times gone by...

It is strange as you get older how your mind set changes. Stuff that never interested you now suddenly does become strangely interesting. No I have not become a train spotter or a 'twitcher' .. although I must spill the beans on Sunny that she has bought some binoculars for that very purpose.

My realisation that I am suddenly a middle aged grown up, is this love of History that has hit me. I must confess I hated History with a passion at school and dropped it at the first opportunity (took Geography instead as an O' level option).

I have been researching my family tree for years now and I am stuck around 1795 in Warrington on one side and circa 1800 on the other side. Pleased to say that I descend from an educated lot as there are very few 'X' marks the spot on certificates.

Through my research I have been fascinated by the Victorian era, my grand parents were all born in Victoria's reign and what a different world that was to now. I so wish I had an interest in history when they were still alive and I could have quizzed them what it was like before electricity, fast cars, fast food, washing machines, sanitation (I bought a book about Victorian sanitation reform from a Charity Shop the other week... eewwww it is a wonder that any of us are here today, shows just how resiliant the human race is) and mobile phones.

But this week my history head hasbeen turned further back.
My niece told me about series of books about a lawyer come detective in Henry VIII's England written by C.J. Sansom.

I am a fan of C.J after reading 'Winter in Madrid' set in the Spanish Civil War. A superb read but I thought C.J. was a one hit wonder, how wrong was I?

She had bought 3 of his latest books and due to her studying for her degree has given them to me to read first so she is not distracted.
The first one I have read is 'Dark Fire', I think I should have read 'Dissolution' first but it wasn't one of the 3 she had bought (will add this to the collection when I return the books).

Dark Fire beautifully depicts London in 1540 and the fall of Cromwell, with a feasable fictional element. The research C.J. did is excellent, the whole book brings to life the smells, the sounds and the times of Tudor England.

As Shardlake (the main character) is a lawyer there is tremendous insight into how criminals faced trials back then. If you were the accused and didn't plead in court you were to suffer piene forte et dure, basically you lay on your stomach with a board on your back and heavy weights were placed on it until you made a plea or died. Very brual indeed with the smallest of crimes often leading to a public hanging

Things hadn't changed some 300 years later. I came across this entry at the National Archives when looking to see if any of my ancestors were criminals .. this girl was called Mary Ann

Age: 21 Place of Birth: Lambeth Place/Court of conviction: Southwark Offence: Simple larceny: stealing a shawl Sentence: 2 calendar months hard labour
Date	1873 May 24

on days like this......

Wednesday this week in the North West of England saw a glorious autumn day. Who would have believed a day like this could be possible this late on in the year after the most awful summer we had.

So armed with only the puppy and a camera I headed off to the park

It was so peaceful and so colourful

There used to a big hall that sat in the park. The hall was built during the reign of Elizabeth I and was described in 1831 as 'characterized by substantial comfort, rather than by elegance'. Not sure when it was demolished but it was within the last 80 years.

These trees stand in lines and looking at them I suspect they lined the carriage way up to the hall. Just look at the colour of that sky!


I would so love to think that these old trees have seen all those seasons coming and going since Elizabethan times. They are so gnarly there are faces contained in the bark

Well this one certainly does!!

stranger things happen at sea.....

and in blogsphere.....

What I thought was a streak of madness on my part, I submitted Random Place of Mind to the World Blog Council for review and approval.

I suppose the approval bit was not at the forefront of my mind at the time as 'random is as random does'... but I do intend to put forward a piece of work in the forthcoming 'Unsung Heroes' exhibition and thought I better see if I could indeed get approval from these important 'weblog experts' should my work come under any close scrutiny next year.

Well a few days ago I got the long awaited decision. I hestitated in opening the email just in case we girls had failed at the first hurdle.

Blow me down.... we got the green stamp of approval, a certificate and the groovy icon thing for our sidebar.

"your internet weblog has undergone stringent review from our panel of internationally acclaimed internet weblog experts. After careful deliberation and several large brandies they have concluded that your blog not only exists but should warrant approval from our panel of internationally acclaimed internet weblog experts."

Please do click here to see the review done by the lovely Ms. Tutt... plus if the urge takes you, you could drop a vote in there for us!!

Thank you WBC and I hope the Colonel's gout clears up soon....

a day in history........

A bit late in the day but 'better late than never' in my book.

I has come to the random gals attention that someone is celebrating a BIG old birthday.

no it isn't Prince Charles the next King of all that is Britain......although he is only a mere 8 days younger than this birthday person

This guy is celebrating too although a year younger

the only person that I can find born the same day as this birthday person is Glenn Frey vocalist from the Eagles

Quite apt really ... Happy Birthday Daddy Papersurfer... Take it Easy on your special day

from the Random gals xx