Walk Round Shackerley/Organic Farm

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Our walk round Shackerly Mere on Sunday. Afterwards to the organic farm shop to get some honey and mustard. New spring lambs in the field just vanishing in the distance. Nice views over the valley towards Davenham church.
Earlier we had gone to the boot sale at Hartford High School. I found two old scratchy 78's by George Formby.
Hazel got a nice old salt Witch Domestic salt packet from the 40's or 50's I imagine. Salt from the Middlewich Salt Company - still being produced today.
Also a small book of bicyle parts and "aids"from 1962 but looks much older.

The Bells amd Theatre Mimi

Had a very nice lunch out on wednesday with Tony, Pene, Dave, Nick and Hazel at The Bells in Lower Peover. We dont get out to see our chums much so made a pleasant change to chat with them all and hear the latest gossip.
We poppped into Knutsford too to go round the charity shops. Good to see another has opened where a snooty dress shop used to be - a sign of the times. I bought two great old CD comps of British Vintage Comedy. Some featured on my audio blog.
Last night it was more culture at the Whitegate Community Hall and a travelling band of players called Loon/Theatre Mimi who did a great show called Phileas P. Souper. They all come from Newcastle I think and it was organised by the Cheshire Rural Touring Network who really do a great job in providing some class acts in tiny rural hamlets. The hall was packed though and hardly enough room to swing a bed or a trombone! Elements of Spike Jones, Laurel & Hardy and the circus all rolled into one!
It did take us ages to find though and the Tom Tom fell off the windscreen with a crash and sent us halfway home again it got so annoyed! We didn't win the raffle but got a free tumbler of orange juice in the interval and everyone was very friendly, wanting to know if we came from the village or further afield.

Spring Bulbs, Cables and Harlequin.

Another week has sailed by on the tide. My brain is bobbing along on nicely - catching the Spring breezes. It was quite windy yesterday- the scaffolding built last week by the side of the house to mend the chimney ( next week possibly ) was making a most perculier noise - like a drill being annoyed by an armadillo.
It looks very precarious up there on that little platform. I dont envy the builder his task. Mind you, when he was over the road he didn't seemto have any platform atall and just balanced on the tiles and some how didnt fall off. Hazel dare not look. He made a good job of it though so thats' why we asked him to do ours. More expense.
At the weekend we saw a great theatre group at the Harlequin - a duo called RAW ( Random Acts of Wildness) - a silly name but they did some great physical theatre and clowning and reminded me a little of the League Of Gentlemen crossed with Bottom! Sadly only about 16 people in the audience including us. Northwich is not known for its culture vultures! I think it could have been advertised a bit better mind.
On Mothers Day , Granma and Audrey came over for fish and chips and cake. Audrey found a Norwegian jumper design she liked on the internet and printed it off to take home and knit. She said they had bought all the wool in Aldi and there was none left! I can well belive it.
Archie gave Hazel some chocs, flowers to plant in the garden and a home made card with a pencil drawing on the front.
All the power went off yesterday for 4 hours due to the high winds. I read my SHOUT by Philip Norman and listened to the wind-up radio.
As ill luck would have it the gas man came to mend the boiler which has been giving us luke warm baths but he had to go away again as there was no power. His mate came this morning and fixed it- a fluttering diagram he said. I thought so. He's coming back tomorrow to add a screw that was lost.
I went to town this morning to get some shopping, post some mail and get some HDMI cable for the new telly. It improves the DVD picture no end and almost as good as High Definition they reckon though I have no idea what that would look like.
Nice catalogue for the exhibition Hazel is in at MMU. She's displaying her Rusty Nail Collection.

Another nice sunny springlike day. I walked to town to get some groceries and pots a pile of mail I did yesterday. Hazel was expecting some people from the Manchester City Art Gallery for lunch and to look round her workshop so I got some nice salad and cheeses etc.
Did the usual tour of charity shops and bought a DVD of "Man Thing" for a quid. Also a double cassette of Spike Milligan reading the second part of his war memiors "Rommel- Gunner Who?"
Had a nice lunch and the two girls from the gallery were very enthusiastic about all out collections and stuff on the walls.
After lunch I went upstairs to continue with some collaging.

Gave up looking for a new scanner in the usual shops so have ordered one online today and hopefully it will arrive tomorrow which will be nice. Can't wait to scan all those old slides and negatives we have gathering dust.
Hazel spoke to the builder over the road and he's getting his scaffodling taken down on Friday and moved over to us- so hopefully he can start working on our chimney soon and stop the bits of brick falling off it which is a bit worrying! More expense!

