I’m doing more sorting and clearing and re-discovered these beautiful pyjamas. I can hardly believe these were in our dressing up box when I was growing up. I just loved them! They were brought home at some point by my Grandfather but sadly I don’t know where he had been or why. Perhaps my cousins will know….. The problem? What to do with them now? Who will love and appreciate them? Please click on any photo to see the detail and the caption.
Category Archives: History
0ne Hundred and Ten Years On
A hundred and ten years ago, seven women from Cornwall started their walk to Hyde Park in support of getting the vote for women. Ten years ago, some of us walked a little of the way to support their memory and today, another group, again led by Claire Ingleheart and Dreadnaught Southwest, walked from Lands End to St Just to commemorate the day.
In the Plen an Gwarry in St Just the walkers met with another hundred people who had come along to sing to honour those women and the thousands that joined them in a rally in Hyde Park. We all sang Oxygen and it was extremely moving as the seven names of those women were remembered. I was so involved I didn’t get many photos but here is a taster and one of me taken by a friend as we were leaving after the most uplifting community event.
Here is a recording of the Ingleheart Singers singing the wonderful rousing song, Oxygen, in Truro Cathedral some time ago. I had just had my hip replaced and was in the audience able to record though I couldn’t sing on that occasion.
Fathers’ Day
Father’s Day started with cards and flowers and breakfast in the garden accompanied by birdsong, the wren being the star of the show.
Over the last few months an historian has been in touch as he puts together a history of the school in Doncaster, Oswin Avenue Secondary School, where my Dad was Headteacher for four years before returning to Cornwall. I have sent him the following photos of my lovely Dad. The first two are photos Dad sent home to Mum while he was away in WW11, with his writing on the back.
The strangest coincidence came to light in our conversation yesterday as we discussed the final draft for the exhibition which will be in Doncaster Museum in the autumn. It turns out that the house we lived in, in Rectory Gardens, was also the home of said historian for 15 years !.
Guest blogger once again!
Hello everybody! It’s LiveWire3, again, and today, we found lots of things. However, the first thing we did was visit Porthtowan to have some very filling brunch in the Blue bar. Granny got some delicious avocado toast. Most of us had avocado toast so the table was full of green!
Afterwards, we went for a short yet satisfying walk around the beach. We stood there for a bit looking at the waves as they splashed onto our smiley faces.
While we were walking back, we noticed clusters of snails lying contently on the leaves. Some of them carried sand with them which gave the bushes some texture. We also noticed that on the fence, there were signs about peaceful protests from history. There was a pop of purple, so we looked closer and it was about the suffragettes. My Great, Great, Great Grandmother was a suffragette so this was very special.
A few hours later, we decided to go to Community Roots to go and get a tour and as I was walking looking at the acre of vegetables, I found a four leafed clover! They are extremely rare and these clovers had a special white border and their leaves were much bigger than any other leaves I have seen!
Near what we thought was the end of the tour, one of the staff told us their was a market full of things people have made and small companies so we had an excuse to stay! The market was amazing, full of colourful and ‘beautful things’. We found an ice cream van with a twist! All the ice cream was plant based so my partly lactose intolerant soul told me to ‘Go and get some ice cream!’ So we did and found these crotchet ice creams hanging over us!
When we got back home we had to rest from a very successful day but then Granny had the idea to go for an evening allotment visit where we replanted some fennel we got gifted from Community roots. It looked very happy in its new home!
John Passmore Edwards in Redruth
The library is now nearer to the town and about 100 people including children from two local schools formed a chain between the two buildings and passed books along. Everyone looked at the titles as the books were passed from hand to hand.

Visit, Lunch and Family History
My cousin and her husband, who live in Australia, have been with us today and what a catch up that was! We think we last met in person when I was 16 and W a little younger. We have kept in touch by email and through this blog. I had made Eccles cakes in her honour as I know how she loves them.
We went to Gylly Beach Cafe for lunch having driven around Castle Drive to see the fine view around the Carrick Roads across to St Mawes and into Falmouth Bay. I took a photo of the Specials board to share and the battery in my camera announced that it was “exhausted.” Hence no more photos of our day together…..
W brought me some treasures – some lovely photos of our shared Grandparents and a photocopy of a page of her father’s autobiography with references to my Mum, here known as Twm, the name her Father gave her that stayed as a nickname. It means Gift from God. The extract describes my Mum’s inventiveness and her delightful sense of mischief. I had never heard this tale from her!
National Elephant Appreciation Day
I have loved elephants for as long as I can remember and have a large collection of carved elephants. We’ve seen herds of beautiful live ones on our many visits to South Africa. I shared this love with my Dear Friend Angie who died last year just before her birthday, a day we also shared. I really miss her.

My Elephant family, representing me and the lovely Mr S, our eldest daughter, our second daughter and our twins, a son and a daughter. The tiny one is the little person we never met but who will always be one of us.
And I wear the ring that Angie left me every day.
Hope, Positivity and Confirmation
We have several daffodil bulbs up and with buds!
My brother has written today to confirm the story I told you yesterday. How Sidney Poitier came to hear of Mum’s work, we don’t know except that she was known within the teaching world for her excellence in teaching deaf children. My brother thinks he had a deaf child himself and wanted to know from the best how to help her.
Exhibitions at Truro Museum
We set off to see the Tony Foster exhibition at Truro Museum and came across two more wonderful rooms. What a day! Firstly we came across a beautiful Kurt Jackson painting.
In the next room we came upon a Welly Dog, aka a Tinners’ Hound, made by David Kemp. Regular readers will know that we have our very own Welly Dog and we love him very much, all the more so as he was a gift from the lovely Bill Mitchell.
Then, a small room full of portraits where we came across a friend, an activist in the XR movement, a brave and beautiful person whom we admire so much. Antonia put me in touch with the photographer, Gavan Goulder, who has very kindly and generously given me permission to share it here along with his words which introduce the exhibition and the words of Antonia herself. Here is the link to his website where the words can be read more clearly and many more rebels and their stories can be found. I am so in awe of the bravery of these people who are fighting for our planet and the futures of our children and grandchildren. We help in the ways we can but I am not brave enough to risk arrest despite my Great Granny being a Suffragette who was force fed in Holloway in her battle to gain the vote for us all. In fact, despite the beauty still to come, this exhibition was the highlight of my day. Thank you to Gavan Goulder and to Antonia.
At last, we came to Tony Foster’s work. We heard him talk many years ago, in the Truro Museum, about his paintings done in the Grand Canyon and the Himalayas and there were some of those paintings here today but the special works for me this morning were the little paintings done during lockdowns, all done in Cornwall on his daily and limited walks. Here are his pieces from the second lockdown, each a painting done in the afternoon following his morning walk, whatever the weather based on the little sketches he made while out. Each sketch has a little commentary. Click on the photo and zoom in and you can, just, read the words. If you, dear Reader, are in Cornwall before Christmas, do go to the museum and revel in all the beauty to be found in there. The staff have done a wonderful job of curating all this loveliness.
Special Discovery
For some time I’ve been thinking I need to clean up the frame of a sweet, hand coloured photo of me at three or four years old, in a smocked dress made by my Mum. It’s a favourite and last week I took the photo out of the frame.
Behind the photo of me, I found two more very special photos of my Mum and Dad in their twenties I am guessing. I had no idea they were there! Aren’t they just the most beautiful couple?