It's A Giveaway !

 

As we unpacked the books, we came across four duplicates. Three in very good condition- one with some notes in it [many notes, actually, it's a music book!] Three are Very Useful books, and the novel has been a favourite for years. I love the idea of four cows called Aimless, Graceless, Feckless and Pointless! If anybody out there is interested, please comment below saying which one you would like, and I will post it to you.

Junior Praise - part of the Mission Praise series - it has Bob's name in the front, as it was his copy from the music stand at church. A good mixture of traditional and slightly newer kid's songs.[pub 1986- so not that new!] Excellent 'seasonal' selections [Christmas, Harvest, Advent, etc]

Common Worship - Services and Prayers for the Church of England.  Exactly what it says on the cover. [pub 2000]  Two bookmark ribbons. Useful resource for anyone [CofE or not] who is called upon to take services or lead prayers. One of these days we may get back to doing live in person services!!

Bible - New Living Translation. 

This is  a 'presentation' edition. Navy and Tan faux calfskin cover, and frontispiece for an inscription

Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons' 1932 masterpiece.[Penguin classics edition, 2006, with introduction by Lynne Truss] If you ever wondered about "something nasty in the woodshed" or wondered why "there is no butter in hell" then you ought to read this book. 

As I said before, If anybody out there is interested, please comment below saying which one you would like, and I will post it to you. Please comment before MONDAY evening If you want more than one, list them in order of preference. I'll do my best to share them out fairly!

Going Off My Trolley

Supermarkets have been around for a century or so - they started in the USA, and the first chain was the "Piggly Wiggly", closely followed by the "Humpty Dumpty" and "Safeway" [the latter seems a more sensible name imho] 

Sylvan Goldman, who founded the HD chain, wanted his shoppers to buy lots - so he designed a frame on wheels, holding two wire baskets, thus doubling the amount his customers could collect round the store. Initially customers were reluctant to use the 'cart' - women felt it looked like a pram, men felt it was too effeminate for them to push!

Goldman actually hired men and women to walk up and down the aisles, pushing the trolleys, to persuade customers it was perfectly ok to be seen using them!

One of the biggest manufacturers is the Wanzl Company - originally a firm of metalworking engineers, they began business in the Sudetenland in 1917 - thirty years later they established a factory in Germany, producing trolleys for the new 'self-service' stores which were starting to be built there. Now they have factories all over the world - including a large UK plant in Warwickshire. As well as supermarket trolleys, they produce luggage trolleys for airports and much more. And they are not cheap - the average trolley costs around £150. Now do a quick calculation about how many are lined up outside your favourite store. That represents a huge amount of money!

So you can understand why supermarkets are unhappy about people taking the trolleys and dumping them in the canal, leaving them at the side of the road, or generally rendering them unusable. It is unnecessary, expensive pollution. 

Some councils fine the supermarkets if their trolleys are dumped in the wrong place. I am sure that you, dear readers, always return your trolleys to the line - and would never push it in the canal [or leave it sideways in the adjacent parking space, just to annoy other customers!]

1400 trolleys are abandoned every day at a cost to British business of £35M a year. 40% of British shoppers do not consider trolley theft to be a major problem. [I didn't, until I read the statistics]

I was interested to read about a scheme called Trolleywise which has been set up in the UK by Wanzl, to help get the trolleys back to the shops. This is a 'specialist recovery operation' - but the company are enlisting the help of the public to make it work. There is a free app, to download to your phone - and when you see a trolley in The Wrong Place, you simply take a photo and send it to Trolleywise. They will despatch their recovery experts to find the trolley and bring it home. 

In Ferndown, I frequently drove past Tesco trolleys alongside the A31 [in places where it was not safe to stop the car!] and often walked through Ringwood town centre pushing an abandoned trolley back to Sainsburys or Waitrose as I returned to the Car Park. Here in rural Norfolk, we are less likely to see them littering the quiet byways. 

