I have just seen Lake Como, St. Mary’s Island Whitley Bay, Derby, Portugal and the Criterion Hotel (from a horse drawn omnibus).

I have just seen Lake Como, St. Mary’s Island Whitley Bay, Derby, Portugal and the Criterion Hotel (from a horse drawn omnibus). I have read about the Survivors (those born before 1940) and the Poem on why Poppies are red with a black centre. And I have experienced all the colours of the rainbow, mainly in straight lines - and all from my kitchen, would you believe?

You see, in a weak moment (for I experience many) I volunteered to go onto the rota to wash tea towels and towels used in the church hall kitchen. And my first rota day had to be last Sunday - the day of the St. Peter’s Winter Lunch when some 50 or so sat down to a three course meal (I was on the washing-up team using those very same tea towels). 

And all those places, poems and colours were featured in the 15 tea towels I have just ironed (together with two of my own and some dozen or so handkerchiefs)!

They went into the washing machine on Monday together with some ten towels. The sun shone - then it rained and the sun shone again - and later it rained. I brought the tea towels indoors finally and dried them here - but the towels remain on the washing line in the garden - having had a good dry this morning only to be washed by rain again this afternoon. They can stay there until they are dry - and they will not be ironed for you do not iron towels.

I thought you would like to know this! Although you may prefer not to be informed of such mundane matters - in which case, my apologies

Bluebell Chocolate Forest

I am back from the Bluebell in Chigwell where I was entertained to lunch by a generous and kind lady of 96, in the company of another lady (whose age I dare not reveal). I say I am back - but I have been for the past hour or so for I had to have a lie down when I reached home in the mini-cab (as I gallop towards 84 I find this is necessary from time to time).

I mention this because I had an excellent meal which was topped by the most amazing dessert (pudding or sweet, depending where you are from). It was titled Bluebell Chocolate Forest. Served on a wooden platter, the centre piece was a mushroom of meringue on an ice cream stalk, with fresh fruits in generous portions. Delicious! I did not want to eat it at first, thinking I might bring it home and preserve it in some way. But I finally gave in.

I thought you would like to know this!

I now have three recycling bins!

We missed most of Storm Doris. Just some very high winds. I see that a tree was down in Redbridge and I know that a friend in Barkingside had a branch fall on her roof with tiles dislodged,.

Here in Aldborough Hatch it was bin day. My dustbin lost its lid - and then  I found it. It then went off again on a journey I now not where - so I have brought it indoors.

I lost completely one recycle bin - could not find it anywhere. Then I spotted that Ruth over the road had two more in her front garden. Ruth assured me they were not hers - so I now have three bins!

Folk who did not protect they bin bags have ended up with rubbish all over their garden.

The churchyard is blooming!

I walked to St. Peter's from Oaks Park High School this morning to take some shots of the bulbs in bloom. The first centre shot close-up of Tete a Tete is at the spot adjacent to where Yvonne's ashes are buried. We planted a few bulbs nearby and there are coming up each year. 
The other two shots show the pathway to the porch. In October 2015 we planted 2,500 Tete a Tete. They bloomed last year and again are coming into bloom now - about half are out - the rest are in bud. Last October we planted more Tete a Tete plus miniature Tulips. The tulips are peeping through as are the Tete a Tete - but the latter are not yet in flower. Odd that the ones that are two years old are in flower but the ones one year old are not!

An hour or two in Parliament Square

This evening I spent an hour and a half in Parliament Square. MPs were debating the petitions regarding the state visit of Donald Trump. The rally in the Square was to make plain the views of millions of folk - me amongst them. Just in case your newspaper tells you that they were all long-haired out off work layabouts, these shots might help to tip the balance. I have lots more bit I am a bit tired! One lady police officer chatted to me, which was kind. All good humoured. No violence.

I will say no more . . .

Some two years or so ago my youngest son recommended that I take Berocca tablets each morning. I wait till they are three for the price of two in Sainsbury's or Boots. It was only this morning as I broke open a new pack and had little to read over breakfast, that I studied the ingredients and what they achieve in an old bloke like me. I will leave you to come to your own conclusion for this is what it said on the pack:

Berocca is packed with energy releasing vitamins and minerals. The magnesium, zinc and vitamins B1 and B2 work with your body to convert food to fuel, helping you to keep going and release your energy. Taking a Berocca daily helps you stay on top form. Berocca is free from, caffeine, sugar and artificial elements. Contains pantothenic acid which contributes to mental performance.

