The debonair Basil Marigold's

Being a boy, I have a natural inclination towards Science Fiction. Which i developed as a child who wanted to see the world from the outside in, or at least from a position that involved leaving orbit. It also piqued my interest even further when I was introduced into the world of I think the two greatest Science Fiction authors; Arthur C Clark and Isaac Asimov , Asimov wrote the incredible 'Foundation' series, which, originally a trilogy, became the father of 7 novels in total, based around the fall of the GALACTIC EMPIRE and the character of Hari Seldon. As a teenage boy I remember devouring these books and wondering if I could ever write a story as imaginative or as thought provoking. The other writer with whom I grew up with, was, Sir Arthur C Clark, a total geek genius, who died a few years ago at the ripe old age of 90 but who, in his career, has written some of the great cannon of Sci Fiction writing. Indeed, he is seen as part of the science Fiction triumvirate, includ

...It occured to my rather marble sized brain that I posted about our Gas emergency but never revealed the magnificence that followed on from this in respect of me, the apprentice, being shown by the master, ie: father in law, who has very, very many, many more years of DIYing than I have! I believe at that post I said we were going to remove the carpet and go au naturale, bathroom floor wise. Well, I kind of took a back seat on this one, but did make the massive contribution of buying a little sander for the corners, which do look great. but it does look great, so here is our bathroom now, essentially, courtesy of our father in law while he was on holiday! how great is that, He spends his holiday DIYing our bathroom, which ironically enough is exactly what my mums partner will be doing when he comes back in september when I launch my 'operation loft' at him and hope he has the time with my help to crack on into the loft to free up the vast storage space for the 'as-yet-un

...And in many ways you may have experienced the scenerio of visiting friends and relatives and saying, hmm...that's a nice bathroom colour. I like the way they have hung that Titian to juxtapose the Canaletto in the hallway. Yes, I do this quite a lot and it has been thanks the house of a friend, rosiepop and especially their Ikea dining table which we filled in our heads for future reference. So, on the way to the Airport last night we took a detour to that little oasis of sweden in Nottinghamshire, The ikea store so big it has its own postcode, to get this wee beasty of a table. The reasons we went for this table is that with the impending download of our daughter, note how I have techno geek identified pregnancy with software downloading. I am also tempted, if we have another child to name that one, Theaker 2.0. though doubt I'll get this past my wifes quality threshold! That, though, is another story, back to the original. The ide being that are Dining room table is quite

....This is now turning into a mighty rennovation, in incremental steps and today saw the achievement of a further new addition to our Garden, which in a way, was driven by somebody elses garden, my nannars. Which after years has been given a right good going over, the result of which has released a lot of very good top soil. Which I was thinking of buying but as this opportunity came I, in the end, took a bag and a spade and dug for victory for some free top soil, which was purloined with great efficiency. The whole point is dealing with this end of the garden, here below. which, as I am sure you'll agree looks bad, a mess of cosmic proportions that I felt I had to tackle with my vast Garden landscaping skills, with my tongue in my cheek here. So by getting some free soil, it enabled me to head down to our local DIY store to purchase what I felt would go in this corner and here is the result. It cost £7 but I think the result is good and it is planned here to plant maybe? or plant

And so recently I found myself travelling here, Kelham Hall, home of Newark and sherwood district council. It is set in a truly stunning surrounding, complete with village cricket pitch in the grounds. On an early afternoon in glaring hot sun and azure sky, it was a beautiful place to be. The room is where the meeting took place, it was almost as impressive on the inside. A very beautiful place and held King Charles I here after he surrendered in nearby southwell. And became a Theological college under the C of E sold it to the newly formed Newark and sherwood dc in the mid 70's.

and I think I can count this by looking in the mirror and seeing it's only me. Which is one. But hey it's my blog and therefore a dictatorship where one is a majority. MC Escher is great and bonkers, but I have a contiunual dream that one day I will own an original etching by Giovanni Battista Piranesi, an 18th century italian engraver, who is famous for his etchings of ancient Roman ruins and more so from my perspective, the series I first saw was the, Carceri d'invenzione, the imaginery prisons series of etchings. Sadly, They really start from a reserve price of about £450 for the less famous works and gradually head up into the £2-3500 price bracket at auction, for an etching about 20 x 18inches in size, proving small is beautiful but really, rather expensive. I guess I found them intoxicatingly intricate and the product of an incredible mind. They also happened to look like the artwork I could only dream of producing, style wise. Here is an example; It appeals to the go

