Thankful

As Sayre says, "November is a month to recognize the things you are thankful for in your life - including the people who are serving our country. Tell us what you are thankful for!"

One of my favourite hymns from long ago...

"Thank you for every for every new good morning

Thank you for every fresh new day"

Sacrifice

November is the month to be thankful for those who made the ultimate sacrifice. 

Another verse says

"Thank you, oh Lord, I want to thank you, that I'm free to thank"

This resonates in these troubled times; having just read "The bookseller of Kabul" by Agne Seirstad and "My forbidden face" by Latifa.


Companionship
Canine companions say nothing, yet speak volumes...
OH drives me mad; yet keeps me sane...
The two Ms and our coffee afternoons...
God-daughter.
Long time friends from school days.
Not forgetting my click of the mouse friends.


Learning and education...particularly the Open University and the friends I have made thro' my studies and on-line meetings.


To read more please pop over to Sayre smiles...

borrowed

A long-time friend has recently returned from holiday in China. Hoping she won't mind if I share some of her photos with you.

open wide

Once every six months a visit to the dentist is scheduled. Today was the day. A short walk up the road, a signature on a form, wait to be called into the surgery. Our new dentist is from Romania, her name is Indian. She told OH she loves her job having spent lots of time in her dad's surgery since she was about four years old.
An x-ray later, the news is 'receding gums' and gel on a particular tooth with instructions not to eat/drink anything for half an hour.
Then memories stir as I think back to my experiences over the years. 
1950s the one size fits all solution was extraction. It was commonplace for women to have all their teeth removed during pregnancy. My mother had dentures.
There was no notion of regular visits to the dentist. People went when in pain. One time I went and mother was told my front (milk) teeth were full of abscesses. So, no anaesthetic and I had them removed. Because I had been 'good' the dentist gave me sweets on the way out.

So for what seemed like forever I had speech problems, 's' in particular.
1950s - 1960s and the school dentist gave me nightmares! Extractions under gas and a rubber mask forced over nose and mouth; but I couldn't hold my breath long enough and the sickly gas rushed into my lungs. That's when I learnt to intercept the appointment card as it came thro' the letterbox and after a while they ceased.
1970s and at long last a good dentist recommended by a friend who had been at Leeds Uni with him. Mr Cross had come first in his year, his wife was nurse/receptionist. Both were gentle friendly souls. So now I visited the surgery regularly and the ravages of previous years were undone. 
1970s away from home and still returned to visit Mr Cross.
1980s and another dentist this time in Woolton, another lovely person, so reassuring. But, without warning he sold up and retired. The guy that took over came as a nasty shock, rude and impersonal, he only wanted private patients. I lost patience with him and left.
So, no dentist...and I'd noticed a surgery a few minutes walk away. I've been with them ever since. But since the original partner left, there have been a series of other dentists one after another. African, Polish and now Indian/Romanian. It's gone from Mr W and Mr B to being part of another company. Mr B remains, but sees only private patients. 

Roses

One of the M's has been planning replacements for some of her rosebushes. She phoned local garden centres and was dismayed by the lack of variety coupled with high prices.
A web search later and I discovered a specialist rose grower in Cheshire. 
Yesterday was wall-to-wall sunshine, so we took her to the rose-grower and their garden centre.

We sat in the café and discussed roses with the help of a catalogue. This time of year they supply bare rooted plants. Then we strolled round the garden centre, where OH found a variegated azalea M wanted. Next we went to the order department and put in two separate orders. We ought to be able to collect them mid to late November.
M and I love highly scented roses, M chose floribundas, a couple of hybrid teas and a climber. We went for Hybrid teas and a climber.

meandering

I ought to have gone with B to see Top Hat, but OU studies got in the way. She phoned to say it had not been a memorable performance and could we have a day out together soon? I wanted to go to Culcheth to Black Sheep Wools to see what I could find. One way and another it meant Tuesday is the best day for B to go out. 
Typically I got lost time and again and before you ask...no GPS and no navigation system apart from map reading.
As B said 'We have a tongue in our heads, let's ask someone' who did we find? the local postie, best route finder there is.
So we found and investigated the place, decided it was a one-off but at least I got a pattern I'd been seeking. Then we had lunch in a local pub...it was delicious and a bargain price.

sunny day but...

