My Daily Banana

 

Photo of today:

The White Rose

 

Event of the Day:

3rd July 1996

The Stone of Scones (the Coronation Stone) was returned to Scotland.
 

 It was stolen from the Scots in 1296 by King Edward I and taken to Westminster Abbey where it was built into a wooden chair which was from there on known as King Edward's Chair the Coronation Chair.

Birthday of the Day:

3rd July 1883

Franz Kafka
 

Try reading his books, they are freaky! I loved the book The Metamorphosis; a boy wakes and discovers, that he has metamophosized into a beetle overnight. It's creepy and funny; read it.

Died on this Day:

3rd June 1971

Jim Morrison
 

One of the members of the notorious 27 Club (musicians that died at the age of twenty seven; Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain and three years ago the beautiful Amy Winehouse).

The great singer of the group the Doors with songs such as Riders on the Storm and The End

I loved the songs of the Doors, unfortunately when Jim died the group as a group dried with him; this happen with most of the groups that have such a dominant front figure: think of Queen, Cheap Thrills (I know Janis left them long before she died, but when she left them they went back to being a run of the mill psychedelic music group).

Thoughts:

I found it, the gentleman who drove down Steep Hill with a "four-in-hand" (a coach drawn by four horses). This feat was performed by the Member of Parliament for Lincoln the right honorable Colonel Charles de Laet Waldo Sibthorp. He was an MP for Lincoln from 1826 till his death in 1855 with a short break in 1833 and 1834. 

The information was in the introductory of the book "Britain in Old Photographs: Lincoln" collected by David Cuppleditch. The book I bought in the nineties, but only lately have I become interested in it; I just had a look in Amazon UK and there are some used issues available, I found two more paperbacks that I couldn't resist; Lincoln Cathedral in old Photographs and Lincoln: Photographic Memories.

Thanks Kerry for the book you gave me of Lincoln; funny at least fifty percent of the photos are similar to the ones I shot on my photo safari. I could act as a guide for the tourists showing them the points of interest and from where they could take picturesque photos.

Looking down Steep Hill

The Castle, Drury Lane

The Exchequers Gate

There's always scaffolding somewhere on the cathedral

It made me feel small standing next to it.

 

A view from the Exchequer's Gate towards the castle

 

One of the dead pubs, in Rasen Lane
I remember being there with Sylvia and Frazer
For a while Trudy and Rob lived next door, Gordon and I stayed there in 1995 when I came travelled with him to England

Newport Court

Newport Arch it was built in when the Romans occupied Lincoln
It's the only Roman archway in the United Kingdom through cars can drive

Imagine having a view like that from the back garden

Tomorrow I will be leaving the gentry and will be going back downhill to where the factories, dirt, terraced housing where the industrial workers lived.
Bye

My Daily Banana

Picture of the Day:

Event of the Day:

2nd July 2002

Steve Fossett is the first man to fly nonstop around the world in a balloon.

And again the Americans beat the United Kingdom; at the same time Richard Branson tried the same feet, but failed.

Birthday of the Day:

2nd July 1956

Jerry Hall

the second wife of Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones from 1990 to 1999. They met in 1977 when Jagger was still married to Bianca. Jerry had four children with Jagger.

Died on this Day:

2nd July 1961

Ernest Hemingway

The poor guy committed suicide at the age of 61. His last novel The Old Man and the Sea published in 1952 won him the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and contributed to his winning the Nobel Prize in Literature one years later. 

The book tells a very cool story about a Cuban fisherman Santiago, who after a period of bad luck where he didn't catch a fish for eighty-four days, gets lucky and catches a mega marlin. It took him three days to reel the fish in, which he then strapped onto the side planking of his boat; while rowing back to land he was continuously attacked by sharks attracted by the fish blood. The first few Santiago managed to kill, but when he arrived back on land only the head, tail and backbone were left of the magnificent fish. He was so exhausted, that he went straight back to his hut to sleep before removing the cadaver. This cadaver moved his fellow fishermen to amazement, the marlin was five metres long and from then on Santiago was no longer seen to be the loser.

