Ripon Old Cars Classic Car Gathering Sunday 24th July 2011

This was a brilliant way to spend an afternoon, wandering round the old cars and motorbikes at Ripon Racecourse.    Find more out here at the website

Carlton Miniott Scarecrow Festival July 24, 2011

Today I took loads of photos of scarecrows in the pretty village of Carlton Minniot near Thirsk North Yorkshire.This craze has really taken off in North Yorkshire, with many villages doing it to raise funds for various things. I liked the theme of this Scarecrow Festival, children's stories. There was an abundance of famous characters, see if you can guess who they are.

D-Day

(Image found at: http://www.normandy-france.net/D-Day/D-day.12.jpg , accessed 25/6/11.)


6th June 1944 witnessed the biggest invasion fleet in history. Soldiers, marines, sailors all landed by sea, glider and parachute in Normandy, France. I never cease at the enormity of the task that the Allied forces undertook to free mainland Europe from the Axis powers,primarily the Germans. Perhaps more accurately, troops wearing German uniforms, as the Germans had recruited Ukrainians, Turks, Poles and Georgians to name but a few.

The first troops to land in Normandy were glider borne soldiers of the British 6th Airborne, led by Major John Howard. Their task was to land by the Orne and Dives rivers, then capture and hold 2 bridges to protect the West flank of the invasion. They were closely followed by paratroopers of the British airborne who would capture and put out of action a battery of guns at Merville. The American and Canadian paratroopers also landed on the Contentin Peninsular and in the area near Juno beach.

Hey I could ramble on this retelling of an historic event in a narrative fashion, but I don't want to bore everyone, instead I will recommend a few websites I found interesting, and some good books for those who want to research further. D-Day is an event that should never be forgotten, if it were not for those who gave their lives for the free world then, where would we be now?

What can't be beaten is a good read, try these:


Books

Ambrose, S.E, D-Day June 6th, 1944 The Battle For The Normandy Beaches. (2002).

Beevor, A, D-Day The Battle For Normandy, (2009).

Hastings, M, Overlord, (1999).

Neillands, R & De Normann, R, D-Day 1944 Voices From Normandy, (1994).

Websites

http://www.dday.co.uk/

http://www.6juin1944.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/dday_beachhead_01.shtml

Dusting Off The Soapbox

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/475000/images/_476165_soapbox.jpg

Several things have caught my attention in the news and other media this week;

1) Twinings Tea at South Shields

2) The burning of the Koran in the U.S.A.

3) William Hague and his Driver

Twinings Tea in North Shields are laying off their English workforce producing their famous tea in Poland. As if this isn't bad enough, the existing staff have to train the East Europeans how to do their jobs before they are all sacked. This is disgusting, Twinings profits were up 20% to £331m this year http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=513769&in_page_id=2 , so it is just motivated by greed to move production to Poland. So I think we should all stop drinking Twinings Tea and write to them in protest.

Burning the Koran in the United States. An American Pastor, Terry Jones and a group of Evangelists plan to burn the Koran  on September 11th as a protest against terrorism. They are obviously not Christians to perform such an abysmal act. These are the same people perhaps who burnt Beatles records. Are they also the same people who burnt books in Germany in 1933? This is really an outrage. After all, don't Muslims and Christians alike worship God, albeit under different names? http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68638K20100907

Why the fuss about William Hague? The balding, sometimes pompous balding boring Tory. These things may be true about the Richmondshire and Hambleton M.P, but I think he would have been ok as a Prime-Minister. So what's the big deal about him sharing a room with another male? Christopher Myers has been forced to resign due to pressure from the press and media on his family. Does it mean that every man who shares a room with another man is gay? That means all men must be gay then eh? Boy, the press are getting hard up for stories. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100902/tuk-hague-defends-denial-of-gay-affair-c-45dbed5.html

David Cameron - Think Before You Open Your Mouth Please

What On Earth Were You Thinking?

You may have heard, our P.M Mr Cameron made a right royal cock up by stating the following whilst on his hols in the United States;

We (Great Britain) were the junior partner in 1940 in the Second World War.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-10719739

Are you mad?

We, the British Empire, were fighting alone after Dunkirk and The Fall of France. Apart from the American pilots in the Eagle Squadrons of the Royal Air Force and American sailors on armed escort ships and merchant shipping, there were no Americans taking part in active fighting against the Axis powers. However, if it were not for America, and in particular PresidentRoosevelt we would have not received guns, tanks other essential materiel.

The U.S.A did not win the Second World War, it was a combined effort from Great Britain and the Empire, The Soviet Union and The United States. Get your facts right Cameron.

Mr Churchill would never had said anything so demeaning about this country

General Election

General Election in Great Britain tomorrow. This is where we exchange one set of clowns for another.
Unless you vote UKIP, come on folks, think outside the box, don't be scared of change.

Tax

(Photograph from:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8569525.stm, accessed 31/3/10)

We hate paying it. It keeps going up. It never seems to go down. Take petrol for instance. The price of a barrel of crude oil has gone down, yet the price at the pumps has gone up. In 1990 when I started buying petrol, the price for unleaded was 44.9p/litre. Now it's 117.9.

CAN THE WESTMINSTER BUREAUCRATS EXPLAIN TO US WHY IT HAS GONE UP SO MUCH?

Ronnie Trash

I love Johnny Cash. This Sesame Street clip is really funny without being disrespectful to the great Man in Black. Enjoy.

Quick Trifle

I don't know many people who dislike trifle. My Mother makes a lovely trifle, but I was looking through the school recipe books again and found this easy recipe. I made it for pudding for today's Sunday dinner.

Quick Trifle

Ingredients

4 sponge bricks or any plain sponge+2 tbsp raspberry jam or a jam swiss roll

1 pack of raspberry jelly

Tin of fruit

Custard - either a tin of Ambrosia or use custard powder

1 small carton of whipping cream or double cream

Hundreds and thousands/glace cherries or both.

2-3 tbsp sherry

Method

1)Make jelly.

2) Slit sponge bricks and put jam on or slice the swiss roll. Put in trifle dish.

3) Drain fruit over sponge and add sherry if desired.

4) Arrange fruit on sponge then pour jelly over. ( Do not pour boiling water into a glass dish - it will crack, let the jelly mixture cool a bit first).

5) Let the ingredients cool, then put into a fridge to set.

6) Make custard and let it cool, or just open a tin of Ambrosia and pour over the set ingredients

7) Whip cream and spread over trifle.

8) Decorate with hundreds and thousands or cherries.

Martin Niemoeller

(Image from: http://uboat.net/wwi/men/photos/niemoller_martin.jpg)

(Image from: http://filipspagnoli.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/martin-niemoller.jpg?w=200&h=308)

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist;

Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist;

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist;

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew;

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

by Martin Niemoeller, found at: http://www.christianethicstoday.com/Issue/009/First%20They%20Came%20for%20the%20Jews%20By%20Franklin%20H%20Littell_009_29_.htm ,accessed 28/2/10.

Martin Niemoeller was a decorated U-boat Captain in World War 1. By the time Hitler came to power he was a staunch Protestant and opponent of Hitler. Hitler ordered his incarceration in a concentration camp, but Niemoeller survived the war.

I really like the quote at the top of the post. I feel there are too many people resembling ostriches nowadays. Common things I hear are; 'What can I do?', 'What difference can I make?', 'What's it got to do with us?'

If all Hitler's opponents had stood up and done something, would there have been a World War 2?