THE LAST COUPLE OF DAYS

Today I was in Thame and one of the things I wanted was to get a card for next-door as their third child was born yesterday - another girl. As I looked through the 'baby' cards I wondered why manufacturers or designers thought it necessary to have cards addressed 'For a New Baby' as if you'd been thinking about, perhaps, having a recycled or reconditioned one...Isn't our language strange sometimes?

Waitrose have a line of food now designated as Love Life but that wasn't how I read the title of this magazine from several feet away - I thought they'd gone into a new line of business!!! Sort of True Romances brought up to date.

Last night's sunset was such a strong pink I had to go upstairs and take some photos. It was a toss-up whether to use a landscape photo or a portrait photo. I finally plumped for the landscape as it shows more of the fantastic sky. In reality it was a much brighter pink than this - more like a male bullfinch's chest.

MISH MASH

 Just a few photos from,mostly, recent days. The tree surgeon came for a quick chat the other Saturday and was surprised to see bullfinches flitting about, but I was more pleased with seeing a pair of great spotted woodpeckers coming to the open topped peanut holder, taking a peanut and then flying into the oak tree. Not once, but many times in three or four days. He said that bullfinches are becoming rare but to me they're just those pinky red breasted males with paler wives which visit the garden on numerous occasions.

 

Plants this summer either seem to be going crazy or have totally disappeared - here's a delphinium thats, at themoment, about 7' tall, I reckon.

 This contraption formed out of wire netting, an old piece of trellis, pieces of 2" metal mesh and rolls of pea netting pegged to the anti-heron wire are what has been keeping next door's bloomin' cat from fishing out the goldfish - this was taken in April, but at long last Stuart has found time and enough plastic posts to come and replace it all.

 The fish think they're in an open-air swimming pool now that the 'roof' has gone, as well as a lot of weed, replaced by this.

 It's an electric fence, run off a battery, which will, I hope discourage That Cat from fishing in my pond. I'll just have to remember to turn it off before we start gardening...No,not Stuart.

 The honeysuckle has done well-hanging down from the (reclaimed) trellis over the path.

 I don't know what variety it is but it has a scent though not very strong.

 Gilluan brought a couple of handsful of these ages ago and they've all taken - it's polemium, aka Jacob's Ladder. They're all blue though I had some a few decades ago which were peachy coloured so these rather surprised me.The bees like them,

Here's a closeup of the flower, quite a dainty thing.

Do you know what this is? I'll show you later on ...

Sunset at the end of May, just before the sun finally disappeared behind the trees on the Waddesdon ridge.
That's all folks...

MICROLIGHTING...

Here's something else I had a go at, courtesy of the husband of someone I was teaching with at the time. The microlight was owned by a pair of brothers. One took a couple of photos while the one in the blue overalls was the pilot. He's making sure I'm dressed up OK. The microlight is this arrangement of scaffold poles and material plus a motor mower engine behind the 'car seat' I sat in. I'm kidding, it wasn't home made but did fold up into a large carry bag, if I remember rightly. Well, it was 1986; at least I remembered to date it on the back of the photo.

This is taking off from the family-owned field in Haddenham, the Chiltern Hills are that pale blue line in the background. This is the only time I saw the Asylum ( as I always think of it as, having done the local history) or St. John's, as it was known to everyone else. It began as the Lunatic Asylum in 1853, when it opened, changed to Mental Hospital in 1919 after WW1, then St. John's when the NHS began. Demolished beginning of the 1990s, so I just managed to see it from the air.

This was a one-off trip. I haven't 'done' a helicopter - yet.

Can't find the ballooning photos, I've put them 'somewhere safe', you know the feeling...

STRIPPY SQUARES QUILT - finished at last!!

I've finished this at long last - I posted about the squares when they were on my design wall -last September - so it's taken longer than that. I didn't have a very good winter so didn't do any work on it for at least a couple of months, I can't work when the weather is gloomy and my house faces almost due north so a dark house once the clocks have gone back..

Some of the materials I used, new, recycled and bits given to me.

The border material was given to me - a couple of yards or so - and I didn't really want to cut it up but I knew I couldn't keep it for always, so I used it. There's still some widths left, a few inches deep.

I kept the same material for the binding, too.

I like to have reference pictures of the reverse as well so that I can see, in the future, how I quilted this design. I knew I didn't want to do a huge amount of quilting so thought that just quilting 'in the ditch' would be sufficient. I'm not very good at Maths so hadn't thought it through that there are 49 squares all of which needed to be stitched round. How daft is that?