The book was filmed with Spencer Tracy playing the part of Santiago. I can't remember it, at the time when it was actual in the cinemas I wasn't into films that were mellow, I needed action. Maybe it would touch my taste of films today. Here's a trailer I found on YouTube:

The Old Man and the Sea

Thoughts:

Oops, I'm in trouble again. We just had dinner and while drying the dishes I praised the magnificent meal that Heike conjured up. I told her how appeased I was; the sauce was terrific, potatoes cooked precisely to the perfect degree of bite and the veggie fingers fried a beautiful golden brown. Oh dear, that was a little overenthusiastic; her reply was nasty. What did I do wrong? Last time I was told off because I finished the meal without even a burp. It's not easy being a man, whatever I do it's wrong; in my next life I'll come back as a dog, they are always loved.

Here are some more photos of my stroll:

Looking up the High Street just after the Stonebow

Your house is waiting for you Fraser

Top of the High Street
There's a café pub at the top:
do you remember it used to be an furniture shop?
The whole front was a window pane: I remember once when I was on the bad stuff standing there at three in the morning, looking at the reflection of the whole length of the High Street until a rozzer broke my dreams and shooed me off.

The Strait
Why that name? It's got a bend in it!

The Strait again,
the flats on the right don't fit in between the historical houses.

The Jews House
 

The beginning of Steep Hill
The barriers at the ends of Steep Hill were placed there after a wild coach ride down the hill. I tried to Google the story but it was not to be found, sorry (I should save the little stories that I pick up, then I could prove what I'm rambling on about)

I praised the guy after he reached the top of the hill, he thought I was making fun of him;
why can't people take a word for a word?

One of the many antiquarian bookshops uphill
If you go left there was the Lincoln Art College where I had many friends back in the sixties-seventies.
I saw Genesis there live in 1970, they were one of the upcoming groups at that time.

Top of Steep Hill
Why they don't close the road down for traffic I can't understand; it's not even a one way street.
I was sat in a café and watched a car and a delivery van pass each other, they used both pathways.

 

Here I end today: there's more to come.

Bye till tomorrow xxx

My Daily Banana

Plant of the Day:

On my way back from work today I stopped to see how the giant rhubarb is growing. And I must say, it is; it must have grown twenty-five centimetres in height in the past two weeks and it's covering all of the root bale (is that the right word for the base of the plant?) When I take a photo I have to go further back to get the plant in one picture. The leaves are between one and one and a half metres in diameter; they are as rough as sandpaper. I wouldn't mind pressing one of the leaves, I've had thoughts about how but I haven't come up with an answer. The paper isn't the problem it's the books needed to put pressure on the leaf, I've got hundreds but they are all on my iPad. 

I'm wondering how the plant will grow from seed; I've got a gardener to help me "Lee, did the seeds arrive? And please tell me how your getting on with the greenhouse and the plant nursery"

Event of the Day:

1st July 1874

First commercially successful typewriter from Sholes & Glidden goes on sale

Birthday of the Day:

1st July 1952

Dan Aykroyd

He played Elwood as one of the Blues Brothers together with John Belushi (RIP): the group still exists John being replaced by his younger brother James.

Died on this Day:

1st July 2004

Marlon Brando

One of the greatest actors of our time. He acted the hard man in films such as The Wild Ones, Mutiny on the Bounty, The Godfather and many more. He lived to the ripe age of eighty.

Thoughts:

Anyone got a used living room suite for us? Ours is getting old and grubby, and the seating is getting flat from all my lounging about: or could it be because of our kissing and cuddling on the sofa? No details, otherwise I'll get hung.

I'm going to carry on with my stroll through Lincoln; showing how I saw and how I see the town:

I left my car in Sincil Bank
The Lincoln City Football grounds can be seen in the background.
It seems to be killing time in Lincoln; a day before I arrived a woman was murdered in one of the houses a bit further back on the left.
Last week there was another murder just off Portland Street

 

The magnificent Cathedral towering over Lincoln
 

Portland Street
Back in 1971 I lived in the flat with the window open,
it was a one room flat, I shared the kitchen and bathroom with two others.
If we wanted hot water or the electric oven we put a shilling in the meter.
 

This was the Ritz cinema, now it's a café restaurant.
In the sixties I saw many a good film here and in the seventies a concert with the Glenn Miller Band (without Glenn, he was dead, but I think his brother was the band leader)

The High Street
Faze4 used to be Rumbelows, they sold electrical compliances (TV, radio, record-players and most important records).
I spent many a happy hour listening to LP's there.

High Street

Corn Exchange

The Cornhill Market
It's there daily

Waterside.
Woolworths used to be here

The High Bridge Café

The Glory Hole

The Stonebow
 



Bye for today

I'll see you all tomorrow