One of the M's has been what we've dubbed 'Orkneyed' for the past fortnight. People she's known a long, long time who live in Orkney. They tend to stay in this area a couple of times a year and insist upon taking M with them for days out. It means she has little time to herself apart from continuing visits to hospital consultants, doctor and chemist. The 'Orkneys' have headed North, first to Durham and onwards from there. 
However, no sooner had they gone than M was told to expect a visit from I'n'J (yesterday). Our phone rang earlier on too early for M, yet it was her. All the to-ing and fro-ing is taking its toll especially as I'n'J failed to turn up. So she's fit for nothing today.

routine

Friday, bin day and this week it's all of them; red. blue and grey. So, one of the M's does her own and M next door. And, when our dogs remind us the bins have been emptied one or both OH and I return the emptied bins.  
Today I went and met one of the M's so we had a nice chat. Another part of the routine and a most welcome one. She's tired out as visitors from Orkney have been staying locally and insisting on taking her hither and thither. They're northward-bound today and M was looking forward to her weekly visit by the hairdresser followed by peace, quiet and time to herself...
However, there's been a phone-call and two other people have 'promised' to descend on her! 


As for me? The delivery man has dropped off sacks of dog food and a sack of sunflower seed hearts (bird food). I've settled back in my chair with a cappuccino waiting for the last of the bins to be emptied and to return them to their rightful properties. 
Just one little niggle...shingles pain has returned as it does now and again. It was summer 2006 when shingles attacked yet the pain...post shingles neuralgia...has continued spasmodically ever since. 

tasty

On reading Diary of a teacher, I noted that she made soup from roasted tomatoes and onions, so I followed her example.
Out came the halogen oven, perfect for roasting veg when only doing a fairly small quantity. The result with addition of potatoes, water and Worcester sauce was very moreish. One to remember for the future.
Sadly, the tomato plants are coming to an end, even in the greenhouse. 


Before the month ends, my friend has her three score years birthday! Problem...what to buy?  The weather is dreadful, squalls of wind and rain, not the sort to venture out in, so I took recourse online...perused Debenhams and made my choice. Now it's fingers crossed it arrive in time. 

In March

I relaxed and enjoyed the craic in Dublin.
This last weekend my dearest friends spent a long weekend there. 

They celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary (a short while ago)...and now she has a new wedding ring.

it's all in the words

I love crochet and knitting and have collected far more patterns than anyone could make up in a number of lifetimes! One of my click of the mouse friends in the US has posted a photo of her crochet and someone has asked her for the pattern.
So why my title 'it's all in the words'?
Let me attempt to explain...


When I knit I work right-handed as this was the way I was taught as a young child. I used to go across the 'backs' from our terraced house to the one opposite where a neighbour showed me how to knit and purl. The needles were short and the wool red. From then on I taught myself over the years, and by my teens was doing Aran patterns. Later I tried Fair Isle and Intarsia. Kaffe Fassett, Rowan patterns.


Crochet was something I discovered in my teens and as most do became good at making 'grannie squares'. However, this time I was self-taught and did everything left-handed. Working my way thro' the various stitches and combinations...


Now there are numerous patterns on the Internet, and this is where confusion arises... abbreviations are many and varied enough in English patterns, try some with US conventions and...??? Suddenly it's a new language especially in crochet...

This is when symbols mean more than words and are much clearer.


Sizing? UK modern is in mm, traditional UK is different and so too the US. 
Size 3mm aka 11 aka? no not at all in the US.
Yarn? double knitting aka worsted; Aran aka fisherman/medium... 

weekending

weekend special

This guy is the focus of the weekend...a truly special time

Notice, I didn't use the word 'little' as he's a hefty guy!

Here's his Daddy

Autumn favourite?

for me it has to be my quirky photo

Man and dogs wandering into the blue across Autumn moorland...

Sayre asked what do people crave when the weather gets cooler? I'm late joining in; but it's such a good topic, I didn't want to let it slip by.


Agreeing with Sayre, yes cooler weather is soup weather especially when there's a glut of tomatoes.

Tiny Vittoria tomatoes...goodness what a lot of them and they keep on coming

Home-grown onions

It's also time for casseroles...and

Not forgetting apples, eaters and baking varieties. Perfect for making crumble. Home-made crumble usually turned out more like shortcake biscuits...

Now with my halogen oven the crumble is just that, lovely and crumbly. Make the filling and crumble topping as usual; the only difference is to wrap it in foil before putting the dish on the low rack. Halogen ovens cook very quickly. It took a bit of trial and error, hence saying use the low rack. I added some pear to the apple, no need to add any sugar to the fruit.

