The 'cheese-girls' at MonklandsTUESDAY 18 MARCH
HEREFORD...AGAIN
Thanks for all your ‘Welcome Back’ emails, texts, blog-comments and calls. I guess I really am a lucky geezer; I’ve got a job that I genuinely look forward to getting back to. In fact, to be honest, the work I do is never far from my mind, even when I’m away. Every now and again while Sue and me were meandering along the lanes of Herefordshire last week, I kept thinking ‘I must remember to mention that in the blog’ whensoever my attention was caught by a particularly picturesque village, a tasty (and intoxicating) cider, a striking view or a curious local word or expression - of which there were many. So many, in fact, that I’m going to mention some of them on The Nightshift. (A plock, for example, is a ‘meadow’; how weird is that?)
Needless to say, I had a wonderful week; it’s a strikingly beautiful county with strikingly friendly people (as, I suspect, people are everywhere except in North Yorkshire). The picture above is of the ‘cheese girls’ at Monklands, near Leominster (which, for reasons that are far from obvious, is pronounced ‘Lemster’). I can strongly recommend any of the products displayed so enticingly in front of them. On the second day of my holiday I bought four wedges of cheese to bring home as gifts and had eaten all of them within 24 hours. That’s how good they are.
And I made a big discovery, too. Perry. I’m ashamed to say that, until last week, I had never knowingly tasted perry (which, for those benighted souls not ‘in the know’, is cider - but made with pears rather than apples). It’s lovely. In fact, it’s more than lovely. It’s absolutely delicious. It goes without saying that the bottles I bought as presents didn’t make it to the north-east either.
I came away with thoughts and memories of the area which I know I will keep forever....the splendid towns of Ludlow (actually a mile or two inside Shropshire) and Hay-on-Wye, which has more bookshops per head than any other town in the world and which can’t quite decide whether it’s in England or Wales...the countless thousands of wild daffodils that seemed to border almost every inch of road....the profusion of unspoilt ancient churches hidden amongst trees in the folds of low and gentle hills....the lilting accent of Marcher folk - half rural English and half musical Welsh....the incredible ‘tidiness’ of the countryside, with mile after mile of carefully shaped and clipped hedgerows....huge bunches of mistletoe hanging from bare-branched trees.....good, local real ale in almost infinite variety....
Some of the place-names were able to stop a toponymist like me in his tracks too. Within a few miles of Sue’s village we passed through Clehonger, Edvin Ralph, Stretton Sugwas, Moccas, Bridge Sollers, Wormelow Tump and Bredwardine. Awesome.
SECRETS OF THE SEA
I hope you don’t mind what I’ve decided to do with Secrets.
CONTACT ME
Post comments on this blog or contact me in any one (or more) of these ways....
ian.robinson@bbc.co.uk
ianstuartrobinson@googlemail.com
text 07786 200954 (while the programme is on-air)
call (between about 0545 and 0630 Monday to Friday) 0191 232 6565
Ian Robinson, The Nightshift, BBC Radio Newcastle, Spital Tongues, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE99 1RN
NOTE
Please bear in mind that the views expressed in this blog are my own and NOT the views of the BBC.
HEREFORD...AGAIN
Thanks for all your ‘Welcome Back’ emails, texts, blog-comments and calls. I guess I really am a lucky geezer; I’ve got a job that I genuinely look forward to getting back to. In fact, to be honest, the work I do is never far from my mind, even when I’m away. Every now and again while Sue and me were meandering along the lanes of Herefordshire last week, I kept thinking ‘I must remember to mention that in the blog’ whensoever my attention was caught by a particularly picturesque village, a tasty (and intoxicating) cider, a striking view or a curious local word or expression - of which there were many. So many, in fact, that I’m going to mention some of them on The Nightshift. (A plock, for example, is a ‘meadow’; how weird is that?)
Needless to say, I had a wonderful week; it’s a strikingly beautiful county with strikingly friendly people (as, I suspect, people are everywhere except in North Yorkshire). The picture above is of the ‘cheese girls’ at Monklands, near Leominster (which, for reasons that are far from obvious, is pronounced ‘Lemster’). I can strongly recommend any of the products displayed so enticingly in front of them. On the second day of my holiday I bought four wedges of cheese to bring home as gifts and had eaten all of them within 24 hours. That’s how good they are.
