Friday.

Above picture shows the other (or off) side of yesterday's mystery object. I must say that Rog gets the answer absolutely right when he says 'very good Crowbard', in that Crowbard's first comment is completely correct. I could hardly have bettered his description (including the area of Italy) meself. I think I would have gone for the latter year of the dates to which he attributes the pistol, but this is a quibble.  Full marks young Horner, and again full marks Peacock for spotting that fact.

thursday.

Been, so far, a very busy week. On Tuesday we motored to London in the morning. Parked at Liz's, then by tube to Bonham's in Knightsbridge where we viewed their Arms and Armour sale - very large one -596 lots!  Back to Liz's where Georgia and her partner, Andy,  had made dinner.  On Wednesday returned to Bonham's and bid. Got eight lots (scattered over a long day). Paid for these, then  Andy helped pack them, and I left him in charge of doing so, whilst I went and got  a taxi for our return with goodies to Chiswick. Again supped and slept at Liz's (shades of Parson Woodford ?   Probably, just been rereading him). Do other bloggers find that their reading matter is then reflected in  the style of their blog a little?).  This morning to Sotheby's Arms and Armour sale, which will not be held until next Wednesday, but Thomas Delmar, their Arms and Armour Director, and a good friend, had suggested that we had a private viewing of the bits that interested us. Left one (fairly optimistic bid). Then back to Liz's, sandwich and coffee, bless her, then drove home.

                                            _____________________________________

Photo above is not really a mystery object, as it is obviously a pistol, but perhaps some of you would care to guess  its lock type, age, date, and country of origin?

                                           _________________________________________

                                                                 Good night all.

Monday.

One last shot of Great Granddaughter Elsa for the time being (I promise). She will lie quietly kicking her legs in the air, then suddenly appears to realise that a foot is threatening to kick her in the teeth. She will then examine it carefully, giving it every possible test, the final one being the taste test. She then appears to accept that all is well, and that she is not being threatened by some foreign foot, and settles down to sucking her socks/ toes in a thoroughly contented fashion.

          The rest of this week looks like being thoroughly busy, so it may be a day or two before my next blog entry. We'll see.

 In the meantime, Good Bless you All.

P.s. Having closed this blog entry, I remembered that I really started this entry to record that we had our first frost last night. Then I'm afraid I started waffling on about other things and forgot the whole object of the exercise.  You will tell me if you ever notice that I'm getting a little vague and forgetful, won't you?  I quote P.G.Wodehouse's character, Lord Emsworth.  
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Saturday.

Yesterday evening our granddaughter Georgia, her partner Andy, and their daughter (our great-granddaughter ) Elsa Elizabeth Gumley, arrived to spend the weekend with us. Actually they arrived rather late, due to delays on the M4, the M25, and the A12 roads. It sounds a nightmarish journey, but it's lovely to have them here. Their daughter Elsa, is an absolute delight to have about the place. She is a happy, contented  baby, with a smile like the rising sun. Said smile is easily activated, and she is musically appreciative even of her great Grandfather's singing. After lunch today I was able to sing her to sleep with all the basso profundo songs I was able to dredge up from memory ('rocked in the cradle of the deep', a 17th century German drinking song-'Within the Cellar's cool Domain', 'Forty Years on', etc.)

Photo above taken before breakfast, showing Elsa entertaining (or being entertained by) two gentlemen.

Again above photo shows Elsa playing with her great Grandmother.

 Three different generations of young ladies, Ann, Elsa, and Georgia.

This one taken towards the end of a one man smoking concert, minutes after which the audience (Elsa), went to sleep. My Grandfather, Elsa's great-great-great Grandfather was the possessor of a rumbling basso profundo voice that you could feel rather than hear,and he always used to say that most small babies could be easily pacified by a deep male voice, and that he'd yet to meet the tiny baby that he couldn't sing to sleep. I wouldn't go quite as far as that, but (far more often than not) I can usually sing little ones to sleep.   That aside, it is being a lovely weekend, although we're all thinking about granddaughter Amelia, who's baby is about to put in an appearance either today, or in the next few days.  Look forward to meeting her (and yes, this being a scientific age - we DO know). She'll be a second cousin to Elsa, and I do hope they'll grow up knowing each other. There's a lot to be said for family.

Thursday.

Here is the answer to yesterday's 'mystery object'. It is an adjustable candle stand, made in England, a very few years either side of the year 1800. It's purpose is to enable its owner to read small print by candle light, by raising or lowering the candle flame so as to be as near the page as is safely possible.

And here is a photo showing your blogger reading a rather small printed version of Tom Brown's Schooldays, and demonstrating how the candle stand would have been used.
It was sold to me as being a lace maker's lamp stand. A lace maker's lamp is a footed glass sphere that, when filled with water, became a quite effective magnifying glass.  However, my home village finally got the electricity in 1950, so that I do know about reading by candle light, and the adjustable candle stand made reading by candle light a much easier proposition. It probably would have made lacemaking easier of a winter evening, but I think the major purpose would have been to assist in reading after dark.

