It's a boy!

My wife and I are delighted to have another grandchild, this new addition brings the total to four. His name is Ted and he will be yet another candidate for a drive in the Morgan when he is bigger.

I suspect there will be quite a lot of demands on our time....well that's what Grandparents are for aren't they? However, I am sure that they will not be such as to preclude many drives/days away in the Mog this year.

Ullswater....not todays drive, but just to remind us all of glorious Morgan adventures!

The car is booked in Lifes at Southport on Tuesday for it's annual service so, just to make sure all was well with the machine, I took it out for a quick spin today, in glorious sunshine. Sadly, judging by the weather forecast it is not going to be particularly pleasant for our drive to Southport, but it will be nice to see everyone at Lifes again, always good fun.

I spent the morning weeding and digging over my vegetable plot which I intend to make over to lawn, frankly I am getting a bit fed up with weeding and this will be a good way of resolving that, albeit it will mean no lovely vegetables and more mowing.

Spring has sprung!!.....

Well, we hope so, as these photographs show.  They were taken this afternoon in the churchyard of our local church, St Chad's, Poulton-le-Fylde.

The church of St Chad...there's always scaffolding when I get the camera out!

They were shot following a lovely short drive in my newly polished and greased 4/4, just to check that I'd fitted the newly cleaned wires correctly! Nothing dropped off, so presumably all is well!

Always a gorgeous sight , every year.

This afternoon was really quite pleasant, sunny and warm, conjuring thoughts once again of picnics by babbling brooks and 'wandering lonely as a cloud' along country roads in the Lake District and theYorkshire Dales..

 My wife and I are getting rather excited at the moment, as we are looking forward to the imminent arrival of our fourth grandchild, so no doubt we shall be called upon from time to time for additional babysitting duties.

A sheer delight, but a pity I couldn't get a photo of the Morgan in the middle of them!!

News of my demise has been greatly exaggerated!!

It is now many weeks since I sat at my keyboard and typed a missive for my adoring readership and for that I apologise profusely.

In the UK this is a particularly lean period in the year for Morgan motoring, unless the owner doesn't mind washing it after every trip to remove salt/mud etc., from the roads. This year in particular has been particularly wet causing flooding in large areas of the country and although fortunately there hasn't been any water ingress into our humble abode, the weather has not been conducive to pootling around in the Mog. and this is certainly one reason why I have had little to report on the Morgan front.

However, one important reason for not putting pen to paper during this period was the fact that I spent a week in January in the Acute Medical Unit of our local hospital where doctors were trying to ascertain why yours truly had collapsed in a heap at home on the 14th January. They still don't know and medical appointments are ongoing.

However, enough of this I hear you cry, what about Morgan matters?

A couple of weeks ago I tried to book a service at my local dealership and found that the earliest that they could accommodate me was the middle of March, due to the amount of work they were currently doing converting the traditional Morgan suspension system to the 'Suplex' system by Librands.

Forgive me, but I bought my Morgan so that I could enjoy the unique traditional qualities of a quintessentially English sports car with characteristics more akin to the thirties than the 21st century. If I'd have wanted a semblance of luxury and a smooth, soulless, insulated ride I would have chosen an Audi TT or something similar.

When I drive my Morgan I can feel the road and it adds to a great driving experience, why change it, and at a cost of approaching £1000!!!! I shall not be changing mine!

The other day a wire on my trusty battery charger broke and as it is a sealed unit the manufacturer advises replacement...well they would, wouldn't they? So I sent for a new one only to find that the polarity had changed, which necessitated the lead and socket switching from the positive terminal to the negative terminal on the battery, or conversely.

Being the physical wreck that I am I did not relish the idea of fumbling around in the dark recesses of the battery compartment,which demands a huge amount of physical contortion and the ability to be able to work upside down, so I arranged with Lifes at Southport to do the job for me. At the same time they could sell me a set of replacement wiper blades, one of which had started to disintegrate as I was taking the car for it's MOT locally the day before.

Total cost £29 and that was just for three wiper blades, each around 6 inches long!! No charge was made for the battery job.

Yesterday I greased the front suspension and cleaned the stainless wire wheels, so the Morgan is ready for the new season once there is an improvement in the weather and we look forward to adding a few more miles to the 21980 we have so far completed. As for the greasing, I have decided that in future, I shall run the car to my local garage so that they, for a nominal fee, can squirt some grease into the appropriate nipples.

