Fires - Ducks and People Should Mind Their Own Business...

Ok..... Blimey, whats up with me, Im posting before a fortnights up lol...

I was bummed this evening to find out the computer shop had well and truely buggered up our other computer and although they gave me promises of not loosing the 5 years worth of photos on it, they accidently (TOSSERS) deleted, for ever, the bloody lot.... if ya wanna hear what a fishwife sounds like then ring me and I will repeat what I said to the tosser bloke in PC World LOL..... I know, I know I should of backed it up..... oh well, no use now crying anymore over spilt milk....or lost memories or tosser computer non-experts..

So I was going through the picture file on this computer and found some photos from back in October.... it was a surprisingly warm day for October half term.... I had Sprite as usual and just J and A, It made a change just having the 3 of them... Sprite was then 2 1/2 and J is 6 and A is just 5.... so I said to them lets down to Langstone Harbour for a walk/hobble and a picnic... but lets go with just us, not the other mob and me maties.... so my Jacob said he wouldnt mind tagging along if he could have a KFC on the way lmfao.....

Langstone Harbour is only about 8-9 minutes at the most from my house, so I suppose its fairly local, or its just that I drive fast lol

Ive did a short post on Langstone before...... ya see, if you follow the map with ya finger along the south coast, its all little inlets and harbours and islands and beaches and all completely different and all within 10-20 minutes from me.....

Langstone is just before the only bridge onto Hayling Island and in the olden days there use to be a toll gate on the bridge and when I was a kid there use to be a little steam train called The Puffing Billy that ran from Havant station to Hayling Island..... I remember being very scared as the train went along the single line track across the harbour and thinking we was flying cos all you could see either side was water.....

Langstone is tiny and old and has 2 most beautiful pubs.... and mill.... they all are the subject of many many painters... anyways, see how I go off on one lol

So I grabbed the nippers lunch boxes that their parents had bought and with promises of a KFC for my Jacob off we went.....



As you can see when we got there it was a little overcast so we thought we would sit and have lunch first..... we are sitting outside one of the pubs, you can see the other one the Royal Oak in the background and the old mill... the tide had just turned and we needed to wait til it had gone out further before we could start walking around the foreshore to the other pub... ya see... ya can only get to that one from this one when the tide is lower and behind the other pub and mill is a bird reserve and as you can see in the photo the foreshore (where the trees are) makes for a lovely walk, and if ya walk for miles ya come to Walblington ruins and then Emsworth, which will mean nuffin to anyone but me lmfao.....



One is never to old to feed the swans lol

As a child we would come to Langstone where me parents would meet up with their maties in the pub and talk sailing and all that nonsense lol and us kids would be left outside with a bottle of coke and a packet of crisps... well the water where Jacob is feeding the Swans is right out front of the pub and there use to be a floating wooden raft anchered by a long chain to the seabed, so when me parents and their maties was having a whale of a time in the pub, me and me older brother would strip off and swim to the raft.... and spend a couple of hours in the water and hopefully get out in time to get dressed so me dad didnt know what we had done, ya see, in those days, no one would of thought to of come out of the pub and away from their maties to check on the children... and Im talking deep water here LOL..... I would of been about 8 I suppose cos me younger brother was in a pushchair.... jebus my father or mother would of almost skinned me alive if they had known we had left our youngest brother in his pushchair whilst we was swimming lol.... sod em, they are both dead now so they will never know :)



As you can see, by the time we had finished lunch the tide was well and truely on its way out.... so time to walk round the foreshore in the seaweed to the other side.... Sprite LOVES my Jacob with a passion and he in turn loves her..... the times he does come out with me and the minded nippers he is gentle and caring and funny and rough and tumble with them..... I suppose cos other peoples nippers have always been a part of his life then its just old hat to him lol



This is the row of little old houses that are next to The Royal Oak Pub... when I was a kid the house on the right would sell fresh cockles from the front door... and it was such a treat to find a tanner in the mud outside the pub and go and buy a little pot of cockles to munch.



This is outside The Royal Oak, now should I leave the kids outside and go in for a quick arf a lager lol..... the pub is set up high from the sea wall which you can see, but the row of neat side stones is the edge and then its about a 5 foot drop onto the shingle...but kids learn not to get to near the edge lol... the inside of this pub has hardly been touched as such in over 100 years, and they do the most amazing grub....... someone please one day come and visit so I can show you my world :)....



This is the corner of the pub with the old mill behind, its been a private residence eversince I can remember.... and I think at one time someone right proper famous lived there, when the tide is in the mill is cut off and they cant get the cars in or out :).....talk about living right on the waters edge lol

The path leads directly behind the old mill and its strange cos out the front of the mill is the harbour views and right behind is the nature reserve with fresh water....



Thats the wall and back fence to the mill..... I love coming here with the nippers, especially in the Autumn cos ya virtually have the place to yaself.... why do so many people just say in doors in the Autumn and Winter..... Im at me best then.... maybe its cos I dont like crowds....

I dont know what A is doing in the above photo..... maybe he thinks he is Shakespeare LOL.. sometimes if we are lucky we can spot a heron..... big deal right LOL



Never to old to feed the ducks aye Jacob lol...... dont fall in kids....

Ya see, sometimes its nice to take me nippers out on me own, without me maties, cos, a place like this me other maties would be keep saying..... dont get to near the edge, come here, dont do that, no you cant get wet... and all that rubbish, but me, well I LOVE to let kids be kids..... so what if they fall in, they are hardly gonna drown are they, and dont think I haven't had them fall in before lol but ya just reach over and oike them out lol so what if they get muddy...... you wait until you see the other photos and what we got up to....... tiz a good job me maties were not there cos the nippers would of been stifled and held back from being kids....

