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Tag Archives: Suffragette

Mother’s Day, Pigeon and Cake

It’s Mother’s Day here in the UK and I send my love to all Mothers out there, especially to those who cannot be with their Mums today for one reason or another. I have posted the following piece before and it deserves to be here again. Thanks, Pip.

A message of love and compassion to all friends out there on Mother’s Day,, those who do not have their own children, to friends who are estranged from their children or their mothers and to friends who have lost treasured members of their family ... may you find unconditional love in unexpected places and a healthy channel for your own nurturing and creativity to help make the world around you a place where you feel cared for and are seen and known for who you are. x x

I felt very cherished today as we started with a special breakfast prepared by the lovely Mr S, I opened cards, enjoyed my flowers and discovered a very special ginger biscuit from Daughter No 2. I won’t be eating her!

From The Biscuiteers

It’s been bitterly cold again causing one of our resident pigeons to sit fluffing up on the fence.

There was a very delicious sounding recipe from Tamal Ray in The Guardian’s Feast this weekend, It is as delicious as it sounded.

Almond and Berry Traybake with a citrus glaze

Seems to me to be a good day to share the online version of my letter to The Guardian on International Women’s Day.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/07/womens-history-through-the-generations-of-my-family

9 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on March 14, 2021 in baking, Celebration, Happiness, nature, Photography, Postaday2021, Uncategorized

Tags: Almond and Berry Traybake with a citrus glaze, Suffragette, Tamal Ray, The Biscuiteers, Votes for Women

Hayle, Penzance and The Causeway

18 Jul

A Suffragette in Hayle –

Minding the flowers

One of many colourful flags throughout Penzance –

Flag

We were amused by how many people were walking/paddling along the Causeway.

Along the causeway to St Michael’s Mount

A longer view

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 18, 2018 in Cornwall, environment, Photography, Postaday2018

Tags: St Michael's Mount Cornwall, Suffragette

Ball Park, Experiment and ‘Oxygen’, The Play

20 Jun

1 The Grandchildren had a lovely time in the ball-park and Grand-baby T proved to be quite a climber.

Climbing

2 J had fun discovering what his lung capacity might be. The experiment was in one of his books and proved to be great fun to do.

Experiment

3 KJ and I went to see Oxygen, a new play by Natalie McGrath, in Penzance this evening. It was wonderful, moving and totally involving. Many of you who read my blog know that my Great Granny, Granny Wiseman, was a Suffragette who was imprisoned in Holloway and force fed and that we have her Holloway Brooch in the family. I have been brought up to be very proud of her.
Tonight, I am completely overwhelmed by what she and others did to win the vote for women. It is one thing to be told family history, to read novels and non-fiction, but to see it brought alive on stage was something else indeed. I wept in the knowledge that my Great Granny went through this barbaric treatment for her beliefs. If you are anywhere where this play is being performed, do go and see it! The music is moving, the acting superb and the story, beautifully told, one everyone should know.
Venues through the Southwest and all the way up to Hyde Park can be found here.

Holloway brooch

15 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on June 20, 2013 in Dreadnought, family history, History, photography, Postaday2013, Suffragettes, theatre

Tags: Holloway Brooch, Holloway Prison, Natalie McGrath, Oxygen, Suffragette, Suffragists, Votes for Women

Pansy, Skype and A Fundraising Concert

25 Jan

1 The purple and white pansies in my Suffragette garden are doing their best in the bitter cold.

Winter pansy

2 L is visiting D in Barcelona and we Skyped with them both at lunchtime. We don’t often see our twins together so that was lovely.

3 Performed at a fundraiser tonight with one of my choirs,(The Ingleheart Singers), one from Penzance (The Blazing Heart Chorus) and one from Lostwithiel (Lost in Song) It was in aid of Marie Curie nurses and just over £1000 was raised which is brilliant. It was a real treat to hear the other choirs and to have such an appreciative audience.

13 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 25, 2013 in charity, family, gigs, nature, photography, Postaday2013, singing, Uncategorized

Tags: choirs, Lost in Song, Postaday, postaday2013, Skype, Suffragette, The Blazing Heart Chorus, The Ingleheart Singers, twins

Purple, White and Green

10 Sep

1 I had occasion to wear my Suffragette scarf today to honour an old friend. When I wear it, it’s also in honour of my Great Granny.

Facsimile Suffragette Scarf

2 I mentioned last week the Suffragette garden I’m planting. Here is the purple clematis, The President, which has only one flower at the moment. Purple was chosen by the Suffagette Movement to represent dignity.

Clematis -The President

3 We have the white and the green in the Japanese Anenome, particularly beautiful this evening in the dusky light. White stood for purity and green for hope.

White and Green Japanese Anenome

14 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on September 10, 2012 in flowers, nature, Uncategorized

Tags: Postaday, postaday2012, Purple White and Green, Suffragette

Suffragette Garden, Mobile Library and Thomas Hardy

29 Aug

1 We spent a pleasing hour or two choosing beautiful plants for my Suffragette Garden, a small plot in the front which we have just finished clearing. Everything growing in this space will be purple, white or green to honour my Great Granny who was a Suffragette. She was imprisoned in Holloway for her ‘misdeeds’ while fighting for the right for women to vote and we are very proud of her. I have had a Suffragette Garden wherever I have lived.

2 Driving home, we saw a Mobile Library van, stuffed with books and with such a pleasing slogan on the back, “The universe at your fingertips!”

The Mobile Library van travelling around Cornwall

3 The following poem by Thomas Hardy was read this morning at a Humanist Funeral we went to. It was a beautiful and very moving ceremony to celebrate the life, and to mark the untimely death, of the son of friends of ours. The same poem was chosen by my parents for their funerals so it has a particular place in my heart.

Afterwards by Thomas Hardy

When the Present has latched its postern behind my tremulous stay,
And the May month flaps its glad green leaves like wings,
Delicate-filmed as new-spun silk, will the neighbours say,
‘He was a man who used to notice such things’?

If it be in the dusk when, like an eyelid’s soundless blink,
The dewfall-hawk comes crossing the shades to alight
Upon the wind-warped upland thorn, a gazer may think,
‘To him this must have been a familiar sight.’

If I pass during some nocturnal blackness, mothy and warm,
When the hedgehog travels furtively over the lawn,
One may say, ‘He strove that such innocent creatures should come to no harm,
But he could do little for them; and now he is gone.’

If, when hearing that I have been stilled at last, they stand at the door,
Watching the full-starred heavens that winter sees
Will this thought rise on those who will meet my face no more,
‘He was one who had an eye for such mysteries’?

And will any say when my bell of quittance is heard in the gloom
And a crossing breeze cuts a pause in its outrollings,
Till they rise again, as they were a new bell’s boom,
‘He hears it not now, but used to notice such things’

4 Just want to add – thinking of friends in the path of Isaac and hoping for everyone’s safety.

23 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on August 29, 2012 in environment, family, Funeral, garden, Humanist ceremony, literature, poetry, senses, Uncategorized, Words

Tags: Afterwards, Holloway, Humanist Funeral, hurricane, Isaac, Mobile Library, Postaday, postaday2012, Suffragette, Thomas Hardy

Father’s Day, Purple and Singing ‘Soldier’s Farewell’

17 Jun

1 Lovely cards and phone calls today for Mr S and my dear Dad (1916-2004) in my head all day.

2 Purple is one of my favourite colours (along with green – which with white, makes up the Suffragette colours, of which more in another post) Do click on the photo to see the furriness of the centre section, it’s so beautiful!

What’s left when the poppy petals have all dropped

Beautiful French Lavender

I wish you could smell this as well as see it – so lovely.

3 Singing tonight with the Treggies blew a touch of the blues away! We laugh, we sing and we sometimes cry! One song, ‘The Soldier’s Farewell’ is particularly moving and was, apparently, also sung by Cornish tin miners on the station as they were about to emigrate and leave their families far behind.

14 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on June 17, 2012 in family, flowers, garden, home, music, nature, senses, singing

Tags: 'The Soldiers' Farewell', cornish, cornish tin, Dad, dear dad, emigrate, families, Father's Day, french lavender, green, lavender, lovely cards, poppy, Postaday, purple, Suffragette, The Treggies, tin miners, touch of the blues, white

Being Tourists in London, The Cutty Sark and Greenwich

08 May

We’ve had a beautiful day! We’ve been tourists in London, visiting the amazing Cutty Sark and walking around Greenwich so I’m going to tell the story with photos – many more than 3 beautiful things today! Please click on any photo for an enlargement.

The Cutty Sark

The very beautiful keel

Collection of figureheads

: Beautiful rustic sculpture, I guess of the family left behind when the sailor went to sea. There is no plaque to give a name or to attribute the sculptor

Keel

Tea chests on the second deck. It was very odd how we both felt the ship was moving!

The Cutty Sark was brought to Falmouth 1922 in and rescued by the Dowman family

From The Falmouth Times 1922 Catharine Dowman was a Suffragette, like my Great Granny!

Beautiful treads on the steps

They kept pigs on board for fresh meat!

Patched wood

: One Tree Hill, a viewpoint used by many artists including Turner

Squirrel in Greenwich Gardens

: A Triffid perhaps?

Ship in a Bottle at The National Maritime Museum

We’ve gone through The Greenwich Foot Tunnel (not beautiful but very efficient) to see this view of Greenwich from Island Gardens on the North of the river

Riding The Docklands Light Railway was amazing! Do you know, the trains have no drivers!!