This morning I made a start on sorting and scanning 20 years of random film negatives. The first strip was not my own. It was taken in January 1984 by John Gordon, a friend of my sister Elizabeth. 
This shot featured in the Southampton Daily Echo. Sponsored in aid of Hilldene, her son Adam Keenan’s day nursery, I (701) was taking part in a ten mile race. ‘Race’ simply describes the event. No way was I in contention. I was merely happy to beat my own personal best. This one was completed in 64 minutes, and was a new best time, probably because it was snowing when we began. That does tend to make one rather nippy. I felt rather smug when Elizabeth told me that the photographer had said it would be a comparatively easy task to run alongside me for the pictures, and found it wasn’t. The reason long distance runners look much slower than they really are is the heel/toe action which requires the heels to land first in the stride.
Today was twelfth night, and therefore time to take the Christmas decorations down. First their storage boxes had to be removed from the garage. Carrying the stack of containers through the kitchen, I walked into a metal chair and bruised my shins. The stack rose above my eye line, and I hadn’t thought about it in advance.
My running days are over now, but what promises to be the longest running joke of all time continues to surprise. As Jackie stripped the Christmas tree she let out a cry that must have been heard in Emsworth. It was even louder than mine when I clouted the chair.
Perhaps three years ago now, Jackie and I took Becky and Flo for a meal at Frankie & Benny’s in Ampere Way, Purley. Our granddaughter, as is her wont, drank apple juice. The container bore a green sticker. As we parted company in the car park, Flo slapped the passenger side front window and ran off smartish.
There, adhering to my window pane was the apple juice label. Naturally, when someone plays such a prank, one must retaliate. About a month later, Becky found the item on a part of her car that I do not remember. Backwards and forwards went this transitional object, returned in the most devious of ways. The gaps between the transfers were gradually extended. This was essential because you had to give your victim time to have forgotten about it.
Have you, dear reader, remembered that Jackie was stripping the Christmas tree? Well, you know what she found hidden among the artificial foliage, don’t you?
Given that we last hid the offending article in Flo’s Christmas present in 2012, one has to admire her patience. Yes, Flo, we had forgotten about it. But we’ll get you back. In the immortal words of Vera Lynn, ‘Don’t know where, don’t know when’. You do know that, don’t you? (Vera Lynn, known as ‘The Forces’ Sweetheart’, raised innumerable spirits during World War II with, among others, her rendering of ‘We’ll meet again’, which can be found on Youtube).
Adam Keenan grew up to be a skilled and much sought after animatronics creator. Three years ago he made a realistic mechanically animated dragon for Flo’s birthday. One of its joints became dislocated. This necessitated a spell in my nephew’s hospital. I well remember my tube journey back to Morden on the day I collected the cured lifelike creature. I took great pleasure sitting in a crowded tube train surreptitiously pulling levers which made its eyes open and shut; its head turn and its tail sweep; and watching the faces opposite me.
At that time Jackie and I were holders of the drink sticker. So, of course, when Flo opened the box containing the repaired treasured animal, it had a suitable label round its neck.
Far too much rain for the forest and its environs to cope with continued to fall as, this afternoon, we drove to Totton for a mega post-Christmas provisions shop. Reminiscent of last year, brown water flowed from the overfilled drains in the gutters across the centre of the main road into this suburb of Southampton. We followed a petrol tanker most of the way, feeling rather grateful that we were not one of those cars, waiting to turn out of side roads, that got the benefit of the bow waves as the large wheeled lozenge sped past. As Jackie said, there would not be much point in having a car wash at the moment.
On our return someone played ducks and drakes with huge hailstones bouncing from the water-bound tarmac to the car windows and vice versa.
Two fallen beeches in the road from London Minstead to the A337 bear the legend:
Each is too long to fill the frame of one photograph. This had us speculating that the purchasers may have been wood-carvers, for craft fairs, after the great storm of 1987, were filled with the work of those who had benefited from the trees that fell throughout the South of England.
This evening we dined on beef hotpot and cabbage, followed by the last of our Christmas pudding. I drank La Serrana tempranillo 2012, whilst Jackie drank Hoegaarden.
P.S. In her Facebook comment on this post, my daughter Becky has corrected a few details concerning the label. Firstly the restaurant was Frankie and Benny’s. She reminds me that the game began when, during the meal, Flo stuck the object on the back of my hand and I left it there all evening. That amused our granddaughter. As we were leaving I placed it on the back of her hand and dashed away. Plonking it on our window was her retaliation. But that didn’t take place immediately, Jackie now remembers. We left the restaurant in convoy. When stopped at traffic lights Flo emerged from the gloom and planted it on the driver’s window, not mine. Our last transfer took place a little more than a year ago when we hid it in a kitchen canister.