But I applaud Wenzl for their initiative. Their website says they are 'committed to doing the Right Thing, socially, ethically and environmentally' as they try to rid the waterways and local communities of these 'hazardous eyesores' 

The Elephant In The Room

A girl can only unpack so many boxes - regular breaks are important. We decided we would go out on Monday and have a Proper Walk. Having loaded backpacks with coffee flasks and books [in case we found a seat and decided to have a read] we set off. Two stops en route - to pick up a couple of bits from the garden centre, and drop off a bag of tins at the foodbank on behalf of a neighbour["Can you find a good home for these, Angela? I was sure you'd know where to take them"] Then on to West Runton.

West Runton is a small village between the more well known resorts of Cromer and Sheringham. Here you will find Beacon Hill - the highest point in Norfolk, it is part of West Runton and Beeston Regis Heath, and maintained by the National Trust. There is a car park, and a circular walk

The NT walk starts by a stone cairn, in an area known as Roman Camp. Roman quern stones, used for milling grain, have been found on the heath Because of its height, this spot was a brilliant lookout, to watch for invaders- and a beacon was first sited here 700 years ago! There was a fortified lookout point during the time of the Napoleonic Wars.

The view across to the sea is gorgeous. We walked part of the route, then stopped and drank some coffee. 

We didn't bother to do any reading, we just enjoyed the view. When we got down to point 5 and the Animal Sanctuary, we skipped the left hand loop, and just returned to the car to go into Cromer for lunch. We can come back to complete the walk another time!

The weather was sunny, but 'fresh', when we sat down outside the King's Head in Cromer.There's been a hostelry on this site for centuries. Bob had a steak sandwich, I had a fish finger one [well, cod goujons to be precise] The side salads were beautifully fresh and the buckets of chips were very generously filled [tbh I think we will share one-between-two another time] Staff were friendly, and the covid-10 protocols were good, the toilets clean and pleasant. ***** All in all a superb day out, relaxing and enjoying the fresh air and Norfolk countryside.

And the elephant? you thought I'd forgotten. Well, little old West Runton's greatest claim to fame [even more important than a visit of the Sex Pistols to do a gig in 1976] is the discovery of the skeleton of a prehistoric elephant in 1990 by a couple going for a walk.

Read the full story here. Basically, this is the most complete set of bones of a steppe mammoth dating back around 700,000 years!

We didn't find anything like that on our walk - maybe next time...

Cleaning Up

In April 2018, I posted about the Euro-scrubby I had purchased the year before. I said at the time that the website suggested the life of these products was "6 months to 2 years" - and mine had already had one year of heavy use.

Here is that same cloth now - a full four years since purchase. It is faded, beginning to go into holes, and going a little soft in places, so it is not as effective at cleaning things

So I have splashed out £3.50 on a bright new one! That is less than 2p a week - way cheaper than stacks of shredding plastic based green scourers, and far better for the planet. The old one can be cut into small pieces and go into the compost - the new one will take its place by the kitchen sink. 

I did contact Lakeland, but as far as I can tell, they still do not stock them. 

I notice the packaging has changed- it is now simply called "Scrubby" - the manufacturers in Malvern have removed Euro from its name. [another thing to blame on Brexit!]

Take Your Vests Off!

"Ne'er cast a clout till May is out" mutter the grannies, when they see the teenagers wandering down the street in teeshirts and skimpy shorts.

This phrase, first in print in the 1850s, probably refers to the old word clout meaning clothes, and may is not the month, but the blossom of the hawthorn bush. 

And that comes into flower from mid April onwards. 

We strolled down to the village post office on Saturday morning, and saw a lot of may blossom in the hedges. "May's out, I must take my vest off!" I announced cheerfully to Bob [memo to self - check first in case other people are close by before making such loud comments. This is not a large village, I don't want to get a reputation] 

The name haw derives from an old English word for hedge. In the Parliamentary Enclosure Period, many new hedges were put in place. It is estimated that between 1750 & 1850 around 200,000 miles of hawthorn hedges were planted. 
While we're on the May theme, children used to sing in the playground "here we go gathering nuts in May". You don't really find nuts in England at this time of year [other than imported ones in the shops] The original words were probably "here we go gathering knots of may" - that is, bunches of may blossoms.

Here's "The May Dance" by Victorian illustrator Kate Greenaway. Dancing round the may tree in ancient times was a pagan fertility ritual. Having been suppressed in the 1600s, it was revived again, in a much more chaste form, in the 1880s. I've worked in a number of primary schools where there was a maypole and the children learned to dance round it - sometimes weaving intricate patterns with the coloured ribbons. 

