Spent last Thursday and Friday carol singing in Emmerdale,  Due to be aired in two episodes on Christmas day.  Note to self, must watch Emmerdale occasionally,  I was in the 'Church' surrounded by at least four of the main Cast, and I hadn't a clue as to their series names or their real names.

Yesterday I was involved filming a new quiz show in Media City, Manchester.  It will be on in January and is hosted by the delightful Claire Balding.  Other than that I am not allowed to say anything.  Look out for it, it will be entertaining.

Tomorrow I am going to Manchester to film a scene for "Shameless"  apparently to be shot in a Jazz club.  I'm looking forward to that,  I love Shameless,  and I understand this is to be the last series.  I shall have to get my fix from repeats.

Dumfries and Galloway

Just back from a few days away in Dumfries and Galloway,  South-West Scotland.  The area used to be known as Wigtownshire, but that was absorbed into larger areas as so many other small counties were.

We stayed just to the south of Newton Stewart, about half way between Dumfries and Stranraer.  A lovely area with lots of Hills, Rivers, coastline and Countryside.

On the only Sunny day we had we touched lucky and had a drive out to the area known as "The Rhinns of Galloway"  Visiting Portpatrick and the Mull of Galloway lighthouse.  See Pictures below.

Police Dog

Just had to post this, every time I read it I giggle. Hope I'm not treading on any copyright toes.

Hell's Wrinklies - Stalybridge Chapter

Went out on the Harley last Wednesday, met up with an old college friend called Graham,  known as Charlie.....It's a long story!  He has just started riding a motorbike again after quite a long time, and has met up with a great group of friends.  Collectively they have a ride out, weather permitting, on a Wednesday.  This last week we met initially at the home of one of the lads, Keith, and rode over Saddleworth moor to Holmfirth.  There we enjoyed a hearty breakfast and rode back.

This is Graham in the white helmet, stood next to his 125cc Kymco.

This is the group taken by Graham, That is Me in the high viz jacket.

The run was not without incident,  One gentleman left his headlights on in the car park, came out of the Cafe to a flat battery, and although bikes park for free, he of the flat battery and I paid for a parking slot...5 minutes over the allotted time the local gestapo stuck a ticket on his saddle.  For some reason I didn't get a ticket on my Harley, but I am expecting to get a fine through the post any day now.  That will teach us to keep an eye on the clock.

We eventually got his bike started and set off home.  I went back to G's house for an extra brew and a chat with Mrs G who I hadn't seen for more years than either of us could remember.  All in all an excellent day out and hopefully one of many.

Turning Demonstration

I went on Saturday last (6th Oct) to a demonstration of wood turning at my club. ( Pendle Woodturners and Carvers.  http://www.pendlewoodturners.co.uk/  ) the demo was by a lady turner by the name of  Margaret Garrard.  see  http://www.margaretgarrard.co.uk/   below are a three poor photographs of some of the work she brought along to the demo.

She specialises in 'involute' turning where two or more usually four pieces of wood are glued together,  a design is then turned into that wood, the glued joints separated the individual pieces of wood are then glued back together with the turned pattern on the inside.  

The piece is then turned again to produce the finished article.

She also does a lot of pierced and decorated work.  The Plate shown below is a lovely example of this.  the plate has been turned from (I think) Sycamore  (Acer pseudoplatanus) and turned extremely finely to a thickness of no more the 2 or 3 millimetres.  The flowers then painted on,  she uses various means to paint, but airbrush is her chosen method,  then the piercing is done with a type of dentist drill.

As you can see, she is a very artistic and talented lady.  One of the top turners in the country at present.  In fact she is exhibiting at an exhibition in London at Carpenter's Hall from 17th to 20th October.  The Exhibition is called "Wizardry in Wood"   Have a look at www.wizardryinwood.com

Back again

I know!  I keep promising to be more regular with my postings, but here we go again.  

As well as wood turning, I am starting to dabble in carving with a bit of pyrography thrown in.

 
A carved and burnt house sign for some friends of mine.  The wood is Lime  (Tilia Spp)  The sign is circa 10inches by 8 inches.  It's finished in Liberon finishing oil.

This is a Beech bowl  (Fagus Sylvatica) with a self drawn pyrographed pattern.  Just over 4 Inches diameter

This is the same pattern redrawn and burnt onto a Sycamore bowl  (Acer Pseudoplatanus) 7 Inches Dia.

This is a copy of a Japanese Tea Caddy as used in the Tea Ceremony.  It is called a 'Natsume'
This one is turned from Sapele  (Entandrophragma cylindricum).  It is 2.5 inches diameter by 3 inches high.