Wednesday.

Last Saturday morning, in Beccles, I bought the above 'Mystery Item'. It is six inches across the top and seven and a half inches high. It appears to be made of fairly straight grained walnut (I think).
                    What do you think is its purpose, and where and when was it made.
                                              Good guessing.

Tuesday.

Fairly busy day yesterday. Picked up Hilary in town and drove over to Layham, where we went to a coffee morning with friends.  After lunch Ann and I motored over to a village the far side of Stowmarket. As you can see patchy weather - sunshine and cloud, and with lovely autumn colours still.

The clock we were going to fix is one I sold to friend David about fifteen years ago. It is pictured below. It is a very pleasant country made clock. It was made in the north of England in about 1740. The really nice thing about the clock is its size. It stands an inch or so UNDER  six foot, and is nicely proportioned in that the dial is ten inches square, instead of the more usual foot square. The problem was that the clock rope had broken (which isn't surprising after fifteen years) but I found that it had broken at the splice, and as the rope was otherwise in good enough condition, I simply re-spliced it, which took about half an hour, which left nicely time for tea and cake with David, and an exchange of news.

It doesn't show on the photo but the silvered chapter ring is becoming a bit patchy and David would like it re-silvered . Wish he'd said; I'd have taken the necessary kit for the job and done it in situ. Still, as he  said - it gives us a good reason for going again (probably soon after Christmas). He's a good chap; was widowed about ten years ago, and seems to be coping extremely well on his own (bakes his own bread, etc. and the house is immaculate).   I think he was glad to sit and chat, though. Must be a fairly lonely life for a sociable bloke. It wouldn't suit me, and I hope I never have to put that to the test.

          Good Night All.

Saturday.

 It's all right; don't panic.  You ARE in the right blog. It's just that on Friday morning we drove up to Yagnub, pausing at one or two of the few remaining antique shops in the area to do  a little buying. We then called (by prior arrangement) on Z, had coffee with her and young Roses, then took Z for lunch to a Pub  that she'd recommended .  I'm a great believer in 'local knowledge' -this one was good! We puzzled for a while over the hand written blackboard of 'specials' for lunch, and found a problem. One of the items said,  ( or so one of us thought) 'Fish pie with cherry topping'. Another possible reading of the item was 'Fish pie with cheery topping' (I rather thought though, that if I were a fish who'd been put in a pie, I would find it difficult to feel cheery about it) but Z, being local I suppose, read it as fish pie with cheesy topping. We all ordered a portion of the fish pie, and Of course Z had been right about it. Very good it was, too. Not quite up to one of Ann's fish pies (it lacked that 'je ne sais quois' that a small handful of capers in the ingreediments gives it ) but it was nonetheless a very decent fish pie, and enjoyed by all three of us, as was the bread and butter pudding that followed it.  Then back to Z's for more coffee and chat. We eventually took our leave of Z, and explored the two antique shops in Yagnub, successfully -in that we bought a couple of pieces.

Then on to the B & B establishment  (pictured above) where we'd arranged to spend the night. A lovely old place it is, too.  Our hostess told us that it was built in 1575.

The above picture shows our bedchamber. The two rounded items in the foreground show our bedheads - Ann said the bed was 'Queen Size' - which gives a fair idea of the size of the bedroom. Had a very substantial breakfast this morning in the oak panelled dining room, which set me up nicely for the morning. Then on to Beccles, where we did a bit more antique hunting (and a bit more buying, I'm glad to say), then on to Halesworth, where we'd invited our old friends, Pat and Doc, to take a pub lunch with us. Doc had booked us a table next to the fire at the Triple Plea, a pub just outside Halesworth which I'd not seen for some years, and I remembered it as being a very basic beer house. It has been enlarged slightly, as has the menu, and they gave us a quite decent lunch. Then back to Doc and Pat's home, and drank coffee, whilst Doc explained where we could find three new antique shops in town. Found the shops, but not the promised antiques, as they didn't have anything that qualified as 'antique' as far as I'm concerned.  Still, it was good to see Doc and Pat again, it's been a few years since we've got together.

Then drove home via the A12.  The weather was misty and indeed threatened fog most of the way. A few miles north of Ipswich the skies became very threatening as the sun went down, and as you can see in the above snapshot,  it looked  quite dramatic for a while. Still, we reached home in the dry at about 5.30 p.m., feeling that we'd had a very sociable (and reasonably successful -business wise) weekend.

Wednesday.

