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Kingsdown Raspberry whirl
On Sat, 1 May 2004 13:26:17 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades
wrote: The message from Janet Baraclough.. contains these words: The message from Dave Poole contains these words: On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 23:41:39 +0100, "Bob Hobden" wrote: Lucky you! That sounds like the phenomenon known as a 'dust devil' - I'd love to see one in lieu of an actual twister! 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. I don't think you would like to see a twister, well not up close and personal. We see those from time to time. Usually they take the path of valleys and do little damage, but a few years ago one ripped down one side of Long Stratton village and removed most of the tiles for several hundred yards. Wally wondered what the strange noise was and looked out of the window of his café, to see his Merc slide by on its roof. I saw one in the clouds last autumn, but I don't think the bottom of the 'tube' touched the ground, though it was groping downwards for about ten minutes. Very true Bob, The last time I saw one - a decent one here, it was perilously close, running across the bay and then ripping through the town centre. On the outskirts it took off the roof of a couple of buildings. I watched as it hit land and raced up the hill and was awestruck by its power. By US standards it was a tiddler, but a troublesome one nevertheless. 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 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. I was accompanying Peter West the Bailiff I knew Peter West too! Maybe we were there at the same time? on his inspection round when we were aware of a rushing, rustling sound, and a cone of dead leaves, scraps of paper, straw, twigs etc bore down the camping area. It followed a slight cleft in the ground, in which was pitched the camp of an approved school troop. There was a marquee, a couple of large tents and a big dining shelter. Under the shelter were trestle tables, benches etc, and breakfast was laid out - plates, knives, forks, spoons, and egg-cups complete with eggs. The troop was in the ablutions block a hundred yards away. The whole encampment was lifted, still as if pitched on the ground: tents, groundsheets, sleeping-bags, rucksacks, tables, benches, everything. The lot rose about fifteen feet in the air like that, gently turning on autoCAD, then it was all rolled up into a whirling, flapping muddle, and it continued like that until the whirlwind hit the cliff edge, and died, showering the entire camp down the face of it. We couldn't help it. Laugh? I'll say. Keeping a straight face when the boys and their Scouters came out of the ablutions and stopped dead in their tracks was not easy. The poor fellows spent all morning salvaging their belongings from the steeply sloping cliff. No other camp was touched, and it was lucky we were on hand to report the sight, or foul play might have been suspected... I saw one while up a hill with my son, who was a self-financing student and forever thinking of new ways to make money. We watched the twister forming miles away over the Clyde, and then travel cross country towards us and our house on the moor below. There was absolutely no cover to take. I was saying things like "Please let it not get any closer" and D. was saying "If only I had my camera what a price I could get for this picture". 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. |
#2
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Kingsdown Raspberry whirl
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/ |
#3
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Kingsdown Raspberry whirl
On Sat, 1 May 2004 22:33:06 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades
wrote: The message from martin contains these words: On Sat, 1 May 2004 13:26:17 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades wrote: 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? not that I remember. 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! I don't recall that at all. Exit Flannel muttering: "Silly little boys! Silly little boys!" I liked old Flannel - he was genuine. Was he the owner of an Armstrong Siddeley Saphire(?)? He gave me a lift to Tunbridge Wells. I caught Asian flu, whilst I was there and I almost threw up all over his car. 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 lived in a green Black's Niger tent, did they really call them that? Not very PC. There was also a young guy doing national service in the navy in Chatham, helping Peter West when I was there. |
#4
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Kingsdown Raspberry whirl
The message
from martin contains these words: On Sat, 1 May 2004 22:33:06 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades wrote: The message from martin contains these words: On Sat, 1 May 2004 13:26:17 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades wrote: 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? not that I remember. The answer's 'no', then. You would have remembered.... 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! I don't recall that at all. Exit Flannel muttering: "Silly little boys! Silly little boys!" I liked old Flannel - he was genuine. Was he the owner of an Armstrong Siddeley Saphire(?)? He gave me a lift to Tunbridge Wells. I caught Asian flu, whilst I was there and I almost threw up all over his car. I can't remember what car he had, but it sounds in keeping with the man. Short and dapper, purple plume, small clipped moustache. /snip/ I lived in a green Black's Niger tent, did they really call them that? Not very PC. There was also a young guy doing national service in the navy in Chatham, helping Peter West when I was there. Paul Parker? -- Rusty Open the creaking gate to make a horrid.squeak, then lower the foobar. http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/ |
#5
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Kingsdown Raspberry whirl
On Sun, 2 May 2004 12:51:44 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades
wrote: The message from martin contains these words: On Sat, 1 May 2004 22:33:06 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades wrote: The message from martin contains these words: On Sat, 1 May 2004 13:26:17 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades wrote: 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? not that I remember. The answer's 'no', then. You would have remembered.... Not necessarily. It is all a long time ago. I do remember kids queuing up and paying for me to burn/brand their belts. I vaguely remember that an open fronted storage shed had been burnt down. Whilst I was there slave/scout labour was being used to build a new one. When I was there in the winter we walked to Dover and swam in the army swimming bath there. By coincidence I found one of our Dutch secretaries here had also used the swimming bath around the same time. I can't remember how or why. We also got to use the indoor army rifle range in Deal Exit Flannel muttering: "Silly little boys! Silly little boys!" I liked old Flannel - he was genuine. Was he the owner of an Armstrong Siddeley Saphire(?)? He gave me a lift to Tunbridge Wells. I caught Asian flu, whilst I was there and I almost threw up all over his car. I can't remember what car he had, but it sounds in keeping with the man. It impressed me at the time :-) Short and dapper, purple plume, small clipped moustache. That sounds like him. /snip/ I lived in a green Black's Niger tent, did they really call them that? Not very PC. There was also a young guy doing national service in the navy in Chatham, helping Peter West when I was there. Paul Parker? I forgot his name long ago. |
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