Kindness - August 2025

 "Once more unto the breech, dear friends"

This is it - the last (and possibly the trickiest) topic!

Ken - I had a wander through Alton one evening in August and took photos of all the charity shops that I could spot.  You will need to bear with me, as there were quite a lot!

.... and while these photographs themselves would never make it through to any photographic exhibition I think that collectively, the various organisations represented in the images, demonstrate practical examples of kindness in action from a very large number of people:

Sue - what kindness this person showed to me xxx

Steve - Kinda Kindness!

My son Jonathan kindly spirited away my pre-loved Roller and had it professionally renovated. 

.... and to give you an idea of what it looked like before, here are a couple of images of another specimen in need of some TLC.

Here are couple of "kindness via cake" images from Don:

Don - from our decorators - beetroot (from their garden) & chocolate brownies

Don - from some neighbours - pear (from their garden) & chocolate cake

Kate - a kindness heart seen in a charity shop (not bought as I have enough stuff!)

Kate - sharing the bounty of the garden

Kate - free to visit installation at Southwark Cathedral of Peace Doves. 

(15,000 origami doves with prayers and messages of love and peace)

Gaynor - kindness - community

Gaynor - kindness - leadership

Gaynor - kindness - inclusivity

.... and that really is finally the end folks!  

Thank you for all your photographs every month since October 2018 - almost 7 years!

.... but how to end it all off?  

Perhaps with the moral from Aesop's tale of "The Lion and the Mouse"

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted"

Our Industrial Heritage - June/July 2025

Another two month time slot for our photos on "Our Industrial Heritage" has resulted in the following submissions from you all:

Steve

(I can’t remember where I inherited this from but it is a shoemaker’s anvil. I recently stayed near Northampton - the once-renowned shoemaking capital of England - and the B&B lady had one as a doorstop. She insisted that it was call a ‘last’ although I had always thought that referred to the wooden inserts used to preserve the shape of one’s best shoes)

Ken - from a wander around Alton

Alton has had connections with quite a few industries over the years and this industrial past is reflected in many of the street names.  Here are a couple of them:

Leather making

Brewing

No doubt you can think of a few yourself.  Here are a few other street names that sprung to mind for me:

Windmill Hill - at the top of which was an actual windmill!

Brick Kiln Lane

 Paper Mill Lane

Mill Lane - at one time apparently, there were 24 water mills between Alton and Farnham

..... not forgetting the cattle weighbridge in Market Square

Kate - an outing and supper on the Watercress Belle

..... and three more from a visit to the Tate Modern turbine hall

Don - Tower Bridge - built between 1886 and 1894 - this bascule and suspension bridge remains an iconic landmark of Victorian engineering

Here are a few from Gaynor over in Ireland, highlighting

colonialism on an industrial scale as well as sporting industry heritage!

Meanwhile back in Alton, with its history of brewing:

Sue - The Maltings

So, what to chooose for our final topic? 

It will be our 73rd topic since we started way back in October 2018!

You are obviously very welcome to look back through the blog to see all the images over the years but I thought I would type up a list of them all here as well, just to jog your memory.  

Looking through the list, you might well be able to remember what photo(s) you took! 

water

contrast

circles

trees

weather

wildlife

a distant view

colour

doorway

pattern

the sky

music

autumn

sport

steps

close up

movement

covid 19

my garden

still life

walking

shadows

food

bridges

hygge

seasonal song

building

comparison

reflection

spaces

one of our senses

numbers

light

lines

agriculture

walls

time

relaxation

display

horizon

birds

balance

insects

blue

tools

wheels

sound

nursery rhymes

red

clouds

glass

blossom

courtyard

on the edge

letters

change

the 4 Greek elements

buildings that inspire

comfort/joy

faces

new

early morning

spheres

windows

rustic

metal

candles

riverside

wood

pairs

corners

our industrial landscape

Well done to you all for sticking with the "project" - it wasn't meant to last this long!

Most of you have somehow managed to send in something for every topic over the years and it has been great to see everyone's different "take" on each subject!

For our last topic I have  picked:

 "kindness"

A tricky one to finish with, but a good sentiment for us all to have in mind in all our dealings with each other and everyone else!

I look forward, as always, to see what you send me - this time for our last topic!

KIT - June 2025

Following the safe transfer to the club of the little trophy from Kish's trophy cabinet, we played for it for the 66th time this morning:

Luckily the weather was a lot cooler than it has been recently! 

The players today were:

Andy, David, Arthur & Ken +  Ailsa, Gill, Emma and Caryl

After the rounds, the top scoring lady was Emma and the top scoring  man was David.

This meant that the final ended up as:

 David & Gill v Ken & Emma

The finalists - Ken, Emma, Gill & David

.... and congratulations to Gill & David - worthy winners by 6-4

We will now have a short break over the summer.

The next one is planned for 29th September.

 

WIT - 16th June 2025

The Worldham Invitation Tournament today (our 10th one!) involved:

Brian, Ken, John B, Greg + Tess, Jo, Annie and Carey

It was all very competitive and strangely, all the four finalists ended up with exactly the same number of points after the 3 round robin matches - 14 points each.  So we had to use count back to decide on the pairings for the one set final, which ended up as: 

Brian & Annie v John & Carey

Tess looks like she found the final a stressful watch - it was a very closely fought final!

The finalists - Annie, Brian, Carey and John

Congratulations to the winners today - Carey & John

The score was 6-4, with Carey scoring the winning shot 

(which I failed to catch on camera!)

(and, for those people who like statistics, John has played 2 WITs and won both!)