Testing the new photo button

Here's a photo of Archie dressed as a kind of Viking dwarf. Perhaps a role in the new spin off series from Lord of The Things?
I've just noticed they have a spell check on here too! Is that new or has it always been here? Very useful for someone like me who is partially dyslexic.

Marbury Country Park

Marbury Country Park
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

No boot sales this Sunday so we went for a nice brisk walk over at Marbury as the weather was so great and ideal for a picnic by the canal. They had taken all the picnic tables away unfortunately to make way for the new footbridge which gives you access to more nature trails over at Neumann's Flashes and Carey Park and back to town if you wanted but we'd parked the car at Marbury so we had to go back for it.
We fed the ducks with our stale bread and were amused by parties of "twitchers" gabbing away about holidays and caravans etc. and missing the call of the greater spotted woodpecker ( Archie banging a stick on a tree stump).
Had our picnic on a tussock watching the narrow boats glide by with grumpy looking people steering them.
Managed to negotiate a herd of cows who were sat on the path we wanted to cross back to the car park. One had ingeniusly left a deposit high on the stile gate.
I walked into town this morning and got a card reader from the wily men at the camera shop who were determined to sell me stuff! It was useful though and can now transfer photos to computer using it.
I borrowed some Cd's from the library on the strength of their performanaces at the Glastonbury festival ( still lots on video i havent caught up with yet) I got Whites Stripes Elephant and the new CD by Razorlight who also impressed me. Archie is learning "Seven Nation Army" on the guitar so will be pleased to hear the original. Also enjoyed a band called "Athlete" who I'd not heard before.
Another gorgeous day here with dazzling sunshine and temps. up into the high 60's.




On sundays we'd usually be at boot sales like this one at Weaverham High School. This is especially for Tim who asked to see what an english boot sale was like. Hazel and Archie are watching a rather chubby lady struggling with a music stand they bought.Not a very flattering view really.
Just though I'd mention the anti-biotics which differ slightly from the last few lots by having the warning on the packet which says Avoid skin exposure to sunlight which makes me think if I should avoid water and eating after midnight too incase i should turn into a Gremlin!

Weakend shopping.

Tom Dawson - One man band
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

Walked into town this morning to get photos which were mostly very dull. They exchanged the memory card for another but that doesnt seem to work either despite seeing the photos on my camera. The Vivitar helpline website wasn't much help- they suggest investing in a memory card reader which will add another ten quid to the cost of my camera and no guarentee that it will work either! Beginning to think i bought the wrong camera which is a shame as I was just learning all its little tricks and getting used to it.
Not many other buys to cheer me up. Got a Steptoe and Son video but Archie says we have it already.
Hazel is slug hunting in the front room. One of the little blighters gets in somehow and leaves shiny trails all over the rugs. She thinks he's getting in through a tiny gap in the floorboards where it meets the tiles of the hearth, so she has plugged it with some grouting. Hopefully that will stop them.
Just been watching recording of Glastonbury fest. from last night. It looked very muddy and was glad I was watching from the comfort of our settee! No real highlights , though enjoyed bits of White Stripes and the Doves.

A Quosiene of Smant

A Quosiene of Smant
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

Cutting up old book covers can be very illuminating. This was a book of book covers infact from the market for a quid, so no real damage done. I think I've improved them slightly. Lots more at Flickr.
I'm not very good at URLs' so this is probably wrong!
Back from the doc's with more anti-biotics! He's suggested a scan too- more to put my mind at rest than anything he said as he's positive the problem is viral and nothing serious. Hope he's right.
Archie took the ingrediants for a macaroni cheese into school this morning for "Food tech." He had lost his recipe list so I had to guess the ammounts. Far too much for the tiny ovenware dish he took to cook it in!
I took my dodgy memory card into town yesterday and they put the 29 photos on a CD and will print them. Hopefully the card will work after it's been formatted- if not they promised to exchange it for a similar brand.
Quite a heavy downpour this morning- just what the garden needs.

