September 2011 Archives

Well we have just come through the blogging blackhole of rural England and are now back in London. I am sure I could have found internet service some place the last few days, but they just didn’t make these 18^th century cottages like they should have — with free WiFi.

We disappeared into the English countryside last Tuesday, traveling about an hour and half northeast of London by train to Peterborough and then by cab to the village of Whittlesey, which is where my grandparents and dad were born. And then Friday we took the train to the seaside village of Pevensey Bay, southeast of London, where another cousin lives. All were first time meetings and all went very well.

Saturday evening we arrived back in London, and today (Sunday) we regrouped and reorganized and made essential return visits to Buckingham Palace and Harrods department store to pick up more souvenirs. 

It was a hectic week to wrap up this holiday. And is often said about holidays – we need to go home for a rest. It was interesting to note there are people and agriculture everywhere in this country. Agriculture along with tourism are major industries, but as I often hear at home most people have little direct connection to the land anymore.

The cousins I met have are not involved in agriculture. At Whittlesey where my grandparents were born, the farmstead where my grandmother grew up is no longer there, and the Hart farm where granddad was raised has been replaced by industrial development that includes a brick yard and to my surprise a McCain’s potato processing plant. The English do love their chips and crisps.

Lots of sheep, a fair bit of annual cropping throughout the UK. Pretty well all crops were harvested by this September visit and most of the winter crops – rape, wheat and sugar beets were already seeded.

The English do love their history and they have lots to tell. I quickly lost track of kings and queens, and various battles and invasions. Catholics were persecuted for 250 years, although have managed to reestablish a presence. However, even today in Ireland, in particular, we were warned not to joke with locals about religious differences. Football and rugby are main topics of discussion through out the country. Food was good and generally plentiful, although fairly pricey. You can always get a cup of coffee, which was one of my major concerns upon leaving Canada, but they are big into individual cup brewing of Americano or instant coffee — there wasn’t pot of brewed Tim Horton’s-type coffee to be found anywhere.

One interesting historical note to end this blog on the last day of our visit….in the village of Pevensey which is beside the English Channel the old jail and magistrates building from the 16^th century is still standing and actually is a museum. It costs one pound to visit, but you can go upstairs to the original magistrates room and sit on the original hard wooden benches, and listen to a local museum volunteer explain the history. Anyway, it is was in that little court room a few centuries ago that a magistrate first developed the concept of bringing in a group of people from the community to decide the innocence or guilt of an accused person. That was were the concept of a trial with a 12 member jury, which was later included in the Magna Carter, was first established.

I am not sure if process was better or worse for the accused. The jury options included finding the accused innocent, or if guilty sentenced to hard labor. And in the worst offences, if found guilty, the accused was bound hand and feet and thrown in the river behind the jail to drown. It didn’t sound like there was much time left for an appeal.

 

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The tour is over — thank God! Another few days of that and it might have killed me. The tour is done but not the holiday. We still have a few days left in England to visit cousins on my Dad’s side of the family. Other than trying to make a good impression to these people I have never met, it should be a more relaxed few days.

Yesterday, Sunday, was the last day of the tour. We left Cardiff, Wales and traveled east back into England. We

 stopped at the ancient Roman-founded city of Bath and that was pretty interesting, and then we traveled on to Stonehenge— had a look at these amazing 45 tonne stones standing in an open pasture surrounded by grazing sheep, and then we visited the nearby Salisbury Cathedral. It is impressive on it’s own, but it also houses the Magna Carter, which we all know is an amazing important document to our civilization today. (I can say that now).

I lose track of some of the dates, but the city of Bath was established by the Roman’s 1000 or more years ago over these mineral hot springs, they believed were inhabited by the goddess Solius Minverva. Stonehenge was erected by the Druids as a place of worship and celebration. And Salisbury is one of the oldest cathedrals (1300s) and has the tallest spire of any church in the UK, which is some 400 feet tall.

