Monthly Archives: January 2025

Scarborough Attack – 1914

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Scarborough Castle, Yorkshire (with “Dramatic” filter in use.

This is an expanded version of the article that appeared on the Facebook page of the Numismatic Society of Nottinghamshire. I thought it would be quick and easy as away of adding a post without much work, as Julia has me down for various household jobs today. It took longer than I thought. Easy things are seldom as simple as they sound.

Wednesday 16 December 1914. 8 am. Three German warships appear out of the mist and open fire, sending 500 shells into the undefended town of Scarborough. Seventeen people are killed and eighty suffer serious injuries, two of them dying in the next few days. 

The ships then sail off to attack Whitby, killing 3 people and damaging many houses. Three shells hit the abbey, including a direct hit on the West Front. The damage they inflicted on Scarborough Castle and Whitby Abbey can still be seen today. The West Front at Whitby was rebuilt in the 1920s, using pre-war photographs and pictures as a guide. The remains of the barrack block at Scarborough were demolished and removed.

Whitby Abbey

Meanwhile, another group of battleships bombard Hartlepool, which, with three guns in coastal batteries, is better able to fight back. According to research done in 1965, 122 civilians were killed and 443 wounded. Five soldiers and two sailors were also killed and 14 military personnel wounded. German casualties, inflicted by the Hartlepool guns, were 8 killed and 12 wounded.

Private Theophilus Jones of the Durham Light Infantry, killed at Hartlepool, becomes the first British soldier to be killed in Britain for 200 years.

Medallion commemorating the dastardly attack on Scarborough, 1914

In military terms little was accomplished. The Germans had multiple aims – to ambush and sink defending Royal Navy ships, to depress civilian morale, to tie up British troops to defend the coast, and to inflict losses on munitions production. They seem to have failed in every one. Equally, the Royal Navy failed to engage the retreating German ships in decisive action and were unable to demonstrate their control of the North Sea to either the Germans or the British public. Politically, “Remember Scarborough!” became a powerful recruiting slogan, and American attitudes began to harden against Germany.

Government propagandists chose to concentrate on Scarborough as it was the best known of the three towns, being a popular holiday resort, and had no defences or military production facilities. It did have radio stations working with the Royal Navy, but that was ignored at the time.

Scarborough would be attacked again, though there is no medallion for the second attack. On September 4 1917, a U-Boat surfaced and engaged anchored trawlers in South Bay. They were being employed by the Royal Navy as minesweepers and, being armed, were able to defend themselves. Shots were exchanged – one British sailor was killed and stray German shells killed two civilians on shore. After four years of war, showing how the nation had become accustomed to death, the reporting showed no more outrage at this news than it did to the rest of the local news.

The reverse of the medallion.

North Bay, Scarborough. Looking North.

 

Quick Progress

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After writing that I had no submission plan for the coming year, I thought I had better get on with it. It seems I have quite a lot to do. There are 13 possible submissions to 9 different editors at five magazines, plus three possible competition entries.

They require 57 poems to make their selections. I have little prepared and just 12 days to do it in. I should really be writing poetry now, not blogging. Or thinking about breakfast. Mainly, I must admit, I am thinking about breakfast.

Last night I wrote ten tanka before bed. I have rewritten four of them and they are enough for two of the submissions (one editor requires three to select from, the other wants a single poem). I will let them stew for a few days, as it’s always good to go back with fresh eyes, but at least I have two of the thirteen done.

It is also possible that I won’t waste my money on the haiku competition, so that’s three done. It’s beginning to look a lot more manageable.

Now (having finished breakfast) I am going to set to and write the remaining 23 tanka. They will be reshaped by the time they are submitted but getting them all done will be a weight off my mind. After that I am going to sift through the pixelated pile of rejects and half-started prose poetry. There must be a few things in there that I can recycle. And that means that by this evening I will be  starting to write more poetry because I will be forced into it. Inspiration comes in many forms and has many names.

 

The Pitfalls of Contentment

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Although I have a lot to look forward to and a lot to be grateful for – a new house, someone paying me not to work (or a pension as it is also known) and the ability to see Julia all day rather than just for a rushed breakfast and an evening of preparing for the next day, I am at a low ebb in other ways.

I am, for instance, just days away from the end of several submission windows, with nothing ready and, currently, no interest in writing poetry. It’s actually worse than it sounds, because I haven’t even done my list of planned submissions for the year. I’m sure it was only about a month since I said I was going to aim higher this year. So far I have done nothing.

Contentment, it seems, takes its toll.

