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!