This postbox is said to have once stood outside the gates to one of Cambridge’s colleges. As the college gates used to be locked shut each evening, the postbox was used by students to climb over the locked gate at night. This spiky top was added as a deterrent!
I don’t know which college it used to stand near; it has apparently been moved several times. It now stands on the corner of Priory Road and Riverside where it mostly deters pigeons from landing.
Saturday 7th June saw the first visit to the backyard from squirrel, who began gnawing away at the plastic base of the holder in its attempt to liberate all the peanuts. At one point a second squirrel appeared and the tree shook as it was chased away. Squirrels protect their nuts.
At 7am May 30th I clearly heard a Sedge Warbler singing from our yard in Eden Street Backway. It’s uncommon to find one in an urban area, they’re more at home in Norfolk reedbeds, but the land here was once part of a market garden known as the Garden of Eden (hence Eden, Adam & Eve and Paradise Streets) and there are still pockets of greenery. Enough for a returning Sedge Warbler.
Copyright © Garth Peacock
This image of a Sedge Warbler at Fen Drayton, 23rd April 2008, kindly provided by Garth Peacock. Canon 40D with Canon 500mm lens + 1.4 teleconverter, effective shooting distance 1120mm (22.4x)
Birds and Wildlife Photography contains many more images.
Last day of the 2008 Cambridge Beer festival and many of the beers have run out – even some of the festival glasses! Still, a sunny afternoon and a good crowd to drain the last drops.
Tydd Steam’s Mother In Law a highlight for Louise, mine another glass of Butts’ Organic Jester. Time to vote for the beers of the festival – Louise chose Buntingford Brewery Western Musketeer for tasting like their fantastic Silent Night – hoppy! I chose Fox Brewery Heacham Gold which had run out by today but made for a memorable first few days of the festival. In 2007 we chose Digfield Ales Fool’s Nook which didn’t make an appearance this year.
We both agreed that the best named beer, and the one with the funniest label, was Watermill Inn W’ruff Night.
A short trip to the Cambridge Blue on Gwydir Street to see the Cambridge Morris Men dancing in the beer garden. Nice to see the Cambridge Blue provide food for them, not all pubs do and its hungry work – and thirsty work by the look of all the tankards.
This is number 60 King Street, once the Earl Grey pub, more recently a betting shop, and now empty.
Earl Grey probably refers to Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey who was educated at Trinity College and later became Prime Minister (1830-1834). The 3rd Earl Grey, Henry George Grey, and 4th Earl Grey Albert were also at Trinity,
This two storey, slate roofed, grey gault brick building was a pub since at least the 1870s according to Sara Payne’s Down Your Street. The publican in the 1920s was called Isabella Rank. The shop next door sells coffee and tea, probably Earl Grey.
Another sunny day in the lovely setting of Jesus Green and another seven ales, all of them light and hoppy.
First the South Bar for Dog House Wet Nose and Butts Brewery Jester Organic, nice light beers to start the day! I’ve had a bottle of Butts Brewery Barbus barbus before and kept the bottle to remind me to seek out more of their beers so this was a great find.
To the Cambridge bar next for Ufford Ale’s New Model Ale, another light pale hoppy ale, followed by yet another, Fenland Brewery Osier Cutter. Tried this before in Moulton and really enjoyed it but today it was less “delicate yet hoppy” , more ’smoked cheese’.
The 35th Cambridge beer festival began yesterday evening and we walked over in the sun with our new CAMRA membership cards (free entry and no queueing!), grabbed a couple of pint glasses, and a wine glass for a souvenir, and got stuck into 64 pages of beers in the festival programme!
First up I had what proved to be the best beer of the night, Fox’s ‘Heacham Gold‘ described as “straw coloured, refreshingly hoppy bitter. Some caramel in the nose disappears under the dominance of the hops” – and what hops! (Cascade, Phoenix and First Gold according to their website). Louise’s first tipple was a half of Shaws ‘Golden Globe’ which was merely ‘ok’ in the presence of the Heacham Gold.
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