Home alone at halloween

Hi There

It has suddenly gone very quiet here at Deadman’s towers; Deadman junior has been whisked away by his grandparents to Bedfordshire leaving Deadman and me home alone. The grandparents have been here all weekend and my father is an enthusiastic whistler, so the silence is all the more marked!

On Saturday we attended the Fairyland Trust’s Real Halloween event. I was hoping to show off my tulle and coat hanger wings, but the weather was just too wet so they stayed in the loft.  Deadman junior and his Nan made potions (bath bomb and sleeping potion) whilst Deadman, Grandpa and I followed the fairy trail in the wood. Afterwards we enjoyed the lively and entertaining music of The Vagaband in the music tent

Families warming themselves at a brazier in a brief moment of sunshine. 

On Sunday we headed to Deadman Junior’s favourite place; The Sainsbury Centre at the UEA in Norwich. They do loads of interactive art and Deadman Junior and Nan spent hours creating miniature landscapes from assorted fabric and twigs. Meanwhile Grandpa, Deadman and I perused the exhibitions. We discovered Larkin and Mortimer looking cool in an exhibition by  photographer John Hedgecoe.

Philip Larkin

Poet and Librarian  

             

John Mortimer 

Playwrite, poet and novelist          

However, Dead Men's Spex model of the week went to the pumpkin in the café!!!

 TTFN  Mrs Deadman

Rose tinted spectacles and funky fish

Hi Folks,

This week has seen a flurry of activity here at Deadman Towers. On Monday Deadman ventured out of the county to Nottinghamshire for the day leaving me to my own devices. He returned with a batch of beautiful gold round eyes, some of which are already on our website.

We have recently splashed out on a tint bath, for ophthalmic lenses, (not my hair, although the time for that is very close, I fear.) On Friday Deadman was getting in the Halloween spirit mixing coloured concoctions in said tint bath. He presented me with a tray of beautiful pince nez and monocles. We now have pink, blue and green. The yellow and lilac are yet to come. Deadman junior has a plain red lens which looks like a boiled sweet. This could be good for tricks on grandparents and other unsuspecting relatives.

Our collage of the tinted lenses. 

This was a joint effort between myself and Deadman Junior, 

my technical advisor when it comes to using Picasa and Picnik.

Tinted monocle are now on the website here

On the domestic front, the sausages in lard have been duly placed in the vicar’s donation box in the church and the courgette is still producing, but not quite as vigorously as before.  The chickens have had an extension on their run. It was getting incredibly muddy and now they have a lovely patch of fresh grass, until they start scratching around on it.

On Saturday we met up with our friend Bunny Hooper and his two children at West Runton a great place for rock pools. The tide was in when we arrived so we took a stroll along the beach to Sheringham. Having company definitely speeds Deadman Junior along; he can be a very reluctant walker. 

Bunny and Deadman looking wise

After lunch on the terrace of the Funky Mackerel we headed back to West Runton. There was a camera crew out on the rocks and Deadman Junior was highly intrigued by this, he kept drifting out towards them only to be reeled back in landwards by his dad. When they returned to their van, I asked the question and discovered they were filming about a 17^th century Norwich man called Thomas Browne. Deadman Junior was impressed.

Bunny modelling the Arnold our Tart Arnel copy.

TTFN

Claire

Sausages for the vicar..

Hi There

Deadman Towers calling. We are currently enjoying some beautiful autumn sunshine here in Norfolk. I must go and cut the courgettes before the frost slays them. We have one beast of a plant which has taken over half of the bed and produced wholesale quantities of prize winning fruit. (Our neighbour’s son took some of them to his school harvest festival and won second prize.) Deadman junior’s school however, requested store cupboard goods only for a local food bank. I tried to sneak a can of sausages in lard presented to us by Deadman Sleeping (Granddad) into Deadman junior’s donations but I relented due to complaints about the humiliation of it all. I have plans for the can; the vicar requested further items for the food bank to be left at the rear of the church...

The offending article

On Saturday 6^th October Pensthorpe Wetlands and Nature Reserve (where they used to film Springwatch) ran their first vintage fair. It is very local to us, so we went to have a recce to find out if it would be a suitable place for Dead Men’s Spex to have a stall. We met several of our neighbours and saw a wide range of vintage vehicles including tractors, motorbikes and a lovely little Morris Minor. There was also an impressive display of stationary engines. (I, in my ignorance, had never heard of these until I moved to Norfolk.) They are what it says, engines which do not move and are used to power tools and pumps etc. Deadman junior was highly impressed with these, many  were pumping water into a tub containing ducks, one was even rigged up to 1970’s brown toilet! Deadman junior and I went on the swing chairs ride and Deadman was our official photographer.

A stationary engine

Us on the 1950's swing chairs- they went fast, honest.

We enjoyed our visit but decided that vintage covers a wide range of subjects and in this case, the emphasis was on vehicles not period fashion, so we will not be having a stall there.

Many happy returns... toot,toot!

Hi Folks,

Mrs Deadman here.

I have taken up the baton of blog writer for Dead Men's Spex. I was alarmed to see that a year had whizzed past since our last post. I would like to update everyone as to the chicken status at Dead Men’s Towers. The Deadman won! He joined forces with our neighbour and now we have 3 chickens on the allotment. Initially they were very good at dutifully producing eggs but now the supply has dwindled to a big fat zero! Apparently, this is down to them moulting, We could make a feather bed, or at least, a pillow, from the feathers wafting around their pen. That would be very “make do and mend”! I have had to resort to buying eggs from the neighbour who initially supplied the birds, much to his delight.

Turning now to glasses, we have had a busy summer and three good shows; Twinwoods, Little Vintage Lover Fair  and Sheringham 1940’sweekend.  It was lovely to see so many of you again and to enjoy a rain free Twinwoods, something of a luxurious novelty.

 The man himself ready to greet you at Twinwoods!

And again, modelling a customer's Bugatti racing hat with 

integral goggles.

Do you not think that he bears a remarkable resemblance to 

Mr Toad?

As autumn is here, Deadman is now settling back into his rightful place in the workshop. We have just received a delivery of gents’ frames, so look out for them on our website.