All of these places have historical significance, but as I look at these and just about every other building or structure I’ve seen over the last two weeks the one over riding question in my mind is “how the hell did they do that.”

I can look a new billion-dollar office tower being built in Calgary today and be impressed, but I can also see the cranes and hoists and trucks delivering materials and sort of understand how it is built. But I look at these massive churches, castles, bridges, and cities they built here 1,000 or more years ago and just be amazed these things were built with little more than a hammer and stone chisel.

And they didn’t just pile up rocks they found on the site, they hauled materials in from miles and miles away, cut, hoisted and fit everything into place as true engineering marvels. They not only look good, but they are sturdy. As barbaric and cruel as these civilizations might have been according to our standards today, they sure knew how to build things.

The next time I look at any home renovation project I am going to hire a Druid to do the work. It may take a little longer, but at least I know it will be done right.

On the trip back from Wales to London we passed lots more crop land — grain fields that had been combined, quite a bit of standing corn, lots more sheep on pasture, dairy cows, a few beef, and even some free range pigs. There was one farm with a large 20-acre field dotted with shelters and probably 100 or more 400 or 500 pound hogs routing in the field. It was hard to tell if they were dry sows or just oversized market animals. But they were the only hog facilities I saw this trip. And I have seen lots more red and blue tractors here (Case and New Holland) than green. (They did point out too that Harry Fergusson (tractor maker) was born eight-miles from Belfast, Ireland.)

Today we are in London, resting and regrouping. I have a UK cold which is nice, and my suitcase broke yesterday as it was unloaded from the bus, so now I have to figure that out. And tomorrow is a tube, train and taxi ride northeast of London to visit the Hart/Cox homeland at Whittlesey. God Save the Queen.

 

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We visited the Irish National Stud at Kildare, Ireland this Friday morning. It is a 1,000 acre government/private farm dedicated to breeding racing horses. It was established in 1900 and turned over the British government in 1943 and then to the Irish government in 1945. It is today run by a government owned company that works in partnership with private breeders to produce superior thoroughbred horses.

This is no everyday horse pasture. Some of the top mares here are worth between two and three million Euros. And they have many top racing stallions too. Stud fees for good stallions are between 6000 and 8000 Euros and their top horse Invisible Man, who literally has an excellent track record, has stud fees of up to 60,000 Euros per service.

It was raining during our visit so we didn’t spend a lot of time hanging around the grounds, but it is a very impressive facility established to promote the Irish Bloodstock Industry.

We finished today in Waterford, Ireland the first town (914 A.D.) established in Ireland by the Vikings and also home of world famous Waterford crystal, although I personally wouldn’t know the difference between that and a beer glass from Walmart, but some on the tour were very excited to tour the factory and gift shop.

I was more impressed with Reginald Tower — a stone lookout tower built on the Waterford harbor. It is about 80 feet tall, has walls 10 feet thick and was used as a the point of first defense against any invaders coming up the River Suir into Waterford. It is 600 or 700 year old and as sturdy today as it ever was. All the flat rocks used in building the tower are held together by a mixture of sand, animal blood, animal hair, and male human hair. Our guide says there is no explanation of why the human hair was important in the mortar mixture but it is there throughout the structure.

After the tour around town we had a drink at T & H Doolans, a pub that has operated on the site for 300 years and then we had dinner at the family run Victorian Munster Bar which was built in 1822.

Both are excellent stops for refreshments and food.

It is an early morning tomorrow as we take a four hour ferry from Waterford across to Wales. 

 

 

 

I started the day in Glasgow, Scotland and ended the day having dinner at the oldest pub in Dublin, Ireland – The Brazen Head, which was established in 1198 — some 813 years ago.  What a road and a time traveler I have become.

It was a full day of seeing the Scottish and Irish countryside, today.

Yesterday, which I think was Tuesday, we visited Edinburgh and Edinburgh Castle, along with the now-retired

 

 royal yatch Britannia that is moored at the docks in Scotland where it was built in the 1950s.

