Snow and Silly Hats

I think we in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have by now had quite enough of the dreaded white stuff. Still, it is an ill wind and all that, Grandson Thomas came round yesterday so I dug the old sledge out of the shed, She who must be obeyed put on her silliest hat and a good time was had by all.

"Give me a push Grandma"

SWMBO looking more bewildered than usual

This is Tom getting the hang of driving the sledge. Oh to be young again! I took a couple of photos and went inside to put some coal on the fire. Jay the Autistic Spaniel stayed on the settee, The dog is not as daft as I often make him out to be!

ECONOMICS

It is a slow day in a damp little Irish town. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the town, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.

The owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel.

The guy at the Farmers' Co-op takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the pub.

The publican slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer him "services" on credit.

The hooker then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note.

The hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.

No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism.

And that is how the bailout package works.

Classic Show II

A Couple of weeks ago I mentioned I would post a few piccies of vehicles seen at the recent NEC show. Here is a small selection of tasty morsels. Apologies for the quality of the photgraphs but they give a flavour

A lovely 1930s Morgan 3 wheeler - with a Matchless Engine

1964 VW Karmann Ghia - I really wanted one of these as a child

Jaguar XK140 enough said!
This is a 1912 Bedelia BD12. It is effectively a 4 wheeled motorbike, but I love the safety feature of having the passenger sat in front of the driver...Beats airbags hands down!

This is a Maserati. not sure of the year (mid 50s to early 60s), but from the days when racing cars looked like racing cars. Those wonderful days of Vanwall, BRM, Lotus. When Graham Hill, Mike Hawthorn, Stirling Moss drove cars by the seats of their pants, and not by computer control via a bloody satellite. God I sound more like my father very day. Am I getting Old?

More Turning

A Few more examples of my wood turning efforts, below are three mushrooms, the two outer ones are from scrap pieces of Leylandii, the left one unfinished and the right one polished on the lathe with friction polish. The middle one is from a small branch of Yew which I 'finished' with a wipe of linseed oil. Personally I don't like that one, but She who must be obeyed does and that is all that matters

Below are a bowl made from Black Walnut, and a bud vase from Banksia Nut. The Walnut Bowl is about three inches across.

This is what a Banksia Nut looks like before being attacked on a Wood Lathe. It is from a tree grown in Australia. For scale purposes, the nut is around 7 to 9 inches long. Not easy to turn but worth the effort. Well I think so anyway
Oh and just as a matter of interest, the previous posts of the Texaco Copenhagen, came about because I found the offending photographs on some web site, but the site wouldn't allow be to copy the piccies! It would however allow me to post it directly into this blog. Strange really but they are very good pics, If you look closely at the ones of the blunt end, you can make out quite a few people, which gives a real idea of the scale. She has been scrapped now, but she was approx one fifth of a mile long and needed about 70 feet of water to float (when loaded of course)

NEC Classic Motor Show

Had a good day out on Saturday last with my good friend Jack, Visited the Classic show at NEC Birmingham, apparently in previous years this show was dedicated to cars, but pleasingly this year they included a couple of halls of classic Bikes.

This is a 1920s Norton, I'm not sure what model it is, I think it is a model 18 or 19. Feel free to tell me.

A lovely little 2 stroke Coventry Eagle, I have a photograph somewhere of my Mother sat on one of these when she was a young Lass!

A Wooler. Quite a rare thing, John Wooler made prototype motor bikes from 1911 through to the 1950s among them were some very interesting configurations of beam engines and shaft drives, they all had the tank and headlamp moulded into the sort of shape shown above, which gave the whole genre the nick-name "Flying Bananas"

A 1930s Scott. 600cc 2 stroke watercooled twin. Sometimes referred to as a "Yowler" because of the distinctive exhaust noise.

This is a Triumph "Junior" Poor photo, sorry.

Norton Dominator 99 in a featherbed frame. Pure Dream.

An Early HRD which of course became Vincent. A 1000cc V-Twin, amazing piece of engineering.

This is the MUCH later version of the HRD above, with a Vincent Black Shadow engine in a Egli frame. I could sell my Granny for one of those.

There were quite a few cars at the show, I will put a few interesting one on this organ shortly.

Sawley Abbey

For years, riding one or other of the motorbikes towards the countryside to the north of Jones Towers, I have ridden past Sawley Abbey. Only recently did I manage to stop and walk around the place. Well worth a few minutes of your time if you are anywhere near the Clitheroe area. It is signposted off the A59 just to the East of Clitheroe.

A nice view of Pendle Hill taken 'contra-jour' with part of the Abbey silhouetted against the autumn sky

She who must be obeyed stood by what used to be the monks Lavvies

Apparently a Cistercian Abbey founded in 1147 or 1148 on the banks of the River Ribble, by William Percy II. Although the old Monks found the place rather inhospitable and the weather inclement, they were there until 1536 when Henry VIII pulled the plug.