May is out, feel free to cast your clouts - but beware of going berserk [from the old Norse word, to rip off your shirt!]

You're Beautiful

Someone in another blog I read lamented the fact that in her Australian city, there is a big billboard at a busy traffic junction, reading "Making this city beautiful..." and it was an ad for a plastic surgeon!  She was [rightly imho] quite angry at the implication that people [mostly women] are being conned into believing that to be beautiful, you need to let someone cut you about with a knife and alter your features. 

I know that a lot of people have really struggled during lockdown, to maintain their 'image' . I was talking to someone who said they spend ages on their eye make-up, "because it is the only part of me that shows above my mask". Another said recently how thrilled she was to finally get her hair cut "and feel presentable again". Magazines are full of articles about 'losing the lockdown weight gain' - and eating disorders are, sadly, on the rise. 

Now I am not going to deny that feeling your hair looks good, and  your clothes fit well, and generally your appearance is OK is important. It can boost your confidence in a difficult situation, or cheer someone else up to think you 'made an effort' to look good for your meeting with them. But it is sad when people go to extremes. There was a really sad piece about lockdown-lip-procedures which have gone wrong on the BBC website last week. And we were watching a guest on a recent popular TV show and asking each other 'What's happened to her face?' [and hundreds of others went to Twitter to ask the same]

"We spend our days in old sweatshirts and shapeless trackie bottoms, and it doesn't really matter any more" is a common attitude. But you are beautiful - whoever you are - and you are loved. So hold your head high, and ignore those who seek to make their fortunes by selling you a lie. Audrey Hepburn - undeniably a woman of grace and beauty said these words

And the apostle Peter said

I'd rather take the words of Audrey and Peter than a profit-motivated plastic surgeon, wouldn't you? [btw you may find this short piece from BAAPS interesting - unlike the USA and Oz, we don't have those huge billboards!]

  

Alternating Currants

For the last half century, a Norfolk guy named Charles [Chas] Welch has been cross pollinating plants in his garden. He's a true amateur, doing it for the love of it - but with spectacular results. He has produced new apple varieties and award winning sweet peas. 

But in 2012 he did an amazing three-way cross - a redcurrant with a red gooseberry and a jostaberry [pronounced yoosta-berry - that's a green gooseberry/blackcurrant cross] This produced a thornless blackcurrant type bush, and Chas named it the chuckleberry.

This hybrid is now on sale and lots of people are enjoying its sweet flavour. And I will be able to speak more about this very soon because Liz gave me a jar of Chuckleberry Jam for my birthday! In fact she gave me three jars of jam..

From LBJ the London Borough of Jam [website HERE] 

Rhubarb and Cardamom, Apricot and Muscovado - and the Chuckleberry. 

With suggestions for serving... Stir into yogurt or porridge, Spoon over granola or ice cream, spread on toast, brioche, sourdough, sandwich cakes together... etc

Thank you Liz, just the name Chuckleberry makes me smile, and I love the fact that it was developed in Norfolk. 

Crumbs!

 Did you sing this when the children were young - I taught it to Rosie last summer when we were doing life-cycles. However I always sing she and make the caterpillar female. Not because of militant feminist principles - but because you cannot expect a male butterfly to come back and lay eggs! [surely I'm not the only person to spot the error here]

Caterpillars have long been popular with children. In 1865, Alice met a hookah-smoking creature in Wonderland. But ten years before that, Margaret Gatty's "Hedgerow Tales" had included Charlotte the Caterpillar [a creature full of curiosity and great optimism] .

And in 1969, Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar chomped his way onto our bookshelves. So I'm not surprised that an enterprising person at M&S thought in 1990 that a caterpillar birthday cake would be a good seller. After all, it's much easier to slice up a Swiss roll for the children's party bags than a Victoria sponge. Colin arrived - and later his wife Connie 

And everyone got in on the act, Tesco, Asda, Co-op, Morrisons, Waitrose, Sainsbury's and finally Aldi. 

Even Lakeland produce a kit to produce your own. And the worm [caterpillar] has finally turned. Piping guns at dawn, and threatened legal action. 

