Shadows

 Great shadows this weekend.

Magical mystery tours

The roads I like the best are country lanes. The country lanes I like the best are the ones with trees growing over them.

If they have a bit of grass growing up the middle of the lane, we've hit the jackpot.

A trip to the seaside

On the journey there a sing-along. Doris Day.

The sea air made us a bit peckish!

On the way back, a magical mystery tour.

Trick or Treat!

I love trick or treat. :)

Last year I heard the tiniest knock at the door, so I opened it to see a little devil standing about 2 foot tall, with an even smaller ghost behind him. After some prompting from Mum, the little devil ventured 'Trick or treat?'

I praised his outfit and offered him the bowl full of treats. A mini-sized hand with little pudgy fingers stretched tentatively out and selected a bar of chocolate. The ghost was busy swinging on my gate and seemed quite oblivious to anything else, so I said 'Would you like to take one for your little brother?' Again the hand came forward. Then Mum said 'Are you going to say thank you to the lady?'

It was then that the little fella uttered the immortal words, 'Thank you My Lady'. Both me and Mum had to contain our laughter. It was the cutest thing in the whole wide world.

I wonder what this year will bring. Here's our stash.

Mugs

I am just about to ship out an order to the Forest Garden Centre near Matlock in Derbyshire.

They have taken the mugs as well as lots of cards, so look out for a nice big instore display soon.

They've taken the Pussy Golightly range. Here's a couple of cards to give you the idea.

Spanish lady

I might have been a bit over-enthusiastic on ebay recently...

Here's a lamp I just bought. You put a lampshade on the top. What do we reckon, charming kitsch or terrible tat?

She won't feel out of place though, because look! Here are these little wall plaques I inherited from my grandmother.

 

I've been wearing my hair a bit Spanish looking recently. Swept up and high. Always a good sign it needs a cut.

Skoda

Once upon a time I had an old blue skoda. If you had seen it parked up on a street you might have thought it belonged to the Eastern European version of Columbo, such was its style, age and condition.

I bought it from the great-nephew of the Monocled Mutineer, Percy Topliss. Which quite frankly, was the only vaguely glamorous thing about it.

 

When mobile, the noise was so extreme, it sounded like an aircraft landing directly overhead. It was also very draughty, so for a long journey, the wearing of a coat and gloves was advisable, even in summer.

 

Whenever I was driving down south and I had my cat Wellington in the car with me, he would set up a whine which lasted the whole journey.
I thought he was saying, Muuuuuum, it's noisy, I'm cold, I'm hungry. Let me out of the cage!
But he could equally have been saying, You! domestic servant! This carriage is for peasants. Do you know who I am? I am master of all I survey. Bring me tuna.

 

Sometimes when I was on the motorway people overtaking me would be laughing and pointing and waving. Sometimes, if there were lots of them, they would be near hysterical. I have to say, it always made me laugh too.

I once offered someone a lift, which she accepted. On seeing the car, she changed her mind and said actually she would get the bus.

It met its end in a most dramatic fashion, on a rural lane in Somerset one New Year's Eve. It was before mobile phones so I had to talk my way into an old woman's house to ask for help. Turned out the head gasket had blown so my cat and I had to be towed all the way back to Nottingham.

When the scrap merchants came to collect the car, the children of the street did a dance all around it as it was being hauled onto the van. One last episode of humiliation, and my relationship with the battered blue car was over.