Essentially. The person who built the house within which the Theaker family resides had, for some reason, a passion for building in the style of a marxist and staright lines and right angles it would appear, where the bourgeoisie enemy. This has thrown up many physics bending issues. And if you are ever fortunate enough to sit in our dining room and you are looking in the right place, you too will see that our decoration and furniture gives the dinig room an impression it was designed by MC Escher , who has always been one of my favorite Sketch Artists and as a schoolchild who liked sitting alone in the library, I found his work fascinating, whereas nowadays people would probably think MC escher is a Hip Hop star. They would be wrong as he adds strength to the Argument that the Dutch produce the most bonkers people on the planet. They based their economy on a flower, that's how bonkers these people are! Anyway. As we have now established that this house has been built by a man with

And the skanky looking bench that appeared in Fridays post, bought last year from Ikea, to rerplace the one Terrie and I broke by sitting on it, which seemed one of the fundamental purposes of a bench, being sat on safely, but I may be a little picky. This bench has weathered some good weather and had really started to turn green, which as a style I actually quite liked. But as we dont live in House and garden magazine. It got sanded and stained to go with the ongoing garden project and here is the final result. It is a much nicer bench now and looks lovely. It even blends into the back wall!

...It means that boredom meets unstained wood, that's what happens. It is like a scientific collision. The thought process was thus; 1) Hmm...I must put that woodstain into the shed, 2) Oh, the shed door is locked and key is in the kitchen and I am in the Garden...bench I stained yesterday looks nice. 3) Going back to the kitchen is a long way from the Garden...wonder what's for tea...Oh, look at the shed door, that's made of wood, ah-a! As you can our shed used to be the outside toilet, as up in the north they felt this was the best place for them, to start with, right next to the kitchen. It is a period feature, or was until it was moved upstairs many years ago. Though it is nice, I am sure you'll agree, that they kept the original turn of the century toilet door. But after living through the Great War, The second world war where it took part in the raid on St Nazare. It returned and over time has declined to become a pale shell of itS former glory, in this way our to

...More photos, perhaps tomorrow as that may work.

...Continues unabaited and seems to grow and grow, which ironically the newly sowed grass isn't. But heyho, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and my back must therefore be becoming somewhat broader. After the heavy lifting and creation of our new entry into said Garden. It was decided that we needed to chop back the far end trees that hung to the wall like leeches to flesh, except instead of blood they sucked mortar. This an old photo which shows the amount of growth projecting from the wall and overhanging the bench. I have decided to show a winter one to show how lovely winter can look. This one I used to try and show how far forward the bench is because of the overgrowth, and should be seen in the context of the following photos, which shows what can happen over a couple of days when you garden with brute strength and a saw! So It took a at least five trips to the local tip to rid the garden of the complete butchered mess I made of the back wall foliage, which I '

We have both been looking forward to the new arrival to our household and today we can release the first pictures, and here they are. The new arrival on Thursday morning; As you can see almost nude! So, my wife began to paint the little fella, which she was fortunately bought as a christmas present. 5 months later, here's the next photo! And, finally my wife had finished the complete makeover and here is the little Gnome. In his full, resplendent Glory, here stands Mr Gnome Theaker, our newest addition. So we had this fine, jolly little fella, all alone and we wanted to make him feel at home so we set him up in the Garden! Here he is in his new home, protecting our house. That, which you see on his face, is the look of pure contentment.

While messing about in trains, we had no boats, okay? I took rather a lot of photgraphs with the old mobile phone, and some were what I call, the arty ones, which to me, who knows nothing about photography means black and white and sepia! I think it is because in the way in which steam trains look better in black and white. So here is a few of the good ones as judged by my good lady wife who has a talent for these tings, please note that they may look good, I have as always cropped out my thumb from a couple, which as attractive as my thumb is, I felt it inappropriate! How can anybody not find this a thing of sensational beauty. The maximum combination of elegance clothing a machine of immense power. How can we say that the Pendolino is as aesthetically pleasing as this, wee beasty? And then of course there is the addition of the carriages and we found ourselves in my favourite style of Carriage. The compartment variety and some pictures here; It would not be complete without a good ph