I can’t begin to recall all the sights of the past two days. I am sure it is stored in my head somewhere but I know there is not time, space, or your interest for me to report it all here.

Yesterday to wrap up our trip to Scotland we visited the Ledard Farm near Aberfoyle, in Trossachs National Park.  It is a working third generation sheep farm, raising Shetland sheep for wool as well as meat. But the family, headed by Fergus Ledard has diversified into agro tourism as well.

In the MacGregor Barn built in 1604 they play host to visitors offering not only a traditional Scottish meal of roast lamb, but family members are also professional entertainers and have performed in many parts of the world including North America. Fergus is part of the Kinlochard Ceilidh Band. (Fergus Ledard was a winner at the International Plowing Match held in Stirling Ontario last year.)

After a great meal, Fergus and his son Gregor and Fergus’s wife (I didn’t catch her name) gave us a great musical performance, of traditional Scottish songs with lots of audience participation.

Along with this barn being a storage building for wheat, oats and barley (at one time over the years) Fergus also described how for hundreds of years it was also used for parties and dances. It was even a meeting place and drinking hall for Scottish warriors dating back to the time of Rob Roy (18^th century) who himself has been in the barn retelling battle stories. It was hard to get my head around the fact we were having dinner in a barn on a farm that has been used for some type of social events for nearly 500 years. (Rob Roy is considered a folk hero and an outlaw, who later in life became a well-respected cattleman, known for his rustling abilities…it was accepted in those days) 

This morning (Wednesday) we crossed the Irish Sea by ferry into Northern Ireland, and had a quick tour and brief stop around Belfast before heading to Dublin in the Republic of Ireland. To be honest, I didn’t realize the Republic of Ireland (southern Ireland) was a different country than Belfast or the County of Ulster in Northern Ireland. Ulster is still part of the United Kingdom, and although it has it’s own council, still comes under the British government in England. (That's me pictured above in front of the Grand Opera House in Belfast).

The Republic of Ireland has it’s own separate administration and is actually tied to the EU. Where Northern Ireland trades in pound sterling and still uses all Imperial measures (miles, feet and weight in pounds and ounces); southern Ireland trades in Euros and operates in metric like the rest of the European Union. Northern Ireland is predominantly protestant and the Republic of Ireland is predominately Catholic. I knew the protestants and Catholics didn’t always get along, but I didn’t realize they were essentially two separate countries. The two sides have only had a peace agreement for 14 years.

Anyway, dinner at the Brazen Head in Dublin was great. I had a blood pudding salad, traditional Irish beef stew, and apple pie for my dinner. I highly recommend it as a place to visit on your next trip to Ireland.

Tomorrow we are off on a tour of Dublin and a visit to a nearby loch (lake) and at some point we are suppose to visit Trinity College and look at some old book (Book of Kells – 1500 years old New Testament ) but I may pass that up for a bit of shopping. I can only handle so much culture and information and my gauge has been running on red for a couple days.

 

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I am in Glasgow, Scotland tonight  (Monday) as I write this, but I wanted to draw your attention to the fact that Beatrix Potter raised Herdwick sheep? That is one bit of trivia I learned today was we took the tour bus through northern England and into Scotland.

Potter who was the writer of children’s books and created the character Peter Rabbit was born and raised in 

The Lake District of Northern England, owned some 15 farms in her lifetime (about 4000 acres) and loved Herdwick sheep.  I don’t know how they are as a sheep breed but one claim to fame they have is that they are born with a black fleece and gradually the fleece turns white over the years as the sheep mature… one fact of aging I can relate to. Potter left all her land to a conservation group known as the National Trust, with the condition that it be maintained as farm land and wildlife habitat and always be used to produce Herdwick sheep. And so it does.

