Thursday 14th May 2026 - Change of Hands, Mixed Feelings and First Car Boot

The village store, which is such an asset for villagers, has been sold.  After serving the village, for I forget how many years, Michael Maher has sold the shop and this is now being run by Paran.  Having said this, Michael is still around until the Post Office side of the business is fully transferred over to Paran.  I understand this will be on or around the 25^th.  At this point Judy, who has been so helpful and a welcome source of information regarding village matters, (again, I understand) will be leaving too.  I have already posted the shop’s sale on Facebook and although there is no facility on my blog to post comments, I’m sure everyone reading this, will want to join Peter and me and wish Michael and Judy the very best for the future.

I am having mixed feelings about my cooker.  I’ve had it for eleven years but now the grill refuses to stay on.  To have it repaired and then, given its age, find something else goes wrong could mean the total costs could be in the region of, or above, the price of a new cooker.  After a bit of deliberation, I ordered a new one.  The equivalent cooker, now on the market, does not have the same features as my current one, so I’ve decided to try a different make.  It’s going to be sad to see the old one go, for recycling, as it still looks good and has served me well.  Hence the mixed feelings.  The new cooker is due to be delivered tomorrow – I’m keeping my fingers crossed it serves me as well as the old one. 

Today was the first car boot on the sports field, of the season.  Unfortunately, the day got off to a damp start, with showers.  Despite this, the car boot went ahead, but when I went over, shortly after eight, there were just five sellers.  Three of these were devoted to plants and I came back with a trachycarpus, a plant which is totally new to me.  By nine the weather settled sufficiently for us to take the bus to North Walsham where we purchased various items we wanted.  By the time we caught the bus back, the skies had cleared and since then it’s been sunny.  Hopefully, next Thursday will get off to a settled start and draw more sellers to the village’s very popular car boot sale.

Today’s photo is of a bloom, made up of small individual flowers, on a horse chestnut tree in the village.  The tree originates from the mountains of northern Greece and Albania and was introduced into the UK in 1616.  Since then, it has graced parklands and large gardens which can support a tree of this size.