I will say no more.

Sunday

Master Socks wanted to have his breakfast at 5.30am, so here I am having a cup of tea at my desk at 6am, which is the best place whilst all the electrical rewiring work is in progress. Good day with the wiring on Saturday - the dining room is now wired up. Just the lounge and the porch to be done - then boxes to be fitted and walls to be channeled out! Some old light fittings will have to be replaced. A few more Saturdays!

St. Peter’s this morning, then lunch with Heather, Rob and Marlon after which I am dropped at Hainault Station and travel to St Paul’s for Evensong. If it is a pleasant evening I may come back by bus. 

Monday I will watch BBC One at 9.15am when Heather’s YMCA is featured, then I am at Oaks Park HIgh at 1.30pm for mock exams after which I am off to Westminster to make clear my support for the campaign. I signed the petition calling for the State Visit of the Man- Across-The-Water to be cancelled and Parliament will be debating this - so I need to show my face with the thousands. Will have camera so may be taken for press again! Home to a defrosted home-made beef stew from the freezer - unless I am arrested that is! But I will try to be good. Honest!

I planted the tomato seeds today!

I have planted to tomato seeds today. Tumbling Tom Red and Yellow in three seed trays plus Minibel and Moneymaker in one seed tray. All in the heated propagator in the greenhouse at the end of the garden. The sun was shining when I stated, then the rain came lashing down, but I had the fan heater blowing up my trouser legs so I was OK. 

I also planted the Foxglove seeds, saved from the plant I bought last summer at Columbia Road Flower Market and some other wildflower seeds - the name of which I have no idea - but I picked a head from somewhere and dried it! 

I must check each day to see how the plants are coming through - for they can run wild if you leave them in the propagator when they need pricking out and potting up.

Having ventured into the garden today, I must now make this a regular thing - sorting out the pots and the corms I have dried and those that I left in the pots - checking if the latter are still alive after the frosts.

Roll on summer!

The heating is back on!

I guess you will all be relieved to know that my central heating is now working again. On Monday morning at about 9am it just stopped. I tried all the usual buttons but nothing happened. I rang my plumber. His son came this morning. The problem was a valve in the boiler which has a small aperture through which water passes - it was clogged, so he fitted a new one! 

And the radiators are now pumping out the heat.

I worked in the office yesterday and today with a fan heater blowing up my trouser legs. I took to my bed at nine last evening with a hot water bottle, which I replenished at about 3am. Socks was  upset - for his usual spot on the landing over a hot water pipe was cold, so he cuddled up to me. It is not until the heating goes off that you realise just how cold a house can be. It brought back memories of my childhood in a very similar house to the one I now own - about a mile away in Newbury Park. There we had a thermostat to heat the bath water - for Friday Night was Bath Night with Lifeboy Soap! An electric fire in the dining room and a gas fire in the lounge (only entered on high days and holidays!) were the only heat. The bathroom was like a fridge. But we survived. Having spent 24 hours without heating, I wonder how we did so.

My PCP has been updated!

Today I attended my GP Surgery at 11.40am to have my Personalised Care Plan (PCP) updated, following a telephone call a week or two ago asking me to do so. 

I recall being informed at some time in the distant past that now that I am over 75, I would have to have a Care Plan. Indeed, the occasion sticks in my memory for the simple reason that the doctor who carried out the initial interview told me she would have to ask me a series of questions, some of which would clearly not be applicable in my case but, nevertheless and notwithstanding, had to be read out.

The first question was: “Can you walk?” to which I replied (politely) that I had just come through that door, whilst the second question (and the good doctor apologised for this one in advance) wanted to know if I was pregnant! Later I received a visit at my home from a charming and kindly social worker of West Indian origin who told me that her first name was Glorious or Beautiful or something like that. The purpose of her calling was to make sure I had all I needed to keep myself well and fit and no trouble to the neighbours. It was high summer so we sat in the summerhouse (shed-with-the-overhang) and supped tea and devoured my chocolate biscuits for a few moments, until Glorious decided it was all a waste of time and she had best be on her way to visit another old person who was in danger of falling off his perch. 

On entering the inner sanctum today, I was asked a question by the doctor (who I have not seen before as my personal GP was too busy to deal with mundane matters like Care Plans).

