The re-Imagined Village

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 08 Jul 09 - 03:34 AM

"They had an item on climate-change and its effect on what kind of fruit and veg might be growable in the UK sometime soon"

I can now grow decent tomatoes outside in Yorkshire whereas, a few years ago, they had to be in a polytunnel. I also grow chillis and peppers but they do need some protection.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 05:28 PM

Anybody see BBC's Countryfile on Sunday? It's still available on BBC iPlayer and will be re-broadcast Friday, 10th July at 1:25am, BBC One.

They had an item on climate-change and its effect on what kind of fruit and veg might be growable in the UK sometime soon. Already, from only a handful a few years back, there are now scores of vineyards and winemakers across the country.

In passing, they mentioned that several things we regard as essentially native are in fact relatively recent introductions. Apples and pears, far from originating in the East End of London, came from Persia. The familiar orange carrot is a later variant - the original purple variety came from Turkey. Swedes - what can I tell you? And as for the potato - well, you've had your chips!

Ross

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 02:57 PM

As far as British horror films go, nothing comes close to "Night of the Demon" (1957)

Based on the M R James story Casting the Runes which is rumoured to have inspired the Ring cycle...

And don't forget "Dead Of Night", the compilation of horror stories by Cavalcanti and other directors - the haunted mirror story is still a shocker.

I was fortunate enough to catch this on the big screen a few years ago (if the club screen of the Tyneside Cinema counts as big) and whilst all the favourite scenes were magnified into the sort of glory you'd expect, the biggest surprise was the golfers story which hitherto was the weak link in the chain. Not so on the big screen - the bleak winter landscapes took on an epic quality that gets quite lost on the small screen. A true classic. I'm a big fan of portmanteau horror films, and whilst nothing beats Dead of Night, having Alan 'Fluff' Freeman and Roy Castle in the cast Dr Terror's House of Horrors has a special place in my heart...

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Will Fly
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 12:27 PM

Well, for my money, "The Innocents", based on Henry James's "The Turn Of The Screw" is pretty fearsome. And don't forget "Dead Of Night", the compilation of horror stories by Cavalcanti and other directors - the haunted mirror story is still a shocker.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 12:11 PM

As far as British horror films go, nothing comes close to "Night of the Demon" (1957) IMO. Scared the living crap out me back then - still does today.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 11:15 AM

"One of the finest films ever"

Hmmmm! I thought it had died without trace.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Rifleman (inactive)
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 11:09 AM

I'd heard much aboutt «Children of the Stones, I finally viewed it, the term 'the legend is greater than the reality! came to mind, much like The Wicker Man..the cat washing herself holds more excitement.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 08:32 AM

You man the Death Line / aka Raw Meat, with Donald Pleasance!!??? Bloody hell - the exalted company we keep on Mudcat!

One of the finest films ever, and an opening theme to die for. Watch it in its glorious entirety here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Look5R8kQs

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 08:17 AM

"the rumours of strange lights seen hovering over Poacher's Knoll "

That was probably me out 'lamping' with my dog, Susie. Why do you think they call it Poacher's Knoll? Now don't 'ee be tellin' t'squire!

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 08:06 AM

Now here's classic (LOL!) British horror film, directed by my friend, Gary Sherman. I have to confess (under torture) that I did have a hand in writing the script.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Deathline-DVD-Christopher-Lee/dp/B000EWOO2Y

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 08:06 AM

but I do find something a bit creaky and wooden in British sci-fi..

The finest sci-fi was British; the finest TV - The Prisoner - and the finest film - Quatermass and the Pit, which is given homage by Babylon 5 in the feature length episode Thirdspace. I gave Lexx my best shot, but it was always on too late for me too fully take in. And as for that shower scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSw-9aqgoBQ

In our re-Imagined Village we will always be watching the skies, especially after the rumours of strange lights seen hovering over Poacher's Knoll on the night those Crop Circles appeared...

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 07:45 AM

I do like Torchwood, but I do find something a bit creaky and wooden in British sci-fi..

I thoroughly dug the fabulous Babylon 5 though.
And for sci-fi, the most brilliantly weird shit I ever saw was the surreal Lexx. Everything looked like willies or something. I recall one particular shower scene... !

