Stroud hits the headlines. On the BBC news this morning a video of a shed blowing over. Tragic news indeed but from close examination of the clip I can report that it blew over in one piece and can hopefully be restored to its former glory, when the wind dies down. You needed to know. This is my allotment neighbour Steve’s shed, similar to the famous Stroud Shed, and a thing of great beauty. Steve is an engineer, his shed will not blow over. Picture taken just days before the storm. Continue reading A shed blows over in Stroud

As we await the return of the binmen, though one is not supposed to call them that any more, but that is what we do, and we can reflect on our Christmas. All our four grandsons came for a while so the house became a sort of Brands Hatch at times and noise levels reached a high. It was a joy to see and hear them. The LA lot were the last to go and had the furthest to travel home, and even that took them twice as long as it should after being ‘bumped off’ their flight. A family … Continue reading Cheesy bits.

It’s New Year Awards time folks. Give me Benjamin anytime. The recent glut of medals for worthy people made me think about the late dearly departed Benjamin Zephaniah who turned down any such awards, and he was someone who would thoroughly deserve one. He could not stomach the thought of an award that mentions the long departed British Empire, and again, who can blame him. Interesting that footballers, pop stars and the local street cleaner who’s only ever used one brush in 25 years, get the MBEs, the Aldi/Co-Op brand of gong whilst the Sainsbury’s middle class awards like OBEs … Continue reading “Pies have come!”

You’d think that stamp collecting was a pretty harmless occupation, I used to do a bit myself when quite young but grew out of it. I’d heard of Stanley Gibbons way back then but reading a recent article about how they went bust buying one stamp for over six million quid had me more than puzzled, and made me think in general about big business. Some of our iconic brands are owned by companies abroad. Premier league football teams like Newcastle owned by Middle Eastern sheiks. It needs shaking up. Manchester City seem to me to be buying their way … Continue reading Unfathomable finance

My good friend Andy Harden, author of the three Henry Mouse books that I illustrated over the past 3 years ( we do one for each Christmas ) has just been featured on BBC Radio Gloucester and other local stations reading the first of our books. Which together with the second one a year later helped raise enough money to buy a defibrillator for a local school. There’s a scheme called upload where we were able to submit his readings of the books to them for possible broadcast, and we were chosen. I just listened back to it and Andy … Continue reading Cartoons on the radio? Look out for them on Saturday evening.

It’s a misnomer. Almost all of the very top sportspeople are generally devoid of personality. There are some exceptions of course, and sometimes the exceptions make a living out of their so called personality, like that bearded Irish bloke who’s rude and aggressive about everyone in football and had a reputation as a bit of a thug when he played. I’m not keen on him. He’s built a reputation after his career as someone to get in front of a camera who is guaranteed to be unpleasant. I bet he’s a pussycat at home and it’s all a big act, … Continue reading Sports Personality of the Year?Nah!

It’s an accolade reserved for food, generally baking. It’s the highest accolade and one inherited from my Aunty Winnie, who used it regularly to praise my mothers baking. At first my mother winced a bit then accepted that this was indeed fine praise and used it herself in a loyal way, indeed if something bought was not up to scratch she’d describe it as “not as good as bought”. Winnie, her cousin, was a stalwart Lancashire Lady, and a confectioner by trade, so she knew about cakes. She also made an incomparable meat and potato pie, which she would bring … Continue reading “Just like bought“