A friend said that this time of year of year is melancholy and without a doubt that is true. The weather looks sad with the sky various shades of grey. The grass looks silvery with its early morning frost . The leafless trees just look bare. The dark nights and short days are always invited. The places to visit seem to go into hibernation. In the run up to Christmas all the local National Trust houses close to clean/stock take/conserve or get ready for Christmas opening. The staff and volunteers dig up trees from the estate , place them around the hall and decorate them in readiness for the Winter visitors . Christmas tree trails appear and disappear just as quickly once January arrives . I wondered how much of a job it is to put ... read more

It was hard walking today not to think a lot as I walked . I had headed out of the village . The proposed Christmas scarecrow competition had died a death. The Village Hall Committee had ditched the treasure hunt this year and opted for a film themed scarecrow competition . However, either all the villagers forgot about it or could not be bothered . There were decorations on some houses. Christmas wreaths of holly and ivy on doors. Lights hanging from some of the houses, dangling in the wind. Trees draped with lights. It did not seem like Christmas much this year . The soldiers outside the Buck were missing . I guess that had something to do with the pub going bust again . The staff and the bills unpaid . The new tenants ... read more

Did Covid change the world ? Yes I think it did . Volunteers have dropped off volunteering since the pandemic. Many historical properties can no longer open their doors each and every week through the season. Some have closed for good as visitors stopped calling. Numbers have not returned to pre-pandemic levels . Perhaps we never should have shut down and just carried on. Things might have been very different . Today was one of those examples of places that were thriving pre- Covid but now is a pale shadow of its former self. We left Port Sunlight village after looking quickly at the museum . £16 entrance fee for both of us seemed a touch steep. We got into the car with no name and headed further up the Wirral. To our left the hills ... read more

There was once an excellent comedian named Jasper Carrott . Jasper came from the Midlands and toured around the country on the comedy circuit . He visited towns here and there talking about his town of Dudley which he pronounced in a black country accent and made fun of anything and everything . Those were the days before woke made it difficult to make fun of anything without offending . He raised a laugh when he shouted out that the inhabitants of Mold were unfortunate living in a place called Mould . Who would want to live in a place called Mould ? Sadly of course Mold sounds like Mould so it invited the joke from him . Laughing at yourself is an art we have sadly lost . Actually Mold is a nice place to ... read more

I don't mind a trip to Shrewsbury now and again . It feels that there is always something to do and something new to see . I know eventually I will run out of small alleyways to explore , the museum will have nothing new to see but at the moment I still have a list of things to do . Places to see and things to tick of that list that makes up the county town of Shrewsbury . Today was going to be no different . I was not sure how long I would have to waste . Today was just a small service for the car . A biennual change of brake fluid which should take only an hour or so . The garage would do a car Health check and send me ... read more