Category Archives: Past Times

The Old Oak Tree!

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The other day I took my trusty drone for a walk around the wood.The evening sun was just setting and it gave everything a red glow. The autumn colours were just about done on most tees, although the old oaks were still hanging onto their leaves in defiance of the colder days…

The old oak tree,
is bathed in red,
some would say,
“She’s ready for bed.”
Others would say,
“she’ll soon naked be,
and furthermore,
it’s only a tree!”
There is one thing,
that should be said,
“By the time she dies,
we’ll have been a long time dead!”

Most of us are blind to the beauty that surrounds us.
Take a look around you today, you may be surprised!

© Baldock Bard 2018
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

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Twitter: @baldockbard

 

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Like a Bird (in the Sky)!

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Many years ago, back in the early seventies, there was a TV advert for a lighter bread called Nimble. The advert had a nubile young maiden (probably now in her mid-seventies!) floating in a hot-air balloon to a backing track by pop group Honeybus ‘She flies like a bird in the sky…’ I was reminded of this yesterday morning when the farm was overflown by a balloon sponsored by a very different company…

She flies like a virgin in the sky,
I’d like to fly with her I don’t know why!
Her large voluminous skirt,
Would well match my shirt,
as we go gently floating by!
Up there in the sky – clear blue,
I’d wave back down to you!
She’d offer no resistance,
(she never goes full distance),
as we’d go gently floating by!

Have a great Friday and weekend. Stay healthy, wise and safe!

© Baldock Bard 2018
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 26 YEARS!
starts 7am Every Saturday
until October 20ththOctober 2018
Buyers Park and Enter FREE!
www.u-boot.co.uk

It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD


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Broadstairs Beach!

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For the last eighteen days my father has lain in a hospital bed; immobile, sometimes asleep and often confused. My family and I have spent many hours by his bedside to relieve the nurses so they can see to others. The other day he looked out of the hospital window towards the next hospital block and declared that ‘the sea is calm off Broadstairs Beach’. His dementia has been heightened by his immobility and medical condition. However I’m not actually sure that it’s a bad thing as he’s spending much time ‘away’ and judging by the grin on his face, he’s not in a bad place…

The weather’s always fine on Broadstairs Beach,
back many many years ago,
my father sits there with his family,
it’s a place he likes to go!
It makes a great change from a hospital bed,
with the hustle and bustle of a ward,
the embarrassing use of a commode or a pot,
and absolves him from getting bored!
So when he is absent away in his dreams,
a place that is beyond daily reach,
he is enjoying the sun on his face,
we all need a Broadstairs Beach!

Have a great Friday and may you get to spend time in your own little world!

© Baldock Bard 2018
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 26 YEARS!
starts 7am Every Saturday
until October 20ththOctober 2018
Buyers Park and Enter FREE!
www.u-boot.co.uk

It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD

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The Magical Lend!

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On Friday afternoon I hurried home from visiting my father in hospital and rushed up to the big barn. I admit I was like a little kid! There in the barn was a wonderful sight: a big green combine harvester! This harvest has been difficult following the loss of the arable acres, but to see this sight in the barn made me feel a bit like a proper farmer again! Ok, I’m only storing it for a neighbour until his wheat has gone, but it’s a grand feeling…

There in the barn,
I can’t believe my eyes,
a large green Claas Combine,
it’s like winning first prize!
I know it’s only for a while,
going back I don’t know when,
but I can imagine for a week or two,
that I’m a proper farmer again!

Big things please little minds!
Thanks to neighbour John for the temporary loan!
Have a great weekend everybody.
If I’m missing you know where I’ll be!

© Baldock Bard 2018
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 26 YEARS!
starts 7am Every Saturday
until October 20ththOctober 2018
Buyers Park and Enter FREE!
www.u-boot.co.uk

It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD

 

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The Journey (2018)

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Recently I visited the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, off the coast of Northumberland. In the church there was a woodcarving called ‘The Journey’ by sculptor, Fenwick Lawson (1999). It is carved from seven elm trees and to be quite honest, I found it a bit spooky as it seemed to me to be a stark reminder of our mortality…

There is a time to be born,
and a time to die.
A time to ask ‘How?’
And a time to ask ‘Why?’

If we ponder,
on the time of our fate,
we’ll end up doing nothing,
until it’s too late.

“That’s rather morbid!”
I hear people say,
so if you’re vertical and breathing,
enjoy your today!

Stay healthy, happy and safe and do it today!

© Baldock Bard 2018
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 26 YEARS!
starts 7am Every Saturday
until October 20ththOctober 2018
Buyers Park and Enter FREE!
www.u-boot.co.uk

It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD

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The Space Saver!

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There is a Welsh legend that in the early days of motoring a Welshman had the idea of carrying a spare wheel in case of punctures. From then on he was known by the name ‘Stepney Spare-Wheel’. Fast-forward to yesterday and his antecedent ‘Sven Space-Saver’ was the target of my angst when I discovered a flat tyre…

Bloody Sven and his poxy space-saver wheel,
bet he never changed one for real,
everything hidden under piles of shopping,
designed to make the moment heart-stopping.
Once you’ve found yourself a jack,
(about as much use as a bent toast-rack),
then you remember the locking stud,
thank heaven’s it’s dry without any mud.
Finally you replace the wheel with the spare,
50 miles an hour to drive anywhere,
you stand back to admire your skill,
“What shall I do with the punctured wheel?”
It won’t fit in the spare-wheel well,
the dirt will make the shopping smell.
So thanks a lot Sven for the space you save,
you’ll make Stepney Spare-Wheel spin in his grave!