Could be a long one this. As it may require a full on Geek out! Yesterday was my birthday Present: A day out to the North Yorkshire Moor Railway ! I may have previously mentioned my admiration of the steam form of train travel and quite frankly it was a brilliant day, a perfect synergy between Geek and his Geekness. Hence the sign. and so we went, where the sign directed and that place was here, Pickering Train station! from here the journey began. We stopped at two stations before the end station of Whitby. These were Goathland and Grosmont. Or as other people may know them, Heartbeat town aidensfield and steam train engine shed central! Here is Goathland and the station there which is buried deeply into the valley, on top of which sits a quite lovely little village. and just to prove it, thene there is an authentic Ford Anglia Policecar used in the series! This compares to all the other pieces of 'authentic' as used in the series pieces doted about, very much like Catholic re

One can only presume the reasoning behind this shed sign from a Yorkshire steam engine shed. I, as a foreigner to Yorshire, ie: a british, non-yorkshire born person, have an idea. True foreigners I have heard, who are from other countries beyond our shores are, I am told, by a yorkshire man, felt to inhabit the same mythical world as Unicorns. Yet this sign is either for people who were not born within the boundaries of Gods own Country or they put visitors from Lancashire into here before corrective treatment? Your guess is as good as mine!

...Or just bad taste. I say this as we have received a very 'kind' present for the baby. One of our friends , may well be interested in this high art fashion item. I say high fashion as I can think of no other description for it, apart from it being the creation of a criminal mind. Either this or my relative, at one stage of her life, stole them from Liberace's kitchen cabinet! I cannot imagine anybody buying them, so they have to be stolen, surely? It certainly proves that 80+ year olds do technically transcend fashion. Behold the pair of rubber gloves we were given as presents! and if you really do want this zoomed in. Then behold the magnificent Be-jewelled gloves and precious stone (plastic) bound by a gold elastic band. I think you will admit that we are very fortunate to have recieved such a class item. We are also open to offers.

Tag! I have been tagged by rosiepop What is your current obsession? getting the house straight. Do you nap a lot? Not really, not as much as I used too. What colour is your bedding? White; the colour of Innocence. What's for dinner? Chilli and Rice/pasta. What was the last thing you bought? A birthday present for my mum, a new tobacco tin for her rollies. Posh parent, eh? What are you listening to right now? 'When the music's over' by The Doors on itunes and flipping great it is too. What is your fave weather? A mist covered hillside on a wintry morning. What's in your bathroom cabinet? you have cabinets in bathrooms?! Say something to the person who sent you this... Only begin to panic about the illness when they paint a cross on your front door. Apart from that, strepsils should help. If someone gave you a house, where would it be? On the shores of Lake Como, thank you very much and it would be a lovely, appreciated gift. Name the things you can't live without

Oh yes, I have found some much better ones... Firstly, pure quality chav. some nice synth though. Going from chav to class, with this classic theme; I cannot describe how much I loved this tune when I was younger!

Now, in Kings mill, I discovered, you have a CD player in the birthing room. For which you can play music during the Labour. This has lead me to consider what would be the most appropriate birthing music. I have narrowed my choices down to two, for the wife to give birth too. At present there is more support for number 1. Here they are; Choice number 1 How inspiring would this be for a baby? A lot. It would come out looking for that first Country to liberate! Choice Number 2 This I think would guarantee a very quick labour! Feel free to inform me of any you would consider.

...1am, saturday morning, laptop on the dining table, 6 posts a posted and listening to Led Zeppelin in headphones, nice and loud, how they are made to be heard. I have a horrid feeling I could go all night, but bed must be waiting somewhere? but Achilles last stand, 10 minutes of Led Zeppelin at their Greatest!

When I go on the big Choo, Choo...Photos will be published here, with an anorakesque description of this trains.

This may look like an antique jewelled ring, proffered by some smitten young lover to his attractive and alluring fiancee, in the hope of receiving eternal love and happiness. What it is in fact, is something slightly different. It is in fact a screw hole. Though we do not randomly screw holes in rings. This is the small joint the emergency plumber removed after we screwed into the gas pipe this little fella belonged too, at the time, under the bathroom floor. The hissing sound and smell gave us the clue, also. We went from this; to this, in one swift step. Fortunately the Transco emergency Gas Man, or Supergasman arrived in almost 30 minutes or so of being called, which to be fair, is quicker than the 50 minutes it took the Police to arrive after my Nannar was burgled. And he was also, far more use too. (Yes, I admit, I have a little bitterness here). He did this for us; Now, as you can see and in the movies where bombs are involved. The hero always has a choice of 3 wires to cut. He