I didn't know Lego had a botanicals range, including red roses. Well, as it was Valentine's Day yesterday i thought it would be nice to make the Lego roses to give to my Wife instead of natural roses which will be dead in a few days! It has been a few years since i built a Lego set, i went through a bit of a craze about ten years ago. Maybe i might make a few more Lego sets in future.
Early on in this annual there is a hint, the story TV or not TV features the kids as TV mad and watching breakfast TV. It is likely this is mentioned due to breakfast TV being new and novel at the time, that would put the stories in this annual around the 1983 time frame.
Olive also appears as the cook and she did not feature until 1981, earlier annuals had different and unnamed school cooks (though just as inept!)
This is a good annual anyway, not quite as good as the annuals released in the 1980s which featured strips from the 1960s and 1970s, a true golden age.
I've wanted a greenhouse for awhile though didn't really have enough space for it, but then i saw this mini greenhouse and thought it would be a good stop gap until i eventually have enough space (whenever that will be!)
I built the greenhouse this morning and have sited it next to the kitchen extension. It will get a lot of sunshine during the afternoon and evening, well it will when the rain finally stops anyway! I have moved the spider plant, which has just about managed to stay alive under the cloche, to the greenhouse.
I have been to Honeybourne once before but that was some time ago so it was high time i returned and updated my ptography, the village is in Worcestershire so will be in my fourth book. Honeybourne is a nice village on the border with Gloucestershire and on the edge of the Cotswolds (though this seems to cover a rather wide area).
A nice church, some thatched roofs and it didn't really rain much so a good day! You can see my photos here.
As well as old calculators, i also collect typewriters. I currently have 39 in my collection, though as yet no chimpanzees.
The latest machine to join the collection is a rather nice Italian typewriter from the 1960s, an Antares Little Star. It works fine as well, it didn't even need a new ribbon. The longevity of typewriters can be rather impressive.
Though to be honest i'm finding the current pop culture obsession with filling in gaps and continuity-porn a bit tiresome, as it was with this volume and a number of other volumes in the series. It would be nice for future volumes to explore new territory. "Plutarch's Staff" does cover some interesting origin details though, especially for one of the series' major characters.
The criticisms aside, the story is very good, and drawn beautifully of course. This story sees Blake more to the fore and so is less mystical and more action and intrigue based.
At the risk of contradicting myself in the previous paragraph the events that lead up to Secret of the Swordfish are very interesting indeed and fit in perfectly well with the later stories even though they were written by another author (the original master Edgar P. Jacobs of course) and over 60 years before.
This book is a survey of the railway stations of Warwickshire from Atherstone to Wootton Wawen. It details the history, architecture, operations and railway services each station has. All with lots of photographs from yours truly!
This is the first in a series i have been commissioned to create for Amberley. The second on the railway stations of the West Midlands should be out later this year. The third on the stations of Herefordshire & Worcestershire is now in the early stages, a fourth is also on the horizon...
The book has two halves, the first covers the history of the Luftwaffe after Hitler's take over, and throughout the war from glory to collapse. The second part is a directory of types used and is very comprehensive covering many obscure types as well as the famous aircraft like the Stuka and Bf109. Each entry in the directory contains technical information, colour artwork, and photographs. Major types also get full cutaway illustrations.
The book dates from the mid-1970s so some information may be out-of-date nowadays as archives have become more readily available but this book can only be very highly recommended indeed.
The parish church of St Mary the Virgin in Lapworth dates from the 12th century though much of the surviving church is from later centuries.
The nave is 12th century with a north aisle and chancel from the 13th, a north chantry chapel also dates from the 13th century though was rebuilt in the 15th. The church has a 14th century tower and also from that century a nave clerestory.
The tower is probably the most interesting feature of the church. The steeple is connected to the north aisle by a passage and has a projecting stairway. The church is built from random coursed stone.
I headed up to Frodsham in Cheshire at the weekend, a town i have not been to before. Though at times i did not think i would make it! I changed trains at Chester, somewhere else i have not been before, but at Helsby (the stop before Frodsham) the train was stopped due to trespassers on the line. This did give me a chance to look around Helsby station but as time went on it did look like the train might be turned around.