It was raining today, this second day of our UK tour and the wind was blowing hard— up to 75 mph, all part of the remnants of a hurricane which swept up the east coast of North America a few days ago and now has traveled across the north Atlantic into northern England and Scotland.

So it was cool, windy and wet as we traveled north. A couple hour cruise on Windermere Lake had to be cancelled. We stopped for lunch in a small town called Grasmere, which along with being the main community in an area where Beatrix Potter lived, is also the birthplace of writer/poet William Wordsworth. We didn’t see him but fortunately there is a museum and gift shop in his honor in Grasmere.

Yesterday, on the first day of our tour we visited the birthplace of William Shakespeare – Stratford on Avon (pictured above). We toured the house he was born in, although I think the gift shop there was added sometime after his death. We also visited the ancient city of York where the Romans (71 AD) and Vikings  created a walled encampment for gift shops and tourists.

It has been a good couple days with tons of sights to see. On the day-long drive through the country side today we saw thousands of heads of sheep grazing on pastures of small farms all criss-crossed with networks of stone-wall fences built hundreds of years ago by professional “Wallers”. And these fences still appear to be doing their job quite effectively.

There were a few beef cattle — Simmental and Simmental/Charolais cross, Herefords and black whiteface cattle in the fields, but not many. And also quite a few dairy farms — most with plastic wrapped round bales of haylage and often enough I would see fields of standing corn, which I expect a bit later will be made into silage, as well.

As we crossed the border into Scotland, they even had a few head of   Highland cattle grazing in the field.

Tonight we are staying at the Crowne Plaza Hotel just off the downtown area of Glasgow, with the Clyde River just

 outside the front door. Tomorrow we are off to tour the Royal yatch Britannia and the evening plans are for a dinner at a working sheep farm near the city where, along with the promise of a great meal, we will learn how these producers survived both foot and mouth disease and BSE. These folks may know where I can find that wobbly old dairy cow that is used in all video footage during Mad Cow news broadcasts at home.

And I hope I can sleep tonight. They tell me there is haggis on the menu for breakfast tomorrow, and so far I am the only one in our group of four who is looking forward to that. But I have my kilt pressed and I am ready for Scotland. 

In honor of the Canadian dairy industry we went to see a West London musical called “The Jersey Boys” on 

Thursday and Friday in honor of purebred beef breeders everywhere we ate dinner at a restaurant called The Angus Steakhouse.

It featured Black Aberdeen Angus beef. I am sure someone in Canada has shipped breeding stock to the UK at some point.  So that was my connection to agriculture for the day.

With day four of our visit to London ahead of us, I have this suspicion that we may not see everything that we could see before we head out tomorrow on the next leg of this trip.

Friday we took a bus tour of some of the city high lights, and a boat ride on the River Thames. The Queen was away, but Margaret Thatcher was home.  We also took a tour of the Tower of London, which is a very interesting stop especially to refresh your memory of how cruel and conniving British kings and queens have been over the centuries. And it was good to have a look at the Crown Jewels although it makes you wonder with all this wealth sitting there why am I paying 18 pounds to have a look at this stuff.

But it was all good.

That London Eye is quite an attraction although just looking at it was sufficient for me. It is like a large ferriswheel-type structure with 32 pods on it that, when full, can carry about 960 people at a time. It takes about 30 minutes to make a revolution. At the top you can see for 30 miles. And every full load — every revolution — earns the owners about 10,000 pounds. That’s almost as good as owning an oil well.

And I will suggest to the Canadian canola industry still has a market 

nut to crack here. I saw restaurants in Chinatown with five-gallon pails of rapeseed cooking oil sitting at the front door. These people have obviously not discovered the health benefits of Canadian canola oil.

I am not sure what the day holds yet. I’m sure there has to be a church or museum someplace here to look at. Actually Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral are both on our agenda. We are becoming pretty good at riding The Tube. The trains, buses and subway make for an amazing transportation system here in London. It makes Calgary LRT look like a Dinky Toy.