“Have you brought your Care Plan?” he asked, to which I replied that I had not!

“Were you not told to do so?” said the doctor, with a look of great alarm and consternation in his eyes. 

To which I replied that I had not been asked to do any such thing and had I been requested so to do, I would have been more than hard put to know just where to look in order to find the document of which, the doctor informed me, I would most certainly would have been given a copy when it was last revised a year ago. And with that he said he would have to go to find it, huffing out of the door and not returning for a good ten minutes (I used the time constructively by reading my book - a Penguin copy of How to be a Brit which had me in fits of laughter. You should read it.).

Taking the scanned copy of my PCP, the doctor then checked the details on screen. I did not dare to ask why he needed a scanned paper copy if all this was available on screen in any case - for fear that I might be taken before the Head Receptionist for a good talking to, which would be painful for she is a Lady-who-is-not-to-be-trifled-with. 

My next-of-kin needed to be changed to my eldest son, Graham, and the doctor looked askance and mightily disturbed when I told him I could not recall the full postal address in Dorset, but I could tell him how to get there by train from Waterloo. However, all was well as Graham was listed as ‘an additional emergency contact’. Fortunately, having moved Graham to the next-of-kin slot, the doctor did not spot that we now needed another ‘additional emergency contact’ for I would have been at a loss to remember Heather’s full address and post code, although I could have taken the doctor there on the 150 or 147 bus if he was minded to do so, which he was clearly not. I sighed with relief when I was not required to give Richard’s address in Norway.

I will not bore you, dear reader, with the intimacies of the interview. Suffice to say I was given a copy of the PCP in its updated form and told to make sure I filed it where I am able to find it. And this was said with certain misgivings that implied dire consequencies should I attend next year for a review - on 9th February 2018 I was told - unless I was clutching the PCP in my grubby little hands.

At home I have placed the document in a plastic folder and will shortly print out a cover sheet. The said file will go to a safe place, yet to be determined. I am not going to be caught out again lacking in the PCP area. No fear!

One thing I have learned from the document is that 'Smoking Cessation maintained - stopped 16 months ago from19-Dec-2005’ which means I gave up 14 years ago. Well done me! Also that I had a ‘transluminal balloon angioplasty’ inserted in my coronary artery on 02-Apr-2012. I did know that, but was unware of the fact that it was a balloon. And, as my Old Mum used to say, your learn something new every day.

I will now have a lie down, for whilst this is not mentioned in the PCP, I believe to to be essential to good living as I gallop towards 84. Goodnight!

Here's a laugh!

I have been sorting out old papers in my office on the instruction of my daughter. Quite right, too - for I cannot leave the job to my family when I go to the editorial offices in the sky. Amongst the piles (and I mean piles!) I came across two sheets of A4 with the following material. I will use extracts in the St. Peter's BROADSHEET when there is a need for fillers - but you may have a preview. If you are able to reach the end without laughing, please see your GP - urgently, I would suggest.

Extracts from letters of application received by the Milk Office and the Pensions Office for free milk. I am assured that these extracts are true, but I have not been able to investigate their accuracy. Some appear in the recording by Gerard Hoffnung speaking at the Oxford Union in 1958. I have the LP and a Tape - but you can listen - as I often do when I need cheering up - on YOUTUBE.

Please send me a form for cheap milk as I am expecting mother.

Please send me a form for the supply of milk for having children at reduced prices.

Please send me a form for cheap milk. I have a baby two months old and did not know anything about it until a friend told me.

I intended coming to the milk office but I have fifteen children.

I have one child nearly two years old and am looking forward to an increase in November. Hoping this meets with your approval.

I have a baby two months old, fed entirely on cows, and another four months old.

I cannot get sick pay. I have six children, can you tell me why?

This is my eighth child. What are you going to do about it?

My friend has no clothes and I have had none for a year, but the clergy have been visiting us here.

In reply to your letter, I have cohabited with your officers so far without result.

Unless I get my husband’s money, I shall have to live an immortal life.

I am sending my marriage lines and six children. I have seven and one died which was baptised on half a sheet of notepaper by the Revd Thomas.

Please send my money at once as I have fallen in error with my landlord.

In answer to your letter, I have given birth to ten children. Is this satisfactory?

You have changed my little boy into a girl. Will it make any difference?

I have no children as my husband is a bus driver and works all night and day.