My Orange Parker Pen

My plan is to improve by writing more. And to write more I have to submit more, because it doesn’t count as writing unless somebody judges it. For instance – my first paragraph uncoiled as one sentence. And that sentence is 65 words. Now, it’s well known that sentences over 30 words are difficult for most people to understand, the British Government style guide specifies a 25 word maximum and many authorities on writing suggest 15-20 words as being ideal, though James Joyce, who was probably a better writer than most Civil Servants, once wrote a sentence that was 4,391 words long (I knew I had a good reason for avoiding Joyce), so it’s fair to suggest that one of the benefits of submitting writing to editors is that they will curb these tendencies (though note how J K Rowling’s books got longer as she became more successful and no editor dared tell her to cut out half the words). I think that was 113   I am a mere amateur compared to Joyce. But you probably already knew that.

I’ve been getting complacent recently – submitting pieces for the Numismatic Society Facebook page does not involve a lot of competition as there are only two of us writing the posts, and that fell to one for a while over Christmas because the other writer was ill.

Time to start testing myself, I think. The only way to improve is to get a few rejections. That will wake me up.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

 

Reasons to Be Cheerful (Again)

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For details. read the medallion – a masterpiece of simple design

I see WP have altered the “Posts” page. It’s probably an improvement, but I always wonder when they change things – it’s the same old story – The Overcrowded Bookshelf – you squeeze another book in and one drops off the end. I wonder what has been lost in the latest reorganisation. I’m guessing it’s not the cost. They always seem to get the billing done without any glitches.

I have written three previous posts with the title Reasons to be Cheerful – one, two, three, and one which is almost that.I am clearly not cursed by originality.

Two things are mentioned more than once in these posts – one is my chief reason for being cheerful – Julia and the second being Ian Dury. This is fair, as it was his song title before I started using it for blog posts. I looked up the lyrics because I always do when I think of the song (I can never remember any of them apart from yellow socks) and found there’s actually a site for translating Dury’s English into American English. This contains such gems as the fact that “cheddar cheese and pickle” is a “popular British sandwich”. There seems to be nothing you can’t write about on Wikipedia.

Medal George V and Queen Mary

Julia and I are enjoying a peaceful and relaxed start to the day. We have brought our dressing gowns from Nottingham and, with having heating, are able to wander about in the morning feeling very Noel Coward. The heating is set to 18° C (64° F), which is the recommendation from Age UK. To be fair, we aren’t letting the possession of a working heating system go to our heads, as we only run the heat about six hours a day. The rest of the time we wear our fleece ponchos. So far it’s working well.

So here I am again – cheerful, warm and domestic.

I have just agreed the subject for my 2026 talk at the Numismatic Society – Royal Visits to Nottingham (with particular reference to the medallions of the 19th and early 20th Centuries), so I have something to keep me busy.

Royal visit to Nottingham 1914

Royal visit to Nottingham 1914

A Miscellany of Mishaps

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On Sunday we had a call from one of the neighbours in Nottingham – our overflow was pouring water out at the back of the house. This was mixed news. Obviously something was wrong, but equally obviously, it wasn’t a burst pipe, as that wouldn’t come out of the overflow. So we abandoned everything, including our carefully dovetailed plans for the rest of the week and shot up to Nottingham to sort out the overflow. The water is currently switched off and we are hoping that after a few days thawing the system will return to normal. (General opinion is that it’s a frozen ballcock. Time will tell.)

We returned to Peterborough that night then went back to Nottingham in the morning, collected a delivery, filled the car with stuff, ran the heating to warm everything up a bit, attended a meeting of the Numismatic Society and came home. The original plan to stay over seemed less attractive when faced with a cold, waterless house. Yes, it’s still cold despite the fired being on.

On Tuesday we stayed in Peterborough. Originally we were going to stay over in Nottingham and go for a meal with a friend, but see above remarks on cold house, no water etc.

Today, we went up, arrived at 10.30 and packed some stuff. I then went for a blood test, we visited the shop and then came home. Imagine my cheerful reaction when I had a call to tell me that the sample had been untestable and I would have to return tomorrow as a matter of urgency to have a retest. I’d been looking forward to some nice relaxing time with Julia, including a daytrip out. I hadn’t intended that trip to be to Nottingham. Again.

Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com

 

Kite!

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Robin in the sun

I like Nottingham, and our old house has a lot going for it, including many memories. However, I have to admit that I no longer like staying there – I prefer the heating and the one floor convenience of the bungalow. I also like Peterborough. It’s not much of a town and it often ranks low in surveys, but it feels comfortable to be back. Nottingham has far more facilities, but I didn’t really use them much. There’s no point in swimming pools, theatres and big shopping centres if you don’t use them.