Fall colours

Apologies for not posting yesterday. At long last I've completed my course for this year, but it meant not doing anything else but focus on the final project yesterday.


A big Thank You to Faye at Summit Musings! 

Pyracanthus - so many berries this year. Some say a hard winter is in prospect; I hope not.

Autumn sunlight?

We've had much of it , more than usual, until today that is! Today is as they say 'overcast', time to borrow from my archives...

I love the colours in this sky...

No, your eyes are not deceiving you...I slanted the image deliberately.

continuing the meme - Nature close-ups

October flowers and fruit

Sedum

Strawberry ripening in October

October rose

early Fall landscapes

The latest challenge from the lovely Faye at Summit Musings...
As we're experiencing a 'little summer' rather than the first weeks of Autumn and as here in the UK we don't tend to go overboard on the changing seasons...

Ornamental grasses are growing well...
So, to get anything resembling a Fall landscape...

 Here's an autumnal tree at sunset...

Fall fun?

OH is busy gardening as tho' it were summer, yet is planting spring bulbs for neighbour. I know Joy is having fun as she's been very busy in her kitchen making all sorts of goodies from an assortment of garden produce.
So, what about my Fall Fun?

More apples? Still one or two zucchini?

Hoping the late sunshine and warm temperatures ripen the rest of the tomatoes.

Taking advantage of the weather to dry washing on the line in the sunshine!

summer?

Summer in Autumn, an Indian Summer also known as St. Martin's summer. Typical of the last week in September and warmer than usual this year. Hence we have apples and apple blossom on some trees and I picked a few strawberries. 
Warm balmy weather ...

And this is where a borrow a picture from a friend...

keeping up with Faye?

Today's photo challenge is Fall decorations and this is where for a few days I'm going to come a cropper as the saying goes. Why? I'm across the pond and we don't tend to do much decoration at this time of year.
So apologies all round, but I'm going off on a tangent then at least I'm trying to keep up.

Mrs Blackbird had her nest inside the interwoven stems of our climbing roses. The roses have lost their leaves and so the nest is revealed. OH trained the roses horizontally along the workshop. From there other branches headed skywards so the whole area was full of blooms throughout the summer.

Weather for soup?

Over the past week or so there's been so many ripe tomatoes that soup-making seemed a good idea. However, I learnt the hard way years ago that too much of a good thing can have side-effects. I now make vegetable soup with a high proportion os tomatoes in it rather than mostly tomatoes otherwise I might have an allergic reaction.

 Home-grown tomatoes, onions and courgette make a good soup base.

topsy turvy

Oops who posted fruits yesterday instead of today!
So here's some autumn flowers...

Autumn pansies - heart's ease

Fuchsias still in flower

I think this is pieris

Click into Autumn mf

Bramley apple

Ballerina apples

Click into Autumn

Here is the Challenge......from Faye of Summit Musings
September 23rd is the beginning of Autumn so, to celebrate this most gorgeous time of the year, I thought it would be fun to host the Two Weeks in Autumn Photo Challenge. Look around you as you go about your daily lives the next two weeks and see if you can capture the magic of autumn with your camera. 

Safely gathered in...part of this year's onion crop

access versus inaccessibility

One of my close friends and neighbours does remarkably well despite her 'visual handicap'. Or as she would prefer me to say Blindness. Hardly a day goes by without her encountering people who seem unable to cope with what being blind means. From the store assistant to public service worker all have a blind-spot where blindness is concerned.  
The next round of tax assessments has a deadline for the end of the month...M contacted the DWP by phone to find out which form was needed. Okay, she now knew the form, but how to get one? Reply from the DWP 'we no longer publish print copies'. But you can get it from such n such website. M can no longer use a computer. Reply from the DWP go to an internet café or try your local library. The mind boggles at the stupidity of the DWP representative! Tax is vexing, it is also private data that no-one wants to have broadcast publicly.
Hence I've been on-line, downloaded and printed what she needed. One copy of the instructions and a loose copy of the form. Another friend does the form filling. 
I can't help it...am seething at the institutionalised ignorance in everyday life.

