Poem Of The Week

I wandered lonely as a clod,
Just picking up old rags and bottles,
When onward on my way I plod,
I saw a host of axolotls;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
A sight to make a man’s blood freeze.

Some had handles, some were plain;
They came in blue, red pink, and green.
A few were orange in the main;
The damnedest sight I’ve ever seen.
The females gave a sprightly glance;
The male ones all wore knee-length pants.

Now oft, when on the couch I lie,
The doctor asks me what I see.
They flash upon my inward eye
And make me laugh in fiendish glee.
I find my solace then in bottles,
And I forget them axolotls.

[From ‘Mad Magazine’ 1958]

This poem is dedicated to nature-loving 10 year old Evie Hill from Leicester. Visiting Bridgend, Wales Evie and family were by the "Dipping Bridge" when she spotted something in the shadows. It was a Mexican Axolotl. Evie saw it had damage to its tail and stomach. She managed to catch it, and put it into a plastic tank. 

The family cut short their camper-van holiday and returned home with the creature. They sought expert advice and discovered they are allowed to keep the axolotl at home. 

"Dippy" now lives in a large tank. The National Centre For Reptile Welfare say Evie probably saved the creature's life. This is the first documented discovery of an axolotl living wild in the UK. There has been a surge in their popularity as pets, since they appeared in video games like Minecraft and Roblox - but the NCFRW says many people do not know how to keep them and discard them in rivers. These creatures are an endangered species, experts say there are less than 1000 globally. Here's a close up of Dippy - who is about 23cm long

Well done Evie, thank you for saving him ... and apologies to Wordsworth for the parody of his poem. [It is the only axolotl poem I know] I'm not sure I would have recognised it if I had been paddling in Wales [although I suspect Rosie would have done]

A Week Of April Anniversaries

If you read Sue's post yesterday, or Mary's, you will know there are some great poems out there celebrating April. I cannot agree with TS Eliot's assertion that April is 'the cruellest month'. For me, this past week - April 10th- 17th is one of joyful celebration and gratitude for so many good things in my life.

1955  April 10th
Easter Sunday
The year I was born. Back then, the fathers had to wait outside the delivery room. They told Dad I'd got the cord wrapped round my neck and was unlikely to survive the birth. But I was ok [and he was late for church!] 

2009 April 15th, Wednesday
54 years later, we took possession of Cornerstones - our wonderful bungalow in the heart of rural Norfolk

We still wake up every morning marvelling at God's grace in providing us with this lovely home.  When we first bought it, we were living in Leicestershire - our daughters were both in London.

2018 April 14th, Saturday
Off to Manchester for the wedding of daughter Steph to her beloved Gaz. In the past eight years they have achieved so much, moving house, both succeeding in their careers, and best of all, becoming parents to two gorgeous little boys.

2021 April 12th, Monday
A week after Easter, Bob retired from being minister in Ferndown. With the help of masked friends [lockdown rules!] we packed our belongings in to a van and drove the long road up to Norfolk. Next day I left a message on the fridge.

Retiring in Lockdown was difficult. I really felt for Bob who didn't get the razzamataz his college buddies did when they retired in 2019 or 2022. 
But here we are - five years on from retirement. I'm grandma to four lovely children, and 'auntie-mum' to Julian in Romford.
We are happily involved in our church, and our community.  

The family are thriving, and we have lots of good neighbours - although since 2009, many of the residents have moved on and we've made more new friends . Cornerstones has become a place of love, peace and joy. The new kitchen is fabulous, the solar panels keep us warm and the garden is growing. He's Shedding and I'm still Sewing [and blogging]

So this week in April will always be a special one for me, full of happy memories. There's a lovely old song that begins "Oh how good is the Lord, I never will forget what He has done for me"
I hope I never do

Jesus Says "I Will Give You Rest, Come!"

That is the theme of this year's World Day Of Prayer, planned by the women of Nigeria. WDP always happens on the first Friday in March. I checked the Find A Service Near You page, and was pleased to find there is an afternoon service just a few miles away in Dereham. I felt sad that to find that there was no service listed in Kirby Muxloe, and Ferndown was 24 miles from the nearest service. [surely somebody in one of the many Bournemouth churches is doing something?] You can find out more here

The Opposite Of "Deliver Us From Evil"?

I was decluttering a file of household documents last week, and a delivery note fell out. With slightly strange wording

"Delivery caused by goodwill" - what could that possibly mean?

Delivery in the Close is usually done by the postman, the milkman, the supermarket chap, the meds from our surgery or the impatient Amazon//online guys. Nobody hereabouts is need of delivery by a midwife, nor 'ministry of deliverance' from the Vicar. So what is 'delivery 'by goodwill'?
I looked for further clues - it is from Neff, and 'these parts should be fitted by a suitably qualified person'. Then I checked the date [1996] and the address [Kirby Muxloe] and what these parts were...

