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

The Beach

I love going down to the beach, there's something that just draws me to it. As much as I love the surrounding countryside, give me the beach any day.  Living virtually on the River Thames we have plenty of beaches to choose from. Most of our local beaches are sandy with a coating of cockle shells.

 Leigh on Sea is famous for both its cockle boats and cockle sheds where the cockles are cooked and then the shells I guess are either re-cycled and/or returned back to the seashore.

I love hearing the Sea Gulls, the Curlews and the sound of the tap, tap, tapping of the rigging against the aluminium masts of the boats

I love the varied assortment of seafaring paraphernalia to be found along the shore

I love the sound of the waves swishing over the shells along the shoreline

and further around the coast love seeing these gorgeous beach huts

(which I would love to own if they weren't so expensive)

We took a walk on Sunday along this stretch of the beach where the tide was almost up and the sailing boats were getting ready for some kind of regatta.

A light wind was whipping up and sails were raised 

Up on the promenade this sign always tickles me

but I guess a man's gotta do what a mans gotta do!

I hope you enjoyed my beachy theme today.

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I'd like to say a huge thank you to all you lovely people who have left comments on my recent posts. I'd love to reply individually but I guess I'm probably not the only person who cannot always find the time to reply.  I just wish there was a "like" button as on Facebook that you could just let your commenter know you have read their comment. Anyway many thanks again.

See you soon x

Five on Friday - January

I'm joining in with Five on Friday organised by Amy at Love Made my Home where once a month we take five minutes from our day to enjoy five things. Do pop in to see what others in my group are up to at the bottom of the page.

This month I'm sharing a few of my recent makes.

1. I'm enjoying creating and making mini photo albums and journals. Here are a few that I've gifted or kept for myself.

2. I found this crocheted cowl on Pinterest and simply had to make it in advance of any colder weather. So cosy and warm too and only took about four hours to make.

Not very good at "Selfies" I'm afraid.

3. Nothing better than a bowl of homemade veggie soup - wouldn't be without my soup maker. I just threw in some veggies that were sitting in the fridge - carrots, onion, courgette, swede etc., plus a tin of tomatoes, stock cube, seasoning, herbs - basil, oregano and top up with about 500 mls water. Yummy.

4. Tomato Chutney - a must with cheeses, cold meats, pork pies etc. Not sure why I only make it in the winter though.

5. Back on the crafting note here are a couple of gift bags/envelopes I made and have put aside for upcoming birthdays

Amy at Love Made my Home
Kristie at North of 49
Katharine at Art-e-Facts
Selma at Eclectic home life
Marion at My two girls
Teresa at Knit, Bake, Cultivate

Have a good weekend dear friends.

A Year in Books - January

I'm linking up with Laura at Circle of Pine Trees with the Year in Books 2015. I did join last year but other things were getting in the way and I didn't find the time to carry it through. However, new year new outlook and I can't wait to get reading again, deciding that the time spent reading quietly is time well spent.

The aim of the Year in Books project is to read at least one book a month during 2015. It's not a conventional book club so we don't all read the same book. The project is about trying to ensure that we make space for reading in our busy lives and a chance to discover more lovely books. At the start of the month we blog about the book that we are intending to read and perhaps a few words about the previous book.

The book I've just picked up is one I started reading about six months ago but as it was too large to take on holiday with me  I put back on the shelf,  as we do, and simply didn't pick it up again until now.

My book is  Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. 

I've just heard there is a new drama series coming on the TV some time soon called Wolf Hall -  which means I just have to read the book before it starts. Consequently I'm reading it at every opportunity I can -  in fact I'm so 'into it' now I can't put it down! I love history especially during the time of Tudor England in the 1500s and this book is ticking all the boxes.

Seeing as Ive just come aboard and haven't a book for December, I'll just give you a little sneak of a beautiful book my husband gave me for Christmas called Paper Bliss by Skye Rogers. I love paper crafting and anything to do with paper so this really is bliss.

it has so many pages of gorgeous paper with designs

including pages that open out with even more lovely designs

even the book cover opens out to reveal a huge page of templates for cutting out.

Not everyone's cup of tea I'll grant you but if you love anything to do with paper  loveliness,  then you'll love this book.

Bye for now and have a great weekend.

P x

A family heirloom

In 2001 I signed up for a two year City and Guilds course called Victorian Heirlooms, where we learnt how to re-create many Victorian crafts and techniques as well as learning about 19th century history and famous people alongside it. The Pre Raphaelites, The Arts and Crafts Movement including William Morris, William de Morgan. Authors such as Lewis Carroll and Charles Dickens; designers and gardeners Edwin Lutyens, Paxton and Gertrude Jekyll to name but a few. Fabulous course which has stayed with me forever.

As a final piece of work we had to produce an heirloom using many of the techniques we had used during the course such as embroidery, paint effects, ageing and distressing paper, wood and fabric. I decided on a doll house but one with a difference as it was to be a shop and this shop would be a replica of John's grandfather's shop he owned in Histon, Cambridgeshire in the early 1900s named J.T. Marshall - General Stores and Tobacconist.

I bought the house which I had to put together and paint, tile the roof, added chimney pots, plastic windows with adverts on, put up shelves and skirting boards, laid fake linoleum to the floors, lighting and so on and so forth. It was fun and I spent many hours and many pennies furnishing the shop area with suitable pieces to scale.

(please excuse the quality of the photos - I had to take pictures of photos in my folder)

I tried to replicate it as much as I could from this one photo

It was very fiddly trying to put all the groceries out on show. 

I made all the fruit and bread with a polymer clay

 and also all the sacks and carrier bags from paper and linen

as well as the shop sign and adverts for the windows

After my coursework and the house/shop project was completed (which I passed) it went up into our loft. I didn't have time to complete the house part as I was going on to do my History degree and simply didn't have the time.

So, what to do with this now you may ask. Well my three youngest grandchildren who carry on the family name aged 8, 5 and 2 years old have just taken possession of their great, great grandfather's shop together with a potted history of his life.

 It was a picture on Christmas afternoon to see their faces when I uncovered it -

and a delight to know it will remain in the family for the foreseeable future.

Have you got any heirlooms to pass down to future generations?

Have a good week.

New Year new Shoots

Welcome to 2015 and here's to a happy and peaceful year ahead. I love keeping a diary and this morning opened up my new blank journal ready to start recording my musings and jottings - and lists, I love making lists. So - lots of plans to make - challenges to conquer and I guess some changes too in our household. Exciting times ahead - a bit like turning a new leaf.  I read this the other day - not sure where or by whom but liked the meaning behind it.

It's a new year. It's time to start again. Stop thinking about what you're

going to do and start doing it. It's time to live your life 
and be who you are.Forget about whatever happened last year 
and just move on. Take risks

and be yourself, you only have one life and it's time to 
make the most of it.

This morning I spotted these new daffodil shoots that had just emerged from beneath the soil.  Very early methinks but Mother Nature has a unique way of letting us know that all too soon the season will be changing - the evenings will start to draw out  -  and Spring is just around the corner.

Enjoy this first day of 2015

See you soon

Patricia x