Bog Door Blue, Dock and Dandelion

      Everyone knows we love this particular hue of because it is totally synonymous with West Norfolk, but this time the natural greens that it is paired with in front of this panel are rather fine too.
      The plants have even worked on polishing up, in wind driven arcs, a brighter shade of blue on the door and you can't say fairer than that.

The Two Terriers progress

      Yesterday it was a long trip to the Welsh Marches, me driving and the boss up in the turret.
      It was a journey to see Martin Clark and Anneliese Appleby at Tilley Printing in Ledbury. They are producing our book on Jack Russell Terriers, a book inspired by our first two Jacks, Pike and Rufus and written during many happy holidays in mid-Wales.
      The final print run will be limited to three hundred and fifty signed and numbered copies with all of the fourteen illustrations being printed from my original hand cut blocks and the type is being set by hand and printed letterpress, as all type should be.
      Now we are planning the second book in the series, on Terriers of course.
      There will be more information to follow as the publishing time approaches.
      So watch this space.

A bang in a can

      Those German designers certainly knew a thing or two about design, and this packaging looks as if it was created in the 1920's and it's never been meddled with or 'improved worse' since that day. Simple, bold and they stood out in the gloom of and old tractor shed too.

      For those who are interested they are the starter cartridges for a two-stroke Hurth diesel on a rotahoe. In today's language a rotovator.

      Right three turns for compression, starting handle to two o'clock and away she goes. Now to get those tins in a safe place.

Bread tomorrow

      Despite the best attentions of the weather with rain, wind and chilly conditions the wheat is coming on nicely.

      The two Jack Russells charge around in amongst the stalks putting up Partridges and Pheasants and chasing one another until they are exhausted. With a little fair weather we'll see this crop getting harvested in a little over a month as we move into mid-summer.

      Then the cycle starts again with ploughing but goodness knows what crop will be growing in this field next year.

3d on the bottle too

      This sign really is a trip down Memory Lane and also a piece of good old fashioned display material from a different age; a rather fine enamelled sign from Messrs. Mellersh and Neale of Reigate in Surrey displaying a selection of their wares.

      In Middlesbrough, where I was born, the local producer was a company called Lowcocks and most corner shops sold their produce in very useful quart bottles and, just occasionally, you would see Villa Lemonades being delivered by lorry.

      When you were short of pocket money it was a trip around the relations to see if they had any empty bottles to go back, each one worth 3d, and if you got a Soda Syphon you hit the mother lode with a 7/6d bonus. That's thirty-seven and one half pence in the decimal coinage of today. There were no bottle banks in those days just proper recycling.

      I bet Mellersh and Neale did a very classy Soda Syphon too.

Treasure chest

      You know that if you were to start tidying this store up there will be some real treasure hidden away in all the clutter and accumulation of mess.
      Already you can see some terracotta plant pots and a couple of lovely Bushel Boxes that were used for the transportation of apples and they are on the surface.
      A quick brew of coffee then we'd better get started; who knows what lies under the chaos?
      Of course there aren't any spiders or rats in there but make sure you tuck your jeans into your socks.

Cirrus sky

      The clouds look like feathers in the sky, the sort that they used to make feather boas from, but they are so high that they are formed from ice crystals.

      Were boas made from Ostrich feathers? Hopefully it's a sign that the jetstream is moving South and finally bringing us some warmer weather and in fact the last few days have been infinitely more pleasant.

      We've even had the luxury of a cup of tea outside and that was a first for this year, so go South jetstream, then set the weather pattern controls for some more seasonal and warmer weather.