Myerscough News Jan-Mar 2000

The year 2000 dawns. Everybody was raving about a new millenium. I was trying to say it was the final year of the old millenium. Nobody listened. At Myerscough College I was trying to make the website more interesting to prospective students and employers with staff who they might want to send on training courses.

At the same time I was creating for the first time an internal Intranet that could be accessed by both staff and students. Obviously the layers of public website, staff intranet and student intranet had to be kept secure from unauthorised access. Yet each had to have a consistent look and feel about them.

So I designed each page with a coloured strip down the left hand side. The public website had this brown strip, so beloved of my Deputy who said admiringly most days, "Can't you get rid of that sh***y brown stripe???" What? I was trying to use earth colours - it was a land-based college! Besides I thought it rather fetching...

The Student Intranet (also accessible by staff but not the public) had a green stripe - similar to the green on the college logo. Finally the Staff Intranet had a red stripe. Maybe not so much an earth colour, but the college's cars were mainly bright red so that's where that came from. And by looking at the colour of the stripe those people with access to all three levels could tell which one they were currently viewing.

I pestered all the departments for news and tried to put at least one new page up evey day on the public website.

The college had bought a second-hand Range Rover to use in training students how to safely tow horse boxes. These were the most favoured type of vehicles in use for that purpose and it was important to make courses as relevant to the out-of-college experience that most students would experience.

Also whilst on the topic of cars, this is the college's very own rally car. It was a Skoda Favorit and had been rebuilt to rally specification by the students in the college's Mechanisation Unit. They had won the Grizedale Rally a few weeks previously with it and BBC Radio Lancashire came to the college to interview one of the lecturing staff and to record the (rather disappointing) sound of the engine. Skoda Favorits don't generally have a throaty roar...

There was a period where the college seemed to be featuring regularly on TV and radio. The principal of the College, Professor John Moverley, was invited to participate in the 2020 Vision debate on issues affecting the North West region, which was part of the NWDA Regional Conference in Manchester. The debate was recorded by the BBC and was shown on the BBC2 Sunday political programme, North Westminster.

On February 8 2000 Professor Moverley was on BBC Radio Lancashire talking about issues facing rural communities and plugging the college's upcoming student careers advisory open days. The very next day he was at No.10 Downing Street for a meeting with the Prime Minister, Tony Blair and Minister of Agriculture, Nick Brown who later visited the college.

Later in February 2000 the college was featured on Granada TV's show Granada Tonight in a segment appropriately named Show Me the Ropes. Appropriate because reporter Simon O'Brien was shown ascending up into the canopy of one of the college's many trees to do a bit of pruning under the careful eye of Myerscough Arboriculture Instructor, Mick Cottam.

On 23 February 2000 presenter Rhodri Williams of TV's Animal Hospital came to film a segment about a rescued pot bellied pig called Rasher. Perhaps an unfortunate name for a pig, but she had been kept as a pet when small and cute, fed inumerable treats and then when she grew to adult size had been kept in less than ideal conditions in the garden of the house. Rasher, having been used to food treats whenever she wanted had grown a little belligerent at having a more suitable diet prescribed and entering her pen without a large board to keep between your legs and her teeth was something of a risk...

Early March 2000 and a number of bird cages appeared in the central corridor of the Plant Centre. They added movement and colour and interest to a visit, the Plant Centre being open to the public.

I kept thinking I must keep going in at dinner and attempt to teach them to say "Hello John!" Though to be honest I hadn't a clue as to whether they could learn to talk or not and remembering the choice language of a parrot in the Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor one time I decided to leave well enough alone... The last thing I needed was someone saying "I've seen John Burke talking to them a lot!"

The grain store. Or that's what it was on this day... There were plans to turn this into an exhibition centre. The amount of grain stored in the barn had gone steadily down since I started in October 1999.

A group of riders alongside the Plant Centre. This was a Sunday and I had gone into college in order to take a few photos of a dressage event that was taking place in the Equine Arena.

This was one of the contestants in the dressage event. Horses seldom used the I.T. equipment of the college so I didn't come into contact with them all that much and would have run a mile had I been offereed to climb on the back of one! Actually I did get the offer and whilst I may not have run a mile, I didn't take them up on their kind offer...

Work Index

Mahogany Beach, Roatan

Saturday 14 February 2015. We are on Roatan, an island some 30 miles off Honduras in the Caribbean. As previously described we have looked round a small shopping village and are now about to sample the delights of Mahogany Beach which lies on a very small island reached by a bridge over a tiny strait.

We had a look at a chair lift that took passengers to and from the beach, but decided that a walk would be pleasant and we decided to walk there and then catch the chair lift to come back. Crossing the bridge we get a good view of the Thomson Dream, moored at the pier. The chair lift crosses the strait at the side of the footbridge.

