Chicken, beans & chorizo a la James Martin.

We're now relaxing having served the above to 28 friends, followed by a selection of puds (steamed syrup sponge, blackberry & apple sponge, winter trifle, panettone, butter & chocolate pudding & chocolate cake)
We had a great time and, with the raffle, made £0260 for church funds.

Yesterday was spent tidying and then cooking the chicken-a lot of pictures inherited and bought recently were in the porch along with lots of boxes of exciting purchases from Winterton and Hansons , collected on Thursday.
Now well organised in shelves in the laundry, some already sold.

After the weekend in York with AJ, we went to Carlisle on Monday, for a couple of days.
We stayed at The Ibis, which was excellent, and were entertained by friends we made on holiday, in Tilos.
We came home via Manchester in order to meet W and DK, over for a hospital appt.
We spent Tuesday night at The Holidat Inn Express at Manchester Airport.
Vile.
Noisy and no food available worthy of the name.
An experience never  to early repeated!

The Lady in the Van.

Fantastic film which had the audience laughing out loud at times.
Maggie Smith & whoever played Allan Bannett were brilliant, actually, all of the cast were.
Really warm and touching with the real AB in the final scene.

This morning we were up early to go to Rufforth to the car boot sale and have a bag of bargains  for the effort - vintage China, flatware.......
Great fun.
We went on to Wetherby to stretch our legs and enjoy a belated breakfast at "The Gourmet" on the Main Street.
We have been before and rate it 5*.
The Wensleydale cheese on granary toast with apple chutney is divine.

We are relaxing and admiring our purchases before going into York to go to Evensong at the Minster.

Yesterday I pottered into Acomb whilst the tennis on TV was centre of attention.
Actually, I fled there and back as it was so cold, having warmed up in the St Leonard's shop and the Co op and bought 2 bottles of beer and one of ginger beer to accompany the evening meal.

We watched "The Bridge" before bed.
Two hours of drab scenery occupied by drab wierdos employed by the police forces of Sweden and Denmark, to keep them off the streets, and failing.
How many shots of the remainder of a leg should you anticipate before daring to open your eyes again.
What does this do for Swedish tourism?

The fun of the lathe.

It feels really cold today but I've now closed down for the night.

The Volvo is home, purred all the way from Witton without a grind from the wheel bearings.

The solutions were:

To the refusal to start, the butterfly valve letting air into wherever, was sticking.

Solution, a new valve

The noisy wheel bearing was actually an unevenly worn tyre with cracks between the treads & quite lumpy in places.

Solution, a new tyre.

All's well for a trip to Hansons sale room tomorrow then on to York.

Guess what and where this is.

Lots of boxes to go with it and it could all be yours!

Chipping Norton.......

almost perfect, apart from the parking ticket that was on the car when I got back to the car park.
I was parked neatly in a bay, which did have double yellow lines across the front, which extended across the front of the next car, which didn't have a ticket.
I really don't know why I had a ticket.

Anyway, we did a grand tour of the outskirts of the town, including Church Lane and the magnificent church, St Mary's, pottered around the shops, including a couple of charity shops and had lunch.
All that and back in Bicester in time to meet KP at school.

I have since sent an e mail to parkingwestoxon and checked e bay - 3 sales today, a silver bracelet, crystal paperweight and a bisque figure.
Hey ho!
Will cover the parking fine!

Superheroes!

I've just woken up in a very warm bedroom, which means that I'm not at home.
I'm on a week's "grannying duty" in Bicester, which is always a treat.
T is now at secondary school and so quite self sufficient although he does pop in for a chat and a snuggle before getting up.
K P's aim is always to beat him to it, this morning she has failed, still asleep.
Yesterday I took KP to school and then roamed the streets of Bicester until lunchtime, coming home laden with goodies to convert into "children in Need" costumes/sell on/ turn into an Egyptian costume for KP.
CinN almost done - a netted ball gown (£1) is now a "Superheroes Cape"!
Any ideas for the Egyptian?

A lazy day today, may even catch "Bargain Hunt"!
I'll probably walk into town for the exercise, no housework to do!

Burne Jones v James Bond!

I had plenty of mundane tasks to do today whilst getting over a cold, but then had the offer of a cultural day in.........Birmingham.

Not a difficult decision really.

We caught the train from Coleshill to New Street (3.60 return) and explored the new station.

It is fabulous, more like an airport, buzzing and welcoming.

After coffee at Pret, we went to The Museum and Art Gallery, I last visited with a school party from KS, perhaps 20 years ago, 

I remember a Ford Maddox-Brown painting from my first ever visit as a teenager, because of it's amazing light.

I now know/remember that it's called "The Last of England"

Even better than I remembered!

The whole place is brilliant so we had to limit the number of galleries visited.

We finished by seeing The Staffordshire Haul, 4000 pieces of Saxon treasure found near Lichfield, by far the largest haul ever found.

The workmanship is incredible.

We considered seeing "Spectre" later, but agreed to spend longer in the Art Gallery, visit the cathedral and the arcade opposite Snow Hill station.

We explored John Lewis in the station complex, bought books in Foyles and caught the 17.35 train back to Coleshill..

About to carve a steak off the gammon joint in the fridge to have with an egg for tea.

Moreton in Marsh

A day out today, having seemingly been very busy of late.
We visited Kenilworth, Shipston on Stour and Moreton in Marsh, which was brilliant.
We pottered around the antique centres, charity shops and drank soup, coffee, tea.......
I bought some odds and ends, including a delightful pair of Art Deco fan shaped EPNS vases, which will shortly appear on e Bay.
The mist did almost disappear and the sun shine through at one point, but pretty fair weather for November.
We have been spoilt over the weekend with summer temperatures.
Saturday was the final mow in the churchyard, I took food along and we had a barbecue to finish, in hot sunshine..
Yesterday, after two church services, we worked in the garden, clearing the remainder of the hedge cuttings, pruning the trees and bonfire building, again, in warm sunshine.

There must be some housework in the pipeline somewhere this week........