Then everything made sense. In the spring of 1996, we moved into the new Manse [built 1992], which had a fancy Neff double oven with gas hob. But no operating instructions.
I contacted the company, and they said they'd send a set of booklets. This was the delivery note that came with them. I presume 'caused by goodwill' means 'we are not going to charge you for these'

Thirty years on, times have changed so much. Most manuals are available online. I've just passed my older Janome Sewing Machine on to a friend from the Craft Group. I could find all the accessories - but not the manual. It took less than 10 minutes to find it online and print it off for her. 

When we left Kirby in 2015, I left all the appliance manuals behind for the next occupants! The phrase 'delivery caused by goodwill' sounds so friendly and charitable, doesn't it? It is always good to find helpful customer service departments.

Can you recommend any companies which go "above and beyond" ?

A Word Of Appreciation

Covid prevented many important social gatherings - weddings, funerals, birthdays - and retirement events. I was sad that after 40 years in the same job, serving so many churches and communities as pastor and friend [councillor, school governor etc etc] Bob felt his ministry had sort of fizzled out unnoticed. He didn't get the big send off that most ministers do. I was determined to do something to rectify that. So in June I sent out about 30 emails, to the people and places where we'd been since 1981 when he first became a student pastor, up to the present day. I asked for letters, just acknowledging something about the friendships he had made over the years. I asked people to pass on the request to others. The letters were all to be sent to my friend Wendy [so he would not suspect anything] He had no idea!
I was delighted to receive 50 letters, representing over 80 people. Some I had completely lost touch with, and wondered how they had heard about the secret project. The letters were so appreciative, from pastors he had mentored, people whose marriages he'd conducted, or families who appreciated his input when they were bereaved, college staff, those in the community who had benefitted from his contribution to the well being of the area...

I collected the letters and took them secretly to a friends, where I printed off Bible verses and favourite hymns too. And on the evening before his birthday, after our special meal together, I presented it. We were both really moved by the kind words we read together. I am not posting any of those here - they are his letters and very personal. Just a few photos

But the day after his birthday, a letter came from Rosie. This is going to be added at the back of the book, after these final photographs.

Bob, your ministry certainly has not fizzled out unnoticed. In retirement, you are still doing amazing things here in Norfolk, and with your family. We love you so much - cooking pancakes and bbqs, craftsman, doing silly voices and telling great stories, the best grandad, dad, husband...

That's definitely the end of the 70th birthday celebrations!

Poppy Sunday

As a small child, Remembrance Day meant standing with Mum in the cold, damp, misty weather, watching the solemn procession to the War Memorial - the military band, followed by men in uniform, then the dignitaries from the council with heavy overcoats and gold chains, and the local clergy [Dad being the only one not in clerical robes!] and finally the Scouts and Guides. Poppies were wire and paper, with a black bitumen centre and held on with a regular pin.
In my teens, I was marching with the Boys' and Girls' Brigade companies [in my smartest uniform, diligently keeping in step] They started putting plastic stems on poppies in 1967, and the paper leaf disappeared. In 1982 there was the Falklands War. There was a resurgence of support for the poppies. In 1987, the leaf was returned [by popular demand] and in 2000 they introduced large poppies to fix onto cars.

Then we had 9/11, and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Previously the veterans had been mostly from WW1 and WW2 - but now there were young men marching, or being pushed in wheelchairs, and young widows, proudly wearing the medals their husbands had won, posthumously. We were not just remembering distant past conflicts, but conscious of very recent sacrifice. More people turned out to walk down to the Memorial in Kirby Muxloe, Rachel played the Last Post, Bob and the Vicar led the Act of Remembrance together

2014 was definitely the Year of the Poppy - 100 years since the beginning of WW1, and the Tower of London had a display of 100s of ceramic poppies, entitled "Bloodswept Lands and Seas of Red". I went to see it with Liz. Adrian gave me a poppy for Christmas.
Back at church in Kirby Muxloe, we had a huge picture of the local castle. and people added their own messages of remembrance written on paper poppies

And that was the year I worked in the Autism Unit, and helped the girls to sew their own poppies, using four red felt hearts [love] with a black button centre[ sadness]

Now the British Legion poppies are 100% paper, and 100% recyclable. And there are far more public poppy displays than ever

But whatever these red flowers on our lapels are made from, however many knitted poppies adorn our churches, shop-windows, lamp-posts and pillarboxes, the message remains the same...throughout the years, so many have paid the price for our freedom - and we honour their memory, their sacrifice will not be forgotten.

