DJ360

Welcome! Sorry to hear of your loss but I hope you soon settle in to your new life in your old town. I lived my first couple of years in Bilborough ( 1949 to about 1951/2) on Glaisdale Drive in what was then a prefab, but rebuilt many years ago. I've also decided that if I'm ever left 'alone' up here in Merseyside, I'll move back to Nottm to be with my family.

Went down with a cold starting last Monday. Quite probably more than a coincidence that I was at No.1. Daughter's house the previous day with my lovely Grandkids. So, it's been a full on Snotfest ever since, with my face and upper chest producing prodigious amounts of 'the green stuff'. Each morning I wake up full of it. Then it seems to ease a bit durng the day before a resumption of coughing throughout the evening. No sign of it abating yet and I'm waiting to see if it decides to morph into acute sinusitis.. as these things so often do in my case. Fortunately, last time I went to the Docs with Sinusitis, he gave me 15 Doxycycline capsules and advised that the first five or so would probably cure me. He then advised take a couple more to be sure and keep the rest for the next time, as there would most likely be a next time.. A wise Doc.

Today I listened to some of my old vinyl, of stuff that would only have originally been heard on 78. In fact I had most of these on 78 back in the 60s. These stuck in my mind as being lesser known, but excellent songs/tunes which are probably hardly ever aired these days. Much less known than Moonlight Serenade.. Sunrise.. An Artie Shaw 'B' side. Wait for the clarinet solo. Ink Spots did more than Whispering Grass... These guys were the precursors to the whole 'Doo Wop' scene, Drifters, Platters, Temptations, Impressions and so many others.. Their singer Charlie Fuqua, was an uncle of Harvey Fuqua, of 1950s 'Harvey and the Moonglows' fame, and was instrumental is starting Motown. I believe this song was written by Duke Ellington. Hep Cats eh? Col

And since Enigma gave us 'Forever Autumn. here's my fave Autumn song ever... again

I never saw him.. but Reg Guest was certainly a Nottm legend. R.I.P.

I knew a Mick Roth in Boowul around 1965 or 6. He was a tallish blond haired lad. He rode an Ariel Arrow.

Interesting. I had to check that and found that B. reticulatus is an alternative name for what is known here as B. aestavalis. Don't recall finding it but it is described as 'edible and excellent' .. which puts it on a par with B. edulis. Two others which get a special mention in my books are: B.aereus and B. badius ( The Bay Bolete) I've not found aereus, but occasionally find badius.. usually a solitary specimen. It is superb and usually maggot free.

My late Father in Law was a music hall 'artiste'. Self taught as a young man in Everton.. Liverpool. He worked on the Moss Empires circuit from the 1930s until the 1960s when 'Variety' pretty much died. Even then he did occasional work in 'Olde Tyme Music Hall' shows put on by 'impresarios' such as Don Ellis , who organised 'Old Tyme' shows well into the 1970s.. maybe later.. Don would do the same sort of 'interlocution' that Andrew Sachs did at the Leeds Variety Theatre.... his favourite being to introduce the next act 'At enoooooormous expense..'. Father in Law also did some TV work... mostly non speaking parts. He was in 'Domby and Son', 'The Boys From the Blackstuff' and a play called 'Somewhere More Central', as I recall. Father in Law's first act was as 'Peter Raynor' ventriloquist. He had two black dolls called Coffee and Esmerelda. We still have them in our loft. Very 'un PC' now. Coffee was a boy, who was raucous, uncouth and mischeivous, to Esmerelda's 'Sweet Little Girl' foil. He later developed a second act.. 'Bill Giles' 'Rustic Comedian'. He always claimed that Bernard Miles stole that for his country bumpkin act. It wasn't uncommon for Father in Law to be allocated two dressing rooms as they didn't realise both acts were the same man. Bill Giles was a country gravedigger who would come on to the strains of 'Uncle Tom Cobley' and lean on a shovel before a backdrop of gravestones. He usually opened with: "Evenin' all.. how you all be?" Then. "I seen old Softy Simpkins cummin' through 'ere t'other day". "I sez 'Ow old you be now Softy?" "Eee sez 'Oim nointy three.' " " I sez 'It's 'ardly worth your while goin 'ome ez et?' " Just a string of gentle gags like that. But delivered with impeccable timing. I last saw him do that at one of the Southport Theatre's. Also on the bill was Adelaide Hall, who originally found fame in the late 1920's early 1930s, working with Duke Ellington at the Cotton Club in Harlem and recording 'Creole Love Call'. Anyway.. to the point... ... Father in Law also worked on the bill with Laurel and Hardy at a number of Empire Theatres. This would be 1952/3, when Mrs Col was born. Somewhere in the family is a signed photo of Laurel and Hardy, with a dedication to my father and mother in law and the new baby... https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7537498/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm Also found these from the Empire Sheffield.. Below. As Peter Raynor. Third on the first half. And here as Bill Giles, second only to top of the bill Russ Hamilto.. famous for his only big hit .We Will Make Love. Great to find these, even though they aren't really Nottingham stuff. Col

