Still delving

thro' 'family' history but not my own family tree.
If you excuse the pun, I decided to branch out.

The 1911  census is a mine of interesting information and gives an insight into life and times at the beginning of the 20th century. 

I took  a look at some of the 'important' families living in imposing buildings. 

Waddow Hall on the outskirts of Clitheroe, is a 17th century manor house and 'home' to the Girl Guides organisation. I have fond memories of sitting and singing round the camp-fire. 

In 1911 it was home to the Garnett family, with James Garnett esq. head of the family and a cotton manufacturer. He had a wife, daughter and there was a companion. They had 4 servants.

Cook - Leicester

Attendant - one Patrick age 33 from County Carlow (SW of Dublin).

House maid - Willington, Cheshire

Waitress - Sunderland

Kitchen maid - York

In the nearby village of Waddington, there was a school house. The head teacher's household included wife, son and a visitor - Beatrice, telephonist (Blackburn GPO)

The Buck Inn has an inn keeper (widow) and her niece (servant).

His name was William John

but he was known to everyone as Jan. 
Cornishman thro' and thro' in thought, word and deed. When I knew him he was deaf in one ear and some thought him slow. He was anything but that; he took time to measure up what was said and if he needed to reply. Jan when you got to know him had a brilliant sense of humour and very dry wit.
Phoning him to say you were coming round to see him...he'd chuckle and reply...'no, can't do that'. Then say he was putting the kettle on and not to be late.
Born in a cottage in a small hamlet of but a few houses, he spent his life in West Cornwall, never venturing far (like a lot of folk round about). He never went far 'up country'. 


That part of Cornwall is isolated even for Cornwall. Folk in one village having fallen out with a neighbouring village avoid going there except if needs must.


Insular and isolated with a dialect broad Cornish...'pard', mi 'ansome, when addressing someone.
Entin' down as in hard, heavy thunderstorm rain.
Mizzle - mist and drizzle 
Fret - local weather when low-lying fog clings everywhere and everything gets soaked. Flights are suspended from the local airport and if it's bad enough the ferry stops sailing. Made worse as the fog horn sounds for days on end. The original local foghorn had a low rumbling sound that seemed to sink into your bones along with the rain and fog. But, if it went on long enough you eventually got used to it.
Emmets, Cornish for ants and used to describe the tourists.
Gusson - never as in no, really?

In memoriam but without sadness

Recently I've been wandering happily thro' archives (family history).

In my case it's more awkward as I have no surviving relatives. So, I took a break and digressed. 
We had a long-time friend MGL who had always wanted to investigate his family history, but, as with many things in life...just never got round to it. He passed away as the saying goes some years ago in peculiar circumstances, but that fitted his life which had been a cross between the boringly familiar and the less ordinary.
He had a life-long obsession with aircraft and in particular #633 squadron so he collected aircraft magazines and had them leather-bound.
Another obsession was mining as in tin mining in a certain isolated part of Cornwall. So he collected all sorts of paraphernalia connected with Levant.


Family history?
G stood for 'Gillick' and now I know that was his mother's maiden name. Some of the records concerning the life of MGL are connected with Nottingham.
Mother born there, father too and MGL himself.
Looking back thro' records...
Basford, Nottingham birthplace of MGL and mother.
Grandfather 1911 census - lace shipper and merchant. (Nottingham famous for lace industry).
Great-grandfather 1891 census - from Scotland, occupation Tailor.


What was MGL's occupation? Headmaster of a junior/infant school...granted early retirement because of illness (high blood pressure). Soon after retirement he was put on the transplant list and had two successive operations, leading to jaundice, diabetes and depression.


How did we come across him? Holidaying (camping) in Cornwall (1980s). MGL and missus were in a caravan and we joined them for coffee from time-to-time to escape the rain.