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 06:22 AM

Cheers, Tim - definite echoes of Morecambe there! The Spanish City had a last ditch attempt at reinventing itself as The Whitley Bay Dome some years ago playing host to bands such as Gong and Faust, though Magma pulled out owing to poor ticket sales. I wonder, have I ever truly forgiven them for that?

Yesterday Ross & I went with a friend to a poetry event at Blackpool Library where we each sang songs & told stories but mostly we went to hear Ron Baxter reciting as poems some of the songs we'd performed in the Fylde Coasts Sands show on Saturday night. Arriving an hour early, we decamped to the North Pier for a reviving Costa and basked a while midst sea-side shabbiness certainly, but there's something about Blackpool that is most tangibly alive and kicking, however so haunted by the ghosts of its not inconsiderable past, even to the point of having an ultra-bland sentimental MOR version Fields of Athenry forming part of the Irish Medley blaring out of the gift shop as we passed by, enchanted...

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 06:22 AM

I've heard about, and seen snippets of (on the BBC's Country File, I think..?), The Wicker Man, and it's one of the few films/television plays that I'd like to catch sometime.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: mandotim
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 05:55 AM

Have a listen to 'Shabby Seaside Towns' here . I wrote it on the way back from Whitley Bay some years back. The Spanish City was closed at the time.
Tim

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 07 Jul 09 - 04:50 AM

And what about Sky?

There were definitely some echoes of such programmes in the opening episode of the new Torchwood last night - even the title: Children of Earth. Watch it again HERE - brilliantly compelling sci-fi in the fine British tradition of such things (Nigel Kneale et al) I'd say. Episode two tonight!

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 06:19 PM

Children of the Stones? Now you're talking! Got it on DVD last year and watched the whole series end to end. It really is the Wicker Man for kids. Now contemplating the Tomorrow People boxed set but anticipating disappointment. And why isn't The Changes on DVD? Eh? Thanks for reminding me about it, S o'P.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 05:39 PM

Not forgetting The Changes...

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 05:25 PM

a dead 80s give away.

Context is all, Rifleman! Besides - it was first screened in 1977! I used to watch it with my punk mates from school & we loved it. A product of it's time & no less worthwhile because of that. We rented it on DVD last year (through Sofa Cinema) & thoroughly enjoyed it, but then again I reckon the first series of Catweazle to be amongst the finest British TV ever made - I even have a signed picture of Geoffrey Bayldon (albeit on the trike at Duck Halt from series 2) hanging pride of place. I'm also a big fan of Pertwee's re-invention of Worzel Gummidge (in which Bayldon likewise excels). Children of the Stones is part of that genre of - er - Folkloric TV; of it's time, but reflecting a wider vibe of a particular Zeitgeist one also finds in such films as Blood on Satan's Claw and The Wicker Man.

Check those links, WAV - all part our rich folkloric heritage!

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 04:04 PM

Eh! I missed CotS before, and am definitely inclined to give it a view on what I've now seen, kippers and all...!

What's so nice about 'growing up' is that you no longer have to pretend that your enjoyment of things is somehow 'subversive', 'kitch', or 'ironic'.

What a relief...

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Rifleman (inactive)
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 03:46 PM

In answer to the question.

Has Children of the Stones aged well?

The answer is no, it's the big hair, the de rigueur sideburns, the kipper ties, and jacket lapels wide enough to land an aircraft on, that make CotS a dead 80s give away.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 12:46 PM

I saw a copy of Children of the Stones on VHS on a stall in the Winter Garden collectors market in Blackpool on Saturday. The ultimate in re-Imagined Villagery I would have thought; featuring Blake himself of course...

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 12:32 PM

Alas, rather like Blakes 7 the mingeing sods won't let us at the archives! I don't think you can get TCfSW on DVD. Though I've no idea how well the series has weathered since the eighties.
It was rather stand alone of it's obscure kind, though of course stuff like The Comic Strip Presents was probably around the same time... (not that I was in theory old enough to stop up till 9pm in order to watch that kind of grown-up comedy!)

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 12:25 PM

To WF and RM - are you trying to say "it's not cricket"?!

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 11:42 AM

"But once in The Village, how does one get out?"

