During an embarrassing spate of narcissistic indulgence last
night I found myself lost in my own post of the previous day, the one about the
misericords of St Mary The Virgin at Minster-in-Thanet. I find as I enter my
dotage this sort of self-appreciation only too common, and then it hit me.
Is this a carving of a witch and his or her familiars riding
on a broomstick? I suppose it could be a carving of a senior citizen dealing
with some sort of difficult personal problem with stick of some sort, while his
or her pets looked on.
As the carvings are datable to between 1410 and 1419, I
guess this must be the oldest depiction of a witch on a broomstick.
Perhaps witchfinding is something I have a special gift for,
I've never looked before and I doubt you get a special uniform these days, but
I quite fancy the hat ibid - inverted flowerpot with rim.
Perhaps there is somewhere I ought to report this possible
discovery, a witchfinder general, or some such person.
On to Manston, I can already hear the groan dear reader, but
this is a flying post, so here we go.
Viewing Manston Airport from broomstick height above Ramsgate,
at the height of the airport's activity - about four planes a day - you can see
(if you click compulsively on the picture above, sorry below, senior moment with itc broomstick and tarot pad) an aeroplane parked at Manston
(middle of the horizon).
Anyway despite Magna Carta saying loads of stuff about not
taking away someone's land, it seems it is possible to take land from a UK
landowner and hand it to an American if you use cpo powers
However as you can see from the photo that turning Manston
into an airfreight hub will affect lots of people, and one of the things about cpos
is that everyone affected can claim compensation.
My own feelings are, that if cpo proceedings start, there
will a spate of no win no fee offers to us locals from the men in wigs.
