Carriage Queue

This is a snap from the unpublished pictured box; we were on our way back from Street.
And were stuck in a traffic queue caused by a railway carriage at Pilton!

New Shoes

It was Shoe Shopping time today, Tabitha is proud of her new gym shoes with flashing lights.
And Lottie is just as proud of her new Start-rite shoes, bought at the third shop but the only ones that fitted properly.

Drawing Wendy

Early in 1970 we visited East Looe in Cornwall, on the seafront a local artist, called Poggio was doing a 5-minute portrait for 2 Pence deal (I lied about the 2 Pence bit!).
He of course couldn’t resist drawing Wendy, but she insisted in keeping her liberty bodice on so we had to pay.
As regular visitors to Cornwall we took a print down to him on our next visit.
And when we visited the following year we were pleased to see he was using my snap as part of his display.

Pulteney Weir

Pulteney Weir before the 1972 rebuild and flood prevention scheme,
When it was made into a horseshoe shape.
For more details see the March first entry.

Pierced

I’m 63 this year and I thought it’s time to make a statement to define my personality.

After much thought I had to decide between a tattoo, a ponytail or a piercing.

Now as I have always said”a tattoo is a way of saying I’m waste of space without opening your mouth” that left the other two.

And we all know if you lift up a ponytail on a man and a pony you find the same thing underneath!

That left the piercing, should it be a discreet diamond stud in one ear of a full-blown Prince Albert, no the diamond is a bit gay and no one would ever see my Prince Albert.

So I decided to make the supreme statement, I bet you never see another of these?

Egg Packing

When we need eggs we drive out to Paxcroft Farm near Trowbridge.
It’s good the see the free-range chickens running around in the field.
But it's still a large-scale business; this is the egg grading and packing machine.
The chickens produce 15 million eggs a year.

Daffodil picking.

Wendy and Lottie Daffodil picking today.

The Other Sam Farr

Strange anecdote about the other Sam Farr from Funny True Stories

U. S. Rep. Sam Farr of California introduced a bill this year to end a loophole in the federal Unemployment Tax Act that made it possible for a Santa Cruz, Calif., voting monitor, who was a retired county worker, to grind out one gruelling day at the polls in November, claim the next day that he was "laid off," and thereby collect about $12,000 in benefits over a two-year period.

Should Churchill House be knocked down.

For those of you following the “Should Churchill House be knocked down to build a new bus station debate”.
Here’s today’s view of Churchill Bridge and the river Avon, with Churchill House to the right, demolition of the East end of the block is well underway.

Bungee

A young woman leaves the crane on
a bungee at Saltford Marina.

Picture Copyright Sam Farr / The Bath Chronicle

Dumped

Even if you don’t want the washing machine.
I’m not sure this is the best way to dispose of it!

Another Senior Moment

Arriving in the usual hurry for a picture that news photographers do.

I was pleased to spot a sign that I read at first as
parking reserved for Press.

But as I got closer I realised
that I was wrong!

Big Ted

Big Ted takes the chance to relax
before the Bath Half-Marathon on Sunday.

Great Britain

The Great Britain returns to Bristol in 1970.

Frome

I thought this was a badly worded sign, till I visited the new toilets in the market car park Frome.
When you enter the toilet a computerised voice warns you your stay is limited!

Aliens

Car driven by Aliens from Outer Space!

Spot Di Contest!

It’s a spot Di contest!

New Telletuby

Wendy help Lottie into her new £2.99 Teletubby outfit
from Martins Newsagents sale in Frome.

Nicky shows Lottie what she looks like as La La

Lucky Number

Thirteen Horseshoe Walk was the home on my Mother’s family (the Harrisons).
They bought it cheap before the First World War as no one wanted thirteen and legend had it that it was the only house that didn’t suffer bomb damage.

Little Known Corners of Bath

I think we have a lot to thank these lads for!

Green at Last

David and Tabitha have been helping to install one of out new compost bins.
There will be three on the Farr and Higby Estate when the scheme is finished, meaning no one will have the excuse that the compost bin was too far away.
But I don’t expect refuse wagons from miles around coming to dump half the world’s potato peelings.
To tell the truth with two ponies living here already we have enough manure, it’s just to help reduce the amount going in the dustbins.

BT

BT doesn’t have any sense of customer care.
It's not content with having 35 MP's accuse it of blackmail for overcharging the poorest customers an extra £4.50 a quarter for not using direct debit.
And moving it’s customer service offshore so deaf old people like me, have difficulty explaining service problems in a little village in Somerset to someone on the other side of the world.
But today they topped it all by vandalising the only phone box in the village,
They have removed the coin box and put up a coins not accepted here sign, now the box only offers 999 and credit card calls.
The only problem is that despite having a dialling tone the number for credit cards and operator service doesn’t work.
Now they would argue that most people who have a problem with a horse or breakdown in their car will have a mobile phone.
But because we live in a valley, most mobiles don’t work, in fact the last BT man that called asked to use our home phone because his mobile didn’t work.

Fridge Door

Fridge Door
of the week
Spotted in Oldfield Park

Muddy Dog

I hope she comes back with the dog shampoo soon!

Hair Today.

Joe Pace owner of Giuseppe of Bath in Terrace Walk has cut my hair since the 70s.
The first picture of him cutting my hair in this sequence was made in the early 70s, the middle one somewhere between these dates about 1985.
The last picture at 11am today, people says they must stick with film for quality.
But the first two pictures are with a film camera that cost over a hundred pounds in 1970 (Over £900 at todays prices), the last with a digital camera costing £125.
Which looks the better quality?

Holburne Museum

Tonight’s Bath Chronicle has the first details of a striking new extension for the Holburne Museum.
Here’s an unusual picture of the Museum with the Chimneys on Great Pulteney Street.

Picture Copyright Sam Farr

Clean and Green

Spotted in Bath today, do you fill it at
the petrol station or greengrocer!

BT Broadband man with a van calls.

Living in the country is a problem for Broadband users; I have always received half of the bandwidth offered because of the distance to the exchange.
When I was offered 1 meg I had half a meg, when it was speeded up to two I had one, so when BT offered me three of the up to six on offer in return for signing a one year agreement, I jumped at it.
But the problem is they use a call centre outside the UK, after three weeks of going through the same computer generated questions, do I have a firewall running at the moment (no), have I changed the filters (three times), can I take the front off the socket and connect to the master socket (no the line is 40 years old I have no master socket).
So after weeks of me asking the same question, “please can you send a man with a van?”
They relented and sent me the man with van and he replaced the 40-year old line into the house with a new one that he tested and said was capable of supporting 4.7 meg.
Well they have managed two meg so far, and I live in hope of it improving slowly.

Blood Moon

Tonight’s Blood Moon without a telescope!

Nosy Giraffe at Longleat.

Nosy Giraffe at Longleat.

Pulteney Bridge

The rear of the famous Pulteney Bridge Bath
while the flood prevention scheme and rebuilding
of the Pulteney weir was taking place in 1972.
More Details Here