The Fabric Guild

Annette is full of craft ideas. At present she is working on embroidered pictures. These are designed on computer, fed to a sewing machine embroidery unit and the picture sewn according to the design. That’s the general idea and it is also about as much as I know. I do know that getting everything up and running has taken a lot of time and effort ; effort which isn’t finished yet. Even so I’m supportive and the final results are excellent: I’m really quite proud.

This requires materials for substrates and thread for sewing. Buying thread is not easy. Specific colours are needed. As far as we can tell our nearest town has no outlets selling thread. Hobbycraft, a national chain with a store nearby, sells thread but a fairly restricted range. We did walk around Lichfield and found an old fashioned craft shop which was selling off thread. We also couldn’t help noticing how many shops had closed including a first choice for sewing essentials. If shops are closing in affluent Lichfield then retail is truly being squeezed.

Other sewing essentials and fabrics mean travelling further afield. A long time favourite is the Fabric Guild which has relocated to Oadby near Leicester. The Fabric Guild appears to have been set up as a club but it now functions as a sort of shop. It is totally unlike any other shop I have seen. On an industrial estate, it is series of interconnected rooms, both large and small and on two levels containing all kinds of fabrics and craft accessories. All the goods are labelled by home produced labels and displayed on very utilitarian racks.

These is no posh IT with bar codes and the like. Goods are reckoned up by a bloke using no more than a pocket calculator. His receipts are a hand written list of purchase prices. I have to say the speed and precision is impressive for so much manual effort.

A feature is a drinks corner with free biscuits. For some bizarre reason the magazines lying around were either of embroidery which seems appropriate or heritage railways which is puzzling. The drinks used to be free also but are now 20p although slightly dodgy in quality. Buyers appear to come from all over the East Midlands; I spoke to a lady from Nottingham who appeared to be have organised a car load of others to what is clearly a “destination” shop. The main problem for us is that since the move from central Leicester they are moderately difficult to find in a maze of streets off the main A6.

Once upon a time when I lived in Leicester I knew the A6 going south very well. But that was over 50 years ago and it was difficult to recognise anything. Anyway I rarely travelled as far south of the city. My flat was about a mile from the city centre. I lived in Leicester during my industrial year at Bostik and carried on for my final degree year, travelling to Loughborough every day..

We had a reasonably successful visit. The clientele is almost entirely middle aged or elderly ladies. I stood around trying not to stick out but that was unavoidable. I’m not sure whether the manager/cashier recognised me or whether he greeted me on principle. It made me feel a bit less of a fish out of water for which I was grateful. As far as we can tell the whole thing is run by one family with one or two others who don’t seem to fit into the family. I have amused myself trying to work out relationships in the family.

We still use a cross country route that I first used so many years ago. Unfortunately on a misty day it wasn’t quite as picturesque as I had hoped. The slog around south Leicester was just a series of roundabouts and traffic lights. We tried a different route around Leicester on our return but it was no better

Falcon Heavy Rocket Launch

I have always been very interested in space science and flight. When I was young I was a member of the British Interplanetary Society but I left in 1965. This was an economy measure as we had just married and I was hard up. It was a shame as I missed the details of the run up to the Apollo missions culminating in a lunar landing in 1969. Much has happened in the last fifty years but the technology of rocketry has scarcely changed.

The Falcon Heavy is the largest rocket flying today although smaller than the Saturn V, the Apollo moon rocket. The first trial launch was on Tuesday 6 Feb and after weather delays left earth about 20.45. I was watching the live broadcast by Space X on Youtube. To say it was spectacular would be an understatement but in many ways the highlight was the near simultaneous landings of two of first stage rockets. This was near balletic in its grace and precision.

The launch was momentous in two ways. Firstly it means that heavy lift launchers are back after a fifty year gap. Secondly and more fundamentally it establishes Space X and its visionary founder, Elon Musk, as the premier company in space technology. Musk has the avowed intention to build and fly an even larger craft ( Big Falcon Rocket ) to enable travel to Mars. Musk ultimately seeks to go further and establish a Mars colony.

Mars is the most obvious planet among the solar system to make a target. It is the next to earth, rather smaller but with a surface which is increasingly understood following a series of unmanned reconnaissance flights. Mars does have many negative features such as a very thin atmosphere, extremes of temperature and no surface water. However early in its existence Mars was very different and there is a possibility that  elementary life existed there. Although Mars is the nearest planet to earth it is still a long way distant, about 20 light minutes. A journey would take perhaps 6 months depending on circumstances.

This was the first trial of a complete Falcon Heavy. Rather than a concrete block as payload it amused Musk to use a Tesla roadster car with a space suited manikin ( nicknamed Starman )  in the drivers seat. The payload was playing David Bowie’s Space Oddity on a loop until its batteries gave out after about 12 hours. In a nod to Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy the dash had a notice saying “don’t panic”.

