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A Leaf From Sycamore-September 2005
EditorialAs you all probably know by now the name chosen for the new extra care housing at Bainbridge will be Sycamore Hall. ‘Sycamore’ from Sycamore Close and ‘Hall’ from High Hall to combine the two old buildings into a superb new complex that will accommodate all. Sycamore day centre has had two publicity articles in the Darlington and Stockton, one for our website and one for our newsletter. The newsletter is missing the crossword in this issue. Short on time and short on space. Apologies and it will be back in the next issue.
Liz with daughter Lucy We have had iTunes installed on the computer. Unfortunately at the moment our connection is too slow to download the information. When we move to the new day centre and receive Broadband we will have a state of the art multimedia centre, no need to buy any CDs and can tune in to any kind of music whenever we like. Note: just to remind you we have a range of good quality cards for sale in the foyer £1.00 and marmalade at £1 25 a jar. Editor Angela Kershaw
Sycamore ResidentsSycamore residents had an outing with lunch to Kilnsey fish farm 18th July. BAINBRIDGE EXTRA CARE HOUSING
Concreters, plasterers, electricians and plumbers are all going in and out of the building like a huge army of ants. As I write some of the flats are being fitted out with kitchen units etc. Sycamore residents have now been shown and chosen their kitchen furniture, tiles and floor coverings. The kitchen units are made of solid wood and come in three different colours. Natural beech, ash or green with colour matched tiles and worktops. The shower rooms have a choice of cream or white tiles with complimenting pale blue or green tiles and matching floor covering. Residents have chosen the carpets that they would like for their new sitting room, bedroom, and hall. Sycamore residents will spend Christmas at Sycamore Close and then (hopefully) at the beginning of January 2006 will move across into the first phase at Sycamore Hall. YORE CLUB
Outing organisers:
Elma Banks (Wensleydale 650277) YORE CLUB 2005
Bus Leaves Askrigg at 9.00 a.m. and picks up in Bainbridge.
demonstration of craft with Carol Pounder
The Wensleydale Creamery £12.50
SYCAMORE DAY CENTREOuting To Reeth in Swaledale
We set off from Bainbridge towards Askrigg, climbing steeply out of Askrigg onto the moor road and Askrigg Common. Over Satron Moor, High Oxnop, passing Keartons' Wood on our right, dropping down into Crowtrees and then turning right for Gunnerside. We all kept trying to guess our final destination but no-one was telling. We went over the bridge in Gunnerside and on through Low Row, Feetham, Healaugh and finally we arrived. The destination was Reeth on market day.
Natural meadows were at their peak, and the hedgerows were spectacular. THE MARKET
Time was against us. It was a bit of a rush to look round the market as some traders were starting to close their stalls. Almost everyone bought some. Mary had a good shop and was able to buy fresh beetroot, cauliflower, melon, tomatoes and strawberries. Frances had some good purchases as well. Liz was quite delighted at finding a set of long reach screwdrivers for only £1.00 a set. She had been looking for ages. They are for repairing and changing the batteries in Lucy's toys.
After shopping we all piled outside the Cobblestones cafe at the top of the green. Journeyed back through Grinton, Arkerside Moor, Redmire moor and started our drop-offs at Carperby and then headed back to Bainbridge. THE CLOTHESLINE
We had a very good response from the public and Sycamore Close, in spite of the poor weather.
There was a slight problem in that for some people the clothes didn’t come in small enough sizes.
‘That wasn’t a problem for me.’ OUTING TO THE COPPICE TEAROOMS AYSGARTH
The outing was a bit touch and go as we were struggling to find a driver for the afternoon. John came up trumps and was able to rearrange his commitments and take us for a ride round. Thank you John much appreciated.
Originally we were going to try Kitty’s' tea room at Aysgarth for a change. We continued on to the falls and into the National Parks car park. As we were unloading the bus a lady that we were familiar with called out from a window of the National Park building to inform us that the tea room was having electrical work carried out but not to worry as we could still have ice-cream tea or cakes. Phew!
The weather was absolutely glorious and we sat outside. There was shade for anyone who needed it. Mary, Dolly and Dorothy bought cakes to take home with them, (said it would save them baking). They nearly cleared the place out of date and walnut cake. SYCAMORE DAY CENTRE COOKERY CLASSES
The domino table was also kept busy for the afternoon. Jim chopped the onion using the special chopper we purchased a few months ago, it worked really well. Dorothy, Mary and Dolly sliced all the stotties and bread buns and buttered them. Mary Johnson chopped all the mushrooms and sliced the tomatoes and the ham with the knife of her choice.
