drbexl.co.uk » Winchester

Supporting British Farmers

drbexl — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:05:52 +0000

British Farmers Need Our Support (October 2008)
What is the best way to support British Farmers? (April 2008)
Campaign for British Farmers to get a Fair Deal (October 2007)
Check out how British Farmers are working with the environment, and opening their farms to you (annually, June)

The supermarkets are now stocking more and more Organic, Fair Trade and Local items. Fair trade items include coffee, tea, chocolate, bananas, geobars. Keep your eyes peeled for other items! Also look at buying items locally at Farmers Markets (Hampshire) or through Organic Doorstop Delivery Schemes, including:

Riverford (most of the South-West)
River Nene (central England)
Organic Delivery (London)
Unicorn Grocery (non-delivery Chorlton, Manchester)
Limited Resources (Manchester)
Organic Listings Directory

Check Big Barn for local producers.

The Real Jam & Chutney Co.

drbexl — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:07:46 +0000

“Do you like real food that tastes of what it says on the label? So do we. In fact, that’s why The Real Jam and Chutney Co was formed in 2004.

Hazel Southam, one of the company’s founders, had never tasted Raspberry Jam that lived up to that made by her grandmother, Constance Hall. Realising that if she couldn’t find jam of the quality that she’d known as a child, then probably other people couldn’t either, Hazel helped set up the business.

We wanted to bring Constance Hall’s delicious recipes to a wider public who we knew would love them as much as we did.”

Read more here. I especially love the RASPBERRY JAM!

Doh, a Dear…

drbexl — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:17:58 +0000

Thanks Pennie Ley for the reminder of this video – seen it before – can’t help but smile when you watch it! Reminds me of the Winchester Flashmob.

More Snow in Winchester

drbexl — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:42:30 +0000

OK, now I think I want to go and see what is outside – get the ski gear on I think?!

I did put my salopettes and ski jacket on… felt nicely wrapped up as I headed out…

Snow Day in Winchester?

drbexl — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:07:49 +0000

Triffids in Winchester?

drbexl — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:47:11 +0000

St Catherine’s Hill in Winchester (which I walked up yesterday) – apparently covered in Triffids!

The Hospital at St Cross gets a quick role as the Abbey. I’d caught part 1 by mistake, then thought I’d go back and check part 2 after I’d heard Winchester featured in it (read about it in the Daily Echo).

2nd January

drbexl — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 19:42:27 +0000

It’s been an odd day so far, woken by the postman, read for an hour – then next thing I know it’s 1pm! Not in favour of the gym today, so decided to go out for a walk before it got too late!

Just in time to catch the sun falling at the bottom of St Catherine’s Hill!

Beautiful colours…

Halfway up the hill, the sun is going down quickly over Winchester…

Just in time to catch the last drops of sunlight…

I finally worked out how to use the Macro function on my camera – it had moved from the previous model and I’d given up looking!

New Year’s Day 2010

drbexl — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 19:39:56 +0000

After a surprisingly delightful New Year’s Eve on my own (I’m an Extrovert, don’t you know, get my energy from being round people!), I chilled out with a DVD, and was still awake when a very luminescent “blue moon” (apparently meaning 2 full moons in a month), made me look outside – this shot doesn’t in any way do it justice (what do you expect), but it was pretty magical!

A Blue Moon

After a morning of cleaning out the fridge, whipping up a smoothie and a doze, decided to hit the outside – and MY was it cold! Walked into town, seeing the old buses trundling past (all full!), before taking some time to locate the 93 out to Twyford Waterworks. Beautiful crisp day, but took about 2 hours to rewarm once I got in!

Beautiful weather as I head into Winchester…

One of many old buses hanging around the bus station

I risked the top deck for a bit of a view on a LOVELY day!

Couple more old buses outside the Guildhall – if you’re into buses you’ll know more – I’ve known this goes on for years, just never witnesses it! Buses were jam-packed… run by the Friends of King Alfred Buses.

Bus took me out to Twyford Waterworks (after a 20 minute delay) – where Matthew Feldwick gave me what was probably the quickest tour of his life, but enough info for me – it was just me so we were able to talk “small amounts of steam, getting bigger”, rather than “tech speak” – hurrah!

Theoretically functional (and beautifully decorated), and will be again, once National Lottery funding has been awarded (bidding in process)… on the boiler room (3/4 remaining boilers in the country in this building)

How beautiful was the light on a crisp, frosty afternoon! This was the view from up by the lime kilns/trains! Check out their open days, and support this historic building (gives me lots to think about for Creating and Consuming History module!)

Bangkok Brasserie, Winchester

drbexl — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:37:11 +0000

Nom, nom – go here! Been for the first time tonight (it’s where an Italian restaurant used to be) with a friend. We had a mixed platter for starters (which was all lovely – I’m not usually a fan of spring rolls, but mine was delicious, although we were both saying the Prawn Toasts were the winner!). I had coconut rice and cashew chicken for my main, which was lovely, especially the rice – and was then too full for dessert. Karen had Sticky Rice and sweet and sour white fish. The sticky rice was not good, but they apologised and immediately took it off the bill (can’t ask for more than that!), but the other, and the Jasmine tea afterwards was apparently exquisite!

Winchester’s Christmas Lights Go Up

drbexl — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:30:41 +0000

The Christmas lights for Winchester will be lit up tonight, and here’s a heartfelt observation (with which I largely agree) by a student at the University of Winchester: WINOL: Are we destroying Christmas?

Ben Stein, Jewish Actor, is purported to have said the following:

Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart:

I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don’t know who Lindsay Lohan is, either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise’s wife.

Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young. It’s not so bad.

Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, “Merry Christmas” to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him?

I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

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I, and others, have been wondering at the gradual downgrading of Christmas to “the Holidays” in order to “not offend” certain people/groups, yet this year Halloween was probably the most celebrated event I have seen so far this year, highly promoted by restaurants, etc. Why is that acceptable and Christmas isn’t?