Now, had this all taken place when I was Flo’s age I probably would have needed no memory jogging. On the other hand, it couldn’t have, could it?
Tag: dragon
The Dragonfly
This afternoon we visited Elizabeth at The Firs. I delivered the prints for the summer exhibition and we telephoned her framer to discuss framing my pictures. We had hoped to get down to gardening, but all felt pretty lethargic because it was still rather hot and humid. We did get some watering and treating of diseased heuchera done; some pruning of wisteria; and some pondering. After the several weeks’ heat-wave everything was looking rather autumnal. 
I have written several times about Oddie’s penchant for snaffling my chair. A dog is one thing, but a dragonfly is something else. Our visitor calmy took up its position, mandibles munching away, refusing to budge until it was ready. Adam’s GCSE dragon kept a watchful eye on its enormous living relative. 
I have never seen such a large specimen before. What I’ve always thought of as a dragonfly has simply been a small blue damselfly. 
The plan was for Elizabeth, Danni, and Andy to join us for an Eastern Nights meal in Thornhill. There was some delay as my niece and her boyfriend were delayed by a traffic accident and a heath fire. While the rest of us sat in the garden waiting for them, a member of the next generation of The Firs robins hopped around us, following in the clawsteps of our companion of last summer.
The curries were of the usual high standard at our favourite Hampshire Indian restaurant. Bangla, Cobra, and Coke were drunk. 
Danni took a photograph of what she termed the three wise monkeys.
Dragonology
Late this morning Jackie drove us to The Firs for a gardening session. A barbecue was on offer. It was a blustery day with intermittent rain. This didn’t really affect the horticultural activities, but it did mean that the barbecue was held in the kitchen.
On 15th of this month (see post) Jackie and I drove to Mapperley to spend the weekend with Louisa and Errol and their family. Unfortunately that clashed with Danni’s birthday party to which we had been invited. The event had been announced on Facebook, naturally only for the chosen few. We were honoured to be included, but had to decline. My niece had politely suggested that her guests might bring along HUGE presents. It can now be revealed that the birthday gifts mentioned yesterday were for her; a Labradorite necklace and an incised leather document case furnished with a mirror and a hair clip. It was Adam who found the clip which must have been a freebie. The leather case was, as I expect you have guessed by now, antique, probably from the 1930s. It was a bonus that, unknown to us, Labradorite is one of Danni’s favourite minerals.
We had a bit of a dilemma because the presents were really rather small, and we did want to comply with the request. They would just have to go into a huge box. A removals packing case was just the job. Placed inside a plastic carrier bag, the two wrapped presents were taped to the bottom of the large container and I hammed up the delivery, making it appear rather heavier than it was.
Elizabeth had done a vast amount of weeding last weekend, so we didn’t have as much to do as expected. We were, however, kept busy weeding, trimming edges, and mowing the main lawn. I also turned and weeded next year’s compost, which gave us the added treat of a few potatoes, which, like my French tomatoes, had grown out of the heap.
Regular readers will be familiar with my view that I’ll eat barbecued food provided someone else cooks it. Preferably as well as Ron, to whose efforts I was introduced on 26th May. I don’t relish fiddling about with charcoal and firelighters when there are perfectly good facilities in most kitchens. That is why today’s weather conditions, in that respect, were to my liking. 
Elizabeth roasted the meats in the oven; we served ourselves from the hobs; and sat in a civilised manner at the table indoors. The ladies had produced various salads, laid out safe from flying invaders.
I don’t remember what the wines were. Danni sported her new necklace which she had donned immediately.
Another industrious activity continued today was the grand garage clearance. Danni and Andy have for some time now been engaged in helping my sister decide what to do with the contents of the annexe which has never had room for a car. They have made regular trips to the dump, and however much they take out, the space resembles the Magic Porridge Pot which always replenishes itself. This weekend they had reinforcements in the form of Adam and Thea. Much progress was made. The garage is being cleared for the Open Studios exhibition planned for late summer.
Some of the stored items actually belonged to Adam. One of these is his first dragon, whose wings have taken a battering over the years. I mentioned yesterday Flo’s interest in such creatures and her Dragonology website. My nephew, Adam Keenan, has come a long way since making his dragon with a group as a GCSE project. On 28th July last year, in my post ‘Family Pride’, I described how, in Le Code Bar in Sigoules, I had watched the Olympic closing ceremony featuring Adam’s doves of peace. Knowing he now worked making such models, and animatronics for the film and advertising worlds, I had, for Flo’s birthday three years ago, commissioned him to make her a working dragon. He had not let me down.