faartals

Welcome

Chief Faartal — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 19:17:36 +0000

Welcome to the new FAARTALS website, brought to you by the Fairfield and Avondale Retired Teachers & Lecturers Society. As you can see we are mostly about walking in the countryside, preferably up and down hills and perhaps a little slowly as befits our venerable status. We are protected by, St Petronilla, patron saint of hill walkers, and enjoy the conviviality of hostelries where we imbibe in traditional potions to recover from our perambulatory exertions. Chief Faartal

What next…

Roger — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 21:10:21 +0000

After storms and floods today brought us a massive fire which destroyed much of the shopping precint in the centre of Chesterfield. It is thought to have started in the Somerfields store and quickly spread to several adjacent shops with at least 8 have been completely destroyed. It would appear that the library and nearby shops have been saved.

The view from near the Portland Hotel

The view from Markham Rd traffic lights

The view along New Beetwell Street as smoke is blown towards us.

The view from the Post Office footpath.

At least the Spire is safe.

What next … a plague of locusts??………………….

After the flood

Roger — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:17:01 +0000

And just as quickly as it came……The first 4 pictures are taken in the same places where flood water flowed 14 hours earlier. The Council did an amazing job in tidying up the town and Park overnight but it was a different story in the Retail Park.

The sale begins… Customers waiting for Curry's to open!

Yesterday's river…This is where the lady was trying to cross a torrent to get home last night.

Tools of the trade…A boat and a wheelbarrow.

The clean up begins at the tearooms

But not all is completely back to normal!

Water on the line at the miniature railway.

Begonia Island… The rowing boats from the boating pool are teathered to a tree 200 yards downstream!

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Faartals in flood

Roger — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 08:11:52 +0000

I bet there are many people in Chesterfield who did not even know we had 2 'rivers' flowing through it. Yesterday they made their mark and the pictures tell it all. Not as bad as Sheffield but still a disaster for those affected.

Traffic going nowhere.

Queens Park's new tearooms.

Going home - somehow!

Boating weather

Saleing buy!

Recording history

Pets at home - I hope not.

Waiting for the tide to turn! -A long wait as no other way through the floods.

7.20 p.m. on the Spire clock

THe river Rother near Chesterfield station

Houses flooded near the station

The river is supposed to flow under the bridge not over it.

A deserted bypass with 2 cars facing the wrong way!

One of the dryest places in Chesterfield

St Petronilla’s Day - May 31st

Roger — Mon, 28 May 2007 14:00:52 +0000

A tale of jealousy, escape, passion and purity.

Locked away by her father before escaping across the Alps and then unrequited love in the Bavarian forest. This was the turbulent life for young Petronilla. She was the stunningly beautiful daughter of a devout Christian in 4th Century Rome. This possessive father locked his daughter away from admiring suitors until she escaped to Rhaetia at the edge of Roman civilisation in what is now southern Germany.

It was there she entranced a young king, Flaccus, who vowed to take her for his wife. But the marriage of a Pagan and a Roman could never happen and she was eventually taken back to Rome where she starved herself to death. It was said that she preferred to die rather than marry a pagan or could it be that she died because she was not allowed to marry him? We shall never know, but eventually she became a virgin martyr honoured in the annals of Church history.

Was it her journey across the Alps that gave her the status as the Patron Saint of mountain travellers? Again we shall never know but it is far more credible than her patronage of the French Dauphin, based solely on the tenuous discovery of a dolphin found carved on her sarcophagus!

Was Petronilla involved in the ancient Bavarian game of ‘Spuckender Kirsch Kern?’ - Possibly! Today this game involves little more than spitting cherry stones as far as possible. However this tradition is borne, like so many other things, out of an ancient ritual with deeper undertones.

Evidently the local Germanic tribes used to harvest the wild cherries in early summer and celebrate the occasion with a feast. By tthe middle of June the main rituals of Spring were long gone and most eligible men had taken a wife. At the end of the feast the remaining single women of the tribe competed with each other to spit cherry stones at a cowbell hung 20 paces away. The first damzel to ring the bell got the choice of any single men remaining whether the man in question liked it or not.

Such was the expertise of these women that they could hit the bell with their eyes shut - if they wanted to!

It is thought that this practice was adapted by the whole tribe to become a defiant gesture against their Roman occupiers. Is it therefore just a coincidence that St Petronilla's Day is adjacent to this cherry fest and is it also coincidental that she was renown for wearing cherry red shoes and matching clothing?

I think not.

Roger.

The Faartals in New York

Roger — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 10:13:38 +0000

Not exactly a walk, but still something of an outing!

It was necessary for the Faartals to make a weekend trip to New York (near Ripley) to discover the murderer of Pepi Roni, the Godfather of the Roni family.

