Flights of Rediscovery - Treasure Hunting

I'm struggling to be mindful its summer!!!! Our heating is on a timer thermostat thingy and it keeps coming on - that's ridiculous in July!!! I have managed to disable it but found that one evening last week we lit the fire!!! Allegedly its good for the garden but means our social contact is still limited as we really only entertain outside still being careful about the world at large.

This didn't stop us going down to Leeds last week to deliver a few bits and pieces to my daughter and to meet up with some old friends who we hadn't seen for nearly a year - we ended up camping out in another friends living room eating fish and chips and sitting as far apart as we could - its a funny world we are living in and I find not being able to hug my besties quite difficult!!! It was very good to catch up and see some different faces.

While we were in Leeds we took the opportunity to have a wee reckie at the stuff we have stored down there - unsurprisingly there was a lot of rubbish!! But there were also some gems some of which I brought back to integrate into our new decor and some I am mulling over future plans for!! Ultimately a large skip will be the answer but not until I have researched every possibility!

Farting Gnome - every house should have one!

We do have quite a large number of books to transport all of which will find a home in our new house but it was the silly finds like the old childrens toys - Castle Greyskull and the Ghost Busters fire station that started to stir the nostalgia. Then we discovered the more ridiculous finds - the singing fish - terrible but strangely fascinating and even worse the farting gnome which in spite of being in a shed for over 8 years still worked and now makes me jump out of my skin everytime I walk through the conservatory - its kinda compulsive to keep in on....

hand carved horse (by Alastair) - my children loved this - its finding a place in our new home now

The shed we were using has seen better days and needs emptying asap.. It hadn't even been opened for 8 years the cobwebs and viney bits were quite spectacular - the haunted shed of Headingley!!! full of mostly half empty paint tins and lego!!! But in amongst the farting gnomes and old paint rollers were some almost useful objects like roller blind kits, an enamel stove and enamel powders (interesting rainy day experiments ahead), ancient garden equipment including an old scythe with a beautiful handle and lots more rubbish I will find a use for!!!

look at this beauty - superbly hideous Atlas table perfect for my soon to be over the top decor in the hall - needs work and a wee bit of restoration...... nice old wooden tray as well - TREASURE!!!

Further indoor storage revealed lots more treasures.... occasional tables to be upcycled and lots of pictures I had forgotten about. Everything was very dusty and grubby so it was a messy process but we loaded the van with as much as we could be bothered with and brought it home where it has pretty much been subsumed into our house without trace!!! my mind is mulling over the rest and it will soon either find a home or disappear into the depths of a skip!!!

the Taj - taken on a very fab trip - about 30 photos taken as the sun rose hand placed to build a collage- in a very rubbish plastic frame but for now covering space - all heading for new fixtures and fit for a palace!!

We haven't even started under the eaves yet - if my memory serves me right - and its not very reliable - its mainly books and china stored there - its all rather fun actually - rediscovering things I thought were important 10 - 15 years ago - interesting to see what endures and what gets skipped the next few months.

Scotland part 2

The second half of the week continued in much the same vein. We had one rainy afternoon which was actually quite nice to be holed up in the house with the rain lashing the windows. It probably wasn't quite so nice for the two visitors that came on their bikes but they're tough cookies - and its only water- but I did feel sorry for them having to cycle six miles back down the track in the wind and rain, but given Scotland, it wasn't as bad as it could be. The big quest for the 2nd half of the week was to find some deer antiers! The chap that owned the house dropped in to visit - he was a very friendly fella and was chatting about how this was the time of year when all the Stags lost their antlers (he collected them and sold them) so after that we were on the serious lookout. It's always been Fred's mission to find some dropped antlers.... The Monro baggers continued with the mission to bag the remaining three Monros... there is discussion as whet...

Vigo

We left the ship to explore Vigo. Its a much larger place then we expected... although tbh I hadn't given ut a lot of thought. Its a real mish mash of old and new and having got a map from tourist info we decided to follow the walking trail to the Monte Castro... the highest point of the town. Most of the town was pretty much as everywhere else... lots of traffic... lots of people... one or two interesting buildings and a lot of shopping. We headed to the art gallery - this has been a year of gallery visits so we we seen o reason to change now. The Museo de Marco is housed in the towns ex prison building and its very grand. In fact, I think that on this occaision the building might have been more interesting than the art.... Although the visiting exhibition by Susanne S D Themlitz was strangely compelling. It was a huge varied collection of eclectic items... found, salavaged, manipulated and arranged in lots of ways - weirdly inspiring - and mostly enjoyable to look at...

Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira. An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. First of all the weather is really splendid. Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds.. Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm. Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs. In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill. It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town - completely over everybody's house... So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty b...

Planet Ruby Starrs

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