A Farm Journal ~ from the 16th to the 30th April 1867

My great great great uncle John Bayliff Bowman lived at Summer Hill, near Monyash in the County of Derby.

The Bowman family, who were Quakers, had three farms, One Ash Grange [which John Bayliff Bowman often referred to as O.A.], Cales and Summer Hill [which he usually referred to as S.Hill or S.H.]

In this photo John is fourth from the left. My great great grandparents, Ebenezer and Hannah Bowman, are the third and fourth adults from the right. John and Ebenezer were brothers and their parents are the elderly couple in the middle, Henry and Mary Bowman.

"A Farm Journal"continues :~

 

3 - 16 Showery Q[uarterly] M[eeting] home at night

 

4 - 17 Fine harrow[in]g N[ethe]r Intake for drilling

 

5 - 18 Little rain but fine har[rowin]g & sow[in]g 3 cwt p[e]r ac[re] bone dust

 

6 - 19 Ditto

 

7 - 20 Very showery all day plough[in]g broke cake & gr[oun]d at Cales & strained the breaker - Very hindering weather for sowing grass grows well lambs come slowly some die of inflam[matio]n Hog dead 

 

1 - 21 Fine

 

2 - 22 D[itt]o B[akewe]ll Fair no cattle sheep very low Hogs selling at 30/- worth the money last latter end - pigs large show & very low good stores at 20/- to 25/- cheese 50/- to 68/- 

 

3 - 22 to 6 - 26 sow[e]d broadcast Far piece & Kiln close S.H. & harrow[e]d in very wet state [Over the top of this entry John Bayliff Bowman had written] Martin Milligan came - 7/6 & meat p[e]r week

 

7 - 27 Very showery & thundery - put 40 hogs in lane yesterday for first time one of Jesse's lads to tend them @ 2/6 p[e]r week - 10 cows on seeds at S.H. began mid of week & all out at Cales - 20 sheep to lamb yet - a fine one dead in Intake -

 

1 - 28 Fine

 

2 - 29 Fine

 

3 - 30- Fine growing day showery SA & I to Heanor  

Chatsworth ~ Beyond Limits ~ 2012/10 ...

This is a bit more like it !

This is Barry Flanagan's Leaping Hare on Crescent and Bell ... 

We start off with what appears to be where birds perch overnight.

So, moving on swiftly, the tenth exhibit is positioned by Strid Pond at Chatsworth ...



 

This sculpture just seems so lively. The hare seems as though it's running around the garden ...



 

I think the fact I like this is reflected in the number of photos I took and the number of angles I took them from. This sculpture excited me.



 

At one stage he even jumped right over me ...



Probably one of my favourites, if not the favourite, so far.

I spy a Cavalier ...

Stand at the north-western end of Fennel Street in Ashford in the Water and opposite The Elms is a house half-hidden by a hedge. If you can peep over the hedge then you may get a glimpse of this ...

... on the front of the building. Now, to me, he looks like a Cavalier but why he's on the front of the house I have no idea. Anyone else know ?

Walk up Vicarage Lane and cross the end of Pennyunk Lane until you can take a path on your right across one field. This enables you to cross the B6465 and follow a path through more fields towards Longstone Lane. This path can get muddy in wintertime ...


   
Sometimes it gets too sludgy as does the path on the opposite side of Longstone Lane. The good thing about this latter path is that it brings you to the Monsal Trail. The only problem there are the bikes ... but assuming you can avoid them [and they can avoid you] head eastwards until you reach the bridge over Longreave Lane. At this point you can leave the Trail and pass under the bridge to cross the A6020. 

Cross the road carefully here because many of the cars hereabouts are hellbent on getting where they're going at least five minutes sooner than they have to be there. Take the private drive [which is also a public footpath] leading towards Churchdale Farm ...



Beyond the hall, which you get a glimpse of to your right, the path descends down one of those banks which is easier to walk up than down ... especially when it's muddy.



