climate change

I became aware that things needed to change when I was a teenager in the sixties. We were being told that there were too many people in the world and so even before I married for the first time, we agreed we would have two children and then foster and adopt as the feelings took us. And during the seventies that is what happened. We had two boys the natural way, fostered new born babies before they were then adopted (it helped to purge my broody feelings) and then prepared ourselves to adopt a two year old girl in the early eighties.

In 1984 the book 'E for Additives' was published which first made me aware of all the extras that are put into our every-day food. Around the same time our close friends saw a programme on tv that showed how animals were farmed to get meat on our plates. Overnight they became vegetarians and we were very pleased to receive the meat from their freezer! When they describe their new diet, we had one major excuse not to follow their example as our younger son was very allergic to nuts! However, I did include a few vegetarian dishes into our meals. By then we were living in a large house which we filled with various foster children, lodgers and foreign students, as well as our own three children. One of our lodgers was studying for his Masters in Conservation at London University. What he discovered during the day, he made sure I put into action in our home; our washing up liquid and washing powder was changed to more eco-friendly ones and the loo was only flushed when necessary! 

In the nineties, I became aware of the value of organic food; less chemicals in our bodies and far better for the soil and the birds and bees and all the other tiny insects we never see.

However, a few years ago, that same younger son realised that he was not allergic to peanuts - they are not nuts, they are legumes - and promptly became vegetarian. He has put me to shame! We do like our meat, so we save meat for the weekend and eat our veggies during the week.

I would like to have an electric car but I don't think it will ever happen. Although we have a drive to park on and the facility to charge a car, my sons who each live 200 miles away live in houses unsuitable to install a charger. Also, when deciding on what car to purchase, we spent a lot of time working out which petrol car would be  suitable to tow a caravan, with the best mpg and lowest co2. It was bought to last us for the rest of our driving lifetime.

I'm not sure when I became aware of the fact that the climate was warming but I know that my reaction was that I would be quite happy as I felt the cold! Especially as one summer in the late nineties, we decided to cancel our camping holiday in September due to the weather being unusually cold! What I was never aware of at the time was that climate change would affect far more than me being a couple of degrees warmer. But now we are beginning to feel the effects; the torrential rains leading to flooding, the fires, the droughts and the ice caps are melting. It is still unknown as to who was behind the hack in 2009 into the emails of Professor Philip Jones, the former Director of Climatic Research at the University of East Anglia, whose research showed the devastation of climate change by the end of this century. We can only guess, and pray that those in power come to their senses. Meanwhile we continue to do what we can.

 

getting there

Following on from my last two posts I've now finished writing up my Mum's words onto the computer and filled in most of the missing gaps with the help of my brother who has filled in the holes in my memory! I've also written up my Grandma's and Great-Grandma's life stories adding photographs including ones from 1879! 
I have found a printer who will print as many copies as I would like at a reasonable price. But first, I am about to start on my life.
Between us four women we cover the whole of the twentieth century from horse drawn carriages to the age of computers but all four of us could not relax without without some form of needle in our hands whether it be knitting, crochet, sewing or embroidery. The first three were taught 'the devil finds work for idle hands' - I just love to knit!

Mum's family get their first wireless

I'm writing up my Mum's memoirs and have arrived at 1932 when at the age of nine, she was over the moon to have a real live doll in the form of a baby brother whom she adored for the whole of his life - she eventually outlived him.

Mum wrote;

Also about this time we acquired a wireless, which was a great event in all our lives. It had a fret- work front over fawn silk which covered the speaker and stood with great pride on a shelf. No electricity or batteries as we know them - the power came from a collection of about 12 ‘wet’ batteries housed in a wooden cabinet which Dad made. 

These batteries had to be taken to the shop to be charged - one each week - and as each was about half the size of a car battery, you can imagine this was quite a job. 

We still had one of these types of wireless in 1948. 

There were just 2 stations at this time - Daventry National and London Regional, and it was like magic to hear music coming out of this box on the shelf. 

Previously the only music I heard was Mum singing around the house (which she did all the time). Mostly she sang the old Music Hall songs, so I got to know them well, but if I joined in with her, she immediately switched to singing alto, so I got used to part-singing. 

