General Chat

What a wonderful day, memories to treasure for ever. This will be helped, of course, by the photos you will have, something special to hand down to your grandchildren and greatgrandchildren. Remember to date them and keep a record of who is who so that your descendants are not left wondering.!

As to your stepson and the bungalow, the house stays with the parent who has the children, so that it is a home for them.
I hope that he is able to get somewhere suitable to live himself, where he is able to have his children overnight, once all the access problems are sorted.

Take care of yourself, and have a rest, you deserve it!

Tess

Theresa and Ann
thank you for your replies.
Tess i will remember to put the names on when I receive them. I was in such a state that I forgot my camera,
so not perfect afte all ll!!!!

We do understand that the parent caring for the children must have a suitable place to live and all that we want is for her to agree to a three bedroom bungalow in the same road so no disturbance for the children and the very large 4 bedroom bungalow to be sold , which will pay for the new home and give my stepson a deposit for him to buy a small pad...sounds reasonable to me but who knows......

But I am determined that I am not going to be too involved he lives with his MUM at the moment so I have to step back a little...

Bye to you both I have to take the washing out of the machine now.

bridget

Good morning everyone and I hope you all have a great day.
There are grey skies outside and the temperature has dropped considerably...even the seagulls are hiding away so I am wondering if that is a sign of even more rain.
a memory of when I was a child has just popped into my head...wearing wellingtons when it rained and how they used to chaff my legs. Mum was always telling me to pull my socks up and turn them over the top of the boots but they always slipped down and by the time I would get home my legs were sore. Does anyone else have memories of wellington boots?
we also wore navy blue gaberdine macs to go to school and we hated those as well, what about liberty bodices,did you have to wear them/// Oh there are so many other items springing into my mind but I shall wait to see what others post.

I wonder why these things just jump into our heads??

have a good day everyone

Bridget

n

Bridget the wedding sounds really lovely, from your description the bride was beautiful and your son must have looked dashing in his uniform. It sounds as if you all had a wonderful day. As Tess says a day of memories to treasure.

Take care.


Val in SA.

Val, you must be (about) in the middle of winter in SA

My son went there for a few months with the VSO part of an exchange scheme.
He is still friends with his South African counterpart, who came to England for a few months. They shared a home (with the "locals") in both countries.

I'm off out today to a BBQ - birthday party. My sisters grand-daughter will be one tomorrow. I haven't seen her for a few months, she is now walking and getting into mischief. So I might be on protection duty.
How come all little children have extending arms ? i.e. they can reach much further than seems possible.
She has a very proud four year old brother, who will be going to Primary School in September.
Looking forward to it, just hope that it doesn't rain.

Bridget, I will try to get back (probably tomorrow) regarding wellies, liberty bodices and gaberdine macs.

Tess

Yes, Tess, we are in the middle of winter but where we live the winters are not severe, the night time temperature seldom goes below 6 degrees C and the daytime is between 16 and 24. There are parts of the country where the temperature drops to a minus and where there is snow. I must say I like the winter.

Gee, four and going to school over here the children only start school at 6. Have a nice time at the BBQ.

Bridget, we didn't wear liberty bodices but we wore awful thick black stockings which we really disliked.

Val in SA.

Did anyone else have "special clothes" those that could only be worn to church on a |Sunday, or if we were going out somewhere special.
My mum used to make most of our clothes and she was very talented. She would go to Roman Road Market or Burdett Road market and she would barter for materail and buy bags of off cuts or the last piece on a roll.
Shewould come home, put the materal on the floor, glance at my sister and me and the draw with tailors chalk our new outfit...absolutely amazing. She also knitted and did embrioidery and smocking.

I learnt to embroider, something I still like to do and aslo liked knitting but my two sisters were much more even knitters than me.!

I wonder if any modern mothers knit and sew?

Does anyone else have memories like this?

Bridget
OOps just remembered we had brown sandles for every day use and Red sandles fo high days and hoildays and white sandals for going to church twice a day on Sunday once in the morning and again in the evening for Benediction!!

Oh yes, we used to have our "good clothes" for high days and holidays. My mom was not a knitter or a needlewoman, but I love knitting and also did a lot of embroidery in my younger days, candlewicking too when it was all the rage some years back. I knit throughout the year(when my fingers are not too painful!!) and then at the beginning of winter I give the jerseys to the needy.

I think not many of the younger generation these days knit or sew.



Val in SA.

"Special clothes" yes we did have Sunday best. In those days, women had to cover their heads when in Church, (a sign of humility).
Sometimes my Mum made us girls a new dress for Easter.
She was quite good at dress-making, when researching her family tree, I find that some of her ancestors (and their sibs ) were dressmakers, tailors and weavers!

I can only remember having one pair of wellingtons, my tan pair I got in Ireland when I was six. They were short, (i.e. no where near knee length).
We did however wear horriabe black lace-up shoes, when living in the U.K. together with (knitted) knee length socks and garters!
The garters made marks on my legs, I hated them.