New Telly Box

A nice weekend - very springy. Our old telly has been on the blink for a while now and so we splashed out on new digital LCD wide screen Sony job that is really fantastic after the last one. We watched a great film last night I borrowed from the library - "The Fall" about a little girl and a paralysed stunt man back in the Hollywood of the 20's. A very rich fable filmed in many beautiful and exotic locations round the world. It reminded me a bit of the "Princess Bride". Ideal viewing for the tv's first evening. We will have to watch all out favourites again now and see them in a new light.
We dumped the old telly at the tip this morning after the boot sale at Weaverham.
We got a few bargains including more DVD's whuch included "American Werewolf In London" and Woody Allen's homage to NYC "Manhatten".
Hazel didnt find any gadgets or metal thingys but some plants, an old OXO tin and a CD box to be converted into a Cornell box if Archie wanted it but he didn't.
WE went for a walk this afternoon to Marbury and Archie took some joiner photos for his art GCSE work. We watched the blue tits, ducks, jay, and moorhens feeding and tried to get away from the hoards of noisy kids and dogs that descended on the place as it was so warm!
Hazel is now going to the tip again as she just moved someone off her white line and feels obliged to drive the car somewhere to prove how inconsiderate they were!

How Do You Make A Venetian Blind?

Poked more holes in the walls for shelves and the blinds which look good . We don't feel like we are living in a gold fish bowl anymore. Our neighbours are very nice but they do tend to stand at the open kitchen window and blow smoke outside and always seem to be watching me do the washing up or cooking etc.
On Tuesday went to town and borrowed a DVD "The Fall" from the library. Archie has watched it already and said it was "weird" and gave me some impressions of the characters in it. It looks stunning visually from what I have seen on YouTube.
Hazel is back at college and feeling a lot better- though trying to talk less and catch up on the form filling.
Went back to town on Wednesday with Hazel to get some shopping and look at some TV tables as Hazel is fed up with the pile of gadgetry and wires that surrounds the TV at the moment. They all seem too bulky though for our little alcove corner.
Saw Treena and Betty in the Age Concern. Betty said there was a boot sale this Sunday at Weaverham - first of the year - which we are looking forward too as they are usually very good and well attended. Hopefully the weather will improve by then.
next door are having their windows replaced now so lots of banging, drilling and smashing of glass yesterday. They seemed to be grinding it into a fine dust - crunch! crunch! crunch!
One of the blokes doing the work looked at our multi-coloured stickered wheelie bin as Hazel dragged it back from the roadside and said " Are those travel stickers?" and the idea that the bin had been on holiday , even a world cruise, tickled me.

Warrington Via Anderton

Nice sunny blue sky and drive to Anderton for boot sale at community hall this morning. Got three sealed DVD's for pound each including a polish surreal gem called The Hourglass Sanitorium with a great cover of eyeball/skull. Also Planet Terror by Tarantino. Hazel bought a lovely large blue glass japanese vase.
Archie just sent a text from his coach on the way back from a weekend boot camp - seems he ha d a good time but needs a bath. They have been building rafts and suchlike - playing team games to bond before the GCSE onslaught.
After the boot sale we drove to Warringtom with the help of our friend Tom Tom and found the huge IKEA but there far too early so went to nearby Macdonalds for a brown sludge mascerading as hot chocolate. It was heaving so glad to get out window blinds and leave in a torrential downpour. Popped into PC World for a scanner but they didnt have the one I wanted. Looks like the internet is the best bet.
Got home in 30 minutes despite the rain. Hazel was a bit agitated and nervous navigating the many roundabouts and feeder lanes but we got through it all o.k.

Windows 09

We've had some new sash type windows put in to replace the old ones that had "blown" and were all foggy. The new ones are amazingly clear - its like looking at High Definition TV after watching an old 405 line set from the 60's. They seems bigger and brighter too and hopefully will keep the heat in in winter and be cooler in the summer. They tilt too for easy cleaning of upstairs windows. It felt rather extavagant but we had promised ourselves new windows for ages - long before the present financial climate. Hopefully it will add to the attactiveness of the house if we ever consider selling it.
The windows took three days to put in so was rather at a loose end most of the time- the workroom having been almost emptied of junk and furniture. I spent most of the time on the internet or watching TV. Luckliy got a nice DVD from the US of an old Columbia serial from the 50's called "Captain Video" which I remember making a big impression on me when I was about 10 or 11 and used to go to the Century Cinema in Pitsea. They had a wonderful Saturday children's matinee and you could see a feature, a cartoon and serial for a shilling or maybe even six old pence. It was certainly one of the highlights of my week back in the 50's and early 60's.
I also remember the old Batman serial in black and white made in 1943 and Captain Marvel. There used to be small cinema's at some of London's railway sations too- I remember one at Victoria especially. They showed old serials too as well as Pathe newsreels and cartoons. Great if you had to wait an hour for a train.

Hazel is still not very well and her sore throat seems as bad as ever. She got a sick not today to cover her for the last two weeks. I wish they had given her some anti-biotics- it may have cleared up by now.
I have been painting the window frames and trying to sort my room out. I stuck my hand into a box of tools and pens etc. and stabbed my little finger with a scalpel blade- ouch! I knew it would happen one day.