Now we had all the dance bands - Harry Roy etc, and always Henry Hall at Saturday tea-time, followed by the football results, the news and the fat-stock prices!

This was really when people began to know what was going on in other parts of the country and the world, but communication was still very much in its infancy. 

memories of shopping

Back in the early eighties my Mum wrote about her life and gave a copy each to me and my brother in large photograph albums along with some old black and white photos.
I'm now copying it along with memories from my Grandma and what we know about my Great Gran and my own memories for my boys and their boys.

The following is from Mum:

Shopping was fun when I was little - nothing was pre-packed. 

There was no plastic or polythene and all goods reached the shops in bulk and were weighed out by the shop assistant. 

Sugar came in blue bags - about 1cwt, in each I should think, and the assistant would use a scoop and weigh it out, then make a cone out of paper, twist the bottom and put the sugar in, folding over the top deftly and neatly so that none came out. 

I was always fascinated by the speed and accuracy with which this was done. 

All dry goods were sold in these paper cones before paper bags came into favour. 

Butter was the other interesting commodity - it came in a large block and the required amount would be cut off with a pair of butter pats, patted this way and that until it was a neat shape and swiftly wrapped in greaseproof paper. 

Assistants were expert at cutting off just the right amount and rarely had to take any off or put any more on. 

Bacon was sliced to order, and different thicknesses were numbered. When cooked the bacon was delicious - it didn’t ooze salt as it does now, but just just crisped up beautifully. 

Salt came in a block, about 10”x4”x4”, and my job was to cut this up as required and put it in a large jam jar - a horrible job if you happened to have a cut in your finger! 

Biscuits were weighed out from a 7lb tin, and the residue were sold very cheaply as broken biscuits, [these could still be found when I was a teen] and usually contained a good proportion of cream wafers, as these broke most easily! 

There were very few tinned goods and if things were out of season you just didn’t have them. Fruit was a luxury, which was why we always had an orange and a few nuts in our Christmas stocking - a great treat. 

Apples were for the summer, and bananas rarely if ever. Grapes were strictly for the sick as they were expensive. There was a Music Hall joke about snobs who always had a bowl of fruit in the parlour window, to kid everyone they were rich!

how to make me laugh

Earlier this week I received an email from an American publishing company inviting me to join their Editorial Board.
Now some of you may think that is quite an honour but I just laughed.
Why?
Because they want me to join the Editorial Board of Trends in Horticulture.
And why is that so funny?
Because the article of mine that they said they had read was; 'Susannah and the Lemon Tree; Mrs C.H. Spurgeon's Book Fund'.
It had everything to do with Susannah and books and nothing to do with horticulture apart from the fact that she grew a lemon tree from a pip and likened each leaf to the hundreds of books she was able to send out to ministers with little money. The lemon tree never produced a lemon.

Another aspect to my laugh is the fact that I have have very sensitive skin and do not enjoy gardening - touch anything and I come up in a rash. I stay indoors and just come out to gather a few herbs for dinner. 
It was a wonderful laugh first thing on a Monday morning but no I won't be taking them up on their kind invitation. I'm even wondering if it is a scam.

a technical education

Apparently Teresa May has attacked snobbery among parents who think that a technical education is for other people's children.
I wonder how our society has come to be in that position? 

In the sixties, my parents were thrilled when I went to the London College of Fashion.
Each day when I arrived home, my Mum would ask me what short cuts in dressmaking I had learned, which I would then pass on to her.
Unknown to me, when I had a couple of my designs featured in an international fabric publication, my Dad took the insert to work to show his colleagues. 
They didn't think I should be at a university, they knew where my talents lay and saw me thrive.

In the early nineties, there was no snobbery when both of my boys went to technical colleges to follow their dreams.

Who are these parents who are not aware of their offspring's natural gifts, talents and dreams?