Have a god day and I do hope you avoid a puncture.
Thanks to Baldock Tyres for promptly repairing the puncture so I could hide the space-saver until the next time!

© Baldock Bard 2018
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 26 YEARS!
starts 7am Every Saturday
until October 20ththOctober 2018
Buyers Park and Enter FREE!
www.u-boot.co.uk

It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD


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Farmer With Altitude!

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My neighbour John harvesting next to the A505 at Baldock

I’m going to hit the next person who asks if I’m enjoying retirement. That is unless they are taller than me, are wearing glasses, are female, were born with an ‘r’, ‘a’ or ‘u’ in the month, have over size 4 shoes, work on a farm or play rugby (other terms and conditions may apply at any time!) I admit I am difficult to live with at the moment as not doing harvest for the first time for 44 years is frustrating. However I now spend my time chasing combines with my drone instead…

Local farmers now complain,
Not about dust or even rain!
They all say “you’re retired now,
No more combine no more plough!
I suppose you want to fly your drone,
And watch us getting our harvest home?”
I say , “I really don’t mind if I do!”
Although if truth be told that’s not true.
But I’m a ‘Farmer With Altitude’ now,
With no harvest, no cultivation’s, not even a cow!
If you’re enjoying retirement I’m very pleased for you, just keep those furry slippers away from me!

© Baldock Bard 2018
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 26 YEARS!
starts 7am Every Saturday
until October 20ththOctober 2018
Buyers Park and Enter FREE!
www.u-boot.co.uk

It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD

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It’s All In The Photo!

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The other day I was asked by a local farmer to survey one of his fields with my trusty drone. I was hoping to find any evidence of land drains that might show up in this drought. I overflew the field for over 40 minutes and began to feel a failure when I could see no evidence on the monitor. Back in my office I started to stare at the high-definition pictures praying for some sort of success in order to save face! I then remembered a story that an elderly friend told me back in the mid-eighties about his war-time experience with an aerial photograph…

In 1944, just before ‘D Day’, Andrew, a young inexperienced officer in the Engineers, was asked to deliver a package to the Photo Reconnaissance department. He was shown into a room and told to wait. On a large table there was a massive black and white aerial photo of a main-line railway track leading to a large junction. As a teenager, Andrew had spent his summer holidays in the West Country, as a bored only child he had been befriended by the local stationmaster who had taught him about railways, not just in the UK, but also on the continent. Out of interest he began to look at the photo. Suddenly he noticed something odd, various bridges had been removed and one of the tracks had recently been moved to allow a greater distance between the up line and the down line. What he’d noticed was the alteration of the rail network in northern France in order to accommodate Rommel’s Tiger tanks on their way to where the Germans thought the Allies would invade – the Pas Du Calais. This also proved that the propaganda had been successful and accepted by the Germans as fact. He was immediately posted to intelligence, where he spent the rest of the war, in his words: “Looking at photographs!”

Andrew taught me that in photographs the evidence is always there to see, you just have to see it! I remembered Andrew as I sat starring at pictures from 400ft of a field and very slowly lines began to emerge and they weren’t tractor wheel marks!
Thank You Andrew.
Normal service will be resumed tomorrow!
© Baldock Bard 2018
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 26 YEARS!
starts 7am Every Saturday
until October 20ththOctober 2018
Buyers Park and Enter FREE!
www.u-boot.co.uk

It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD

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History re-visited!

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I was photographing a historical site the other day that can be traced back 1000 years with my trusty drone (with 20thC drought-scorch and wheelmarks!). It’s amazing what detail a dry year can show. Some of the adjacent ponds (not shown in the picture) date back to Bishop Odo of Bayeux (William the Conqueror’s half-brother.) He is the only person to be in the Bayeux Tapestry twice, once sitting on Williams right hand and once exhorting the troops he supplied to fight harder….

The Bayeux Tapestry is coming back,
to Britain in a couple of years,
Old Bishop Odo will have his day,
again (or so it appears!).
I wonder what he’d have thought of my drone,
as it flew above his old land,
and whether his soldiers would have shouted ‘Alien’
or just hidden themselves in sand!
What would they have thought of planes in the sky?
of take-aways, burgers and that?
I bet they’d have troubles with their weight,
unable to fight – just too fat!
If they couldn’t fight William might have lost,
with Harold no arrow in his eye,
the French would have retreated back towards France,
all because of chips and steak pie!

With apologies to al historians for my take on accepted history!
Please blame the Guinness – I will!
Have a great weekend, stay safe and take care.

© Baldock Bard 2018
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 26 YEARS!
starts 7am Every Saturday
until October 20ththOctober 2018
Buyers Park and Enter FREE!
www.u-boot.co.uk

It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD

 

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The Epitaph

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The other day on a short break I looked around a very old church. Whilst I admired the architecture and suchlike it was a simple grave in the churchyard that caught my eye and made me think…

There are few words on a gravestone,
normaly just name and dates,
very little about the person,
when he stood at the Pearly Gates.
The memorial to Freddie Clark is different,
refreshingly honest and true,
simple words for eternity,
what will your stone reveal about you?

Let’s be kind and caring out there today

© Baldock Bard 2018
For more from the Baldock Bard click on ‘Home’ above

Facebook: Baldock Bard
Twitter: @baldockbard

The Baldock ‘Boutique’ Boot Sale
STILL HERE AFTER 26 YEARS!
starts 7am Every Saturday
until October 20ththOctober 2018
Buyers Park and Enter FREE!
www.u-boot.co.uk

It is the friendliest bargain bonanza anywhere!
Feed your hungry sat-nav with SG7 6RD

 

 

 

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