easy and if you're like me, a complete novelty, as I retired from cycling with a Raleigh Chopper in the mid-1970's! 

Maybe there's a future somewhere, sometime, where towns are much smaller, everyone leaves there vehicles at the perimeter in vast car parks and cycles to and from home on car-free streets.

Have you been to Centre Parcs or a Forest village resort!

Boy with his Boat

 

This is yours truly with a toy boat. Not sure what it is. I seem to think it was blue.

Butlins, circa 1964 or 5.

Seaside Spades

As a kid I mostly had plastic spades made of greenish marbled recycled plastic.

Later I progressed to metal headed spades with a pointed tip like these.

Modern seaside shops carry a new beach spade, a shovel! 

Just think how much sand you could shift with that! 

Did you have a bucket and spade as a kid?

It's Looey But Where is He?

Hey, Moonbasers guess where I am?

Some lovely Hot Wheels and other stuff. Some prices a bargain, others eye watering!

Send your answers on a postcard to the comments section!

If anyone is interested in this stuff, I'm in town for the next few days...

Cheers,

Looey

Oz Base on the move

Sunshine on Reeth

 We're currently enjoying the rejuvenating Spring sunshine in glorious wild Swaledale in North Yorkshire. 

After a long winter it's great to be out. With the Swale wending through it, Swaledale is a gorgeous river valley, great for easy 60+ rambling and eating yummy ice cream in the dale's capital, Reeth.

The Swale is a spate river and rises very fast in heavy rain. Today it was low as there's been very little of the wet stuff this May here. I think a dry season is upon us.

Have you much rain readers? 

On the ramble I saw this sign for Grinton.

It reminded me of Grimpen, the fictional hamlet where The Hound of the Baskervilles is set. Beware the Grimpen Mire!

Is it a film you enjoy too?

The local woolly jumpers were taking easy. Very sheepish they were!

The Swale even has its own Golden Gate bridge, from where the Misses, me and a fellow rambler watched trout in the greenish water.

Drystone Walls were everywhere.

Sunshine on Reeth. A lovely little market down surrounded by fells. Here you can unwind, rest your bones and scoff a Brynmor ice.

You can sit on one of the many benches, watch the dale go by or read. I'm reading the Plague Pit from 1981. The early 1980's was a golden period for British pulp horror paperbacks, the double threats of looming nuclear war and unemployment firing a slew of young writers to pen such paranoic classics as the Devil's Coach Horse, Locusts and the Sucking Pit. Mark Ronson's The Plague Pit is typical and perfect reading on a sunny afternoon!

Do you like pulp horror stories?

I wasn't sure if my trainers would cope with our ramble but they proved to be fine footwear for the easy valley stroll.

Looking at them brings to mind Kyle Reese's iconic Nike Vandals in the Terminator! Wonder if you can still get them?

Bothies abound too, small sheep sheds made of the local stone, which sit snug on the slopes within the fretwork of walls

My own stone memento was this painted pebble from Reeth Market. I just liked it's colours and shapes.

The central apple core-like pattern brought back very happy memories of being a teenage fan of Rick Griffin and his hippy posters like this for the Grateful Dead containing gorgeous halved pears complete with pips!

Do you like Rick's style?

Have you been to the Yorkshire Dales?

Ducks in a Storm

Venturing out after being hunkered down all day, we went shopping for bread and milk. I was amazed to see the Space Shuttle still being used on cereal boxes. Here's one on this week's shreddies.

Is it still relevant to kids?

Braving hefty late-afternoon gusts of Storm Eowyn we met this cute buffeted duck sheltering behind our legs near the Derwent Water shore. Aw! Do you like ducks?

Keswick's ring of peaks was even moodier in the stormy dusk tonight.

The Lakeshore's ducks walked toward the warm glow of the houses to roost beside the park.

This igloo dining table caught my eye.

After being blasted by Eowyn we sought solace and pizza in Pockets bar and bistro.

Walking home we nipped into the North West's premier supermarket chain, Booths.

Kendal Mint Cake was aplenty. Do you know it? 

Aether Ransomes Swallows and Amazons was on offer, a famous Lakeland kids adventure. Do you know it? 

And as we left this beautiful travel poster reminded us of our hiking destination tomorrow, Castlerigg Stone Circle. Have you been?

James Bond, Johnstown Castle, Wexford

After my last blogworthy post featuring Dinky Prisoner mokes, here's a visit to a Dinky exhibition at Johnstown Castle Wexford Ireland. 

The Maurice Bryan model vehicle collection features over 600 items, but only a fraction are on display in a converted garage in the Castle grounds.

The exhibition signage is very nice with modified catalogue art. What is that red twin bubbled vehicle, Moonbasers? 

The James Bond car is a first run gold paint number, although it doesn't feature the road tax disc on the windscreen that my example does. 

Also, it's displayed in the full glare of daylight, so I don't expect it to last another 50 years!

Looey

On tour