I'M BACK !!!!!!!

Well about as much back as I can be at this time. The past several weeks have been hard to say the least. Most of the paperwork resulting from my Mum's passing is now either done or ongoing. The priority at present is the heart breaking task of clearing her flat so as to be able to sell it perhaps later this year. As usual my wife is my rock and is doing the things I can't emotionally cope with like sorting clothes and bagging them for charity. Its quite extraordinary how much stuff one person can accumulate in a lifetime. Something I have realised is that no matter how much we value or even treasure items and objects, that value does not travel through the generations in a lot of cases. Of course there are things of my Mum's that will be kept both by me and my daughters but there are many things that we just really don't want to keep although I know my Mum treasured them. Even if we did choose to pack them away in my loft for the next ten or twenty years my children or grandchildren will not value them because they just don't have any attachment to them so what's the point.

This situation has made me realise it is now time to get rid of some of the stuff I have accumulated over the years. Its going to be interesting enough for my girls to inherit 45000+ screw soldiers let alone a heap of other useless stuff. That said, I recently sold my plastic models, both made and unmade, that I last worked on in the 1960s. A guy came over and to my surprise took the lot and paid me well for the privilege. Last week I took my collection of Matchbox vehicles, also from the 1950s and 60s to a local specialist old toy shop and he also bought them all at a handsome price. I plan to take my stamp albums to a dealer over the next few weeks to see if they are of interest. I also found a batch of mostly Peter Laing metal figures and am now in negotiation with a collector to move them on too.

Although I am spending a couple of days each week working at my Mum's flat, I have found some time to model. In fact it has been quite therapeutic. Since my last update I have completed the last Pioneer battalion and both Heavy Artillery battalions. I have also almost completed the last Medical battalion which leaves only a QM transport battalion  to complete the army. As I have mentioned before, I have a large number of potential organisational changes to implement that I I have dreamt up over the last year or so. Some of these are quite substantial and will involve a lot of work. I will publish details at some time in the future.

To close this update I have to mention Mark of Manoftinblog.wordpress.com with whom I have recently corresponded by e mail. Like me he takes great pleasure in using regular household items to make interesting and useful supplements for his models. I strongly recommend his blog as a source of stimulating ideas and thoughts.