I don't suppose there is anyone who reads this blog who would be interested in a forum on the Three Rivers Race, which is one of my great interests but just in case, the link is here

http://www.threeriversrace.org.uk/index.php5?title=Forum

Poems in my heart

Crossing the bar

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar, 
When I put out to sea.

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,    
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep 
Turns again home!

Twilight and evening bell,    
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,    
When I embark;

For though from out our bourn of Time and Place    
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face 
When I have crost the bar.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

This poem is immediately evocative for me
of one of my oldest friends who
unexpectedly died in 2009.
This poem was read at his funeral
and will always remind me of him
and how lucky I was, after almost
25 years,to meet him again
before he died.


He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

W B Yeats

I have a special place in my heart for this poem.  The last two
lines were quoted on a written note left on my son's grave by
a young girl who had a fledgling relationship with him,
maybe unrequited I don't know, just before he was tragically
killed aged 17.  She carried him in her heart for many years and
obviously grieved for what might have been. I hope she has
gone on to find love.

"but February made me shiver"

February has always been the worst month of the year for me but not for the same reasons as Don MacLean! In my mind, it is always grey, cold and damp and this year has been no exception. I am sitting here looking out of the window at 10.00 am on a Monday morning at greyness, which is reflecting my current mood – and watching the postman’s van disappearing up the road without even delivering anything to me.

Whether it is the weather or the impending birthday in March, signifying yet another year has passed, I don’t know (have just noticed another wrinkle which I’m sure wasn’t there yesterday!).

It could be that I haven’t been able to get out with the camera for a while. I did snap some lovely crocuses in the garden and even resorted to photographing a shell which had been decorating a plant pot but I crave the open spaces and tranquillity of the Broads where there is always something new to attract my attention.

I do know that I shall probably feel better when February has gone and although I try and ignore the month every year, it somehow always catches up with me.

Faces

I read this http://timbobig.blogspot.com/2011/02/sweet-dreams.html followed by a spooky feeling, as I also had a weird experience recently.

I was told by someone who shall be nameless that I am a Witch and this is my profile:

"A witch is the ultimate friend. Given their powers to save and protect those who deserve their help. Witches are usually the first being to settle down and start a family. Surrounding them with friends and family. A witch can shock you with their patience and views. They have the ability to cast spells and create the most powerful potions. Many witches would die for those who they love and consider family."

I was then looking at a photo I took of an owl and saw myself in the background. If you look closely you can see me .........

Krasadis Restaurant

I was saddened to hear last week that Krasadis, the best Greek restaurant in Norwich, was closing after 28 years.

Krasadis was part of my life for many years with most major events in my life being celebrated at the restaurant and we got to know the lovely Cypriot owners' family very well over that time.

To start at the beginning – we were in Norwich one evening and, on impulse, decided to go for a kebab at a little restaurant/take-away. We had never been there before so were not sure what to expect but the evening turned out to be more than we expected!

We placed our order and sat with drinks, listening to the background Greek music which was increasingly drowned out by raised voices, in Greek, in what was obviously a row going on between the two men running the restaurant! Suddenly, one of the men unplugged the music centre, tucked it under his arm and with a final riposte in Greek, stormed out of the restaurant.

We sat quietly, waiting for the next move, and the other chap eventually came over, full of apologies, with our meal which was very good! After a little while, someone turned up with another music centre and the music was resumed. We thought no more of this.

About four months’ later, we were again in Norwich one evening and just up the road from the original Greek restaurant, we noticed a new one had opened so decided to give it a go. As we walked in, we recognised the owner as being the man who had been left in the other restaurant and, as it turned out, this particular evening was his opening night and we were his first customers!

We got talking to him and his wife and were told the story of what had happened, the row between him (Dimitri known as Jimi) and his brother-in-law and his decision to go it alone.

We had such a good meal and got on so well with Jimi and Christa that we made this restaurant our ‘local’, visiting once a week normally. As we lived within walking distance, it was often a spur of the moment decision to visit.

Over the years we watched Jimi and Christa’s family grow until they had three children, two girls and a boy who used to appear shyly in the restaurant to say hello to us. We spent Christmas Eve with the family most years – they used to shut the restaurant early and invite selected friends to a delightful evening of laughter and drinks – many times we staggered home at 2 am full of Cyprus brandy!

A number of momentous occasions were celebrated at Krasadis – surprise parties for birthdays and family get togethers and Jimi and Christa shared in some of the most joyous and also the saddest moments of our lives.

I understand the reasons for the family closing the restaurant and send my best wishes to Christa for her recovery but hope that Lucas will be able to continue the tradition of hospitality and friendship for many years to come.

Some birds I have snapped!

A few of my favourite bird photos from 2010 ...

Last night out on the boat 2010

We had more or less decided that last weekend would be the final one that we stayed overnight on the boat this year. With the colder, damp weather and the early dark evenings, it was not so much fun being in a confined space from 6pm until 7am! And the condensation would always be a problem.

