Parliamentary Matters

Did you know that the collective noun for a group of owls is a parliament?  And furthermore, did you know that every year, 4th August is celebrated as International Owl Awareness Day?  I knew the first, but only learned the second fact this week 

And I discovered it yesterday in Holt. This lovely Georgian Market Town, boasts an "Owl Trail". You can walk round the town and find 24 plaques at interesting sites. The name comes from the ancient legend that some local men found an owl. They put it in the town Pound for safe keeping, whereupon it promptly flew away! 

There aren't too many owls in the town centre nowadays, but you may spot them in nearby Holt Country Park. We went up to Holt to meet my dear blogfriend Kezzie and her husband. We had a lovely lunch together in the Owl Tea Rooms. 

It was such fun to chat together in person. The husbands got on well too. I'm always anxious before I meet up with a blogfriend that our "other halves" might be bored. I am so grateful that this hasn't ever happened. 

Kezzie has been a good friend for a long time -  when I was running 'Grandma's Nursery for Rosie in lockdown, she sent me some great ideas for music lessons. When cousin Gill died, she came over to Romford and took me out for a much needed coffee break. And I love being involved in helping construct her Whovian Cosplay outfits.Thank you K&C for a super time together, and a great lunch. It was kind of you both to take time out from your family holiday to connect. 
The cheerful waiter took a photo for us 

Then we all put on our hats, ready to leave, and decided we needed a 'hat-pic' too!

Well, I Did Warn You!

Another post about the visit of that tapestry! The day that tickets went on sale [at 10am] for the exhibition at the British Museum  I logged on at 11.10, to this message

There are 70,564 people ahead of you in the queue.

That number has planted itself in my brain.The system was well organised. Having entered my email, I was given a personal link - throughout the day I clicked on and it told me the length of the queue and the estimated time till my 10 minute ticket-buying window. I knew from the start to would be sometime after 5pm, and that I'd be sent an email alert.. In the event., I actually got my tickets around 5.30pm. I'd hoped for the last Monday of September but there was but one ticket available at 3.30. So I opted for the Tuesday morning, 10.20am. I decided against the £35 exhibition guidebook! My friend from church logged in later in the day, and was advised that there were no tickets left, and she should apply again when the second tranche is released - there are no tickets left now between September 10th and January 1st. We have booked B&B with my SIL in Barnet.

Having decided against the official guide, I thought I should check out what Bayeux Books I had already. The Churchill tome, which sparked my interest as a child, just has a small section on the dustjacket. 
But for the first time, I looked inside the book. That was fascinating - it is a first edition! Because when it came out in 1956, my father was on the point of leaving Romford to go to another church. Two spinster sisters in his congregation bought him this book as a leaving present, knowing his interest in history. Inside the book is a lovely letter, thanking him for his ministry and assuring him of their continued prayers for 'you, your wife, and Angela. ..we shall miss you terribly, it will be a big gap in our lives' [I was aged 1½] But apart from the cover, not much info.

This book was more promising. £1 from a charity shop, it is a full length photograph, scaled down to one seventh of the original. Nearly 10 metres long. I unrolled it on the kitchen worktop.

What fun! It is accurate [there are no characters with added underwear!] I have treated myself to a 2nd hand book from World of Books by Silvette LeMagnen, who is curator of the  exhibition in France. This is one of their guidebooks [the English translation!]. 

It is well written, with details about materials, stitches and construction as well as content. She includes a note about the women, and the weaponry - as well as a general run through of the sequence of events depicted. When we go, I imagine there wont be a lot of time for dawdling, so I need to have a clear idea of any specific sections I want to see, and be ready to check them out. 

It would be no good to get to the end and say "Oh no, I missed Ælfgyva and Queen Edith!"

To that end I have borrowed a book from the Library. "What do you have on the Bayeux Tapestry, please?" I asked. The librarian pulled up a page from the catalogue. We agreed that the first on the list "The Bayeux Tapestry"  by Frank Rede Fowke seemed to be a good choice. That was the book I collected last week.  It was last borrowed in June 2000!

