On 26 September 2020 Commando had a session booked with Paul at the Running School. As it was a beautiful sunny afternoon, I decided to go along and have a little stroll while he was being beasted. There was a time when an hour spend roaming around Stoneham Park would have felt like a treat. Now, my afternoon mission felt more like a sad pilgrimage and I knew I wasn’t going to enjoy it, despite the azure blue skies.
Continue reading A fire and a shrine
28 July 2018
This morning, while Commando was running round parkrun, I went back to the Old Cemetery for a closer look at the fire damage. According to the Echo, not always the most factually accurate of local newspapers, two Titanic memorials were damaged by the fire, along with a World War I grave belonging to Kate Trodd, a nurse who served in the Voluntary Aid Detachment. Whether I’d be able to locate any of these damaged graves remained to be seen. Continue reading Inspecting the damage
23 July 2018
Unbeknown to us, while we were camping in the hot, dusty Catton Park field preparing for Thunder Run, a small disaster was unfolding on Southampton Common. On Saturday, a fire broke out in the Old Cemetery, caused, it’s believed, by the unrelenting sun shining on broken glass and setting fire to the desiccated and overgrown grass. Commando read about it in the local paper and, once we’d unpacked, rested a little and dashed around the supermarket to stock up for the week, we went to have a look. Continue reading Scorched earth in the Old Cemetery
17 May 2016
A week of perfect, sunny weather saw me summerhouse painting rather than walking. Of course there were trips up the hill and a bit of general wandering about, but nothing that could rightfully be called a proper walk. On Thursday afternoon I finally got the last coat of paint on the inside of my little woman cave and scraped the excess off the windows. There was some making up of miles to be done on Friday and I had a plan. An arts trail in the city to be exact. A map and information was downloaded and I was all set to pound the pavements and parks. Sadly, a catastrophe of epic proportions involving fire got in the way. Continue reading Fireworks catastrophes and the summer house
The first day of August 2013 began badly with lots of annoying jobs and a call from a grouchy supplier. Then there were Bridge supplies. It seemed impossible to get my head round that minefield. Things started to look up when I went for my lunch time walk. The parks were looking beautiful and there was another rhino to tick off my list. Then I found the rhino motherload… Continue reading The rhino mother load – first published 1 August 2013
July 2013 was coming to an end and I had a date with a rhino. The plan was to walk to the airport, find the rhino there and walk back, a nice little eight mile stroll and one more of the out of town rhinos ticked off my list. Sometimes things don’t work out quite how you planned though and a catalogue of disasters meant a change of plan. Continue reading scorched earth – first published 27 July 2013
At the end of a busy day the last thing you want to see on the way home is a huge plume of smoke ahead between you and home. That is exactly what happened on the evening of 26 July 2013 as Gail and I were heading for the Itchen Bridge. By the time we realised what was burning it was too late to turn back. We’d just have to find a way around it if we could. Continue reading southampton’s burning – first published 26 July 2013