There were conflicting weather forecasts so we made the decision to do it anyway. The Snowflake Sailing Club Tri-Icicle race from Horning down to Acle, then up the Thurne, was taking place on Sunday and having enjoyed watching last year, we decided we would find a quiet spot to watch and maybe get a few photos.

After pottering around for a while on Sunday we set off around 11.00 am to find the quiet spot! Not much luck with the ‘wild’ moorings, with the bank work going on and the public moorings were mostly full. As we came towards Ranworth entrance, we saw sails in the distance so decided to drop into a small bay at the river side and drop two mudweights to hold us steady.

One large mudweight went over the stern but as the skipper went up forward to drop the other one, the boat started to turn in the wind and tide. Dropped the bow mudweight but with both down, the boat was still moving at quite a rate of knots! The mudweights were obviously not holding!

The skipper decided to abort the plan, as by this time the river was getting very crowded – not with the yachts which were still quite a way away, but with hire motor boats, obviously totally puzzled by what we were trying to do. One or two asked if we were ok (thanks Craig!) but all in all, it was a bit embarrassing! To make it even more embarrassing, when the skipper went to pull up the stern mudweight, he lost a shoe overboard! He has mules which he wears on board and, despite my reminding him (!) he went on deck in them. Inevitably, one came off and floated into the reeds! So there he was, fishing around with the boat hook, eventually managing to hook the mule back on board. He put it on the roof, to dry off! I couldn't stop laughing!!

We got going again and managed to take a few photos of the Tri-Icicle – not quite as imposing a spectacle as last year as the yachts were more spread out but still a lovely sight. As the last one went past, we turned and slowly followed them down river. I started to review my photos and realised that I had the camera set up wrong (I forgot Lord Paul’s reminder on ISO!) and most of them were a bit over-exposed. Damn and blast! What was going to be the third thing to go wrong!

The sailing boats were going much faster than us due to the brisk wind and by the time we got to St Benet’s Abbey,we saw one of the Norfolk Punts coming back! He was quick, we thought – it transpired later that this boat retired after a major fill-up at Upton and was making his way back home. We got down to the Thurne Mouth and the skipper positioned us at the side of the river so I could take a few snaps as the boats came up from Acle and went on up the Thurne before turning on the homeward leg.

I managed to take one or two but we were suddenly hit by a squall which made boat handling difficult and blew the saved mule off the roof into the water! Despite my efforts with the boat hook, it raced off downriver, bobbing about in the waves! If anyone finds a smart Dunlop Premier Collection size 10 mule, would be grateful for a message! ;)

We decided to abort at this stage as there was quite a long gap until the next boats came through and with very black clouds approaching fast, the weather looked a bit ominous. We got back to our moorings safely and were tied up before the next rain squall hit.

Some friends came on board for a cuppa and we pottered again for an hour or so before starting to pack up for home. There was a lot of activity on the Broad, with a large number of sailing cruisers manoeuvring, with parties of young people on board and a few rowing dinghies intermingling with them, obviously from the same party. There was also a dinghy with an outboard which kept roaring around, up and down the dyke, until the skipper got fed up and shouted to him to keep to the speed limit – especially important as the tide was so high and there was a big risk of fenders on moored boats ‘popping’ over the quay in the wash.

We were watching a couple of yachts coming off the Broad under power and one appeared to be coming in to moor on our moorings. We had our eyes on this boat (Trade Wind) when the skipper suddenly noticed another one (High Seas) heading straight for our stern. We had our canopy up so he had to rapidly undo the zips and jump on deck, onto our stern platform and just managed to fend off the metal bowsprit, which would have gone through our stern. He was shouting ‘go astern, go astern’ to the young person in control of the boat, which she eventually did. Phew, a nasty accident avoided!

We were understandably upset by this and the person driving the dinghy with the outboard came alongside and apologised, saying the skipper of ‘High Seas’ had gone overboard and the youngsters on board didn’t know what to do. We felt (and told him) that they should have been briefed on what to do in this circumstance, one of the most important things for the ‘skipper’ to do was to keep a lookout for obstacles – like our boat!! We had heard no splash, no shouting of ‘man overboard’ or any indication that there was an emergency or we would obviously have tried to assist, even with verbal directions. He was hauled into the dinghy, which turned out to be the ‘rescue boat’ and put back on board the yacht.

One of the reasons given by the rescue boat driver, responding to our comments was that they were a party of youngsters from a Christian charity on their first day out! We felt this was totally irrelevant and in our opinion they had not been fully instructed on what to do in an emergency; it seemed irresponsible that there appeared to be only one competent person on board each boat! These are big, heavy boats, not dinghies and need to be respected as such. Photo is of the two boats involved, finally leaving the Broad.

Just after this we saw another incident by the same party, where a dinghy being rowed by a young person, side swiped a small sailing dinghy and both nearly capsized! Another example of not being aware of who else was on the river.

The commodore of this sailing party came down to our moorings and took on board our comments about briefing the youngsters. As we said to him, it was lucky we were on our boat as we wouldn’t have been happy to find a hole in the stern on our next visit and we felt sure the last thing the boatyard would want would be an insurance claim!

All in all, a fairly incident packed weekend but one we could have done without!