Sunday - WWII day

Hiya, I've a bit of catching up to do, so I'll post these photo's from the WW11 Sunday event which was organised by the Heritage Group and took place at the bottom pub down the hill. I was a little bit late in getting there, so I didn't get a good view of the Spitfire flypast. I could see it in the distance from my front garden though, and I could certainly hear it.

A lot of people had turned out for this event, not just villagers, but people from the town and the surrounding villages as well. It seems to be getting quite popular. There was a long queue to get into the pub for a drink. I missed the jet ski stunt team, and the water ski display, my main purpose of going down there was to visit the 1939 house, but never mind, this is what I did see. 

The Super Sloop Spider T was in attendance. This boat was first launched in 1926 and was rescued from a watery grave. It is normally moored at Keadby, a few miles up river, but comes out from time to time when her owner Mal Nicholson takes her for a spin. Last year he took her down to London where he joined the flotilla on the Thames for the Queens Jubilee. Spider T was recently featured in a BBC programme about the River Trent. You can still get River of Dreams, with Tom Fort, on the BBC iplayer catchup.  

Spider T has a web site if you are interested in learning more. http://www.spidert.co.uk/index.htm There are some photo's of the interior, it has been renovated to a high standard, and looks fabulous, have a look here. http://www.spidert.co.uk/media/album/Album1.htm

And if you want to hear the story about how Mal came to buy the boat, there is a short video on yootoob, the man himself speaks, it's very interesting.

Right, back to Sunday. Here we have the NAAFI tent. Refreshments and food available.

The RAF Sea King rescue helicopter flew over a few times.

Some people were dressed up in the style of the forties.

And a performance of war time songs went down very well.

A few old cars like this were on display.

All in all what with the house to look at as well, it was a lovely afternoon.

Nellie's solution for town centre's - guest post

Aye up. Nellie here again. Meanqueen has asked me to do another post, I think she is too darn idle to write one herself, ha ha. I'm sure you'd rather hear from me anyway. so here goes.

What do you think of this Mary woman mucking about with the High Streets then? She has worked in a few posh shops in her time, and now she is known as Mary Queen of shops, an authority on retail and brand communication, whatever that means. Shopping is all about brands these days isn't it, can't be seen out with the wrong brand emblazoned across your chest, oh no Siree, everything has got to be the right brand.

I've got my own brand you know, Nellie Chuffin Knowitall, from Stating the Bleedin Obvious. My web site will be branded when I have time to finish it, in the meantime I'm riding on the back of Meanqueen's blog, Life After Money. She's one of the few people that I know who are genuinely money savvy, she doesn't spend a dime unless it is absolutely necessary. I'm not saying she never spends any money, oh no Siree, but she is not swayed by any advertising whatsoever, and every penny that leaves her purse is spent on something that she needs. The 'wants' are what she can afford to pay for in cash, out of the money left over. That's called savvy budgetting. She aint no pushover where personal finances are concerned.

Anyway, back to this Mary woman, apparently she has been given lots of dosh to hand out to twelve pilot towns around the country, to be used to spruce up the High Streets, which are crumbling into rapid decline. Have you noticed how many empty shops there are, you must have been walking around with your eyes closed if you haven't, or perhaps you live in a posh area where everyone has money to throw away.

I have got my own theories on why town centre's look a mess, and what can be done to breath new life into them. I think the government should give me a load of dosh to sort the problem out, ha ha. For a start there are two different types of shoppers, those that are flush with money and those who have very little. The posh folks are moaning about all the cheap and tacky pound shops, and charity shops, that are taking over the High Streets, so they are going out of town to the big shopping centre's to flash their plastic. Well I say, let them, you just wait till they lose their jobs, unemployment benefit doesn't buy you much from Marks and Sparks, or Debenhams, and suchlike. They will soon come running back to the High Street and the discount stores, after they have swapped their BMW's and Range Rovers for a Vauxhall Corsa.

So, what can be done to the High Streets to make them look more appealing. Well for a start they should make a law stating that every shop keeper is responsible for the pavement at the front, they should go out and sweep up the rubbish once every hour. It should be law that they have to spruce up their shop front with a lick of paint when it looks shabby. Shabby is not a good look to entice people to the High Street, or inside their shop. Their window displays should be freshened every week with new stock on display.

