Monday 7 June 2010

Monday 7 June

THAT MAN is determined on hijacking my blog!  I nearly choked on a baked bean this morning when he announced his culinary journey was about to move forward as he progressed from victoria sponges to scones.  No, no, that wasn't the cause of my choking.  It was when he said he might need me to find him the ingredients because "....you need bike 'n' car soap or summats don't you?"  And THAT was what creased me up - I am still cackling.  You couldn't make it up could you?  He meant,of course, bicarbonate of soda.  Even as we speak he is poring over the Be-ro book.

Oh, and lunch is going to be fish pie........I'm keeping out of it!

What I really wanted to mention was our day in Boston last Wednesday.  Yes, America, I'm taking you all with me to Boston.  Boston, England, that is.
When I look through the pictures I took, not one really does justice to this beautiful town.  Fortunately Motherhen at My Simple Rhymes has gone there for a few days so she'll probably do better.   Meanwhile, here's one or two of mine............



This chap in the hat, standing on a box with a little table balanced precariously on top was auctioning plants.  I constantly expected either him or the table to fall off!  Another stall was auctioning bikes.  I HOPE they were unclaimed ones from the police station!   This whole bit of the market had lots of auctions going on.

If we hadn't known in advance that there are, in fact, 2 markets going on we might have been a bit disappointed with this titchy one.   I didn't take any photos of the other one because in my chair I was too low down to snap anything but people's backsides!  It was very big and very busy,  crawling with people.  The sun had brought them out.  Surely the kids should have been in school?

There was a lovely memorial garden devoted to military and civilian groups involved in WW2, the Korean War, the Falklands and right up to the present day.  No-one, it seemed, had gone unremembered.  Quite right too.












This is the place we were really after:  St. Botolph's Church, known the world over as Boston Stump.  It's probably the most famous landmark in southern Lincolnshire and, it being so high and the terrain being so flat, you can see it from miles around, long before you reach Boston.  In fact it's the highest tower of any parish church in England.






You could be forgiven for thinking you were in a cathedral!  No-one really knows how it came to be called 'The Stump'.  One theory is that the tower was meant to be finished off with a spire.  More likely the name reflects its appearance from the flat surrounding Fenland.

The Cotton Connection:  John Cotton became Vicar of Boston in 1612.  His Puritanism and criticism of the hierarchy drew hostil attention from Church of England authorities.  In 1633, following the earlier colonists, he set sail for the Massachusetts Bay Colony and ministered there until his death in 1652.  The smallest chapel in the Boston Stump is now named the Cotton Chapel and has benefitted from support both by many Americans and from Cotton's own descendants.  The links with Boston Mass go even further:  several of the early governors of Massachusetts were former citizens of our Boston, and Anne Bradstreet, wife of one of them, became the New World's first published poetess.

There now, not a lot of people know that!  Ta-ta


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10 comments:

Jan said...

As a youngster,I was in the church choir ,and our choir outing each year was to Skegness ,but always stopping of at Boston ,where the highlight was to climb the stump ,where once at the top you could see for miles as you say ,I couldnt do it now if my lifwe depended on it ..love Jan xx

I'm mostly known as 'MA' said...

Thank you Angie for sharing all those wonderful pictures. I'm becoming the world's best armchair traveler. I love seeing all those places that I'll never be able to visit but can thanks to folks like you. I had to laugh about the cooking going on there...

Keetha Broyles said...

I believe you must be brilliant - - - I would not have been able to connect the dots between bikes and car soap and bicarbonate of soda!!!

Andy said...

Love his decription of Bicarbonate of Soda! Just dont let him cook a blind pastry case he will be looking for its white stick!

Andy

Grammy Staffy said...

"Bike n car soap" I am rolling on the floor. How funny and how cute your man is. I would not find John in the kitchen making me scones! Tell Keith that I am looking forward to his culinary talents one day when we come to visit.

I love the city of Boston....well I've only been to the American one but now I love your Boston too. I will add it to my list of "must sees".

Have a good week dear. Hugs, Lura

Sybil said...

What a great day out you had.. I have never been to Boston either here in the UK or in the US very interesting story though about the stump had never heard of that either...so I am definatley more learned after reading all about it LOL....Hope the scones go to plan...it is one thing that i just can't make they come out hard as bricks..even though I do everything as instructed, Mum made the best scones ever...she has even stood over me and said all well bake and when they coem out...bricks again !! LOL
Love Sybil xx

Ally Lifewithally said...

I think your pictures are great Angie ~ and I think your Keith is Great too ~ I love his definition of bike'n'car soap You are right you definitely couldn't make anything like that up :o) Ally x

Joolz said...

It's funny how when men finally find the kitchen, you can't get them out of there! My hubby loves to cook so I get the weekends off. He's not into baking cakes like your Keith but I have no doubt he could do it. Fish pie sounds yummo! Nice pics of Boston.
Stay tuned for Chicken, champagne and Grape pies that I am making this weekend. It is the Queen's Birthday Long weekend here in Australia (for most of the states). I know her birthday was in April but she lets us have a long weekend off in June. Thanks, Queenie Babes, love ya!

Cheers - Joolz

Marie Rayner said...

Missed this yesterday Angie! Way to go Keith! I shall be most impressed if he works his way through the whole Be Ro book!! Tell him the secret to the perfect scone is a light touch! What a lovely visit you had Angie. I had no idea there was a Boston over here in the UK? Duh! I thought the only one was in America. I shoulda known that they had hijacked the name! Loved visiting it with you. I thought your pictures were great! You take me places I could only ever dream of going. Thanks! Perhaps one day we will get to Scunthorpe. Now that's a dream worth pursuing! Love you loads! xxoo

RuthnJasper said...

What a really interesting blog post! We have never been to Boston before and it looks LOVELY - the town, the lovely memorial garden and The Stump - what a nice place to live!

We laughed out loud at your opening paragraph. Once - long, long before Jasper was born, when Ruth and her brother were little, their mum was taken into hospital with a slipped disc in her back. Their dad tried to cook an evening meal of fish fingers and mashed potatoes. He nearly killed them. Ruth still remembers her brother's unbroken little voice saying "Please can Ruth do the cooking for us from now on?"...

Don't think you have to fear such things from the mighty K-Man...

love,
Jasper xxxxxxxx