We WILL remember them

A Long Felt Want

We had a workshop at our craft group on Monday, led by textile artist Linda Sadler.She told us how, in retirement, she had done an art course in Norwich and found herself creating artworks with a knitting machine. Specifically she had worked out a way of knitting lengths of woollen fabric with channels across, through which she threaded 'wool tops'. 

Then she machine washed these, and sliced the resulting felted fabric to make 'chains' - shaped rather like wrack seaweeds. She cut these into different lengths then stitched them together: a few to make brooches and coasters, or many to make rugs and wall hangings. The results were fascinating...

You can see the unfelted piece top right, and below it some bags of 'chains' and a red 'flower' awaiting its brooch pin. Then there are lots of finished items. Some times she uses just one shade of wool tops, other times there is a mixture pushed through the channel.

After her fascinating talk, we all had a go using some chains she had brought along, I chose some red pieces with multicoloured fillings, and stitched them to make a couple of brooches, I picked out the colours and stitched French Knots in the centre to finish each flower, before attaching a brooch pin.

It was really interesting to meet someone who had created her own unique fabric. She and I had a chat about the knitting industry in Leicester, and the round sock machines, which knitted tubes. Oh, and the Sweater Shop - very popular back in the 90s. Bright, loose fitting jumpers. The Leicester company went into receivership in 1998, I remember buying all the family jumpers for a song in their factory shop one Christmas. [Now there is another company of the same name  in Ireland]

I wore one brooch pinned to my dress on Saturday and three complete strangers complimented me on it. Thank you Linda!

Newsround

Hands Up if you loved John Craven's Newsround. The first guy ever to read the news on BBCTV wearing a sweater! I was always so impressed by the careful way in which they reported the difficult bits of the news in a way which was appropriate for their young audience, The Falklands Crisis, the Challenger Disaster [the news actually broke on British TV on Newsround, as it had happened just minutes before the show aired] But always delivered by John and subsequent presenters [like Julie Etchingham, who came originally from Kirby Muxloe]
Here is my Newsround reporting of the last week or so

SUNDAY The Christmas Pie came out of the freezer and provided us with three good meals. A proper pie, shortcrust base and puff pastry top - filled with chicken, pigs in blankets, brussels sprouts, carrots, roast potatoes, stuffing, gravy, cranberries. It was a splendid use of leftovers

MONDAY A fabulous rainbow appeared over the close, just as we were going out to the car. 

TUESDAY The sunlight through the new front door in the morning made beautiful sparkly patterns, some rainbow-edged, on our family photo wall

Mum's picture is fading to a strange sepia colour.

WEDNESDAY I did cook Bob a Chinese meal - from scratch - sweet&sour chicken, beef chow mein, eggfried rice - 

along with prawn crackers from our last takeaway [one of those Sainsbury Box Deals]

THURSDAY All the seeds got sorted and labelled and into a box, with an index card for each month and a tick chart on the front. So I shall know what to plant and when and where. The chicken brick is not becoming a herb garden - Liz has requested it for her kitchen, Which is fine by me.

FRIDAY Put on Radio 4 extra** and did serious tidying in the back bedroom. The Duplo box is definitely going at last. Some bricks in there date back 40+years! But the Sylvanian Stuff is staying...

SATURDAY Went to the licensing of the new vicar who is coming to the church up the road from our chapel. It was in an incredibly cold church, you could see the Bishop's breath when she spoke. The Bible passage was Mark 4 [Storm on the Lake] When the reader got to

verse 38 "Teacher, don't you care that we are perishing?" Bob nudged me and whispered "Is that the text for the sermon?" They did serve a splendid tea afterwards though, in the cosy little village hall!

**I was listening to SandiToksvig talking about old family photos. "There's my Grandma, looking like a little Sylvanian family rabbit. You can see a lot of her in me" This made me chuckle, and i took it for confirmation that keeping the SF is the right thing to do, for now!
There have been other happenings too - but these have been a few of the highlights, I hope next week is as good, and I hope you are enjoying your days too...

Adventures Of Tin, Tin And Tins

I've always had a fondness for tins [and for Tintin, my second favourite Belgian] Cocoa tins, biscuit tins, mustard tins... In 2012, Bob gently suggested I might like to review the stack of empty tins which I'd amassed in the Kirby Muxloe garage.

At the time I counted 42 unused tins - I got rid of quite a few. When we left Dorset I gave even more away. But they've somehow been building up again. 

There were twenty one tins on the top of the kitchen cupboards! But I'd stored them neatly like matryoshka dolls, nesting inside each other. It was only when I separated and stacked them that it became apparent how many there were. I removed all duplicate sizes, used some for food storage, and recycled others. There are 7 left. . I was on a roll! I then got out all my glass jars -- Gü ramekins, Bonne Maman yogurt jars, screw top jam and chutney jars, tiny Tiptree jars, and little glass bottles. There were dozens

Collecting yogurt jars is a recognised hobby Who knew? Do I need a dozen pretty little aperol bottles?  Gone. Eight ramekins will be enough, surplus gone. The recycling bin is filling up fast. 