As I said if you are anywhere near it is worth a visit and it is FREE! Other than that google it.

Look at the Tits on this

Just had to post this one!!

Whitby

Just returned from a short break in Whitby. We had never been there before, quite an interesting little spot but it was very busy, as we are approaching Halloween, they are holding a Goth weekend!

We spent a couple of days driving up and down the immediate coast, visited Scarborough - not too impressed as it was again very busy and nowhere to park, so we had a walk along the beach to the north of the headland, drove through the middle of town and carried on heading back up North.

On the way back we discovered Ravenscar (worth Googling) it has a fascinating history.

This is looking towards Robin Hood's Bay from Ravenscar

Just to the North of Whitby we discovered Sandsend, a small village but very pretty and a pleasant section of beach for Jay the Autistic Spaniel to run around and play.

This is your's truly with Jay the Autistic Spaniel on the Sandsend beach, with Whitby Abbey just visible in the background.

And this is a view from midway between Whitby and Sandsend, looking north toward Sandsend on a lovely mild autumn day.

All in all a nice part of the world, some rather good fish and chip emporia and one or two steep hills to climb in order burn off the extra calories consumed.

Wood Turning

I have been attempting wood turning for quite a few years, attempting being the operative word as for many years all I had was a very primitive 'bolt on the bench' type of lathe made by a company called Wolfcraft. Around a year ago, the Lathe shown below was given to me by my friend Gareth, in memory of his father and my friend Harry Turner with whom I spent some time, especially during his last few weeks. I don't need reminding of Harry, but I think of him often when I am using the Lathe.

I have not had any formal instruction in wood turning, but thanks to the wonders of the inter-web, I have spent a considerable amount of time watching instructional videos on various turning sites, and on the wonderful 'you-tube'

Below are a few samples of the things I have been making.

Light pulls, and an etui - that is a needle case

Three spinning tops made from Oak, Pear wood, and Mahogany

A lidded box from a small piece of Teak, a goblet shaped Tea-light holder made from Stag's Horn Sumach (Rhus Typhinus) and a simple bowl made from (I think) Elm. The Elm came from a snooker table leg which I acquired earlier this year.

I have just started going to a wood turning club, so hopefully I will get some advise, tips, and inspiration from the other members. If you want to see some examples of their work go to www.pendlewoodturners.co.uk

Stafford Show

Along with my good friends Jack N. I visited the Stafford Classic Mechanics Show yesterday, at the Stafford Showground and we were blessed with quite good weather for the time of the year. The only slight down side was that the autumn show is really dedicated to Japanese and other 'foreign' bikes. There were some interesting stalls and a fair few of the british owners clubs present but the ratio was greatly in favour of the Japanese machines.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Japanese motorbikes, in fact I greatly admire the engineering capabilities of the said genre, however I have never owned a eastern machine and have a greater love for British bikes (followed of course by American and European)

Below are just a few of the machines I could lust after:

A Brough Superior SS100 It was a similar model to this that T.E. Lawrence (Laurence of Arabia) rode, and eventually crashed and killed himself.

This is a lovely Ducati 175cc overhead camshaft engine with desmodromic valve gears. That means the inlet and exhaust valves were opened and closed mechanically thus doing away with valve springs and therefore valve bounce. a lovely example of 1960s Italian design.

This is a Douglas, I didn't make note of the model or the year, It is certainly 1920s and an horizontally opposed twin cylinder probably 350cc. Note the external flywheel, exposed primary chain, and almost complete lack of a front brake.

This is a Royal Enfield 250cc Crusader Sports. (approx 1964) I well remember as a young schoolboy waiting for my bus home near the bus station in Ardwick, Manchester, there was a motorbike shop and for quite a while that shop had one of these in the window. Just the same, signal red, clip on Handlebars and that big sporty looking front wheel hub. I thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world. Secretly I would still love to own one, though I doubt I ever will.

Finally this is a War Department Triumph TRW. A sidevalve 500cc parallel twin, I believe the engine was originally designed to power static generators and later adapted to fit in a motorcycle frame. I don't know why but I have always admired these machines, you don't see many on the road but they have a certain charm. I would rather own one of those than any 200mile per hour Japanese rocket ship. OK I admit it I'm a sad old sod.

Old Friends

Had a visit last week from my very good friends Rex and Marie. See my link to "Travels with a Motorhome" Always a pleasure to see them as they are becoming more and more like new age travellers. Still I know they will always keep in touch if only as I have a lot of their goods and chattels stored in my shed.

Rex has recently treated himself to a new camera, a very posh Nikon SLR type digital camera (I'm quite jealous really) He used said camera to photograph Jay the Autistic Spaniel - see below - a great photo of Jay sitting in front of my overgrown self seeded nasturtium patch. Probably won't see R & M now until next April as they are shortly leaving these shores to spend winter in southern Spain but I'm not jealous about that, I love winters in cold, wet, freezing bloody Rossendale

Big Tom

No 1 Daughter called round a couple of days ago with grandson Thomas in his new "School Uniform" - Can't believe how grown-up he looks at three and a half! He is going to be a big lad.

