Beverley and Louise, it was only a week ago, well last Thursday, I was sitting in the Pair Tree, in beautiful Hook Norton Oxfordshire (Louise i was in a room full of Georges crosses so I fell nto an English crowd), and watching the English Bat in the first Inns in the Aus/Eng Cricket match. Sorry Louise, but 2 runs!!!! Now that is a sticky wicket!!!!

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Hey PS, sounds like you had a great time!
I'll get over there one day! As for the cricket...well I'm not a huge fan... but the Pommies have to win sometimes! I really don't care if OZ wins or not while Shane W. is in the team. I measure a man or women by who they are as a person not how well they play a sport etc. and I don't have much time for him that's for sure.
Did you need your Mac and Wellies? Hee Hee.
Learn any new words?

CYMRU (can you pronounce that!) is a cold and wet place, beautiful, but cold and wet. There are few tree frogs and assorted noisy bugs at night. When the sun goes down (if it hasn't been raining all day) it is quiet and cold. I stayed in a cottage called Gwyngyddwynd near Llandiloes in Powys (can you pronounce those?) and traveled from Snowdonia to the Salisbury Plain as well as the Cotswalds. I sat in the the center of the Roll Right stones overlooking Chippy (Chipping Norton) as well as visiting the massive tribute to the Earth Godess on the plain and visited the boyhood home of Billy Shakespeare. The best was spending time with old friends who seem to live a World away!

I'm so glad that you enjoyed your trip, I know what you mean about the welsh place names. when we went a year or two ago we went out for the day, I can't remeber where, but on the way back to the camp site the road was closed so we had to take a 30 mile detour, which wouldn't have been so bad if it had been motar way but it was all countery roads. Alan's driving asking where are we passing through to check against the map to replys of Ayyyouesuya... How the bloody hell should I know! We got back in the end.

Glad you enjoyed your self, you should have come this week, the weather is really good for a change. Like I said to you before, We don't so much as have seasons, just weather.
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PSB, OH, sounds like a wonderful trip! I've always wanted to 'trip across the pond' & check out some of the very cool history. As well as hangin out in a Pub w/some new friends!
I do read the newspapers from England most days~well mostly the Tabloids! hehehe

I know some great pubs. Pete, my mate over there, got me signed on as a Pub Manager last Tuesday as a member of the Campaign for Real Ale> I was acting as a buyer at the Great British Beer Festival of 2005 held in London at the Olympia Hall. It was great. The day started with the mini bus picking us up in Hook Norton. Pete myself and a wonderful character named Peter Romer who worked the sound boards in at a studio in London in the early 70's. On the way to Chippy we talked of music and his days working with Mannfred Mann and (my favorite) the Kinks. Any way at Chippy we stopped at the Stones Pub for Bacon Sandwiches and Coffee. On the road again with some new gents and onto Woodstock and the Kings Arms where we had the first Pint (of Hooky) for the day. Great Pub they called it the Spud Pub but the beer garden backed up against the wall of Blenheim Palace (the Churchill Estate). Into London for a Pint of Fullers at the first Fuller pub we saw. On to Kensington and the Olympia where I entered soon after the doors opened at noon. There must have been 700 different British Pub Beers on Tap all with the traditional pump taps and it was my duty (along with the 2000 other Gents in the joint) to sample them all. Drinking by the half pint (they always filled above the half pint line) at a pound a piece we proceeded to "hold our own" stopping only momentarily for plate of bangers and mash at some point. THere were two American beers represented (Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada) but I am not a fan of either and didn't push it on my English and Welsh compadres. At the end of the day John did talk us into a Belgian Beer. Now I had spent a week or so in Alt and Ghent and know how proud of their beer the Belgians can be but after drinking good British Pub Beer all day, well, I just couldn't drink that Belgian stuff (it was like syrup). Any way we retraced our route back to Hooky with all the pub stops (and maybe a few extra thrown in). I know it was excessive but hey, that is what holidays are for!!! besides I made it to Billy Shakes's house the next day!!!

My favorite beers where one called Alden, a Welsh beer called Brains, and anything the Wytchwood brewery made.
Beverley, have you heard of the Roll Right Stones and the Whispering Knights. These stones pre date Stonehenge by more than a millenia and they are right close to Chippy and Hooky where I stayed in England. It was a pretty cool place to sit in the midday sun (it was sunny that day)and contemplate stuff!!!

I like a good bear too we when to a fair trade/veggie fair today a bught some hemp beer, not tried it yet but am looking forward to it.

No I havn't heard of those stones, but I haven't been to stone henge yet; it's on the list of places to go to when our VW Bus is up and running. Might not be till Summer next year but it's comeing along, I'll be sure to add those stones to the list Thanks.

P.S, I'll let you know what the Hemp Beer is like when I've drunk it.

hemp beer huh?

I miss all my mates overthere. They all went to the Cropredy Festival this weekend. Interesting line up. Thurs had Country Joe! Friday had Jimmy Carl Black (Zappa fan that you are this guy is well known) and Richard Thompson and Saturday was Fairport Convention with friends.

Mick, my friend who has been living on the long boat on the Banbury canal, is selling his boat. His sailing ship is finally renovated down near New Quay in Wales and he is on his extended tour of the world hoping to land in Australia (where he ultimately wants to settle I think!) He is one of those this is the guy you want to be with on a desert isle characters!!!Anyway, when I was leaving he gave me one of the decoratons off his long boat. A painting by John Pegg and well done even if it was just a horseshoe that hung on the side of the boat.

Not that it has to do with anything.....but we have a bottle of Hemp n Wine from Nirvana Homebrews of New York, thanks to Wyld,...just waiting for the proper mix of right folks to crack it open. Warm sun and contemplation sounds good to me. Hang your shoe upright to catch the luck, PSB!

The nostalgia is getting to me here! I came looking for info on Arlo's touring partners and stumbled into a discussion of something that's been on my mind for two weeks: Cropredy. I missed it this year, to my disappointment. The same night everyone was singing "Meet on the Ledge," I was at a CSN show singing "Teach Your Children." So I guess that sorta made up for it--as did Arlo at the Birchmere last night.

I've been to the Rollright Stones. If I recall correctly, they're small and remote and therefore just that much more evocative than, say, Stonehenge. (Avebury is worth a visit as well.)

How I wish I had an Old Hooky right now! (Or a Flowers Bitter, or a Wadworth 6X.)

Off to look at photos of Richard Thompson in cricket whites...

Hello Scarlet

I have one bottle of Old Hooky left and saving it for just the right moment. The Roll Right Stones are exactly as you describe and as i said before they pre-date stonehenge by a millenia or more. It is a nice spot to sit and consider!! I take it you are familar with the Hook Norton, Banbury, Deddington area! It is beautiful there and I love it (even with the Isle weather) I like village cricket and a pint or two and good music and pubin' with my mates. If you have spent much time in the area you might know of Pete who plays the Pubs in the area and has been sittin' in with Dave Pegg alot. Dave is involved with some Dylanesque band outsde of the Fairport right now. I heard back that Jimmy Carl Black was a bit, Shall we say, over the top for Cropready with the Muffin Ensemble. He likes to play the confrontational Zappa with that bunch. I got no report on Country Joes performance. Cropredy is a lovely spot and the report is they only got a little wet a coupla times.

Hi Scarlet I've tried Flowers Once, but it's once I'll not forget, it is one tasty beer. You don't see it round much it is a shame. PSB, if your ever over here again and come across it, honestly give it a try.