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Category Archives: Suffragettes

Two Stations, Saying Goodbye and Garden

I hope the Flowers in May, posted for your delectation, have pleased you. I scheduled them all, taken just before we went away for a long needed break – a train journey to Amsterdam with friends. Over the next week or two I’ll share photos from then.

St Pancras station where we caught the Eurostar

Amsterdam Centraal

While we were away on our long planned train trip to Amsterdam, the funeral of our Dear friend and breakfast companion, J, took place. As we very sadly couldn’t be there to say goodbye and to sing for him with my choir, my lovely choir leader offered to take something precious of mine so that a part of me would be there.
I chose a small ribbon in purple, white and green that Daughter no 3 gave me some time ago. J appreciated my suffragette history and so it seemed an appropriate token to represent me last week.

Grown well in our absence

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 14, 2026 in architecture, environment, friendship, nature, Netherlands, Postaday 2026, Suffragettes, travel

Tags: Amsterdam

Family History, Daisy Hat, A Poem and A Song

07 Apr

On this day in 1909, my Great Grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Wiseman, Suffragette, aged 53, was arrested in London having thrown stones to break windows. Subsequently she was imprisoned in Holloway, went on hunger strike, was force fed and was awarded the Suffragette Portcullis Brooch in recognition of her courage.

I bought a new sun hat!

For some reason the following words came into my mind today and then I remembered that Pete Seeger gave the words some music.

from Ecclesiastes

3 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on April 7, 2026 in family, music, poetry, Postaday 2026, singing, Suffragettes, Uncategorized

Tags: Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, Turn Turn Turn

Sunflower, Hallelujah and Trees

03 Oct

The Suitcase Singers, one of the choirs I sing with, have been loving learning this beautiful Peter Amidon arrangement of Hallelujah,. We can’t wait to learn the next verse! Do have a listen.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1754910295195936

After a lovely, animated breakfast out with friends, I took these photos on the way home. The trees are just beginning to turn.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on October 3, 2025 in Cornwall, environment, friendship, music, nature, Postaday2025, singing, Suffragettes

Tags: 19th Amendment, National Gallery of Art, Peter Amidon, The Suitcase Singers, Womens Suffrage

0ne Hundred and Ten Years On

19 Jun

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.

Posy made by one of my choir friends

The walkers arrive

On a street in St Just

I’ve had the most wonderful afternoon, here wearing my facsimile scarf.

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.

3 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on June 19, 2023 in community, Cornwall, Dreadnought, friendship, photography, Postaday 2023, singing, Suffragettes, Uncategorized

Tags: Suffragette history, Suffragist walk

Guest blogger once again!

07 May

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!

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Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 7, 2023 in allotment, community, crochet, Eating out, environment, photography, Porthtowan, Postaday 2023, Suffragettes

Exhibitions at Truro Museum

08 Oct

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.

7 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on October 8, 2021 in art, Beauty, Cornwall, painting, Photography, Postaday2021, sculpture, Suffragettes, Truro

Tags: Bill Mitchell, David Kemp, Gavan Goulder, Kurt Jackson, The Tinners' Hounds, Welly dog

Singing, A Toothbrush and A Cartoon

21 Jun

In 2013 some of our choir walked from Lands End to St Just, inspired by the March of the Women, 100 years before, who walked from Land’s End to London demanding Votes for Women. Tonight, in the atrium of the Eco Park we sang March of the Women, conducted by our leader, Claire, using a toothbrush.

Ethel Smyth’s rousing March of the Women was composed in 1910 to words by Cicely Hamilton, with a tune adapted from a traditional Italian melody. Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) introduced it as the official anthem of the Women’s Social and Political Union and it became associated with the suffrage movement more generally. Info from the British Library

In 1911 it was sung on Pall Mall in celebration of the release from prison of a number of activists. The following year, the conductor Thomas Beecham (1879–1961) apparently heard it sung in Holloway Prison, where Smyth and Pankhurst were imprisoned and it is said that Ethel Smyth conducted the imprisoned women singing at their windows, using her toothbrush as a baton. Some of you know that my Great Granny was a Suffragette imprisoned and force fed in Holloway. I like to think she may have known and sung this song.

