Photo-a-Day  (Tuesday, 1st May, 2018)

Yellow daffs, yellow jackets, a cheerful scene. I wonder when this photo was taken. Daffodils here in Norfolk are over, the last of them finished off by the gales & rain of the last week, as if they had never been but Praise the Lord & put The Ark away, the sun is shining !

Are the kids trying to blend in with the daffs?

Ron, thanks for this its a lovely photo. Once again my wife and myself have not been able to get over from Yorkshire to see the daffodils. Know what, this has made my wife homesick for Aspull, oh dear !. Thanks again Ron and more please.

Anyone remember the old concrete bus shelter, ladies & gents either side? Covered in graffiti, painted over and covered again.
Lovely scene Ron - thanks.

What a lovely scene. Nothing nicer than daffs on a sunny morning.

That's a very pretty scene Ron,thank you.

Irene there was some lovely Daffs on Photo-a-Day Friday, 27th April, 2018, did you miss them.
I rode past them this morning in the May sunshine and they where still lovely.

No, I saw them Mick. Shame they bloom, die and then are forgotten.....feel a bit like that myself!

Looks like a kid's "walking bus"

I've said it previously Mick, and been accused of being patronising, but I'll risk saying it again...... It would only take a few minutes to learn the difference between wear, were, we're, ware and where,..... and don't try telling me that they all sound the same, as I'm already awhere of that, but they all have a different meaning. Now why not give it a try?, you've got nothing to lose after all. No disrespect intended here mate, you know I think you're a great guy....Just have a good day now pal,...and keep on truckin'.

( I know already that it won't make any soddin' difference.)

Respect. Ozy.

I'm waiting for Cherry Blossom and Apple Blossom in the next few weeks ... Oh and carpets of Bluebells! I wonder who'll be the first with those.

What!!! you don't have daffs in Yorkshire JJP ??

Alan, we have plenty daffodils in Yorkshire and they are lovely also but it's not just the daffodils it's seeing the village of our childhood days in all its springtime glory.

A lovely photo of a lovely area.

Ohhh I seeeee.

Once again, this has nowt to do with Ron's photo...., apologies Ron,.... but as a kid, riding my bike up to Fred Rose's garage almost every Saturday morning in the early 60's, ( and bear in mind, I was riding six or more miles from Garswood ), it occurs to me that I may quite well have ridden past your previous gaff JJP....I'm just being curious here, that's all. But then, there's nothing wrong with being curious in my view... I'm not sure if the houses around St. David's avenue had been built at that time...They may quite well have been, but if they were, then I failed to notice them. I'm reasonably confident however that the properties behind the Running Horses hadn't, been built at that time, which doesn't leave many other options really, does it?
I used to ride past The Moorgate as far as Barker's de lane farm. ( I'm not confident about the spelling here ), at which point, I would take the dirt path to the right, up through the fields to emerge on the A6 almost opposite Fred Rose's garage.
Basically, what I'm going around the houses trying to say here JJP, is, whereabouts in Aspull did you actually reside?
Bloody hell, one of these days I may even learn to just come straight out with it.

Regards marra. Ozy.

Ozy have you seen the big cut up fallen tree in the plantations, last week I nailed a Chinese clock onto it, but this morning it was still there where I nailed it but the hands have gone missing.
I also wrote MICK in old pennys and knocked a few more coins into it,including some foreign ones.
I also noticed someone had left a knocking in rock on the tree

Ozy old chap, I was born on Crawford Avenue 1947. In 1969 the year I got married we moved to Scot Lane, were we lived in an old house long ago demolished. In 1975 we moved to the estate behind the Running Horses, newly built at the time, the house we lived in stood on what was once Aspull Amateur's football ground. In 1983 another move took us over to North Yorkshire were we have lived ever since - 35 years now. I remember well the highways and byways of which you speak and Fred Roses ERFs pulling up Scot lane. I must confess, even after 35 years in exile I love to go back to Aspull, meet some old friends and see the old place, especially in spring in full colour, changed a lot over the years hasn't it ?.
Kind regards JJP.

Unlike yourself Mick, the closest that I've ever come to China is the Chinese chippy in Earle St., so I'm not sure what a Chinese clock actually looks like.
I have a dental appointment tomorrow, and it'll likely cost me money if I fail to turn up, but on Thursday, weather permitting, I'll have a ride up there on the trusty ' Royal Albert ' to check it out.
Even though the marque of my bike is technically a ' Royal Albert ', I prefer to to refer to it as an ' Uncle Albert ', as it was almost certainly around ' during the woaah '.

P.S., I don't know what a ' knocking in rock ' is either, but no doubt all will be revealed.

Regards. Ozy.

Gary, Ste Whitfield the Newsagent from down Diccy Mill used that Bus Shelter as his sorting office for the Evening Papers. The Papers were dropped off there and the Paperboys, who knew the numbers of the houses they delivered too by heart would rhyme them off while Ste put the Papers in a pile ready for the off, much to the fascination of people waiting for a Bus who marveled at the speed they could do this.
Any Papers that remained were left on the seat in the Shelter and anyone who wanted one would leave the money on the pile of Papers and Ste collected the money after he had delivered his own round. Can you imagine anyone doing that now?

Aware !.

