Month: November 2023

Finally managed it

Downside – I was amazed to see how much the bed had grown over in the two weeks since I cleared it! But I grubbed up quite a bit of it again (avoiding a few plants that neighbours have admired – I think that is a polite way of asking me to leave them alone.) I then planted another 60 or so very large daffodils and 100 (plus probably one – it said 101 on the box!) aliums right across the centre patch. The remaining bulbs were randomly shoved into patio and window boxes – I had more than had enough by then. We’ll see what emerges.

Upside 1 : November skies don’t come much better than this:

Upside 2: VIOLETS flowering among the autumn leaves at the end of November. This may not actually be great news – the seasons are all over the place.

Upside 3: Being visited by one of our tame foxes, but I wasn’t able to take his picture. Maybe more about him another time.

Passing time

In not very original ways

Walking by the sea and over the downs, travel (pictures from Vienna, Paris, Sussex and Scotland), reading by the fire (currently a book in French called Boussole – much more exotic travelling East than I have ever managed!), visiting National Trust places and pretty churches and – these days – sorting out china from the attic spaces. For many years I collected art deco and 1930s hand painted china. I still love it – but it raises the same issues as the old photographs – what is the point of stashing it away in the roof? I’m happy to use it exclusively and ditch the modern stuff and I’m not too precious about it getting smashed – but it can’t go in the dishwasher (comes out plain white!) etc etc. Same problems with the stash of hand embroidered linens I have also picked up – because I couldn’t cope with the fact that nobody loves this domestic art any more – but I am not about to iron it every day!

So, fairly traditional ways of passing the time. Maybe not exciting (apart from the travel) but a satisfying way to fill the (ever diminishing!) time slots between family, Etsy and almost full time work. And there is always the spinning and associated fibre processes which are a little unusual – I count this as half way between work and hobby but it will always remain a passion.

Time passing

Four lots of house clearance from different branches of the families have produced folder after folder of random photographs. Many have been stuffed in our attic for years, and we are now reaching saturation. It seems so disrespectful not to go through them all, but it takes a really long time. And it is hard. I don’t share photos of living family – these people are long since dead – but the images are so evocative. Many are around a hundred years old – different times, different lives – and so many stories. It can be overwhelming. We are probably the last generation to have any idea who some of these people are (were). My children have a passing interest in social history – but seem to care very little about their ancestors! Perhaps that comes much later – I’m sure I felt the same.

The families are mixed up here – at least I can sort that much. The task is not helped, though, by well meaning people who left it too late….they have sometimes written their best guesses on the back of the photos – and got it wrong – at times by a whole generation…

A message for us here? I too have packets and packets of those yellow Kodak envelopes filled with (mostly) terrible holiday snaps from the 1980s…my solution for those? The nearest recycling bin, preferably without another glance.

Odd Stuff

Sockses and boxes…

‘That’s odd’, odd one out, odd numbers….a word I’ve been hearing all day long. It started with odd sock day – no doubt intended to promote an acceptance of difference (following on from that kindness Assembly the other day). It ended with an Oddbox on the doorstep. I love my Oddboxes. They can contain some pretty weird stuff and I enjoy working out what to do with it all. The contents are not necessarily weird in themselves – this week we had aubergines, carrots, swede, peppers, potatoes, spinach and beetroot as well as choi sum and celeriac. The fruit was mango, oranges, persimmons and apples. Ah, yes, the apples – I had to add that mug to give an idea of scale. There are 4 gi-normous apples – the one in the picture weighs 511g – well over an Imperial lb! My 2 young grandchildren squealed with delight and carried it off to show their mother. But I understand that Waitrose might be less enthusiastic – and that is the point really. Oddbox ‘rescue’ fresh food that has been over-produced and is now surplus to supermarket requirements or just doesn’t meet standard sizes or have the unblemished appearance we apparently insist on. When the ‘oddness’ is exotic, the Oddbox team helpfully provide clues (and recipes!) to help you deal with it- persimmon chocolate dessert on the cards right now…

Just attacked (a slice of!) one of those apples – crisp, juicy, DELICIOUS! Unusual, but not odd at all.