Jim mixed the part that gives the pizzas that extra zing. You make a puree with tomato paste, pure olive oil, minced garlic, fresh ground black pepper and lashings of basil. Liz was in charge of kitchen duties which meant making sure I didn't burn the filling and keeping everything washed up, whipping the cream and making sure we finished in time because as always we were working against the clock. Ta! Liz. Margaret Cotton did a fantastic job of combining all the ingredients onto the pizzas and decorating them. A little fun was had when we asked Nora and Mary to slice up strawberries for decoration. We omitted to tell them that they were not for the pizzas but to put on the fresh cream meringues they were having with a cup of tea.
After the pizzas were cool enough we sampled them and the verdict was, fantastic. Some of our members had never eaten a pizza before.
The remaining pizzas of which there was plenty were wrapped in foil and a paper bag and taken home for everyone’s tea. Verdict let’s do it again. COOKERY CLASS - MARY JOHNSON'S EGGLESS FLAN
We knew we would be working against the clock (more so than usual) as our manager was coming across to see us in the afternoon. The potatoes were boiled and mashed at home the previous night. We used a food processor for chopping the onions and bought ready grated cheese. We made the pastry and lined two flan dishes, roasted the onions and combined all the ingredients together. The flans were filled and decorated then put in the oven to bake. Despite all the shortcuts and our manager not being able to come, we were still too late to eat the flan by the time it had cooled from the oven. Fortunately that evening I was going to a lecture at Hawes so I took some flan up to Dorothy who distributed it to the Hawes ladies and on the Friday morning the rest of the flans were reheated and served up for coffee break so no-one missed out. Verdict very tasty. Jim said the mixture would make a great filling for cheese and onion pasties. Who knows we might try it one of these days. MUSIC
We have been downloading music, words and history of folk songs, sea shanties and tunes of times gone by but are still popular today. Yorkshire dialect readingWe have had a go at reading some dialect poetry. It is quite hard to do. The members who were local to the area read quite well. Fun was had by us all. We did readings from 23rd psalm and Owd Mary by Kit Calvert. The story of Lake Semerwater and The Hired Hand, two of which we have printed in this issue. Bread and Clay modelling
These activities are always laced with fun and imagination. It never ceases to amaze me some of the more unusual things people can model. Note: the clay and bread modelling were done on different days. Art and Photography
Angela and Lucy as you've never seen them
We have made interesting place mats from photographic images. You take a photograph and then using the computer you apply a kaleidescope technique to it. Most amusing and very unusual.
We have had the usual card bingo, dominoes, quoits, through the arches, quizzes, marmalade making etc. We have just been talking about Christmas and it’s time we started thinking seriously about what crafts we are going to make this year. Mary’s MilkmanCan anyone top this for a record? I have had the same milk man for 36 years. JOKE“Now” said the teacher “can anyone name five things that contain milk?” “Yes Miss” replied one pupil.” Ice-cream Butter cheese and two cows” Note :Wed. October 5th
Out for lunch at Owens (The Crown Askrigg) and a visit to the Dales Countryside Museum to see the Marie Hartley Exhibition celebrating 100 years of her life and work. Raydale Preserves
I had a cup of coffee and some cake and was delighted to see a photographic display of life in the dales from an earlier era. I checked out the toilet facilities to make sure they were wheelchair friendly. It was a lovely sunny afternoon. On the way up to Semerwater we were able to get a good look at the new National Park building and also got a good look at the new Sycamore Hall building from the top of the hill. We carried on up the hill to Countersett and then on to lake Semerwater which was twinkling in the sunlight. Stopped for a few minutes to absorb the view and then we went on to Stalling Busk and Raydale Preserves. There were photographic displays and folders for us to look at which provided a lot of interest as did the preserve tasting. Jim bought six jars of assorted jams and pickles and several other people bought some preserves. Just one mention ‘in my opinion’ “I don’t think lavender and blackcurrant go together.” After the preserve tasting, tea or coffee and homemade cakes was the order of the day. Smashing.
We were made to feel very welcome even though Derek was quite busy. Derek also gives a little talk about the farm and the conservation work that they do.
Verdict! We shall go again. We are also going to tell Sue as she might like to take some people from High Hall to have a look round. Annual Outing 2005
Originally we had planned a longer journey to the Lake District but on the morning of the trip the weather was in a way fantastic, but very warm. In light of this we revised our travel plans as several people were not keen on a long journey in the mini-bus including myself. A quick ring round on the telephone produced a yes to having lunch at Owens (The Crown) in Askrigg. Set off at 11.15 in glorious sunshine and arrived at 11.30. We settled down to a relaxed lunch with fantastic food (as it ALWAYS is) with puddings as well. We went back to Sycamore Close at 1.45 pm to drop off Frances who had an optician’s appointment and then we went over Askrigg moor into Swaledale.
John the bus driver got chatting to some volunteers and they said that we could take a picnic into the gardens if we wanted as long as we took all our rubbish away.