I've never purchased any of these cakes [I did attempt to turn a Sainsbury's Chocolate Swiss roll into a train back in the 1980s with buttercream, chocolate fingers and Smarties. It was rather chaotic but the children still ate it] 

According to this chart, I should have had a Cuthbert Cake, and Bob is due for Wiggles. 

• Do you think Lidl will be getting on on the act? 
• And what would they call their cake? 
• And have you eaten any of these? 
• Which would you recommend? 

UPDATE Jane has commented below about knitting a caterpillar. I've just found a picture of the pattern she's referring to. I would certainly find it easier to knit one than bake one! 

Merry Thoughts

Gradually we are getting straight. The bookcases are secured to the wall, and we spent all yesterday afternoon trying to decide what goes where.

In the Technology Room [Rosie's name for the room where the computers and electronic stuff is] We have theology books and Bible Commentaries, non fiction, reference books, craft books of all sorts, and cookbooks. These fill up two IKEA Billy bookcases. 

In the lounge is another Billy, full of our fiction collection - the bottom two shelves are children's books. The pre-move cull of DVDs and CDs means there is space on the narrow shelving unit for poetry books too.

In the bedroom is a very small bookcase holding Bob's Terry Pratchett collection - and we are keeping the top shelf clear for "library and other borrowed books"

It does feel a little strange to only have about 25% of the books we used to have - but we have the ones we use a lot for reference, and the fiction we enjoy reading again and again. And none went in the bin - they were given to friends, and theology students, or sold to Ziffit [and just a few to charity shops]

Rosie is still having a WhatsApp bedtime story. She's ecstatic that her local library has re opened, and now she is five she qualifies fir her own library ticket. Access to books certainly fills us with cheer, and merry thoughts. 

I cooked a chicken a couple of days ago, and stripped all the meat from it, and used the carcase to make stock [ in the recently unpacked] slow-cooker. Did you know that that the V-shaped bone at the sternum is called the furcula but it's also called the wishbone or the merrythought ? The furcula is formed by the fusion of the two clavicle [collarbone] and its strength helps the bird fly.

The ancient Etruscans thought this bone could be used to divine the future. 500 years ago in England people believed that if two people pulled it apart, the person with the larger piece would get their wish. And if two girls broke it, the winner would be the next to marry [sometimes it was called the marriage bone.] 

Words fascinate me, I'm grateful for all our books, and for all I've learned from them

Down But Not Out

Right up until Boxing Day, my basic sewing kit was out on the Coffee Table, in case of Last Minute mends. And when we unloaded the van, I put it on one side in an accessible spot. Which proved useful. During our lovely evening walk on Thursday, Jon and Rosie were playing hide and seek among the big shrubs in front of the churchyard. 

At one point he tripped, and caught his jacket on some thorny branches.We all heard the yell and looked across to see a flurry of down floating out from behind a large bush. Further inspection showed two small rips in the fabric. I was surprised how much down came out. Jon rolled up the jacket and compressed it into its pocket. I was impressed by the clever way it could be stored so compactly. I took it back to Cornerstones. 

I did not have any down to hand, but I pulled a scrap of wadding into tiny shreds. I also found a piece of very thin fabric and a sheet of "invisible mend" [super thin] Bondaweb, and I combined them to make two rectangular patches. 

Using a crochet hook, I replaced the loose down and the wadding. Then I carefully insinuated the patches into the holes - sticky side up, and got them as flat as possible. I pressed gently, with a cloth, and the steam iron on 2-dot setting. 

Here's the mend of the larger hole on the back of the jacket. I'm pleased that unless you are close up, both mends are barely noticeable. The jacket maybe down, but at least it won't be thrown out. 

When I said retirement might bring more opportunities for sewing and craft, I hadn't expected them to come quite so quickly. 

 

Boxing Day

I love the way children supply their own words when they want to describe something and cannot think of the right term. When Liz was very small, we drove past a garden full of beehives "Look at all the honey-sheds!" she shouted. Rosie likes using her own terminology for things too. Last Tuesday when her Dad came over to Cornerstones to help us unload the van, she referred to it as Boxing Day.

I've had fun labelling boxes. Maybe not quite as efficiently as in previous moves - Bob has been so much busier this year and so the bulk of packing fell to me. And sometimes I wrote slightly misleading labels.