You can't get out, that's the point of the Village! Ask Patrick McGoohan.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Rifleman (inactive)
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 11:11 AM

"I hereby commission WAV to start another thread about The re-Imagined Small Seaside Town. But once in The Village, how does one get out?"(SO)...I try to see the sea once a year but missed last summer - Whitley Bay is a favourite"

He doesn't need any encouragement, unfortunately

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Will Fly
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 10:02 AM

You little devil, David - there's just a tickle of the troll about that cricket post... :-)

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 09:59 AM

(For any RI Villagers who like/love their cricket, there's a BS debate brewing - along with the tea, on the village green, below the line - over "The Ashes.")

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 06:56 AM

Like your lyric, thanks, The Leveller.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 06:42 AM

|'ve just come across a song I wrote a while ago, re-imagining the South Yorkshire pit village I grew up in and then the move back to the East Coast where I lived until I left at the age of 18.

The England I Knew

The England I knew is now disappearing
The woods and the hedgerows are vanishing fast
The countryside that I loved and grew up with
Is quickly becoming a thing of the past

Where are the summers that were golden with sunshine,
The winters where snow lay thick on the ground?
The soft days of autumn with apples and conkers
The spark in the belly when spring came around?

The school that I went to now wouldn't pass muster
With its toilets outside and the coal-fired stove,
Where those at the front were roasted and blistered
While those at the back just shivered and froze.

Holidays once meant the great British seaside
And the sandwiches really were crunchy with sand.
Though the castles we made there were soon washed away
Those we built in our minds still steadfastly stand.

By the Co-Op in the village, in pit boots and flat caps,
Old men in white mufflers on the street corner stood,
Spitting out on the pavement a lifetime of coal dust
From pits that have long since been closed down for good.

In the sixties we moved back east to the coast again,
Away from the collieries and the landscape of coal.
But for friends that I left there, the future was certain:
The dark, dirty coalface, then life on the dole.

Then on Saturday nights, in pubs by the dockside
We'd fight fingerless fishermen, drunk on beer and tots.
Now instead of the trawlers tied up at the quayside,
They've built a marina for luxury yachts.

We've lost all the elms that once graced our landscape
And it looks like the beeches will go the same way
But still chainsaw and bulldozer rip through the forests
Because trees must make room for a new motorway

And wherever you look, the Yankees are coming,
They've invaded our high streets, taken over our minds.
Now burger and pizza joints pepper the landscape
And on telly their accents are all you can find.

Quick, send for the police, someone's stolen my England.
"Now then, when was the last time you had it, d'you say?
Hmmm, I can't recall seeing anything like that around here
Are you sure you didn't just throw it away?"

So don't turn your back on the England you love
Hold onto its hand like your daughter or son.
'Cos if you look away for a couple of minutes
When you glance back again…sorry, it's gone.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 06 Jul 09 - 05:32 AM

C4's "They Came From Somewhere Else", just about as English as you like!

How on earth did I miss that one? Hilda Braid as well! Looks like a classic. Must check it out on DVD. Another great lost classic of the English sit-com is the darkly surreal Nightingales with a resident trio of night-watchmen played by Jimmy Ellis (Z-Cars etc.), Robert Lindsay (Citizen Smith, My Family etc. and David Threlfall (Shameless etc.). Happily, this came out on DVD a couple of years back allowing its inner mysteries to be explored at leisure. Easily one of the finest sit-coms of all time; in our re-Imagined Village it would required viewing on dark winter nights when our cherished streets are overrun by The re-Imagined Village Young Team...

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 05:04 PM

I'll check the tides and go out there sometime this summer

Go there tomorrow, WAV - you are Walkaboutsverse, so you must walk. If the tide's in, head North along the cliffs to Seaton Sluice where on a clear day you can see The Cheviot Hills from the top of Sandy Island. Chances are the King's Arms will serve you chips and mead before the next leg of the walk - inland, up-river, to the romantic ruins of Starlight Castle...

Unless you get involved in a dispute about who's responsible for their upkeep!Now that can really make you sic

Likewise when the Land Registry put their red pen marks in the wrong place on the property plans giving said village neighbour the idea that the fence is in the wrong place. Yup - it's your Great British Boundary Dispute, one of the real Traditional Pastimes of Village Life. The only time in my life when I've come close to actually hating someone. Not good.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 03:00 PM

"good fences make good neighbors (sic)"

Unless you get involved in a dispute about who's responsible for their upkeep!Now that can really make you sic (sic).

