30 July to 7 August 2026 - Diary Update

30 July - we have a smart new roof just three weeks after Tony the roofer came to inspect the leak in our kitchen. That roof lasted less than 30 years. The main roof was nearly 100 years old and was showing its age. Very few houses on our estate still have the original roofs, so it seemed a good time to relace ours.

30 July - Sale Sizzler number 4. I took a break and left Sue to take part. She ran the 5km in 24:19 and came 7th out of 17 in her age category. Results here.

1 August - Wythenshawe parkrun #676. A routine parkrun, with Sue chaperoning Owen on this occasion. Full results are here.

In the tea room courtyard, 11 of us - runners and supporters - wrestled our way around a couple of tables.

1 August - dinner in Adlington with Robert and Lyn, and Gerry and Chris. Nice BBQ, and Sue had collected plenty of blackberries for a wonderful tart.

2 and 3 August - feedig Millie, who is slowing down and getting arthritic. I know the feeling!

3 August - Wyre Levee Stompers at Eagley Jazz Club. The last performance before a 6 week break whilst the venue is refurbished. An excellent night; we'll miss these Monday night performances.

4 August - a visit to Bridgewater RHS gardens. A trail of Lego constructions provided interest as we  admired both the flowers and the Lego, not all of which is pictured below.

The chickens were entertaining, this one enjoying a dust bath.

Lunch was delicious, the mussels, prawns and squid (their plate is empty) being especially popular.

Then 45 minutes of Lego building, presumably with leftover bits from the constructions in the garden.

More Lego.

The Chinese garden, and behind me is a mammoth new construction in progress.

Pictures from a compost bin...

5 August - Nick Taylor's work next to Pickering Lodge Park looks pretty much complete. It's really rather good.

7 August - That's all for now, thanks to time constraints and a failure to get the camera out earlier when seven 'Oldies' turned up for their monthly natter at Wythenshawe Park - Martin, Fechin, Keith, Mike C, Mike H, John and Richard.

Monday 6 July 2026 - A Hot Pot Supper with the Dixie Beats

This was another great night of jazz with the Dixie Beats and a full house of around 100 jazz fans at Eagley Jazz Club in Bolton. They are in full flow above, beyond the raffle prizes.
 

What a way to spend a warm summer's evening. The fliers, with all the information you should need, are below. As usual, click on the images for better versions.

The Manchester 10K Run, and a bit of Jazz

On 31 May 2026, 'Team Owen' took part in the Manchester 10 kilometre race, together with over 38,000 other runners. Owen overcame his difficulties to finish in a personal best of under 1 hour and 5 minutes. Remarkable, as he was hoping to get a time of 1 hour 15 minutes. He was accompanied by Jan, Sue and Paul, who all helped each other to dodge past the 1 hour 15 minute runners with whom they set off.

Here are Sue, Owen and Paul at the finish.

They raised a four figure sum for NSPCC. Donations can still be made here.

Well done, Owen, who is pictured below with his mum, who kindly produced lots of goodies in a bid to preserve Owen and the rest of the team's state of euphoria.

Full results are here. Whilst the running area was crowded, there was plenty of space nearby to linger in Manchester's familiar sunshine.

Next day, the Aire Valley Jazz Band entertained us at Eagley Jazz Club. An excellent evening's entertainment once the band had quickly set up after some of them had been delayed on the M62 motorway.

The  Aire Valley Jazz Band's musicians are:  

Andy Henderson (cornet, vocals and band leader),  Andy Wallis (reeds),  Eugene Farrar [?] (trombone and vocals),  Jim Wright (banjo and vocals), Phil Kampen (bass),  Rod McNamara (brilliant on drums).

Monday 20 April 2026 - Manchester Jazz

We enjoyed a great performance from this excellent band, led by Roger Browne on piano (face hidden in the above picture), the band's other musicians are Late Phil Lucas on trumpet, Roger Bird on clarinet, Jolly Richard Slater on trombone, Allan Willcox on bass and Chris Pendlebury on drums.

Another fine evening's music at Eagley Jazz Club.

4 to 8 April 2026 - Easter Week in Timperley

Saturday saw us parkrunning, with no photos for either this week or last week, but the results are here for 28 March (Sue: 30:29 running with Owen, Martin: 33:15), and here (Sue: 25:03, Martin:33:09) for 4 April.

On Saturday night we were treated by Richard and Jenny to a performance by their friends who go by the name of The Gelatos. The venue was Matt & Phred's in Manchester, and the performance was excellent. They have a Facebook page here, and the AI overview is as follows:

The Gelatos are a high-energy jazz quartet specializing in 1940s/50s swing, jump jazz, and Italian-themed classics. Known for performances at venues like Matt & Phred's, their lineup generally includes Peter Riley (vocals/bass), Siena Lloyd (sax/clarinet/vocals) and Bex Hughes (piano/vocals). They also have a drummer who wasn't in the line up tonight.

 

The pictures are self explanatory.

On Monday Sue and I enjoyed a 5km walk from home. The foliage on the trees in De Quincey park is blossoming...

Monday evening found us at Eagley Jazz Club, for a performance by the New Orleans Joys.

Here's the flier:

The band members are all well known to the jazz fraternity and with such an impressive lineup of musicians, they can't fail to please!  

Richard Slater (Trombone), Howard Worthington (Bass),  Brian Woods (Drums),  Andy Wallace (Tenor sax and clarinet),  Malcolm Horne (Banjo and guitar) and the brilliant Andy Henderson (Trumpet), depping for Dave Pogson, who is out of action following an accident.  

On Tuesday Sue enjoyed an outing to 'Jump Heaven'. I joined them for lunch in a garden centre.

"That baked potato with cheese and beans was very tasty!"

Wednesday was great grandma Dot's birthday. 101. So we took some lunch - her favourite sausage butties, and found that my nephew Toby was already there with his children, Bea and Rupert. There was cake. A vaccuum cleaner was needed. A friendly cat joined the celebrations.

No pictures from that I'm afraid, but I did take one of St Margaret's - en route to Dot's, where Sue was ringing a complex chime as part of the Easter programme.

That brings us up to date. 

We are looking forward to Stage 8 of the GM Ringway Trail tomorrow. See here.

Some readers may recall an encounter with a 'SPUNCH' event on 30 December last year (see here).

There is a similar event on Wednesday 15 April based less than 1km from our house, so we've enrolled for the two hour version, aiming to start around 4:15pm. See here for entries.

We have also entered the Mike Dunne memorial 10K at Wythenshawe on May 3rd. I ran many times with Mike before he succumbed to cancer. It's only £20 to enter, and the money goes to charity. See here.

We were planning to enter the Altrincham 10K on 6 September, but it's a rather exorbitant £40. If  six people enter there's a 20% discount...