FRF was the son in law of Henry Cole. No not the biker guy from 'Find It, Fix It, Flog It' on Channel 4. The original Henry Cole, who took the profits from the Great Exhibition of 1881 and used them to build all those wonderful museums in Kensington. FRF married his daughter and helped with all sorts of historical projects and wrote a number of books. This book was first published in 1898, and this is the 1913 edition. It is not kept on the main shelves, it was retrieved from the county store for me. How cool is this!! 113 years old.

It tells the story from start to finish. I shall have to read it with my fold out book in front of me - sadly the black and white photographs at the end of the book are not really that helpful ! Fowke credits them to Count Ostrorog, a Polish chap who was Queen Victoria's personal photographer. Fowke also speaks of Mr Charles Stothard, an artist sent out to France in 1818 to paint a copy of the tapestry. The man brought a fragment home with him! His widow later claimed they were discarded scraps from the restoration work - they were subsequently returned to Bayeux.

Mia Hannson and Sylvette LeMagnen say there are 58 panels - Fowke lists 79.  I will wait to see how these discrepancies occur. 
There will be more posts, I promise! 

Elizabeth Wardle was in a question on University Challenge last night!! 

Flowers Of Scotland

The side garden round the raised bed is a bit of a desert. The grass is brown and crispy, there are a few determined dandelions showing their sunny faces. The apples and pears are ripening on the trees. The raised beds are looking decidedly sad. I'm watering and harvesting the odd lettuce here and there, and a few beans - but general there is not much happening. Until Saturday...

This huge thistle sprung up from nowhere, in the shade of the pear tree, with spiky green foliage, and its purply pink petals pointing heavenwards.

A pop of glorious colour in the arid surroundings. I am leaving it there, in honour of Josh Kerr and his Miracle Mile. I'm not really into sport, and I am not Scottish, but this was such a lovely story. I am so glad he won the gold, on his home turf, and that they played Flowers of Scotland for the win, not God Save The King!! 

Have a good week, everybody!

A Whale And A Worm

We were all at the Dinosaur Park. Steph was with the boys in the queue for the amazing Fossil Falls Slide. She sent me a WhatsApp "The children standing next to us are called Septimus and Nineveh" We speculated, was Septimus child #7 ? [J Rees Mogg called his sixth child 'Sixtus'] Bob wondered if there was an Octavia between child #7 and child #9 [maybe pronounced Nine-eva]

I suggested it seemed rather bizarre to call a child Nineveh. "Who was Nineveh? I know it's in the Bible" said Liz. I explained Nineveh was not a person,  it was a place [in northern Iraq]. And on the way home, I reminded my family of the story of Jonah. God sent him to Nineveh to preach to the people encouraging them to turn from their evil ways and do good.

 But Jonah didn't want to go, so he got on a boat going the other way. There was a storm and everyone was scared. Jonah said it was probably his fault for disobeying God, so they threw him overboard. He was swallowed by a whale.

After three days, the whale spits him out, and Jonah goes off and does preach to the people in Nineveh, who do repent and turn from evil to good. Jonah is a bit annoyed and goes off out of the city to have a sulk.

But the sun gets blazing hot. God makes a tree grow up to shade him. Then a worm eats up the tree and he is uncomfortable again and starts complaining that he wants to die. God suggests that the grumpy preacher cares more for his shady tree than he does for the thousands of people in Nineveh!

A good reminder to all of us to care for other people whose situation is much worse than ours [I did the turn from evil to good sermon last week]

But why would someone call their child Nineveh?? Beats me!

You Can Only Go So Far On A Sofa...

 ...Cos A Sofa's Got Small Wheels

That was the first line of a very funny Joyce Grenfell poem I remember from my youth. 

I am very fond of our big black sofa. It is an IKEA Friheten. We first saw it in store in 2017, and put it on our wishlist for retirement [having measured the space first] It fits perfectly in the corner of the lounge. We bought it sooner than we expected, early in summer 2019, when nobody dreamed what lay ahead of us. The sign said "Last chance to buy" so we did. 7 years later, IKEA still sells them.

This past week, with both daughters here, they asked if we could possibly look after the 4 children while the four adults went for a meal in Norwich. So they all came to Cornerstones for a sleepover. It all worked really well, and the sofa was most useful. The second mattress rolls out on small wheels and rises up to make the L-shape into a big double-bed sized rectangle.

