What A Swell Party That Was

We headed up to Ribchester on Saturday to celebrate our friend Mark (above's) sixtieth birthday (He looks much younger doesn't he?) 

This wasn't a hanging about boozing and filling our faces party as Mark led us on a five mile trek around the fields and lanes of his local countryside. But it wasn't all hard slog as we had two stops for a few pints of the local ales before returning to Mark's place where he and his wife Nita put on a fabulous barbecue and a top rate singer along with plenty of wine from the excellent Whalley Wine Shop which is run by Mark's son Tom. 

The walk even took in a few ancient ruins (and no I'm not going to try and turn that into some sort of joke).

We had a wonderful day - thanks Mark.

We didn't want to drive all that way and then just drive all the way back so, along with our old friends Dave and Jane, we booked into the nearby Inn At Whitewell where we enjoyed such great hospitality on Marion's 60th a couple of years ago.

We had a room with a real view and the weather smiled on us for our short two night stay.

We took in another walk in the rolling hills around the famous old Inn. Jane and Dave left on Monday but we stayed on for another night and had a great meal in the restaurant. We had a chuckle as two couples in their late seventies and early eighties made a fuss about having been married for forty-seven years - that's only six years more than us!

If you read this blog, you'll know that I have a few hobbies. I bought a new metal detector a month or so ago but with all the fields in crop I've been unable to use it. However, as I drove past one of the fields I like to search, I noticed that the farmer had left a wide strip all the way around the field. I didn't need any encouragement and headed out yesterday to try the new machine out.

i was happy with the results. I had two hours in the field and here's what turned up.

A cut silver quarter Medieval penny

A more recent farthing - this one dated1914

A very early buckle c1350

A couple of Charles I Rose farthings

Medieval strap fitting

Whilst on the subject of detecting I was pleased to see that a Facebook friend (we've never met) published a book recently.

It's a great aid to identifying a fairly common detecting find - lead cloth seals.

And I was delighted to see one of my own finds included in the excellent book.

With regard to my own recent publication. I sent out twenty-five copies of Mr Prendergast's Fantastic Find to winning Goodreads members last week. Here's the first review

As you might imagine, I'm delighted with the review as it captures exactly what I was hoping to achieve. Another reader John Winter deputy editor of The Searcher magazine also read the novel and wrote an entire blog singing its praises. You can read John's (unsolicited) comments here.

The novel tells the story of retiree Dave Pendergast's buying on eBay. While I'm trying to promote the book I've been busy doing a bit of eBay buying myself. If you've seen recent blogs you'll have read that I've had a bit of bad luck. The bad luck continued last week.

I spotted what I hoped might be an antique Spanish jug.

Here's how it arrived (in totally inadequate packaging).

I don't think I'll ever manage to emulate Mr Prendergast but I'll keep trying.