One of the unexpected pleasures of coming back to Peterborough is going back to the Military History Group. Although it’s nearly 40 years since I went to a meeting there’s something familiar and comforting about it.

Male Blackcap eating from floor feeder

So it was good to get back. We collected the bird food that I ordered to the wrong address, and put out peanuts and mealworms. The mealworms have been popular, the peanuts have mostly been ignored. This was a surprise as they have been popular in the past. Maybe the birds just need a day or two to get used to them.

The header picture is one I took this morning out of the kitchen window. I’ve never been able to take a picture of a kite from my kitchen before. I have seen buzzards from the back windows at Nottingham, but they are quite a way distant, as they tend to hunt over the golf course. Sadly, my picture lacks context, but by the time I got the camera into action I couldn’t get house roofs and the kite in the same shot.

Male Blackcap eating sunflower hearts

We saw a different black cap a couple of times this morning – one with a chestnut brown head – a female. Julia saw her with the male and then I saw her on her own later. Although we aren’t getting many birds, and although we seem to be offering food they don’t eat  (which can be adjusted as we go on), things seem to be going quite well.

Magpies on neighbour’s roof

Kite, almost over the garden

The Surly Bonds of Earth

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Plastic Poppies at Wilford

Just a few notes. I’m short of time and style must give way to speed.

Off to Nottingham for a while tomorrow – we have things like blood tests and parcel deliveries to attend to, and more things to pack.

The splint on my wrist, after failing me yesterday, is back doing its job and everything feels more comfortable. Having said that, I am quite frustrated by the constant small things that keep going wrong with me and my life.

The methotrexate injection sage is an example of this – basically two months messing about to get a prescription changed from pills to injections. So much red tape! Hopefully that will all be settled next week. It will make the move easier because they only give me 4 weeks of pills, but I get 12 weeks of injections.

Poppies with bee

It was the meeting of the Military History Group tonight – a detailed piece of research done by one of the members on airfields of WW2 and the squadrons that used them. It was packed with tantalising snippets of information, but there was so much else to get through that we didn’t have time to fully appreciate them. Did you know, for instance, that the great airfield expansion plan of the 1930s (when the government finally realised we were in deep trouble) was the work of the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, the man who designed the Cenotaph and  was involved in much of the Commonwealth War Graves architecture. To be honest, I thought he was dead by WW2, but he didn’t actually die until 1944.

He also mentioned (briefly) John McGee, an American serving in the RCAF. It seems he would like it read at his funeral. At that point I would have had a slide and a quote up on the screen, but he just passed on to another list. It’s here for people who don’t know it or, like me, never get tired of it. Sentimental? Yes, me and the poem.

There was also the story of the WAAF who took an unexpected flight. He dismissed that in a few lines and went back to talking about aeroplanes and bomb loads and runway lengths.

Poppies in the Mencap garden – Wilford

It took well over an hour. I know this because there is a clock in the room. I didn’t look at the start time but it was before 8..00 and it went on until almost 9.30. Julia, meanwhile, was beginning to think I’d been kidnapped.

Two other members provided extra material – one brought models of various aircraft mentioned in the talk and another brought some paperwork relating to a WW2 RAF bomber crewman from Peterborough. It was nice to see other people joining in. It was also nice to be in a warm room. I always find the heating to be insufficient at the

Poppies at East Leake

Numismatic Society.

Pain, Plans and Parakeets

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January Afternoon – Country Park

I got up this morning noted the condition of my joints, flexed a bit, groaned and then went back to sleep. It seemed the logical thing to do. It was just after 8.00 when I finally thrust my head out from beneath the duvet like a disgruntled tortoise and blinked. At least, I noted, my eyelids weren’t hurting. This was a start.

Unfortunately, it was destined to be a day of aches and pains. Some days are like that.

It was also a day of phone calls. One was from a man who told me that my telephone SIM card was going to be blocked in two days unless . . .

I’m not actually sure what he was going to ask me to do as I stopped him there and told him I would talk to him in two days as I wasn’t going to speak to anyone ringing up out of the blue as there are a lot of fraudsters about. He didn’t protest, so he is either a poor scammer, or he is from the phone company and they are going to cut me off. Time will tell.