And then I did my food tins. I have labelled them clearly with BB date, and they will be stored with oldest to the front, so things get used in order.



I'm declaring 2025 the Year of the Kitchen

Magic And Sparkle

In contrast to my reflective, sombre November stitching all about remembering those we've loved and lost, Kirsten's piece is a riot of colour and joy.

 She has used a "Charm Square" with a Japanese print in gold, and added vivid Sarah Homfray threads exploding with colour. The dark blue represents the longer winter nights, and the colours reflect her growing excitement through the month as first her birthday, and then Advent arrive,leading up to the wonder of Christmas [with fireworks in there somewhere too]

The accompanying 'flat gifts' were fun too - a post-it notepad which makes a to do list a workable plan and a little book of Advent Reading.

The readings are from a really diverse range of contributors - historical and contemporary, Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, "high" church and evangelical, trad and post-modern. I think I am going to enjoy these daily Advent meditations.

Thank you Kirsten - you really understand what I will enjoy! 

Yesterday was a strange day as we both overslept. I woke up at 9am! We did go to church, sitting in bed in our pj's watching on Bob's laptop [no, the Congregation couldn't see us onscreen, just our names!]

We had two unexpected visitors on Saturday afternoon and I think they wore us out. After lunch Rosie and Jess helped us decorate the tree. 

Have you put up any decorations yet? 

It took forever, as they were commenting on every other ornament and asking questions!

But it was SO lovely to have their help, and brought back many happy memories of decorating trees in London and Leicester with Liz and Steph's help, singing along to the Christmas music, and wearing HoHoHats* and Holly Headbands [*Jessica's name for Santa's headgear] 

Death And Taxes

It is 235 years since Ben Franklin made this statement - most people only know the last seven words. It is not my place to comment on the US Constitution [but I can continue to pray for the upcoming elections] I have been seriously downsizing for 10 years since we left Leicester, and generally decluttering on and off for even longer.
Not quite ready for "Swedish Death Cleaning" yet! But taxes?
Having only worked part-time as a Supply Teacher for most of my career, averaging 2 days a week, there were hardly any years when I paid income tax. And I only get a small teaching pension. And due to a missing year of NI contributions, I don't quite get a full state pension. But it's just enough to tip me over the tax threshold. But it is all dealt with at source so that's fine, I don't do a self assessment.

But now I have my own  online shop.  I closed my Etsy shop - I was unhappy with their charges, and with the fact that many of their sellers now seem to be selling on stuff that they have clearly bought in, rather than made themselves.

The government has recently announced it is going to clamp down* on 'small traders' who might be omitting to pay their taxes. So I went online, The HMRC website is very helpful, with a simple questionnaire to fill in. As my turnover is well under the £1000 threshold, I neither need to register my business nor do a self assessment form. 
I thought it was worth mentioning this in a post because I know that quite a few of my blogfriends are crafters and make and sell their wares - and I would hate for any of you to get caught out with a fine.*They are apparently checking ads on social media etc. to see if there are people out there clearly doing a roaring trade but not acknowledging it.
My main issue at the moment is publicising 31:13 more effectively - because it isn't part of Etsy, it won't come up in searches. I need to get a review page set up on the site, and also explore other methods of publicity. 

If you have ever purchased from the site, and you blog or use Facebook, please can you give me a mention sometime? 

I will be very grateful [as will all the mice sitting patiently in the spare bedroom]

Thank you. 

Cover Story - Love is Blue

A lovely treat at the end of a busy week was my stitching from Sussex. I have a very strict order for 'unboxing' Kirsten's parcels.

1. read the accompanying postcard, which is general chitchat and news
2. check out the flat gifts, which are always so ingenious and apposite
3. open out the stitching panel [ with many oohs and ahhs]
4. reading the notebook to learn more about the latest needlework.

The card was from PenTo Paper, K says it's a favourite store in Brighton. They are now online, and the website is a delight!

The flat gifts - a book [to be read and reviewed later] and from K's recent visit to the Indian Bazaar in the Paradise Gardens, a bag made from sari silk, and a leaf woodblock. The bag brings back happy memories of Leicester's Golden Mile - and the woodblock is lovely.

And then there is the stitching...
Half a dozen blue prints, combined in a lovely random patchwork. This is adjacent to my blue sashiko stitching. It looks fabulous. Various shapes and sizes of irregular polygons, the tiniest one less than half the size of a postage stamp. 

All this inky blue-ness! Summer skies, summer seas, and sapphire anniversaries. Glorious! Thanks K