Warming up

We're gradually getting back into the swing of things. No more trouble from the "pig farmers" but I've no doubt they'll find a reason for more. In the meantime we had a good day on Saturday at the Banbury Street Organ Festival. No pictures at the moment as I'm not taking any, our "friends are adept at interpreting anything they like to mean anything they want it to mean no matter how innocent it is, after all this picture  is pornographic in their eyes. It came as a surprise to all of us, especially those in the picture.

For now our next outings are in December at Woodstock and Bourton on the Water, but if the weather stays good we may just hit the local streets occasionally, probably Headington as although Oxford have often asked us to bring Rosie into the city they won't do anything to help and we can't just tuck her under an arm and catch the bus.

Back in Business

After an enforced break we seem to be back in business.



Rosie's problems had us worried for a while, and none of our efforts to make her better had any effect. Finally I went for major surgery and last summer saw a kit of parts for a small Fussell organ arranged in any available space round the house. I took a lot of pictures at the time but just at the moment can't find them. I hope they'll turn up but I have just a suspicion that they are on the backup disks my "friends" at TVP*  have taken.

That actually didn't achieve anything as once back together we still had the same problems - no air pressure, or at least very little and certainly not enough to play properly.  Finally common sense took over. If the problem's not in any of the parts I've checked out it has to be somewhere else. But where? There was only one place I hadn't taken apart but that was because it would have been a hammer and chisel job to do so. Then inspiration. The tracker bar has square holes (unusually) but the pipes coming out of the bottom are round. The old problem of a square peg and a round hole or vice versa. OK, but how to fix it? Well, to keep this short, a drop of water from an eyedropper. It trickled down the hole and filled the corners, and Rosie worked for a few minutes till the water got blown through. I've now found that three drops at every roll change keeps us going and am investigating the possibility that a drop of liquid soap will gradually form a permanent seal as the water dries out leaving the soap as a sealer.