Kath made me some labels last year and I still have two left. I decided to use this one, which I bought at Threads and Patches in Bletchley, because the flower border matched the backing, though you wouldn't think so from the photo above. It's really small blue flowers and the border sinks into the background. The label's attached now. As usual - the Blog decided to play up and I had to call on Sarah to come and fiddle with it. A couple of clicks and it's behaving itself, Touch Wood!!!

I looked out another quilt top which I want to use Decatur knots on but decided it's not quite wide enough so, when I can bear to leave the second long-hexie English patchwork quilt I'm making, I'll make another border for the Crazy Quilt which is on the design wall upstairs.

I found a quote for stitchers everywhere:

'All my scattering moments are taken up with my needle.'

Ellen Birdseye Wheaton 1851.

NO COMMENT

Waitrose stores have these boxes near the exit and you are able to choose a local charity to support.
The green counters are given to you (or you can take one) when you leave the till.

They're local, mostly to Oxfordshire as Thame is in that county, but sometimes you get  Bucks charities, too. 

The labels at the top of the box give information and these three are for (on the left) Brain Research UK, in the centre is The Veterans' Charity and on the right it's Youth Cancer Trust. I know you make your choice depending on what is most important to you after you've read the text but I was surprised to see that The Veterans' Charity had the lowest collection rate.

I think this country has a poor record on the whole for looking after its discharged servicemen and women - no wonder so many charities have appeared which are fundraising for ex-service personnel.

I have an item from a Radio Times, undated unfortunately, but kept within the last year or so. It's by Colonel Tim Collins who fought in Iraq in 2003 and was once CO of 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment. He stated that 1,100 ex-servicemen are homeless within 2 miles of the Cenotaph; 28,000 now suffer from alcohol or mental health problems. And that was many months ago. One charity, Combat Stress, supporting sufferers said it takes on average 14 years for the PTSD problem to emerge, so soon it'll be the turn of those who were in the Balkans.

I have no connection with any of the forces but it strikes me that not much has changed since Kipling wrote:

'For it's Tommy this and Tommy that, an' 

'Chuck him out, the brute!'

But it's' Saviour of his country' when the guns begin to shoot.



RAPE FIELDS

 There seem to be fields of rape everywhere this year - or is it just me not noticing at other times? I went out for a drive no more than half a dozen miles from home and these are just a few of the fields I took photos of.

 

As you can see the distance is covered in a heat haze - that's the Chiltern Hills in the distance.

It's such a bright yellow, not an English colour at all in such vast patches. What a shame it isn't flax!



More fields in the distance - and more of those little black beetles which seem to love this crop - and us, if we're wearing anything yellow...

Several fields in the distance,

And another one - I wonder who that dusty car belongs to???

The verges seem to be covered with cow parsley which bows in your wake as you drive past.

Lovely England.

Griff Rhys Jones has written an article in Radio Times saying if we don't keep an eye on things landscapes like these will disappear under the weight of wind farms, houses which are being built, (and this is me) never mind HS2, roaring across some of this countryside.

He does say that there are plenty of beautiful places, too.

SEEING THE DENTIST

I had a tooth out today and remembered another snippet of infant school life.
I can just about remember a hall with parents and children - that should be mothers rather than parents - sitting round the walls. I remember we were in the opposite diagonal corner to the desk where a man was sitting who was The Dentist!! It seems that when it was my turn Mum had to drag me across the floor where I promptly bit him. And this was just an examination. I bet she was mortified! I can't remember if there was any retribution.
Much later, when I was a little bit older, I was taken to a dental school somewhere in London, to a room full of dental chairs while trainee dentists practised on us. It obviously made an impression on me. The only problem with dental treatment is - you can't talk!!

MEMORIES OF SCHOOLDAYS

What do you remember of your first days at school? I thought I'd see how many memories I could bring to mind, just snapshots taken out of context.

We lived in a block of flats which had shops underneath and Mum leaned out of theflat window to take a photo of my first school, St.Mary's, in Westminster. On the left-hand side, just past where the car is parked, was the school playground and every playtime Mum used to come down the road to pass a cup of cocoa through the railings.  The windows on the right of the entrance belonged to my classroom, the teacher's name being Miss Purdy. This was reached by climbing the steps in the echoing cavern once you'd passed the entrance. Perhaps this was the days when married teachers weren't employed. The classroom had a rocking horse in it which I don't remember playing with and I did so want to have a go. In the afternoons we had to rest, which struck me as a daft idea... I can't remember whether there were the desks we associate with 1930s classrooms, one or two seater forms plus a desk with lift-up lids. I can't imagine we sat round tables as infants do these days. Whatever was there Mum could see the 'horse's tail' bow with which my hair was tied when she leaned out of the window. 