What about out in the street. They should get rid of all 'A' boards scattered around making the place look untidy. Only advertising at the front of the shop allowed. There should be benches to sit for a while after a hard days shopping, and they should be washed every morning by the shop keepers nearest to them. A few tubs of flowers would be nice. If a town centre is blighted by messy pigeons like ours is, the shop keepers should be out there every morning with a bucket of hot soapy water to give the place a swill down. Folks don't want pigeon crap all over their shoes, they won't come back. They should also extend 'no smoking' zones to the whole of the High Street. Hanging around in shop doorways puffing on a fag is a disgusting sight, I always give them a wide berth, never mind going in the shop and getting a face full of fag breath. Yuk, no thanks.

Another idea I have is that an empty shop can be turned into a creche. How many times have you been in a shop where someone is dragging a couple of screaming kids around with them. Oh my, the squarking and the tantrums drive me nuts. Why not drop them off with a child minder employed by the council, for a couple of hours, and pick them up later when the shopping is done. A much better shopping experience all round, and the kids have more fun.

What sort of shops should be in the High Street? Well if all the posh folks have gone out of town, lets have more charity shops, more recycling, more food shops, more markets, more small specialist shops, but they have to be affordable, to folks like me with not much money. The rents should be made cheaper to get new shop keepers in.

Any large building vacated by a large department store should be turned into an indoor market by dividing it up into single units. They should be rented to those who wish to start a business, at a very low rent, to get them going. They would not be locked in to a long contract, so if they find their business is not working they can vacate their unit without too much bother.

Any empty shop fronts should be tarted up, given a lick of paint, and some displays put in the window to make it look tidy. There should be no empty shop windows. If any shopkeepers close their business and move on, it should be the law that they have to take every stick of rubbish with them, clean the place up, and provide attractive looking posters and pictures to decorate the windows. This would then give the impression that the closure is just temporary and there will be new tenants along shortly.

There should be a law saying no more rip off shops allowed, like money lending for extortionate interest rates, furniture and household appliances on the never never like Brighthouse, no more betting shops, and no more grubby boozers.

Oh, and another thing, all town centre cars parks should be free parking 24/7. Get rid of half the traffic wardens, cut the wage bill, and those left just to monitor illegal street parking. In fact there should be no illegal street parking at all, so sack all the wardens. When the posh folks get fed up of driving out of town and tramping up and down endless, mindless, shopping malls which all look the same, they will be hankering to get back to their friendly and pleasant town centres.

Simple innit, stating the bleedin obvious, that's what I do.
Lots of love from Nellie xxx

Keeping the cats out of the veg beds.

Summer is well and truly here now, yipeee. I've been in the garden all day, mainly trimming hedges. I had a borrow of Barry's electric hedge trimmer, so I was able to get through them a lot more quickly than with my hand shears. I have shaved quite a lot off, so hopefully they won't need doing again until the end of the year.

An update on the veggie situation. Everything was off to a slow start and at one point I wondered if I should bother at all. But things are happening now, so I should at least get some food from my garden. This is a washing up bowl with salad leaves grown from seed. They should be ready for picking in a few days time.

Baby sunflowers update. They are growing quite well, and will need repotting soon. I am not going to eat them :o)

I have three raised beds with potatoes planted. They are growing well. All the paraphenalia on the top is to keep the cats off. It will have to be re arranged, and then moved, when the tops need more room.

In here are the broad beans. The bigger plants have the canes for support, those on the other side have a £1 plastic trellis over them, again to keep the cats off. Soon the plants underneath will need more room to grow so the trellis will come off and I will put sticks and any wood I have, in between the plants.

In this bed I scattered radishes, carrots, and parsnip seeds. Not sure what crops I will get from them. Radishes and carrots usually do ok.

This probably looks a bit odd, but this is what I have to do to stop the cats doing their whoopsies amongst my vegetables. In the centre of these two beds are courgette plants. I have to confess I have  cheated with these, I bought three plants for £1 from the allotment stand on Saturday at the fete. When they grow bigger I will remove the trellis, and spread the blue plastic trays out a bit as the leaves need more room.

