Yorkey

The name of the bus pass in York.

On the edge of the North York Moors

Dancing in a field of corn

Early morning wander

New York

Treasurers House

Treasure House cont.

Once a grand Abbey- before the Minster grew

How did it fall down?

Approach

Vista

Farewell

Facts for Jamie

At the end of WWII five men had the name Adolf Hitler. They were told to change there names. One consistently refused to do so.

It is estimated that if the moon is directly above you, with the sun in a similar place, you weigh 0.5gms lighter because of the gravitational pull of these objects.

98% of British land service is either mowed, clipped, chopped or harvested.

To travel from the Atlantic into the Pacific ocean through the Panama Canal you have to travel from West to East. 

The British were very proud that the Enigma code was cracked.  What is not said is that the German's cracked the British codes very quickly.  The difference was that the British were not so surprised by this.

Edinburgh fringe- Any good?

Wining one liner
Olaf Falafel - I keep randomly calling out 'broccoli' and 'cauliflower'.  Do you think I might have florets?

Also
Richard Stott - Someone stole my antidepressants - Well, whoever they are, I hope their happy.

Milton Jones - What's driving Brexit.  From here it looks like it could be the Duke of Edinburgh.

Jake Lambert - A cowboy asked me to help him round up his 18 cows.  I suggested 20 would be an appropriate figure.

Ross Smith - A Thesauruses in a wonderful thing.  There is no other word for it.

Adele Cliff - I accidentally booked my self onto an escapology course and now I'm really struggling to get out of it.

Richard Pulsford - After six hours of basic semaphore training I found I was flagging.

Mark Simmons - "To be, or not to be a horse rider, that is equestrian."

Ivo Graham "I got an Eton- themed advent calendar.  The thing is- you have to get one of your dad's contacts to open the doors.

A man gets out of bed, goes downstairs and glances at his calendar. It says it says 7^th July, the seventh day of the seventh month.

As he steps outside he notices Bus no.7 going by. He walks to a coffee shop and orders a coffee and a bite to eat and the bill comes to £7.77.

The man thinks "hmmmm... all these sevens... I think the universe is trying to tell me something."

So feeling that maybe this is his lucky day, the man cuts out early from work and goes to the race track.  He reads the racing schedule and sees that in the seventh race horse number 7 is called "Lucky Universe". The man can't believe it. He runs up to the betting agent and bets all his money on the horse.

The horse comes in seventh.

“I needed a password of eight characters, so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.” – Nick Helm

 “A man walked into the doctor’s. He said, ‘I’ve hurt my arm in several places.’ The doctor said, ‘Well avoid those places.'” – Tommy Cooper

When I was a kid I was made to walk the plank.  We couldn’t afford a dog.

“Money can’t buy you happiness? Well, check this out, I bought myself a Happy Meal.” 

A sandwich walks into a bar.  The barman says, get out- we don’t serve food in here.

“I was in my car driving back from work. A police officer pulled me over and knocked on my window. I said, ‘One minute I’m on the phone.'” – Alan Carr

“I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day, but I couldn’t find any.” – Tommy Cooper

“I was watching the London Marathon and saw one runner dressed as a chicken and another runner dressed as an egg. I thought: ‘This could be interesting.” – Paddy Lennox

View from the Tightrope

Relaxed and familiar rhythms rock the air,
It's all fine with the beat .... then the stylus jumped.

A screech; an unbearable scratching.
We wait, longer than we can bare,
But hear only the endless click of rotations.

A boat floats on the ocean,
It flips over.

A beautiful bud begins to open,
It drops to the ground.

We are together.
Then he undressed and dived into the river.

And now we are alone.

The Englishman, Spaniard and Moroccan met in a bar

Spaniard - When are you going to return Gibraltar to it's rightful owner?
Englishman - You can talk.  Don't you occupy, Ceuta and Melilla?  What do the Moroccans think of that?
Spaniard - Ah but Ceutra and Melilla have been Spanish territory for over 500 years.  The land is truly Spain. As Spanish as any other Spanish city.   Gibraltar came into British hands by act of conquest in 1704, when Spain was weak. In the timescale of history, that's recent.
Englishman - But have you heard about Wikipedia?  you can find all  the details there.  For example, Ceuta was a Portuguese possession until 1662, then was handed over to Spain because of Portugal's relative weakness, and eagerness not to get into a fight with you.  So Ceuta became Spanish 36 years before Gibraltar became British.  What is 36 years in the timeline of history?
Moroccan - Hang on, I'm here you know.  Yes, Ceuta and Melilla should be Moroccan again.  There is no doubt, for moral rather than economic reasons.  They are colonial outposts of an empire.  How would you like a colonial outpost in your territory?  They are out-dated anomalies from the past.
Spaniard - Yes well we do know what it feels like.  Gibraltar is an uncomfortable aberration on our underbelly.
Moroccan - so perhaps Gibraltar should come back under Moroccan rule, as it was in 1463?

Ceuta -Arab/Berber until 1415, Portuguese until 1668, then Spanish.  (253 years Portuguese, 351 years Spanish)
Melilla - Spanish from 1497 (522 years Spanish)
Gibratar - Spanish from 1463. British from 1704 (241 years Spanish, 315 years British)

Mawddach - Our place

An Invasion

Stuart Laycock's map of the countries Britain did not invade (in white).

Stuart Laycock told Jasper Copping from the Telegraph about how his son asked his how many countries British forces have invaded.   This led to a book called  All the Countries We've Ever Invaded (and the few we never got round to).  Then came to big debate.  "Invade", is that the right word?  

Well done to Stuart for raising the subject.  It illustrates the problem of the beauty of simplicity vs the complexity of how the world actually is.  

Uri Granta gives a thorough discussion on these issues in his Quora blog post.

My view is 'well done Stuart Laycock'.  You and your son have highlighted a very interesting point that should be attended to when considering the morality of international politics and Britain's place in it.