Fun in Fakenham

Off to Lidl first thing this morning to check out their Thursday bargains [this week – Greek food and wool! there is no rhyme no reason to their offers!] then on to Fakenham to pootle round the market and the charity shops.

We had coffee in the Parish church, and looked round the Booksale. There’s an amazing brass plaque detailing “Harrison’s Charity” – apparently a spinster named Ann Harrison, in 1794, bequeathed £1,666 13s. 4d., in her will, the yearly dividends, £50, to be applied as follows: —£10 to a schoolmistress, for instructing eight poor girls; £10 to a schoolmaster, for teaching four poor boys; and £30 (except what is required for the expenses of the trustees) in a distribution of blankets etc. The girls were to be taught “reading, writing, useful arithmetic and knitting and sewing” I know I am biased – but I find all arithmetic to be useful at times! How do they determine which bits are not useful? I wonder what happened to the bequest – did all the money get spent? And did the trustees claim their expenses fairly?

Back for lunch and in the afternoon Bob made chicken soup whilst I sewed. I do wish it were possible to post cooking smells on the blog, I am really looking forward to tonight’s meal.

The curtains and chair pads are done and in place in the Dining Room. Here is a close up of the vintage Laura Ashley fabric

I think it was called “Queen Anne”or something similar

Here is chair from 1979 without cushion pad – and then with cheap IKEA  pad.

The set of 4 chairs came from Habitat and they have lasted very well

 

And here it is with pad covered in LA fabric [the leftovers from shortening the curtains!] I heard someone say the other day that her middle name was Laura – because whilst pregnant, her Mum got new LA curtains and liked the name on the label  [poor child – could have ended up being called Sanderson, or Liberty, or Colefax and Fowler – or worse St Michael – or even worst “Next”]

 

So now we are all co-ordinated!

It has been another wet and windy day – and so it’s been good to be able to sit and relax in our warm lounge.

One bargain – for only 50p in the Parish Church booksale, I got a brand new copy of this book – The Big Book Of Christmas by Gaby Morgan.

It has some Christmas poems and stuff I had not come across before and looks to be a useful resource.

There was a fun poem by Clare Bevan called ‘Just doing my Job’ about the children playing “Herod’s Henchmen” in a school nativity play, also some good ‘shape’ poems. Also, rather bizarrely, there is a play about Persephone and Demeter [written by Julia Donaldson, author of The Gruffalo] and a selection of riddles [the sort beloved by eight year olds]

e.g. What’s the best Christmas present? answer – Difficult to say, but a drum takes a lot of beating!

Why are you giving your Dad two banana skins for Christmas? – answer – Because he said he wanted a pair of slippers!

…… brief interlude to eat a meal  - the soup was indeed superb!