Parental Irresponsibility....

I think in Catworld I must be the cruellest form of parent. My cats have discovered the mind altering effects of the evil weed - Catnip... and I have to admit that I encourage them to partake because the results are so funny. I guess it's as bad as encouraging your kids to smoke dope...

It's Snowed, It's Snowed!!!

Excuse my excitement, but it rarely snows here and this morning I woke up to this...



It's not much, granted, but all the same, it's SNOW! I can hear my American and Scandinavian sisters laughing, but over here, unless you happen to live in the North ( I'm thinking Scotland, Cumbria and the Pennines here), this is about as good as it gets.



Judging by the footprints, it looks as though someone has already been out for a play!

On the knitting front, I am up to Row 200 of Peacock (out of 250) and have until the 10th February to get this finished. I'm still really enjoying it and hope to make the deadline.



Here's that all important detail shot...

And Now For Something Completely Different!

I thought I'd give you a quick whistle-stop tour of where I live. In an attempt to get a bit fitter this year and lose some of the weight I have put on as a result of the last few years of ill health, I have started to take regular walks each day. There is so much to see and a lot of history attached to the town I live in.

Warning - picture heavy post



Pronounced 'Toaster', Towcester is on the Roman Road The Watling Street/A5 and is one of the oldest established settlements in Northamptonshire.

This is what you see when you turn right at the top of my drive



We start walking down the old Northampton Road



The wall you can see is the boundary of Easton Neston Estate, once the home of Lord Hesketh, owner of Hesketh Racing, the last privately owned Formula 1 racing team (James Hunt was their driver) to win a F1 Grand Prix.

Sir Henry St George was the Chief Herald who lived at Easton Neston and designed the Union Jack in 1801



This is one of a pair of Gatehouses that mark the entrances of the estate.

At the end of the Northampton Road we turn left onto Watling Street



and you can see The Saracen's Head Inn. This is the very inn that Mr Pickwick stayed in in Charles Dickens' Novel, Pickwick Papers!



The 'Pickled Pig' that you can see on the right of this picture was 'The Pickwick Tea Rooms' until about 4 years ago and local rumour has it that Dickens wrote part of Pickwick Papers there. He also stayed regularly at The Saracens Head.

St Lawrence Church was built in the 12th Century and is thought to occupy the site of a substantial Roman public building. It also has the largest peal of bells in the country (12 for all you campanologists out there).



Pope Boniface VIII (1235-1303) - Benedict Cajetan, was Rector of St. Lawrence's Towcester until he became Pope in 1294.



The Town Hall was also the Corn Exchange and sits on the Market Square. One of the banks was also opened by a local wool and silk merchant





This is looking back up through the town centre.

Towcester also had it's own cinema built by the first Lord Hesketh in 1939. Sadly it was demolished in the 1980's and replaced by sheltered housing.

Well you'll all sleep better tonight for reading this!

Normal knitting posts will be resumed shortly...