Not wanting anyone to injure themselves, I made sure to write Heavy where appropriate. Bob misunderstood this, and when he read NOT LIGHT he took extra care when lifting. Only to discover it was an IKEA "Not" Light! 

We had lots of boxes of books, despite the massive cull - Bible commentaries, fiction, craft books, reference books, hymn books, cookbooks, children's books... One box was labelled SOD BOOKS. 

Bob gently asked if I was getting fed up with packing, this was not my usual sort of language. I was momentarily baffled. What on earth was I thinking to write that? Then I realised it referred to the two large volumes of the Shorter Oxford Dictionary! Mags and Pauline, I could do with your library skills getting my shelves straight! 

One kitchen box contained oil, flour, and some empty jars. I wrote that on the side, but on the top just labelled it Zarephath. Someone in Dorset asked for an explanation, as did Jon when we unloaded it here. "It's in 1Kings 17, the story where God provides food for the prophet and the faithful woman" I said "You know I never miss an opportunity to tell a Bible story!" 

Thus far nothing seems to have been damaged in transit. We have a slight issue with the four orchids. They are fine and healthy - but we cannot work out where to put them, so currently they are standing in the bath! 

Lack of new garage/workshop [aka Lathe Palace] means there are a lot of items stacked in the summerhouse and there are boxes everywhere in the house. And lack of the new wardrobe means we have our clothes hanging on the rail I normally use for play costumes - it does feel as if we are sleeping in a Charity Shop. But I am sleeping really well here, so is Bob. That has to be a good thing. 

By the next Boxing Day - December 26th - I think we should be straight! 

Moving Stories #5 - The Box

The final Moving Story ...In 1965 I was ten - and we moved from Hartlepool to Norfolk. A friend from church had some sort of clothing business, and gave my parents some "suit boxes". I had a couple to pack the stuff from my bedroom. I still have one of them to this day.

It folds up, the corners slot together, and there are holes for a cord handle. It is very battered now, and I think this will definitely be its last move. But the various labels on it show what a varied life it has had. 

A's room

Wedding Dress

Electric Blanket

Bridesmaid's dresses

Gift Bags

In the move from Bexleyheath to Leicester it was Box 423. At that move, everything was tagged with Raffle Tickets, and carefully listed in a little book, because we were going into temporary accommodation for seven months.

That's not bad going for a cardboard box which is 56 years old, is it? 

The next few days [weeks?] will see us unpacking all these boxes and trying to fit the contents into a bungalow which was already furnished. There's going to be a lot of stuff which will not be staying,  and "why did we bring this?" questions, I am sure. 

Fresh Fields, Pastures New

Among the birthday/retirement/leaving cards was this one

An unusual picture, I thought, as I opened it. Two cows in a field?

But the message inside from two dear friends was both caring and challenging. "Hope you settle into your new field quickly" it read. And on the left hand side was this wise advice for Christians reaching the end of working life... 

AFTER WORK, we are still called to be 'salt and light'

BY BEING - enriching those around us and humbly helping people to see another way to live. 

BY SPEAKING - our voice of wisdom, love and compassion

BY SERVING - formally or informally, the community of family and surroundings we inhabit

RETIREMENT isn't a biblical concept!

Yes, M & P you are absolutely right. Thanks for the reminder. The days ahead will be very different, but we will still follow and serve the One who called us all those years ago. He has tasks for us to do - and we know He will guide us in this new pattern of life, and the next part of the adventure. 

[UCF services will continue - check out United Church Ferndown YouTube and in the playlists you will find all the Sunday services]

Well Here We Are At Last!

All those boxes, loaded into the van, and unloaded at the other end. Box after box after box. 

So grateful to Alan, David, Geoff, Jamie, Rick and Jon. We finally returned the rental van to Dorset on Thursday lunchtime, getting back here in the Skoda at 6:30pm

We called on the family who were just going for an evening stroll. Here are three of us in our parkas [looking like Manchester Mods, said Liz] Rosie is incredibly confident pedalling her bicycle now. 

We are taking things very slowly - no need to rush with unpacking. And unlike other moves, no rush to start a new job, or get to know the place. 

Last time we were here, I left a message on the fridge as an encouragement. 