Beatles Celebrate National Pan Day

Beatles Celebrate National Pan Day
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

What a coincidence! National Pan Day falls on my birthday this year. I didnt get any pans but some nice cards and presents including a new memory card which i can't seem to upload from for some reason? I'll have to take it too the photography shop in town and get it sorted. I pushed the little tab too but nothing seems to happen. Maybe I needed to format it first. Now they tell me! I took 30+ photos too yesterday on my birthday in Manchester looking around the degree shows with Hazel and Archie ( who got the day off school for educational research) . It was very hot traipsing round all the shows but we managed to see most things. Interactive Arts was by far the most interesting and it was nice to put faces to those names that Hazel has mentioned over the last few months. Archie was particularly wanting to see the animation department show reel but it was very disapointing and hardly any animation on it atall! His favourite was some flash animation a girl in Interactive Arts had made using some very catchy brit-pop type soundtracks by local Manchester bands I think ( and one from Bali!).
Had a nice pizza and salad in the canteen for lunch and traipsed some more. It was nice to get home to our lovely cool house and collapse.


Peter Sellers - Dance With Me Henry

Peter Sellers - Dipso Calypso

These You Send It files will be available for seven days or until exhausted.

The wrong time and the wrong place.

Beatles at Halloween
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

This is today's theme and so we have the Beatles at halloween - a collage for the Flickr group about the fab four. Also, instead of songs about Liverpool or Halloween we have songs about Gloucester and about Cheese and Wintertime! I found these two gems amongst others on a compilation tape called "A Souvenir From the West Country" I found in a charity shop yesterday for 50p. It also has songs by Adge Cutler and the Wurzels, Acker Bilk and Peter Dawson & the Band of the Royal Marines. Other bargains included a CD of someone reading the story of Alice Behind the Looking Glass (or is it "Beyond"?) Also bought a memory card for my digital camera so Hazel can wrap it up for my birthday (next Monday- hint hint!) so will be nice to be able to take lots of pictures and not worry about whether I can fit them all on or not.
Anyway, here's a song about winter followed by one about cheese.

Shag Connors & the Carrot Crunchers - Wintertime In Gloucester


Shag Connors & the Carrot Crunchers - Gloucester Cheese

These You Send It files are available for seven days or until exhausted.

Flaming June!

anearlycollage71
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

I seem to remember saying the same thing in my blog last year! It's very wet and windy outside and feels more like November!
To cheer us up here is a couple of exotic songs from a Betty Grable musical of 1942 set in Hawaii. I never thought of Betty as a singer but she has a good voice to go with those famous legs of hers!

Betty Grable - Down On Ami Ami Oni Oni Isle


Betty Grable - O'Brien has Gone Hawaiian

These You Send It files are available for seven days or until exhausted.

A Squirrel & His Nuts

A Squirrel & His Nuts
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

Went to Weaverham to a boot sale but found only one sad solitary stall so we drove over to Anderton where luckliy another was in full swing. Quite few stalls too and so had fun rooting through boxes of records and junk but didnt find much. I bought two DVD's for a quid each, Monsters Inc. and Into The Arms of Strangers(the Story Of Kindertransport) which won the best documentary at the 2000 Oscars apparently.
Hazel got a watch chain and some 1962 Bimbo comics that she used to get as a child. Archie got some "Horrible Histories" books that he's collecting.
After lunch we took the worktable which the computer has been on outside to the new workshop. Using a small fold up card table temporarily, which isn't ideal as I can just about get my knees under it!
Archie has gone out with his remote control car and came back with a pot of flowers from the neighbours who have just returend from the Lake District. Hazel and Archie fed their rabbit and guinea-pig whilst they were away and the flowers were a thankyou (Archie got some Lakeland icecream).
Today's musical treat is two songs by Captain Matchbox - a goodtime jugband from Australia who I know nothing about.

Capt. Matchbox - Hotsy Totsy


Capt. Matchbox - Down Undergroundville

These You Send It files are only availabel for seven days or until exhausted.

25 years of Fluff.

Hazel and archive.
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

Here's Hazel sorting through a box of collage material and surroounded by the 25 years accumulation of mail art and correspondence we seem to have collected. Storing it has become a bit of a problem and until recently it was in saggy cardboard boxes that were damp and nibbled by mice! Now all has been transferred to plastic boxes with tight fitting lids and stored in the old coal shed, which is not ideal but the only place we have right now.
This morning I walked into town and back and did the usual round of charity shops, market, library and post office etc. I found Hazel an interesting gadget for her collection - a runner bean slicer that looks like it was designed by Heath Robinson - in it's original packaging too. Also a comedy called "Best of Show" on video that I'd never heard of but made by the same people who made Spinal Tap, one of my favourite films.
I seem to have been neglecting the music side of things here for a while- taken over by silly small films and the like- so here is a couple of tracks by an Australian version of The Singing Postman called Chad Morgan.

