Ducks in a Storm

Venturing out after being hunkered down all day, we went shopping for bread and milk. I was amazed to see the Space Shuttle still being used on cereal boxes. Here's one on this week's shreddies.

Is it still relevant to kids?

Braving hefty late-afternoon gusts of Storm Eowyn we met this cute buffeted duck sheltering behind our legs near the Derwent Water shore. Aw! Do you like ducks?

Keswick's ring of peaks was even moodier in the stormy dusk tonight.

The Lakeshore's ducks walked toward the warm glow of the houses to roost beside the park.

This igloo dining table caught my eye.

After being blasted by Eowyn we sought solace and pizza in Pockets bar and bistro.

Walking home we nipped into the North West's premier supermarket chain, Booths.

Kendal Mint Cake was aplenty. Do you know it? 

Aether Ransomes Swallows and Amazons was on offer, a famous Lakeland kids adventure. Do you know it? 

And as we left this beautiful travel poster reminded us of our hiking destination tomorrow, Castlerigg Stone Circle. Have you been?

James Bond, Johnstown Castle, Wexford

After my last blogworthy post featuring Dinky Prisoner mokes, here's a visit to a Dinky exhibition at Johnstown Castle Wexford Ireland. 

The Maurice Bryan model vehicle collection features over 600 items, but only a fraction are on display in a converted garage in the Castle grounds.

The exhibition signage is very nice with modified catalogue art. What is that red twin bubbled vehicle, Moonbasers? 

The James Bond car is a first run gold paint number, although it doesn't feature the road tax disc on the windscreen that my example does. 

Also, it's displayed in the full glare of daylight, so I don't expect it to last another 50 years!

Looey

On tour

PETE'S BEARS

Our final AirBnB accommodation in Kingsbridge was indeed a rare find.

An extended and converted garage transformed into a lovely compact studio, we loved it.

Over three days, we really enjoyed this private pad's sunny space. We never made it up the ladder into the mezzanine but we adored the owner Pete's own art scattered round the place.

Wanting to share the paintings, I snapped them for the blog. Hope you like them too.

This bear and girl had us mesmerised. It reminded me of John Schoenherr's bears.

I was really taken with this thoughtful astronaut.

The biggest piece on display, this stag and forest was so fabulously striking.

High up on a shelf was this second and bigger bear, a beautiful portrait.

You can read more about Peter's art and his fascination with bears and other wildlife on his own page.

https://peteodonnellart.weebly.com/about.html

The Devonian Horde

I take it all back. Devon came up trumps in the end! Here's the full toy haul now safely back at Moonbase for sifting, sorting and fixing. Talk about Devon sent! 

Broadway, Baskervilles and Goodbye to the Exe

Well, our hols are more or less over. We are en route to God's own county (Yorkshire!) but have broken the journey in half, overnighting in Broadway in the Cotswolds, half hour from the M5 motorway and the final two hour stretch home tomorrow.

Broadway is a long Cotswolds village, peppered with mansions and listed sandstones. James Martin has an old huge gastro pub here. It's an affluent place but we still found four charity shops, from which I sadly garnered nowt.

We stayed here one Winter years ago, twinkling with Christmas lights and decidedly quiet, where we visited Snowshill house.

Not so today. It's rammed to the Grade 1 rafters with tourists: big coaches of Japanese folks on a grand tour and fleets of slick black SUV's housing retired couples in loafers and pastel pullovers draped over svelte shoulders. The difference is startling. It's a honeypot of dosh.

Being retirees ourselves we have retired to our room in an old, modest, crooked inn, kaput and ready for our evening grub at 7pm. Hopefully we'll have scoffed and retired once more before the football starts on the pub telly when England take on Holland and things get tense.

In our cozy room is this old print hung on the wall. It immediately reminded me of one of my favourite Hammer horrors, the Hound of the Baskervilles and the opening scenes, where the jilted Baron, hell-bent on revenge, screams that immortal line,

'Release the hounds!'

Sherlock Holmes aka Peter Cushing eventually solves the case but only in the nick of time, the current Baron coming frighteningly close to the sulphurous maw of the Hell Hound.

It was a true shocker when I was a kid and only shown post-watershed after 9pm. These days I've watched it mid-afternoon on the telly!

I was always surprised there wasn't more merchandising made of the story. I can't recall any games, jigsaws or toys at all. It would have made a great Aurora model, especially the glow-in-the-dark feature, perfect for the beast's fiery jaws.

Maybe Sherlock Holmes licences were difficult for model and toy companies to acquire?

I do recall thinking about the Baskerville curse as we drove through Devon's darkling lands between the Exe and the Dart and in particular heeding the warning at its heart

'to forbear from crossing the moor in those dark hours when the powers of evil are exalted.'

Do you have a hellish hound near you?

Devonian Days

Today was our last full day in our old stomping ground, the South Hams in Devon. We lived in Slapton for six months in the glorious Spring and summer of 1987.

It's been a trip down memory lane for sure.

Here are a few snaps from today.

Plastic ferry. I used to have one. You?

Torcross. Unknown tank.

Torcross. D-Day Rehearsals.

Kingswear, islet of millionaires

Dartmouth Castle canon with a range of two and a half miles.

Unknown navy vessels.

Bayards fort, Dartmouth

Bayards. It's in my head they filmed part of the Onedin Line here. My Mum adored that old TV show.

A pedal car seen in a charity shop. £30.

Have you been to Devon?

I'm Seeing Things!

 I think a lack of old toys in South Devon's charity shops is making me see things on holiday. 

Yesterday I saw this modern Paw Patrol armoured car on a shelf and could have sworn ...

.. it was this B.A.T from Manta Force! If only! ( I did find some free Manta Force in a Totnes street though. They give stuff away there. Not the B.A.T alas!)

Reading about Kenner's Super Powers I also started seeing things.

Lex Luthor's 7 ship looks a lot like....

The vehicle in the Mattel Secret Wars Doom Roller. Not sure which is older?

And this crazy Kenner Super Powers yellow spacecraft has the same swept back look as ...

..... This mad blue MOON Car with its magic eyeball. No idea who made this nutty toy or when!

Do you like any of these toys?

Do you know of any similar designs?

Do you see things that aren't there?

Totnes Tasties

 A few treats we mulled over in Totnes, the hippy capital of the South West. We love it! 

Anything you would have got?

A Squire Fender Strat £125.

David Shepherd Lions print my older Bro had in his bedroom in the Sixties £160

The contraption in the centre caught my eye in this jewelers. Reminds me of the finger trap in the Adams Family movie! 

And if I was a Count I'd be very taken with that big black ring in the middle here! A Bela special! 

This was in a vintage shop. A cardboard and plastic Learjet. Remember them?

In one of the towns many bookshops was an entire tome devoted to the film The Wicker Man. Have you seen it?

Microdot board game £10. I used to find these regularly at car boots. Not any more. Note the Berlin number plate.

I liked this old Darth Vader mask. There's a chest panel too. Anyone recognise it? £30

A few die-casts to finish up.

Excerpts of Exeter

 Not much charity toy action in Exeter but here's a few things.

Whilst looking for Action Man knitting patterns, I saw this old cardi knitting pamphlet. What's that big toy plane?

This Airfix Bismarck caught my eye.

I got these three comics on the way down in Tewkesbury. A squid each.

And given my current run on the gee gees I couldn't resist another Sindy horse, this time a white one, along with a very snazzy squirrel.

Anything you like here?