Towards the bottom of the bank there used to be an impressive though rather daunting tree looming over all pedestrians ...







Since these photos were taken I believe this old tree has fallen down.

The path rejoins the A6020 and then you're just a few hundred yards along a pavement to reach Ashford in the Water again.

Just the sort of short walk if you're not too sure about how far you feel like walking. 

This walk was followed on the 2nd January 2011

Length of walk ~ 3 miles *

Total mileage walked so far in 2011 ~ 5.2 miles

Total mileage between the 1st September 2009 and the 2nd January 2011 ~ 534.25 miles

2 of 2011

* distance calculated on Ordnance Survey's Getamap

Fallow Buck Dance

Fallow Buck Dance, a photo by kev747 on Flickr.

Great photo by one of my contacts on Flickr [kev747] ~ this is one of a number,.

Chatsworth ~ Beyond Limits ~ 2012/9

OK, before I push my mouse to one side for the evening here's Exhibit No. 9 of the Beyond Limits exhibition at Chatsworth.

It's called Elephant and yes, it's by Barry Flanagan ... 

I rather like where this is positioned too ... there's no clutter surrounding it.



It's in between two lines of rather attractive 'wavy' hedges ...



Is it me or is its tail out of proportion though ?

Ticking away ... Day 712 ~ just an update ...

I visited the Lymphoedema people at Ashgate Hospice this morning ... as I mentioned once before they wanted me to say that hospices aren't all about, well, you know.

I'm having a new fitted stocking ! A Type 2 ! This is slightly 'tighter' than the one I have and will hopefully compress my leg even more than the one I have on right now. It is also fitted slightly differently at the top of my leg so that I won't have to spend my days pulling up my stocking ~ the problems we have.

I've noticed a few more people staring at my leg of late ~ perhaps I ought to stop wearing shorts. I would ... if I could get my right leg into my trousers and have a bit of room for manoeuvre.

Generally though I feel better today than I have since I came out of hospital. For the first time in ten days I don't have a bit of a bellyache so that's a relief.

I haven't really felt like walking yet either but perhaps over the weekend we'll get out and have a stroll. Walking and pumping those calf muscles is the best thing to compress the lymphoedema in my leg apparently. Best get pumping.

 

Chatsworth ~ Beyond Limits ~ 2012/8

Exhibit No. 8 of the Beyond Limits exhibition of Barry Flanagan's work at Chatsworth is Six Foot Leaping Hare on Steel Pyramid.

This one took a bit of time to find. I had the map showing the location of all the exhibits but it was rather tucked away ...



Since my last posting about Barry Flanagan's exhibits I have watched the BBC programme about his work. It's called 'The Man Who Sculpted Hares: Barry Flanagan, A Life' and it is still available on BBC iPlayer for another four days.

Whether you will enjoy it depends on you I think. I did learn that whilst the film was being made by Peter Bach during the last year or so of Barry Flanagan's life the sculptor was suffering from motor neurone disease which had rendered him incapable of speech. He would communicate by writing in a notebook though at one stage when describing his situation he wrote "It's a pisser.".

I took the photograph below through the surrounding bushes ...

 

Peter Bach spoke to many friends of Barry Flanagan one of whom described him as a "maverick". Peter Bach also spoke to a number of people who were looking at the sculptures in different countries ~ the US, the UK and the Belgian/Dutch border amongst them.

He showed some of the film to Barry Flanagan who was seated in a wheelchair and who seemed engrossed by people's reactions to his work.

Towards the end of the film Peter Bach spoke to an Irish sculptor that Barry Flanagan had helped and Peter Bach asked the Irishman if he had ever talked to Barry Flanagan about his hares. The Irishman thought for a moment, and with a smile simply answered "Yes ...".

We never learned why Barry Flanagan seemed so preoccupied with them.

The final photograph is a fairly straightforward image ...

 

Barry Flanagan died in August 2009 in Ibiza where he lived.

Since watching the film I probably like Barry Flanagan's hare just that much more.