Aware !. Ozy ?.

Those children look ridiculous in those green jackets, and why do they need them?. Dont tell me theyre for health and safety; never had to wear those things when I was at school, so whats changed?. How about school children being treated like human beings rather than as slaves or robots, going to prison (sorry i mean school) and being forced to learn more irrelevant subjects that mean nothing to them, more exams, more homework instead of more freetime.

Al, if you think those jackets are ridiculous you should have seen some of the stuff that I had to go to school in! One summer when I was in Infant School I had to go in every day wearing Wellies because that's all I had! It didn't bother me much, any more than wearing those jackets will bother these kids.

Ozy I should have said its a Ying and Yang Chinese clock, if you stand in front of it for around 20 seconds it will balance your Ying and Yang.
We all need our Ying and Yang re balanced now and again, and this clock with the help of the tree does that

When the Autumn nights arrive, those fluorescent jackets make sure the children are seen more easily by motorists.....sensible in my point of view. There wasn't as much traffic when we oldies were at school and motorists didn't drive as fast. The point of view on irrelevant subjects, (I learned LATIN!), and huge amounts of homework I agree with.

Its a good idea for the children to be wearing those coloured tops. They are probably being picked up by staff from an after school club. I have seen toddlers wearing them when out with nursery staff. Its just a way of keeping them together so they don't run off I suppose.

DTease - Ste and Maggie Whitfield bought my mother and father's home, 489, Bolton Road in 1955 and moved their shop into what was the front room.
His newspaper routine was legendary and he and Maggie delivered harvest festival parcels to the elderly for St Elizabeth's Church.

The hi-vis jackets are always worn now by nursery children and schoolchildren,as a safety precaution. I agree Irene,about the vast amounts we had to do,what good did that do ?The Latin though only learned for 2 or 3 years has been of use and interest in helping to see how other languages have come about.

For the benefit of those amongst us who aren't quite tuned into my wavelength, my use of the word ' awhere ' was merely intended to illustrate an example of a nonsense word that can be pronounced as though it were the real thing.
Now getting back to riding my bike up to Blackrod in the late 50's, early 60's, I recall passing the surgery of a dentist on the right hand side, coming up through Whelley, or perhaps it was Scholes, who's name was Edward McGraw. I thought the name was apt, and somewhat comical, as at that particulat time, there used to be a cartoon on t.v. entitled ' Quick Draw McGraw '.
It caused me no end of amusement anyway.

Ozy, that was the Chemist's shop in New Springs, across from St John's School.

Oozy, I admire your dedication, you must have been very keen to get to Fred Rose's Garage because there is a lot of uphill pedaling between Wigan and Blackrod and Ivy Brow was much steeper then than it is now.

Dtease I can just see you in your wellies turned down at the top and wearing one of those 'windjammers' and a balaclava! There was quite a few in the fifties dressed like that.

Sorry, I omitted the word' homework' in the text. As Irene said, we had stacks of it.Goodness knows why???

Veronica, for ages I had two rings round my legs where the top of my Wellies had rubbed the skin. Yerafterlaughdontcha.

Veronica, your description of me is uncanny. That is exactly what I looked like at that time. I never went anywhere without my balaclava in winter.

At school Elizabeth we learned a lot of prayers in Latin ....ie Pater Noster, Ave Maria and the Credo and it's beautiful to hear them sung. We sang the Mass all the way through once a year and took part in the Mass in Latin until it all changed in 1963 at the second Vatican Council. Something you never forget. ( even though we didn't really understand it all!). That was all part of a Catholic education.

Not forgerrin' snotty conk lad!

Yes chapped legs through wearing wellies were 'par for the course' ! Then it was a case of slathering Fuller's Earth Cream on before bed! It stung like mad!

Are we to assume that this would have been in your pre - fascinator days DTease, or did you have to have your ballycolanders specially fabricated, in order to accommodate said fascinator?

At this time of life Ozy I was fascinating all over (Ask little Valerie from next door but one, she thought I was VERY fascinating). It was somewhat later that the rot set in.

Yes Veronica,I agree about the Latin prayers sounding lovely when sung.I bet you have lots of memories of St.Patrick's. My friend Margaret who sadly died 3 years ago used to go to the Novenas there as a young girl.

Well Dtease if you want to wander down Memory Lane listen to this song and be fascinating once again!
My Foolish Heart

The night is like a lovely tune
Beware my foolish heart,
How white the ever constant moon,
take care my foolish heart,
There's a line between love and fascination
That's hard to see on an evening such as this...........

If that doesn't bring it all back - nothing will !
you can listen to it on Ytube - Make sure it's Margaret Whiting and NOT Rod Stewart - he ruins it!

I can 'sing' all those prayers in Latin but can't say them Elizabeth... How strange is that!

You're right Veronica, Margaret Whiting has a lovely voice, far better than Rod Stewart.
Mind you, next door's dog sings better than Rod Stewart!

I can sing, (if I didn't have a voice like two cracked plates), "Oh Come All Ye Faithful", in Latin, ("Adeste Fidelis"), and I can read a doctor's prescription, but the Latin I learned at school I found useless, I'm afraid.

Another bit of Latin that I will not forget was written on our school badge 'Semper Fidelis'. Always Faithful!