I am proud of my technical education, it provided me with an income while staying at home looking after the children when they were little which could not have happened if I had taken the other option of becoming an actuary!

fashion and politics

For those of you wondering about my arm, it is now thought that I did dislocate my elbow on falling but it righted itself as I was helped up by the paramedics! My lower arm has turned a deep purple, now fading slightly to a lovely yellow! I have photos but as they also show why I never wear sleeveless or short sleeved tops, they are not for publication! The swelling has gone down enough for me to be able to wear my wedding ring again and I'm nearly able to wear my watch on my left wrist. 
Movement is still impaired, automatically picking up the phone with my left hand is ok, getting it to my ear is another matter! Tomorrow I'm hoping to be able to wash my hair but at the beginning of the week I had to get an emergency appointment at the hairdressers to wash my hair and cut it to an easily manageable style. Which is why I was walking through a certain high street store in Hereford and happened to notice the colours of the clothes.
I have been interested in the history of clothes and national dress since I was small but in recent years have looked at why we wear what we wear. The colours we wear can tell a lot about our work as well as our personality. But even more fascinating is that politics seem to determine the fashion colours. Back in the sixties, green and purple were the in colours when we had a labour government. When the government is conservative in come the bright jewel colours; ruby red, sapphire blue and emerald green. 
However, when Blair came to power, the colours didn't change and many felt that 'New Labour' was more like old Conservative. Now the Conservatives are back, the shops are full of yellow and lime green; colours one couldn't find a few years back and more suited to Labour! Many were surprised that the Conservatives got in at the last election as well as it seems they themselves!
We are told that the austerity will get worse, if so, watch out for the longer skirt lengths.

it keeps me quiet...

I think I may have mentioned before that I took embroidery as one of my 'O'level subjects as I never considered myself to be academic. The one draw back of embroidery is that it takes up a lot of time so once I became a Mum and then went back to college, packs of embroidery that I had collected over the years remained untouched. But in the last few years they have come out of the wooden truck once owned and used by my grandfather and with the aid of a magnifying glass with led lights, I am once again able to enjoy some very fine work.
Over 20years ago my Mum bought me four packs, each depicting the seasons and a few years ago I 'did' Autumn, next was 'Spring', then 'Summer', and 'Winter' was completed a couple of months ago. 
During this time I bought four matching frames, only to find that the mounts each had a 4" square aperture whereas the embroideries measured four and three-eighths by four and a half. So over the weekend I set about enlarging them with the aid of a steel rule and a scalpel. Fortunately there were no accidents or wobbly edges from my tremor!
Before they are hung up our stairwell I have managed to get a photo although apologies that there is a little reflection on the glass and that they are is reverse order with 'Winter' and 'Autumn' at the top with 'Summer' and 'Spring' underneath.

more memories

The delight of facebook for me is that I have been able to get back in touch with friends from years ago, one of whom is my dear school friend Pam. We went through senior school in the same class but I had seen her before when we were both in Girl's Life Brigade (yes I'm that old! it became Girl's Brigade some time later) but in different companies and met up for huge church parades and competitions. On seeing my last post Pam mentioned a photo of me as the Angel Gabriel. Thank you for the memory. 
Our school regularly put on Shakespearian plays but one year one of the English teachers wrote a version of the Nativity.
The story was told by Mary to a twelve year old Jesus sitting on the steps going up to the stage while the action was mimed on stage. I thought it was all very beautiful.
My dress was the one made for Olivia for her wedding in Twelfth Night, performed the term before. It was off-white with a gold pattern, trimmed with gold braid. The wings were the best angel wings I have ever seen; they were multi coloured, painted by our lovely art teacher who died too young. I was shown a medieval picture of Gabriel with very curly hair and asked to make mine like that but mine is only wavy and I wasn't going to get a perm - they came in many years later. The only way to make my hair as curly as possible was to wear rollers throughout the day! 
Again you will have to use your imagination. Life was very colourful but the photos were black and white and going sepia!

memories...

Radio 3 is often heard playing in our house although it is not my station of choice, mine is Radio 4. Recently a piece of music was playing to which I responded "I know this" not "I like this" or "this is one of my favourites". As soon as I had said it, I knew it was a strange thing to say. I waited until it was finished to hear the title; 'Autumn' by Cecile Chaminade.
Of course I knew the music, although I don't think I had heard it for over fifty years when it was my solo dance. I danced as Autumn at all the shows our dancing school performed in from Old People's Homes to the Lewisham Town Hall where this photo was taken at the dress rehearsal. In those days only a few photos were in colour, so you will have to imagine the bodice in rust brown with a net skirt of brown, orange and green net. Mum made the dress and I spent a long time making paper leaves to be sewn on the dress, made into a head-dress and for me to have a bunch in my hands to slowly let go while dancing.
When the photos were printed and on display my dancing teacher told me off for not pulling up my knees - hence the baggy tights! but in my defence, I had stood there a long time and was rather tired having performed the dance