And I made a big discovery, too. Perry. I’m ashamed to say that, until last week, I had never knowingly tasted perry (which, for those benighted souls not ‘in the know’, is cider - but made with pears rather than apples). It’s lovely. In fact, it’s more than lovely. It’s absolutely delicious. It goes without saying that the bottles I bought as presents didn’t make it to the north-east either.
I came away with thoughts and memories of the area which I know I will keep forever....the splendid towns of Ludlow (actually a mile or two inside Shropshire) and Hay-on-Wye, which has more bookshops per head than any other town in the world and which can’t quite decide whether it’s in England or Wales...the countless thousands of wild daffodils that seemed to border almost every inch of road....the profusion of unspoilt ancient churches hidden amongst trees in the folds of low and gentle hills....the lilting accent of Marcher folk - half rural English and half musical Welsh....the incredible ‘tidiness’ of the countryside, with mile after mile of carefully shaped and clipped hedgerows....huge bunches of mistletoe hanging from bare-branched trees.....good, local real ale in almost infinite variety....
Some of the place-names were able to stop a toponymist like me in his tracks too. Within a few miles of Sue’s village we passed through Clehonger, Edvin Ralph, Stretton Sugwas, Moccas, Bridge Sollers, Wormelow Tump and Bredwardine. Awesome.
SECRETS OF THE SEA
I hope you don’t mind what I’ve decided to do with Secrets.
CONTACT ME
Post comments on this blog or contact me in any one (or more) of these ways....
ian.robinson@bbc.co.uk
ianstuartrobinson@googlemail.com
text 07786 200954 (while the programme is on-air)
call (between about 0545 and 0630 Monday to Friday) 0191 232 6565
Ian Robinson, The Nightshift, BBC Radio Newcastle, Spital Tongues, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE99 1RN
NOTE
Please bear in mind that the views expressed in this blog are my own and NOT the views of the BBC.
7 comments:
Hello Ian, and welcome back. Glad you enjoyed your time away so much.
Whatever you do with "Secrets" can only enhance the fun we all had in putting it into print.
Im wondering what ians gonna do with secrets too, any guesses ?
hiya i think you,ll all have heard ian but if not i,ll be the bearer of good news, ians reading out secrets of the sea over easter weekend isnt it lovely.
night all. i,m a night hawk.
Hello everybody...I heard Ian play one of Cilla Black's lesser known tracks at 03:00 (great idea Maureen) if only I could remember which one it was.
Gilly...good job you told us about Ian reading out "Secrets" at the weekend cos I had dozed off and missed it. Must go, have a busy morning coming up.
For those of you who are now at a loose end now that the Secrets of the Sea is finished here's something to get your teeth into:
The answer to each question is a single word that can have both meanings:
1. To spray with powder or remove dust from.
2. Sanctified or damned.
3. Open to everybody or open to a restricted number of people.
4. Not good or very good.
5. Add to or remove from.
6. To open or shut.
7. Move gracefully or move clumsily.
8. To stick together or split apart.
9. A duty to notice things or a failure to notice things.
10. Remaining or departed.
11. That moves quickly or that does not move.
12. Very enthusiastic about something or very annoyed at it.
13. A three word phrase which means ‘to like more’ or ‘to like less’.
14. Acceptance and approval or disapproval and punishment.
15. A two-word phrase meaning either ‘working’ or ‘refusing to work’.
16. A two-word phrase meaning either ‘definite’ or ‘not possible’.
17. A two-word phrase meaning a small leap or a massive leap.
18. A two-word phrase meaning to stop something and to start something.
I'll put the answers onto the comments for the blog of Wednesday 5th March
Thanks for the quiz Kev, I'll take it with me to the allotment and ponder it whilst I sow some seeds. If it gives me any problems (and I think it will) then I have a stack of logs to cut, and chop!
Gilly, I missed you not giving me a weather forcast this morning, so here is mine ...its cold. Maybe some snow for easter Friday. So wrap-up well.
soz sid..been busy..womans works never done .
house work is like a revolving door...
heres the weather for today wet and windy..
thats a fib.. its bright and breezy, cathedrals bathed in sunshine,
but it,s very cold must be 3 below, fridays gotta be HORRENDOUS.
thats the weather for today,
ive had a blackbird trying to nest again in my holly bush.
kev.. i,m trying,... they look very interesting mind boggling which is what we want..
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