The Power of Nine Ashbury Manor Monday 21st September 2020

 Today dawned sunny and bright,  perfect weather for a Texas Scramble on the Beeches course. Teams were to be, first off Mick, John, and Andy; second on the tee, Nigel R, Keith and Bill; finally Chris, Graham and myself. As there was to be no restrictions on the driving and we had a big hitter in Chris, I quite fancied our chances. Fate was to intervene to shake things up a little. 

The power of Nine. Ashbury Manor Golf and Activity Centre. Sunday 20th to Thursday 24th September 2020

 Regular readers of this blog will recall that this time last year eight of us golfers from Kirton Holme booked an autumnal break at Ashbury Manor. Some of our activities were recorded on these pages under the title Eight men in a Boat. This year we are the Power of nine, a power I intend to exploit to the full.

Firstly,  I  invite you to meet the nine participants. We are arranged in groups representing the square root of nine and within each group our total is, of course also the square root of nine.

Group one;

Meet Nigel Rouse, Andy Bakewell and John Davey. We tried, without success to persuade Andy to hit the ball with the fat end the club.

Group 2;

Here we have Bill Exton, Chris Pickett and Keith Sheppard. Keith, you can see is dressed up to the nines.

Group 3;

Finally Graham Morris, Mike Pickett and Nigel Duce. Although not visible in this photo, Mick is wearing a number 9 on the back of his sweater as he is our best striker of a  ball. 

We travelled down in three cars. One with 4 passengers, one with 3 and one with 2. This somewhat mathematically clumsy arrangement at least meant that the sum of the digits came to nine. Any whole number multiplied by 9 results in another number whoes digits will eventually total the number 9. Let me show you; 2x9=18 (1+8=9), 50×9=450(4+5+0=9), 578329×9=5204961(5+2+0+4+9+6+1=27 and 2+7=9). This applies to any number no matter how big, if you go on long enough. I think I've gone on long enough. 

The journey down as far as the Gloucester Services was excellent. Despite different starting places and times we all met, one behind the other in the breakfast queue. Almost as baffling as the qualities of the number nine. Thereon in however we hit traffic on the bridge over the Avon and lost over an hour to the disruption caused by roadworks or more precisely the road narrowing for the absent roadworkers.

Reception at Ashbury was well organised. All the covid regulations were explained efficiently and without fuss moreover everybody had their temperature taken. Lunch next followed by a round of the Oakwood course. This was a Stapleford competition appropriately won by Chris Pickett with 36 points (3+6=9 therefore must be a multiple of 9). I was on cloud nine to gain second place equal with Graham. After golf we had to find our rooms, incidently Nigel and I were in room 18 1+8=.....), unpack,  shower and get down to the dining room in time for our 8 o'clock dinner. All in all a pretty tiring day. Just time to listen to a little music before going to bed. Did you know that Beethoven, Schubert, Dvorak, Mahler, Vaughan Williams and Arnold all died during or after writing their ninth symphonies. Me, I'm stopping after three and stopping now for bed.

Briefly in Beijing Temple of Heaven 7th Nov.

This is our last full day in China and we are visiting the Temple of Heaven so I would like to start by giving you a little context. In ancient China the Emperor of China was regarded as the Son of Heaven, who administered earthly matters on behalf of, and representing heavenly authority. To be seen to be showing respect to the source of his authority, in the form of sacrifices to heaven, was extremely important. The temple was built for these ceremonies, mostly comprising of prayers for good harvests. How he explained away poor harvests despite his heavenly intervention is not recorded.

The whole site is huge and a popular local place for recreation. All along this covered corridor there were groups of people playing cards whilst enjoying the sunshine. 

Above the card schools you can see the magnificent painted decoration on the ceiling.

Now a brief history of the parks and its structures. First constructed between 1406-1420 and used by the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Extended in the C16 and renovated in C18. The early C20 saw deterioration and occupation after the 2nd Opium war and the Boxer rebellion. It was turned into a park and opened up to the public in 1918 and in 1998 it was inscribed as a  UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Remember the sacred number nine, that and nonuples thereof figure, as it were, throughout all the structures. Count anything, steps, balustrades, beams, columns, etc. and 9, 18, 27 etc. crop up every time.
Below is one of the three most important buildings in the complex, namely the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. This is built on a mound which you can ascend via the steps and balustrade.

Walk up the 27 steps and you're now level with the building.

The view looking west from the Hall. The red hats are coming.

The red hats are here. A more symmetrical view of the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests.

The following three shots try to get an impression of the inside of the Hall. These were not easy to take because it was a squash to even get close to the open doors, then there were barriers that kept the crowds at least a couple of metres away from the building. This picture tries to show the internal decoration.

Like our house, the place could do with a bit of a clear out.

Imperial vermilion makes its inevitable appearance and at least my shadow gets into the sacred space.

Some of the more spectacular and extravagant examples of the modern Beijing skyline are not far away from us. This photograph also gives some idea of the air pollution in central Beijing.

The three important buildings in the Park lie on an north-south orientation. The pathway down the centre was for Imperial use only. Here we are looking down that path towards the Imperial Vault of Heaven. Blue is the colour that represents heaven, hence the blue roofs, ceilings and upper wall decoration.  Notice the wall around the building you can see through the keyhole. I'll return to this later.

Here's the Imperial Vault of Heaven. It is similar to the Hall of Prayer but smaller. Round is the shape that represents Heaven. Back to that wall again, which is in the background and ochre coloured. Again round but it has similar properties to the whispering gallery in St. Paul's cathedral and  is unsurprisingly called the Echo Wall. The vault, constructed without the use of nails also has no cross beams to support the weight of the dome.

South of the Vault is the third important structure called the Circular Mound Altar. It is an empty circular platform on three levels of marble stones each decorated with lavishly carved dragons. The numbers of the various parts, steps, balustrades are again nine or nonuples. The centre of the altar has a round stone called the Heart of Heaven. The Emperor's prayers for favorable weather would be reflected by the guard rail creating significant resonance which was supposed to help the prayer communicate with heaven. The Altar was built in 1530

The time was by now 5.30 pm and the museum part of the park was closing and we were obliged to leave by the south gate. It transpired that this was some considerable walk west then north around the perimeter of the complex in order to get back to our metro station for the hotel. Not what I would have planned at the end of an all walking day that came hard on the heels of the Great Wall marathon. The last picture shows the local district primary school and a tempting street food vendor.

So it was home to pack, sleep and perchance to fly.