We are mostly just resting, and enjoying the peace and beauty... I had some amazingly colourful flowers from Steph, Gaz and George for my birthday 

Plus loads of cards, emails, phone calls etc. wishing us well as we start the New Adventure 

Everyone has been SO kind. 

Thank you all

 

Moving Stories #4 - The Bridge

We had such a great time in Orpington. Liz was in the Church Playgroup, Bob took services, I helped run the Toddler Group and I was involved in a couple of Women's groups. The people were so kind and generous to us. Bob bought a motorbike from one of the members, and rode off to College everyday...but in 1986 he finished his studies, and was to become the minister of Welling Baptist Church, Bexleyheath.  No newborns to feed this time- and Liz was even helping write labels on boxes. Fellow student Nigel offered to help and we hired a van. It was less than10 miles from our house to the new one, and we figured it would be easy to do in just two trips. We knew the route already - down to Petts Wood, round the roundabout, under the railway bridge then due north through Sidcup, crossing the A20 and A2, and there you are...easy!

Yeah, right - except all our earlier journeys had been in a car, or Bob on the bike. As he and Nigel went round the roundabout, in the fully loaded van they suddenly realised that they were too high to go under the bridge directly ahead of them! Fortunately traffic was not too heavy, as Bob was forced to reverse back round the roundabout and find an alternative route! [at least they did realise in time, unlike this driver]

We did get moved in safely, into a rather small house - but after 10 months the church was able to buy a more appropriate property which had a downstairs loo, an office for Bob and a room where we could hold small church meetings.

In 1995 we moved up to Leicestershire, briefly in temporary accommodation then in a beautiful house till 2015. Six years in Dorset, where we have been so happy. Now, I'm going back to Norfolk, again taking things in a rented van - forty four years after Dad and I made the journey from Norfolk to Hemel. And I still have that old Pyrex dish!

So grateful to all the friends and family who have helped us along the journey - and conscious that God has been with us all the way,

Moving stories #3 - Loo Rolls And Tea Bags

Back in my first teaching job, I worked with a woman who always bought her loo rolls from Harrods. Her reasoning was this - in the sale, Andrex luxury paper was reduced if you bought in bulk. She lived in a large house, so if she bought a year's supply at a time, it not only worked out cheaper than Sainsbury's budget brand, but she also had a Harrods van arrive outside her front door, and it amused her to see all the nosey neighbours twitching their curtains.

Christmas 1984. Bob was in his third year at college, Steph had just been born. One of his fellow students had become an agent for "Traidcraft" - a new charity supplying fairly traded goods. She needed to sell a minimum amount for the first month, so urged the students to buy the stuff. I decided we should buy a year's worth of loo-rolls to help her reach her sales target

We'd recently acquired a small undercounter freezer- but we couldn't afford to fill it. I had read that freezers need to be kept full - even if it is just bags of water, or rolled up newspapers. My experiments had shown that you can use tea bags straight from the freezer. So we also bought 1000 teabags.

Then things went pear-shaped. Out of the blue, the charity which ran the Housing Scheme restructured things and we had to leave. The Manse at Crofton Baptist Church, Orpington, as empty, as they were between ministers. One of Bob's tutors told CBC that a poor student family were being made homeless- and these lovely people said we could live there. By now I had a toddler, and a 3 month old baby to feed. So again we used a removals company. They were very good - but as one chap unloaded ninety six loo rolls he asked me if we had health issues. And then when I told him the 1000 teabags were going straight into the freezer, I think he decided I really was strange.

We gradually used up the teabags and worked our way through the loo rolls. We were so happy in that house, and the church folk were really kind to us. But I have never felt the need to buy teabags or loo rolls in such vast quantities again!

And by the way, as we gradually unpack and settle in to Cornerstones, I feel I ought to point out that it is exactly twelve years today since we first took possession of this bungalow [pictures here]

UPDATE Wednesday went well - van loaded and on the road soon after 9am. We arrived mid afternoon and unloaded ( much faster than before - considerably fewer boxes) The planned fish'n'chip supper was late. We went to FIVE places before we found one that was both open and willing to take payment by credit card! Today we take the hired van back to Dorset then return in Bob's Skoda. And we will be properly, finally here! Unpacking is another story...