Agreed, loads of the old skills have gone, and so have many of the folks that used those skills. Only this morning I had a thread strip on the aluminum timing casing on my LandRover. While drilling out and re-tapping the thread. I could hear the words of my old Metal Work teacher, Mr Graham, when I was taught so many years ago on how to drill and tap threads.

I don't think kids do much metal work these days, if any? Yet all those foundation skills have always come in useful.

Twm

I tried a few things but never got the hang of it. Recorder at school, the first three notes of Three blind mice was as far as I got.

The I thought I'd like to play the guitar. I was about 15 and earning my own money so off I went to a junk shop in Speedwell Rd, Yardley. The bloke who had the shop also sold new Guitars. Mine cost about a tenner I think. I was great miming to T Rex, etc but that was as far as I got with the guitar. So, not destined to be thE rock star I'd always dreamed of.

Mid life crisis time! I'll learn to play the piano. My mate was an exceptional pianist/organist. He said he'd give me a few lessons. I started to look for an old piano. The Dr's mess at the hospital were getting rid of theirs, so we did a deal. Moving the piano is another story. Anyway, got the piano home, it was just too big for the small rooms, and I was no good at it.....

Still had an interest in making music, but it seemed like I lacked the ability. But now I've retired, I have more timeThen one day I was walking past my friends antique shop, there was an Accordion and a Violin in the shop. I was going in to say hello anyway, but I could feel the violin drawing me in. How much for the violin I asked. Well, it's fairly new she said. A customer brought it in today. The customer had bought it for her daughter, the daughter lost interest. You can have it for a tenner she said. I paid up and off I went. Thinking, shall I be a Busker on the corner on market day, or should I go classical?

Anyway, I got home, out of the case it came. I had a play with it. Then I thought, I have the Internet these days. So typed in - how to play the violin? Up come several sites. The best one was 'On line violin tutor' my god, she was gorgeous! She taught me how to hold the violin, hold the bow. How to put roisin on the bow. But it was no good, I couldn't really hear what she was saying, I was just looking into her eyes and listening to her soft voice, so alas the on-line relationship had to end. Anyone want to buy a violin? I can also recommend a good tutor..........

Twm

When you think of all the industries that were in the Midlands, most of it gone. I don't suppose t will ever come back. I met a girl in my teens when on holiday in Aberystwyth, she worked in one of the carpet factories. Her job was to pick the the bits of stray wool off the carpets left over from the weaving process before they went onto the roll. I dare say, even if the carpet factories were still going, her job and many others would be redundant now.

Twm

Edifi, I stayed near Deal about 4 years ago when working in the Southeast. I think the place was Kingsdown, I stayed very near the beach. Good pub nearby with good meals. I took trips out to Deal, Wilmer, I think it was Wilmar I visited a castle, one of the rooms was laid out as Wellingtons bedroom. I think he was reputed to have died in that room?

Twm

1000 tons, it's incredible how they get traction. You would think they would just spin on the spot when trying to pull away. Mind you, I think the locomotives weigh in at about 120 tones each. I used to spend a bot f time at New Street waiting for my connection (sometimes a couple of hours) watching the freight locomotives pull out of the station, you could see the rails bending under the weight.

Twm

Looking through a book the other day re railways of Wales. One picture reminded of when I was a nipper and going to South Wales. Sometimes an extra steam loco would be attached to help with the inclines. I think we called it 'push and pull' train. Could have been known as a 'banker engine' too.

Twm

Went to Kidderminster last week to the Wyre Forest Cemetery. Fairly easy to find, and we'll set out. The crematorium looked quite new and loads of space for burials, 17 acres in all.

One I the things that used to frustrate me in London, was the amount of times they closed the roads for events or protests. They seem to forget that folks need to still go about their business 7 days a week.

Twm

That wasn't a bad tip, parts of the M3 are still relatively quiet in comparison to the biggest car park in the UK.

Twm

Any Foragers out there? Out in the country I'm noticing the ripening fruits, on the trees, in the hedges and on the ground. In my local wood there is a good crop of ripening Blackberries. Elderberries and Rowan berries. Hazel nuts are while off ripening. Perhaps another month or two.

We have Autumn to look forward to, apples, pears, plums and not forgetting to wonderful fungi that grows in the fields, woods and on the road side.

Looking out of the window now, I can see a Rowan Mountain Ash tree, laden with Scarlet berries. Perhaps I'll make some Rowan Berry jelly this weekend. Couple off pounds of berries boil them up with a pound of sugar, strain through muslin cloth, pour into jars and enjoy......

Have you got any good foraging recipes? Please post them for us all to share.

Twm Sion

In the early 60's, we moved house AGAIN! I never got told we were moving house. The only thing I had to go on was mom packing things into boxes and dad looking for the 'Bed spanner'.

This time we moved over the road from a man who drive a car transporter and was always fiddling with cars. Dad and him soon palled up. They had a mutual interest in cars. Dads new mate come in very handy on our holiday trips as he knew the best routes. Mind you, he was rubbish at predicting the weather and it always rained......

Twm

Can you remember the first supermarkets being built in Brum? My earliest recollection is that of Macfiheries supermarket. It was on the Stratford Rd, Hall Green on the site of the old Rialto Cinema.  I can recall mom and dad talking about, all these wonderful things that you had never seen so much of before. We took a visit. My favourite phrase was 'can I have?' The response was always 'no!'

Twm

I'd go shopping with nan probably once a week when she lived in Mapleton Road, Hall Green. We'd either go to Wrensons at The Gospel Oak, or at The Robin Hood. The man in Wrensons always wore a white coat. Nan would read off the list she had made. He would walk along the shelves and bring the items back to nan. He would then jot down the prices on a paper bag and add it all up, not a calculator to be seen.

I remember the wooden floors and the narrow double doors and of corse the bacon slicer and the marble slab where the cheese would cut up.

Twm

I can remember walking from Hazelville Rd Hall Green to the shops at the Gospel Oak. I think it was Wrensons that was there. The boys bikes would be parked outside the shop, the Matal frame on front of the bike waiting for its cargo. The bikes, if memory serves me well, had a stand that dropped down either side of the front wheel, to stop the bike falling over.

I remember having a go on one of these bikes, I could hardly hold the thing up, it was so heavy. When I rode it, it was though the world had gone backwards. You turned the handle bars, the front wheel followed the handle bars, the the cargo frame seemed to lag behind. It was still going straight ahead....

Twm

Reports of many British seaside towns, particularly in Cornwall are being gridlocked on a daily basis by tourists.

I seem to remember going on holiday, late 50's early 60's not only the seaside towns but towns on the main routes being blocked at this time of year.

We would leave Brum at about 2AM to head for Devon in the old days. And still take 6 or 7 hours to get there. What's the difference these days? Obviously our dry summer has been good for our own holiday places, so the volume of traffic may be up. But I do wonder if attitudes and behaviour of drivers has changed, I.e. No one will give way. I know there were some big cars around in the 50's, but today, it all seems to be 4x4's or SUV's that take up the whole road, but in some cases will not venture off road. I meet them on the back lanes daily this time of year, they all seem reluctant to back-up or pull on to the grass at the side of the lane.

I'm also not sure if car parking spaces are getting smaller, or if it's the vehicles just getting bigger.

Twm