Don't give up on me

I have just realised a whole month has gone by since my last posting. - No excuse but have been preoccupied doing all sorts of bits and bobs.  I will get back to semi regular missives very shortly.  Meanwhile I thought I would just pass this on to you:

 During a recent password audit, it was found that a
 blonde was using the following password:
 

 "MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofy Edinburgh


 When asked why she had such a long password, she said
 she was told that it had to be at least 8 characters
 long and include at least one capital.

Gaydon Show

I did promise some piccies of the show I visited a couple of weeks ago with Jack.  It was at the Gaydon Heritage motor museum, which is between Banbury and Stratford on Avon, in Warwickshire.  Mainly it was old Commercial vehicles, but included was free access into the actual museum. Here is a small selection.

Early Scammell

Slightly later Scammell

Scammell Explorer.  Jack own 2 of these monsters now.  Under that bonnet is a 13.2 litre Meadows petrol engine.  Downhill with a following breeze you can squeeze 3 mpg!

A Grey Ferguson.  This was the first 4 wheeled motor vehicle I ever drove (I only had a motorbike licence at the time)  Drove it from Stockport to near Glossop with a trailer behind it.  After that I never had any fear of driving anything.

This is an MG TF  One of the loveliest cars ever made.  A college friend of mine had one of these around 1966 / 1967

Morris J type vans

It was a good day out.  Nostalgia isn't what it used to be!

Emma's 30th

Today was the younger daughter's 30th birthday....making me and the present Mrs Jones feel rather old.

Emma about to drink a 'jagerbomb'  God help us!

Just a couple of pictures taken at our local curry house.  The Spice Room at Rising Bridge.  they do a very passable buffet lunch on Sundays.

The last picture is Tom and I having a minor wrestling match.  I won!

Busy, Busy.

I've recently bought a new phone, a new (to me) car, sold the merc on e-bay, sorted the turning club's exhibits for a local show, spent yesterday at a motor museum in Gaydon, with Jack, at an old wagon show, got to get the AJS ready for it's MOT, I may be doing a filming job on Wednesday (still to be confirmed)  It's non stop at the minute.

Pictures of the Gaydon show to follow soon.  Promise!

Oliver

Bought a new car yesterday,  well new to me as my poor old Merc has been neglected to a point of destruction.  The new one is a little 1.4 Automatic Corsa, bought from a maniac Welshman called Hugh Davies,  of Accrington.  The point of this post is that I chatted with a lovely lady called Sarah whilst collecting the car, she told me her daughter is mad about horses.

I realised that I didn't have a picture of Oliver on this blog, so here He is.  On his back is Emma, younger daughter, after a show at Stonefold.  The photo was taken about 4 years ago.

She doesn't show him these days, plus he is now around 20 - 21 years old, so he is getting on a bit, but aren't we all.

The Hill

As most of my friends know, I walk Jay the autistic Spaniel on the hill most mornings, occasionally at weekends we are joined by my favourite Grandson Thomas. Please note, I am not being mean here, he is also my only Grandson!  

It is obvious that Jay and Tom are related, as they are both drawn to water. 

This is Jay the Autistic Spaniel, cooling off after a hard morning fetching his ball back.  Mind he cools off in the stream even when the air temperature is well below zero.

From left to right we have Grandma, Aunty Val, and of course Tom.  This was taken just before he decided to run very fast through the deepest bit of the stream and fill his new wellies with fresh stream water.  He likes that bit of the stream though, it is full of trolls and river monsters!  No need to worry though, he always conquers them with his 'Rescue stick'

School Reunion

Last Sunday I went to a school reunion in Manchester.  Managed to pick a day which was, apparently, important to followers of football, especially the two Manchester clubs!
Sadly only seven people including Me and a bloke who was in the year below us bothered to turn up.
We met in a pub on Princess street, not far from the BBC building just up from Oxford road, which, shortly after we arrived filled up with Footy supporters.
The pub had three TVs One large one showing the City game and two smaller ones showing the United game.
I'm afraid that after an hour of listening to screaming and shouting, I left and came home.
Just fancied a chat with some old mates but found the noise too much.  I must be getting old, I'm certainly intolerant of watching morons kicking a pig's bladder up and down a lawn.

These are the old Ardwickians at the reunion.