.

tremours

A few years ago when buying organic food the lady at the till told me that she could not afford to buy it. My response was to explain that we did it for health reasons and that as we didn't go to the pub or theatre or cinema, good food was what we could enjoy. A doctor when diagnosing ME (chronic fatigue) advised a diet cutting out all 'e' numbers! So many folk want to buy food as cheaply as possible, fuelled by the supermarket wars, not realising that it is not usually the supermarkets that take the cut but the farmers!
I believe that my tremour is the result of the cheap food I ate back in the sixties, seventies and eighties - there is the saying 'we are what we eat'. My tremour is benign and not Parkinsons but because of my tendency towards asthma I cannot take the usual pills but have found some that seem to take the edge of it - until I get into a social setting! It is ok if it is dinner and I'm not driving, as a glass of wine works wonders but that is no good if you are having breakfast in a hotel before driving a hundred miles! My bacon and mushrooms I could spear with my fork - no trouble - but the scrambled egg refused to stay on my fork and flew off before it reached my mouth! but I was the only one in the dining room - hardly a social setting! in the end I gave up and copied my younger grandboy and used my fingers - job done! Methinks another visit to the docs to talk about what to do when my shakes go wild!

catalyst live14

I got there and it was brilliant! 
I've come away with thoughts yet to digest, some wonderful memories and a couple of books by two of the speakers! One of the books is the autobiography of Sir John Houghton. I was first encouraged to think responsibly about our planet by one of our lodgers thirty years ago and immediately changed my washing liquid and washing up liquid to a more environmentally friendly one. Since then we have changed our eating habits to organic food, grown without the chemicals that continue to damage our environment and our bodies. Over the years and through his Dartmoor blog, he has made me aware that we have already past the peak oil production - we now have less oil under the ground than we have already used up! Sir John, speaking just before lunch, made us aware that the oil companies are not at all worried by climate change and the melting of the icecaps as there is more oil to be found underneath. As we approached lunchtime I had a sick feeling in my stomach!
The day was interspersed by poems from Lucy Berry and I hope to use one or two of her poems in my next service.
The highlight of the day for me was the talk from Glen Marshall on Jazz. As well as being a co-principal of the Northern Baptist College, he also blows. He spoke and his talk was illustrated by the playing of a sax by one of his fellow blowers. It was loud and beautiful! His talk took me from smiles to tears, touching something deep within me.

its been a funny week

I've arrived in Reading ready for Catalyst tomorrow. Having lived life to the full in past years I now have to take things a little easier, so I'm sitting in my hotel room having driven here this afternoon. I love driving which is good as Tuesday I drove back from a holiday in Kent and Essex, visiting my brother and his wife and also my elder son and family. We have a small camper van and camped just outside Canterbury. We were able to walk into town and thought it would be nice to have a short visit to the Cathedral; a little walk around with time to sit and pray but when we saw the entrance price, we decided that £19 was rather expensive for half an hour. I'm assured that the audio guide is excellent but we didn't want that amount of information. So we admired the gateway and walked away.
Yesterday I went to the village Coffee Club having stepped down as chairwoman, I am now the treasurer as no-one else wanted the job! I managed to get three loads of washing done, dried with a few items needing an iron. But why did I put the last load on this morning? with no time to dry ready for ironing! Sometimes I need to remember to engage brain!
Last year I came to Reading with a friend but woke on the day of Catalyst feeling awful and spent the whole day in bed, feeling better the next day to drive us home! Fortunately I have no sense of any bug having crept up on me, so hopefully I will get there tomorrow. 