I only had one gaberdine mac. a hand-me-down, from another family.
Liberty bodices, yes we had those too. Two different types, one that you pulled on over your head, like a vest, the other buttoned up, with rubber buttons, very difficult to manipulate.
As it was well before central heating, and winters seemed colder in those days, I suppose that we needed the extra layer.
Somehow they remind me of the smell of wintergreen.

Another smell I miss from those times, is the smell of coal fires (in England) and Turf fires (in Ireland)

I learnt smocking at school, (the nuns taught me) we also did some embroidery, but I don't remember many of the names of the stiches. I'm afraid that I didn't inherit my Mums talent.

My Mum learnt to crochet when knitting became too painful. So was still able to make things for pleasure.

The gardner came today and made a start on clearing the back garden of weeds. He should be coming back on Thursday, when hopefully he will finish the clearing. We can then decide what to do to ensure that it isn't over run with weeds again.

Tess

Tess
I always smile when I see your name as Bridget the Fidget was what I was called by my mum...she sadi that the only time I ever sat still was when I was reading a book!

We had the rubber button liberty bodices, not thatther was much Liberty...
Smells are very evocative and some that I remember are
cakes cooking in the very old oven.
Life Boy soap. malt and codliver oil which came in a large jar and we had a spoonful everyday.
Bread cooking,
The smell of malt as we walked past the brewery
wet grass
The river Liffey whenever we wnet to Dublin whilst seeing our cousins
Granmas heather bags which were hung in our wardrobe to keep the moths away.
The fish and chip shop on a Friday evening (no eating meat on a Friday in our house as we had to go to confession on Saturday so we could have communion on sunday)

The smell of the gas mantels as they burnt to give us light to read by...we didn't have electricity until I was about 9 or ten.

Grandmas roast dinners..the best I have ever had.
I

I have a raging tooth ache..my own fault. I bit on a plum a few weeks ago and it hit one of my back teeth and broke a chunk off...now as a sensible person I would have told someone else to go to the dentist but what did I do,,,yes you have guessed I kept putting it of until tomorrow. now the tooth next to it is also painful and we go away for a week on Thursday to Ireland and I cannot get an appointment before hand!! so I am taking really strong co codamol and I know that is not the answer!1

Well bye for now as have to get ready for work
I hope that you all have a very happy day and will think of you all in my quiet time at around 11 am today.

Bridget

Forgot to suggest a topic to write about if anyone is still interested, unlike the wonderful thread that encourages people to comment on all amazingly well written subjects this is just a littel something to do. i am going to write about my favourite dress when a child

I hope some others on her also write something because it is fun

Bridget

I hoped for a few replies but none so far.....\i guess that everyone is either very busy, away or we have reached a natural end.I do hope it isn't the latter as I have becone rather fond of this thread.

My Favourite Dress.

At the age of 6 years which means that this happend in 1952. i arrived home from school and mum told me that I had a special parcel which had come all the way from America and it was addressed to me from my godfather Patrick Rush.
I had never had a letter sent directly to me let alone a parcel. Now in those days we had to cut the the string carefully so we could use it again, and also the brown paper had to be very carefully opened so that it could be ironed and put away for when we might need it. I was becoming more and more impatient to see what was inside and then I saw creamy white paper and and I was allowed to pick this out of the brown paper and put it on the table...the excitement was growing moment by moment and then I saw my favourite dress, not that I knew it was going to become my favourite dress at the time, a dress with a white background with red cherries in small bunches all over the dress and to go with it was a matching bolero. I had never seen anything so beautiful, so pretty and so special because I had never had a dress that had been bought in a shop,mum made our clothes.

I wore that dress at every opportunity, to parties, on holiday, to go to church and finally on no uniform day at school. Then one day it was to small to do up..no matter how hard I tried the buttons would not do up!! I cried and cried, and then it disappeared, I couldn't believe it. Mum had given it to a charity to go too Africa...I could never undersatnd why a girl in Africa should have MY special dress. My Godfather was never in contact again and we think he died in New York,,,how I wish I still had that dress.

God Bless you Patrick for you made me determined to have pretty clothes and to work hard so I could buy clothes that I liked, i will never forget you or that dress.
Bridget

Hi Bridget, just a quick look in before I trot off to bed.
Bridget is one of my forenames (I have three), I was often told off for fidgeting when I was young. Thought that it made a good boadr name, as I staill can't sit sit esp when I am nervous or anxious.

So for your special dress, Just imagine it got to Africa, all wrapped up in brown paper and string, a little girl was told "this is for you" eagerly she began to open the parcel, while all around her the other children watched....
The knot in the string was carefully untied and handed to Sister Mary Joseph, who put it in her voluminous pocket.
(which never seemed to get full).
The little girl continued to open the parcel, carefully folding one side of the brown paper and then the other.......

maybe another person in he World has many happy memories of her Special Dress, creamy white with red cherries!

