To get to our friends’ health food shop you have to walk past the Age UK (formerly Help the Aged) charity shop. Always worth a look, for the odd shirt or book. This week on a mission to the health food shop, I discovered at Age UK several boxes of books that had just arrived and were being sorted by a volunteer. They appeared quite attractive (the books, not the volunteer, though he was nice), as they were all quite left wing or left field anyway, so I thought one would be a treat. Then I noticed that the previous owner had put his name in one of them. On investigation, all four boxes were from the same household. The previous owner had been my wife’s tutor at Manchester Metropolitan University many years ago, had died several years ago and my wife knew that his wife died last week. She told me this when I got home with my three chosen books and we enthusiastically went back for more. Ended up with about 50 books for a “job lot” price of £20. When I suggested to one of the assistants (who won’t see 60 again) that perhaps I could make the manageress an offer for the pile we had assembled, she walked over to the bottom of the stairs and to the amusement of a full shop called upstairs to Margaret that I would like to make her an offer and then I’d like to offer to buy some books too. They say women are dirtier minded than men, as a rule. Anyway, Edgar’s books have found a good home and should give as much pleasure to their new owners as they did to him. Made it to the health food shop 2 days later.
Have been renovating my bike, bought a pannier rack and pannier and the weather has been kind. Several rides through the lanes of South Cheshire have been increasingly enjoyable. I am learning how to do this cycling for pleasure lark, now I’m pretty confident I’m not about to run out of energy after half an hour. It’s where I am at at any particular time that gives the great pleasure – hedgerows, scenery, (saw Jodrell Bank 11 miles away to day) and only the slightest hint of noise from the M6, though even this disappears sometimes, giving way not to silence, which the countryside rarely allows, but noises generated by whatever bird or insect or animal or breeze is in that particular location at that particular time.
Next doors arrived back from Normandy yesterday and last night I made sure there were still 8 stick insects alive before handing them back today. Phew!