Looking back at the bridge once we are across. There is no access to the island for vehicles and if there were, there is nowhere for them to go - it is beaches and forest and that's about it!

We approach the beach which looks like a typical tropical beach of the sort you drool over in holiday brochures!

Palm trees, white sand and sun loungers all set in rows, inviting those with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to spend a couple of hours walking round nudging them into perfect position... I did wonder whether if you tipped one up, could you make them all go over like dominoes...?

Sign posts pointed the way to various amenities. Bar: lots of choice in fact, there were lots of bars! Pool Tables: that's the cue for a game... Free A/C: for those in need of a charge. Cold Coconut Water, Massages, Fresh Fish and Ping Pong: well it all makes for an interesting massage I'm sure... Not so hard with that ping pong bat, you mean thing!

Meanwhile, back on the beach - that's going to be sore in the morning...! The sun-lovers are baking in the heat. Some are covering themselves in oil and are frying in the heat...

Miss Franny finds a viewpoint that ensures we won't forget where we were!

Floating sunbeds were available for hire. For an extra charge they would tether you to the beach. We picked up some of the more miserly cruise passengers 60 miles out to sea during the night...

Agh, the chair lift cannot be paid for at this end, so can only be joined by those who had already paid and jumped off at the beach! Not really a problem, the walk wasn't a long one so we were happy to walk back and then after a drink at one of the bars we decided to have a go on the chair lift anyway. It was $14 each, but for that you could hop on and off all day if you wanted.

Like a ski lift you stand in the way of the approaching seat and then sit on it as it hits the back of your legs!

We saw more of the raptors that we had noticed, rising in spirals on the air currents from Mahogany Bay shopping village earlier. They were now coming closer.

In fact we were starting to think it might be disastrous to look round and find one sitting on the back of the chair lift, eyeing you up for dinner...!

But this is as close as we came. I'm no expert in birds of prey - they are a bit like flowers are to me... Someone said they were ospreys, but I put it down to a spot of rain... ewww....

We passed over a group of women who had been singing as part of a group on the beach. I got caught taking the photo and gave a cheery wave which was instantly returned with a smile.

Ooh... now that is going to be sore tomorrow morning... My legs, usually encased in material to protect the sensibilities of the world's population, get an uncommon dose of solar radiation and change colour overnight...

Ok, time to return to the ship, get some lunch - which consists of a pile of mixed pineapple, melon and watermelon and get through a few more pages of my book!

Mexican Medley Cruise Index

Birds in the Snow

I can't remember a winter where we had so much snow in Blackpool on so many different occasions before since we moved here in the mid 1970s. We woke up to another 1-inch covering of snow this morning. So it was no surprise to see the pheasant wandering around the garden looking for bread.

He only seems to come when it has snowed and has only ever once brought his partner along to share in the goodies. What a feathered meanie! In fact since Fran started putting bread out regularly we now seem to get a good range of birds in the garden every morning.

Thrushes and blackbirds are the most numerous, but we get starlings, and this year the sparrows are back in decent numbers after several years during which they all but disappeared altogether. We get magpies, including one poor soul who has lost his mate. They mate for life and she must have met with an accident as for a few years he has been on his own.

Yesterday I noticed two male robins in the garden at the same time - not something you see a lot as they are fiercely territorial. One stayed well away from the pile of breadcrumbs until the other had flown off with a piece of bread in his beak!

We have a container of nuts swinging on the washing line too and that attracts bluetits as well as some of the other birds.

We haven't had anything larger than the pheasant to date. The pond was dug out and grassed over last year. It had been a while since we had had fish in it - they acted like bread to the herons that used to drop in despite our best efforts. And since the opportunity to swim has gone also the ducks have given over doing belly-flop landings in the garden!

Pheasant Feeding

By heck, 2010 has started with some cold weather! Fran was on a 10:00pm finish last night and when I set off to pick her up it was already -6 degrees and who knows what it went down to? A low of -18 was reported somewhere near Manchester. Show offs...

The last few days a pheasant has added itself to our usual assortment of birds that come to feed on the bits of bread we throw out every day.

It's a bit different to our normal collection of blackbirds, sparrows and the odd robin. Normally the biggest bird we get coming down is a magpie.

It does have a bloody good appetite though... I had wondered whether we might throw out a bit of sage and onion - might save us a job later... A few friends had suggested getting it on the roast, or plucking it (it didn't seem to like that...) Anyway plucking it would be cruel - do you know how cold it is out here in the garden?!? Having naked pheasants wandering about the place wouldn't add to the atmosphere any...

So this morning it was sitting on the fence as I came out with a couple of crusts and I chucked a couple of bits towards it and it fluttered down straight away for a nibble. For a bird that is a prime target for posh folk with armament, it shows a great deal of trust - or foolishness!

Meanwhile I'm keeping an eye on the snow and ice as I'm due to go down to London later today. As long as I can get back tomorrow...!