MGL and missus separated/divorced soon after he retired. Then, in 2004 in Rushcliffe...MGL remarried in the June, followed by ex-missus re-marriage in July. She kept the family 'home' whilst MGL took missus #2 to Cornwall where he bought a 'pig-in-a-poke' kind of property which gave him endless problems.


A loveable guy and excellent headmaster by all accounts; but totally impractical. He hadn't a clue or even the slightest grain of nous.
Missus #2 was/is an odd character...MGL had problems with attempting to control diabetes. On one occasion he almost became comatose, but was brought round by friends who were staying with them; not missus #2 who preserved her ignorance of all things connected with diabetes.


Several days after his death in 2009...the police came across him, locked inside his car...in the tin mining area...


Farewell MGL part of your story has at last been told.

Diamond Jubilee

All the to-do and fuss about 60 years has set me thinking. So, too has an online conversation I've been having about sewing machines.

Sewing...
Junior school...by the time we'd reached the 11+ class my hand sewing skills were at their best. The last project was an apron. How boring some might think...
Age 11 and our aprons were cut out, hemmed, pleated and embroidered by hand. I no longer have mine, nor any image apart from my mind's eye. But, the hemming was so fine, that the teacher thought I hadn't done the seam until she tried to move it and actually apologised...something quite unheard of, hence it stuck in my memory.

The embroidery was in a band across the bottom just up from the hem and some 6 inches deep. A work of art if I say so myself.


On to grammar school where we were taught to use sewing machines.

First the hand machine and then the treadle. I grew to love using the latter. 


Electric machines? There was one at home which my mother insisted on teaching me to use.

Here's a health...

"Here's a health to the (King) Queen and a lasting peace,

To faction an end, to wealth increase;

Come, let us drink it while we have breath,

For there's no drinking after death;

And he who will this health deny,

Down among the dead men let him lie.

Let charming beauty's health go round,

In whom celestial joys are found,

And may confusion still pursue

The senseless woman-hating crew;

And they that woman's health deny,

Down among the dead men let him lie.

In smiling Bacchus' joys I'll roll,

Deny no pleasure to my soul;

Let Bacchus' health round briskly move,

For Bacchus is a friend to love;

And he that will this health deny,

Down among the dead men let him lie.

May love and wine their rites maintain,

And their united pleasures reign,

While Bacchus' treasure crowns the board,

We'll sing the joys that both afford,

And he that won't with us comply,

Down among the dead men let him lie."

A North Country maid up to London had strayed

Although with her nature it did not agree,

Oh she wept and she sighed and so bitterly cried,

How I wish once again in the North I could be.

  Oh the Oak and the Ash and the bonnie ivy tree,

  They flourish at home in my own country.

I like not the court, nor the city resort,

Since there is no fancy for such maids as me;

Their pomp and their pride I can never abide,

Because with my humour it does not agree.

Oh the Oak and the Ash and the bonnie ivy tree,

  They flourish at home in my own country.

Along the road...the gas man cometh...

In the garden...

I love the way this rose changes colour.

More to come...

Rich colour...

Old?

Spent time with a friend yesterday who announced researching into 'age' and when did I think people became old? Then, went on to announce that according to modern research 42 is the start of being old.
I bit my lip and did not make any acerbic comments. After all I do not consider myself to be old...okay I am older than some people but not 'old' per se.
This led me to remembering a conversation about how lucky one of my family felt to have grown old in the 20th century. Born in 1902, she had noticed women in particular being old before their time.
By the time someone was in their 30s they'd wear black. My relative revelled in being able to wear bright colours all her life.
She'd lived thro' some desperately hard times. Her husband had been in WWI. But, all he'd ever say about it was that the reason why he smoked a pipe was that the queues were shorter.


Returning to the idea of 'ageing'...42 is definitely not Old, nor 50 some-things...
Ageing tends to become apparent once you turn 60 but definitely not Old yet...

