Staick House, Eardisland, 80 Years On

 Finally we have cleared the loft at the Litchard bungalow and retrieved Granddad's original photo album of his Border counties cycling trip, dated July 1939.

And the man himself, Wilson.

Granddad did selfies.  This is 1939, a selfie with his trusty bike.

 Me in 2017.  A little over grown in the interim.

The oldest part of the house dates from the 13 hundreds.  We trespassed to get the photo, not aware that someone still lives here.

Eardisland 80 Years On

 Bridge over the mill stream.

Perhaps the trees are a little more mature?

By the mill stream.

The day of our visit it was a little wet, to say the least.  Hence we had some difficulty finding the right position to shoot from.

Pembridge 80 Years On

The New Inn in July 1939.  Granddad's black and white.

May 2017.  Much the same, save for the car.

The Bell Tower built in  the 14th century.

Again, not much change.

Book - Russia

All you need to know to understand the Russia of today.  Oddly, Martin and I may have been in Moscow at the same time, back in 1972.  4 on the door for this work, a surprisingly easy read, given the complexity of the subject matter.

Ystrad Mynach Quilters Biannual Exhibition

Hosted by the Llancaiach Fawr, Nelson, a four day event.  Gek's contribution, the light green bolster cover on the table.

 Gek has two years to create a full size quilt.

Pinner Visit

Lawyer turned  sculpter.

 Revisit Gek's painting from her time at Emerson Collage,

 enjoy the spring garden,

and, of course, part take of fabulous food.

Richard's Birthday

 With the van parked in Pinner, we trained it across London to Greenwich.  Futuristic Canary Wharf station. 

 Tough looking doods. The birthday boy.

Richard invited forty of us to cruise the Thames for a couple of hours on our own boat, The Edwardian.

 All the iconic structures visited.

A bonus to see the bridge opening.

The lads had prepared a speech to honour their Dad, delivered by Toby to fits of teared laughter from the rest of us.

2nd April 2017

 Dawn.  The sun catching the morning dew on the fields,

 before hitting the bungalow.

Made 10 small canvas for Gek's miniature paintings

Took a two hour stroll to Penalta Park

Snapped Hengoed hill, bottom left corner, on the return.

Caught the setting sun.  That was the day that was.

University of Birmingham

Spring was sprung on the campus.

Even though I have spend six of my years at UoB,  I do not recall ever going upstairs in the Barber to view the art there.  Free concerts in the small theatre of a lunch time, yes, but never the gallery.

 No mater, better late than never.

More of the masters for Gek to copy.

To round off a brilliant weekend, lunch with Mary-Ann.  Old Joe, ever present.

With Diane

Whilst at the NEC, we had the chance to spend our evenings with Diane, a friend of Gek's from her time as a student at the LSE.  Diane traveled to Birmingham just to see us, which was much appreciated.

Miniatura at the NEC

Our fourth miniature fair in six months and our second visit to Birmingham.

A new neighbour,  John Paine,  who makes decorative mouldings.

Turner and friends on display.

 A brief chat with Peter who I first met over 25 years ago.

 Julie and her partner we first met at the first Miniatura six months ago,

  and Gary who was next door to us at the Tower Totel Fair in February.

Book Binding

 I have been writing my 'A Granddad's Stories' for over four and a half years now.  And I, with help from Gek, am still correcting my bad English and even finding missing words in the text.  Perhaps I should have stayed with photographs.

Not being confident that we will every draw a line under this project, I have decided to go for broke and do the binding now, a process I quite enjoyed. The grandchildren will have to put up with my crappy English. Sorry guys. Never knew you could sand paper paper.

Swansea Visit

 We opted to drive the Heads of the Valleys Road to Swansea via the Roman Road from Geligar, giving us this clear view north towards the Beacons.

 The Vivian has a collection of all-sorts, from marble sculptures

to the earliest of photographs. Tenby's St. Catherine's Island from over 140 years ago.

 Also on display something a little more modern.

And this is the guy who did the collecting.  He went everywhere.