Luckily, after an hour the all clear was made and i made it to Frodsham. I climbed a very steep hill which gave a good view of the surrounding area, and gave me access to the church. You can see my photos here.
As usual, the crime is mostly investigated by an amateur detective (as it is a Golden Age novel), in this case it is Boddy, a former Army officer. He begins to investigate a varied set of suspects, who all possibly had competed for the artist's affections, including a missing priest and the victim's partner.
An interesting murder mystery, though maybe not one for many surprises. The mystery works more for it's ingenuity of how the fairly obvious culprit carried out the crime than anything else but it a perfectly decent story.
However, one comic did survive as it was left at my Grandmothers' house and years later i made sure i would keep this one...
Star Wars #54 then was released on Valentine's Day 1979 and includes a Star Wars comic strip and two other stories (The Micronauts and The Warlock which i wasn't that interested in back then and not so much now either). The Star Wars comic started off a weekly comic telling of the first Star Wars movie but once they blew up the Death Star, and Darth Vader went spinning off into space, they had to continue the comic with an early example of the Extended Universe at least until Empire Strikes Back was released in 1980.
The story here concerns Luke, Leia and Tagge who appears to be some kind of galactic mafia boss who hates Vader. Luke and Leia are trying to discover why and how Tagge can fly TIE fighters into the atmosphere of the gas giant Yavin, while at the same time evading Tagge's TIE fighter patrols. Of course, the story here was set between the two films and no one but George Lucas knew that Luke and Leia were siblings, so we get a little bit of mild incest.
The cliffhanger has their ship under attack by TIE fighters and the intriguing teaser that next week is called "R2 D2 Casualty Of War", as to what happened in Star Wars #55, i can't remember, but obviously R2 was fine as he made the next film OK...
Where would we be without the shipping container, so much of the world's freight is now carried in these things by boat, train and truck. The ships and ports sections are probably the most interesting, though of course much of the information contained in here is a bit out of date.
But the humble shipping container still rules the roost, being transported around the world daily in the thousands. Quite a few end up repurposed for use as storage, or just abandoned to rust away.
The book includes the full range of lifeboats from sailing boats to modern motor boats and even hovercraft! Every boat has a small profile and photograph. This really is an excellent book packed full of information and very lavishly illustrated.
Highly recommended.
The Asterix saga was at a major turning point therefore. The creators were either too old to continue or had already passed away, the only way the franchise could continue was with new blood at the helm. You can imagine that the team of Ferri and Conrad, who created this story, felt a huge amount of pressure when they were putting Asterix and the Picts together...
NuAsterix (a term i invented, feel free to borrow) could well have lived or died on how good this story was. If it had been bad then there might not be much chance to keep the characters going for much longer. Luckily, Asterix and the Picts is actually pretty good!
I wouldn't say its the best Asterix book ever but it is definitely the best for some time, and certainly better than most of the ones Uderzo wrote and drew on his own after the passing of Goscinny. Not that i am as down on Uderzo's version of Asterix as some people are, the books are still pretty fine or at least OK but they lack the subtlety and warmth of the older books.
Asterix and the Picts takes a bit of a middle ground, it still has some of the more slap stick graphically heavy humour of Uderzo's Asterix but also some more of the word play and puns of the original version. The story gets off to a bit of a clumsy start but then starts to find its feet and includes a few genuine laugh out loud jokes.
In truth, the book was a bit safe and maybe lacks a clear identity but you can understand that because of what was riding on it. I suspect NuAsterix is now safe for the foreseeable future and a number of other volumes have followed. By Belanos what a relief!
This week's railway trip was closer to home and a bit less bleak than the trip to Thurgarton. I went to Hagley in Worcestershire. I have been once before but i wanted to update my station photography for my fourth book which will be on the railway stations of the county (and Herefordshire). I also wanted to visit the church too which i didn't do last time. The church was open too so i was able to have a nice look inside.
You can see my photos of Hagley here.
When i was a toddler we lived up in Liverpool for a short time, i don't remember anything of this unfortunately though i do have a souvenir from that time. This is a Dinky Mini police car which my Nan bought at a shop in Waterloo for me., However, this car is now in a very battered state without tyres, one of the doors and the paint is in a bad condition. In my memory it has always looked like this so i must have destroyed this toy and reduced it to this condition when i was a toddler. Amazing!