Auriculas

Through a Gentleman I have met at the woodturning club, I have been made aware of the wonderful flowers pictured below. They are (Mainly) Auricula Primulas.  The growing of which was a major hobby of late Victorian and Edwardian times, especially in the North of England.  There are still a lot of avid growers today, but they are not as well known as they used to be.

The plants are basically descendants of the humble Primrose / Cowslip / Oxlip and bred to the beautiful things you see below.

This (above) is one bred by my friend Gordon and is called 'Pendle Sparkler'

The three photographs below were taken at a recent show in Cheadle, Stockport.  They give some indication of the varieties of colour that are available.

The picture below also taken at the Cheadle Show, is a cowslip - We forget how lovely some of our native wild flowers are.

If you would like more information about Auriculas,  you can always 'google' them,  or have a look at

http://www.auriculas.org.uk

Excellent site with lots of History,  How-to info and some stunning piccies.........Enjoy.

Babies

On my morning walks with Jay the Autistic Spaniel, I regularly pass a group of horses.  They are mainly mares, and a few of them are / have been pregnant.  The little one below was born sometime Wednesday night,  The grey in front is his/her Mum

This Little grey coloured sweetie was born Thursday night / Friday morning, to the Palomino Mare.  She (MuM) has had as hard winter,  she managed to injure one of her back feet and has limped for several months.  She seems to have picked up this last week or so, thankfully.

Below is a pal of mine,  she was born this time last year and is very friendly, considering they live as virtually wild horses, never being brought in or fettered with rugs or harnesses.  Note the two blue eyes.  Father to all of these has one blue and one brown eye.  He of course is a coloured (meaning black and white) Cob.

This morning I forgot to pick up my camera, and overnight another Mare had foaled.  She also is a coloured Cob, and the foal looked very like the one in the top photograph.  I couldn't get very close, as the little one still had the cord attached, and two of the other Mares were standing close guard.  I will try and get a pic. tomorrow.

Day Out

Had a day out with my friend Jack this week,  He decided he wanted to go and look at another 'Toy'

He already owns a beast called a Scammell Explorer, The picture below shows Jack and Grandson Tom with the original.  It is an ex military vehicle used mainly for recovery work.  It has a 10.3 litre petrol engine and drives on all 6 wheels and dates back to the 1950s  There are one or two clips on you-tube which are worth a look if you have a few minutes.

Well, Jack is now looking at buying a second Explorer, so we drove down to Hampshire to have a look at the potential new one.  It is currently parked up in someone's garden, partially sheeted.  Unfortunately, for the Seller, He couldn't get it to start, and there is a certain amount of rust on the Tinware (the bodywork bits) So Jack is negotiating.  As I type he hasn't bought it, but it could happen.

A lot of work to do on this one, or conversely it is a large box of spares for the original.  Time will tell.

Still Here

I really must get into the habit of blogging more often, or even regularly.  Anyway, I have just been on Twitter again.  I still can't really work out what the attraction is however I don't want to stop totally in case I am missing something!
I have started following a group of friends from my theatrical agency, quite a few of them appear to tweet regularly, so maybe I shall become as prolific as Steven Fry.
If that leads to me being as famous and as well payed, it might be worth a go.
A few things have been happening recently at Jones Towers, so I will try and update this more often.
PROMISE!

Nuns on Bikes

When you have a minute, look at the following catalogue entry for a recent motorbike sale at Cheffins

http://www.cheffins.co.uk/lot/-562043-vintage-0

I think whoever typed the entry was having a bit of a laugh when he described the Nun who owned the machine as from the Church of the Immaculate contraption.  Wonderful

Spike Island

For all you latent Stone Roses fans,  I have had four days filming this last month on the film in production called 'Spike Island'  This is based on a so-called legendary gig by the Manchester rock band Stone Roses, in May 1990 on Spike Island.  This is an island in the Mersey Estuary just off Widnes.

I am afraid I had never heard of this legendary concert, and I wouldn't recognise a Stone Roses song if it jumped up and bit me, however four days filming in Bolton, Salford and Stockport has been good fun.  Whether I will be spotted in the final cut remains to be seen.

The cast and crew can be seen at  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1827579/

I was in a few scenes with the lovely Lesley Manville and the up and coming Elliot Tittensor (Shameless)

Currently it won't be released until next year.

Surprise

Had an amazing surprise Friday just gone,  a telephone call from a ex shipmate from 40 years ago.  Steve was a Steward on m.v.Rowanmore during the three trip I did on her back in 1971 / 1972.  I have been absolutely knocked out by his memory and his recollections of those three trips.