I better run, I am sure it must be time to eat something, somewhere.

 

What do four old people, London, 6 p.m. and pizza have in common? That’s what happens when you have been up all night traveling to England from Canada – you fall asleep at 6 p.m. eating pizza in London. 

Geez, salmon fishing at Campbell River, B.C. one day and a less than a week later having pizza in London, England — I travel more than the Pope.

Yes, we arrived in London yesterday (Wednesday) and are just about to start a day of touring around the city. Took the Heathrow Express train from the airport to downtown, then cabbed it to the hotel — relatively easy and cheaper than some other options.

A bit of rain here this morning and word is we have lots of walking to do. I’m here with my wife Angie, my sister Brenda and her husband Walter.

I don’t think I have stayed up past 1 p.m. in about five years, so being up 30 some hours straight Tuesday took its toll. Rested and ready to roll today. My wife took this picture of me on Kensington Street yesterday afternoon.  She kept telling me to back up 10 

feet but I can see why now. Ha, I fooled her.

I see this just happens to be the Chalk Farm bus (in the photo) so that is my connection to agriculture for today. I also checked out the price of beef and pork at Mark’s and Spencer yesterday.  It was 19 pounds per kilogram so that is about $35 per kilo. But it was organic, grass fed/finished beef and pork, and the store knew the producer, so it must have been good.

So we may see where the Queen lives and attend a Broadway show tonight. I will keep you posted.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m home from salmon fishing and the jinx of the one-day loosing streak was broken. As I discovered last

Thursday the real skill in catching salmon is in reeling them in. Many are caught, but only about half actually make it into the boat. Slow and steady reeling and let ‘em run if they want to, is the approach.  Fortunately Thursday I figured out the technique and got four in close enough to be netted and later subdued.

On this second day of fishing in Johnstone Straight off Campbell River, B.C. both myself and Thursday’s fishing partner Matt Dertinger reached our daily quota which is four. Guide Tom Shea, kept a calm and steady approach as we trolled waters off Plumper’s Point. “There are fish here boys and they will bite,” he said and they did. It wasn’t a fishing frenzy, but busy enough to get me the four I needed to save face among my fishing companions, family and friends.

I brought home about 20 pounds of pink salmon, which is fine, although less than my colleagues who averaged between 30 and 40 pounds. Jon Weinmaster who I fished with Wednesday actually had the heaviest haul. He landed one 20-pound Chinook salmon and along with five other pinks over the two days, he carted home several good “salmon feeds”, for the coming weeks.

In the accompanying photos is yours truly with two pinks, Tom Shea guide, cleaning the catch of the day, and on the dock, cleaned salmon ready for the cooler.

Salmon fishing on the inside passage of Vancouver Island is great fun. Apparently you can fish the ocean on the west side of the Island, but it is considerably more expensive, you’re about 10 miles off shore and according to our guide, “is not for the faint of heart” as albeit larger boats are tossed around by 10 and 12 foot swells. I’m not sure if I love fish well enough for that.

UK BOUND

I feel somewhat guilty (wait…I’m over it now), to admit I am not heading back to work this coming week. Instead, I am actually heading east Tuesday, all the way to London, England. I am not normally a world traveler, but this was a trip planned with family for several months, to visit the Hart homeland. My grandparents and dad were born and raised in a small town in eastern England. Most of the older generation on my grandparent’s side is gone, but there are a few cousins my age who I keep in touch with and have never met. So along with having a quick look through England, Scotland and Ireland, we will visit my dad’s hometown and see what is left of the Hart farming empire. 

It is just by coincidence, I booked a bed and breakfast place for a few

 nights in the village of Whittlesey and later learned the house with the B & B was actually the home of my great, grandfather on my grandmother’s side of the family. Who knew that 100 years later a descendent of the Cox family would be back spending 85 pounds per night to sleep in the one-time family home.

I will keep my eyes peeled for any agricultural news on this trip, and report my findings here as we go.