After pizzas, bathtime and getting into pj's, Rosie read Cat in the Hat stories to the Littl'uns. Then it was Film Night - we sprawled about watching Toy Story #1. The children went off to the bedrooms - George and Jacob shared the double in the back bedroom, Rosie and Jess in the front in ours. Bob and I put sheets and pillows on the sofabed, and slept in the lounge. Next morning they piled back in with us. Bob went off to fix breakfast. I love the way Rosie is quietly reading her book while the other three are busy snuggling and giggling together. 

We enjoyed the traditional Sleepover Breakfast, of pancakes with assorted toppings. Their parents came and collected them mid morning and they all went off together to go swimming.
After lunch, Bob and I did the library run, then spent the afternoon 'reclaiming' our home - and putting sheets and towels through the washing machine.

The actress Beatrice Tanner [aka Mrs Patrick Campbell 1865-1940] described her marriage as "The deep, deep peace of the double bed after the hurly burly of the chaise longue" In my case, getting back into my own bedroom on Thursday night was "the deep, deep peace of the double bed, after the hurly burly of four excited children on a small-wheeled-sofa-bed"

Books, Books, Books...

 I picked up an email on Wednesday afternoon telling me that Book-Mark would not be coming on Thursday with the Mobile Van. Lots of the older folk in the village really enjoy his monthly visit. They don't have easy access into the town library. Mark is so good, finding and reserving their books. He's just received a certificate celebrating his 25 years as a library driver.

But I realised that many of these ladies [the customers are 90% female!] do not have access to the internet.So Rosie and I strolled round the corner and put notices on both sides of the road where he usually parks. It's far too hot to be hanging about hopefully, wondering why he is late!

Initially a little frustrating, as I had a stack of books to return, but then I received a second email, telling me a reserved book was in Dereham Library waiting for collection. So after lunch yesterday I zipped into town and was in and out of the library in 5 minutes!
The returned books were a little disappointing to be honest. Wortking down the pile

• Rosewater - Bob's science fiction book. Did not read
• The Art Of Repair - brilliant. Reviewed here
• OTK Extra Good Things - I borrowed this last year. I thought it looked good then, but did not try any of the recipes then. Re-reading it, I decided I was unlikely to do so now...
• Actually Delicious Air Fryer - rather similar to all the other A/F books. Nothing exciting
  
• Gino's Air Fryer - I am hoping to try the Signor D'Acampo's arancini sometime [recipe here]
• Sicily - recipes from husband and wife couple Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi. A very pretty book for your coffee table. Not sure I'd use it much in my kitchen
• Forage and Stitch; using natural materials in textile art  This was another inspirational gem

Carolyn Hyde-Brown, I discovered, lives a few miles from here! She gathers leaves, flowers, twigs, and other foraged materials, then uses a variety of techniques- hand and machine stitching, felting, solar dyeing, hapa-zome* and more to make interesting and diverse artworks. I'm rather busy with the family around at the minute, but I plan to borrow this one again in the autumn, and try some of her ideas.

*Hapa-zome is the Japanese word for extracting the dyes from leaves and petals by putting them on a sheet of fabric or paper, and walloping them with a hammer! 
Here's a quick explanation of HZ from another artist

I Spy With My Little Eye...

 ...Something Beginning With S

Wednesday morning was Superb 

It was The Swanton Shed Summer Mardle

The guys had really outdone themselves with their contribution to
the Sumptuous Spread - and so much seemed to beginning with S

For Starters, we had Smoked Salmon canapes

Sausages cooked on the Stove

Slices of cake, Sparkling Water

Sweet little plum tomatoes

Selection of sweets, Scones, freshly baked, Sausage rolls, Salads

The sunshine was beautiful, we were grateful for the shade of the big red gazebo.

The sky was so blue...

This marks the end of another year of 'shedding' in which we sadly lost one of our members, after a long illness - but gained some new friends in the group.

Lots of positive projects accomplished to benefit individuals and our community.

Now there's a break for a few weeks - and back in the autumn for more planing and polishing, sanding and sticking.
I am really proud of these guys, for all that they do together, building strong friendships as well as benches and notice boards.