Wednesday, June 16, 2021

16th June 2021

 Great kerfuffles in the garden, the young crows are finding their wings.  Already two bangs against the kitchen window tells me that they have yet to learn about glass, but they shake themselves and once more take off for the garage roof and fence.  The cat comes indoors he is not brave enough to face the ranks of indignant crow parents.

Today I must pick up my glasses from Malton, last time I drove along there Openreach had the road up into the town with big traffic jams at either end. Road mending is a jolly jape don't you know.  There come the 'new road' layers, next come the various utilities and dig into this beautiful virgin surface creating potholes almost before the tarmac is dry.  The enormous farm traffic help as well, wearing away the edge of the tarmac from the verge so deep runnels will appear to fill with water in winter and create great ponds across the lanes.

Two things float into my mind as I read through the blogs this morning.  Tom Stephenson picture of an old tractor reminds me of holidays in Wales on a farm as a child.  The car for the farm, would always sit on bricks, tyres removed, this is what I remember of course.  The little old tractor would be used for going anywhere.  I remember the farmer taking me down to tidy the grave of parents at the chapel in the tractor.  And I being horrified at the way he dug casually into the grave with me scared stiff he would uncover the bones of the incumbent.  No one had told me six foot down is the measure of death.

The other thing was Weaver's recollection of childhood toys.  I loved the mechanical aspect of creating words with my John Bull printing set, words welcome us into a world of magic from which we can never stop learning.  It brings back the memory of Tom my eldest grandchild toddling round the sitting room pointing at the television and saying BBC and then finding it in the Radio Times.  His love of words already there, and his excited reaction out in the pushchair as he recognised words on shops and the underneath of lorries.

Yesterday was Wombleton recycling centre.  Yes the Wombles live down the road, well at least at the pub!  You approach our very small recycling centre down a long dead end lane.  It is immaculately kept, you could eat your breakfast off the ground, no kidding.  The two men in charge are drinking coffee by the gate, I am ushered in, don't dare put anything in the wrong receptacle.  He takes my old computer and the enormous cooking pot I have kept chicken feed in the last few years. Books go into the cardboard and paper stuff, I throw a perfectly good bag of books in there without a single guilty thought going through my head.  The small television also meets its end in the electrical goods.  Paul liked televisions, we had an enormous 'Smart' one in the sitting room, too big to take on my next journey and there is a smaller one in the guest room, but it is not very smart though!!

Time to get ready...

12 comments:

  1. John Bull printing sets - now that takes me back. As do Dymo tape labels - remember those; I think they are still going in some form?

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    1. Yes Paul had all those labels neatly on every file in his study, the embossed metal type of course.

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  2. Your story of the graves made me laugh. Isn't it funny the ideas we have as young children? Here we don't have a place to recycle electronics. It's a bit of a problem.

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    1. I think with the advent of electric cars and all the phones we need, recycling of electronics needs to be done. There is already shortages of some materials. You haven't heard what I thought about the Football Pools which was all the rage when I was a child ;)

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  3. I used to like printing with my John Bull set too, but it was so frustrating when you didn't have enough of a particular letter.

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    1. Well they were fun to play with, now of course we just type merrily away on our computers in any typeface we choose.

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  4. Your paragraph on my yesterday's post Thelma made me smile and brought back memories of my grand daughter - now a mum herself and into her thirties. She used to love being pushed around in her push chair picking out 'e' for emily in the street and road signs.

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    1. See my reply to Yorkshire Pudding Pat about the house, my decision to move was really related to the time of the year and the ability to move freely.

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  5. Oh, how I flinched when you said about throwing away perfectly good books. I just could NOT do that! I gave many many to a charity in Carmarthen, so they will get rehomed eventually.

    A long time since we were last in Malton, doing some family history research on holiday.

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    1. When you think of the millions of books printed Jennie, a few in the rubbish won't go amiss. Malton is not my favourite place for shopping but has two large supermarkets for the area.

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  6. I need to try harder to keep up. When exactly are you leaving your lovely house between the pub and the church? And have you already sold it? Whosoever is moving in has made a good choice.

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    1. The house belongs to Paul's two boys and I am leaving it up to them when they sell. There has to be a great clear out of all the cupboards, furniture, etc. Many of the books are rare and need proper homes. They talk of storing stuff in London, there is some Japanese furniture which of course they want to keep.
      As for me it has been lonely living in this house the last year and it needs someone to look after it properly YP.

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