Although this seems rather silly it has been a PR triumph. Many media outlets have focussed on the car in reporting. The pictures of the car in space have been spectacular. Musk is also head and biggest shareholder in Tesla so the publicity for the car helps that company. As Tesla has been struggling a bit of late with production of its new mid range model this should be helpful.

All this suggests Space X is not like the rather bland NASA. Although NASA does have some heavy lift plans they are years away. Meantime Space X is increasingly diverting its resources to developing a new, more powerful, engine and designing Big Falcon Rocket which will be larger still. To give a sense of scale Falcon Heavy is about 2/3 as capable as Saturn V the Apollo moon landing vehicle. To date Saturn V, which was retired after Apollo, remains the largest successful rocket.

Space is no longer the preserve of state organisations. Space X is a private company. Some way behind is Blue Origin which has big rockets in development. In particular Blue Origin is developing a large rocket engine which it has presold to United Launch Alliance the largest US launch organisation today. Blue Origin is the creature of Jeff Bezos the controller of Amazon. There is money to be made launching satellites for many operators not to mention in space tourism. In addition NASA pays for access from earth to the international space station.

 No poem for a while now so here is an amusing limerick. Hope it is not too sexist.

A vigorous fellow named Bert
Was attracted by every new skirt
Oh, it wasn’t their minds
But their rounded behinds
That excited this loveable flirt

Martin's visit

It isn’t often Martin and family visit. They are a good 150 miles away near Robin Hood’s Bay. We see them reasonably often when we visit Whitby which is nearby. Perhaps with Annette’s flu and my hip and potassium issues he was concerned as we don’t plan to visit Whitby again until March. Anyway it was grand to see them all.

Alex spent some time noodling on the piano. He seems to have a good ear for music. He picked out some tuneful combinations plus bits of “Eight days a week” he is practising on the trumpet. He is also soon to do his Stage 4 trumpet exam. He is very excited also about a Hornby Dublo Pendolino set bought off eBay as a late birthday present. I was able to give him a metal plaque illustration of “Sir  Nigel Gresley” on the North York Moors heritage railway. This is the pride of the NYMR where both Alex and Martin are volunteers. Non steam enthusiasts need to know that “Sir Nigel Gresley” is the name of a LNER streamlined engine. Unlike many large steam engines these are so famous that I think about six examples are preserved. Because of their distinctive streamlined appearance they are referred to as “Streaks”

Martin is getting involved with a survey organised by the Woodland Trust  mapping the spread of tree disease. I have heard of the depredations caused by ash dieback but I was shocked to hear there are a dozen other threats. It doesn’t seem that long ago that Dutch Elm disease killed all the elm trees in this area; indeed almost all in the nation. Martin is taking this survey very seriously and was out collecting specimens of branch tips to try and identify them. I gather he will get tuition from Woodland Trust.

Ellen seems to be doing well; doing maths from the year ahead at school. Her reading has moved on as she has discovered Enid Blyton. Enid Blyton books had a poor reputation but I feel the Famous Five and Secret Seven deserve wider acclaim. They are very popular which is negative in the eyes of some. We have an Enid Blyton nature book we passed on to her. Last summer she developed an enthusiasm for hockey and practices every week.

I had looked out books I enjoyed as a boy and I was able to pass to Alex a couple of “Champion” annuals and a couple of Biggles books. These all look very old fashioned so I don’t know if Alex will like them. They had the attitudes of the fifties when Africans were seen as exotic and amusing and the heroes of the stories were mostly square jawed white men. I was a great fan of Biggles but I tended to find his changes in role confusing. His later incarnation was as “Air detective”

I was disappointed to hear from Lindsey that one of our fellow flat owners have sold their flat at Mariners house; particularly so as they were people we saw relatively frequently. Only the basement flat is occupied as a permanent residence; all the others are holiday lets and the owner of three other flats we almost never see. It appears to be a private company and the owner makes rare visits or more usually sends a friend or colleague. Judging by the expensive cars they are doing well. Lindsey feels they are mainly hoping for capital gain as they have make expensive alterations including complete kitchen refits.

We have become reasonably friendly with the permanent occupier. They have had an awful time as their apartment was flooded in a mix up over water pipes and then they have become embroiled in long running planning saga over changes they made to the garden. Previously it had been an untidy mess on a steep slope. They fairly sensibly built a retaining wall turning the lower area into a patio. However they didn’t first get planning consent and this is vital for a listed building. The retaining wall of concrete blocks without the intended facing aroused neighbours when it was only part built; unfinished it is unsightly. The plan has now become mired in controversy with Whitby local council, planners at Scarborough and English Heritage all involved. The result is stasis for at least the past 6 months as the changes remain part built.

 Just after Christmas Martin and family visited friends from Banbury who are presently in Slovakia. These friends are shortly returning to the UK and the irony is that a change of role means the breadwinner flies back to work in the UK every week. Still they had an enjoyable break. Although they live in a holiday area they are planning to spend some time elsewhere camping this summer.