When ya get just past the old mill with the nature reserve on ya left and the sea on ya right, this is what ya see..



This is just before the proper pathway gives way to foreshore and pebbles...... see that line of trees thats were we was gonna walk/hobble and if you look closely at the end of the taller treeline you can just make out the ruins of Walblington Castle... but thats a little further round then we was gonna walk..

The nature reserve gives way to fields with horses in them.... when I was about 12 I use to ride me old bike from where I lived to Langstone where there was a riding stables.... I never had the money for riding, but I would spend all day Saturday mucking out the stables and helping saddle up the horses for others to ride... all day, on the understanding that come the end of the day I would get to ride one of the horses bareback back to the fields where they were put for the night, which was only about 2 miles away.... but it meant riding along the foreshore and then down some tracks..... I was in heaven.... I never had lessons, no one ever told me how to ride.... I could just do it.... maybe I watched to many cowboy and indian films as a kid lol..... so I would work all day for a 20 minute ride at the end of the day, and then I would have to walk the 2 miles back to the stables to pick up me bike and then ride the 7 miles home LOL......



Just look at Sprites face, this is what makes my job so worthwhile..



At the back of the foreshore is this row of old railway sleepers used as a backdrop to the shore, so that when the tide comes up the water wont wash away anymore of the land.... these are actually the old railway sleepers from the old Puffing Billy Line that I mentioned earlier.... the nippers loved being allowed to walk along them.... with my words of 'just be careful' just said the once..... no nagging like we would of had if I had gone with others that day....



Ya can see they aint very high.... and note there is no one else around :)...

They aint high until ya son does this......



A forward 'double' front somersault off them LOL...... landed it perfect he did lol

We walked all the way along, only seeing one other person on our walk... when we got to the end of where we had set our sights on there is a bench, so being the old codger that I am I said lets sit and have a drink and a rest before heading back.... so the kids and Jacob all explored the shore area and Jacob notices the remains of an fire, ya know the ashes where someone had had a fire on the beach.... well upon investigation lmfao..... me lad kicked around in the ashes and said 'blimey mum its still warm'....... and after a bit of blowing and the nippers rushing around looking for firewood lol....... this is what happened....



Give my boy an ember and he will build you a fire fit for a king lol....



Just love this photo, look at the look on the nippers faces especially J blowing the fire LOL..... see them wooden bits sticking out of the mud.... thats whats left of the old wooden quays that was there about 100 years ago, when the harbour was a working harbour....



Yep Jacobs face says it all........ I love it that my 15 year old still loves coming out with me :)...



Warming me feet lol

We spotted a woman walking along the beach with her dog...... by then the fire was well and truely alight and Jacob asked if we had any duck bread left that we had been feeding the ducks with..... well I had saved a few slices so we had something to feed the ducks with on the way back....... so I rummaged in me bag and he got a stick cos he wanted to show A and J and Sprite (not that she would understand lol) how you can cook on a little fire......



So he toasted some bread, and as he was toasting, the woman that we had seen with the dog was almost upon us...... the kids were muddy.. and windswept.... and I suppose to an on looker we looked like a motely bunch LOL...



And it was getting nippy by now..... so as Jacob was handing out the toasted bread to the nippers this woman say....... oh my, what are you doing, you're not allowed a fire on the beach.... pardon, I says...... you heard me she said......yes I did, I replied, but I didnt quite understand.... you cant have a fire on the beach she repeated....... but mam I said... putting on me right proper hampshire farmers accent...... we need the fire to cook our dinner........ dinner she says? yes, its just toast but it will do the children until I can find us all somewhere to sleep for the night........ BLANK BLOODY LOOK........ ya see, we are vagabonds and we only wanted to get warm and get the children fed.......oh my she said.... YOU'RE GYPSIES DONT COME NEAR ME lmfao........ to which my Jacob says.... spare us a few quid love would ya.... putting on the same accent as I had LOL..... with that she called her dog and scarpered up the beach as fast as her little legs could carry her LMFAO..... we laffed and laffed and laffed..... well me and Jacob did.... J, A and Sprite started laffing cos we was laffing.....

Why dont some people just mind their own bloody business...... we was doing no harm...

J then says Mel I need the loo, and A followed suit lol....... go on then I says, you couple of pikies..... pretend ya firemen putting out the fire lol



So they did lol....... oh hush, there was no one around for miles......



A muddy kid is a happy kid right? lol....... I dont care..... I really dont :)



Time to head back, as it was getting really overcast by now.....



Bye horse..



Bye little bridge with the sloosh gate to let the overflow water from the nature reserve flow into the sea.. oh my there is the dog in the distance of the 'scared of pikies' woman lol... if we run/hobble we just might be able to catch her up LOL....



Bye little hungry ducks...

I will just show two more photos....... see what ya think....... spookie or what..

This first one is of the lane that I use to bareback ride the horses from the stables when I was a kid.... the lane is right behind the bench we was sitting on with the fire......



Pretty aye?

Now look at this one, the nippers came out of the hedgerow as I took this second photo......... WTF is that shining light..... and even more spookie...... Sprite is looking at it....... Jacob didnt see it, nor did J or A.... just me and Sprite..... is it the ghost of my past....it is my memory spirit........strange aye?



Ok way way more then enough Twaddle to bore the pants off ya for a Wednesday evening... if ya got this far ya need a meddle lol and I need to go to bed :)... DONT have nightmares now will ya..

[click on photos to enlarge - if ya can be arsed lol]

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