24/25 May 2008

The second Emmposium: the family tree has grown so much and Emm and Emms families descended on Bratton, North Wiltshire to view the tree. Our branch begins at John Emme of Sutton Veny died 1581. We have finally completed it up to date from Harry Benjamin born 1863 (who was the last ancestor on the Emmposium 2006 tree) as far down as Isabella, Daniella, Elliott and Florence all born 2007: that is the extra piece on the table for Adele to take away and record.

The Emm and Emms families: Left and centre.

The righthand side!

A damp Sunday morning in the churchyard of the Congregational church, Broadchalke where there are several family graves. Thankfully this was not the torrential downpour forecast and spirits were still high, helped by roast lunch and chats in the Queen's Head afterwards.

Not an Emm or Emms (as far as we know), just a peaceful pastoral scene in Broadchalke as we strolled down the road to the CofE church.

9th May 2008

No sooner had we got home from the Natural History Museum where we viewed Mary Anning of Lyme Regis's ichthyosaur collection (too dark to photo) than Brigit told us that there had been a massive landslip where Mary had searched for fossils (and we did with the children when they were younger) so we had to go and gawp.

The worst landslip for 100 years in the national press but 26 years in the Bridport & Lyme News!

The slip is to the right of the buildings.

This is as close as we are going to get to the slip - I don't fancy the rest on my head. The tide is in so the blocked beach is not visible but the landslip is most of the bottom area of cliff on the photo. There's a tree hanging upside down to the left. There was an old Victorian landfill site at the top which eventually closed in 1972 so rather than any particularly good fossils, there is more likely to be rusty fridges and canisters!

The whole cliff is now very unstable and the experts expect much much more to come down - which doesn't stop the fossilers who make their way from Charmouth Beach .... so watch this blog!

Looking across the harbour at the restored Langmoor Gardens - in true Lyme style, they had decided to slip onto the buildings below and were closed while costly extensive shoring up went on.

So much more peaceful than March (see my posting then)! This is the first time we have been able to picnic in the gardens for some years. Mike said that it would be just our luck that the place where we sat was the spot they hadn't quite stabilised! However we lived to tell the tale. Oh what fun to live dangerously!!

Health and Safety gone mad - a sign of the times - the Cobb has been there, wild and free, since the 13th century. I suppose there will be railings all the way along soon.

The Cobb, a Mike on the "dangerous catwalk" and Stonebarrow and Golden Cap in the background.

Not ever seen these days - work completed under estimate!

7th May 2008

Another National Express trip to London (OAP Mike half price this time) for a day in the Natural History Museum (free entry). It was 23 degrees outside - the first really hot day of 2008.

This is the very impressive entrance hall.

OK, so I knew he wasn't real. And of course I knew he was computer controlled but it was REALLY SPOOKY when I put the camera up to take his photo - and he looked straight at me and roared!!

A couple of years ago, a lady in the village told me how her dogs had startled a very yellow bird with black wings - did I know what it was .... I looked at her with amazement, out came the bird book, she identified it and I charged up to the site with my binoculars but of course no luck.

So I only get to see the rare golden oriole here, very dead.

Perhaps she was having a bad day .......

The architecture is superb - click on each photo to see more detail.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/history-architecture/index.html

A dusty huge blue whale and an old type museum collection around it.

Spot the real live husband (no dinosaur jokes allowed).

Time for a very welcome cappucino and a very nice cup at a very reasonable price.

But hello, who's this in the coffee shop - surely that's not .......

Oh yes it is! So, this is where she ended up, stuffed.

Chi-Chi lived in London Zoo from 1958 until she died on 21st July 1972. She was originally destined for a US zoo from China but then the US refused to take her because of a trade ban.

Remember how she was not interested in making panda babies with An-An from Russia?!

She is the symbol of the World Wildlife Fund.