20 January 2020

Cold night and frost again. Making bread and a walk beside the Weaver in the sun. Still battling with my book.

19 January 2020

It turned much colder. We had a frost last night and today there is thick mist. Bad day for photos as I was pretty busy and couldn't find a really good picture of the fog. I should have just taken one anyway. Here's a photo of the village mural I took yesterday.

18 January 2020

Another largely sunny day. The village I live in is home the quite a large flock of Jackdaws. They used to nest in our chimney and ended up blocking it. The guys who cleared the blockage removed about six bin liners full of twigs.

Jackdaws, Hartford Road.

17 January 2020

Quiet day. Coolish but not really cold. Battling with my book. Although it's mostly written sorting the posts is proving much more difficult than I anticipated.

The good news is that my Winter onions and garlic (pictured) are coming up.

15 January 2020

Lovely bright sunny Winters day which was good because I had to cycle to work at the food bank which is about two miles from where I live. Here's a photo of my trusty steed. I've had it for 25 years and it's still going strong although it weighs a ton compared to modern mountain bikes.

14 January 2020

It didn't stay dry for very long! Rain today and lots of it. Heavy in spells. Here's the evidence:

13 January 2020

Monday. After the almost ceaseless rain of the past four months, it has been a bit dryer and a bit warmer but not much. The latest news on the climate crisis is grim. Apparently, the sea is warming rapidly. Today was grey but fairly dry. Off for supplies again and took a photo of the War Memorial in the village.

12 January 2020

Sunday. After a very wet Autumn and Winter its been fairly dry for the past couple of weeks. Cold but nowhere near freezing.  Spent some time looking at and sorting old family photos of my parents and grandparents.

Ethel and James Thorp

Nana Thomas and me.

My parents' wedding. L-R: James Thorp, Ethel Thorp, Mavis Thorp, Geoffrey Thorp, Annie Thomas.

11 January 2020

A good day out in Manchester with my old friend Peter. Weather was mildish and I even managed to get a moderately newish Nothern Rail train instead of the ancient Pacer.  Even though the seats were new there isn't enough leg room between them!

We visited the Northern Quarter and a couple of our favourite pubs including The Castle and Crown and Kettle.

The Castle

There are lots of good murals in the NQ

Mackie Mayors

Crown and Kettle

10 January 2020

Beautiful sunny Winters day. Not too cold. Good to know that it's getting lighter every evening. I went for a walk by the Weaver and across the field that I've avoided for over a month because it's been so wet the field was flooded only to find that the farmer had cut the maize and driven over it in something which looked like it was a tank. The footpath was pretty much obliterated. 

Good the see the horses in the paddock. I've never seen a Pheasant though I heard one today and also the distant sound of shooting. I haven't seen a Heron by the river in ages.

Eaton Lane

Spot the footpath

Vale Royal Locks

River Weaver aqueduct. The main line to Liverpool.

9 January 2020

Dullish day. I walked down to the local shops to get some supplies and couldn't resist a pic of the Bulls Head. It is on London Road and used to be a coaching inn.

8 January 2020

My New Years' resolution is to cut down the alcohol and lose weight. I've lost half a stone in the last couple of months. No alcohol Monday to Thursday. I've embraced alcohol-free beer which has become much improved lately. I can recommend these two.

7 January 2020

A massive improvement this year with one of the best Xmas presents ever! Some really nice warm slippers. I've always suffered from cold feet and these are great! Small things can make a big difference!

6 January 2020

Working on my book and it's almost finished! I say that but the writing is almost finished it's going to take me quite a while to edit it. Still, I'm feeling good about it 😀. It's based on my blog called Capitalism Creates Poverty and you can find it here.

5 January 2020

Bit of a mixed day. Cool rather than cold. Sunny spells but cloudy. We decided to go to Dunham Massey but on arrival realised we'd messed up. We should have guessed -  it's the final Sunday before people have to go back to work and the place was rammed. We didn't hang around.

Plan B involved a trip to Knutsford on the way home. A walk around town and a trip to the Moor to see the ducks and Geese.

Knutsford Church

4 January 2020

A fairly quiet day. We stocked up on logs which hopefully will see us through to the Spring. 

Working on my blogs and my book - more of that later.

3 January 2020

Today the news is that Trump ordered a drone strike that killed the Iranian General Soleimani. This reckless act of murder is typical of Trump and could lead us into a war that might become WWIII if Iran's allies Russia and China get involved. What a great start to the year! 

Given that it was still dry and sunny we went for another local walk down to Vale Royal Locks.

By Vale Royal locks

This impressive hunk of stone lies by Vale Royal locks. Not sure about the coat of arms but Vale Royal Abbey is nearby. It was founded by Edward I and destroyed by Henry VIII. I'd imagine it's the arms of the Cholmondeley family who moved in early in the 1600s and later became Lords Delamere.

2 January 2020

Only four days into 2020 and I'm behind with this blog already. Anyway, my key theme at the start of this year is books - books everyone ought to be reading. Books that can help transform the world we live into a more equal and sustainable place with more economic power for workers. I started with The Making of a Democratic Economy and now I'm reading The Case for the Green New Deal by Anne Pettifor. 

As I write this in Australia huge bush fires are raging. An estimated 500 million animals have been killed along with 23 people so far. Huge damage has been done and its not over yet by any means. Unless we adopt something like a GND the outlook for our species looks bleak and its something which everyone should get behind if they care about the planet and their children's future.

Apart from reading what did I do? Fixed a flimsy bedhead to a bed and went for an excellent walk by the Weaver on a lovely sunny Winters day.

New Year 2020

So here we are. It's 2020. A new decade. Let's hope its much better than the last one though the election result on 12th December 2019 was about as bad as it could be. Another 5 years of Tory government which will probably mean a hard Brexit and privatisation of the NHS. There will be no relief for the poor or the homeless. My work at the food bank will continue despite the fact that I was hoping a Labour government would make me redundant!

This is going to be a time when we are going to have to stick together and show solidarity with each other and work hard to build our own economy which is why I've chosen this photograph as the first for this year.

This is a superb book which I bought and read recently and its the only way we can find any sort of independence from the domination of the 0.1% over our lives. I strongly recommend the book and the website of The Democracy Collaborative.