Gone To The Birds

Poor Fran. She had a bit of a testing day yesterday whilst I was "enjoying" myself in London for work.

Every year around this time we have a couple of weeks where birds nest in next door's roof space and raise their young. So for a fortnight we are woken early and there's nothing we can do about it but wait for the birds - thrushes I think, certainly not an owl - to rear their young and then they fly off and all goes quiet.

Anyway this year they have managed to get in our own roof space on the back corner and Fran was woken and was thinking the noise was louder than usual when Jess, one of our two cats, appeared from the hallway at the kitchen door with a bird in his mouth.

Cue screams, during which a very disappointed cat suddenly realised he wasn't going to be applauded for being clever and went to hide the evidence, reappearing a moment later with empty mouth and an expression that said "You just imagined it,Mum! Me? Catch a bird?"

Our cats are house cats - they don't go out, so the bird must have got in somehow. No windows were open. The attic hatch was closed... Fran phoned me to let off a few hysterics. Well, shock more than hysterics. Then she went off to search the house looking for the tiny bird that was certainly going to be terrified and possibly injured too. Jess, by now, was sitting quietly on the settee, ears flattened, waiting to be shouted at...

The bird was found in the toilet, cowering behind the toilet brush. Fran gathered it up and took it outside where it managed to fly off. All was well until later when she had sat down in the living room with a coffee to settle her nerves when TWEET!... from somewhere in the living room.

The cats politely raised their heads but were not going to budge after all the fuss of before. Two birds had managed to get in. The one from the toilet had been a second one and the one that Jess had managed to catch was now in the corner on the floor under my desk. So Fran had to get on hands and knees under the desk, banging her head as she jumped each time the bird fluttered anywhere near her.

She caught this one as well, in a tupperware box, took it outside, opened the box and watched in dismay as it took a brave leap - into the fishpond... The box was used to scoop it out and she put it somewhere as safe as she could to let it dry off and recover.

When I got home last night all the drama was finished with. I suspect the birds have nested on top of the wall of the house and the two small ones had fallen down the wall cavity and forced their way through a vent in the toilet which has a loose corner.

After the initial shock had worn off, Fran had been really brave and level headed about it. Not sure I'd have been any calmer actually!

Large versions of the photos: owl, ostritch (no large one of the vulture available) The owl and ostritch were photographed at Blackpool Zoo, the vulture at Chester Zoo.

Corsica

Sunday 24 August 2008 was a day at sea on the Island Star. We sat sheltered under the canopy of the upper sundeck and the only incident of note was mid afternoon in the middle of the Mediterranean when there was a loud thwack! and a small bird, the size of a sparrow, but bright green in colour, fell onto the table right in front of Fran. The poor thing had flown over the ship, thought to swoop over the pool and out through the side and crashed into the window which it couldn't see.

It was stunned unsurprisingly and to give it a chance I picked it up and moved it to a quieter spot away from the sun deck, wondering whether it would recover. Around half an hour later I was just about to go to look at it again when we saw it fly off, probably a little pained and puzzled!

Monday 25 August 2008 saw us docking in Ajaccio, Corsica and we took an excursion to see the Prunelli Gorge.

Getting out of the coach we soon found that this was no mighty Cheddar Gorge, but it had some nice views none-the-less and the advantage of a little bridge that we could look over the edge and completely block to traffic...

There was a stream tumbling merrily over the rocks at the bottom, but the bottom just didn't seem all that far below us somehow!

Next we came to the Tolla reservoir. We were all getting ready for something to drink and apparently that's our next stop! So with that in mind we posed for photos at the reservoir!

I'll just put the one up here, but every possible combination had to be done...

The reservoir gets its name from the town of Tolla, which is around halfway down the reservoir. The restaurant we visited is further down almost at the end of the reservoir.

We stopped for a cafe break here, where we (a bit to my surprise) were able to get a drink including a cup of tea for Mum.

I was expecting getting drinks - it was the availability of tea that surprised me.

I went for a short walk as someone said there was a spectacular view of a dam at the end of the reservoir. This is looking back at the restaurant.

Then a fast-paced walk over rough paths high above the road.

And at the point where I was starting to wonder whether I had time to get there and back before the coach was due to leave, I find this small unguarded concrete platform right on the edge of the precipice overlooking the dam of the reservoir. Not for those who suffer from vertigo!!!

Return to Mediterranean Essence Cruise Index Page

1000 Views Clocked Up

A landmark day!

According to the statistics on my Flickr account, this photo passed the 1000 views milestone today.

The photo was taken in September 1982 at Blackpool Zoo and from the time I uploaded it to Flickr has been a favourite with viewers. I uploaded it on 12 January 2007 and so far it has had 43 people flag it as a favourite and it's also my most commented on photo.

See the larger version at my Flickr account