In hiatus between courses

I've finally started to investigate my family history.
Unfortunately, most guides recommend asking your family...but, no can do. So, time to resort to online research but not from the giant of the industry but a UK company.
So far I'm interested in people and the places where they lived.
Faint memories from long ago tell me my family hale from Lancashire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire, with perhaps a link to Ireland?
Lancashire - Chipping
Derbyshire - the Dark Peak
Yorkshire - Almondbury, West Riding near Huddersfield
The latter stirs up a memory from 1960 when 'family' from Huddersfield arrived en masse to claim property, goods because someone had died. I was too young to appreciate what was going on and in those days no-one kept children 'in the loop'.

Pretty as a picture...

Times are a-changing?

Have just been reading in another blog where someone thinks of history and geography as 'twin subjects'. Boy, did that open a 'can of worms' in my memory-banks!


For most of my school-days I was taught 'capes and bays geography'. 
GCE (General Certificate of Education 'O' level) consisted of learning about England and how to draw and annotate maps.
Rivers flowing into the North Sea:
Tees, Swale, Ure, Nidd, Wharfe, Aire, Calder, Don and Trent.
Farming: hill sheep (Cumbria), Market gardening (Lancashire Plain), East Anglia mixed farming. 
We studied industries: Cotton, Woollen, Pottery, Steel, Ship building and Coal mining to name but a few.
By far the most enjoyable was geomorphology: limestone scenery, coast erosion, chalk downs, glaciation...processes that were studied in more detail for 'A' level.
Sixth form 'A' level was went into geomorphology processes in more detail. 
We learnt in great detail about Switzerland, Italy and Latin America.


Nowadays much of that geography exists no longer.


Instead we have social geography (yuck) and even worse...'humanities'. Population studies, globalisation, migration and sustainability. Full of statistics, charts, graphs and tables.


At least in my day there were games and simulations of the pen, paper and crayons variety.

continuum?

All email postings are so intermittent and can/do cross over so much. Plus recipients may be many and varied. 
Over the past couple of weeks I've been in intermittent 'conversation' with the OU (Open Uni).
1. I withdrew from SXN390 - huge sigh of relief, but it took several emails to several places before it was accomplished.
2. I learnt I was eligible for a 60% refund.
3. That was put towards another course...glutton for punishment that I am.
4. Today, and email arrived that re-confirmed exit from course, re-confirmed 60% refund paid towards next course.
5. Some of my previous level 2 courses now count towards my next qualification

Missing the point?

Missing the point my old dear? 
"Nick Clegg insists his party will "continue to play our role" in the coalition. Speaking outside his London home a short time ago, he said: "I am really sad that so many colleagues and friends, Liberal Democrat councillors... have lost their seats. It's not an easy job and it can't be done overnight..."
You have done it over the last 2 years! Propping up Tories as they are the scourge of pensioners, disable people... Go figure!


Yes, I feel a tad sorry for local councillor who has been unseated after many years. Local council is now 100% labour party with no-one to leaven the lump or attempt to talk any common-sense.

After some 30 years, the local shopping area is being re-developed.

At least for the time being some of the trees survive.

But...

This is all that remains of a Junior/Infant school...

Site to be redeveloped as?

A bus terminal...

moving on

My last stint with the OU is a miserable failure; I gave up having lost all motivation. Wow, huge sigh of relief to be 'free'. I'm no good at introspection, reflection or navel gazing in general. 20% of the marks for writing a plan that might be 'acceptable' without any proper guidance! No, thank you.
Onwards...admitted to OH what I'd done and much to my surprise he advised me to find something else and carry on studying (dear man).
OH is busy this week, helping out next door, or more precisely acting as foreman and encouraging H to do the necessary DIY.

No not impressed

All over various sites there has been a makeover more like a whitewash...
Facebook rolled out its bland makeover, Google followed suit and there's whitewash everywhere.
I prefer pages like newspaper pages with proper distinct columns and breakpoints.
Obviously my age is telling again.