The other day our car supplier (who is very solicitous about his products) wrote to us to say that it was time our motor had its usual annual service, and an appointment had been made (if convenient). We therefore motored into Bury Saint Edmund's this morning to the garage. It was, as you can see a lovely sunny morning, with threatening clouds hovering in the West.  The garage (which has a very well equipped waiting room) supplied us with seats, and coffee, whilst the car was serviced, which took an hour.  When we'd paid the bill, a couple of the salesmen kept us talking about new , improved models (have an idea we'll soon be getting letters making offers that they hope we can't refuse- still we've had this car for three years come spring, so we'll see???). We set off back home, having decided to call in at Hollow Trees for lunch. A mile or so our side of Lavenham, there was the tail end of the storm we'd seen earlier, with rain, but the sun was shining under the clouds, so that it looked like rainbow weather (and it's been a lovely autumn for rainbows this year), and to our left we soon saw a magnificent single rainbow. The road was too busy to stop, so I asked Ann to pull into the next lane off to the left, which meant that we eventually pulled into Brent Eleigh, which lies nicely off the main road. By this time the rainbow had faded a good deal, but I eventually took the below two shots of it. The first was in the village, and the next one was just outside it. At its best it was a lovely fiery rainbow, but I'm afraid the photos just show the tail end of it.

 

Went, as planned, into Hollow Trees for lunch. We both had a large baked potato, Ann's with a tuna fish filling, mine with a turkey curry filling. Both very substantial.  As we left one of the waitresses told us that she was leaving - Fresh fields and Pastures New. She's a nice chatty girl (big eyed - always reminded me of a cheerful Bambi). Still it was nice that she'd told us, so we could thank her for past services (which were invariably quick and cheerful) and say our goodbyes.  Then home, and spent the rest of the day in the workshop (well, bar a quick post-prandial  zizz, I'm afraid).
          Wooden Hill time now - so Goodnight All.

Thursday.

We had a good, busy day, yesterday, at the Long Melford Antique Fair. This morning Ann ran me into the town, dropped me off at the Library, and I continued on foot to the Bank. After various odd errands I walked home - the pretty way- taking photos en route. The above picture (left to right) shows our ancient Guildhall, the Deanery Tower, and Saint Mary's Church.

Above is a closer look at the Guildhall. We're not really sure when it was built, but I was once told by one of our architectural historians that it was standing on its present site in the year 1386.

The above photo was taken through the Guildhall garden hedge, and the now roofless building was once the Guildhall kitchen. The structure to the left of the picture was once a large fireplace where the cooking was done for the guildhall. By the time the hot dishes had been rushed into the guildhall, along the passages and up the stairs to the banquet hall, I wouldn't think anyone was in much danger of burning their lips on the hot food.

Then along the river, over Toppesfield Bridge (above) then up Tinker's Lane, and Home. Noticed several thoroughly unseasonable plants in flower this morning, including dog violets and poppies. Been a lovely year weather wise, and it's  trying hard to pretend it's still summer really.

Must do some work now towards stocking up for the December Long Melford  Antique Fair, although I've got two repaired and restored antique clocks to deliver and set up in the meantime. It's good to feel busy. I don't think retirement will ever suit me.

Monday.

This morning we motored over to Ely to have lunch, as per usual with Ann's brothers. I took the above photo about half a mile from Ely because it always seems to me that from this position it is difficult to believe that a CITY nestles at the foot of this Cathedral.  Drove down to the Waterside Antique Centre, where I purchased a rather nice piece of pewter.

Took the above photo of the Cathedral from outside the hostelry at which we usually lunch - the Old Fire Engine House.

Above is the snug in the Fire Engine house just after the fire had been lit. This is where we usually wait for everyone to arrive, and the staff serves us buckshee (meaning free, Lori; and from an Anglo/Indian word backsheesh used by beggars) coffee, until everyone has arrived and we're ready to order.

I'd ordered partridge casserole (pictured above) partly because I like partridge, and partly because I know that their partridge casserole consists of whole partridges, which are served whole bird per order. Which reminds me of one other peculiarity of this restaurant - towards the end of the main course the waitress will come in and ask if we'd like anything more - vegetables, meat, or whatever. Ann's brother David tested this a while ago. He'd had roast beef, and he asked for a little more when it was offered, and got three more solid slices! I'm not sure that this wasn't a challenge on the part of the staff, and to help David keep face I helped with the extra beef (Gosh, I've been a good brother-in-law to that young man!)  Don't know what they'd do if I asked for a little more partridge. I've never dared because I think that they'd probably oblige with another whole bird, and I'm not sure I'd be able to cope with that these days.  Having said which I'm being called up for supper (which I trust will be a light one).

P.s. Poached egg on toast - Perfect!

Goodnight Everyone.

Sunday.

Been a busy-ish Sunday. Gave a friend of ours a lift into Aldham Church. He has been recently widowed and has, also recently, given up driving - for reasons connected with this Anno Domini stuff they keep dishing out.  Read the first lesson, from Revelation. Pouring with rain when we got home, and drove Robert to his door - we'd all taken brollies. Then home, and the above lunch. Since we returned from Sweden we've started eating midday, with a light meal in the evening - seems to suit us.  The above photoed meal consists of chicken thighs, in egg coated with sage and apple, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, cabbage and mashed potatoes, with (top left) yellow pepper, roasted with blue cheese, breadcrumbs and chopped herbs inside.  Followed by apple sponge pudding with, of course, custard, then coffee followed by a quick zizz for both of us.  Been in the workshop since wakening, getting ready for Long Melford.

P.s. Should have said - that was a glorious lunch!!!!