It also gave me a chance to get a photograph of my favourite Japanese Maple in its Autumn glory. The last few years I have left taking a photograph too late and the next time I took the camera out all the leaves had dropped. I refer to it as a 'bonsai' that is not strictly true as bonsai means 'planted in a tray' and this is actually planted in a plant pot! It is however around 10 or 12 years old so it is stunted in true Japanese fashion.

Nothing stunted about Tom though. With a bit of luck he will be carrying me around in a couple of years

Autumn Visitor

She who must be obeyed spotted the Heron pictured below, landing next to my pond. He is the reason we don't have fish in that pond any more.

This one was taken just before he spotted Jay the Autistic Spaniel leaving the back door at 90 mph!

This is just after he landed, He's checking for fish, and if none available he will settle for a nice juicy frog. Well I'm sorry but the greedy sod isn't having MY pet frogs if I can help it.

The standard of photography is pretty poor, but they were taken through the patio window with a camera that only has a limited zoom capability. However, the relationship to the greenhouse gives a good impression of the size of the thing.

Another Ride

I managed another run out with Pete last week, We went back to Glasson via the Trough and Abbeystead. Pete spent some time with his aforementioned friend and I had a potter round Glasson Dock, bought a mug of coffee at the caravan and sat and watched the world go by for half an hour.

Leaving Glasson, we took a road that neither of us had travelled before, this brought us back via Chipping. A delightfully gentle motorcycling type road that eventually brought us back to the north end of Whalley and home

This is the view point on the top of the Trough of Bowland road, the view across Morecambe Bay on a clear day is stunning.

This is the famous Bacon Butty Caravan at Glasson Dock. It is called "The Lock Keepers Rest" Cosmetically it looks a bit tired nowadays, the Bacon Butties are wonderful!

These Photos are slightly out of sequence, as this one shows the AJS and the Vincent parked near the other caravan we frequent which is in the Trough of Bowland. It's a tough life I lead ain't it!!!!

Ride outs

I have managed a couple of pleasant rides in the last couple of weeks. About 2 or three weks ago my friend Chris aquired a new Yamaha Diversion...I Know little about Japanese bikes, but it is a 600cc 4cylinder rocket ship with ABS. The day he took delivery, My other Biking friend Pete and I had arranged a bit of a run, and Chris Joined us. Very pleasant run it was too.

We travelled via Whalley up to Dunsop Bridge and then along the Trough of Bowland, took a left to Galgate and crossed over to Glasson Dock. Pete wanted to call into Glasson Dock to call in on a friend of his who has been rather poorly. Meanwhile Chris and I had a brew at the caravan called "The Lock-Keeper's Rest"... I assure you I am not being paid for saying this, but they do the most remarkably good Bacon Butties... Well worth a try if you are anywhere near.

While we waited for Pete, the heavens opened, but we managed a second brew whilst sheltering under the caravan canopy.

By the time we set off home it was getting a bit late, so Chris (who needed to be home) peeled off and went home via the M6 / M65. I didn't tell him until the following day, but as we left Glasson dock my front brake failed. So Pete and I came back fairly carefully via the A6, Longridge, Ribchester and Blackburn, and thankfully we seemed to be running ahead of the rain so we got home relatively dry and only half an hour after Chris.

Autumn

Well, I think autumn is here (That means 'fall' if you happen to live on the wrong side of the Atlantic) and I have been neglecting my blog for ages. I am vowing to discipline myself to writing entries on a more regular basis. As I said, the Summer is over, the garden is getting to be a mess, the Tomato crop has failed - although we have had more courgettes and runner beans than you can shake a stick at... Actually haven't checked the courgettes for a couple of days so we probably have a nice 'Marrow' crop as well. I will do it in the morning if it stops raining for an hour. New posts to follow shortly. Promise!

Tatton Flower Show

As per my previous post, after joining the Royal Horticultural Soc. 'She who must be obeyed and I went to the annual show at Tatton Park. Being a little concerned about the popularity of the show and therefore the vehicular access, I took advice from a friend who told me they were very efficient and parking was not a problem. I took this dear friend too literally, and followed the signs for the show from the M60 motorway. To cut a long story short, the signs took me a long and ridiculous detour and the journey took 2 hours instead of an estimated 40 minutes. I will remember for next year and go my own route. (Should anyone want chapter and verse on this story, e-mail/message me and I will expand)

Anyway once we arrived, the show was great - much bigger than I thought but so much to see and wonder of wonders the North-West weather proved very kind. The most impressive thing was that lots of things can be purchased (plants, tools etc) at very reasonable prices. All in all well worth a visit.