The self-isolating, social distancing, working at home Tuesday diary entry - live from the video room

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Game, Set and Match...

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Today would have been the first day of Wimbledon. Like many other sporting events, it has been cancelled due to coronavirus. I shall miss my daily fix of the Championships, watching matches whilst eating my tea, or listening on the radio whilst driving. Not that I am a tennis player. I once went on a tennis course during the school holidays, but I am no Johanna Konta. More ball girl on one of the outside courts. But I do love to watch Wimbles and have even been lucky enough to head down to SW19 to watch a few shots. I have never applied for tickets, but have been part of the daily queue to gain entrance to the ground. All part of the tennis experience. I first went to Wimbledon with the school. I loved the whole atmosphere, was fixated with the speed of the game and power of the serve. I took some photos of Roscoe Tanner (showing my age here), squeezed onto the centre court to glimpse Virgina Wade, and saw Bjorn Borg in the car park. Yep, I was mixing with the stars.  Fast forward ...
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The Sweet Aroma

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As I cycled to the Castle this morning, I was greeted by a sweet smell floating across the park. A large inhale... yes, it was probably the nearby McVitie's factory cooking biscuits. We often get visitors at the Museum who ask what the smell is. We pop outside the building, take a deep breath and reply 'custard creams today' before explaining about McVitie's. Still known locally as Carrs, the factory stands on a major road junction near a large Sainsbury's supermarket, which probably sells many of the range of biscuits produced in the factory. It is one of the oldest and biggest biscuit factories in the world, opening in 1831. Started by Jonathon Dodgson Carr, a baker, who built a flour mill, bread and biscuit bakery before gaining a Royal Warrant for his biscuits in 1841. By 1881, Carr was employing 222 men, 36 women and 53 boys at his factory. Not bad for the son of a Kendal grocer. McVitie's is still a major employer in the city, with staff producing 250,000 ...
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Adaptable Bunnies!

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The Adaptable Knitted Rabbit Trail... As a Military Museum, we are not normally associated with these cottontail creatures. Especially the knitted variety. But what we do pride ourselves in is engaging with our visitors. And at this time of year our woolly friends like to make an appearance for our younger audience. Our original Easter holiday activity was a quiz and trail around the Museum but we soon found that our younger visitors over the holidays tended to be under ten years old, with many even younger. So our trail was not suitable. What the youngsters really wanted to do was something a little bit more basic.  Welcome to our annual Easter trail. The wee bunnies were created by my mum (thanks mum! x) after we decided that looking for things for a younger audience would be fun. We first trialled the idea, and it proved to be an immediate success. Plus the 12 little rabbits could easily slip into our display cases and the trail can be changed each year to offer ...
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