Harmoniums, Hens and Sewing Machines

My collection of reed instruments is growing apace. We are the proud owners of an old Alexandre harmonium..aka pump organ...courtesy of a bit of an Ebay moment, ok so two notes don't work but hey what do you want for £1.

Of course I've now got my eye on bigger and better harmonia and I've browsed the web merrily wondering how hard it is to fix the notes that don't want to work.

Found a good few websites so there are people looking after these things, despite the terrible prices they seem to fetch on Ebay. http://www.reedorgans.co.uk/

The harmonium works like a sort of horizontal accordion. You have to pump a foot pedal which inflates a bellows arrangement which in turn allows the notes to sound. Rather a good noise comes out of ours. The bellows are in tact, but it could do with a little TLC as the previous owner has knocked it about a bit.

And for my next Ebay trick I purchased an old Singer sewing machine, one of the pedal type (see the link between harmoniums and sewing machines, type in pedal and then check the distance and voila a completely insane purchase) and I have hauled it back to my house full of underappreciated things that really shold be worth more money but aren't.

The sewing machine is great, complete with its oak table, original instructions, all the various attachments for quilting, variable hems and other things I don't think I've ever tried. There is even a spare drive belt (old leather strap thing). It looks to be from the 1920's/30's and seems to have been much better looked after than the one my grandma had.

I am currently resisting the temptation to acquire big fluffy chickens called Buff Orpingtons. I've been looking at the possiblity of installing chickens for a while. We do have the room, but we don't yet have a fully fenced off area in the garden.

Having spent today lunching with a large crowd of Buff Orpingtons (and blue ones and jubilee ones) at Harperley Hall POW Camp I am quite struck on them. They are huge, and very amusing. I'm not sure they could fly if they wanted to. Knowing us they'd end up in the house, but not for lunch.

I've finally discovered the point of ironing

For as long as I can remember ironing has been a way of reinforcing creases. Thanks to my new 'steam generator' iron I think I just removed all the creases from a garment!!! My linen clothing will now be crease free, until I get in the car, sit down or bend, at which point all the creases will reappear.

Seriously I don't like ironing. I have tried not to wear anything that needs ironing for the past 8 years (the advent of children). But our old steam iron stopped working and Jason spent £5 on a new one from Tesco's. As a result the minority of my clothes that do need ironing became completely unwearable as even I won't go out in massively crumpled clothing. Alas I am not the shape for lycra, so something had to be done.

The new iron has an extra kettle like attachment so I can just steam away all those stubborn creases in about a third of the time it used to take me to iron a basket of clothes. Never thought I'd be happy doing the ironing. I don't think this 'happy to iron' feeling will last long, but it is worth noting just for the shock factor.

Current grumbles

In no particular order - and just to get it out of my system.....

Kids who hang around the area and vandalise the local church, and harass my elderly neighbours.

The fact that the local council, the county council and the police have replied to my email about said youths within 24 hours of me sending my email...but they have all told me that there are not likely to be any resources (police) or funds (the money bit) to do much about it!!!

A government who thinks keeping kids at school to do pointless subjects until they are 18 will make any difference...the local kids causing the problem are about 14, they are at school.

The fact that these kids are really quite clever. They know the police are unlikely to come, they have specially selected easy targets. They know to go home by 9pm (seems to be when they disappear).

These kids know they are being given useless qualifications now that everyone passes pretty much everything (they are not stupid), they know they are not likely to get a job even if they do pass their exams, and they know they shouldn't be getting away with this.

By trying to be fair the government is effectively disabling everyone who uses the education system.

I spend quite a few spare minutes wondering where would be the best place to move to...globally. Unfortunately the Orkneys were well featured in the Telegraph the other week, so that means half of London will be buying it up shortly.