John - Archived Entries for 2019 / 6

Try to pretend you don't want one of these tweed caps.

Dr John Hawkins

Welcome to my bit of the Maison de Stuff, home to a huge load of pictures, and my daily blog.

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Recent Entries:: Avebury
Summer Concert
Garden
Stemware
Vinegrowing Course Day 7
Crudough
Breaky Bottom
Friday
Walter
Rain
Morris Dancing at the Pineapple
Rain
Sunday in the East Midlands
Saturday in the East Midlands
Hattingley Valley
Kati Rolls and Jeremy's Garden
Wednesday
Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell Again
Olivocarne and Go Ape
Morning in Pantygelli
White Castle and Sugar Loaf
Ancre Hil and The Crown at Pantygelli
Parva Farm and the Lion Inn
Three Choirs
Mayfair
Greenwich

Avebury: [Friday 21st June 2019]
I do not know quite where the idea to do something for the summer solstice originated between me and the usual suspects (Andrew, Jim and Ricardo). This is something which had been there in the background since at least this time last year, when Andrew had remonstrated us for completely failing to organise anything for the previous longest day of the year.

We are all somewhat cynical chaps, quite a long way from your classic New Age traveller stereotypes, and yet to some extent or other we're all in the throes of a midlife crisis, and I suspect we're all to some degree wondering why we're here and so forth. Perhaps that is overstating it, and the others may have just been looking for an excuse for a boozy jolly and something a bit different to break up the monotony. I at least though was quite excited at the prospect of touching upon something atavistic and primeval like this.

That said, getting there and back was a bit of the hassle, not least because two of my three travelling companions seemed to have a surprising lack of familiarity with the UK rail network. One (who shall remain nameless) asked earlier on in the day whether trains to Swindon went from Kings Cross. This would have seemed baffling enough in isolation, where it not for the fact that just minutes before our train was due to leave Paddington we got a message from another member of our group along the lines of:

"I'm at the station, where are you all?"

"We're at the station, on the platfrom by the train."

"Errrr... it is Kings Cross the train goes from isn't it?"

So it took a bit longer for us all to get to Swindon that originally planned, but given it was the longest day of the year by the time we had all arrived, around 5:30, we still had several hours of daylight ahead of us.

We got a taxi to Hackpen Hill, so we could walk a bit of the Ridgeway to Avebury. I wrote an account of the walk on John Goes For a Walk.

We arrived at the outskirts of Avebury a little after 8. Coming in as we did along the Wessex Ridgeway from the east, we encountered a few New Age types who had parked their vans along the track. Again, we really didn't fit the stereotype I had assumed for solstice attendees. Me particularly - not just that I seem to look out of place everywhere given the way I dress but I had a portable ice bucket with a couple of bottles of English sparkling wine in it. However we walked together for a little way with a couple of people who I assumed to be regulars, and they seemed entirely unfazed by our relatively strange appearance and trappings. I recall internally reacting with knee jerk cynicism to the description of the summer solstice at Avebury I was given as we walked along - "it has a really good energy"... but I think ultimately I would come to agree with that sentiment, albeit that I would feel compelled to put it in slightly more reserved terms - perhaps atmosphere rather than "energy".

After a walk around the stones, we eventually settled on the ridge towards the south east of the stone circle where it seemed the largest concentration of people were gathering to watch the sunset. Of course the main event for the summer solstice was the sunrise, but not being New Age types we were still at the mercy of full time employment, and couldn't so easily make it there for that. I was pleased to see though that there was still a decent turnout for the sunset. I suspect some people had just stayed there all day.

Again I felt a bit out of place as we set up our little pitch on the ridge, for our decidedly middle class mainstream society picnic - with bottles of English sparkling wine (I had put some thought into this and procured a couple of bottles of the sparkling wine made by nearest vineyard, Maud Heath), drank out of little plastic cups, and an accompanying cheese board. We should probably have been drinking mead, or at a bare minimum something a bit more primal like cider.

