Girls' Day Out

The greatest outcome of my visit to the Castle Museum in January last year was this amazing, ongoing stitching collaboration with Kirsten. But another thing was that I was given a free ticket for The Museum of Norwich.  But as a Museums Season Ticket Holder, I did not need it for myself. It has remained in the back of my wallet for nearly 18 months. 

This place is a little gem- packed full of stuff about the history of our fine city. So on Thursday, when Bob was on Hospice Chaplaincy duty, I took Rosie into the city centre so we could look round the museum together. She's great company. We had sandwiches in M&S [children's meals are free at the minute] then walked down to the Museum. The building has a fascinating history

Rosie loved all the exhibits- carefully laid out in a way which is accessible for children, with signs saying "look in the drawers" - where you can find other intriguing objects. She loved the Spitfire Cottage Doll's House.

There were baskets of toys in many rooms, appropriate for bored toddlers - and opportunities to dress up. Be a city gent in one of the coffee houses, in a powdered wig and tricorn hat. Or try on a hat from the store of the eccentric but talented Norwich entrepreneur Rumsey Wells.

Let's dress up! cried my companion gleefully, and who was I to demur? She selected a top hat for herself and a pith helmet for me. And grabbed the curly wig to wear under her brown tricorn.

If you look very carefully, you can see there is still some swelling [but not much] on my lower lip, and really close inspection will reveal the temporary repairs to my incisors. But honestly, my mouth has healed up incredibly well in the 2½ weeks since it happened, thank the Lord.

I was able to enjoy my M&S prawn sandwich. Rosie explained that she has to be careful with food too, as she has a number of wobbly teeth at the moment.

It was a lovely afternoon together - we walked back to the Forum and read books in the children's library as we waited for all the family to arrive. 

Jess was very cheerful in the library, finding Hey Duggee books for grandad Bob to read to her. The place was packed with families enjoying the books and other activities. 

I nipped into the American Library . Last time I was in there, I mentioned to the staff member that I wished they stocked "Real Simple" in the magazines section. She took the details - and lo and behold, now they do have it there on the shelf. Brilliant!

What a great day out with a great little girl.

Drop Through The Letterbox

My Gardener's water saving kit arrived on Wednesday. 

It contained a selection of items and info sheets. 

Thanks Anglian Water

• A water mat, to place under a pot plant - supposed to keep it hydrated for a week, while you are on holiday
• 2 packets of Swell gel [plus money off coupons]
• A box of 'seed bombs' to plant wildflowers and bee friendly plants
• Various leaflets

Sadly the 'water stick', which is supposed to alert you to your pot plant drying out, was missing. Never mind. It was all free.

I do not understand why people in Suffolk who get sewerage and drainage from Anglian Water [but their tapwater comes from Essex and Suffolk Water] do not qualify for this freebie.

Rosie and her cousins were at Mundesley beach this week. Sadly they were unable to paddle or swim due to the raw sewage in the water and on the tideline. I find this very disappointing.

🏊‍♀️😢🌊😢💩😢💩🌊😢🏊‍♀️

 

A New Page

 
There have been a few things 'niggling away' of late - but the calendar reminds me that God loves me unfailingly, whatever happens. And that gives me courage and hope for whatever each day might bring. [I do enjoy turning over a new calendar page each month!]

Nuts In May

 And so ends one of the craziest months-of-May that I can remember. Quite apart from three Bank Holiday Mondays and a Coronation, there have been so many random news items that it has proved impossible to keep up with it all.

The Coronation - I got very caught up with details of the clothing and the embroidery. Hats off to Hand and Lock who produced much of this stuff. 

Princess Anne declared she was glad she could wear uniform, it saved her worrying about her outfit. And turned up in the Pirate King's hat from Penzance. [btw did you catch the Midsomer Murders on Sunday night? It was proper, mindless Sunday Evening viewing!] And Penny Mordaunt astounded everyone by her sword-carrying skills, and a cloak embroidered with the Poundland logo.

The Speeding Fines - The Archbishop ended up paying rather a lot for his mistakes. Which he did not deny, and genuinely attempted to pay for. It does appear that the admin got messed up somewhere along the line. I am not sure this government appreciates the ABCs efforts to call out their behaviour as 'morally unacceptable'
The Home Secretary tried to get out of doing a speed awareness course with other people, and that backfired rather. And four MPs [3 Tory, 1 SNP] claimed for their speeding fines on expenses! 

