I found this clunky typewriter discarded in the undergrowth of the park near my house last September. It looked bizarre sprawled in the autumn leaves with its dislocated hinges and wonky metal arms. At the time I was rushing on my way to work and couldn’t drag it along with me so I took a quick picture instead and made a mental note of its name – Imperial Portable.

We already have a typewriter in our house and one mechanical writing machine is enough for any family so I admit I did consider leaving it in amongst the shrubs looking weird and rusty.  But I felt responsible for it and was compelled  to walk through the park on my way home,  just to check it was still there.

That evening I showed the photo to my good friend Sarah who insisted we rescue it and promptly marched me to the park to fish it out from its hiding place. Once home the Imperial Portable lay neglected in my cellar for a few months before it found refuge with a kind man who rehabilitates poorly typewriters. Apparently its been restored to its original regal splendour and is now in good company. I’m expecting a type written postcard from it any day soon.

Meet Dolly. She was found on the floor of a car park on a cold grey morning in February this year. I think she did a teeny tiny wave to get my attention but then stayed very still whilst I picked her out from the gravel and broken glass. The friend who was with me at the time was intrigued to see what had caused me to stop in my tracks and sift through the muck and grime. She guffawed when she saw the grubby figurine in my palm, which was fair enough, but I felt strangely maternal towards Dolly and kept her safely in my pocket.

Dolly lives at my house now and I think she quite likes getting lost. I don’t see her for weeks on end and then she’ll turn up on a window sill, or a book shelf. So I put her in my pocket and then go and lose her all over again.
Hearts Content

Recently we had some building work done on our house which involved knocking into the wall of the chimney breast. It was a messy job for all those concerned (not me, I went to the park) but a small reward lay hidden in the brickwork. This perfectly preserved, albeit empty, packet of Wild Woodbine ciggies from who knows when.  After being  protected from daylight by the sooty darkness of the chimney the colours are pristine and the packet looks like new.

Apparently its not uncommon to find an old shoe lodged in a chimney, its an unfortunate hazard of the job if you’re a chimney sweep. But I’m not sure about packets of ciggies and would love to know if anyone else has found strange things squirrelled away in the brickwork of their house.
Hearts Content

Well, its been a long time, but Hearts Content is back home from the Charity Shop and has plenty of hand me down bits and pieces to share. We’re looking forward to dusting down the blog and soon have it looking as lovely as a bit of old tat from the Sunday Car Boot Sale.

To get our house in order we’ve upgraded to WordPress 3.1 (we were previously operating on a steampowered version from the olden days). Our upgrade is thanks to some sound advice from the good doctors at the Social Media Surgery followed by some technical geekery by Mr Cliff Manning.

This post started off as a test photo from Cliff to make sure the cogs were all working so, in the spirit of Hearts Content, we’ve borrowed it to welcome in this new era of secondhand stories.