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 12:46 PM

Re: Saint Mary's - I'll check the tides and go out there sometime this summer...watching Wimbledon at the moment - 8-8 in the fifth..?

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 12:28 PM

my house is on the outskirts and on 'the wrong side of the tracks'.

Right next to mine then, eh? Still, as the poet said, good fences make good neighbors (sic)

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 12:25 PM

I try to see the sea once a year but missed last summer - Whitley Bay is a favourite.

Once a year???!!! Feck, WAV man - you have a 5-minute Metro service giving to access to all the stations between West Monkseaton and Tynemouth with some of the finest coastline in the country, and some cracking all-year weekend flee-markets too (Tynemouth Station, Sat & Sun) with walks beyond Saint Mary's Island up to the history-rich Seaton Sluice. You even have a Metro service to South Shields...

Sean - practise your irony...

No irony intended, Stu - apart from that last bit about South Shields, but even so Marsden Rock & Grotto has to worth a weakly hike at least!

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 11:48 AM

Quintessential to the Small English Seaside Town:

BNP Outreach
Needle Exchange Scheme
Morrisey
Absentee Landlords
Vodka (in Coca Cola bottles)
Cockles

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: s&r
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 11:03 AM

Sean - practise your irony...

Stu

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 09:15 AM

"I hereby commission WAV to start another thread about The re-Imagined Small Seaside Town. But once in The Village, how does one get out?"(SO)...I try to see the sea once a year but missed last summer - Whitley Bay is a favourite.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Paul Burke
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 09:04 AM

village people get on my tits; the same faces, day in, day out;>/i>

There's a bit of urban sophistication I've missed out on. I've been wearing the same face for nearly 60 years. No wonder it's looking a bit worn out. And you townies, you get fed up with your face, you don't cut off your nose to spite it like us benighted country folk, you simply change it for a new one! The New Faces, I thought that was just the name of the band.

What do they do with all the old faces- is there a huge landfill site, somewhere on the outskirts of Walsall perhaps, where they dump them? Or are they recycled these days, or perhaps shipped to the Third World?

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 08:44 AM

"village people get on my tits;"

I have to be honest, neighbours of any kind get on my tits. Which is why, in the Re-Imagined Village - as in reality - my house is on the outskirts and on 'the wrong side of the tracks'.

"Power Stations
Windfarms"

We live within sight of Drax, the largest coal-fired power station in Europe and yet, when someone wanted to put up a couple of wind turbines, there was a huge outcry. I asked one of the objectors if she thought there was the same protest when they wanted to put up the windmill in the village? Personally, I can't see too much difference - or does age bring acceptability, as with the pit winding gear that is now the stuff of nostalgia but which we though of as eyesores not too long ago?

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 08:38 AM

In line with the re-imagined village come gnostic prison camp theme, C4's "They Came From Somewhere Else", just about as English as you like!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Came_From_Somewhere_Else

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 08:11 AM

Here's a nice old folk song about life in the country, circa 1982:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyf4yZc2EM0

Lyrics Here

The villagers
Are surrounding the house
The locals have come for their due
It's hard to live in the country

*

Actually folks, I think even The re-Imagined Village is getting too much for me; I hereby commission WAV to start another thread about The re-Imagined Small Seaside Town. But once in The Village, how does one get out?

Actually, there's another Quintessential Piece of Genuine Englishness Essentially to any Successful Repatriation. Let's add it to the list shall we?

Dandelion and Burdock
The Ghost Stories of M R James
The Fall
Power Stations
Windfarms
John Shuttleworth
Vic Reeves
Jim Eldon
English Apples & Cheeses
The Prisoner

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 07:49 AM

No I don't think there are any "neighboring villages" this one is IT, the only! There might be a signpost just over the one way bridge that can't be deciphered, indicating 'Little Somewhere' or 'Great Ishyplace" but the road is always blocked by the farmers slow moving tractor, or geese crossing or some other mysterious quintessentially English village phenomenon (no-body of course, ever notices this...). And there's always a mist over the fields where the village sort of 'runs out'. Our village is of course located on Solaris, or is a programme in the Matrix, or maybe it's a set in some futuristic reality show..? Of course we'll never know!