I remember a boy, name not remembered, who was smacked by the headmistress, Miss Vickery, and the charm bracelet she wore jingled interestingly each time her hand landed on his palm. I'm sure she didn't use a ruler.

This memory must come from later on - painting pots were old paste jars which were emptied and cleaned in cold-water sinks near the toilets. Looking back perhaps these had originally been outside loos and had had a see-through roof put on sometime in the past to make them 'indoors'. This photo is from Market Lavinton Museum's site.

Somewhere, but where I thought they were, of course, they aren't, if you see what I mean, I have some of my first sums written in coloured chalk and Times Tables (Mum never threw anything away - I know where I get that trait from!) But I can't find them for love nor money. Perhaps they'll turn up when I'm looking for something else... 

This is another 1938 photo, with the school in the background. There's that horse's tail bow, and some of the children I used to play with who lived up the street on the right, behind these buildings. I wonder what happened to them all? I expect they were evacuated, too, as mostly parents Did As They Were Told in those days as Authority always knew best. The only names Mum has written underneath the photo are Kathleen Mahoney and Vera Cox. I have no idea what I'm holding, a toy of some kind, though not my dear old teddy. Interesting that this photo was taken in June, the other children are in summer dresses and I'm in a hand-knitted jersey - nothing's changed there, then!

We weren't far from some sunken gardens in Millwall where I remember an Italian selling ice cream from his handcart with a sunshade over it. Nowadays you'd wonder where it was made!

Walls used to have sellers on tricycles with a huge refrigerated box on the front - who would stop when you waved at them - and you could choose what you wanted. Snofrutes were water ices in a cardboard cover and were tasty with a strong fruit flavour, not at all chemical. Someone I used to teach with and still have contact with, lived just a few streets away and she remembers them too...

.There was a jellied eel shop, too,with chunks of ice and eels cut up into pieces among them - which didn't appeal to me at all! I can't remember my parents eating them.

We lived quite near Strutton Ground where there was a second hand shop and one time we passed it there was a velvet bonnet, real or theatrical, hanging in the doorway and that was something else I coveted. No such luck, no money for frivolities.

Well, schooldays pre-war seem to have slid into all kinds of other memories, too. Maybe I'll do When I Was Evacuated sometime. I hope it triggers memories for you, too.

STRAWBS, JACKDAW - AND A SURPRISE!

When I was shopping in Waitrose on Tuesday I saw these and couldn't resist buying them on a cold, grey and damp morning. Mind you, they weren't exactly cheap at 8 strawberries for £1.99, which is 25 pence each. When I peeled off the plastic film the smell was worth the cost! It was a real strawberry smell just as if it was summer. Well, they were British and I did enjoy them, they were worth paying for.

Another snippet - I've been getting jackdaws flying in as they've discovered the metal mesh globular peanut holder hanging on the feeder pole. I hoped this bird would try to get one out of the open top but only presented himself for a photo opportunity. He decided not to help himself so no photo of the balancing act this time - perhaps later.

And this is the surprise. This morning I was sitting facing the patio door and quilting when I glanced up (between stitches) and saw this lovely little animal just a few feet away from the window.

 It's one of the cubs belonging to the vixen exploring the garden on his own. It disappeared behind some greenery then reappeared some minutes later and trotted off down the garden, still investigating as it went. I watched to see where it went but it vanished behind some plants - did it go under the bottom shed, I wonder? There's room for it to gain access - or did it go down the side and so out into the field?

I'm pleased I managed to catch these photos of something else visiting the garden. Taken from indoors, as usual.

(The problem of a date on the photos as been sorted out, thank goodness!!)