Two of our lovely choir members with whom I sing in the tenor section. I have permission to use their photos in my blog post.

There was a rueful smile when I saw this cartoon.

Covid rules in England say choirs can only sing outdoors in groups of no more than 30, all socially distanced. Have you seen/heard any football matches recently? 🙂

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on June 21, 2021 in community, family history, friendship, Humour, Photography, Postaday2021, singing, Suffragettes

Tags: 'March of the Women' by Ethel Smythe and C.Hamilton, Mount Pleasant Eco Park, Purple White and Green

Steely Sea, Posters and A Poem

15 Nov

We decided that our walk today need to be by the sea but when we got there the sun had gone in, the wind was wild and cold and damp, the sea was grey and we didn’t stay long.

Along the path to the beach is a very pleasing timeline of protest. Today I give you the first few….

I subscribe to Poem-a-Day and today this beautiful lullaby arrived in my inbox. Many of the poems that arrive are not in the public domain and are still in copyright so I can’t share them with you but this one is available so here you are. I think it’s very lovely.

A Mojave Lullaby by Bertrand N. O. Walker

Sleep, my little man-child,
Dream-time to you has come.In the closely matted branches
Of the mesquite tree,
The mother-bird has nestled
Her little ones; see
From the ghost-hills of your fathers,
Purpling shadows eastward crawl,
While beyond the western sky-tints pale
As twilight spreads its pall.

The eastern hills are lighted,
See their sharp peaks burn and glow,
With the colors the Great Sky-Chief
Gave your father for his bow.
Hush my man-child; be not frighted,
‘Tis the father’s step draws nigh.
O’er the trail along the river,
Where the arrow-weeds reach high
Above his dark head, see
He parts them with his strong hands,
As he steps forth into view.
He is coming home to mother,
Home to mother and to you.

Sleep my little man-child,
Daylight has gone.
There’s no twitter in the branches,
Dream-time has come.

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on November 15, 2020, by the Academy of American Poets.

1 Comment

Posted by mybeautfulthings on November 15, 2020 in Cornwall, Photography, poetry, Porthtowan, Postaday2020, Suffragettes, Uncategorized

Tags: A Mojave Lullaby, Academy of American Poets., Bertrand N. O. Walker, civil disobedience, Emmeline Pankhurst, Poem-a-day, Votes for Women

Viola, Path and Mask

25 Jun

The colours in these tiny Violas are fabulous.

The pots up the steps to the garden are overflowing with blooms.

I have a new mask in Suffragette colours.I bought this one from the Radical Tea Towel Company.

Thank you Dear Readers and Followers – I now have 2,500 Followers!

1 Comment

Posted by mybeautfulthings on June 25, 2020 in garden, Photography, Postaday2020, Suffragettes

Tags: radical tea towel company

Anniversary, Garden and Singing

19 Jun

Today marks the anniversary of the Great 1913 Women’s Pilgrimage starting in the South West where women walked from Land’s End to Hyde Park demanding their right to vote and to be acknowledged as citizens.

Dreadnought began with this inspirational story of courage and rage, and we marked the centenary of the pilgrimage by touring a new play Oxygen in 2013 to the places the women had stopped and rallied one hundred years earlier. My choir leader, Claire Ingleheart wrote the music for the play, “Oxygen” and many of the choir turned up to sing at Land’s End prior to walking the first few miles of the walk together.

My Suffragette garden has the right colours at the right moment! My regular readers will know that my Great Granny, Mary Wiseman, was a Suffragette, was force fed in Holloway Prison and received the portcullis brooch from Mrs Pankhurst for her struggles. I am very proud of her, hence my garden and my tattoo.

Here’s a recording of The Ingleheart Singers singing Oxygen in Truro Cathedral. I’m not amongst them as I was recovering from a replacement hip op but I was able to record it for you.