Deja vu

It must be because I have reached a certain time in life that I get an increasing sense of deja vu...
Recently a TV presenter was complimented on her apparel...but to me it seemed nothing new...just a reappearance of a style by Mary Quant.
Now there are reports of hosepipe bans and what 'to do'.


In certain water company areas: Anglian Water, Southern Water, South East Water, Sutton and East Surrey Water, Thames Water, Veolia Central and Veolia Water East, hosepipes may no longer br used for
• Watering your garden
• Cleaning a private vehicle, taxi or minicab
• Watering plants 
• Cleaning a private leisure boat
• Filling or maintaining a domestic swimming or paddling pool
• Domestic recreational use
• Filling or maintaining a domestic pond using (unless it has fish – see below)
• Filling or maintaining an ornamental fountain – including those powered by a pump.
• Cleaning walls, or windows, patios, paths, garden furniture or any other outdoor artificial surface


At times like this it's good to live in the wetter west...
And I've been thro' all this before...
May 1975 - August 1976 - when you were a good citizen if your vehicle was covered in grime, showing it had not been washed.
Standpipes were erected in some areas and people queued to use them.
A minister encouraged people to 'bath with a friend'.
Standpipes reappeared in some areas in the 1995 drought.


So, 2012 is another 'drought year'... Hey ho history repeating...
Whilst water companies continue to lose thousands of litres of water thro' leakages...
People 'insist' on being profligate with water...showering several times a day, wearing clothing once before washing (some even wash articles that have only been tried on). 
Water usage increases, so does wastage...

It used to rile me when camping in Cornwall with notices everywhere saying to 'Save Water!' to notice how many people turned taps on and left them running (teeth cleaning)...

April come she will...

Sayre wrote a while ago...
Spring is in the air!!! What is it that you look forward to the most once the frost-date has passed?
We don't have a 'frost date' as such. Frosts can and do occur as late a June (ground frost).

Daffydowndillies

A bank of bluebells

The gracious magnolia - over all too soon

Fruit trees in blossom

This is my choice of images to show typical English Springtime flowers... 

Open Uni

And the Result...

Oh Yes!!!

Wednesday

is shopping day and sometimes time to top up with fuel.
Having made our purchases and put them in the car we went for fuel. Something was not quite right.
Usually there are four lines of traffic and an 'express' lane. Today there was one lane plus the 'express' and notices saying 'no unleaded petrol'. 
The lady in front pulled up at the pump, got out and went to the cashier, then came back. By now OH was topping up with diesel. So, lady made a point of telling him 'did you know there's no fuel here'? I could not keep my face straight as he told her, 'It's okay, they have diesel'. A most perplexed lady got back in her car and left. 
On the way home we passed another filling station with a queue of traffic waiting on the road to get on the forecourt and go to the pumps. A while later OH went out again and on his return said that that filling station was now closed.


(Reuters) - The government urged the public to fill up with petrol on Wednesday ahead of an impending strike by tanker drivers that could see stocks run dry, but was branded irresponsible by petrol retailers who said the government was creating a crisis.

apropos

of a 'conversation' elsewhere...
One of the enduring delights of retirement is to throw out work clothes and never purchase or wear their like ever again.
I remember OH getting rid of his sports jackets and boxed shirts. Work-wear was to look smart in sports jacket, trousers, shirt and tie (double Windsor).
Now he's happy to don denim trousers, t-shirt, sweatshirt or sweater.


When I first started at work women were not allowed to wear trousers except as a trouser suit. If the weather was inclement and you wore boots, they had to be taken off at work and proper shoes put on. A member of the management team told another newcomer that if she could not afford shoes a temporary loan might be had to purchase some!


How happy was I when the dress code was relaxed to include 'smart' trousers. Wearing trousers was preferable and more convenient. 

In the early days I often used to make my own clothes.

Spring forward this weekend?

Or, more precisely...
Let's go an hour ahead of GMT...


Seems Mother Nature is thinking even further ahead if these images are anything to go by...

