Village names in the United Kingdom are unusual to us but to a Brit, it makes logical sense. Not perfect, but logical sense. My friends, Pauline and Tim, Mo-T, and Madeleine have tried to explain some of the meanings of the villages with interesting names.While Pauline and Tim and Mo-T live in the Cotswold's, Tim was from South Hampton and Madeline lived in Poweys, Wales.
Most of the time it is a river (e.g., Stratford-upon-Avon) or an area that is known by the locals for something made or found in the region. Neville maintained a flat in London for years and when the semester or later-on, quarters ended in May, he would go back across the pond for the summer. He traveled and would write during the summers. He was very versed in such things about the Brits way of life and would share it freely. Of all my college professors, Neville was one you just could not get enough. If it wasn't his writings, it was how he became so interested in American Jazz, or how to select a quality brandy. His list of friends in Parliament or with the Crown was well documented, but it was his way of explaining things that captivated me about him. To this day, I think about a lecture or his accent of certain words. His Christmas Cards came yearly, usually of paintings that hung in one of his uncle's or family homes. I think about them, too. Sadly, they were lost in a divorce years ago and remembering the art work is now lost today.
Friday, while sitting at a picnic table, my thoughts were on why one of the boat clubs do not project out the restoration of the 'in-place' Marine Flag Pole standing a few feet from me. Most people do not even know that there is a Marine Flag Pole at White Rock. One time in the past, that question was put to a couple of Corinth Boat Club members. Both of the members were totally unaware that it even existed. With the sailing clubs present and the rowing clubs gaining momentum, it is a cause to imagine why one of the clubs are not being the keeper of such a key marine feature already standing idle in ghostly fashion on East Lawther.
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| The Marine Flag Pole as it stands currently. |
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| One of the two Downy Woodpeckers. The other one was higher up in a adjacent tree. |
Gazing at the pole, there was a lot of pecking going on above my head. Looking up, it didn't take long to see not one, but two, Downy Woodpeckers busy at work pecking on branches and limbs. After about sixty shots, it was on to Dryfuss Club to shoot the dried reed beds. The reeds are ready for picking and if you have ever driven 17A between Charleston, South Carolina and Myrtle Beach, you have seen the fantastic roadside sheds were women weave some of the best baskets ever made. The reeds at White Rock are the same type of reeds found along the inter coastal waterways before they mix with the marsh tidal floods of salt water. So, it's not Downy on Wing in England, nor is it part of the coastal Grand Strand, but the little downy woodpecker deserve a look.
