Oooh so ugly....and yet

I could not part with it.  It was my granmothers and she has been gone for nearly 20 years. 

I just been sorting out one of the sideboard drawers this evening looking for my pinking shears - and came across this instead.  I hadn't taken it out of the drawer in all these years, but as soon as I did the memories of living with Nan came flooding back.

This hung on her kitchen wall during the four years I lived with her.  Its out now, dusted off and now hanging on my kitchen wall above the towel rail.

Not sure how long it will stay there.  It doesn't really look out of place....I am sure there will be some comments next week. We shall see.

Friendships, Food and Books....

 

A Book Meet at Bookbarn International with good friends and food at the The Railway Carriage Inn.  What a fantastic day....if only we could have ordered good weather.  It rained all day! 

 

Silly me - I only bought one book in the barn by Patrick Redmond.  I had read one of his and loved it. So for a £1.00 I bought another, only to find when I arrived home that I already bought this one at a another meet at this barn in 2011.

 

 

As always the food was excellent.  Mmmm look at this one - Mini Sliders. 

 

We all bring a wrapped book for the bookdip before we eat.  That is the fun part.  I was lucky enough to choose another crime thriller by co-authors James Patterson and Mark O'Sullivan.

 

 

 

 

 

Most of us bring more books with us to give away (a great idea suggested by one of the friends at the last meet) After the food we "met" in the pub carpark to look in other car boots to see if there is anything we would like to read.

 

I have to admit I get very excited when I see books I know I will enjoy, but lately I can't even remember the books I have on my "to be read" pile, (832 books - sad I know).  So I had mistakenly picked up two that I already had.  But still, I can take these to another book meet where I am sure others will want to read and enjoy.

 

 

 

On the way to the Bookbarn we passed Stonehenge - there was a lot of tourists in the damp, but dry weather at 10.30 a.m. walking around the perimeter.  When we passed at 5.00 p.m., there wasn't anyone - it was raining, so I wasn't surprised.

 

 

It was a long, miserably wet drive home - and we slept like logs last night.  Sunday morning - well you wouldn't believe it! Clear blue skies and sunshine.....

Lets do some sewing today......

So I thought! But it never turned out like that.

Never was good at sewing - learnt at junior school - never finished any of the projects.  Never took up needlework at secondary school - chose the Art course instead. 

Then just after we were married, my parents suggested I did a course at night school.  I did and made two garments - a dress which was a bit of a disaster - I had cut out two left sleeves and no fabric left to make an extra right sleeve.  The teacher came to my rescue and reshaped the sleeves.  Then I made a 2 piece fitted jacket and A line skirt in cotton fabric. 

Soon after I purchased a sewing machine but never used it until our daughter was about two years old and I made her the loveliest lined winter coat, made her some dresses and night clothes.  I felt more confident since I had learnt some of the techniques at night school a few years before.

Then the machine was put away for umpteen years....what a shame as it is a super machine with all these gadgets that I have never tried out.

I used it a couple years ago when I started recovering a divan bed - yes I am still at it and more determined to get this project out of the way and put it to some use! 

I decided that one of the bedrooms is going to be my sewing room - so the machine is now ready for use again.  I sat there this afternoon trying to remember how to thread the cotton!!  Sad isn't it?  And which way round do you put the foot pedal???  Which knob sends the machine backwards?  Completely forgotten!!

I decided I would just patch my husbands garden trousers first  - but the thread kept breaking.  I was really getting disheartened.

By then I had enough.....put the top back on the machine and left the room to have a cuppa coffee.

I will have another go on another day!








 

 

 

   

 

 



My first school....

is still there after all these years!

There have been additions.  We did not have the roof over the steps, nor the handrails, nor the paving stones or garden seats nor that planter at the right, nor the bell, nor the covered in piece to the left.

Look at the neat lawn and the path way to what I reckon is weather sheds.  Yes we did have one of those, it was built about two years after I started school at five years old.  The weather shed then had open fronts with seats all around the walls and it was here we ate our packed lunch which our mothers prepared for us.  Where the neat lawns and paving areas are here,  we had just gravel. 

And today the school and shed are kept painted.  I remember the weather boards on the school with paint peeling.  It looks quite smart now. 

The school was founded in the 1800s - Can't remember exactly, 1876 comes to mind, but not absolutely sure.  I thought it was printed under the apex of the roof, but that looks more like a window now.

When I started school at five years old , I could actually stand under the school - you see that space at the front beyond the flower bed?  Thats how small I was, the floor above was at least 1" from my head.  The school was on the side of a small slope so it was only this space that I could stand.  

In those days we  had about 26 in the school, but only one teacher.  Each class (7 rows)  was given some work to get on with whilst the teacher taught one class at a time.  How he managed to give a one lesson to everyone in a day I shall never know. 

There was Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th class and the 7th was one person who was secondary school but was doing a correspondence course at our school.