VE DAY, 67 years ago

All those years ago it was VE day, 8th May 1945 - Victory in Europe, though the war was still going on in the Far East and wouldn't be over until 15th August that year.
I was 12 and I can remember thinking that now the war was over I'd be able to get the bus into Croydon and buy some red, white and blue striped ribbon. Shades of the 1936 Coronation, I think it must have been. But of course nothing would happen that fast so no ribbon that day!
All the parties passed me by - no being allowed to gad off into London to mix with Grown Ups... We didn't have a radio so I didn't hear anything of the celebrations and, of course, no TV. (I also missed the Glen Miller broadcasts.) Life went on as normal, rationing, shortages, just no air raid warnings. The first time I heard a factory siren I nearly fell off my chair. The war was over, why is the siren going???
I know we had a bonfire in the middle of the road although how enough unwanted items were found which could be burned I have no idea. Just the idea of a huge bonfire - and the light of the flames from it, after years of Not Showing a Light - was heady. There was a large patch of burned road surface but no-one cared.
Then there was the street party for the children. People didn't have cameras so readily in Those Days so this is a professional photographer's effort at getting everyone into the picture, taken from an upstairs window as you can see from the out-of-focus window sill. I'm sitting in the chairs which are facing the photographer, the second child on the left, with small plaits. How I wanted long plaits which were 'moveable' not the stubby little chunks I had! (I wanted patent leather shoes with ankle straps but never got those either - not long-lasting enough.) I can remember the names of lots of the adults but not that many of the children. The 'legs' in the top right-hand corner are standing about where my home was so possibly some of them belong to my family. No railings, all gone for scrap years ago. I wonder what the food was since everything was rationed?
(The photo is small because, somehow, I've done something to the camera which means I get an unwanted orange date stamp when I download to the computer. I don't know how to get rid of it, no instructions for that in the manual...)
About 15 years ago I used to sit in Aylesbury reference library and make notes from the bound copies of the Bucks Herald in 1945. I made an edited version of the newspaper which was published on 11th May. 'VE Day. Aylesbury goes gay in celebrating Victory in Europe' was the headline. Midnight dancing round the bonfire in Market Square....under cover of darkness someone had...painted the lions in red and blue respectively, the legs of Baron Chesham were painted white, the lions later had V signs added; but there was an undercurrent of restraint because the war with Japan was not yet over...
I can't find a photo of either Baron Chesham or the lions (only a very mini photo of the latter in a long view). Not having a very good day with illustrations. But no Elf and Safety, council or police restrictions on a street party.

LATEST CROCHET BLANKET

This might have to be the last crochet blanket of this sort that I make. I have arthritis in my left thumb joint where it meets my hand and crocheting for any length of time makes it a-c-h-e... This measures 39" x 52"-ish and has taken since about Christmas. I was really 'off' any kind of handicraft in the early part of the year so, at last, this is another one to cross off the list of Waiting To Be Finished things on the go.
I hope I can finish bordering the Granny Squares and then putting those together - with crochet.
Still plodding on, very slowly, with a lap quilt I'm hand quilting and that's going fairly well, especially if I have something to listen to. At present, it's 'Sharpe's Trafalgar' on cassettes, which I prefer to CDs. Only thing is they're abridged where CDs aren't...
And I've just cut some papers to start another long-hexie quilt.

STORM DAMAGE IN THE GARDEN

There's been such strong winds overnight that there's been some damage to other people's property, luckily, though it affects my garden. This first photo, looking down the garden, shows next door's fence panels flopped over. They are a good few years old and the posts were put in concrete rather than Metposts so have rotted through. The lilac tree is just coming into bud, I noticed earlier from upstairs.

This is looking back towards the house and you can see that three panels and several posts will need  replacing.  The shrub in the front with nice, new foliage is my hydrangea. The bushy plant sort of behind it is a delphinium clump already a couple of feet high but bent over at the moment. I'm glad the panels fell that way.

I carried on down the garden checking to see which would go next time there's a strong wind then came to the bottom on my way to the compost heap and found this greenery blocking the way. It's the last (almost) branch left on the willow tree in the house next door-but-one in the other direction.. Thank goodness he decided to have it very well pruned when I had my sycamore cut down in the autumn or there'd have been a lot of damage to two sheds.

Luckily it seems to have missed both of them and not damaged the Christmas tree either, from first glance. Just have to wait now for the neighbours to 'do something'. The tree branch's owner is about 84 so might take some time to organise help to shift it.

It could have been a lot worse, and must be, in other places.



SNAZZY SOCKS

Ever since I retired in 1980 whatever it was I've worn trousers and so have needed socks. I love snazzy socks, since I can't get snazzy shoes, and these arrived yesterday, ordered on line from Sockshop. Guess what my favourite colour is? The yellow ones at the bottom are the ones I pulled out of the envelope this morning so that's what I'm wearing. I thought they were all cotton but the two sets (on the left) with small labels on the toe (one round and the other rectangular) say they are made from bamboo fibre. Perhaps Kath could use some of her nettles to make socks???

I'd got a bit fed-up with having to darn the holes under the heels before I could wear my current lot - still, they have done a whole year without getting sloppy round the top or a hard texture when washed, like the white terry socks I wore for years. At least there's no struggle getting your foot into the tops!