The prospect of crawling around on my back under the car with more grease on me than in the sliding pillars has lost its appeal!!!

Maiden Voyage!

Well, she didn't sink, neither did the radio fail, so I didn't have to don the waders that I had taken just in case the worst happened.

The storm had finally blown itself out and the day dawned calm, dull and not too cold, with just the prospect of a bit of sun peeping through the clouds, so it was off to Fleetwood Model Yachting Lake for the maiden voyage.

It was inevitable that there would be an audience of relatives and so it was essential that Grandad didn't make a fool of himself and showed himself to be in total command of the technical aspects of the occasion.

All was well and with the light westerly wind beginning to chill us we decided to lift the boat out of the water and get home for a warming tot of the hard stuff!!

Delighted with the result after many hours of enjoyable building. 

Happy Christmas!

...and a peaceful and prosperous New Year to all my readers.

Have a lovely time today and dream of glorious Spring and Summer drives in your Morgan.

Cheers!

Chuckers

Vacancies filled!

After pursuing the two potential recruits residing in Switzerland but realising that it was going to cost at least 32 Euros to have them transferred, I decided to fill my two crew vacancies from the UK.

This momentous decision was made while I was searching the web for alternatives and happened to come across a fellow boatbuilder who made his own.

Not the most handsome helmsman!

The discovery was like a red rag to a bull, so off I went to 'Hobbycraft' in Preston, to buy some 'Fimo' modelling clay and some cheap acrylic paints, accompanied by my lovely wife who would never miss the opportunity of visiting a nearby M & S!

...and as for this beauty!!!!

Mission completed for around a fiver we returned home, whereupon, I found some galvanised wire in the shed and shaped it into the skeletons of the crew I required, ie a helmsman and a glamorous female who would flaunt on the rear seat of the deckhouse!

At the wheel

After kneeding the clay I started to sculp the figures by forming the clay around the wire framework.

She looks absolutely paralytic after consuming her wine!!!!

When the figures were completed to my satisfaction, not quite to Michelangelo's standard, they were placed in the oven at 130 degrees for half an hour, after which the hardened figures were taken out, allowed to cool and then painted.

All set to go.

The results of my labours can be seen in the photographs.

Helmsman required!!!

My new boat is complete except for at least one crew member which I feel will add to the look of the craft when it is on the water. I have sourced a couple of likely candidates who are residing currently in Switzerland, so I will probably wait until after Christmas and New Year to recruit them, when the postal service will be less fraught.

Finished!

The building of this luxury cruiser has taken up most of my time over the last few weeks, when I should have been out there buying Christmas cards, presents and cogitating over the various details, culinary and otherwise that we men have to contend with at this time each year!

It has also meant that I have not been out for a pootle in the Morgan....and oh do I enjoy a good pootle! Anyway yesterday I ventured out on a 15 mile round trip to give the engine a good run and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Now the boat building is over I shall be giving more time to our cars and also to our humble abode and garden.

How this will affect my constitution remains to be seen, because, while building the boat, my wife said that I was a better person to live with, informing most of the village of this dramatic change in Chucker's character, in fact on one occasion she caught me singing or was it whistling? Yours truly was a very happy chappy, absolutely top-ho, so I'm hoping, and so is everyone else, that I do not have a relapse.

The maiden voyage of the 'Lollypop', I haven't chosen a name yet, took place this morning in our bath. In preparation for this I asked my wife to fill it , which she gladly did, carrying jugfuls of water filled from the well at the bottom of the garden. In our part of darkest Lancashire, United Utilities have not got around to laying on modern facilities so we are obliged to retain our ancient bathing facility and take a shovel into the garden as and when necessary.

It was not a very long maiden voyage, as our galvanised bath tub is not very long, in fact we have a dreadful job getting in and out of it, especially as we are both ridden with rheumatic ailments! However, once I had got to grips with the technical aspects of radio control, the boat moved in the direction and at the speed I demanded, which was encouraging, although it was necessary for her indoors to hold on to it to avoid collisions fore and aft in the confined space.

I am looking forward to a calm sunlit winter's day when I can take it to our model boating lake and see it perform to its full capacity.

Only five days now to the shortest day, then we turn the corner and although there is a lot of winter to come, at least the days will get longer and dreams of idyllic Morgan based picnics will once again be filling my mind.

Photos of the build follow:-

ANCHORS AWEIGH!!!!!!!