In accordance with your instructions I have given birth to twins in the enclosed envelope.

Milk is wanted for the baby and father cannot supply it.

I want my money as soon as you can send it. I have been in bed with the doctor for a week and he does not seem to be doing me any good. If this does not improve I shall have to get another doctor.

Sunday proof reading!

It is Sunday afternoon, somewhat dull outside but warm indoors. I am almost recovered from spending Saturday with the Electrician and Rob ripping up floorboard and carpets. I am now left with lots of wiring dangling from holes in the ceilings, but they are doing a grand job and the work will be signed off as the Electrician is fully qualified.

So I am best sat at my desk, working through the proofs of the revised and updated edition of my book "Aldborough Hatch - The Village in the Suburbs - A History". 

First published in 2012, I am planning to bring out the new edition in time for Easter this year. The text is being brought right up to date with five new photographs. 

Details: 124pp; 97 colour and 41 black and white photographs; six paintings; five black and white sketches; 10 postcards; 11 maps and sketch maps.

I will print 100 copies so it will be limited. I have already received advance orders for 18 copies - so please let me know if you are in the running for a copy. The cover price will be £15.99 plus £2.50 postage and packing.

"You don't impress me, mate!"

This week I called in at Aldborough Hall Farm on the edge of Fairlop Plain and as I walked through the gate the resident peacock gave a magnificent display to the delights of the muster of peahens in the yard. However, one peahen was having none of it and appeared to be saying: "You don't impress me, mate!"

The first photograph is in full colour. For the second shot we have bleached out the background to black and white to allow the full glory of the peacock's display to shine through. (My thanks to David Debere for the work on the second shot.)

A group peacocks is a pride - but there is only one at the farm

Snowdrop

This shot was taken in my front garden earlier this week. I had to lie in my stomach in the damp to get the shot for we photo-journalists will go to any lengths to get the picture and the story! It was worth doing because it is published in this week's ILFORD RECORDER.! And you cannot get much better than that.

For the horticulturists among you, I bought the snowdrop bulb “in the green” on the advice of Pat in March 2014. This is the best way to buy these bulbs for they multiply each year - I had one bloom the first year, two last year and three this year (the one at the back is just coming out). I cannot wait for next year to see how many blooms I get! 

It was supplied by Avon Bulbs of Somerset and is, in fact, Galanthus ‘Ailwyn’, described by Avon as “possibly the very best hybrid double, with a perfect rosette, like a green and white precious stone . . . to treasure”. Furthermore, it was found first by Richard Nutt at Anglesey Abbey in 1994 and named after Lord Fairhaven. So there you have it! 

And, yes, I will be making Notelets and Easter Cards with this picture - all for sale with the profits to St. Peter’s Aldborough Hatch, so thank you for asking (and I already have an order for Notelets from a Lady-up-the-Road from here!).

Time to speak up!

There are times in this life when we need to stand up to be counted. And this is one such time. I appreciate that you may well not agree with me over this, but we each have the right to our own opinions and to the opportunity to express them in a reasonable manner. 

This is the text of a letter published over my name in today's ILFORD RECORDER. Mike is MP for ILFORD SOUTH.Since writing this on Tuesday (the letter pages deadline) we now know that there is to be a debate on 20th February in the House of Commons following the petition. (I sent a similar - but shorter - letter to the GUARDIAN, but it did not appear!)

Text of letter to the Editor, ILFORD RECORDER

Congratulations to Mike Gapes MP for speaking up in the debate on Monday. History records the appeasing of the 1930s.

Like many of your readers and MPs who spoke, my childhood was blighted by months eating my dinner and sleeping in a damp, draughty and unheated Anderson shelter at the bottom of the garden at my Newbury Park home during the Blitz. Later it was the same during the doodle-bugs, but in a Morrison shelter in the dining room with sandbags blocking out the light and air. I pray that those days will not be repeated for my children and grandchildren.

I do not need anyone to lecture me about not making comparison with fascism and the Nazis - especially so near Holocaust Memorial Day. With over a million and a half others (to date - and growing every day) I have signed the petition calling on the Government to withdraw the invitation for a State visit to the fellow across the pond who, I am given to understand, is now President (although I hope this is just a bad dream and I will wake soon!). I am just sad that I did not feel up to taking part in the demonstration on Monday evening outside Downing Street.