Just before Christmas i bought the same toy off of eBay in a much better (though still somewhat worn) condition. One of my model projects for this year will be to try and restore this Dinky car to something approaching a good condition! The original though will probably never look any better but i like it as a reminder of my apparently violent very young years.
Later on, his blindness is cured and he falls in love with a mysterious woman. However, he knows that she was involved in the murder but is not sure exactly how...
Although the book was a success when released in the late 19th century, and was adapted into a stage play, i found this a troublesome and frequently annoying read though the premise is pretty interesting.
The story moves on at a decent pace, though i found it rather melodramatic and the plot a bit too fanciful, though this was a common fault/feature (delete depending on your point of view) of the time.
Olrik gets involved with their plot, devised by the shadowy Grand Druid (the identify of whom is pretty obvious early on in the story), who seeks the sword Excalibur and the treasure hoard of King Arthur. Both are thought to be buried underground somewhere in Cornwall, they need Professor Mortimer's latest invention which can tunnel through solid rock like it isn't there, nothing at all like the Mole from Thunderbirds oh no...
So, this is a fine Blake & Mortimer adventure, as usual mixing mad science, a past reimagined and a dose of the mystic. However, it is by no means the best volume in the series. Blake & Mortimer is somewhat notorious for heavy use of word panels to explain the story. Whilst this can be a wordy story too there were times where it was a little unclear what was going on, maybe a little more explanation was needed in this instance! Still, great fun to read.
At the weekend i travelled to the East Midlands, to Thurgarton which is a village between Nottingham and Newark. This is a pretty rural part of the world near to the Trent, and pretty flat too. At this time of the year and with this weather (drizzly and overcast) it was all a little bleak. But this is just what i needed and i had a good time. You can see my photos here.
The professor is pretty reluctant to do this, having tired of being an amateur detective, but soon finds himself embroiled in a rather complicated situation with various suspicious characters, and also another murder!
This isn't the best Basnett book, he is maybe a little too jaded and reluctant to give the story much energy, and it needed some due to the number of characters introduced. The unveiling of the culprits is also rather low-key, taking place in the background. However, as with all of Ferrer's books it was still an enjoyable read.
One thing I did find up there was a children's book my Mum bought me to read when i was a child many years ago. I'm glad I did not throw this away.
"Hi Fella" by Era Zistel is the story of a puppy who gets lost when the box he is being transported in falls over the side of a truck. He has to learn how to survive, at first with a raccoon and then a cat, until he can find his way home. Wherever or whatever that is.
It is a delightful story and I am glad it was dumped up in the loft along with everything else instead of being thrown away. Sometimes hoarding is good.
I didn't have a railway adventure last weekend due to the heavy snow, but it has mostly melted away by now, its even almost warm so on Friday i headed up to Derby for the first time this year. It was nice to finally see one of the Network Rail 153s which are used to monitor railway infrastructure. You can see my photos here.
One of the many things i do is collect retro office technology from the 1970s and 1980s, including pocket calculators and i am starting to build quite a good collection. The latest calculator to add to that list arrived today. It is a nice late 1970s machine from Japan and my first by Toshiba. I'll have a proper look at it sometime this weekend, including seeing if it still works!
When i was a kid i used to love this stuff, though of course much of it was nonsense and i later found out that von Däniken was rather shameless in falsely presenting doctored evidence to support his claims.
However, it was a popular thing in the 1960s and 1970s and a fun aspect of the craze in the 1970s was the publication of a series of comic books about a group of aliens led by Ais and Zen who have come to Earth in the distant past to change the biology of primitive ape-men to create homo sapiens. This is a great science fiction adventure romp. In this first volume the aliens arrive on Earth and begin their plans...
Not really to be taken that seriously like many of the Ancient Astronaut works really should be, though unfortunately many have.
Many of the railways were cable hauled due to the steep inclines, including at High Peak Junction where a wharf for transfer between canal and railway and the railway's workshops can be visited as part of the many visitor attractions in this beautiful part of the world.
Thus, this is pretty different from the usual Middleton Press volume, as there arn't any stations which you can take trains to today and you can compare the past pictures against. Instead, it is a fascinating look at industrial railways and how they coped with often very difficult terrain and circumstances.
