Wabbidashery… aka, The Heritage Heaven Tour
-
Sorry that it’s been a quiet week from me. It’s been HOT here so the wabash hasn’t seen much wear. Temperatures are starting to drop slightly, so I will hopefully rectify this.
A hobby I’ve recently picked up is learning to play the Alto Saxophone. I’ve been wanting to learn sax for my entire adult life, but for some reason I never allowed myself. As a kid/teenager I got pretty good at piano and drums, I played in loads of bands. Then adulthood happened and I just kind of… stopped. I think I’ve always been waiting for a time when learning something new didn’t feel frivolous or pointless; there’s no material reason for me to learn the sax, so I didn’t. But when I think back to my teenage years, pretty much all my free time was spent doing frivolous or pointless stuff, and it was awesome.
So a couple of months back I bought myself a Yamaha YAS-280, found a teacher. I have no reason to learn other than because I like it. It’s really humbling starting something new and being totally shit at it. I’ve nearly mastered “three blind mice”. I think I’ll continue and do gradings, just because why not? Maybe I’ll get good, maybe I won’t, but I’m going to try to enjoy it either way.
And my favourite album by a saxophonist…
-
Super cool. Love sax, alto to baritone especially.
-
Not going straight to Night Boat to Cairo, David?
I may not be 37, well I was once, now I think it’s my waist size…anyway, my Dad is David, my middle name is David and my son’s middle name is David too!
Is this how cults start? 
️#JustStopCrocs
-
-
@Nocturama ha! I’d be very pleased to get to a level where I can skronk out some Madness.
That’s funny, in my family the name “James” comes up a lot. David’s a good solid name, I have no complaints, although It must be like Dr. Seuss’ poem “Too Many Daves” for your family
-
I love walking. I’d walk everywhere if I could, so always try to get out every day. Since the kids are off school for the summer I’ve had less opportunity to get out and explore the area on foot, which inevitably affects my mood. They’re not at home today though, so I thought I’d explore a bit more on foot and bring the Wabash for the walk. Let’s go!
It’s a hot day today so I don’t think I’ll last long wearing the jacket…
This bridge serves overground trains from London which go past our house and on to the coast of Leigh-on-Sea. It’s a bit of an eye-sore… I decided to take the left-turn just behind the bridge to see if there’s anything down there. I assumed it’d mostly be a private road and I’d have to turn back, but no signs told me I was trespassing so I cracked on.
Road bollard being used as a dog-shit bin. Why not eh?
Needlessly ostentatious driveway with symmetrical eagles. Again, why not eh?
Maybe a sign that I shouldn’t be here…
And just like that… I stumbled upon a creepy little church. The sign told me it’s the Church of All Saints – hey why just stick to one saint when you can have all of them? The grounds were wonderfully unkempt with graves poking through the long grass. No one around, a really spooky atmosphere, felt like something was crouching in the long grass.
I’ve since looked at the history of the church. The current building dates back to the 1850s (not 1998 as suggested by the doors), while the nave is of Norman construction and estimated to be 900 years old and the tower was constructed in the 1300s. It’s been a site of worship for over 1000 years. In the 1960s, an Iron Age settlement was found nearby, thought to be ~200BC. Cool!
Leaving the church I saw an empty field – LET’S WALK THROUGH IT!
Nothing much to see here…
A 5 minute walk from the eerily quiet church, I was back in the centre of town. Decided to nose around the other church to see if anything interesting to learn about the history of my new area. While I’m not religious at all, I love poking around old churches. Again, the place was deserted and kinda creepy.
Sexy pipework:
Memorials for the dead. Oldest one I saw dates back to the early 1600s, but apparently a church has been here since Norman times.
The final memorial anbove interested me so I did some reading. Apparently the first accurate measurement of the speed of sound was made at this church in 1709 by William Derham – the pastor who was also a natural philosopher & clockmaker. His remains were buried somewhere within the grounds, but his grave was lost to time. He achieved it by use of a telescope, some friends with shotguns placed at other local landmarks visible from the church-tower, and a half-second pendulum. Impressive work Billy!
Lugged myself into daylight and went to look at an old windmill.
Me and the wabash heading home…
-
What a lovely update. I love the frontier and I love old things. Don’t much care for what’s between and we don’t have any of the latter here. So things like the church are super cool to me.
Thanks much!
Think it, be it.
-
@jerkules Great update. Thanks for posting.
-
@mclaincausey thanks man! I forgot to mention which was Wrong by NoMeansNo based on some of your posts on the forum. I love it, drums and bass are so good. Hell of a good album!
And yeah it’s something we take for granted, having this history all around us. Whenever I go to the US it’s startling how new and shiny everything looks.