Yes, I think all Morris Men should read Nigel Pennicks "Crossing the Borderlines, ritual animal disguise in the European tradition" and get with the traditionally re-imagined pagan fertility masked dancing pronto.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 07:12 AM

the neighbouring villages

Neighbouring re-Imagine Villages no doubt; our fantasy topography grows ever more complex! Okay, so we've got Ambridge in The Archers, and Ledwardine in Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins novels and countless other non-existent English villages that are somehow quintessential to the cause in spite of - or maybe because of - the fact that they don't actually exist. So, is the non-existent English Village the only true English Village I wonder? The one we hold in our dreaming hearts as being somehow archetypical of an inner-idyll informed, no doubt, by the subliminal depiction of such things in the ether of our Common Cultural Ambience which is largely defined by Television?

Real villages, in my experience, are hell on earth. I've tried village life on various occasions and whilst I love the countryside, the darkness, the wildlife, the stars, the seasons, the Agas, the real coal fires and the whole rural stench, I'm far happier in towns simply because village people get on my tits; the same faces, day in, day out; the faux sense of community, that deadening sense of entrenched permanence and forever being a newcomer even to the bloke across the road who moved in the year before you did.

No indeed, villages are too much like housing estates; deadening to the human spirit by an altogether unnatural juxtapositioning of territorial home-owners which might only lead to conformity on the one hand or strife on the other. Give me a town by the sea with people I couldn't give a shit about, not yet they me, but in a genuine crisis we will be there for one another.

In towns I find real friendships thrive...

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 06:45 AM

No, the local Morris side should be in whites most of the year but in the weeks before Christmas will perambulate the neighbouring villages in rag-coats performing border morris dances before entering the pub for a mummer's play or, even better, performing long-sword dances with integral mummer's plays. On Boxing Day they will appear in the home village to perform at lunchtime in the square before retiring into the pub for a few songs and tunes.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 05 Jul 09 - 06:10 AM

Here's a vexed question carried over from elsewhere. In The re-Imagined Village do we allow our local Morris Side to follow what appears to be a prevailing trend amongst the Morris Fraternity and black up? Myself, with respect of all such re-Imagined Fakelore & Hey-Nonny-No-No which seem to be well off-kilter with respect to the cultural and social realities of 21st Century Great Britain, and at the risk of cries of Political Correctness Gone Mad, might I politely suggest that there's a lot of other colours to choose from - such as white, as we find in the old Pierrot Tradition (latterly carried on by the Very Wonderful Pierotters) and I believe the colour Green is very in these days with fantasy fakelorists, including Morrismen, everywhere.

Myself, I'd like to see our Morris Dancers masked as beasties. Here's a fine set of Traditional Animal Masks which I think would look a treat on any Morris Side. Or, for something a little more appropriate to our imaginary rustic setting they might like to try THESE. Or how about A Nice Woodland Set? Personally I think animal-masked Morris dancing is a genuine ancient-pagan-fertility-rite-derived-revived-tradition-type-thing just waiting to happen. For all I know maybe it already is happening, and no bad thing either.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 04 Jul 09 - 05:28 PM

PS. I'm not an actual real life dominatrix...
Though I'm alway's open to blackmail, given the right fee!

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: Rifleman (inactive)
Date: 04 Jul 09 - 04:21 PM

"When they burnt the crop the wind was in JUST the right direction - Wow! Far out, man!We were stoned for days"

another variation on the old urban/rural myth, that probably got its start with an old hemp plantation that was discovered near Washington DC, some years ago. Same action same result.

Subject: RE: The re-Imagined Village
From: theleveller
Date: 04 Jul 09 - 04:18 PM

Well there I was the other week, cycling around the lanes, when I ventured past the airfield with the private aero museum. Suddenly there was a terrible noise behind me and turning round there's this bright red Fokker (is that the right spelling?) tri-plane up my arse with a grinning replica of the bleeding Red Baron bearing down on me. As I ended up in the ditch, I reckon he chalked me up as his first kill of the day. There's never a Sopwith Camel around when you need one!

While I'm on the subject of the airfield, a couple of years ago a cannabis farm was discovered in some adjoining buildings. When they burnt the crop the wind was in JUST the right direction - Wow! Far out, man!We were stoned for days.