Ring out the old ....

...and ring in the new ...

 



Part of the medieval Southwark Cathedral with a backdrop of the newly built Shard

on a recent visit to London

Just a quick post to wish everyone A Happy New Year and hope you all had a lovely Christmas. Ours was great and we spent some fun time with our children and grandchildren. I must say though that it is really nice to be able to get back to normal again after all the hype and rushing around before the big day, love it as I do. The  tree has gone and the decs are down and all is calm again in our household. We are now off to Belgium for five days - to the medieval towns of Ghent and Bruges which we are much looking forward to.

Must just show you this unseasonal cherry blossom I spotted two days before Christmas in Southwark.  How odd is this?

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY BLOGGING FRIENDS

 

Will catch up with you all next week.

 

 

Patricia

Seasons Greetings to all my Blogging friends....

 

...and wishing you all a Healthy and Happy New Year.

 

 

 

 

From our happy home

Through the world we roam

One week in all the year,

Making winter spring

With the joy we bring

For Christmas-tide is here.

 

Now the eastern star

Shines from afar

To light the poorest home;

Hearts warmer grow,

Gifts freely flow,

For Christmas-tide has come

 

Now gay trees rise

Before young eyes,

Abloom with tempting cheer;

Blithe voices sing,

And blithe bells ring,

For Christmas-tide is here.

 

Oh, happy chime,

Oh, blessed time,

That draws us all so near!

'Welcome, dear day'

All creatures say,

For Christmas-tide is here.

 

Louisa May Alcott (1832-88)

 

 

A short break now until after the New Year but in the meantime hope to catch up with all your posts. I've enjoyed this year immensely sharing my days with you all and in turn reading all your delightful posts and comments.  I've just realised that my one year blogging anniversary has just passed me by without realising - how time flies!

Bye for now

 

Patricia x 

The Christmas gift

Not long to go now. I really love the build-up to Christmas which normally starts around 1st December with all the preparations, shopping, wrapping, let alone the school Nativities and Carol concerts to attend as well as a bit of socialising thrown in for good measure!. Do you like these candle glasses that I covered with manuscript paper?  I found them here and am really pleased that such a simple idea could look so effective. They look really pretty sitting on my piano.   The jar I filled with some Christmassy bits and holly etc and was quite pleased with the effect.

I had fun with this cloche too - I couldn't resist these lovely Nativity pieces when I spotted them.  You might remember my Jubilee/Olympic themed cloche that I put together during the summer which you can see here 

I got this idea for gift toppers from a magazine a few weeks ago. The gift tags I made using stiff card that I photo-copied some paper onto and then cut with a craft punch. Such a simple idea but very effective.

These little chappies go back to when the children were toddlers and they've stood on the fireplace ever since. I could never bring myself to light them.

The tree is up, the decs are done the pressies wrapped and under the tree.

 

There is one Christmas gift however that comes out year after year which hangs in pride of place on my tree. It's only tiny and was given to me by my late mum about ten years ago. I keep it permanently in my bedside drawer and bring it out at Christmas.

 

It's just a small red box, tied up with ribbon and on the back of the gift card it  reads:

 

 

"This is a very special gift

that you can never see,

The reason it's so special is

it's just for you from me.

Whenever you are feeling lonely

or even feeling blue,

You only have to hold this gift

and know I think of you.

You never should unwrap it

please leave the ribbon tied

Hold the box close to your heart

It's filled with love inside"

 

Mum's been gone these past six years now but special Christmas gift lives on.

 

 

 Enjoy your week

 

 

A Yuletide message - peace on earth

Yuletide greetings to you all - don't you love this old card?  I'd forgotten that this was among my collection of old postcards which was sent to a lady in Lincolnshire in 1912. The postage stamp with King George V's head cost one halfpenny - a tad different from today which I believe now costs about 48p for a second class stamp. Anyway I thought I'd share it with you.

We had a very sharp frost last night and together with the freezing fog this morning created some very stunning pictures. After returning from the school run, I grabbed my camera and went over to our local common to capture the following photos:

This really is Peace on Earth

 



 

 



When I came home I found these in my back garden

 

Aren't they gorgeous?

It's still pretty cold out but oh so pretty - the sun is shining too and everything is glistening.

 

Hope you're all having a great week - keep warm and enjoy!

The life and times of Rose

Welome to my new follower Betty. It's lovely to meet you and hope you enjoy what you find here.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

With Christmas on its way and children eagerly awaiting their presents from Father Christmas, I thought I'd introduce you to Rose who has been in the family since Victorian times and was given to me at Christmas when I was five years old. Rose was made in Germany in the mid 1890s (she has a mark on the back of her neck) and made her way to a toy shop in France where she was given to my maternal grandmother who was born in 1899 in the town of Valenciennes, France

 

.

Alice, my grandmother was an only child of Alphonse and Victorine Mercier (born in the 1870s) and they owned the local Boulangerie in Valenciennes. During the first World War Alice met William Wells, my grandfather who was stationed in nearby Mons. They married in 1921 and moved to England where they had my mum Stella and my Uncle Jack. Mum remembers visiting her French grandparents every year and on one trip in 1931was given Rose to take back home with her and she had to be wrapped in a blanket for the rough ferry ride home.  There she stayed with the family for many years cherished and played with by my mum who would often take her out in a pram. On one such occasion she was spotted by the lady in the local wool shop and asked if Rose would 'model' some knitted toddlers clothes in the shop window. The customers loved her and she stayed there for several months.

Mum and dad married in 1946 and we moved to Canvey Island in 1950 where Rose was introduced to a new life by the sea and new friends. I too pushed her in my pram.

Her body is made of a kind of very hard papier mache which has been painted and glazed and her limbs are jointed and strung together, as is her head. She is 30 inches long and really isn't a baby doll at all. Us girls made a huge fuss of her - she was taken here and taken there;  shared with friends; taken to the shops - simply treated like another member of the family and at times was to be found plonked on top of a box of toys. She really wasn't treated too well I'm afraid - hence a few missing fingers and chipped paint on her limbs.

and her head is porcelain with real hair

After I married in 1970 she was sadly put in the loft. I brought her down about fifteen years ago to find that all the strings had rotted and she was literally falling apart. I sent her to a Doll's Hospital where she was put back together. My children weren't too keen on her - thinking she looked too human so she was once again relegated to the loft. One day no doubt she will be passed on to my grand daughters, who I'm sure will love her as much as I have.

Rose came down from the dreaded loft last weekend (she's been up and down like a yo yo over the years) and when I think of all she's gone through and how much she was played with for nearly 120 years my heart goes in my mouth. But she's come through it okay don't you think?

Have you got any family heirlooms you'd like to share?

 

 

Have a great weekend

Ribbons and Bobbins

Firstly thank you so much for all your lovely comments on my last post. I can't believe that my little collection of pottery and china would bring forth so much response from you all.

On another collection note, I love buying ribbons and braiding and have accumulated quite a stash over the last six months or so, meaning to use them for wrapping gifts, sewing onto projects etc. But have I? - No. The collection is mounting but I just love the look of them and keep them in this lovely old apothecary jar.

 I have also been on the look out for some of those vintage wooden bobbins and have been scouring the internet and vintage shops. It's taken a while but I now have a little collection of those too.

Aren't they gorgeous? These came with the ribbons already on them.

 

 

These arrived yesterday which I'd ordered on the internet and wrapped some

of my existing tape around them

 

 

 

So now I have several methods of storing them

 

 

 

But then, I remembered something that was hidden away in our loft - Yes another trip for Hubby - but he was going up there anyway to get the Christmas decorations down

 

 

A bit battered but it is at least 70 years old and belonged to my late father-in-law

 

 

But - an idea was festering and after lining it with some Cath Kidston

fat quarters, turned my vintage case into yet another storage solution and am really

pleased with the effect

 

 

Well I did have another photo to show you but I've just had a pop-up message from Blogger to say OOPS YOU'VE JUST RUN OUT OF PHOTO STORAGE SPACE.

Grrrrrr  ....How frustrating is that!!!

 

Anyway once it's sorted there is something else I want to show you that came down

from the dreaded loft and all being well, I'll write a post this week.

 

Have a good week everyone

 

 

Reflection of Polperro

Last week I read a lovely post about the Cornish fishing village of Polperro posted by Sarah from Down by the Sea which you can read here. This evoked many memories for me as that is where we spent our honeymoon in 1970. Excuse the photo - no digital in those days.

Polperro has a wealth of art galleries and potteries and I still have a few pieces that we treated ourselves to. These two have been sculling around the house for years and I never knew where to put them - normally at the back of a cupboard somewhere as they went out of fashion many moons ago but I could never bring myself to throw them out. So glad I kept them.

Having found these two pieces I rummaged around in my sideboard to discover these two sixties vases made by Whitefriars - they were popular at the time because they had the fashionable 'Tree Bark' finish to them. They were wedding presents and I do still use them from time to time.

But my 'piece de resistance' was in the loft (needless to say hubby wasn't best too pleased to have to go up and search for them!). Does anyone remember or seen this coffee set on their travels? - made by J & G Meakin back in the 1960s. Again another wedding present and oh this has got me thinking now about more hidden treasures that may be lurking in the loft!!

When my daughter E saw them she was amazed and wondered whether I'd been watching Kirstie's Vintage Home on the tv. Apparently just the kind of things she searches for when designing people's homes. Methinks hubby has another loft trawl coming soon!

Do you have any old  vintage style pieces that you'd forgotten you had?

 

 

Welcome to my new follower Tangled Sweetpea - it's lovely to have you on board.

 See you soon and have a good week

Fishing around the freezer

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments recently and apologise for not replying at this time. I love getting them, they make my day.

I always buy fresh meat, poultry and fish and then freeze for another day. Vegetables are normally fresh but occasionally buy frozen peas or runner beans when they're not in season. Well today I've been having a tidy-up in my freezer as I like to leave some space for the run up to Christmas, mindful of the fact that some of this food will have to be eaten by its use-by date. Anyway I found a few packs of fish where only one or two odd pieces were remaining so decided to make a fish pie using Cod, Haddock and Salmon which I sliced and diced.

 

Made some parsely sauce (packet)  and added to the mix

Topped it with freshly mashed potato and

 

Tah-dah - here it is waiting to go in the oven (for about 30 minutes)

I just wish I'd had some parsley for the top!

Sometimes the simplest of ingredients make the best of meals -

and all from the odds and ends floating around my freezer.

 

Do you have a favourite quickie meal?

 



Woody Sunday walk

As Sunday was such a gorgeous sunny day we took the opportunity of taking a walk in our local woods whilst the Sunday roast was in the oven. The jobs could wait, the weather wouldn't.

I love this time of year when the leaves are changing colour and the sun throws

a dappled light through the almost bare branches.

 

Then there's that damp woody smell of down-trodden leaves which is so

synonymous with the Autumn.

 

 

So peaceful and not a breath of  wind -

just the sound of the woodpeckers and the foraging squirrels

and perhaps a distant cuckoo?

 

As well as the gentle clippety clop of these chappies out for

their morning exercise



 

Got to make the most of these lovely days before winter hits us
and the days get even shorter

 



 

Tempting though it was to walk further, it was the call of our lunch that took us home.

 

(and oh it did smell good when we walked in)

 

Bye for now

Time for comfort food...

Well it's that time of the year again when the old stews and casseroles come to the fore and in these days (mine anyway) of rushing around - school runs, food shopping, coffee with friends and blogging as well as spending 15/20 hours a week studying, there's not a lot of time left for anything else.

So my trusty Slow Cooker comes to the rescue. I use it regularly, at least twice every week and it comes into its own with the casseroles. 

I don't really stick to a particular recipe but generally make my beef casseroles with the following:


500 g stewing steak - diced
A few carrots, sliced
Turnip, chopped
Some chopped swede
4/5 mushrooms sliced
Large onion, sliced
Bay Leaf
Mixed Herbs
Dash of Worcester sauce
Beef Stock Pot
Enough water to cover the meat and veg
Squeeze of tomato puree
Salt and pepper
Gravy granules to thicken at the end of cooking

Sometimes I squeeze in some HP Brown Sauce with Guinness - very tasty

I don't fry off the meat first but I throw it all in and add the boiling stock over the meat and this just browns it quickly. I normally switch on about 20 minutes beforehand and then turn up to High and there it stays for four or five hours - or more.  If I'm going to be out all day, then I leave it on Low. This recipe made enough for two good servings and then I froze the rest.

I bought these Soup/Stew freezer bags from Lakeland and they are excellent for fitting into a freezer if you haven't much room for a plastic or china dish. You just take them out to thaw and then re-heat in the microwave or tip into a saucepan.

Today we had Beef and vegetable pies for our dinner using bought puff pastry and the de-frosted casserole mix, served with mashed potato and Brussels sprouts and a touch of English mustard on the side..

A big welcome to my new followers Greenthumb, Macha, Karen and Tammy - it's lovely to have you on board.

Have a good weekend