Every year , in June , the Parish Walk takes place. This is a race walk around the Island, where the walkers have to touch the doors of the seventeen Parish Churches , a trip of over 85 miles. Of over 1000 starters this year , there was only a few finishers [ not surprised...same every year ] and the winner's time was around the 17 hour mark. The young Manx girl, pictured above, astounded everyone when she finished, by setting off on another lap by herself, probably all planned, but she did it.....a non stop walk of nearly 180 miles. and the weather was atrocious.......non stop rain the first day and high winds on the second day . OK, there was a support car which carried food and drink for her but no aid stations, as there were on the first lap for the walking wounded. I took the picture of her as she was coming into Peel I managed to walk the 50 yards from my house to take this photo. She was deservedly, the talk of the Island .
I have altered the comments options to a more general one. My friend from Ca got a comment through without trouble after I altered the settings.
So, hopefully, to leave a comment, first click comments at the bottom of the required post, then in the window that opens, select name/URL, enter your first name or nickname, enter your comment, [please be kind ] and then click publish your comment
Anyway, I will give it a few days to see what happens
PS By clicking on View my complete profile on the home page of my blogs, access to either blog can be obtained....plus a sneak preview of a new site I am designing.....News from Straid Vona 4
Manx Gorse, as described below, is not the same variety that is depicted in the above picture. This wild shrub; which can grow up to 8 ft high, grows everywhere in uncultivated parts of the lowland countryside. It has sharp, spiky leaves and is in flower for most of the year, the blossom being at its best in the early summer, when the Island turns yellow.
Most field hedges are covered in the stuff and the green fields edged with yellow can look quite attractive. The dry stems of dead wood, which can be as thick as your arm, make great logs and burn extremely well
The ground hugging Manx Gorse is found more on higher ground and often grows along side heather. [ see first picture ] Indeed, it is so much part of the Manx scene that the bright yellow colour has been included in the Manx Tartan, along with blue [ sky ]... purple [ heather ] and the white of the Manx cottages.
The Isle of Man, along with most other countries uses the metric currency system.. The currency unit , whether it is the Pound, Dollar or Euro or many others , is divided into 100 parts .....pennies, cents or whatever.....[. and the word cent, of course comes from the word centum , the Latin for a hundred ].....and is very straight forward these days, ......but it was never always that easy !
Up to 1971, the UK, including the Isle of Man used pounds , shillings and pence.. [ £ .s .d ] .a hang over from the days of Robin Hood, I think! Ha ha! It was a complete nightmare, well ....looking back it was, though at the time we seemed to manage OK. Even one penny was divided into fractions..... halves and quarters!! Briefly, there were 4 farthings in a penny...or 2 in a ha'penny.....12 pennies in a shilling and 20 shillings in a pound.. Not too bad so far, but hang on. The coins were a farthing, a ha'penny, a penny , there were two three penny coins , a sixpence, a shilling , a florin , a half a crown and occasionally crowns were issued on special occasions. Then of course, the coins had nicknames. The smaller of the 'thrupenny' bits was a joey, the sixpence was a tanner, the shilling was a bob, the florin was a two bob bit [ 24 pennies ] and the half crown [30 pennies ] was known as a' half a dollar'. Ha ha! it gets worse. There was 240 pennies in a pound. [ which was known as a quid ] and if you had a pocketful of these massive copper coins you would need a wheel barrow to cart them about . Oh, and I forgot about the Guinea which was £1 and1 shilling . Even simple sums were difficult. I tried to do one recently and I got stuck.....yet when I worked part time as a barman [ a long time ago ]I used to add these up in my head. Still, thank God for the Metric system !
The Isle of Man now has its own currency, similar to the UK, but can only be used over here and not in England......but we'll take their money, never fear !
Picture is of a Manx £5 note...........approx $10