I kept lists of other officers I sailed with, now this may sound awfully snobby and elitist, but I didn't keep track of the many and amazing crew lads.  I have been trying to recall as much as possible of that time,  for Rowanmore was without doubt the happiest ship of all the ones in which I sailed.  I am currently making pencil notes and will publish the Rowanmore papers fairly shortly.

Meanwhile a couple of photographs I have found.  The first one is Albert, the ships cat.  He was rescued from the water after a couple of young thugs threw him into the sea from a great height,  while we were docked in La Guaira, Venezuela.  At great risk one of the lads managed to get him out of the water onto a floating pallet by the stern. He was a very young cat at the time.  I seem to remember the 'Old Man'  Capt David Houghton, threatened us all with a good flogging if we brought the cat aboard his ship.  Later that night it was the Old Man himself who took pity on Albert and brought him aboard.

 Albert sat on my Radar, blocking the view as usual.

This is another picture of Rowanmore, docked in Ocho Rios, Jamaica.  If the scene looks familiar, that complex was used in a couple of scenes of the James Bond movie - Dr No.

Lets pause for a few moments and picture the wonderful Ursula Undress (sic) in that  bikini, emerging from the waves.....................................................

Guilty

Feeling a little guilty this morning because this is the second day that I haven't taken Jay the Autistic Spaniel for a walk.  The reason is the ground is really quite dangerous to walk on at present.  We have had so much cold weather and yesterday it rained for a short time onto frozen ground, leaving everywhere treacherous.  With my tin hips and dodgy back I am being a bit of a wimp and not chancing it.

Jay the Autistic Spaniel loving the cold weather 

My Friend Val getting very brave with the horses.

I'm pleased with the picture of Val and the foals,  She is a little unsure of the creatures (and rightly so) but the foals which are around 10 months old, are starting to get more confident around people, and actually approach for a stroke.  They may be approaching on the chance of getting a carrot or a mint.  They are all Cobs, so generally they are steady and trustworthy animals, quite how they have coped with the cold with no rugs or overnight shelter is fascinating

Rossendale Free Press

The area where I live is known as Rossendale,  It Mainly covers the towns of Rawtenstall, Haslingden and Bacup and is situated about 10 miles north of Bury, in East Lancashire.  For well over 100 years the local paper, The Rossendale Free Press (note the 'Free'  means free from political persuasion and not free of charge) has been keeping the local populace up to date with local news and events.  A couple of years ago, the owner's sold out to a large group who, I believe, own the Manchester Evening News.  Since then the standard of journalism has fallen almost on a weekly basis.  

This last week they have, in my estimation, sunk beneath the waves.  The owner's should think about changing the name of the Paper to "The Greengrocers Weekly"  (and I purposely left out the apostrophe in Greengrocers)

What a desperately sad sight. To think, so-called journalists, Editors and Proof Readers have allowed the following to be printed and sold to the public.....Little wonder youth of today haven't a clue where (were, wear) to put an apostrophe,  Their (there) use English makes me cringe.  Finally, as I'm having a moan,  how on Earth has the word 'have'  become 'of ' ?   I'm not even going to mention 'of ' and 'off '

Aaaaaaargh!

Post Christmas Ride

Please note this should have been published on 27th or 28th December.  I managed to get it into drafts instead of into the right place....I blame my age!

Had a ride out today, the weather being fairly mild.  We couldn't get to the Trough of Bowland and all the adjacent road were closed for some sort of running race....Why they have to shut roads and Cock up loads of people for that sort of nonsense beats me but heigh ho....To cap things off, the cafes at Glasson Dock,  the Station Cafe at Carnforth, and the Bacon Butty Van at Devil's Bridge were all shut.

What is the World coming to?  These places all purport to be Tourist destinations....I was bloody glad I hadn't travelled too far, and after a cuppa at a poorly manned Little Chef,  (The lads I was out with wanted food and were having to wait 35 minutes to be served) I was home about the time they were fed.

Happy New Year

Where have the last couple of weeks gone?  Ah well I'm back now and just read the following on somebodies Face-ache account,  Class it as my "Thought of the Day"  for anybody over the age of 40.

Checking out at the supermarket recently, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. I apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days“.

The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations“.

She was right about one thing–our generation didn’t have the green thing in “Our” day. So what did we have back then? After some reflection and soul-searching on “Our” day, here’s what I remembered we did have….

Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles repeatedly. So they really were recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby’s nappies because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 2000 Watts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right. We didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of Wales. In the kitchen, we blended & stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right. We didn’t have the green thing back then.

We drank from a water fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?