Movies that make you think

Jesus Christ Superstar  - the early 70s when I saw more films than ever before! My room mate and I were in digs and a short bus ride away there was college; and also a fabulous cinema which is now a supermarket. JCS was an amazing film, like no other seen before with David Essex in starring role. The audience left afterwards in awed silence...
The Way We Were...a lovely weepy film with memorable music; starring the gorgeous Robert Redford.
Spool thro' the years, and it was not until the likes of Harry Potter and the LOTR trilogy that I began cinema going again. I enjoyed the Potty Harry films and adore LOTR; but then the latter has been part of my life in book form, followed by tape cassette, video cassette, DVD and now Kindle edition for many years.
Fantasy films, enchanting scenery and music ... what else? I viewed them in Dublin!


Many thanks to Sayre for rendering first aid and putting life back into Fun Monday.

Autumn

or as friends in the US would say 'Fall'... Time to have to wipe the car windows before setting off as they drip with condensation. A beautiful day, foggy in some places, but as the sun climbs in the sky it clears away all traces. Then there's a slight chill to the air even in the sunshine. A time for memories...perhaps because for many years the beginning of September was also the start of the Autumn term. No more netball, but hockey instead. Running circuits of the hockey pitches to warm-up before the lesson began. Three pitches side-by-side and you have to go around the outside, no cutting corners. Boots caked in mud and a divil to clean...dashing thro' cold communal showers at the end of the game; no toiletries apart from talc and deodorant. 
Remembering the long walk to school in the Autumn sunshine, viewing a temperature inversion shown by clouds as taught to us in a recent geography lesson. Looking ahead at the view of Pendle that dominates the area for miles around.
As Autumn progressed more and more leave dropped from the trees. So many copper beeches and tree-lined avenues. Oh what fun to kick your way thro' tumbled leaves!

Just an ordinary day?

Awaken, get up and dressed then let the dogs out into the garden. Feed them. Yes, they have two meals per day. In fact quite a lot of the day revolves around them.
Guess who forgot something quite important! Tomatoes! In fact going to open the greenhouse door wide every morning, checking on the toms, feeding/watering them and harvesting the newly ripened ones!
I'm coming to the end of my studies for this year (February to October inclusive). Things are rather fraught as I have 2000 words to find for a report. Then there's a series of web pages to construct using an antiquated user unfriendly program with the unlikely name of Web Wizard. It's a course about the environment and my topic is Fracking (hydraulic fractioning). I've given myself till the end of the week to complete the report.
So, after breakfast I settle down to read, make notes and think thro' the project. After a couple of hours it's time to let the dogs out to as my friend M says 'make them comfortable. Settling back to my studies until about 2.30 pm... Now it's time for their 'constitutional' an old-fashioned term meaning to go for a walk. I put their leads and OH goes our with them. Suddenly there's peace and quiet...time to use the vacuum cleaner without being challenged by z-dog who seems to think it needs a 'seeing to'.
The threesome return...all noise and bustle.


Almost forgot to say "Thank you" to Sayre for posting the topic. She very kindly gave everyone another opportunity to take part in Fun Monday.

freshers

B has gone to uni in Scotland and this week is Freshers Week. Time for stirring memories to the surface...
Spool back some 40 years and I left home for college.
What a contrast...B was chauffeured by her Dad from door to door. 
I went by bus. No car only as Dad would say 'Shank's pony'.
The journey took 3 hours as the bus zig-zagged west and then south; one that these days is 40 mins door-to-door.
B has her cell phone and laptop and uni will have internet access as standard for students.
In my day correspondence was by letter and I wrote regularly to friends and family. No phone at home only at Dad's work so he'd phone once a week. How I treasured hearing his voice!
Contrast today's student in constant touch with her social networks.

interconnectivity

Earlier in the year I received an email from someone trying to get in touch. Being rather wary of 'bolts from the blue' I mulled it over before replying. Months passed and no other contact so it went to the back of my mind as such things do.
August and another email this time with more detail - the daughter of a friend of my father, who'd been best man at his wedding. So now my curiousity piqued. Sent replies and received none, but the correspondent had set a deadline for the end of August.
Time to practise web searches and I found some details, address and phone number that seemed to fit the bill. Phoned the other week and no answer, so I determined to have one last go and then forget about it.
August 31st and I phoned the number...someone answered...but the connection kept failing. Tried by landline and 'success' she was who she said she was!
Yesterday evening she phoned and we spent over an hour chatting.
So now my very sparse personal history has fewer gaps...
And still her words resound in my consciousness...