We were greeted by Father Alfredo, with more bottles in his/her bag than rabbits in a magician's hat, but by midnight we had disposed of them all.

Clair Voyant produced a copious meal of which any Italian would be proud, and which was very fitting for the occasion.

Mama Rosa looked suitably distraught all evening while the dapper Rocco Scarfazzi was always close by to comfort her in spite of his fiancee, Tara Misu being around all the time. Mind you it appeared that Tara had been around quite a bit, if you know what I mean!

Daughter Angel soon showed she was a woman of ambition and fantasies and by no means a good Italian girl! Her main fantasy was the dashing Bo Jalais, a French wine making cousin in charge of the Scarfazzi vineyards.

Lastly came son Marco Roni, who Mama said was a good boy! All he wanted to do was play professional football, but his family had other ideas and insisted that he worked in the family restaurant.

Could you believe that one of these Faartals was the prime suspect??

Many thanks to mine hosts for a brilliant evening!

Third time on Whinstone Lee Tor!

Roger — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 17:05:53 +0000

For the third time in 8 days we have been up this route and with good reason! The views are stunning at any time of year, but when the snow was around it looked completely different to today when there was mist in the air which broke to give good patches of blue. We also had 2 younger additions to our group! (Spot the young ones!)

One of the reasons for the outing was to try out the new boots -

We shall post a further picture of the said boots in 6 months time to see if they are still in this pristine condition!!

Wildlife

Roger — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 22:56:44 +0000

I think it would be good to have a separate post to record worthwhile wildlife sitings over the coming months. To start this off, we walked today beside the river Bradford and spent some time watching at least one dipper 'doing its stuff', fairly oblivious to our presence. Several other dippers were seen further up the valley and this quite shy bird does now seem to be coming more accustomed to man. Yesterday was a day for a mini Faartal (on my own) above Ladybower and beneath Stanage Edge. This is well away from the main walking area around here and provided good sitings of 4 Golden Plovers and 2 Mountain Hares. I think I also saw a Peregrine Falcon but without anyone else to back me up I am reluctant to claim it as a siting! The best siting so far this year has been of the wild Red Deer above White Edge. In autumn they were down below the Edge on the rutting ground but this time of year they get as far away from civilisation as possible. I counted 27 including 3 males with multi-pointed antlers. Adam and Margret spotted them a few days later.

Wednesday 11th April. Roger & Celia went in search of the 'drumming' snipe. It is a long time since I heard snipe drumming and it occurred to me that Ramsley Moor and Leash Fen would be a good place to hear them.

Early evening and appropriate refreshment at the Barrel Inn. Clear skies all day meant fantastic views from the Barrel as the sun set in the West. The stone walls were particularly noticeable as the long shadows of the evening spread across the valley

At 8 p.m we were on Ramsley Moor but not a thing to be heard apart from the occasional curlew and lapwing. At 8.30 p.m. there was very little light left but this is obviously the time for snipe to get going. Within 10 minutes they could be heard all around us but we could not see one of them. Their drumming is made by the air vibrating 2 tail feathers as they dive at 45% and is just a way of showing off to their mate during the breeding season! Celia had not heard them before and I think she thought the cold and discomfort had been worthwhile!.

Friday 13th April. Celia and Roger on their own again as the Fairfield contingent still in Spain. From a wildlife point of view this walk is memorable for the first swallow of the season - seen near Foolow in late afternoon. According to my sister there was snow on the ground on the 9th April last year and now the temperature is above 20 degrees.

Lily beetles are on the plants at home. These insects have only recently moved up North and to find them here in April must be very unusual.

Constitutional Crisis

Chief Faartal — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 08:27:35 +0000

Members may not have realised that under clause 3 of our beloved CONSTITUTION, it is suggested that the revered post of Chief Faartal can only be held by a person of the male persuasion. This could be an error of drafting, or indeed caused by excessive draught of one sort or another, but unless our constitution makes it clear that the male embraces the female, at least in terms of pronouns, we may be guilty of a form of discrimination that would not be tolerated in less important aspects of life e.g. employment. If any Faartal sees fit to call an extraordinary general meeting to discuss this pressing topic, your Chief Faartal has checked that Kinder Scout is available this afternoon for an emergency debate. If the agenda allows, it would also be possible to discuss the finer points of cross-dressing in relation to the wearing of St Petronilla's shoes by a male Chief Faartal.

New Faartals Website

Chief Faartal — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 22:16:23 +0000

Welcome to our new website. Here you will find that slowly, but surely, we will add items useful to the FAARTAL community, including an Event Calendar. So, don't browse this site, but stroll through it at your leisure and enjoy the journey.