Chad Morgan - The Sheik of Scrubby Creek


Chad Morgan - The Crow Flying Backwards

These You Send It files are available for seven days or until exhausted.

Mouse

This animation by Archie seems very appropriate as we were clearing out the coal shed and finding lots of mouse droppings! You can watch this Quicktime version HERE!

Apart from tidying the shed and sorting the mail art archive ( more to go in plastic boxes I neglected last time!) it was quite a traumatic day all round with Archie in tears because school work was getting very stressful and he didn't want to go in. In the end Hazel had to phone the school and talk to a very nice lady who spoke to Archie to re-assure him and invite him along for a day with her. Hazel said when they got there she said "I'm a big fat chicken and I'm taking you under my wing!"
Anyway, she managed to sort things out hopefully though Archie is not so sure about the fat chicken impression!
The trouble is on wednesdays he has the lunchtime Challenge Group which is sometimes cancelled and moved and the teacher seems very distant and bored by the whole thing and Archie feels rather let down by it. No challenge atall infact! This also clashes with guitar lessons on the same day so he has a lot to do in one lunchtime really besides grab a quick sandwich!
The garden is a bit of a mess now with piles of stuff ready to go to the tip when Hazel gets the car from her sister at the weekend.
It was good to do though as there is more space now ( you can actually walk into the coalshed!) and we found a few things we had mislaid when we moved here 7 years ago! Hazel found her jars of blakeys and odd metal bits which will be useful for her exhibition next year. Also I found some 45's and a lots of postcards which I'm in the process of scanning for inclusion on my mail art blog.

Smalls on Sunday.

Smalls
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

This is a compilation of some of Archie's smaller Flash animations with temporary soundtrack by yours truly. I expect Archie will want to make his own when he gets time. You can watch it HERE!
We managed to get to the boot sale at Witton Albion football ground car park this morning despite the inclement weather. Quite a few stalls surprisingly. I found a terrible PS2 game about spies for three quid and a couple of glue sticks. Also some story cassettes for Archie that he likes to listen to in cluding Three men In A Boat, and Just So Stories by Kipling. (Do you like Kipling? I don't know- I've never kippled.)
Hazel got some needles and a bottle opener in a leather pouch. Archie bought some plastic soldiers and a matchstick firing cannon. He's busy making a load of barracks for them in the garden.
Hazel is finishing off the grouting having bought another expensive bag of the stuff for nine quid.

A day out at Chester zoo.

Urang Utangs
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

Guess where we went today?
Yes, you're right? How amazing!
Hazel managed to find Chester Zoo o.k. with the aid of the AA route finder. Its pretty much a straight run from our house down the A59 via the A41 sub-circular bypass veering left at the hunchbacked flyover roundabout gyrating system.
No, it was dead easy and only took 30 minutes - half hour at the most.
Lots of animals, birds and reptiles there which was a big shock for us as we expected a big box full of hair grips.
Sorry, I'm getting this blog mixed up with my other blog of nonsense HERE.
The rain held off for most of the day thankfully and we even had a picnic out on the grassy bit by the monkey house. Who was looking at who I wonder?
Saw lots of great animals and some even looked contented. When you see them pacing up and down you know that's a bad sign. Only the one black bear was doing that despite having an enormous enclosure with a waterfall and a pond.
The meerkats were amusing as were the chimpanzees and the urang-utangs who were covering themselves in sacking and pretending to be errrr sacks I guess?
Also saw elephants, rhino, bats(in the Twilight Zone!) parrots, ostrich, marmosets, tapirs, capybara's? (the worlds biggest rat!) and emu's. But no Rod Hull.

Light The House

Light The House
Originally uploaded by wastedpapiers.

Another Flash animation that Archie made last year and shown at a youth film festival at the Cornerhouse in Manchester and presently doing the rounds of the film festivals of U.K. and Europe.
See it HERE!