Good-night for now,
Tess

Ah Tess, what a lovely thought! Thank you for adding to my picures.
i am away for about 10 days and may not be able to access a computer...would you be kind enough to keep this thread going for me, even if it is simply to nudge it now and again?
I will be back on Monday week and it seems a shame not to keep it going.
off to pack a snmalmcase now so must dash///
Best wishes
Bridget

I also had a dress which I really liked, green with a small white floral pattern which I wore whenever possible. Without telling me, my mother gave it to the daughter of someone she knew. I was really upset when I discovered it missing from my wardrobe and wasn't happy egven when told that these people were really struggling - what a spoilt brat I must have been!

It's cool and cloudy here and we had a little drizzle durig the night. We still have water restrictions in force as we have had no rain in the catchment area yet.

Had a friend to lunch yesterday for dessert I made a bread pudding with marmalade and I must say it was very nice. He will be leaving for the UK on Sunday to visit his sister, can't remember where she lives but he will also be going to Wales for a few days with his family.

Enjoy your time in Ireland Bridget, look forward to hearing about your visit.


Val in SA.

The bread pudding sounds yummy Val, I hope that your friend enjoys his time in the U.K. Wales is a lovely country, have you ever been there?

Bridget, enjoy yourself in South-West Ireland. I ahve only been to Ireland four times, on the last occassion I was invited by my sister and brother-in-law, who also took my Mother and my son.
We toured around the country, managing to hook up with some American cousins, who were on a package tour. We met them in Kenmare, and had a lovely meal in a pub/restaurant.
The trouble is that going to Ireland is NOT condusive to weight loss!

My mind has gone blank about special items of clothing at the moment, I will have to stop trying to think of something, then perhaps a memory will pop into my head unbidden.

A light rain here at the moment, hadly even a drizzle, the gardner has come to finish clearing my garden, so hope that the rain doesn't get too bad.

Val, I hope that you get some rain in the catchment areas soon. How strict/stringent are your water restrictions?

Bridget, do you pack a "bare neccessities case" (like my late Mum). or are you like me a "just in case" packer?
Trouble was, my Mum always relied on me having all the added extras she might need! So I had to pack "just in case" items for two! Happy days.

Off to make a cup of coffee for gardener (Joe) and self.
Will try to keep this thread going,

Tess

Hello Tess,

I must admit that I have never been out of South Africa but somewhere I have long wished I could visit is the Lake District, the description sounds lovely and I would love to see Beatrix Potter's home. Of course Henley on Thames, Reading and Southampton the places my ancestors lived are also on my list. One day when I win the Lotto!!!

We are still allowed 400 litres of water per household per day, although we have had a number of visitors since the restrictions were introduced we have managed to stay within the limit because there are hefty fines if we use more. I feel sorry for families with children, I think it is quite difficult for them. I am not a shower person so I am looking forward to the day when I can have a bath in a decent amount of water again! When I was in Grahamstown for my brother's funeral my niece would run my bath for me, lots of water and bubble bath I so enjoyed that.

I have just been to the supermarket to buy milk and butter which were on a special and bought myself a dougnut for tea - all going to the hips no doubt!



Val in SA.
I

The Lake District is beautiful. It rians a lot there, but that is what helps to keep the lakes full and the grass green.
If you Google (or use another search engine).
Derwentwater or Windermere or Keswick or Buttermere or "English Lakes"you are sure to find a lot of pictures.
Wordsworth's Daffodils "I wandered lonely as a cloud" was written in the Lake District.

Is anyone from Europe reading this thread? I have been watching some of The Athletics from Barcelona, reminds me of the Barcelona Olympics.
I am also reading a (fictional) book, set in Spain at the moment. Maybe I need to go out to a Spanish Restaurant just to fully get in the Spanish mood.

Has anyone got stories about Spain to share?

Another day with a little light rain, not enough to give the gardens a good watering though.
Will have to pop off now because as well as watching the Athletics, I am also doing myself a big dish of mashed potatoes! As my board name suggests, I'm not good at sitting still.

Tess

I remember "I wandered Lonely as a Cloud", I understand that the Lake District is the dampest part of the country. I am still waiting to win the Lotto, maybe to-night????? If only!

It is a really windy day here, was very good for drying the washing though just had to make sure everything was firmly pegged to he line.

Popped in to the Craft Market this morning, there were some lovely things there but all I bought was an orange cake and some fudge which will all end up on my hips!!
I must say the stallholders were having quite a job to keep things from blowing away.

My daughter took her 10 month old pup to a dog show to-day, phoned me to say they had won a first, will find out what it is for when she is back in JBay later this afternoon.

Now something not so good - friends of my daughter were robbed in the early hours of the morning, by two men armed with a butcher's knife and a screwdriver. Fortunately neither them nor their 6 year old son were harmed. They were tied up and left in the garage while the robbers made off with a computer, cash and other items. Their son who had been sent to his room by the robbers when he started crying came to their rescue and untied them. No arrests have been made. This used to be such a quiet town but not any more unfortunately. This sort of thing is really scary.


Look after yourselves.


Val. in SA.