hmm

Schools no longer teach Home Economics nor Domestic Science but something called Food Technology. Supermarket shelves 'groan' with relatively cheap unhealthy foodstuffs. Few have the time or inclination to read labels. They home in on the latest adverts for easy ready this and fast that, urged on by the pester power of their offspring.
I knew one family whose Mother 'lived on' cigs and coffee. Their dad was away at sea for weeks on end. Okay so she 'cooked without salt' but...food prep began soon after the elder two went to school. Potatoes peeled, cut and left in a pan of water until the end of the school day. Her favourite foods for the kids was sausage rolls and crisps.
Then there's a neighbour (male) who exists on microwave meals from a 'top end' supermarket. Yet, his elder brother who moved to S. Africa some eight years ago is a chef.


I'm no health or diet fanatic (heaven forfend)! But, in recent weeks I have begun to read food labels to compare level and types of sugars, amount and types of fat content. Why? Because I have friends who are diabetic.

new term - new uniform

As stores and TV stations rev up in the hope of increased sales, it's time for the annual expense known as school uniform.


How things change! Today, supermarkets vie with each other to offer value deals on uniforms. Harassed parents with truculent or excited offspring in tow scour the isles. 


Yesteryear when I left Junior school and headed for Grammar school things were a lot different. A letter arrived detailing what had to be worn and where to buy from. No supermarkets in those days. Instead we crossed the threshold of one of the most expensive dress shops and headed up stairs. 
Colours - navy and gold, not yellow. Navy blazer (wool) with school crest badge to be sewn on at home. White cotton blouses, navy v-neck jumper (wool) Knife-pleated skirt and gabardine raincoat. 
Oh the effort that went into pressing those knife pleats to keep them 'just so'! How happy we were when in our second year they brought out Courtelle blouses in blue or gold. No need to starch them and far more comfortable to wear. They were warmer in winter than cotton.
Not forgetting sports wear - must have hockey boots and plimsolls (no training shoes in that era) and a wrap around games skirt. The letter even detailed undergarments. Shoes and socks too had to be regulation. 
Girls in the Lower and Upper 3rd were only allowed to wear knee-socks or ankle-socks. Stockings and suspender belts were for Upper Fourth onwards.
We made our summer uniform skirts in needlework lessons. Pale blue poplin 3 yards of 36 inch wide material; to be made into a hand-gathered and mostly hand-sewn skirt with 3-inch waistband.
How we envied the sixth form whose skirts were made the same way but in delicious coral or marine blue.


What provoked this blast from the past? Two things Sayre of Sayre Smiles shared a photo of her son in his school uniform. How cool and casual his apparel looks. 
Then this morning an article in a newspaper caught my eye.  'School skirt ban'

It seems that in order to focus more on studies and less on the rebellious nature of teenage girls the school skirt has been omitted from many uniform lists.


And to think that at one time,  girls had skirts, dresses or shorts no trousers. That is until the advent of the trouser suit. My first was a three-piece - jacket, trousers and matching skirt. Hooray for designers like Mary Quant and their influence...but that's another story!

To think that there are prestigious schools today whose pupils still wear uniform – breeches, yellow socks like those worn 450 years ago! 

all aboard the charabanc!

charabanc [[shar]-rab-banɡ] a coach for sightseeing taken from the French meaning a wagon with seats
A word I came across long ago, sometimes used by my father. Now according to the Collins dictionary it's obsolete. Yet, to my father a charabanc was part of his childhood. A horse-drawn wagon with slatted sides and seats. Later, the word took on a similar meaning 'to go out for the day' this time by old-fashioned coach.
When there were far fewer vehicles on the roads and to have a car was unusual, days out were by coach. Sometimes we took a packed lunch, or hoped to find a café.
An early start and walk to the railway station, not to take the train but to board the charabanc.

second Thursday in August

is 'results day' for 'A' level examinees. Similarly, the third Thursday in August is GCSE results. Every year there's the same hype. Results are always 'better than' previous years. News stories about the results follow a similar pattern. They focus on the 'achievers' with their great results, their A* and collections of high grades.


But what about the ones who do not achieve? If I dredge thro' the vaults of memory, I was never an 'achiever' but I have empathy which is a better skill than any results record can confer. Then there's patience and stickability.


As Lord Chesterfield said...
"Wear your learning like a watch and do not pull it out merely to show you have it. If you are asked for the time, tell it; but do not proclaim it hourly unasked."