Robin Hood Wander

After pottering about in the garden all day on luvverly sunny Saturday I thought I'd better take my lazy ass for a wander the following day to balance things out. So, here's a few pics from Edwinstowe and Sherwood Forest (before it gets swamped by hoardes of visitors come the release of Robin Crowe)...

1) They make the kids work for their playground fun these days.

2) The fairground returns to the edge of Sherwood Forest. I think the sign declaring this to be an 'amusement park' may be overstating things a little.

3) Ahh, village cricket. Smashing. Vicar, tea and cakes not pictured. I once got thwacked on the ankle bone attempting to stop a crisply driven boundary as I passed. It's a lawsuit waiting to happen, people.

4) The Major Oak is now more machine than tree, propped up and pumped full of lead to keep it going. A bit like Darth Vader. But a tree.

5) The Red route round Sherwood Forest

6) Some yellowy flowers (Whaddya think I am – some sort of botanist?) in Budby South Forest, just beyond Sherwood Forest

7) Lost glove

8) This always makes me chuckle. Straight out of Phoenix Nights. An ex-car park ticket machine reconfigured as a sticker dispenser near the Sherwood Forest visitors centre. Y'know, for kids. The tourists sure are gonna be wowed by this sorta thing!

9) Wandering back through the village, Edwinstowe Bistro signage

10) Robin and Marian statue, Edwinstowe high street

11) Village hall mosaic

12) The church where Robin and Marian were married. If they actually existed.

DoodleWander1 (Redux)

Following in the footsteps of Thom and Wombat, or 'Thombat' as they shall now be known, I set out on a wander of my own, a 9.6ish miler taking in Edwinstowe, Ollerton and Rufford. I walked. I photographed. I popped into a Tesco for assorted groceries. Behold the manifold shiny images wot came out of the magic takeypicturebox. Shock and awe, ladies and gentlemen. Shock and awe...

1) The route

2) Road sign budget cuts around the village

3) Passing by the tracks at Thoresby Colliery

4) Ramshackle

5) The Graffiti Express

6) Church in Ollerton

7) Ah, the oddly unnecessary Union Jack signage addition. A tongue-in-cheek caption about a 'potentially racist car wash' ("we don't wash your mucky foreign cars 'ere, mate") which provoked some debate as to how the BNP have indeed stolen the flag, and anyone using it randomly out-of-place like this seems to be tarred with the racist brush. In conclusion: A new BNP flag is called for – a crisp, white flag with a picture of a steaming turd in the centre.

8) Ker-splash! Finally, a car bombs through the ford at Rufford, egged on by small children, after booooos for the overly cautious previous stream-crossers

9) Rufford Country Park

10) Daffs in Edwinstowe

11) Back into Edwinstowe. That Chinese takeaway used to be Wok This Way. They changed it. For shame.