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Featured

Attracting Wildlife into your Garden

February 5, 2019 VickyP

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People often asked me “What can I do to attract wildlife into my garden?”  I ask them what they already do to try; most often they tell me that they have bird feeders and put out bird food but not much seems to visit them. Firstly, we need to understand the needs of any visiting […]

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Modern Collectibles – Gentlemen’s Stickpins

February 5, 2019 VickyP

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Last year, I bought my wife a complete boxed set of The Avengers. So many episodes does it contain that we are still ploughing through them and, indeed, enjoying the kitsch nostalgia and humour of them enormously. The late actor Patrick McNee, as John Steed, the one constant protagonist of the series, was increasingly presented […]

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Places of Interest on Either Side of The Lower Wye & Severn Valleys

January 3, 2019 VickyP

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Beyond Birmingham and before reaching Bristol on the way to the south west, travellers using the M5 gateway to the sun often find themselves in one of the all too frequent bottlenecks, especially around the M5/M60 junction. If they give up and decide to call it a day around Junction 9 (Tewksbury), then the possibility […]

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Modern Collectables – Modern Glass Paperweights

January 3, 2019 VickyP

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My daughter, although now 22, has gone through many enthusiasms in her short life: Barbie Dolls, Beanie Babies, My Little Pony and so on through Pokémon to soberer items. One of which was modern glass paperweights, of which we now have a considerable collection. On the whole, prices – mainly at fleamarkets and antique fairs […]

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Modern Collectibles – Teddy Bear

November 29, 2018 VickyP

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Toy animals have been around since the days of Ancient Egypt, but bears only since the 18th century, and genuinely cuddly ones, made of plush stuffed with something that will take a squeeze, only became available as a manufactured item in the 19th century. However, the all-encompassing soubriquet’ Teddy’ owes its origins in this context […]

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Mysteries, Murder, Marple and More

November 29, 2018 VickyP

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From the days of ancient Greece right up to the present day, people all over the world have been fascinated by crime stories. Authors including Sophocles, Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle are often cited as being among the finest writers of the genre – but none can match the best-selling novelist of all […]

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Taste Derbyshire – From Nut Sprinkled Discs to Chocolate Drenched Honeycombs

November 26, 2018 VickyP

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Two pints of lager and a cream truffle may not be the average round for most pub-goers but The Three Horseshoes Inn at Breedon on the Hill is not your average pub. Yes, it has the roaring fire, real ales and quarry-tiled floors – but they’ve also thrown in a chocolate shop for good measure. […]

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Repton – Capital of The Kingdom of Mercia

November 26, 2018 VickyP

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The history of the North Midlands is writ large on this ancient town set high above the quiet meadows bordering the River Trent.  Its history is traced from Saxon and Norman times, through Tudor to the present day. Even the Danes who came this far up the Trent in their longships, made it their winter […]

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Travelling Through History – Where Our Forebears Trod 3

November 26, 2018 VickyP

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Having looked at Rykneild Street going South West, I felt it might risk any enthusiast rather hanging in the air if I did not continue the story of the same ancient road in its opposite direction. After all it was the Romans’ major SW to NE route, and it seems rather to have pivoted at […]

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Derbyshire Antiques & Collectibles – Thimble Collecting

October 25, 2018 VickyP

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Thimble is a word used for a small cap to protect the finger for use when sewing, and the name derives from Old English thyma and Old Norse thumall – the same root that gives up ‘thumb’ – and more specifically thymel a fingerstall. The root word really meant ‘swelling’ and words like tumour and […]

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