It's festive out there

The weather has been proper wintery. Very festive though. Snow, frost and despite a bit of sun the air temperature has not got above zero degrees centigrade very often. H and I had visitors every day from Christmas Eve until the Monday after Christmas. We had a lovely time with everyone that came along. I had ideas that I would do some digging at the lottie during my days off however it did not work out that way. I had to run out to do the trailer one morning. It was quite nice to shovel muck for an hour in the freezing cold.

Since the weather was so cold, Miss L was out and because we had been cabined up for several days H and I decided to go for a walk come what may. I decided that we should go for a short walk. I found a walk that encompassed a historic event. The event took place at Hanbury in Staffordshire. Such was the importance of the event that it was not officially acknowledged until 1980's. The story in a nutshell is simple. The Gypsum mine at Fauld, near Hanbury, was used in the second world war to store artillery ordnance. There was an accident that detonated the 3500 tonnes of explosives. The explosion was massive. The Cock Inn at Hanbury, a mile away was blown down but has since been rebuilt. The crater left behind after the explosion is truly massive, quarter of a mile long in diameter and three hundred yards deep. Gypsum or Alabaster which is the rock from which Gypsum is made, is quite soft so the explosion powdered the soft rock and blew it out over the local area several inches thick. Apparently it was the largest single explosion in the world until the atomic bombs. 70 people were killed in the explosion, 18 of whom were never found. There is a monument to the them. Double click on the picture for a bigger version. It gives an impression of the size of the crater. In real life the crate has a surreal air.


Clich HERE for a link to the directions for the walk.

When we got to car park in Hanbury it was snowing sideways but we were determined to have a walk. I had a good look at the directions. The crater was shown as near the end of the walk. Since it was so cold we did the directions in reverse so we would get to the crater sooner than later. Just as well really as the wind was driving the snow. When we got to the edge of the crater there were lots of trees which sheltered us from the worst effects of the weather. H said there was an air of melancholy. We took a little time to look round then trudged back across the fields. Unfortunately the Cock Inn was closed so we went over to Dog and Partridge at Tutbury. It is a very smart eatery rather than the small town public house it used to be. Nevertheless we sat by a radiator and supped some very pleasant wine and spicy nibbles for an hour or so. We were starting to get really comfortable so decide to go home before we had to book a room for the night.

This Saturday I did the trailer thing again. I bumped into Dave P at the lottie. He had bagged a bargain lot of compost. The soil was still had a frozen crust. I did a few errands however I was interrupted when the works alarm monitoring company rung up because alarm had gone off. It cost me 40 minutes at work but nothing more.