Castle Aching

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, Bill_J said:

My other half is Greek/Canadian. You can insult a Canadian by asking "Are you American?", but strangely not the other way round. My father-in-law, also Greek/Canadian, cannot understand most British accents (especially when it suits him not to do so). Regional accents/dialects everywhere, can differ greatly in any country.

 

After living in Hampshire for the last forty-five years, I have a very developed Hampshire hog accent. When I fist settled here however, I had very little accent so was considered to 'talk posh'.

I used to know a bloke who came from California. If we wanted to really wind him up, we'd call him a South Canadian.

[jwealleans]

This.

[Buhar]

13 hours ago, corneliuslundie said:

 

PS Is there meant to be any connection between this discussion and railways? Just asking.

George Stephenson got a mention a few posts ago. But this is CA! Everything is connected, somehow and the challenge is to keep up.

Alan 

[runs as required]

1 hour ago, jwealleans said:

This.

Shurely that must be 'ironic' - it goes on way too long for a pre 9pm TV ad.

 

When I started Grammar school in north Derbyshire we had 'speech training' for the First year intended to turn us all out with proper received pronunciation.

I (and the teacher) had the greatest difficulty because I turned up with with my strong Esssex Council school accent when  she was trying to convert everyone from 

Derbyshire 'Siri' speak as in "Narthen Siri - art on't booz the neet wi' your kid's buke ?"

Whereas I'd say "Wacha mait! You on the bass ternoit wiv your sis's bewc ?" 

Fortunately she didn't succeed with any of us - only yesterday a stranger asked me if I came from SW Essex; when I said yes and they said "So do I.  I was born in  Hornchurch but I've lived in Blaydon for 40 years."

dh

 

Edit 

adding a PS after reading the preceding post 

Answer: the connection with railways is mobility. Just as the railway introduced Welsh slate to CA 

Edited September 19, 2019 by runs as required

[Compound2632]

7 minutes ago, runs as required said:

Answer: the connection with railways is mobility. Just as the railway introduced Welsh slate to CA 

 

In particular, the larger companies moved their employees around with no regard as to whether they would understand or be understood locally.

 

Not to forget railway time, too, and the dissemination of newspapers.

[Edwardian]

7 minutes ago, runs as required said:

 

Whereas I'd say "Wacha mait! 

 

 

Well, indeed, you're always saying that. Whenever we meet in fact.

 

I think that the deck ads would have been even funnier if they had been genuine product ads, playing on comic potential of the pronunciation. 

[Donw]

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Dr Ditch in charge of a Sunday afternoon boating expedition through crocodile-infested waters.

 

 

 

ON TOPIC WARNING this contains a steam engine.

 

 

[Nearholmer]

Disappointed by the paucity of ditches of the day, I contribute again, from a swift pedal round the local river valleys.

 

Real problem with the general arcadianness that is going on at the moment, see Ditch A, mill leat with swan and small white heron (never see a white heron before; not something else is it?). [Yes, I think it’s a Little Egret, resident in Britain only since the 1980s. It did look as if it was fretting about residency rights if the B-thing happens.]

 

Ditch B is on-topic (see train), and is famous locally because it is inhabited by crayfish, probably the American kind. The bridge through it is pretty cool, but hard to cycle without crashing.

 

Either Ditch would form a comfortable final resting place.

Edited September 19, 2019 by Nearholmer

[Edwardian]

Well done that man!

 

This double-ditch, in Norfolk, required labour, with the result that there is more than one position that can be taken in it, depending upon whether you are facing north or south. 

 

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

Either Ditch would form a comfortable final resting place.

 

I'd prefer the "final resting ditch" to be rather less salubrious, if you get my drift.  The crayfish would be appropriate too, snapping at all the soft fleshy bits...

 

Notice how the swan is looking sideways at the heron/egret/whatever, I should imagine that the glare is doing nothing to assuage its B-word anxiety either!

 

(It looks small, so perhaps its a juvenile Heron?  However, I'd like to think it was an Egret!)

 

 

[Nearholmer]

It caught my eye because it was white and small, but also had yellow feet. Initially, the feet made me wonder if it was some kind of coot. 

 

The photo makes it look miles away, and indistinct, but actually I could see it very clearly.

 

we see herons nearly every day, young ones in late spring too, and I’ve never seen anything else like this.

