Wednesday`s Warblings

 

Hello everyone,

It`s been a nice Spring-like day here.  I think the warmer weather is probably here to stay now.  I`ve noticed several buds on the Magnolia tree are opening and a solitary daffodil has pushed it`s way to the suface, I don`t know what`s happened to the others though, maybe they`re still asleep down there...lol!  The flowering currant is well. flowering though the camellia is not in flower as yet, but maybe it`s not been happy with the colder than normal winter and won`t flower at all this year.

Jim has finished varnishing all the woodwork now.  I did ask him about taking a photo of the doors but he said to wait until all the work is done. We`re going to look at wallpaper at the weekend, I hope we find something we both like, if not it`ll be up to me to convince Jim that he will like it!  Also when we have chosen the wallpaper it`ll be the carpet, laminate flooring and the curtains and viola!  And that, as they say, will be that!

This afternoon I gave Jake an earlier walk as I was looking after Roman while Kerry went to the dentist.  Her wisdom tooth is still bothering her and the dentist now says that it`s causing so much trouble that it has to come out.  The thing is he didn`t say if he`ll do it or it`ll be the hospital again.  As I`ve mentioned before she has a complicated condition where he wisdom and back teeth are badly impacted.  Unusually this tooth has partly come through but has no room to grow any further.  I suppose she`ll have to wait till her next appointment to find out what the next move will be.  While she was gone I played with Roman on the floor surrounded by his toys.  We had great fun with him pulling my hair and holding on tight, well that bit was more fun for him than me! Then of course he tried to pinch my nose and then head butt me...what has happened to the gentle little baby of a couple of months ago...lol!  He is now trying to shuffle forward from his sitting position, he seems to be getting fed-up sitting there and wants to explore further afield.  I told Kerry that would be when the real fun begins when she is chasing him around the room and having to move everything out of the way!  One of our favourite games, but NOT anyone else`s, is the screaming game.  Roman makes a loud screeching noise and I join in, then it get`s louder and louder until we can`t scream anymore, it sounds silly but we like it...lol!

I don`t know if I mentioned it but Jake is off his food at the moment, he is eating but not very enthusiastically.  In the mornings he just picks at it but seems a little more eager in the evening.  The problem being because he suffers from colitis he isn`t allowed any other type of food, he is very intolerant of the majority of foods and we have to be so careful that he doesn`t have another attack.  For a labrador, Jake has always been a picky eater, not at all driven by food the way most of them are.  I suppose I`ll just have to keep a close eye on him, and see how it goes. 

I must go now, I only have 30 emails today so it won`t take long to deal with those.  I hope you all enjoy the rest of your Tuesday, take care and Bye Bye for now. :o)

 

The Ostrich Inn, Colnbrook, Buckinghamshire.  About 5 miles from my home.

Colnbrook, Berkshire.

This atmospheric old inn stands in the ancient village of Colnbrook and was once an important stopover, on the main stagecoach route that ran from London to Bath. Not wishing to enter the fracas of the endless battle to proclaim itself the oldest pub in England, The Ostrich plays it safe and claims to be the “fourth oldest” and records of the inn certainly date as far back as 1165. One thing it can certainly claim, however, is that it was the first pub in England to ever be featured in a novel, Thomas of Reading, written in the late 16th century by Thomas Deloney.

It was Deloney’s reporting of the nefarious exploits of a former landlord called Jarman that secured the Ostrich’s place in Berkshire legend. His infamous crimes are generally thought to have taken place at some time around the 1300’s. In those days, wealthy travellers would pause at the inn to change from their mud-spattered clothes, into the finery expected for their appearances before the monarch at nearby Windsor Castle. Many of these wayfarers would often carry vast sums of money with them, a fact that didn’t go unnoticed by Jarman who had soon devised a profitable and intricate method of relieving them of both their riches and their lives.

Whenever a seemingly affluent patron arrived at his inn, Jarman would waste no time in plying the stranger with strong drink. Having arranged for these special guests to sleep in his “best room”, he would give them time to collapse into bed and, once he was sure that they were fast asleep, he would undo two bolts on the ceiling in the room beneath. This would cause their bed to tilt downwards at a 45 angle, sending the insensible sleeper tumbling into a vat of boiling fat, that Jarman always kept ready in the room below. He would then steal the person’s belongings; sell his horse and clothes to the unquestioning gypsies, and dispose of the body into the nearby river.

He seems to have profited immensely from his activities and to have escaped any suspicion for many years. But then one night a suitably drunk stranger had crawled into the bed, when the amount of alcohol he had consumed, forced him to climb straight back out and make use of the rooms chamber pot. As he answered the call, he was astonished to see the head of his bed, suddenly tilt and disappear into the floor. His terrified shouts roused the other guests, and Jarman’s murderous career was over. On the gallows, he boasted of having killed more than sixty people, although the actual believed total is closer to fifteen.

Staff at the inn, where a decidedly old world charm still holds sway, are often troubled by the “sinister atmosphere’s” that seem to hang over certain sections, and several landlords have complained of their night-times repose being rudely disturbed by the eerie sound of creaking boards, ghostly sighs and spectral bumps, that are simply attributed to one of Jarman’s long ago victims.