Painshill

A first visit to Painshill for a long time a few days ago, first noticed at reference 1. The long time being just about four years - see reference 2. The place being an unusual bit of heritage, proud not to have been swallowed up by the National Trust. A sturdy independent - see reference 3.

Block with alien left

We find a number of concrete blocks at the entrance, the result of an incursion of travellers at some point, travellers who left their usual display of mess and rubbish when they were moved on. Quite a bother and expense for the Painshill people. On a technical note, I had assumed that the intrusion bottom left was my hand over the lens of the telephone, but then I saw how blurred the boundary was and am now not quite so sure. Is that what happens when something is close to the lens?

River Mole

Arty bridge

Mole looking very peaceful from the arty bridge, no livestock of any sort to be seen, in or on the water. So, instead, we wondered about how much the bridge had cost and how an independent trust managed to raise the necessary million or so. Picture extracted by Bing from reference 5.

Industrial archaeology

A companion piece to that noticed at the top of reference 2. Perhaps a pump to fetch water up from the Mole for the walled garden? With a driving wheel to take the belt from the traction engine?

Mushrooms

One part of the Mole-side bank of the ornamental water was thick with mushrooms. Not obvious why. There was also some kind of rat or mouse who scurried into a hole in the bank on our approach, which failed to reappear despite our waiting. Plus some serious fish jumping action out on the water, perhaps evidence of a hunting pike, our having seen pike at more or less the same spot in the past, although no evidence of same to be found on any of the blogs.

Two or three heavily tooled up fishermen, complete with bivvies. Several grebes and quite a lot of greylag geese to be seen on the water. Quite a lot of chain saw action, mostly some time in the past, reasonably discrete, although the bird islands were looking a bit bare. Inevitable in an old park like this one, being recovered from a long period of neglect.

Woodland mushroom

Possibly one of those mushrooms for which the French involves 'tambour' - either a drum or a drum stick, as in chicken. The search term 'champignon tambour' turns up plenty of possibilities, but no positive identification. What caused the split at the base of the stem? Animal action or the ravages of time?

Large, enclosed cedar

Three ages of fence

A fence incorporating three fencing campaigns: Victorian iron followed by fifties concrete followed by eighties timber.

Stone terraces

We did not get to the bottom of what the shallow stone terraces, visible in the middle of the snap above, were about. Presumably some relic of past glories. Note the barbed wire: no hang ups here on that front. On which point, see reference 6.

Trophy

The trophy of the day, we thought perhaps pegs for holding down the bivvies mentioned above. We also thought that they might serve to amuse a visiting two year old.

Café busy, half mothers with small children, half pensioners like ourselves. Food fairly hearty, with some otherwise respectable looking older ladies tucking into sausage sandwiches. I can't see my own mother ever doing such a thing, let alone in public; most unladylike. And I dare say most ladies of her generation - she was born in 1916 - would have agreed with her.

I settled for bacon and egg flan - not bad but it had gone a bit tough in its time in the freezer and it was a bit highly spiced to my taste.

On exit, puzzled by half a dozen cars awkwardly parked just outside the entrance. Why did they not use the free car park provided inside? Where were they going? It is not as if there was a railway station nearby, although I suppose there might have been a bus stop.

PS: I had taken the monocular (rather than the alternative free gift from the National Trust. See reference 4) in case there was a bit of tweeting to be had. In the event, I completely forgot about them and they stayed in my pocket for the whole time.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/10/fake-45.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv2.blogspot.com/2014/09/kingfisher-time.html.

Reference 3: https://www.painshill.co.uk/.

Reference 4: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/10/toys.html.

Reference 5: https://www.moleseylife.co.uk/.

Reference 6: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/09/trusty-time.html.

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