Daffadowndilly looking a picture in subtle yellows

Camellias are almost over, only a few buds left to flower.

White star-shaped scilla

Bring on the magnolias...

What a day for...

finishing off an assignment and treating myself to a dose of relaxation...


OH has got gardening 'fever' hardly anything that can be pruned has escaped being 'scalped'.
We have a recycling collection fortnightly. The last was last Friday. Hey ho! OH has already filled one of the bins to the brim. Fortunately, we have two or three, three if you count next door and 'more' if you include other nearby neighbours. He's also mown the lawn and applied feed and weed. The onion bed has been planted, but according to M, OH has also planted some shallots (groan). Here was me thinking blissfully 'no more shallots'. They are a 'pain' requiring 'topping and tailing' as well as peeling. I thought with my passive resistance I'd convinced him not to grow any this year.


So, as a reward for getting on with my eTMA I shall treat myself to some knitting and perhaps some crochet.

Three years ago

a lovely, bubbly, delightfully out-going friend...

Died.

Our 'briilant' NHS failed her. She'd been sent as the saying goes 'from pillar to post'. Appointments had been made, only to be cancelled again and again. In the meantime dear Liz struggled with everyday life and hoped 'they' would make her better.

Then, the operation was scheduled on Friday 13th March. Dearest Liz went for her operation and it was then that we lost her...

RIP my dear friend.

What a silly illustration? But one my dear friend would have appreciated so well.

and today

has been spent reading with a break for carpet cleaning...
Postie arrived early bringing a book from the Saint book store, Southport. Not a books on shelves and go browse place, but a repository of texts accessible via Abebooks online. Double bonus, usually new books at discount prices with further discount when accessed via Topcashback.
Why carpet cleaning? I have a snazzy machine from Bissell which deep cleans and uses a formula containing cleaner and protector. OH let Z-dog in without paw cleaning and there was therefore a set of dog footprints in mud to be cleaned away. Why get down on hands and knees when you can use in succession the vacuum cleaner followed by the carpet cleaner. So for a while all smells cleaner and less 'doggie'.

Life like Flanders and Swann

Feeling sorry for neighbour who is enduring her personal version of Flanders & Swan 'gas man' song.
Gas supply is 'inadequate' not enough from the mains...
So, no gas yesterday and still none today. She's got two small fan heaters and a hotplate to cope with. 
Men in fluorescent jackets have taken up residence outside her house and are 'digging to Australia' thro' the pavement.

'Twas on a Monday morning the gas man came to call. The gas tap wouldn't turn - I wasn't getting gas at all. Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do.'

When you remember that she is blind and finds great difficulty coping with any changes in routine; I really hope they hurry up and let her get back to normal. 

P.S. intermittent posting here now have begun blog for latest OU course.

It can pay to ask...

My latest in a long, long line of courses in my OU studies commences today. SXN390 Science in Society project. 
Mid-January notification of tutor allocation; ought not to have been problematic but it was...why?
Reason being the said tutor lives in Galway, Ireland. Beautiful place and all that. but any phone-calls would be prohibitively  expensive. Seeing as this course is more dependent than most on tutor contact this information was worrying.
Typically, I had to investigate further, well why else have access to the world-wide web.
Having honed my skills over the years, I soon found out that not only was the tutor in Ireland, but specialises in Chemistry and Education. Whoa! Not promising especially as tutor also has a Ph.D.


This knowledge set the alarm bells ringing. Okay, I have no axe to grind with folk being highly educated, but I'm not including any chemistry in my project. Last year's tutor was chemistry Ph.D. as I found to my cost we were not on the same wavelength. So, I phoned learning support over a period of a week and a half without reply. In desperation, I sent an email and a lovely lady called Sue worked her magic. Today, when I logged on I found my tutor is in the Lancaster area and has listed a phone number, cell phone number and email address.
So, it pays to ask...please might I have a tutor located on mainland UK instead of one in Ireland? Thank you ever so much Sue.

Happy now!