Shed 2 (The Gazebo)

Our Focus was originally called Great Mills.

James wrote: But we're all old enough to know it as Do It All.Just like Snickers is Marathon, Oil of Olay is Oil of Ulay and Cif is Jif and Starburst is Opal Fruits.

...and Geck0 is James.

O.K. then

I think that Do-It-All's best album was Focus 3

Edited by Man Erg - August 22 2009 at 14:24

Amazing how much grubbage ends up on one's veranda's roof - spent an interesting hour or so on Saturday perched atop a rickety ladder with various impliments (veranda roof cleaning for the use of) washing down the roofing - ably assisted by Vicky at ground level with a hose...

...she insisted the frequent soakings I got were purely accidental, but I'm unsure...

Anyway, now have a sparkling veranda roof again + a sense of satisfaction at a job well(ish) done.

I seem to remember you looked quite at home in the one at the Hare & Hounds, Neil

Neil wrote: Assembled a swing seat in my garden yesterday after testing one out at the pub at Cropredy.  Very nice and relaxing.

Steve; made a blackberry pie the other day with berries from my garden, could have used a glaze on top like I usually do but it came out quite good








Edited by Atavachron - August 24 2009 at 04:37

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We had Elderberries on ice cream from our Sambucus Negra,Elder yesterday.It's already the second crop of berries this year.I only hope that they haven't come early, we usually get a crop in October,the birds will be without berries for the late Autumn/early Winter.

"

Do It All is a former British DIY chain originally created by WH Smith in 1979 when the company acquired a DIY chain. For many years it operated under the brand name WHSmith Do It All, although in casual speaking and in some of the chain's adverts it was simply referred to as Do It All. However, many people still colloquially referred to it by its brand name or as Smith's Do It All.

Fierce competition in the 1980s saw the chain struggle, and in 1990 it was merged with the rival Payless DIY chain, owned by the Boots Group. The combined group - in which WH Smith and Boots both had a 50 per cent share - was rebranded under the Do It All brand. Fortunes did not improve, however, and in June 1996, after periods of substantial losses, WH Smith sold their share in the company to Boots^[1] for a £1 gift voucher, giving the latter full ownership.

In August 1998 Boots, wanting to concentrate on its core pharmaceutical businesses, sold the 139 stores to Focus (DIY) Ltd for £68 million.^[2] The stores were initially rebranded under the Focus Do It All name, before being rebranded again in 2001 as simply Focus, following the company's acquisition of Great Mills (whose stores had already been converted to the "Focus for DIY and Gardening" brand).

After Focus DIY acquired Wickes in September 2000, some former Do It All stores were converted to the Wickes format, mostly in areas felt to be outside the Focus core market. Focus later sold Wickes to builders' merchants Travis Perkins.

In 2008, after 18 years, the Payless DIY brand was restored by Focus as part of their autumn advertising campaign "Do More, Payless"."

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