Objectively, in terms of pure cold hard aesthetics, the sunset itself probably wasn't the most spectacular or dramatic I'd ever seen... but something about being in that place, at that time, amongst all those other people with a somewhat common purpose made it actually quite special. Indeed, it did have an "energy".
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Summer Concert: [Thursday 20th June 2019]
The summer concert at Erika's school, most of which I spent working behind the bar!
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Garden: [Wednesday 19th June 2019]
A few pictures of the garden after a shower.
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Stemware: [Tuesday 18th June 2019]
Reusable plastic stemware for the summer concert arrived.
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Vinegrowing Course Day 7: [Monday 17th June 2019]
Final day of my vinegrowing course. Theory session ending with a (very hard!) test in the morning, then a visit to Bluebell Vineyard in the afternoon.
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Crudough: [Sunday 16th June 2019]
Pizza at Crudough in Archway for lunch.
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Breaky Bottom: [Saturday 15th June 2019]
Returned to Breaky Bottom to try the new releases.

Read more about our visit here.
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Friday: [Friday 14th June 2019]
Finally a bit of improvement in the weather.
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Walter: [Thursday 13th June 2019]
Walter was visiting London this week, so I saw him this evening.
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Rain: [Wednesday 12th June 2019]
More rain today.
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Morris Dancing at the Pineapple: [Tuesday 11th June 2019]
London Pride and Sharp Morris dancing at the Pineapple.
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Rain: [Monday 10th June 2019]
Rained quite hard today.
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Sunday in the East Midlands: [Sunday 9th June 2019]
Spent the morning assembling a wishing well for Mum's garden, then a Sunday roast, before getting the train back to London in the afternoon.
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Saturday in the East Midlands: [Saturday 8th June 2019]
Got the train in the afternoon to the East Midlands and spent the early evening in Mum's garden.
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Hattingley Valley: [Friday 7th June 2019]
Tried some Hattingley Valley this evening, an English sparkling wine from Hampshire I'd heard a lot of good things about.
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Kati Rolls and Jeremy's Garden: [Thursday 6th June 2019]
Went for Kati rolls with Chie for lunch. In the evening I went for a glass of wine and a chat with Jeremy in his garden.
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Wednesday: [Wednesday 5th June]
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Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell Again: [Tuesday 4th June 2019]
Went to see Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell again at the Coach and Horses.
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Olivocarne and Go Ape: [Monday 3rd June 2019]
Erika had the day off school for a teacher training day and Chie wasn't feeling well so I took the day off work. Went to Olivocarne for lunch followed by Go Ape in Battersea Park.
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Morning in Pantygelli: [Sunday 2nd June 2019]
Spent a lovely morning at our cottage in Pantygelli, followed by a slightly frantic lunch before getting the train back to London.
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White Castle and Sugar Loaf: [Saturday 1st June 2019]
Fit in a couple more Monmouthshire vineyard visits today - White Castle in the morning, and then Sugar Loaf over lunch. Back to Vera and Robin's house for the remainder of the afternoon and dinner.

More on the visit to White Castle here, and more on the visit to Sugar Loaf here.
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Ancre Hil and The Crown at Pantygelli: [Friday 31st May 2019] Spent the morning in Monmouth, then walked over to visit Ancre Hill Estate for a vineyard tour and tasting. Got a taxi from there to Abergavenny where I met up with Chie and Erika at Vera and Robin's house, and then together we all went to the Crown at Pantygelli for dinner before retiring for the evening at our cottage next door.

More on my visit to Ancre Hill here.
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Parva Farm and the Lion Inn: [Thursday 30th May 2019]
Got the train from London to Chepstow, a taxi from there to Tintern, and visited Parva Farm vineyard. Took a bus to Llandogo then walked up the hill to Trellech to see the standing stones and visit the Lion Inn. Finally walked from Trellech down into Monmouth where I stayed the night.

More on my visit to Parva Farm here, and more on my walk today here
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Three Choirs: [Wednesday 29th May 2019]
Another evening in the garden, albeit it was raining this time! Tried the English sparkling wine from Three Choirs.

Seemed an appropriate choice on the eve of my trip to Monmouthshire to visit all the local vineyards there, given that most of them send their grapes to be made into wine to Three Choirs.
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Mayfair: [Tuesday 28th May 2019]
Chie and Erika went off to Wales to stay with friends for a few nights as it was half term, so I had the evening to myself in London. I headed to Mayfair to try the Mayfair Chippy, then headed home for some ESW in the garden.
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Greenwich: [Monday 27th May 2019]
Took Erika to Greenwich for the day to see a performance of Wind in the Willows in the park.
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