The nights and mornings are getting darker. The time of year I dislike is approaching fast. I don’t hate winter I just don’t like the wind and rain, the cold I can handle. I was born to wear flip flops.

We have had a busy time this year with family and friends and going places. The eclipse was a bit of a let down. I expected darkness to fall on us and an eerie moment but it never happened.

I kept taking glimpses of the sun with my camera expecting it to disappear any minute. So I never really saw it at its best, the light stayed virtually the same so I only got one photo which I liked.

A classic car show at Tatton park was a day out for us. Only an hour away so sandwiches made etc and off we went in the van. Taking the van enables Nikki somewhere to retreat to while I spend hours looking at cars and taking photos. She loves the events but I love them plus more if that makes sense.

A great selection of cars and bikes etc was there and the weather was on our side with the sunshine we have had this year. Of course I took lots of photos, some arty farty ones also. I will let the photos do the talking so here are a few of the ones I took.

A great day was had at the car show with me wishing I could win the lotto and have a nice big garage full of cars I love. It would have to be a big garage though, more like a warehouse, with a house on top for Nikki.

I am loving my VW camper and wanted to get more info about the air ride system on it. To the people that don’t know about air ride it’s a system that’s fitted to a lot of custom cars, vans etc that enables you to adjust the ride height using air bags that have a compressor to pump air in and a valve that lets air out depending which ride height you want.

I like cars/ vans that have been lowered but at times they are not practical. With this system I can have the best of both worlds, low for cruising every day, high if I need to get over big speed bumps and dropped to the floor when parked just because it looks cool.

So a trip to a guy who fits air ride systems, about an hour and half away to chat. He didn’t fit this system but knows the guy who did and in his words he is the best and the system is the best out there which was good to hear. We talked about the system and he showed me the best settings for my van and he even got it working via blue tooth on my phone. I just love pressing that button and watching it drop as low as will go.

Jo, Nikki’s sister was visiting us again for the weekend and the same weekend was Oswestry balloon festival which we had planned to go to. Not for the day but I wanted to see them set up take off which they were due to do on the Saturday morning and Sunday morning with a night glow on the Saturday evening.

So the plan was I was leaving at 5.30am to get there, all of ten minutes away. I was up early as usual and then I started to hear movement from upstairs. We left the house on time, got there parked up and went into the park where all the balloons were getting set up.

Testing their gas burner systems, unfolding the balloons, getting the tether ropes sorted. There was a few people turning up and the atmosphere was great. Being so close to them setting up was great. Again I will let the photos do the talking. We were there about two hours and then went home for bacon rolls. Thirty balloons went up that morning. I would have loved to be in one of them.

As my van is a keeper I wanted a personal reg plate on it but I didn’t want to spend a fortune. DVLA was the place to go and I found one which I bought. I then had to get some new plates made up and inform the insurance. This all involved filling in forms on line and a phone call to the insurance before I could drive it on the road after the plates were fitted of course.

The form arrived telling me that plate was mine now. New plates ordered and delivered. Plates fitted and then a phone call to the insurance. Which was going very well until they informed me there would be a admin charge of £37.50 for the pleasure. I told them I was not happy about paying that after paying a lot of money for my insurance anyway and it only takes them 30 seconds to press some keys on their keyboard. I wish I could earn that sort of money then I might get my collection of cars. Anyway she asked me if I wanted to proceed. I said I don’t really have much choice do I except when my renewal comes around as there are a lot of insurance company’s out there.

After the lovely hot spells we have been having it all had to end some time. And the other night we had a storm with thunder and lightning. The thunder was continual and the lighting was just like a dodgy light bulb that keeps flashing. The temperature has now dropped.

Bank holiday is upon us and yes in true bank holiday style it’s been raining. But there was a Steam engine rally near Shrewsbury which I wanted to go to. We went yesterday as the weather was not great but better than today. Again sarnis packed and off we went. Only half hour away and opening at 9am we got there at 9 15am sat in traffic for about ten minutes.

The ground was wet and there was a lot of mud about but it was fine when we arrived and up to now it was not raining. So we paid for our tickets and a programme and went on in.

I love the traction engines, old fair ground rides, the organs etc. The whole thing about it, the sounds, smells atmosphere was great. There was so much there, traction engines, classic cars, classic motor bikes, old push bikes, old buses, old Lorries. I was enjoying it so much. Plenty of trade stands, food stands. Old tractors ploughing, traction engines working, fairground organs playing. Again I will let the photos do the talking.

We had two hours without rain. Nikki had gone back to the car for her lunch. I arrived for lunch just after it started raining. It wasn’t heavy rain but enough to get you wet so we had lunch and then went out in the rain to have a look around for an hour. We arrived back at the car soaked but we had enjoyed it. If the weather had held off we would have stayed all day. The queues were forming to get out of the field but once out the wet roads soon washed of all the mud. We got nearly home and the roads at home were bone dry but the rain caught us up later.

So that’s us up to date again. Next up for us is Busfest, a huge big VW van show at the three counties showground in Malvern. It’s actually the biggest one in Europe. We will be there from the Thursday until the Sunday and will be meeting friends so a good time will be had with maybe a beer or two.

When we leave there on Sunday we have the following week off work to have a bit of a tour around North wales. Let’s hope the weather is good. I love this last photo because it’s not posed, it’s just a man and his horse chatting.