Blewitts are very nice, but you really do need to make sure they are well cooked. I got that wrong some years ago and spent an interesting evening sweating and 'clearing' them from my system. As for 'porcini' Maybe Nonna has a view on this. Years ago, I read somewhere in one of my Fungi books, that 'porcini' ( little pigs.. or piglets) was a generic term covering a number of edible Boletus and possibly even Leccineum and Suillus species. I've not been able to find that quote again. Maybe they were wrong or maybe I read it wrong, but most people these days only seem to use 'porcini' to refer to Boletus Edulis, the Cepe, or Penny Bun. Col

Remember the 'Betterware' bloke with his suitcase? Used to give away those little flying Saucer shaped plastic things for pressing foil milk bottle tops. Saved you from those 'Thumb in the cream.. cream on the ceiling' moments. I was also the official keeper of the one we had in Henry Whipple Juniors when I held the lofty rank of Milk Monitor. The Betterware bloke also gave away little 'sample' tins of shoe polish and all sorts of basically useless plastic freebies which were so effective I don't recall what most of them were. My mum was persuaded to purchase a 'Dry Powder Fire Extinguisher' from Betterwear. It was basically a plastic bottle full of Sodium Bicarbonate with a little CO2 cylinder the same size as those used in Sparklets Soda thingies. Ours hung on the back of a kitchen cupboard door for many years in readiness for the inevitable conflagration.. until one day when I opened the door ( It would be me wouldn't it..) and it fell off ..landing on its 'firing' button and proceeding to deliver a cloud of Bicarb all over the kitchen and me. Oh! how we laughed...

This is a film I recall seeing a few times as a 'B' movie in the cinema. It concerns an attempt to rob a train of cash. It's a pretty poor movie to be honest. but quite good fun... so when it came up in the listings for the 'Talking Pictures' channel .. I recorded it. I've just watched it and noticed that the train pulls out being hauled by what looks a bit like a 'Scot' or similar engine.. though not seen too clearly. A little later the same train is being hauled by a fully streamlined 'Coronation' class and yet later by a rather indistinct thing which might be a B1.. Later still another loco, this time with smoke deflectors. And when the train finally pulls into the station for the last scenes, it is very clearly being hauled by a Great Western engine.. possibly a Hall or a Castle.. I'm not 'up' on such things. I knew British Railways was a bit flakey after WW2, but I never imagined they'd have to change engines five or six times on a single run... I'll have another look when I get a minute. There may be even more locos.

I've tried Chicken of the Woods Rog. Looks very different to the 'Hen of the Woods' pictured above. Chicken of the Woods also grows differently, coming directly out of trees, usually oak and eventually forming large 'brackets'. It generally appears midsummer onwards so is earlier than most others. It starts as a bright yellow 'blob' which looks a bit like stuffing pushing out of a mattress. At this stage it is edible but I find it a bit 'sharp' and astringent. As it grows bigger it tends to form bracket shapes which have a fibrous texture quite like chicken It's OK, but I much prefer Cepes, or some of the better Agarics, such as the Horse Mushroom, or The Prince. My fave of all are Chanterelles.. but I've only ever found them in Somerset.

Thing is though Lizzie that many of the best edibles don't look much like the white mushrooms you get in Tesco. And some of those that look superficially like the ones you get in Tesco are deadly. I can't repeat often enough that you really do need to know exactly what you've got before eating anything.

I've had a specimen of Grifolia Frondosa from a small but old Beech wood close to J 23 of the M6 at Haydock. Not as massive as the one pictured above though... and although it's edible.. I didn't fancy it due to the large numbers of dogs which get walk right past where I found it. There's a fungus called Sparrassis Crispa.. known as the Cauliflower Fungus, which also grows at the base of trees. I've only found it in Somerset.. but it too can get massive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparassis