Serendipity

"Party in the Park "

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:14:00 GMT

Good morning everyone, though it could well be afternoon by the time I post this!

Do you remember I told you a couple of months ago , another one of my late husbands brothers had died ,so we all went of to Warwick for his funeral ,and as ever when we all get together ,we said , we only ever get together for sad occasions , we should have a gathering when as many of us as possible can meet up .Well weather permitting ,it is going to happen ,On Sunday as many as can will meet up in a local parkland ,starting at 11 am ,and going on until whenever !Some are going to camp ,some are coming in caravans ,we will drive over for the day and many others will do the same ,

Here you can see a picture of my late husband’s family all together taken in the late 50’s , there were seven boys (yes we were seven brides for seven brothers )and three girls ,but sadly four of the brothers are no longer with us ,and Eileen and her Husband Gerald emigrated to Canada with their daughter Sheila ,shortly after the picture was taken ,So those of us that are left are coming with our spouses ,children ,grandchildren and in some cases great grandchildren , casts of thousands ! Every one is bringing a picnic, and I must make sure my batteries are charged formy camera,

Here is a picture of our Kate and her Aunty Dot (my lovely sis in law )

You will guess lots of preparation has been going on via emails text messages and phone calls, with us all getting more and more excited ,My Daughter Kate and sister in law Dot’s daughter Julie ,have been the main organisers ,Julie rang Kate one day saying” have you seen the advert for Waitrose “? There are lots of people picnicking, and they have a wonderful blanket for them all to sit on! “And so my Kate always up for a challenge promptly emails Waitrose, and asks if it could be bought or borrowed, and the following is the email, she received back from them!

Dear Mrs R,

Thank you for your e-mail.

Following the filming of the ad in Durban, South Africa, the blanket was donated to the Waitrose Foundation, a project dedicated to improving the lives of South African Farm Workers who grow and pick fruit for the supermarket. Farm workers at Westfalia Farm, an avocado growing farm in the Limpopo Province, will turn the blanket into over 400 individual quilts with workers being paid for each quilt they make. The quilts will then be donated to crèches across Waitrose Foundation farms and distributed to the workers of the Foundation farms for use in their homes.

Regards,

Chris Zawadski

Waitrose Customer Service.

and if you care to click on the url below you can see the advert

http://www.waitrose.com/summer08/video.aspx

As ever lots of love

Busy doing nothing, working the whole day long ....

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 10:13:10 GMT

Maurice starts work at six o clock in the morning so he leaves home early, and doesn’t usually wake me, but rings around nine am to say good morning, and check we are OK ,he asked what my plans were for today ? well I said hmm I might go shopping and spend lots of money ,or I might go back to bed with my book ,or I might do some washing cos I’ve run out of ironing ! Or I might do some sewing, I am making a patch work quillow as Marie Alice Joan once suggested and kindly sent me the instructions (a Quillow is a quilt which folds into a built in pocket to form a pillow) “Use me as a pillow, unless you get cold, then pull out my stuffing and gently unfold, I’m a lap quilt now with a place for your feet, and when your all done, fold me back nice and neat “,

I can’t take the dog out for a walk, as she is in an interesting condition, I will vacuum later, and I cleaned the cooker yesterday (as well as my halo!) I hate that job, who does? ….

Mort, dear man awarded me with a caring friend award so I think while I am machining my patches together I will be thinking who among you, to pass on this award to, and that is hard because you are all so caring ,and so instead of just talking about it I had better get on ,So as usual to you all love from

Thankyou to Win for my siggy today .

Its Warm and sunny ....Sometimes I lie !

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:19:19 GMT

Yet another wet day, here in East Anglia, and even a flood warning for the area, the people who were flooded last year must be living in dread of it happening again. We are lucky where I live I can only imagine it is because of the way the Fens are drained, and can be more easily controlled by all the different drainage systems.

We finally went to the Garden centre in Huntingdon the other week, Freda, you told me about it very early on when discovered we lived quite near each other, (when Maurice was off) Maurice is planning to do some more things in the garden so the first time we went it was a reccy to see what was available, and prices etc, Well we were pleasantly surprised at the amount of things they stock, what a selection, I bought an African violet and a dog kennel! And the second visit resulted in, spending lots of money, and more still to be spent, I will of course show you the end product when it is done, but that wont be for a while yet!

And what a great craft section they have, well you can imagine I will want to back again and again …..

As I said we bought a kennel for Kizzie and though she helped to build it, she has no intention of using it, mind with the weather as it is at the moment I can’t say I blame her !

Iain is home again getting used to his land legs, I haven’t seen him yet but we have been speaking on the phone, And Sharon went down by train to watch his ship come in, what a thrill !I wish I had gone with her now ….

Hey! …. I think it has stopped raining so I am going to dash to the shops, so have a good day everyone with love

Thanks to Debbie for my siggy today

A life on the Ocean wave .....

Wed, 28 May 2008 15:52:00 GMT

HMS Illustrious one of two aircraft carriers owned by the Royal Navy

Hello everyone on ,yes its me again ,Thank you for all your good wishes ,my back is so much better ,although I am still taking things easy! The curtains are still clean so as Paula says I’m just relaxing and admiring them, and I’m only lifting one book at a time now!

I seem to be drowning in a sea of alerts, as fast as I deal with them, more arrive! So for now I will leave them and do an entry of my own,

I was fetching in some washing yesterday afternoon, the prop, slipped off the line and hit me on the head, so now not only do I have a bump on the head ,I seem to have developed amnesia, because I have totally forgotten the ironing I should be doing ,(how’s that for an excuse ? )

I had a lovely surprise last Sunday morning, Maurice was working, and it was raining, I was just about to make a strawberry trifle to cheer us up! The phone rang; it was Iain, my oldest Grandson, I have told you about him before he is the one who shares his Birthday with the Queen ,and was born on the day the £ coin came out ,so that is twenty five years now , ringing me from Gibraltar, GIBRALTER? You might ask! Well Iain is on board HMS Illustrious, but will arrive back in Portsmouth on Friday, My Daughter Sharon, and his Mum, is going down to meet him .He told her she can carry his bags ,haahaa!no doubt bearing gifts ie lots of dirty washing !

Up until the beginning of this year Iain was working in the N.A.A.F.I.in the shop, somewhere near London,(I forget quite where ,I told you about the amnesia !)However after taking some courses, and passing, He joined HMS Illustrious as a canteen assistant, helping to stock, sell etc the on board off license and sort of tuck shop. For the comfort of the Ships personnel. We have been keeping in touch via good old e mail, and by phone whenever he can get a signal,

I don’t know whether any of you in the UK, have been watching the series currently being shown on channel five on a Monday night at nine o clock ,entitled ‘Warship’ the third part will be on Monday next ,and guess which proud Granny is recording the series? The series shows Life on board ship, providing an insight into the often dangerous and stressful professional lives of the crew on one of only two aircraft carriers, in the Royal navy fleet, We saw the ship taking on supplies, for the four month deployment, they are however plagued by problems for instance they had to be returned to shore when the freezers broke down ,poor Iain ,after getting all psyched up for sea , well after the repairs and getting over his initial sea sickness they were under way for, Spain ,then on to Malta where a ceremony was held on board ship to acknowledge damage suffered in the war to surrounding towns on the Island as a result of the first Illustrious, being the target ,they then went through the Suez canal ,to Shri Lanka, Iran ,Turkey, Istanbul and Gibraltar where they had some shore time Iain said they were going for a drink, I told him to take it steady ,Gran I’m a matelot now was his reply !! , and so they left Gibraltar last Sunday for home.

In July he is off to Norfolk in America, on the Ark Royal for two months, he is going as a trainee ships manager, which doesn’t mean he will be in charge of the whole ship hee hee, but will be assistant manager for one of their shops. Rather along entry thank you for your patience, but you know what us Grannies are like when talking about our Grandchildren, Now about that ironing? ......

As ever lots of love xxxx

Hobbling along...

Mon, 19 May 2008 15:12:07 GMT

I know I often go longer than a week ,between entry’s, but this time I have been unable to sit at the commuter for any length, because I hurt my back ,You remember I told you I washed the lounge curtains ,a week last Thursday, I stood on a sturdy low table,to put them back up again ,getting down ,the dog was just where I needed to land ,so I jumped out of her way ,ouch !Didn’t appear to be any ill effects so I made myself a cuppa and sat and admired my clean windows and curtains , Friday was fine ,I told you Kate and Chrissie came over we went up to town in the car an browsed the shops up there ,

Then Saturday, When I did my last entry telling you I was going to take my trolley and, get some veggies and look for any books in the second hand book shop, whilst in there I picked up a box of books to see what goodies were hiding underneath BIG MISTAKE, during the 18 12 overture someone and.with a machete, no I’m exaggerating, my back went into spasm, how I managed to get home I don’t know, but I did,

Sunday morning still in pain I am walking round the furniture rang Chrissie to see if I could borrow her late Mums Walking stick ,she and Mark brought it over for me Sunday afternoon,Monday Maurice took me to the Editorial group meeting ,and I managed quite well in spite of having my leg pulled ,I wasn’t so good on Tuesday night in fact I went into a major spasm ,so I had to make the decision not to go on the mystery trip ,now you know how much I wanted to go ,but Maurice took me to the Doctors instead , I was given pain killers and muscle relaxant ,The Doc told me to exercise heehee ?,but the tablets are making me sleep a lot ,I shall be gong back to the Docs again on Wednesday ,as I am really no better ,Sorry for all the doom and gloom folks but I wanted you to know why I haven’t been able to sit to answer all your comments ,This entry has taken ages, because I have been taking lots of breaks and now I feel just like one of these dear little ''Rag Dolls'',,with love

Theres an old Mill by the Stream ..NELLIE !

Sat, 10 May 2008 10:48:30 GMT

Yet another sunny day here in my little corner of the Fens, Can you read this? Is that better? In fact its been a glorious week ,On Thursday ,I cleaned all the windows outside and the inside of the patio ones also washed the patio window curtains ,they are big so do one at a time ,still have to clean the rest of the inside windows ,but ,Ahh well another day …..Now where should I start ?where I left off I suppose !!!

Last Monday the plan was to go to Burghley House in Stamford Lincs, there was a craft show and a fishing exhibition, some thing for us both we thought situated in lovely grounds, near the house, we received a phone call from a friend of Maurice’s saying if you are coming you had better get a move on, the gates will close at 1 pm! We were just about to leave when we got another phone call from Ian again saying he wasn’t in to the show yet (had been queuing for two hours!), because of the traffic on the A1 the police were diverting traffic through Stamford, Well having no desire to spend the day queuing in traffic, we had a quick change of plan, we went to Houghton Mill, a lovely picturesque village near St Ives (Cambs)and not too far from home ,we didn’t actually go into the mill didn’t want to waste the sunshine ,but we will most certainly go back another time ,we spent ages watching the boats going through the lock ,then walked around the area ,before exploring the lovely village some quant buildings some beautiful old cottages and a lovely old church ,and Maurice enjoyed looking at the garage that repaired and sold MGs

On Wednesday, I went to my over sixties club, where we were entertained by an opera singer, but that is worthy of an entry so will leave that for another time, Though I did print off the entry about the Pearly King and Queen for Ina, our President, and was delighted to learn she is with AOL, so she looked me up and left me a comment, what a lovely surprise!Ina told us at the meeting that their charity had welcomed our donation and invited us to their next open day .

Thursday I told you about, when I was on a roll and did all those chores ,Yesterday my Daughter in law Chrissie and Daughter Kate came over ,so we went up to the town ,and took more Lavender Blue pictures (yet another entry to come ) Monday I am going to the Residents News Letter meeting ,to start preparations again for the next edition ,and then Wednesday we go on our mystery trip so ….watch this space

Now since it is Saturday ,the trolleys wheels are eager to whir ,so I will finish and go and see what bargains are to be had in Somerfield and get some veggies of the market ,and I might even go and browse the books in the charity shops Have a lovely day everyone ,with love

Jan xx

Its May ,its Sunny ,and Warm !

Tue, 06 May 2008 10:17:29 GMT

I know, I know it’s been ages since I did an entry! So here I am on a lovely Sunny Tuesday morning, and I can’t believe it’s a week since Aunty Kitty’s funeral, which was sad, but it was a lovely service, and of course meet up with family, why does it seem it’s only on these occasions, families get together? All busy with life of course.

On Friday I went to the resident’s forum committee meeting; now as you know I had resigned as secretary of the group, and was so surprised and delighted to be given the most beautiful bouquet from the chairman on behalf of the committee, I was so surprised it didn’t occur to me! I had been distracted I suppose because on the few days prior to the meeting I had been shopping around for a gift for our Tenant involvement manager Karen, who is leaving us to go over to take charge of Supported housing for a while,our loss is their gain and though a new Tenant participation manager is to be appointed Karen will be a hard act to follow ,I organised a bouquet for her(from dear old Lavender Blue! ) and a very pretty necklace ,lots of green stones on a silver chain ,(Karen likes her bling! )Because the meeting finished earlier than anticipated, I was killing time waiting for my Taxi; I was pleasantly surprised by a lady who was to attend a function after ours, Janet? Is it? She says,….and there was dear Sue, a lady I have known on and off for over thirty years ,we swapped email addresses ,and what a joy she’s with AOL I asked someone to take a picture of us, I am so pleased I did, I can share this lovely reunion with you all ,and Sue can forward this entry to her Daughter Helen in New Zealand ,’’Hi Helen ‘’

Maurice’sdays off fell, Saturday, Sunday and Bank holiday Monday, so we have had a lovely weekend, On Saturday Mark my son and his wife Chrissie, came over to visit bringing with them, my daughter Kate ,after they'd gone, we tidied up the garden a bit though you could hardly see where we’d been ! I finished off some ironing ,I know boring!

On Sundays, I like to go to the market in a nearby town, there is an excellent second hand book stall (I can only go when Maurice is off work,) I bought a couple of books, then lots of lovely fresh fruit and vegetables, Yesterday we went to Houghton mill, near St Ives in Cambs, but I will save that for another entry, and tomorrow I am off to my club again, and we have another mystery coach trip coming up, so lots to share with you ,Have a lovely day everyone ,enjoy the sunshine ,as usual lots of love and

Pictures ,

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:30:37 GMT

Thankyou for this lovely Graphic Donna ,and yes it is raining !

On Behalf of Mike and Jackie ,Maurice and I ,''THANKYOU ''so much for all of your comments on the loss of our Aunty Kitty ,what a comfort to hear from you all ,believe me it does make a difference ,hearing from you all showed me how J Land is such a caring place to be ,again thankyou .

Aunty Kitty's funeral is next Tuesday ,at 9.30 am .

Many of you have asked what sort of nurse Kitty was ,well from,staff nurse to Sister ,and finally matron ,where I hear she was fair but firm ,very firm ? says Maurice ,to Mike and I as children !! She was Maurice and Mike's Mum's little sister ,she never married ,well only to her career,at which she excelled ,she went through many aspects of nursing ,ending up in mental health care ,She actually nursed Spike Milligan ,and commented, I didnt like him very much !!

Also I was asked had we got any photograghs of her in her uniform ,Bethe helped me with these ones I scanned ,thankyou Bethe http://journals.aol.com/sunnybethe/palm-harbor/ Do you like the picture at the top of my entry ,it was Aunty Kitty's Mike gave it to me because he knew I liked it ,it is by an artist called Tony Sheath,I looked him up on the net ,and he is quite renowned for his paintings of the countryside ,I just love it ,and will always think of Kitty when I look at it .......

Aunty Kitty is on the left with her arms folded ..on number one

on number two she is in the forground....then on the right,and the bottom one is at a Ball she is in the siver evening dress ,the men are eminent surgeons

Hope you enjoyed looking through the album with me today ,

as ever lots of love from

The Day Thou Gavest Lord Has Ended.....

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 12:26:36 GMT

Beth, I am useing your picture today thankyou ,

After a very anxious few days .....Maurice and I have just returned from Peterborough ,Where we have been to say our Goodbyes to Aunty Kitty ,She passed away ,this morning at about 7.30 ....,

We are going to miss her,for the frail little Lady she had become ,And for the Feisty Woman she was ,She came over from Ireland ,as a young woman to train as a nurse ,on her own ,before other members of her family,who came later ,and worked her way through the ranks to become a Matron ,she has friends all around the world (or did have ) and of course us, her family both here and in Ireland .The Priest was with her last evening ,and we prayed this morning ,

I thank you Lord for a long and usefull life ,she would have been 88 next month ...and am mindful of a line in the Hymn ,'Abide with me ,'Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day '

And so those Irish eyes are no longer smiling ,but are closed in eternal rest ,Good bye dear Kitty it was an honour to know you

Jan xx

My ole man sez foller the van ...

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 12:25:39 GMT

Thankyou Chris for todays lovely graphic ....