my ten favourite books

Over the last few weeks a number of my friends have posted their ten favourite books on facebook.  Some nominate friends to do likewise, usually stating that they should not think too hard.  I have not been nominated but thought it would be a good exercise.
I did have to think hard because didn't really start reading books until I was 38!
As a child I could not accept stories about animals who wore clothes and talked, but I did have a copy of 'Milly Molly Mandy'. Even so I much preferred pictures to words. I managed to go through school without reading a novel from cover to cover where, fortunately, English Literature was not a compulsory subject! My life was full of doing and making; as a child I knitted jumpers and made clothes for my dolls and for my friend's dolls. By the age of 9/10 I was knitting jumpers for myself and sewing my own clothes along with going to dancing lessons five times a week - no time for homework let alone reading!
My list of books:
1: However, I did have a copy of the Bible, given to me by my parents when aged six, when my Christmas list consisted of a Bible, hymnbook and gun! The gun was so I could play cowboys and indians with the two boys who lived up the road - this was much more fun than reading stories - we were acting them out! I later progressed from the Authorised Version to JB Phillips New Testament, then the Good News Bible (described by a tutor at college as the Mickey Mouse version!) and now I prefer the New Living Bible for my personal use.
2: The novel that got me reading was recommended by a friend who was lodging with us - 'The Magus' by John Fowles. I liken it to learning to swim by jumping in the deep end! (I still can't swim!)
3: 'Life and how to survive it' by John Cleese and Robin Skynner was published when I was a Marriage Guidance Counsellor. It is very easy to read, very helpful and is illustrated with many humorous cartoons.
4: When my faith took on a deeper understanding I read 'God of Surprises' by Gerard W Hughes.
5: 'My utmost for His highest' by Oswald Chambers - a book of daily devotions written in the early 20th century which still bring me up sharp. 
6: 'Holiness' by JC Ryle, written over a hundred years ago but I found it easy to read especially as he accepted women as equal.
7: At college a friend recommended 'The other side of silence' by Morton Kelsey.

And that's where my list ends although I have read all of Gerard W Hughes' books and many of Oswald Chambers' and Morton Kelsey's books but none have had such an impact as those seven. 
However, during the late 80s and 90s I avidly awaited the next novel by Susan Howatch with her 'Starbridge Cronicles' and 'Wonder Worker' trilogy. Today, I am devouring Robert Harris' latest; 'An officer and a spy', having read all but one of his previous novels.

surprise, surprise!

We were invited to a surprise 50th birthday party at the weekend of someone who was in the youth group when I was one of the leaders. We have stayed in contact over the last 30 years, mainly by Christmas cards but more recently we meet regularly at a cafe halfway between our homes, having both moved to Wales; her shortly after her marriage and us more recently. 
I know her parents and both her brothers and sisters-in-law but wasn't expecting to know anyone else. However, when I looked at the table plan, I recognised the names of others on our table; two of which were also in the youth group and the two other ladies were school friends whom I didn't recognise at first but realised that they were school friends of the birthday girl  who occasionally came to the larger youth group events.
Between the four ladies on our table, I had made two wedding dresses and a total of five bridesmaids dresses! with another wedding dress and three bridesmaids dresses in the room! and some still had their dresses all these years later.
It was lovely to reminisce and also to catch up on each other's news.

there's life in the old gal yet!

well I hope there is in me, although I do need to rest not necessarily the day after I have done something but usually the day after that! On Sunday I took the service at Chapel and was fine on Monday thoroughly enjoying book club (but I don't think anyone thought it was a good book!) but yesterday although I had planned on going to Cardiff for a day out, I decided to postpone my visit till later in the week and instead just take it easy. Taking it easy often means doing some sewing!
I had saved some full length and matching shorter curtains from a previous house, some of which were then used for a while by my eldest and some used here temporarily in a bedroom and are now being altered to fit our conservatory which came with the house. Unfortunately it neither has roof opening windows or enough fan lights and can get very hot especially in this glorious summer we are having!
And then as I was at full speed on the old sewing machine, all of a sudden with the actual machine still going, it stopped sewing! The drive belt had broken!
Fortunately, I know a 'man who does' and he was able to replace the drive belt with one I had spare when the last one snapped about 15 years ago, when the machine was already over 25 years old. I had bought the machine back in the early 1970s with the proceeds of making yet another wedding dress - up until then I had been using my Mum's Singer which she had had 2nd hand for her 21st birthday. I had the handle removed and a machine put in its place.
Just after the first drive belt broke, I again used the proceeds from a large wedding order to buy an up to date machine which did all the fancy embroidery stitches, as I needed to always have a spare machine if I was making an dress for a certain date!
But after a few years, I reverted to my old machine as it is made of metal so is sturdy and fast! and I'm sure that there are more years in her yet!