No I haven't gone completely mad and put curtains up to make the garden look pretty. Old net curtains are ideal to clip onto the four corner uprights, and also clip round the bottom, to keep the cats off the runner beans. I will leave this on the whole time the beans are in there.

I have a few more runner beans and broad beans to go in. The first lot of courgette seeds were a disaster, but some of the second lot have germinated. Goodness knows where I'm going to put them though if they grow to full size. Will find a space somewhere. I might have courgettes coming out of my ears later on in the year.

My veggie beds will provide enough for me, I am not prepared to spend time faffing around trying to grow more. There's enough here for quite a lot of dinners, which will cut down on the shopping trips, even if I do have to eat beans every day for a while. How are your veggies doing? Will you have enough, or too much?
Catch you tomorrow. Toodle pip.

The 1939 house, last few photo's

If you've got this far with the 1939 house, well done, you are near the end now. Here are the last few photo's. The sideboard in the front parlour.  

This looks like one of the first Hoover Junior's to come off the production line. I'm not sure if it is still in use, the bag looks empty, I suspect Joanna cleans the floors with a brush and pan.

Don't you think this fireplace has a lot of character, and looks so much more interesting than the awful modern ones we have today. This has a homely feeling about it.

A few old coins. I found a farthing and a halfpenny in my drawer, which I gave to her to add to the collection. 

Oh my word, an old Ewbank carpet sweeper.

This is unusual, not a clock, looks like a barometer. Feel free to put me right if you know better.

I remember these 3D pop up greeting cards. There were the sort you want to keep forever.

Thanks for coming on this 1939 journey, so pleased I took the time to take the photo's and post them here, a lovely record of my visit. If I have any more news from Joanne I will pass it on here. I would like to visit again, and discover a bit more of her unusual lifestyle.

Thank you Heleng and Manchester Lass for mentioning Time Warp Wives. I was going to say I will have a look at that, but half an hour later I have just finished watching it. I really ought to be somewhere else, but hey ho, I'm retired, my time is my own, I can do what I like. Here you go, have a look for yourselves.

I've got blog posts coming out of my earholes at the moment. The Forties Day photo's from Sunday are yet to be posted, and yesterday I had a day out at Sleaford, so there's more there to write about. Now, I'm off to do a bit of gardening for Helen, so Toodle pip till tomorrow.

The 1939 house, even more photo's

I see from the comments on the previous posts that you are enjoying the photo's from the 1939 house, there are plenty more. This is Joanna. I spoke to her on the phone last night, (she has a mobile), because there was one or two points which I wanted to confirm with her, and also ask her a couple of questions which came up in the comments.

Her interest in the thirties and forties started when she was a little girl visiting her grandmother. She always felt safe and happy in the house. As she grew up she loved watching old films and listening to old records. She always wanted a house like her grandmothers, and now she says she is living her dream.

She lives in the house just as it is. Yes, she does use the dolly tub and mangle to do her washing. Wash day is a Monday, she likes to get it all done in one day. The water is heated on the range, and she also cooks her meals on it. There is only one cold tap in the house, over the kitchen sink. She has a tin bath, and she lives exactly as they did in 1939.

Joanna works three days a week at a local supermarket, and cycles the five miles to work, and back, in sun, rain, wind and snow. She got a puncture once and had to walk to the bike shop to get it repaired. 

The corner of her front parlour.

Do you recognise Joanna in this photo.

A trip down memory lane, family photo's.

A beautiful old record player.

Patterns to make your own clothes.

This is a friend, who likes to dress the part.

More memorabilia on the sideboard and table.

A hand embroidered table cloth.

Doesn't it look cosy. I can vouch that the sofa is as comfy as it looks.

There are a few more photo's left for tomorrow. Joanna would love more visitors to her house as she enjoys talking about how she lives. There has been mention of television programmes of people living in this era, more of an experiment to see how they cope, Joanna lives this way all the time.

Sunny day again, I'm off out. Back later to catch up on any comments. Toodle pip.