Robin

Then I had a call to organise the delivery of my new supply of anti-arthritis injections. I have mixed feelings about them. I don’t like injections, but I really don’t like the regime of ten pills once a week. They are tiny and fiddly, they taste horrible and they often upset my stomach. I also have to order them every month and this doesn’t leave much room for error when ordering.

Later, I had a call from rheumatology asking if the delivery company had rung.

Bird report – nothing new. We refilled the feeder and adjusted the arm that gives the squirrel a foothold. It has not tried anything yet, though I have no doubt it will be back with a cunning plan.

Julia and my sister went for a walk in the country park this afternoon. They are just back, reporting seeing parakeets on one of the feeders near the bird hide. I wonder if I can tempt them down here . . .

Header Photo is from Julia’s walk.

How many Senior Moments can a man have?

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Looks like butter wouldn’t melt in its mouth

We had the Blackcap back again. The photos are different, as it’s on the seed feeder. They are, however, no improvement quality-wise. Anyway, that’s enough about Blackcaps, let’s talk about my new splint.

Blackcap again. Different feeder, same poor photo quality.

After self-diagnosing my wrist problem as carpal tunnel syndrome I ordered a splint from Amazon, It arrived today. It’s adjustable, it has velcro straps and a metal plate to hold the wrist in the right position. It’s a lot more comfortable than the tubular bandage I had been using for the last few days and, to be honest, much more impressive. It really looks like I have a serious injury instead of a sore wrist. The best bit, though, is the fact it doesn’t peel back as easily as the bandage, so I can’t roll it out of the way for washing up.

I did offer to remove it completely but Julia insists I keep it on, and she will do the washing up.

So my hand is less painful and I don’t have to do the washing up. It is the classic win-win situatio situation.

If I remove that arm with the hanging fat feeder it will be more difficult to gat to the seed

 

However, there is a cloud on the horizon – I’ve been having intermittent computer problems. New pages kept opening and I lost pages I was working on (though I found them all eventually). As I pondered on the problem it occurred to me that it always happened when I used the “t” key. Then it occurred to me that it might be something to do with the new splint and the “Ctrl” key, as I noticed drag against something from time to time. It’s still happening even now, though it’s less frequent now. That’s right, the splint was pressing on the key and “Ctrl T” is the command to open a new page. I didn’t know that. And even though I now know it, my hand is still dragging across the key and calling up a new page once in a while. It happened six times in the last paragraph even though I am trying to keep my hand up and the edge of the splint away from the  keys.

There is always something new to learn.

Dunnock – apparently a very promiscuous bird – you wouldn’t think it would you?

Another Bird Feeder Milestone

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I managed

Blackcap at the Garden Feeder

to get a half-decent Blackcap shot this morning. It was dull, the camera tried to use flash, then a Robin chased it off. But somehow I got a usable image. It’s a very distinctive bird to say that it’s basically grey.

As I started to type this, Julia called me through to see a Jay. I grabbed her camera (it is better than mine for this sort of thing because it has a rangefinder – mine only has a screen) and was lucky to get three shots of a Jay at the ground feeder.

Of course, the card was still in the computer. All I got was a message “No Card in Camera” when I reviewed what I had done.

I’m sure it will be back. And next time I will be ready. The bird feeders are already producing more than I could have hoped for – more species, more fun, more interest, more excitement and, of course, more frustration and more Senior Moments.

Little Egret – this wasn’t far away, but it may be over-ambitious to try to tempt it to the garden.

The squirrel was on the feeder first thing this morning, and things have got to the state where it merely looks at me disdainfully when I knock on the window.

One thing that helps it get to the seeds is the positioning of one of the arms on the main feeder pole.  That will be moved. It may be enough to stop the raids on the seeds. However, experience suggests it won’t be.

I’m happy to let it feed on the bread and other scraps on the floor (which include apple, cabbage, stale scones and some old dried fruit), but I object to it taking loads of expensive seeds, spilling them on the floor and keeping the birds away. If anything, it does good work on the floor by making sure there is nothing left for rats, plus, as I’ve said before – squirrels are part of the garden wildlife, and quite interesting, so it is welcome, as long as it behaves.

A Peacock once turned up on the farm (seen here with guinea fowl) so you never know what might happen.

I’ve been observing its movements, and had isolated a number of places where I could put vaseline and chilli. Unfortunately, as the feeder becomes more popular, the birds are starting to perch there too, as they wait for a turn for the seeds. I don’t want to make a mess of their plumage so it looks like I’m going  to have to postpone the use of the vaseline.

My next move, if the repositioning doesn’t work, will be mixing seed with spice and see if that keeps it away.