I'm here again!

I realise that I have not done much blogging over recent months. It's not that I have not got anything to say, but when I do have, I seem to be very busy. And when I have time, nothing much has happened!
This morning I am off to our village book club. The book we have been reading caused much discussion at our summer barbeque a couple of weeks ago. The author writes about her experiences growing up in the valleys and then working as a nurse in our local hospital. At first I found the book fascinating but then became quiet worried because although she has disguised people she met by changing their names - it seems that it is obvious to those who have also worked in the hospital, as to whom she is referring!
I look forward to continuing our discussion!
Some of you will know that I am a diabetic - not through eating the wrong foods but through the stress of the break-up of my first marriage. Each morning, and also at meal times, I inject myself - this is usually pain-free but sometimes as I pull out the needle it is followed by some blood. And this morning it did just that and as I reached for a tissue up my sleeve wile holding the injection pen with the other hand and also trying to hold my clean pale lavender coloured shirt out of the way... wait! I don't have three hands! the shirt slipped and I had a large blob of blood on my shirt.
One very useful trick I was taught by an elderly dress maker - actually I think she must have been younger than I am now - when I first when out to work in design studios as a sample maker was that your own saliva is the best thing to remove blood. I have lost count of the number of wedding dresses that I have suck! And my shirt this morning now has no sign of blood or being sucked.

I keep being surprised ...

.. by the chapel folk here! Today was the funeral of the mother of one of our members. Her Mum lived a good hour's drive away and a small service was held in their local Chapel of Rest for her friends and carers. An hour later there was a service in the crematorium just half an hour's drive away from us. Nine friends from our chapel (about half our usual congregation) joined the very small family group for the service. I am only aware of one of our ladies having actually met her Mum! But around here folk gather around to love and support those going through a tough time whether it is the loss of a loved one or any other family difficulty. I am surrounded by a lovely bunch of folk.

yesterday we shut up shop...

...just for the morning. We decided that we would not hold our usual service in the chapel but drive over the border into England and join in the service of one of the other churches in our Rural Churches group, where we heard Judy Cook speak about her work as a missionary in Thailand. I met Judy on her last visit back to the UK but this time she brought four of her fellow workers with her. Their English was far better than my Thai!
Hopefully I will meet Judy and her co-Thai-workers again next weekend when we are all planning to be at the Baptist Assembly.
One of our members who would not be able to cope with the journey and longer service went to our chapel to forward any who had not realised the change - or to give them the option of returning in the afternoon when we had our quarterly service of prayer for healing.
We are small in numbers; usually around 15 - 20 on a Sunday morning but 11 of us went to the morning service and 10 came in the afternoon. I'm not usually someone who counts heads, as I'm just as happy preaching to three or four as I am to fifty as I believe that those who need to hear what I believe God has given me to say will be there, but it was encouraging to have a good turn out for something different!

at long last

It's nearly five years since we moved in here. When we first viewed the house we were rather disappointed to find that the previous occupants had moved the bathroom into one of the bedrooms and had also painted a mural over the whole of one wall and the door!
We moved the bathroom back to where it belonged (actually we got a couple of men to do it!) and the bedroom became a dumping ground for several years while we slowly worked out what fitted into the new house and what needed to find a new home. Over those years if we finished painting elsewhere and still had spare paint on the brush we would paint the excess over the mural!

And then about two years ago, I had time and energy to start turning the dumping ground into a proper bedroom but was halted by an unknown problem with our boiler. The painting was done (slowly!) but no carpet could be put down as many water pipes ran under the floor. At the end of last year a new boiler was installed and at the beginning of this year a carpet was put down.
And yesterday pictures were hung! The room is finished at last. The main bedroom still has to be decorated - I wonder how long that will take! The photo below shows the wall underneath which is the dark mural! My eagle-eyed daughter can still see the outline of the trees and 'castle'!  

And in case you are intrigued; the piece of furniture covered in an old green sheet is a zed-bed! Above the bed is an embroidered picture titled 'Fishing in fairy-land' made for me by my Mum when I was little and hung on my bedroom wall until the day I was married!