The message
from martin contains these words:
On Sat, 1 May 2004 13:26:17 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades
wrote:

We seem to get a lot of them here in East Angular. I saw a beauty in the
stubbles - it picked up loose straw and you could see the conical shape
of it as it danced across the field.

Apparently the wet version is supposed to be common over the
IJsselmeer in NL. I had never seen one in 30 years sailing there,
until last July when 4 came along together, a bit like London buses.
All 4 collapsed as soon as they passed over dry land. One passed very
close to a European sailing championship in which 200 teenage kids
were taking part.

Despite being an honorary water baby, I've never seen a wet one.

/snip/

The best whirlwind I've seen (not quite a tornado, but more than a dust
devil) was IIRC in 1957, when I was on the staff of Kingsdown Scout
Camp, near Deal.

I was at Kingsdown Scout Camp in 1956 & 1957. First on a normal summer
camp and then helping Peter West during the summer of 1957

Camped there with 1st Emerson Park in 1956 and was at Kingsdown for most
of the school summer holiday in 1957. People I remember are Chris?
Leadbetter from March (IIRC); Bob? from Ruislip; a rather pompous git
called Ted; Maj. E.C.L.Flavell; P.B.Neville of course; and, and, and....
I'll have to think.

Were you there when we lit the camp fire with (ahem) something naughty,
blew the gun up with the same stuff during a camp-fire stunt, and when I
detonated (with RM approval) a bermb on the R.M. range one Sunday?

There was a German Rover there who hadn't really much idea about big
bangs, but who made a Molotov cocktail and dropped it into the
incinerator. Flannel (The Major) would choose just that moment to find
some litter and approach it. We *TOLD* him there was a bomb in it, but
evidently he didn't believe us. WHOOOMPH!

Exit Flannel muttering: "Silly little boys! Silly little boys!"

I liked old Flannel - he was genuine.

I did a winter course there between Xmas 1956 and New Year, which
included forestry and planting lots of pine trees. I remember we
visited a wood yard in Sandwich, as well as hiking there.
I went back for the first time since then around 1995 and was a bit
disappointed that our efforts hadn't produced a vast pine forest. At
least the camp site wasn't covered in a housing estate.

That stirs a memory of something-or-other to do with new trees.

I was accompanying Peter West the Bailiff

I knew Peter West too! Maybe we were there at the same time?

/snip/

Well, if we were both there in 1957 and I was there all the summer
holiday, it seems likely.

I realised too late that I had a camera with me when I saw the dust
devil in the stubbles.

I have photos of last year's wet ones, if you want a copy.

I don't think so, thanks. Now if it had flotillas of teenagers whirling
round in it, that would be a different matter.

--
Rusty
Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar.
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/