Slow down, and pay up, please!!

I'm not somebody who watches "This Morning" so have not really followed the story of Phillip Schofield's demise. I'm not even going to post a photo of the man. [But I bet 'Webuyanycar.com"are glad they have recently changed their marketing strategy!] I do not thinking that repeatedly lying to your wife, [ & children, work-partner, colleagues, employers...] is ever acceptable. It is even worse than queue jumping. 

I'll finish with two odd things I have observed in May...

Look closely at this washing powder - It is actually called "BIO- concentrated nonbio washing powder." 

Well is it? or isn't it?

And finally, a sign seen in a garden centre last weekend.

I think this sign is for people with dachshunds, altho some members of my family suggested I should have one. 

It was displayed on the bottom shelf, and behind it a sign saying "If you can't quite reach what you want..."

Do they not know that short-legged women are renowned for their obstinacy to accept help and will happily scale the fitment to reach things from the top shelf?

Roll on June - things can only get better!

 

Love Every Drop

Last week, a team from Anglian Water had a stand outside The Forum in the centre of Norwich. "Come and say Hi🙂 " said the sign, so I did. Lottie, Claire and the team explained they were trying to help people to be more responsible about their use of water, and teach simple tips to enable everyone be better at it. Norfolk is the driest county in the UK

Lottie gave me a free home kit, and apologised that they'd run out of the gardener's kits - she said I could apply online [I've done that]
I decided not to get into a discussion about sewage released into the rivers by the water companies. 

AW have apologised for that and pledged to do better in future.

But what can an ordinary person do? The causes of 80% of blocked sewer pipes are fatbergs and flushed baby wipes, 

• Do not pour fat down the kitchen sink [there's a free plate scraper in the kit, and a strainer for the plug-hole] 
• Do not flush wipes down the loo.
• Spend less time in the shower [free timer in the kit]

We talked about wasted water in the kitchen - use a bowl to collect water, don't just run the tap.

Save cooking water - Lottie liked my tip about putting the water from the saucepan when Bob's boils his breakfast eggs, and putting it straight into the washing up bowl.

And drain water from cooked vegetables to make gravy or stock.

In the garden use a water butt [or two] and water carefully with a can, not mindlessly with a hose. 

The website has heaps of tips

I said my best tip [other than the egg water] was to teach the younger generation by modelling good habits and showing them what they can do to help.

Here are the three items from my kit. Bob was a little confused when he went into the bathroom "Am I supposed to operate that gadget with my toe?" We have discovered that the suction cup does not seem to like the tiles in the shower!

Thank you Lottie, Claire and co. The stand has left Norwich now and they will be working in Kings Lynn this week. I hope that people do take notice. Water is a precious resource which we must never take for granted, we must collaborate and do all we can to conserve our supplies.

House Work

For the May Cross-Country-Collaboration with Kirsten, I was not sure what to stitch. I felt that perhaps I should mark the Coronation, but I did the No Cross No Crown last month and didn't feel like another crown. 

The House of Windsor began in 1917 with our King's great-grandfather, surely I could find something I'd enjoy stitching. Looking in the loft for something else, I found an A4 envelope containing some X- Stitch pattern books from the late 80s when I was making lots of cards.

Let's be honest, the Royal family is pretty dysfunctional at the moment, in one way or another. So prayers are not just God Bless The King, but God Bless The Lot Of Them. And then I found this at the back of the book. I tweaked the border a little.

Bless This House  was written by an English woman a century ago, with music written by an Australian. 
It seemed a good sentiment. 

But as I stitched I realised there was a second meaning... In the year and a half that Kirsten and I have been sewing in collaboration, our friendship has grown. We send each otyer messages and prayer requests and pray for each other and our families. The piece I was working on will end up in Kirsten's house. 

Bless this house, oh Lord we pray   applies to the house of my stitching buddy as well that of the sovereign. 

Another Birthday

Yesterday our family celebrated Liz's birthday. Today the church family worldwide celebrates the birthday of the Church. 50 days after Easter [hence  the name Pentecost] God gave the gift of his Holy Spirit to his disciples. In days gone by, people traditionally wore white clothes for church on this day, hence the alternative name whit[e]sun.