A quickie this evening as I guess many of you like us have been enjoying the warm sunny weather, hard to believe its actually a bank holiday weekend. Wednesday we head down to Kent finishing in Sussex on Saturday weather dependent, fingers crossed etc. The wet spring has seen everything in the garden grow prolifically but the sudden heat was obviously challenging them today so watering again in the morning. Very few DVD orders and that is just fine with us this week! A reminder of our last trip which tonight features Swansea last week

I've put the summer bedding plants in and generally tidied up the gardens as we have friends calling in for a drink in the back. Despite my horticultural activities I have also managed to get all the South Wales bus DVDs edited and they are live on the PMP shop right now. And here are the covers which I finishing a short while back.

We had some good news in the post Mandy's long battle to get her PIP changed to permanent has finally been achieved which in the short term helps renewal of her blue parking badge which they would only issue for a year as it stood. We were assisted by our MP Esther McVey, whatever her politics she has proved a very good constituency MP and of course she represents everyone not just those who voted for her.

Next we travel back to our South Wales trip where we arrive at Cardiff

We have now booked our hotels for the Kent and Sussex trip this coming week which should see us polish off buses at Canterbury, Maidstone, Chatham, Folkestone, Hastings, Eastbourne, Brighton and lorries at Dover. This means no items will be sent after next Tuesday until the following Monday. I'll put holiday setting on EBay, suspend Amazon, our shop you can order away at will and downloads are automatic anyway.

Due to the very upbeat weather outlook for Kent and Sussex this coming week we have decided to bring it forward by a week which then gives more of a gap between that and the South West trip plus hot on the heels of that we are in Hampshire for a family wedding. I've started editing the South wales bus DVDs, two are finished so far just three to go. I've got the garden quite tidy and purchased all the plants for summer bedding which I'll put in tomorrow.

After church Sunday we'll be enjoying the sunshine and better than freezing temperatures. I'm also trying to get a Polio Fellowship newsletter together for our members. An interesting chat in the Crown Thursday night , one of the congregation from our sister church in another village has resigned from the PCC, similar feelings to mine on the fetish of dressing up and splashing incense around, a nice enough chap but I'm glad that others could not handle all aspects. Knutsford parish church and that at nearby Goostry find favour with many ad even the new regional bishop is heading to Knutsford to talk to local farmers.

Anyway I digress, we have at last seen the arrangement with the film library who will promote our material for lease take off and it will get a worldwide market. Time is always so precious and I'm still trying to put the finishing touches on the second diorama although warm sunny weather doesn't really suit such projects. The DVD sales have now gone into hibernation as folk get their heads around warmer weather and travelling. Anyway after Merthyr we made our first visit to Aberdare on Wednesday.

Just got back home and had a light supper, its pub night and we've been on the go for two days so well content ourselves by giving you a selection over the next few days of our travels which include Merthyr, Aberdare,Pontypridd, Cardiff, Swansea and Newport. So celebrating the final few days at the old Merthyr Tydfil bus station with morning 'rush' hour.

Our first overnight stay for quite a while and we are off to South Wales hopefully seeing the new Merthyr bus station and a first ever visit to Aberdare bus station then down to Cardiff. On Thursday we will be visiting Bridgend, Neath and Swansea. So tonight some glimpses at past visits to the area.

I've nearly finished the bulk of the work on my two dioramas and now a few finishing touches for the time being and then all the modelling material will be stashed away on the top shelf which next winter will become my dock and distribution centres linked by a motorway through time.

I am trying to get some of the digitised files on to the external drive, that is taking ages and must then repeat on to the Online Film Archive drive. I look forward to recommencing the scanning process with old cine films in a few weeks. Coming soon will be our trip to Kent.

I can now give a sketch of what is planned this year although with the Corona Pandemic nothing is certain, many events have moved their traditional dates. A neighbour with a classic car told me today he though Kelsall was now back on but there is nothing on the net to suggest this is so and Astle Park another local to us rally now clashes with the rescheduled Gaydon lorry rally. Where there is a clash we have gone for the location we have traditionally been to and enjoyed.  We also have two family weddings in Hampshire this summer and will try to get bus and truck locations covered in Hampshire adjacent to the family events.

This week we may well end up in South Wales for Wed and Thursday looking at the new Merthyr bus station and a first time visit to Aberdare bus station then down to Cardiff. The next day moving along the coast to Swansea etc.

