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Category Archives: family

Treasures and A Poem

We are gradually getting our utility room, aka Sun Room with its wide new window, back in order and have put some of the things back on the walls. One of these is an old print tray that I have used for special treasures, every one of which has a story.

Tomorrow, all the family will arrive for a  five day celebration of my birthday! This morning I read the following poem which reminded me of a fascinating fact I learned many years ago. Baby girls are born with all the eggs they will ever have, meaning a female foetus develops these future eggs while still in her mother’s womb, creating a fascinating biological link where a grandmother carried her future granddaughter as an immature egg inside her yet-to-be-born daughter.  So, tomorrow with two daughters arriving with their daughters, this poem reminds us of our very special connection.

 

 
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Posted by on December 29, 2025 in art, family, paper, poetry, Postaday2025

 

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The Nutcracker and My Dad

Today Daughter no 2 and her daughter, LiveWire no 3 went to see The Nutcracker at The Royal Ballet and Opera House in London  and this evening we have been to see the livestream of the same performance. It was wonderful and I love the idea that, despite being hundreds of miles apart, we have just shared the ballet experience together.

Today too, I remember my wonderful Dad who died on this day in 2004 after a very hard nine months and his final, even harder ,17 days in St John’s Hospice in Doncaster. where he, and I, were extremely well looked after with love and understanding.

 

Colouring, Cake and Christmas Lights

We bought a delightful Advent calendar for one of our LiveWires, the Wild Advent Colouring Book – British Wildlife Edition, and she has been sending us the pictures as she colours them in. We love her precision and care.

 

Tomorrow’s cake for the volunteers is a lemon sponge in the shape of a Christmas tree.

I’m loving the effect of my trying to take Christmas lights from a moving car, being driven by my lovely Mr S.

 

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Kite, Candle Snuffer and Chocolates

We’ve been sorting out lots of the toys kept for LiveWires and have been deciding where they are all to go now everyone has grown out of them. The kite has been claimed by our son for his twins, LiveWires 5 and 6. It came to us many years ago from family in America and was much loved and well used. I even have the original instructions that came to us in about 1983, such an unusual personalised present that the kids all loved and which gave the whole family lots of fun.

Our old silver candle snuffer is being used every day when the advent candle has burned the day’s date away.

We have an advent calendar that gives us two little truffles each day – a calendar for couples!

P.S. The big storm that is battering Cornwall and much of the UK today has been named Bram.  In Cornish, Bram  means ‘fart’ which has amused many of us as we hear the howling winds.

 

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On This Day……

On this day in 1937, two young students’ eyes met across a crowded cafeteria at Manchester University as my Mum noted in her diary. She was doing a special qualification in the teaching of deaf children and Dad was, that year, President of the Student Union and her diary records their meeting almost every day for months. They married on September 2nd 1939 and their four children had 12 children between them who have gone on to have another four, That’s twenty humans on this planet as a result of that chance meeting – love at first sight! The diary is, of course, a family treasure.

 
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Posted by on November 19, 2025 in family, family history, Postaday2025

 

A Letter, A Book Club and Threads

I wrote a letter to The Guardian yesterday in answer to someone belonging to a book club but who couldn’t read each book in only four weeks.   They published it today, and I discovered this evening that 15 people have joined the ShelterBox book club as a result of reading my letter! I am delighted.

I needed some red thread to mend my red leather wallet so went to my Mum’s cotton collection and found one to match, of course! I have kept the drawers from the sewing cabinet my Grandpa made for her to her design when she was eighteen. That was in 1933 – I’ve never worked that out before.   Almost every reel is wooden and one has the price on it, 23p.
 
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Posted by on October 15, 2025 in family, Postaday2025, sewing, Uncategorized

 

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Reflections, National Poetry Day and A Flower

Before going in to sing this morning, this beautiful sight greeted us.

It being National Poetry Day, I’ve just spent a happy half hour reading poems and finding one for you, Dear Reader, to mark the day. I’ve chosen this one from the book, Being Human edited by Neil Astley, a wonderful collection.. It seems to me to be just right for the time we are in right now.

It’s October 2nd, a family date always remembered as it’s my older brother’s birthday, more poignant today as he died suddenly in July.

 

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Dawn, Sweet Peas and Japanese Anemones

I haven’t been up to see the dawn for a very long time but the family were leaving early for their long drive home so I caught the gorgeous peachy clouds of the morning. The house is now too quiet.

Our Sweet Peas are still gorgeous. I’ve taken a photo today as Cornwall has a yellow weather warning for heavy rain overnight so they may not be as lovely tomorrow.

The Japanese Anemones are lovely too, today.

 

Buttons, Knitting and Some Advice

I found both the patience and the time this afternoon to sew up another of the little jackets I am knitting for babies in Ukraine. I have three more knitted and all in pieces but so dislike sewing up that they’ve been waiting a while.  Happily the truck going to Ukraine isn’t going for a while.  I am using the mother-of-pearl buttons that were my Grandfather’s sample ones when he was a button salesman in the 1920s so they are 100 years old! It gives me enormous pleasure to handle them, to sew them on and to make every little jacket extra special.

Note to self from Sallie G – she’s right!

 

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Kindness Calendar, Coincidences and Sweetcorn

From Action for Happiness: “In a world that feels divided, kindness is a quiet but powerful act of hope. Whether you’re supporting a friend, helping a stranger, or simply listening with care, your actions matter. Every kind choice makes a difference.”

We went today to have the staples removed from my lovely Mr S’s new knee and had really interesting conversations with the two nurses who looked after him. They asked where we lived and when we said where, the older one said she’d been to St Euny Church just near us, to see a wonderful production in the churchyard in 2017.  That was our Until the Day Break! She said she absolutely loved it and that now she views graveyards in a very different light and likes to think of the real stories behind each gravestone.  If the production is new to you Dear Reader, check it out on the red links here.

The second coincidence was that when we were asked where we used to teach and said Doncaster, the younger Nurse said her father had been to Uni there at the old School for the Deaf as he is profoundly deaf. My Mum trained at that school in the 1930s but even more coincidental was the fact that when a youngster, her dad was taught at the special unit for deaf children at Roskear School in Camborne and it was my Mum who set up the unit and who would have taught him!  Ellie, the nurse is going to ask him if he remembers Mrs Wiseman. One of her old pupils commented on my blog when I wrote about my Mum and her work here.

Our Sweetcorn is coming along well, flowers on almost every 5′ high plant and some tassels indicating a cob getting ready.

 

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