More pleasure was to come on the journey home. We travelled back via Redmire moor. The sun was still shining and what spectacular scenery. The heather was at its absolute peak. Glorious! The Country Harvest at Ingleton
What a lovely place for a day out, especially when the weather was absolutely perfect. Sunny but with a gentle breeze. We have been amazingly lucky with the weather for all our trips this year.
The coffee shop didn't disappoint either. The sweets cabinet had the most luscious puddings and tarts that you could ever want. We didn't have one because it was too soon after our lunch so we plumped for tea and scones or ice-cream. No such problems for our driver John who treated himself to a huge slice of summer fruit cheesecake.
Friends of High Hall
This piece of prose was written by Kit Calvert about his grandmother from Burtersett.
Kit Calvert Compared with our present assessment of good citizenship, grandmother would be thought a bit of a character. The following page out of her life is typical of her. "Put t'fire to t'oven Ann, while I go on to Billy Willie's for a few bits o' things t'bake wi'. "Ann was grandmother's eldest daughter, and Billy Willie was the local grocer. She donned her shawl, picked up her basket and purse which contained one halfcrown, the only money she possessed, and set off for her "baking stuff".
Before she arrived at the grocers, she called in to see how the Jacksons were getting on. The Jacksons were both ill in bed, needing attention. Grandmother sizing up the situation, lit a fire and took each a cup of tea, but found that the real trouble was starvation. Leaving the couple a little more comfortable, she toddled away to the grocers, and instead of buying her "baking things" she began to make purchases of goods needed in the sick home.
"I'm buying these for Jacksons who are both i' bed "clammed" (starved), I think I've got all that's wanted. How much Willie?”
Arriving back at the Jacksons, grandmother placed her purchases in the cupboard, and called on a neighbour to give an eye to these "tweea badly folk".
"Thou'd better rake t'fire from under t'oven, Ann, we can't bake today". Somehow they did manage, and a few days afterwards grandmother had to go shopping again, and after she had made her purchases, Willie remarked, "That's one and nine, and two shillings left on t'slate, mak's three and nine". "Nay nivver, Willie, ye've nowt on t'slate for me. What I got t'other day was for Jacksons who had nowt to live on".
"But ye bowt 'em Mary",
"Willie, I truly hope that day may nivver come, but if it does, and I’m here to see it, i'll do t'same for ye as I've done for Jacksons". But that's by the way. T'fact of t'matter today is, I'll nivver give you that two bob".
As far as I know she never did. Did You Know?Bedlam was the commonly used name of St. Bartholomew's hospital which housed the insane.
The hospital was originally, (1247) a priory for the order of St. Mary of Bethlehem (Bedlam being an abbreviation of Bethlehem). During the 18th century it was a popular diversion to visit the hospital to watch the antics of the poor inmates. Admission was one penny and it is said the hospital realized an income of four hundred pounds a year from visitors.
With 240 pennies to the pound that is 96,000 visitors per year. Letter from LucyIt has been quite a while since you heard from me so I’ve got lots to tell you.
Angela fried some sausages and put them in my pushchair hood for breakfast if I got hungry, but she got hungry first. I had a great time watching Brian running about trying to get the kite to fly he was funny.
When it was time for my bed I thought about my mummy and daddy and I felt a bit sad and I had to cry. The tadpoles have lost their legs but my mummy was wrong. They are brown toads not green frogs.
I have been off walking with uncle Mac and auntie Marnie and mummy and Flossie. You can pick blackberries off the bushes if you know where to go and nuts as well. I love blackberries. Yummy! My mummy smiles at me now in the garden and she lets me work with her cos’ I know if a plant is a good plant or a bad one. I only pull the bad ones out. We have been in the woods looking for fairies but they were shy and didn’t come out, but we found some of their clothes and hats and tea plates.
I am now trying to draw pictures of my friends on the walls in my house. Adults are strange. By the way thought I’d just mention it is my Birthday on the 4th of October and I shall be two.
I think that is enough to be going on with bye. Full Circle – A Modern Parable by Beryl LongstaffPassing the Depledge residence in 1992, we noticed a group of people in animated conversation. Tom hailed us and indicated our presence was required.
From its size we thought it would soon turn into a chrysalis; how wrong we were, for weeks it stripped the leaves off our potted fuchsia in the conservatory, ignoring its staple diet of rose bay willow herb. Then it started wandering and a notice was pinned on the door, ‘take care – caterpillar at large’. Eventually we got the message – soil was needed and once in place, it dug down and slept. Winter came, then spring, with still no movement, until we finally decided it was dead and gently prised the soil from around it. The sun shone and the conservatory warmed up, the fuchsia twigs sprouted leaves, and one day in June 1993 the reddish – brown chrysalis twitched.