9-12th June Kent Bus and truck
End of June family event Hapmpshire
14-17th June South West
11th July perhaps Thames Valley Reading running day
18th July possible Rotherham running day
25th  July hope to have stand at Worthing rally
7th August family event in Hampshire
14-15th August stand at Gaydon lorry event
21-22 Stand at Lathalmond, Fife
30th August Truckfest Peterborough
4-5th Sept Stand at Great Harwood, Lancs
12th Sept Kirby Running Day
26th Sept Showbus with Stand
3rd Oct Wythall running day
10th Oct Detling with stand
24th Oct Brooklands with stand
4-5th Dec stand at Manchester Museum

If you are holding an event we have missed or you would like us to film why not drop us a line!

I've got a lot more downloads on the shop today, as I've explained it is around 20 minutes for each one but I'm catching up on recent DVD releases. Doing these fits in well with other tasks which today included cleaning the house but after getting all the discs our for DVD orders I did make a fair bit of progress on the last part of diorama two. The travellers advance party are now moved into the car park next to the derelict eatery on the retail park. More are expected to arrive tomorrow. I managed to build the Faller kit of the trolley park which although small in HO scale looks fine and I really wouldn't want to park in the car spaces as it is all a bit tight but any modelling at this scale has to be a compromise unless your have a barn to work with. I did some shots of progress as of this morning not sure how they have turned out so lets have a peek.

Perhaps we can take another peak tomorrow as a lot has happened since these shots were taken this morning. A couple of relevant and realistic items are the taxi and white van man parked in disabled bays. In  Knutsford this is really the province of the Maserati brigade, the chap got a ticket the other day on the yellow lines so has gone back today to his spot in the disabled section of road.

AS part of our widely advertised campaign to make our sales efficient and fit in with our life we have ended overseas shipments via EBay ( thanks to support lady in Ireland) and Amazon, not sure if it has worked they have zero support for any seller just mumbo jumbo. This in no way abandons our customers abroad in fact the very opposite so we send post free world wide just to share our hobby and build bridges with other countries. Our digitisation for downloads makes this process really easy for overseas sales and costs less and is instant. I must admit it is hard to make a lot of headway with putting them on the shop as downloads, it takes 30 seconds with a DVD and 20 minutes for a download.

I've edited the new DVDs from Liverpool trucks to Warwickshire and black country, Nuneaton and Wolverhampton. We really need some reasonable settled weather to get us down to the South East , Kent and Sussex and the South West before school holidays. I'm trying to get Maidstone done before they re-open the bus station. Anyway here are the covers for the latest releases and they are on the shop. Work has also progressed with the diorama and my retail park now has vehicles and trees plus grass verges. Signage needs adding, road and direction and possibly some bill boards to bridge the way from the bus station, we now have a mini roundabout which will be like Wakefield where the bus drivers totally ignore it.

The weather has been cold, wild, wet, windy etc so my cunning plan to reserve shopping for today plus hair cut worked well. I've got both the Liverpool trucks DVDs done and tomorrow will finish the Wolverhampton and Nuneaton discs and get the four DVD covers created. I've also been pushing on with the diorama in my bid to get it substantially complete before I get back to cine film archive scanning.I can then reserve modelling for next winter although if it carries on like this winter is here again already. We will walk round to the pub, Mandy reckons if we put sails on her wheelchair we would be there in a minute.

Fairly quiet on the DVD front which is sort of welcome but we don't want it to dry up just yet. Talking of which the drainage chaps who were coming to clear the soak away drains haven't materialised as yet. Tomorrow the large overgrown conifer and its several branches and stems is getting lopped down, primarily behind next door but parts overhang our greenhouse which is now effectively our garden shed. This requires us to be home as next door has to work this Friday, hitherto it had been his work from home day.

Some shots next from Wolverhampton and Nuneaton this week. I must get some shots of the latest developments on the diorama.

I took a chance with the weather and filmed at Wolverhampton and Nuneaton today. Mostly sunny but showers were torrential ad accompanied by strong winds, this seems to have become our weather pattern and no visibility of anything better even into June. Wolverhampton city was dead as the old dodo while Nuneaton was quite buzzing in comparison. I'm just downloading todays film which will be the last this week and I'll get covers out of the way by Friday and listed. Quite boring regards bus scene in Wolverhampton which once post rush lull had gone it picked up well , nothing new, nothing particularly interesting and it was almost ditto in Nuneaton where not a single Stagecoach bus carried the new livery. The only added zest came with a couple of school buses. I also got a few bus shots at Switch Island in Liverpool yesterday, lets get them shown now

A few more shots of the lorries at Liverpool docks yesterday morning

A few shots from Wolverhampton this morning

Progress on Wolverhampton trams to station - little changed, not much to show for another year.