The "Barney Mysteries"

Last week I looked back on a book and a dramatization from by boyhood and today we're going in a similar direction looking at works by an author that was a part of it.

The old adage "You can't but a good book down would seem to apply around these parts of late  as some more new to me books by Enid Blyton arrived recently to help keep my spirits up with the current Corona virus outbreak.

These copies are actually editions from the very early nineteen-seventies which while still in hardback form they have been cheapened by printing the frontispiece and spine direct to the jacket and missing off the rear of what would of been the back of the paper dust jacket the original hardbacks had.

 There are six novels in this series of mystery adventures that feature Rodger and Diana Lynton and their cousin Peter, orphaned, who goes under the name "Subby" in the series and his dog Laddie who are also joined by Barney an motherless circus boy who has been on a quest to find his absent father and who has a money called Miranda.

The "Barney Mysteries" is the title these usually are grouped under although some use "R Mysteries" with the "R" coming from the R in the names of all the titles.
The children visit sleepy villages and seaside towns that it transpires are riddled with intrigue and it's that they look into.

One of the strengths of this series is the stories are full of atmosphere and good humour, the strong characterization making for much more depth  than most of her work and more sophisticated language that made it the only series Enid herself recommended just for those of eleven years and upward.

I feel they are a great series for boys even if not 'boys own' because they have what keeps us reading them cover to cover.

Going back to an old favourite

After last weeks entry we are returning very much to the past  I recall .

This book by E Nesbit who also wrote The Railway Children held my attention which was unusual at the time 
Set in Edwardian England, four children discover a strange egg hidden in an old carpet from which hatches a talking phoenix. Further adventures are had when the carpet turns out to be magic.
The Phoenix is wise, wiser than the children but it becomes obvious he is also vain and at odds with the world as some of his acts cause concern to them and consternation to the grown ups.

It was dramatized in 1976 on  BBC Tv to popular acclaim and last year it was issued on dvd for the first time.

My Brother had the book, unusual for him to actual bother much with reading which I borrowed and I later bought a copy myself which is pictured with an illustraion from that tv version published by Puffin.
;

It's over with

Normal service will be resumed after tonight tea time when all this adulting is over and done with after the last two weekdays and I'll be glad to come in change to grey shorts and just be Chris_minor, adult but child me and let all that stress out playing with my new lego bits.

You see this stuff is hard, indeed the last time I did it I felt to pieces from the inside out even if on the outset that was more about being of service whereas this is a citizen role that while not impossible to get out of you would want to because you'd want to feel that if it came down it it ordinary people would look at a case in Court and form a judgement independently on something that could affect your personal and professional life.

There will be a period where especially on Tumblr it'll be a game of catch up only having the weekends and odd hour on a weekday to post over this period so I'll be taking it steady not over doing things.

Bye for now.

Some thoughts from Stevie Smith.

Do you want to be a real boy? 

Don’t give 50 people strings to hold,

To pull you in 50 different directions.

Don’t dance to the most stylish rhythm,

Or sing the everyone’s-doing-it song,

Or bathe in the praises of puppets,

Or win races you don’t want to run.

Don’t paint on one single expression,

Pretending joy, faking happiness, beaming confidence you don’t have.

Be imperfect. Because that’s what you are.

Because real boys are never perfect.

With their embarrassing moments,

With their hurtful mistakes,

Because real boys hurt people sometimes with their imperfections,

And they don’t rewrite it, or reframe it, or pretend it didn’t happen,

They feel it.


Do you want to be a real boy?

Listen to your own thoughts.

Not the should’s but the wants. 

What do you want?

How do you feel?

Listen.

Know the spinning wheels in your mind,

Know the cause of every spine tingle, every bubble of anger,

Every choked down tear, know your own self.

Do you want to be a real boy?

Be with people. Not to impress them,

Or to get something from them,

Or to impress someone else,

But to know them.

Because life is short and not worth a single moment if you’re nothing but a porcelain doll on a string.

I hope you’ll be a real boy -

Offering yourself to other real people - and even fake people,

People who need so badly to be real.

Because real boys help others cut their strings,

Wipe off their painted-on emotions,

Hear their own thoughts,

Break through the porcelain to the vulnerable skin beneath.

Do you want to be a real boy?

To me that sums up the choice I have and the one I have made to take my journey in boyhood with.

Birthday Edition

Another year as I don't get any older really and it happens to be my birthday even if presently elsewhere so I've had to pre-prepare this post.