Well here it is Saturday again ,not feeling so good today ,but better than yesterday so thats good ,Last Monday saw us all going off to Warwick to say our goodbyes to dear John ,more about that another time ,Tuesday I was tired so just pottered ,as you do ! On Wednesday up early for my Taxi which took me to a Conferance Planning,policy and Strategy meeting Peterborough , then home again ,so that I could go to my club in the afternoon(the over sixties )where we were entertained by George and his wife Joy ,Pearl King and Queen of Southwark London ,(They actually live quite local now ) ,Perhaps you remember last year George got his wires crossed about the booking ,he came and sang to us and promised to return with his wife and wearing the suits ,well they did us proud all the lovely old songs for us to sing along to ,and the history of how the tradition began ,back in 1875 with a young fellow by there name of Henry Croft,and I found a picture of his statue on the internet ,and the account as George told it to us

The London tradition of the Pearly Kings and Queens began in 1875, by a small lad named Henry Croft.

Henry was born and raised in an orphanage in Charlton Street, Somers Town, London, and NW1. At the age of 13 he had to leave the orphanage and make his own way in life. His first job was as a Municipal Road Sweeper in the market of Somers Town. Henry worked hard in the market and soon made many friends; he was particularly drawn to the Costermongers who were a tough breed of market traders. He got to know more about their way of life, their generosity and their fashion of smoke pearl buttons sewn on the piped seams oftheir trousers, jackets, waistcoats and caps. This showed their status as they worked the market stalls from day to day. The Costermongers were caring and looked after each other if they were sick or in need.

Henry was so fascinated by this way of life and decided he would like to help those who were more unfortunate than himself, including the children back at the orphanage where he had spent his early life. He knew that in order to collect a lot of money he needed to draw attention to himself. So as Henry swept the market streets he started to collect all the pearl buttons he found that had fallen off of the clothes of people visiting the market, and when he had enough he started to sew them on his cap and then continued until his entire suit was filled, the very first smother suit.

Because Henry was an orphan he had no one to help him with his suit so he had to learn how to sew. It was this that started the tradition, which is still carried on by descendants of original Pearly Families, that the Kings do all the designs and sewing. Designs on suits tend to run in families but here are a few that you may see and recognise:

o Horseshoe = Luck

o Doves = Peace

o Heart = Charity

o Anchor = Hope

o Cross = Faith

o Wheel = Circle of Life

o Symbols of Playing Cards = Life is a gamble

o Flower Pots = Costermongers

o Donkey Carts = Costermongers

Henry Croft was in so much demand for his charity work, as many of London's hospitals, workhouses and orphanages needed help, that he turned to his friends the Costermongers and they did not let him down. Many of the Costermongers became the first Pearly Families. There were 28 families, one for each of the London boroughs, one for the City of Westminster, and one for the City of London.

Each outfit can hold many tens of thousands of buttons on it and can weigh as much as 30 kilograms or more. There are two types of suit - a Smother Suit and a Skeleton Suit, the former having very little cloth showing and totally covered in buttons, and the latter having far fewer buttons.

It is estimated that when he died in 1930 (aged 68); he had collected over £5000. The equivalent in today's values would be approximately £200,000.

His funeral was a spectacular affair, and was filmed by Pathe News. All of the Pearlies attended (roughly 400) and they followed the coffin to where Henry was buried. The charities that he had helped over the year all pulled together to help pay for a statue of Henry for his grave. Unfortunately in 1995 the statue was vandalised and no longer stands in the cemetery. It has been replaced with a headstone, inlaid with Henry's photograph, so it can be easily found by visitors.

The statue has now been fully restored and can be seen in the crypt at the church of St. Martins in the Field, Trafalgar Square.

The Pearly tradition has survived for over 125 years and hopefully it will continue for many more to come. We still have a few families who can be traced back to the original generation of Pearlies. Henry Croft's family still carries on the tradition with his Great-Granddaughter wearing the title of 'Somers Town'.

By John Arrowsmith ,Pearly King of Lathamstowe.

Carole Jolly, Pearly Queen of Crystal Palace, with the statue of Henry Croft,
The Crypt at St Martins in the Field.

George also told us that you have to be born into a family off Pearly's ,to be called a King or Queen when your turn comes ,and the off spring are Princes and Princess's .these titles were allowed by Queen Victoria ,who was so impressed by their good works ,Joy and Georges charity is a childrens hospital in London ,called Richard House ,along with the title they are also made Freemen of the city of London,so are entitled to walk their sheep over London Bridge ....with sword drawn !!!,They have recently had a Great Grandson ,who is fifth generation Pearly , I do hope you enjoyed todays entry ,and as ever ,lots of love from

Jan xx