 

PS: very interesting egretalia https://www.bto.org/understanding-birds/species-focus/little-egret

 

PPS: And, according to this authoritative-looking bird-gricing website, there are confirmed sitings up and downstream of where I copped this one https://species.nbnatlas.org/species/NHMSYS0000530348

Edited September 19, 2019 by Nearholmer

[martinT]

Count yourself lucky to have such arcadia! All crayfish, egrets, juvenile herons, & all other forms of life have recently been evicted from our local ditch - the Callow Brook, about 6 miles NW of Cambridge:

 

About ¾ mile of it has been completely cleared of vegetation, any trees lucky to survive, such as these poplars, have been 'bollarded' as here!

Martin

[Northroader]

This is, like, a sort of ditch thing, but it’s not dug out because you’d get entrapped. It’s the world famous Wootton Bassett mud springs, even Brunel avoided it when he built the GWR. 

[Nearholmer]

World famous, eh?

 

you can see why, can’t you?

 

It is pretty weird, and big too, according to Wikipedia.

Edited September 19, 2019 by Nearholmer

[Hroth]

27 minutes ago, martinT said:

Count yourself lucky to have such arcadia! All crayfish, egrets, juvenile herons, & all other forms of life have recently been evicted from our local ditch - the Callow Brook, about 6 miles NW of Cambridge:

 

Certainly looks blasted, though come the rains such an unimpeded ditch will carry the floods away to places that have been less thorough and more picturesque!

 

Looks like Mr McGregors been out and about again...

 

[Nearholmer]

RIP Father.

[Compound2632]

The theme was "dead in a ditch" not "dead in a pie"...

 

... pie traffic onto the WNR would undoubtedly be from Melton, in a Midland covered goods wagon, say D362.

[Hroth]

5 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

RIP Father.

 

Tasty!

I'm having chicken tonight.....

 

Returning to the slough that is the Wootton Basset Mud Springs for a moment, the Wikipedia article makes it sound like a miniature (failed) Jurassic Park, or Pond with "iridescent fossils originating in the mid to late Oxfordian age of the Late Jurassic. The fossils, sometimes with aragonite covering, include foraminifera and ostracoda and are exceptionally well preserved.".

 

 

Edited September 19, 2019 by Hroth
The curse of SPELIN!!!

[Nearholmer]

Which, in a roundabout way, brings us back to The PM, who got in one of his muddles (= made things up) about red-tape restricting pork pie globalisation.

[Compound2632]

1 minute ago, Nearholmer said:

Which, in a roundabout way, brings us back to The PM, who got in one of his muddles (= made things up) about red-tape restricting pork pie globalisation.

 

It has been alleged that he is an expert on pork pies.

[dunwurken]

Back in the 1960's my father and I travelled from Edinburgh to visit a cousin who lived in Tonbridge.  Since we were as close to France as we had ever been we decided on a day trip to Calais to sample French refreshments.  The ferry was rather late back into Dover, nothing to do with drunken Scotsmen, and it was to be a rush to catch the last train back to Tonbridge.   There was one taxi but in addition to ourselves another couple were also in need of a taxi and as the they also needed to get that last train we agreed to share and asked the driver not to spare the horses.  Once in the taxi we exchanged pleasantries with the couple and the man turned to us and said , "you're from Edinburgh aren't you?".   And my father and I thought we did not have an accent or at least a Scottish accent!!!!

Malcolm

[Edwardian]

Is it just me or are current affairs now firmly in deeply surreal territory?

 

Today I learnt that “We have now shared in written form a series of confidential technical non-papers" [emphasis added]

 

I wondered what, technically, a "non-paper" might be.  I think I've found an historical precedent  ....

 

 

 

 

Edited September 19, 2019 by Edwardian
spelling!

[Regularity]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

Is it just me or are current affairs now firmly in deeply surreal territory?

 

Today I learnt that “We have now shared in written form a series of confidential technical non-papers" [emphasis added]

 

I wondered what, technically, a "non-paper" might be.  I think I've found an historical precedent  ....

 

 

 

 

I always thought, courtesy of Viz’s wonderful series of famous people on the toilet, that he was holding a piece of toilet paper?

[Northroader]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

The theme was "dead in a ditch" not "dead in a pie"...

 

... pie traffic onto the WNR would undoubtedly be from Melton, in a Midland covered goods wagon, say D362.

 

Then again, this sort of vehicle would be needed

 

for this sort of pie:

[nick_bastable]

37 minutes ago, Northroader said:

 

Then again, this sort of vehicle would be needed

 

for this sort of pie:

reminds  me of a Arya pie 

 

Nick