Road Map diaries June 2021

 When I came to add this post to my blog I was surprised to find that I hadn't written one since last year - time does fly, even during a pandemic. But now, everywhere is on the way to greater freedoms despite the Indian variant and because of the excellent vaccination programme. Our son and his girlfriend (early twenties) have an appointment for a covid jab in a week; the NHS staff (and volunteers) are doing really well round here. On Tuesday we got back from a long weekend in leafy Worcestershire in a lovely National Trust holiday cottage - nobody around for miles and very peaceful. We met up with our daughter and partner and their dachsund in a location which is almost half way between us both (they live in Greater Manchester). During our stay we had a day out at the Severn Valley Railway which was well organised and socially distanced as far as seating is concerned - it felt like a little bit of normality, apart from all the masks, of course.

As well as the train ride we also got off at Arley Station and walked alongside the river for three miles to the next station at Highley, then completed our journey to Bridgnorth where we had refreshments at the station buffet. The next day we paid a visit to Brockhampton Manor, a National Trust manor, complete with moat. On the way home we stopped off at Ledbury, a lovely and unspoilt old town, where we wandered for a while.

Brockhampton Manor

Ledbury Church

Since we have been back I found that I had some orders to wrap and book in with the courier, which I did, then started tidying the Retro Shed and Stone Shed (where the JVT stock is kept), to get some order into the chaos. There is still much to be listed, so I won't be buying anything new anytime soon. 

There is a special offer on at the moment in JVT which is buy two get one free - so have a look!

Stay safe , wear your masks and get your covid jabs!

Julie

 

November 2020:Lockdown 2

 I am late with this latest episode of the blog but have been busy with other things including some Zoom meetings which is a new thing for me. We, in the Cotswolds, will be leaping from Tier I to complete lockdown on Thursday, along with everyone else in England. We both had our free NHS flu jabs at the beginning of October - my husband has bronchiectasis and I have asthma, which I have had most of my adult life. I had something of an allergic reaction the day after with a large reddish hard swelling on my arm the size of an egg but which went down again after a couple of days - my husband felt no after effects at all. Next week he is supposed to be giving his sister a lift to the Cobalt Unit in Cheltenham for a scan - she has had cancer in the past and has regular check ups - but we are not sure that will go ahead. Gloucestershire covid rates have been low for the past couple of months but now, like everywhere else thay are starting to rise - I think that the rate per 100,000 in the Cotswolds is around 100, but our population is mostly rural and therefore quite spread out. Our main towns are Cirencester and the busy (officially large village) Bourton-on-the-Water, famous for its river running through the centre and its many little bridges. It is popular at the best of times but has been exceptionally full from July onwards being a regular day trip option and lunch stop over for bikers. It has a number of attractions as well as its shops, including Birdland and a model village, and the nearby villages of the Slaughters are very picturesque. However, all will lapse into quiet again as was the case in the spring. At least it might be a good thing for the wildlife - I think that Bourton's ducks must be some of the most photographed in the country!

I was pleased to hear, this morning, that the National Trust has decided to keep its parks, gardens and countryside areas open under the same arrangements as before, so at least people will be able to have somewhere to go to appreciate nature. I had already booked to visit Westonbirt Arboretum tomorrow afternoon to see the trees, so wonderful at this time of the year, so Roy and I will go anyway but I hope that they make the same decision as the National Trust.We were regular visitors, when our children were small, to the enchanting light trail through the woods during the months leading up to Christmas - all the familiar trees looked very different lit up in different colours.

Our garden is not occupying me so much during this dormant season, though there are still jobs to do, but I find that I take up my interest in family history about now when the days come to a close at about 5pm. There is still some autumn colour here and there and I will continue to feed the birds throughout the winter as they are returning to our feeders just now as the berries start to go over. I did have a shock a couple of weeks ago as I saw a bird of prey - possibly a sparrowhawk - about the size of a pigeon sitting in the bird feeder tree. I know that they are part of the cycle of life but it is sad to see them taking the smaller garden birds that have kept us company through the spring and summer. There are still blue tits and great tits visiting but I have not seen the woodpeckers, robin, goldfinches, wrens or blackbird recently. We are being visited intermittently by a hedgehog after dark, for whom we put out some hedgie food to help him reach his minimum weight of 600g for hibernation. There is even a hog hotel which Roy has made but I expect that he/she has lodgings elsewhere! When the frosts begin I expect we won't see him/her for a while.. Here are a few photos that I have taken of the garden recently which I am trying to grow as a wildlife garden, but need to add some more shrubs for cover.

Here there is still some colour from the asters, a few late corn marigolds, sunflowers, verbena and some Californian poppies which have flowered since spring - but virtually no bees or butterflies about now.

I am still listing new items for judysvintagetoybox - I usually spend one day listing new items, half a day taking photos and half a day for packing orders and then I fit the writing of the blog in, usually on a Tuesday, whilst I am waiting for the orders to be picked up. I usually add only one new item at a time but may renew up to three expired items a day to keep the numbers up. I try to even things out over each day - but it always depends what else is going on. This week the orders have fallen off slightly, with no orders for judysvintagetoybox or redrococogarden, but they may pick up again as people think about Christmas. More vintage children's books have been added and I am looking forward to watching the new version of 'The Secret Garden' from the book by Frances Hodgson Burnett, which may be a favourite for some, and which is on Sky right now. At Halloween I always remember the animated film 'Coco' which tells the story of the Day of the Dead celebrated in some Latin American countries during normal times - an incredible film really with super graphics; also for the family is Jack Black in Goosebumps inspired by the books of R L Stine.

