Making Cards Day

I am posting. .... I am just making sure I can edit OK. I have spent today making cards from a new book that a friend has sent through, it is Dutch so something different. I have also made up my packages ready to post tomorrow.
Memories:

Uncle Charlie was married to Edie and they had a son called John – hence the nicknames for the other Johns – we spoke of him as Little John.  They lived out in the country, with no running water or gas, just electric – which at the time I thought was weird as we had gas, fires and cooker.  I cannot remember them ever visiting us but we used to visit them regularly and it had to be quite a co-ordinated trip.  There were only a few buses out to Majors Green, run by the Midland Red bus company out of Stratford and they were, as the name suggests, big red double decker buses.  I am sure they were just one an hour so we always had to be very coordinated, especially for the trip back home.  I remember visiting when we had moved to Hall Green but cannot remember the trips before that, although I imagine we would have connected at

Haslucks Green Road

junction from the 37 (I shall post on the buses system at a later date).  So off we would go to visit Uncle Charlie who lived in a bungalow set back from the road – 576 Haslucks Green Road – no longer there now as the land was sold after he died and new houses built.  The path led down the side of the propery, under a damson tree, round a corrugated steel building (later it turned out to be a garage for his motorbike and sidecar!) then along the front of the bungalow into a yard with a leanto on the back.  Thinking back it may have been a prefab like the ones on

Wake Green Road

, as there was just the one room and two bedrooms off. 

When you came into the yard Auntie Edie had a large hen cage and she was renowned in the area for her eggs, selling them to the neighbours.  Beyond the hens was a shed and beyond that another shed.  This shed contained a polished piece of wood with a hole in it under which sat a large metal container with Jeyes fluid.  On the back of the door was a hook on which held six inch square pieces of paper, usually the Radio Times!!!  ……. This was the toilet …….  I didn’t like it much because there were lots of spider webs and it was dark, I think there was a light but it was only a bare bulb and not really helpful in the daytime as there was more light coming from underneath and over the top of the door.  In the yard was a bird bath, very overgrown and Auntie Edie had planted small iceplants in there.  So this is where I would go when I visited, and we were always warmly welcomed.  Soon after we arrived I would be asked if I could go fill the bucket with water and I jumped at the chance.  The water was fetched from the pump which was in the middle of the garden by the damson tree, a big old black pump with a large handle, just like the ones you see in the old cowboy films.  In order for the water to come out the handle at the side had to be lifted up and down and I just loved using this, watching the water gush into the bucket ……. Magic!  The fact that I had to carry the bucket all the way back to the kitchen did not figure in the equation, I just loved that pump.