Elephant Hawkmoth Then back to Toms where the story originated and the moth was transferred to the lovely standard fuchsia by his front door. It became invisible, its camouflage complete; the circle of life had begun again. NOTE: Elephant Hawk moth caterpillar uses a spectacular deterrent when disturbed; head and trunk-like neck are retracted into the thorax which swells to expose conspicuous ‘eye-spots’, giving a snake-like appearance. THE HIRED HAND
It’s plow and soa, scythe an’ hoa, then in tid ‘arvest we da goa.
There’s cows to milk, an’ hosses ta feed, turnips ta snag an’ tatties ta lead.
Aa t’ maisters ‘ard, and misses taa keeps shoutin’ out what work’s ta daa,
Then rest t’ will be fra scythe and hoa for t’ Lord in ‘eaven ordained it soa.
Weep noa more, my poor bit lad, but in the brightest raiment clad
Till then tis on, and on, ah goa, it’s plow an’ soa, scythe and hoa’ By Thomas H. Vayro. Mark TwainMark Twain once asked a neighbour if he might borrow a set of his books. The neighbour replied ungraciously that he was welcome to read them in his library, but he had a rule never to let his books leave his house. Some weeks later the same neighbour sent over to ask for the loan of Mark Twain’s lawnmower. “Certainly,” said Mark, “but since I make it a rule never to let it leave my lawn you will be obliged to use it there.”
At the age of sixteen, if we may trust the account given by his
Friend Mr. Octavius Gilchrist, in the "London Magazine" for January, 1820, "To a Primrose":--
Welcome, pale primrose, starting up between Wives of BainbridgeTippling by the wives of Bainbridge would appear to be an ancient offence.
High Hall fancy dress 2005
From Dales Tales on - thedales.org.uk And finally : a new broom sweeps clean but the old one knows all the corners. Pages that link to this page: A Leaf From Sycamore |
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Noticeboard Page updated: 20/10/2005 |
Liz Allen our talented Activity Organiser - won the Hartley Cup in the Floral Art section for the second year in a row and the Ella Metcalfe Memorial Trophy for best exhibit in the floral section. Well done again Liz!
On the 28th of September we had an open afternoon clothing sale with refreshments at Sycamore Day Centre.
Earlier in the week I had been up to Stalling Busk and called in at Raydale Preserves to check out suitability for an outing from Sycamore Day Centre.
It was a very enjoyable afternoon made more special by the fact that Basil and Sygny Allen from Hawes were there helping out the family and our day centre members had a good crack with them as they were familiar faces to all.
This time we went into the Community Orchard Gardens at Hudson House Enterprise Centre in the middle of Reeth.
The choice of foods was incredible. In the fresh baked bread alone there were about fifteen varieties. The most unusual bottles of beers, drinks and home made elderflower cordial. Cheeses to die for including a cheese made in Lancashire and it looked like a large onion. Most unusual! They also had a good clothing and gifts section.
Ken and I went for a walk across the field to the swings and as there were no children around we tried them out. I asked Ken if I could take a photo of him and he said okay.
The friends held their Annual Summer Fair at High Hall on Saturday 10th September.
There was the usual heavily laden cake stall, raffle, tombola, healthy bottle stall, crafts and greeting cards. Tea and cakes were provided and served by High Hall staff.
The event as always was very well supported.
Over £400 was raised.
The friends made a substantial donation to High Hall’s amenity funds.
My grandmother, dead these last forty years, was almost the last of a fine type of Victorian dalesfolk.
I have been to stay with Angela and Brian again. We walked down to bungalow town (Hawbank) to fly a kite.
My fluffy chickens have turned into hens and eggs come out of their bums. Mummy took my eggs to the show in Askrigg and I won first prize and an egg cup and I had my picture took.
The ladies present were observing a creature with some distaste. It was ugly, fat and of a dirty brown colour moving laboriously along the stem of a beautiful fuchsia. “Ugh! It’s revolting” declared Joan as Margaret inched away. The trunk-like appendage on its head meant it was an Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar.” Take it away” urged Joan, which we willingly did after George had taken some photographs.
The shell began to split and another body, newly born, supple and alive, crawled out. It clung there on the wrinkled discarded skin and in the sunlight pumped air into the crumpled wings. The veins on the wings were coloured like the fuchsia and rose bay willow-herb flowers. Gone was the muddy colour, replaced by beautiful pink and soft green – a miracle.
In the Quarter Sessions Records of 1667-68 it was ordered "if a Bainbrigge ale-house keeper suffer any person to tipple or drink disorderly, in his house on the Sabbath day in the time of divine service, or suffer any man's wife to drink disorderly against her husband's mind, then he is to be suppressed from selling ale or beer any more."
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