Everybody who reads this blog knows I love and need lego to play with and this set from the Lego Educational range comprises of wheel parts like axles, tires plus the baseplates and connectors to attach them to your lego.

This at a stroke expands the range of things I can just make and play with.

One thing I had mentioned was the shortfall of traditional bricks in my Classic starter set and getting some white bricks and baseplates.

I got twenty-five type #3001 white 2 by 4 bricks to go with them.

I also got twenty-five type #3001 red coloured bricks as they're handy for building structures with.

As mentioned in February I had been updating some of my earlier Status Quo cd's and this one in the double deluxe series has the 1975 live EP which charted with Roll Over, Lay Down and a version of The Doors Roadside Blues added which my original lacks which was the home of the much mocked #1 single Down Down.

Thunder were a British blues influenced hard rock band I followed in the early to mid Nineteen Nineties the original mixture of lp and cd format albums disappeared a good many years ago so I was pleased to get this Greatest Hits set on two discs with some hard to find bonus material on a third disc. 
It has all their singles on it plus a few choice lp tracks too.

Finally a box set that has the first four Def Leppard albums, a live show from 1983, a rarities disc and the "Getcha Rocks Off" EP in 3 inch cd form that covers 1979-1987 quite well.
Def Leppard were a heavy metal band I loved during this era, probably mentioned it at some point, and this is just the ticket for me.

My week away from Tumblr

Okay folks I have actually returned in more than one sense because what we have is a few pictures taken while away and of course after my original very short lived blog on Friends Reunited, my only other blog which has been folded into this was a Photography blog.

Eaves Wood on the Lancashire and Westmoreland* border which once I got to it wasn't so bad to get around although the forestry people were doing a little tree management given storm damage in that area.

The awkward bit was walking through muddy, soggy fields which also included streams that resulted in mud splashes and one falling down!

Morecambe Bay on the Lancashire side with its sand which you have to be very careful over .

This is the "Pepper Pot", a Victorian monument from 1857 in Silverdale built to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria with impressive views toward Arnside, Westmoreland.
Getting off here required walking on jagged rocks!!!

Public notices in Arnside.

* There was a mish-mash of the area in April 1974 that removed officially Westmoreland although locals use it and detached North Lancashire including Barrow on Furness from Lancashire, renaming it all "Cumbria", which is an artificial construct of Civil Servants.

Pictures thanks to a Nikon D3500 and the 18-55mm VR zoom lens.

Away week edition - The Boy and the Trains

This is being published thanks to the scheduler function as while you may be reading this I will be making my way back home with possibly one stop having been away for short while refreshing this boys batteries.

This is Carnforth railway station in Lancashire out and about visiting things which I'll post over the next few weeks.

I'd of been in toned down uniform as the plan did involve some suitably wolf cub like rovering, gathering things for art projects, going on hikes in the great outdoors so a little bit of thought to how some items *may* look to the muggles helps although to be honest everybody accepts me as that "Little Boy" here with those changes. 
I'll talk about those bits next week

One thing that used to irritate me was how dad always took us to train places when we'd rather do other things  so one thing I have been doing is visiting those things from the side the boyish me loved on my own terms.

The Museum at Carnforth Station and then on to a live steam railway.

Plumpton Bear

The very train I travelled on from Haverthwaite to Lakeside and back by steam traction.

In the engine shed, the smell of oil bought back boyhood memories of the many sheds I went around but I was in here cos I felt I belonged, talking with men about the exhibits on my terms.
I always loved engineering as a boy and today I felt at peace with being here and being who I am. A boy.

That to me is the point apart from going places I've never been before and creating new 'little memories' which bearing in mind my disabilities is no bad thing at all as helps when I'm not so good and also helps with my memory which I have problems with.

I am moving on.

See you next week!

Strange weather

This week has been an odd one with storm winds at the weekend causing power outages, trees being blown over giving way on Monday to snow which that was a picture I just grabbed while bringing the milk in, as you do.

Fortunately the postman was able to call with my copy of Kick magazine  so I can overdose on footie as ever and I should be getting a few more tapes to record stuff onto having redone my Def Leppard albums this weekend while it wasn't so good to be out.

There will as I mentioned on my Tumblr be a pause as I'm going to be away for a few days so nothing being posted on them and there should be a post on here which will be the dry run for March where I'm afraid the Adult World wants a fortnight of my time so I have been setting things up for that to run on the blogs. 

The Tumblrs will only receive attention when I'm able to which will be weekends and just maybe the odd reblog on week days if we're lucky.

I've just got to sort out stuff to take with me.