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.

Tree Gone

Yes, post Xmas blues - that limbo between the nonsense and the New year. The tree is back in the garden where it belongs - all bedraggled and covered in bits of tinsel. The lights are strung up all higgledy piggily. Archie has gone back to London so all back to normal now. Fridge it still pretty full amazingly. Still some beers left! Yesterday we went off for a walk after dropping Archie at the station. Whitegate Way in the sunshine. Squelchy through the mud and leaves. A few dog walkers said hello - some ignored us - full of post Xmas grumps!

A Murmuration Of Starlings

On our way home from Blakemere and Granma's for tea we saw these massive flocks of birds behind the Co-op near us. We had to park and go and see them closer as the dusk descended. Behind the Co-op is a gravel road with some rather shabby buildings and yards that sell things like fireworks, fence posts and van rentals. It was strangely eerie and quiet - even the massive flocks of birds were silent except for the faint whoosh of feathers against the still evening air.

Earlier at Blakmere's sad empty Xmas fun fair. The antique emporium was sad too, providing very little entertainment or bargains. The same things we saw before and at even higher prices. If they reduced things they might have some room for new stuff!

Boxing Day

It's raining so unlikey we shall venture out for a walk in Marbury Country Park as is our usual Boxing Day attempt at exercise to dispel the Winter over indulgence. Maybe tomorrow. Instead trying out apps on new camera. It can make these nifty monochromes with highlighted red things. Hazel is catching up with all the Corries she's missed.

Crimblemess Day

The usual traditional trek over to the next village and Granma Jones's and Audrey's house for Xmas dinner and present opening etc. The nut roast was made the day before and the Marmite gravy transported in a saucepan precariously balanced on my knee in the car! The usual fretting over the sprouts and roasties etc. We invited them to our place to save them the hassle but they like to suffer! Anyway, so ate too much and did tons of washing up. Played a silly game and nodded off in front of the Queen's speech on TV. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! More photos to follow.

Limehouse Blues

Ooh look what I found whilst travelling with Sir John Betjemen on a train through East London on the way to Southend in a glorious film entitled "Thank God It's Sunday" ( as seen on YouTube). It's my old ACME pre-fab in Camdenhurst Street in Limehouse where I lived from around 1975 to 1985. Incredibly cheap studio and living space and incredibly cold in the Winter and incredibly hot in the Summer ( especially the scorching one of 1976 ). I had some interesting neighbours , mostly artists of one kind or another. Next door were two performance artistes who dressed as spivs and sold tat from an old battered suitcase. Aound the corner was Bobby Baker who made life sized figures of cake. Her pre-fab was open one weekend and totally filled with cake figures you could take a slice of and eat whilst admiring the art! Also some biker's , but less said about them the better! There was even a back garden where I grew vegetables one year and supplied most of East London arty community with cabbages and onions!

Chester Xmas Shopping

Nice wander round Chester this morning before it got too busy. No bargains but some nice free badges "Bah Humbug!" in the Save The Children charity shop that's been refurbished and is a bit like a trendy boutique now sadly. Buskers almost having fisticuffs - the high wire act was appealing to the God Botherer's ( as Hazel calls them ) to move along as it was his turn to infuriate the passers by. They were being very un-christian though and refusing to budge. Then to Beth and Simon's for some delicious pea soup they had made - we provided the bread and cheese. Yum!

London ( more photos )

London Weekend

Nice fun packed weekend in London with Archie, Meriel and Jennifer. Stayed in Jennifer's basement. Packed a lot into three days including excellent "Play Well" exhibition at Wellcome Collection. Archie's work at Southwark Park Gllery, the UVA installation that he helped with and the Carnaby Street Xmas lights that he also helped with. Very packed in the West End - glad to escape back to Knightsbridge. Lovely food too including Dishoom curry place in old art deco theatre. Italian that Jennifer treated us to and lovely lasgane that Meriel made at their flat in Fulham. Also visits to Sadey Coles to see some amusing video work , Science Museum, Serpentine galleries and walks in Hyde Park etc. Phew! More photos coming up.

Whitegate Way and Station Cafe

Had to wait around at the station to get tickets - the lady in charge was heating up a sandwich in the microwave ( she explained 20 minutes later ) . She was very helpful depsite her crumbs of discomfort. Afterwards we had a pleasant walk along the Whitegate Way until it got too muddy. We returned to the Station Cafe which had a re-furbished larger kitchen. Lovely carrot and coriander soup which started out as a block of frozen orange stuff - thawed and piping hot it was very tasty as were the hot rolls and butter than accompanied it. Fancy china too. Should have taken a photo. The restless pooch on the next table tried to slobber over Hazel leg. Ah, the joys of the country!

Marbury Park Walk

Pleasant walk in the squelchy leaves down the frosty woods in Marbury this afternoon. Dec. 1st. 2019

The light was amazing through the trees and over the autumnal foliage - what' s left of it! Sat in the bird hide we saw a sneaky rabbit pass by and a few blue tits land for some seeds but they had all gone. Had we known we could have bought some. Lots of mad dogs sploshing about in the muddy puddles and one raced off being followed by two lots of frantic calling couples - "Tobious! Gropious! Come back - where are you?!"

ISSUE 43 - assembling book work.

Curated this time by Phil Mead in Devon.