We had a brilliant teacher.  Two actually, one left soon after I started.  The second made such an impression on my life, that I will never forget.  He made learning such fun.  He was so artistic - his creations littered the walls and floors and all to do with learning.

Our teacher even took us all on nature walks - we walked for miles gathering leaves, twigs and insects in jars to bring back to the school to look at.  He taught and joined in with rounders and tennis too. 

His wife taught us to embroider and to sew simple garments.  Can't remember what the boys did whilst we were busy with sewing.  I remember we also did weaving and cane basket making too.

You see the steps at the front -  we had plants in painted tin cans on either side on alternative steps.  We used to call them the "poisoned steps" and to rush out the school door and down the steps you had to take two at a time to avoid the poisoned ones.

In those days there was no flush toilets.  There was three buildings up the side of the hill, a little walk from the school.  The first one was for the boys, the second one was for the teacher and the third was for the girls. 

 The toilet consisted of a "screen" which led to a shed with concrete floor and a boxed in piece with three holes (three could use it together) which was built over a dark pit.  No windows, no door.  As children we were scared of red back spiders lurking on the underside of the wood  when you sat your bottom onto the holes.  Absolutely terrified we were, still had to use the toilet properly otherwise if you didn't, we were punished.  It was the cane then.

I don't think there is many pupils at the school now, but it is still thriving none the less.  The small rural town is bypassed by a highway, and many of the places are no longer there.  

Those were great days never to be forgotten. 

60th Wedding Anniversary....

those that reach their 60th deserve a medal.......my Aunt and Uncle celebrate sixty years of wedding bliss tomorrow. 

Now what do you buy as a gift?  We get to the age where we no long want things, nor do we need them.  At around 50 years old you start to declutter, and really just keep the things that you need.  All those "wants" are recycled (I hope). 

Their house is so so neat and tidy, everything has its place.  I knew they wouldn't want to add to it, so I decided to make up a hamper of things that they would not normally buy, and may get some enjoyment out of eating something different.

I went shopping yesterday - in the supermarket, because that is easier.  I started at one end of the counters and worked my way to the end.  I had a "crib sheet" with me with ideas, but still did not really knowing what to get. 

I reckon I did well even if I say it myself. 

I found an old shoe box, lined it roughly with white A4 sheets of paper and cellutape and found a tiny piece of left over red wrapping paper which I stuck to the front, again with cellutape. (Now I am not the most artistic and I lack patience - but I do like to use the very last piece - I had to "make" a little patch because there wasn't enough to cover the whole front of the box).

I didn't buy a card - not that I am mean - but because what can you do with a card afterwards.  Do you really look at it and remember who bought it for you?  So, I found an Easter Card (no no not a secondhand one, it was new)  and chopped off the flowery page and added a message on the back and put that in the box.

Covered with celluphane (that was new! Left over from a floral display for a Funeral a couple years ago!)  And stuck to that I added a bow.  Did try to make one, but hopeless at that.  My OH that morning had bought me a £2.00 box of Thorntons chocs and on top of the box was a tiny bow. I used that and stuck it to the celluphane.

All done - ready for delivery.  My husband was driving that way this afternoon and he delivered it for me. 

I received an excited telephone call from my Aunt (and Uncle in the background) - you would think I presented them with a pot of gold.  Just a small gift gave so much happiness.

Happy Anniversary to you both.

My very first car.....

a 1935 Chevolet lorry!  I was 10 years old.  I shared this with my brother who was around 8 years old.  Somebody owed my Dad £2.10.0d and he paid Dad with this lorry.  Dad gave it to us.  Our very own car - (lorry)!

We had already learnt to drive properly.  My lesson was in a large Chevolet car where I could barely touch the pedals and just about saw where I was going above the dashboard (through the steering wheel).

We lived on a large sheep station of several thousand acres which was privately owned and had plenty of roads (gravel).  We weren't the only kids that owned a vehicle, I remember one other family of young lads had one too., and some of the older guys did too. 

Every week (well I think it was every week, it could have been every month), the boss made us drive our vehicles into the garage (on the sheep station), and he would inspect each vehicle and tell us what needed to be fixed. 



I remember this lorry had rotting wood panels at the sides, and the boss made us replace these and other things that needed to be done before we could even drive it.

We kept the lorry for many years, driving every weekend we could.  When I was around 13 years old, I did cause some extensive damage by hitting a water gully in the middle of a road and knocked the radiator clean out of its fixings.  My brother and I  were some miles from home in the middle of nowhere, and I can't remember how we managed to get our lorry home.  I know my brother was real mad with me, because it meant our lorry was off the road until we fixed that radiator securely.

We sold our lorry to someone else on the sheep station when we moved in the mid 1960s.  We could not take it with us to town.  With the money we bought ourselves a bicycle each.

My second car was a fiat estate - which I bought soon after moving into the town.  Unfortunately I had not a driving licence then, and so the car was permanently parked on the front lawn of our family home.  I sold it before I had the chance to drive it.