I hope that everyone continues to keep safe and healthy and find some occupation and mindfulness during the next few weeks.

Best wishes,

Julie

October 2020

 This is the second blog posting for Etsy shop Judysvintagetoybox which shop I am working on this week. I have made some new additions and have some more to come. I have found a small stash of some more children's books which I will be adding and some dolls as well as puzzles. 

Also some children's china, including the Flower Fairies plate pictured above.

We have much more settled weather here today, in the Cotswolds, even occasional sunshine, though I am sure that the showers aren't far away but nothing like the recently departed Storm Alex. I hope that everyone is safe and well and hasn't been affected too badly by the flooding.

Yesterday, we received in the post a wildlife camera on which we hope to view some of the nocturnal animals visiting our garden, in particular hedgehogs recently discovered. Roy has built a hedgehog house and I have started leaving food out at night as the hedgehog which we saw late one night looks to be quite small  and if they are too small to hibernate they are likely to die.

As keen cinema goers (to Cineworld in Cheltenham) we were saddened by the necessity to close UK cinemas, no doubt precipitated by the film promoters decision not to release the latest Bond until next April. I hope that they have considered that, by not giving the cinemas anything much except Tenet to show customers, there may not be any cinemas left by next April. Also the decision by Disney to show their latest film,Mulan, on their own Disney channel was not exactly helpful as far as cinemas go. Hopefully, there will still be somewhere to go and see films next year and maybe there will be a vaccine available by then.

As I have just turned sixty five I was in the first batch of oldies to have their flu jab for this winter; my appointment being last Saturday. The procedure was very rapid involving mask, hand sanitiser and jab administered standing up by a doctor, instead of sitting down by the more familiar nurse. Then out of the back door as part of the one-way system, in all taking not much more than 60 seconds. Although fine on the day, I did experience a hard swelling on my arm, about the size of an egg, the next day which, though not sore but itchy, was somewaht disconcerting as I am not usually affected. On researching the flu jab on the NHS website, I discovered that the batch administered to the over 65s contains an extra ingredient to ensure stronger boost to the immune system. By today, (three days later), the lump is going down but still slightly itchy. It's MOH's turn on Friday so I hope that he is not badly affected by it.

As I am expecting the courier shortly to collect some parcels I will end here and wish everyone good health over the coming weeks,

Best wishes from Julie

New blog for third Etsy shop

 To celebrate the opening of my third Etsy shop, judysvintagetoybox, I am beginning a third blog, though the shop has been open a while. There are now over 200 items in the shop, so I have built it up from small beginnings and still have lots to add. The shop has vintage toys and dolls, games, nursery china, books and postcards. At one time MOH, Roy, and I had an idea to create a private Museum of Childhood in the garage but the idea never came to fruition so now we feel that we need to let go of our collections and I have made a start with some of mine, and some items from auction lots which I bought last year. I still have a quite large collection of vintage children's books, including Enid Blyton's, but I cannot quite decide to let those go yet - but I have enough to keep me going for now. As we are in the older age bracket and have not been going out so much since March it seems like now is a good time to concentrate on what we want to sell, without being tempted into buying anything else! I (well, we) recently moved a display cabinet from the garage into my work shed and it is full of vintage puzzles, dolls and soft toys, so plenty to be going on with. (The garage is now a shrine to my husband's motorbike /s by the way.)

We used to attend the local toy fairs, and others when we were away on holiday (just memories at the moment), as well as Museums of Childhood. Roy has a large collection of Britain's miniature figures and vehicles and of Dinky toys, but he is keeping those for now. We also have a garage with lots of the kid's stuff (our children were a boy and a girl) - games and toys, some of which date from the 1990s and some older - 1970s and 1980s - which we bought second hand at the time, so (with their permission) that will have to be sorted and added to the shop. I'm not going to be bored any time soon (!) but my usual routine is to work on the computer adding new stock in the mornings, then I have the afternoons free for other things. Sometimes we will have a trip out somewhere (though not so much lately) and on Sundays I usually have a rest! I also enjoy gardening and, as our garden is large, it was a consolation during lockdown (didn't we have a wonderful April and May, weatherwise) - I like to grow herbs and cottage garden plants and sometimes things just take root - like several buddleas this year - I also have a wildlife area for the bees, insects and butterflies. We have several bird feeders and bird baths so there is always plenty to see outside when the weather is kind. We live on the edge of a small village in the Cotswolds, so there is always plenty to see from the garden that isn't actually in it, such as the regular buzzards, herons and red kites and, during lockdown, white egrets.

Anyway - back to the toybox! This is a photo of the items that I have been listing, so some are already on the website, some are saved in draft form and some are yet to be listed.

The items already listed are the collection of advertising vehicles (green box); Peggy Nisbet doll (red box) and the toy train set, plus the postcards resting on top of the green box. It may be said that some of these items wouldn't have been found in a toybox, but for children from previous generations almost anything could be played with. I used to get my mother's Littlewoods catalogues when she had finished with them and would cut out some of the pictures - tins of food, I remember especially, possibly because being born in 1955 there was still a vague whisper of the after-effects of rationing. Maybe the shop should have been called judysvintagenursery where some of the nursery china and ornaments would have found a place, but it is what it is and I do remember playing with some china animals along with other soft toys in imaginative games, so I don't think that they were out of bounds. I actually decided to christen the shop 'judys', instead of my own name, in memory of one of my favourite annuals of the 1960s - I'm sure other girls from the same generation will remember it well!

That must be all for now,

Best wishes,

Julie