Arthur and Sheila

Flaming June, or as my Dad often referred to it, flamin’ ‘orrible June. The start of meteorological Summer but looking out of the window, walking the streets and taking on board all the weather forecasts, it’s not looking good. I don’t think this will be one of our best, warmest Summers. Maybe one of the coolest and wettest. Being British, I’m always going to whinge about the weather, I suppose.

While we were away, we missed seeing Count Arthur Strong at the Lowry. The tickets were passed on to some lucky listeners of Wythenshawe Radio. So you can imagine my delight when I found out that Count Arthur was appearing at the Plaza in Stockport. I bought myself a ticket and enjoyed a night out.

The venue is an old cinema, and rather than playing records before the start of the show, we enjoyed music played on the organ.

The show was very funny of course, and the second half educational too. If you ever get the chance to see the Count’s presentation on the history of The Beatles, grab it with both hands. I only remembered to take a picture right at the end of the performance, it was that engaging.

Afterwards, I walked back to the car park through the dark, brooding streets of Stockport. There were a few other people around, but it’s certainly not the hustling, bustling, vibrant town that Manchester is late on a Saturday evening.

Call me a sad old git, but I decided not to go to a gig that I’d been looking foward to. Local band Hann (who very nearly appeared on my show a while ago, but that’s another story) have a new record out. They were in concert quite locally. But then I saw that there were three or four other bands on beforehand, and that they, Hann, wouldn’t take to the stage until about ten o’clock. So, yes, I didn’t go: instead, I went to bed instead.

The car returned to the garage for some more work. Last week, it got a new battery, so it could start and go. This week, it received new brakes, so it can also stop, now. It’s a wonderful, ethically run garage, and reasonably priced too.

I paid a visit to Dunham Massey, and so did everyone else on the same day. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the place so busy, but I had a nice walk, thanks for asking. My day was ruined though because they no longer allow me to ride the deer.

These birch trees always look magificent, and I waited a long time until there were no humans in sight. The rose garden was very colourful, and I’m sure some of the flowers were scented, but my schnozz didn’t seem to be working fully.

It was good to see some busy bees going about their buzziness too.

I’m sure they know what they’re doing, but to me, it seemed more like a drunkard’s walk than a carefully thought out, methodical route, as they flew from bloom to bloom.

Although the place was heaving with people, the deer were very accessible. You had to be careful where you walked, and I’m sure they had to careful where they ate too.

While we’re thinking about wild animals, here’s one that Liesel saw over there in Alaska.

I was quite impressed that Liesel had encountered a black bear while on on a hike somewhere in or near Anchorage. But no. She said it had been at a wildlife reserve visited a few weeks ago.

And if a bear isn’t scary enough, what do you think of this beastie?

What else might be a bit scary is being stranded on an island. That is the premise of the play Sheila’s Island. I saw a performance of this, just up the road at Northenden Players Theatre Company, the amateur theatre group. It was very entertaining, funny and the set was really well done for such a small space. I arrived in a bit of a state though. I thought the performance started at 8pm. But when I checked my phone to confirm I had the ticket, I saw that it was in fact 7.30. I had ten minutes to leg it up the road and I arrived, puffed yes, but in good time.

We have a General Election on July 4th so to mark the occasion, the theme of the show this week was Elections. You can listen to it right here on Mixcloud. Really looking forward to having a new government.