Lower Marsh SE1

Discovered this still from the 1950's film "Waterloo Road" recently on Instagram of Lower Marsh market in it's heyday. Sad to see it now with just a few stalls left. Even in the 80's it had some life when I worked at Cooper's Natural Foods part time. All gone now. The seond photo was taken a few years after Coopers closed - the building empty and falling into decay. Business's bought out and run down so property developers can buy up huge chunks of London for huge profits - sheer greed. A once lively community decimated. There;s Tim Cooper in the other photo - an early shot of the health food emporium with some of my paintings on the walls.

Doodles and Frodsham

FRodsham this morning - early start. Found a few DVD's in the various charity shops inc. a boxed set of jean-Paul Belmondo £2-50, Arthur Askey boxed set of avi. fuzzy films that some devotee had put together. Not sure I'll be watching much of that as it is a bit too blurry being 4 films on one CD. I thang yow! As Arthur would say. Hazel got a few bits and bobs including a spool of green thread, a plastic letter opener and a box of joss sticks that smell like a hippie commune. Then to a friendly antique shop where the owner amused us with tales of propelling pencils etc. Hazel bought one with a penknife attached for some reason. She obviously fell for his disarming patter! Then off to Lady Hayes antique emporium for more rummaging in piles of tat. Not much there really. Gone down hill from it's glory days of the noughties. Home for some doodling and tofu and egg seedy bun.

Lunch With Eve's

Nice day in town shopping and then to Sandbach to to look round the market and Aldi and onwards to the Eve's in Alsager. Delicious lunch and amusing chat ( forgot camera so this is a previous occasion ) and Hazel managed to prize some old work off Tony for the MMU Interactive Arts allumni show. Some wonderful intricate booksworks and maquettes. Got home before it got dark and the wind and rain arrived again. Crackers and cheese for dinner as we are too full for anything more substancial!

Mini Mail Art Symposium

Nice day with Roger Stevens, Jilly Stevens and Joe Decie who stayed overnight with us before we all went off to Manchester the next day to see John Held and his partner Mary who had been in Budapest and now in UK for a few days to give a talk at MMU on mail art. Also a rubber stamp workshop at Special Collections as part of the Curious Things exhibition. Stephen Fowler the renowned rubber stamp carver and graphic designer came all the way from Bristol which was nice. He brought a big box of his latest stamps with him. Nice to meet up at last sincebeing friends on FB for a while. Peter Arkle the cartoonist was their briefly too. Hazel talked to him but I was otherwise engaged. Printed to the jumbo rubber stamp which was fun and Stephen and few other folk had a go too. Nice lunch in the Eighth Day Wholefood Cafe which was very crowded but we managed to find two tables to push together. It all went on until 7pm and then we rushed off to get grab a sandwich and get out train home. Roger and family went off to visit relatives in Manchester. John and Mary had a curry to sample and then back to LOndon and their flight to SF tomorrow. Phew! The rain held off thankfully so wasn't too wet.

Indoor Boot Sale

Back to the non bargains of indoor boot. Nothing did I find but Hazel got some gardening snips, a set of Snakes and Ladders counters in a colourful box plus a cigarette tin. It wasa busy too but some stalls seem to have the same stuff they had last time. O well - we have too much junk anyway! Then to Lidly to stock up on a few bits. Thne through the drizzle to Granma and Audrey's for tea and chat. A quiet afternoon for me watching a French film "The Gardener's Conversations" or was it "Conversations With |My Gardener?" It wasa bit slow and I nodded off towards the end. Hazel in cleaning mode due to guests arriving tomorrow. More anon.

Even More Doodles!

More old toys and junk around the house. I have not done justice to the bright gaudy colours of the tin toys. Coloured pencils are not ideal really for showing how bright and zingy they all are.

More Doodles

More drawings in pen and coloured pencil from my small pocket sized notebook for the "Daily Doodle" group on FB.

Dave Smith's 80th Birthday Surprise Party

|Nice day out yesterday with Tony and Pene who drove us to Marsden in South Yorkshire for Dave's surprise birthday party in a cafe run by his nieghbours daughter Katie. Snow held off thankfully though it was mighty cold - brrrrr! We trickled in to the cafe from the pub down the road so he got a surprise gate crasher every few minutes. Nice food and chats. Got back home around 5 - traffic not too bad thankfully. Hazel would never have driven that motorway route - she prefers the long way round via Glossop but it was blocked by snow apparently.

Katie's cafe and in the pub beforehand plotting our surprise entrance to Dave's party.

Doodle A Day

Inspired by a Daily Doodle group on FB I have been encouraged to return to my little pocket sized sketchbook to draw something with either coloured pencils or pen ( Stabilo point 88 fine 0.4 ). I did have several attempts over the years ( mainly New Year's resolutions)but they often failed and were neglected. Hazel has always been an avid drawer and adds something to her tiny books every day. So here's a few I've done recently - mostly of objects lying about the place.

