Five on Friday - February

I'm linking up with  Amy for this month's Five on Friday post so I thought I'd share some good moments of my February.

1. A trip to the Houses of Parliament - the Palace of Westminster organised by our local church. A fabulous day where we soaked up loads of history and learnt about all the ceremonial traditions of this amazing palace. We were able to walk around the House of Lords and visit their library/tea room/writing room but bcause it was a Wednesday and Prime Minister's Question Time was taking place we could not go into the Commons. However we went up into the viewing gallery later on and were able to witness a few political debates taking place. Fascinating!

2. When visiting friends in Berkshire recently we drove over to Hungerford a town well known for its abundance of antique centres and evidently featured occasionally on various TV antiques road shows. The walk down to the canal was pretty chilly - we'd already had some sleet and hail showers so didn't hang around for too long. A pot of steaming tea was most welcome in "The Rafters" in one antiques arcade.

3. A morning stroll the next morning saw us in the pretty village of Cookham where sunny skies greeted us. The River Thames always has a place in my heart - be it the narrow up river or wider down river where we live in Essex. Onwards to the village of Littlewick Green for lunch.

4. We belong to the Royal Horticultural Society and are lucky enough to live near RHS Hyde Hall, some 15 minutes away by car. We try to visit once a month and take in all that the changing seasons offer us. The colours are beautiful all year round and this is February's view.

5. Some quality fun time with two of our grandchildren on Saturday mornings occasionally.

I'll leave you with this little ditty I found via Pinterest

Now, if I've done this correctly you should be able to see others' 

posts by clicking on this link

Well I believe there should have been a little icon with four thumbnails. Oh well not to worry. I'll try and add it to my sidebar and lets hope the link from here works. You can't test it out until you've actually published the post.

Have a great weekend

PS - just checked and it doesn't  work so for now just press on Amy's link above. I'll get it sorted!!

St Valentine - A legend

St Valentine's Day or the Feast of St Valentine is a celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentine and observed around the world on February 14. There are several legends of martyrdom around St Valentine, one of which was Saint Valentine of Rome who was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and also for ministering to Christians who were persecuted under the Roman Empire. Legend has it that during his imprisonment he healed the daughter of his jailer, and before his execution he wrote her a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell.

The medieval English poet Geoffrey Chaucer may have invented Valentine's Day. He often took liberties with history, placing his poetic characters into fictitious contexts that he represented as real.  In his work "Parliament of Foules" he links a tradition of courtly love with the celebration of St Valentine's feast day. The poem refers to February 14 as "the day birds (and humans) come together to find a mate".

In Great Britain Valentine's Day celebrations became quite popular around the 17th century. By the middle of the 18th it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes and by 1900 printed cards began to appear.

After 45 years together, John and I still uphold this little romantic tradition.

HAPPY ST VALENTINE'S DAY !

(text based on an article by History.com)

Year in Books - February

Linking up today with Laura at Circle of Pine Trees for this month's Year in Books where we aim to read at least one book a month. At the start of the month we blog about the book we are intending to read and perhaps a few words about the previous book.

Last month's book Wolf Hall by  (Dame) Hilary Mantel was one that I had started, put down and then picked up again when I realised the serialised drama was scheduled on the tv. Try as I might, I simply couldn't finish it in time and had to put it back on the shelf once more.

In summary, the book is a fictionalised story of the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell whose father was a blacksmith who bullied him as a child. At fifteen he ran away to sea and travelled Europe - joining the French Army and later working as a merchant in Antwerp and Florence. After many years he returns where his life experiences enabled him to becomes an assistant to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York. Steeped in history around the life and loves of Henry Vlll this book brings the brutal world of the Tudors to life.

This month's book is Afterwards by Rosamund Lupton -   and seemingly of a mystery/crime genre.

"Black smoke stains a summer blue sky. A school is on fire. And one mother, Grace sees the smoke and runs. She knows her teenage daughter Jenny is inside. She runs into the burning building to rescue her". 

Afterwards, Grace must search for the identity of the arsonist and protect her children from the person who's still intent on destroying them. Afterwards she must fight the limits of her physical strength and discover the limitlessness of love.

I'm not one to read crime as a rule but I do like a bit of mystery so hope I'll stick with it. I picked this up last night and it clicked instantly. I have a habit of testing the water so to speak. Sometimes I just get bored after the first chapter and leave it on the side for another time - which never happens! 

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On another note I just want to apologise to all of my blogging friends for my lack of comments and posts this last couple of weeks. We have been in a dilemma here as to whether to move house or stay where we are. We've lived here for 30 years and the children have now fled and we thought it might be a good time to downsize. However, I do love my house, all of our bedrooms are in constant use - our master bedroom, the guest room, my study/craft room and then a little box room for whatever gets put in there.  Plus we live in a quiet neighbourhood with plenty of walks and open spaces nearby as well as the sea. We started to look around and nothing matched or compared with our house - even if we did move I daresay I would definitely want some re-decoration and/or improvements done. That being so we have decided to stay and have some work done here - new kitchen and possibly some other improvements. So instead of hours of trawling around looking at properties we are now out looking for kitchens etc and having people in for designing and quoting for said work to be done. This all takes time and something has to give - so once again I hope you'll bear with me.

I would like to say thank you so much for all your lovely comments on my last posts. I really do appreciate them and they mean such a lot to me. Hopefully I'll be back on track again in a few days.

Take care my friends and have a good week.

Patricia x