Muddy Whitegate Walk

Nice muddy walk this morning over at Whitegate Way. Squelch squelch!...........................Lots of runners, joggers and doggies. Some of the big dogs looked like they'd quite like to eat the little dogs! Tempted by the nearby Station cafe but decided to save money and go home for a cup of tea and biscuit once we'd washed our hands of the mud and grot! Thankfully the early drizzle had stopped and it was quite pleasant despite the cutting which hampers onces view somewhat - further along the cutting ( an old railway line ) it broadens out and one can see more of the surrounding farmland and countryside.

First Indoor Boot of the Year

First indoor boot sale of the year at Memorial court this morning. A few bargains including Dusty Bin money box with attaching nose, ears, hands, feet etc. An ancient and battered Hoopla game, plastic car kits, tons of postcards and a tin of metal gizmos. Then to Lidl to get some bits and bobs. Made some vege soup for lunch and had pretzels to dip in it. Yum!

Congleton Antiques and Junk

Pleasant wander around Congleton today with old chums Tony and Pene just back from OZ and NZ where they managed to avoid any fires thankfully. Not many bargains at the antique emporium but did get a big heavy book about John Peel's Sessions for the BBC which I look forward to perusing at my leisure. Lunch in the cafe on the top floor of Victoria Mill. Cheese and onion toastie and side salad. Toasted tea cake later after a wander round the charity shops in the drizzle.

Doodle Club

Having fun doing a doodle a day in my sketch book for a FB group. I've tried in the past to do more drawings and like blog posts they fall by the wayside. Hopefully this will carry on for a while. I bought a new sketch book today for when the one I'm using now runs out of blank pages - so that's a good sign of intent! The WILL HAY sketch is from the DVD cover of a boxed set I bought recently. "Oh Mr. Porter" is in it and I watched again the other morning. Always a treat. I think it must be the trains because the jokes are all mostly pretty awful! Period charm - it has that in spades! The other sketches/doodles are various things I've spotted round the house.

Photo Bomb On Bargain Hunt

Last Autumn when we went along to the antique fair in Oswestry.

Chester

Neglected to take any photos whilst in Chester today so this collage no way reflects on the nice fish 'n' chips we had for lunch we took over to Beth and Simons. Went round the usual charity shops and market etc. Dind't find much just a couple of DVD's and some bread rolls. Hazel found some toggles and some woggles ( that's not what they are called!) and some chocs. The Chinese lady in the chippy was very jolly and wished everyone who came in a "Happy Afternoon!" in a high pitched squeaky voice. This will be our mantra for the rest of the week one feels.

Timberlog Lane

Got all nostalgic when I saw this photo on the Pitsea FB group this morning. Childhood memories came flooding back of the greasy cafe with a juke box blaring out The Everly Brothers at the end of Luncies Road where we lived in the late 50's - you can just see the end of it where the second group of figures stand in the middle distance. Opposite was an old convenience store that sold everhting from sherbet dabs to packets of OMO ( a washing powder ) parafin, baked beans, shoe laces, penny chews etc. A dirt track by the side of it went up the shallow hill to the centre of town. Somewhere along there wasa hut that used to have a youth club I joined for a while. You could buy fizzy pop and play records - old battered 78's - of Elvis and Cliff etc. One game was having to find tiny objects to fit in a match box - the one who got the most won a prize. I forgot how leafy and tree lined it was. Now all gone of course. You can just see some of the bungalows and decrepid houses that were around at the time - many were empty and due for demolition - perfect places for children to play and fall down wells and go scrumping in the huge fruit tree filled back gardens. Housing estates followed and the whole area changed completely.

Marbury Woods

Pleasant wander round the lake at Marbury this morning distributing sunflower seeds and wedging peanuts behind creepers and on tree stumps. The woods were busy with walkers and mad dogs in their new year outfits - terriers in waistcoats, greyhounds in aprons, jack russells in tabbards etc.

Only a short walk as we had to go and take down the Xmas decorations and lights at Granma's place afterwards. Stuffing tinsel into bags isn't my idea of fun but it was soon done and we had a cup of tea a chat.

New Year's Eve

Hazel lit many lamps and candles in the back garden as she does every year. At midnight we enjoyed the fireworks and some sparklers that Hazel had bought plus some from mail artist Julian Beere that he kindly gave us when he visited the Curious Things exhibition in Manchester recently. Also Hazel burned some old rotten logs in the Mexican stove that had been piled up for many a year.I watched a bit of Jools Hootenanny but it wasn't as good as previous years offerings.

Waggy New Year!

Alonfg with John Hegley's Xmas greetings came this "waggy new year" card with moving tail.