Saturday 30 October 2021

Saturday

 Good morning, everyone.  It's a dull old morning again and we've had overnight rain.  Yesterday started sunny and then the clouds blew over and it absolutely poured.  I was very glad I wasn't going anywhere.

Thank you very much for all your kind messages.  I'm feeling much more me this morning, thank goodness.  The back is much easier and all the aches seem to have gone.  
I spent a lot of yesterday dozing, on and off, and when I wasn't dozing, I was knitting and watching telly.

The knitting is growing rapidly now and I have sussed out how the front works with the front bands included.  It's knitted all in one, up one side, shape the shoulders (no neck shaping, it just seems to happen), carry on with the band rib around the back, then cast on the shoulders and knit down to the bottom of the other side.  I've never done that before so - well, we will see, won't we?

Another little treasure I brought back from Dad's is something that belonged to my Dad's dad, my Grampy.  He died suddenly in September, 1970 at the age I will be next year (eeek), a few weeks before I left home for college, but I do remember him quite well.  He was a lovely chap and, in his time, a very successful and hard working owner of his own business in partnership with a friend.  As it was in Kettering, it was boot and shoe related, of course, just as my Mum's dad had a boot and shoe related business.  They were not connected. - Mum and Dad met through the church.

Anyway, Beth and I found this little book tucked away in the office bureau drawer.


On the inside of the front cover it says "From the Y. M. C. A. Hut, Dec. 5th 1918  Fulham Military Hospital and on the facing page, all the addresses he, Nanna and my Dad lived.  I don't mind showing them, there's none of my family there now and they are just addresses.
Grampy, like so many of the young men who fought in WWI, never, ever spoke about it, not to anyone, even Nanna and Dad, so I can only guess of the traumas he suffered and why he was in a military hospital just after the end of the Great War.
There is no way I could have let this treasure see the inside of the bin.  It will go into my memory box and when I go, Beth will treasure it too.

Today I'm not going to push things.  In spite of everything, I achieved some things.  There's a goodly collection of Delia's sausage rolls in the freezer now and there's some raspberry gin and blackcurrant vodka steeping in bottles, to be shaken every day for a fortnight and them popped away in a dark place.  In about a month or so, I will need to strain out the fruit as the pips tend to give a woody flavour if left in too long.
The blackcurrants were from Chris, picked from her bushes, so she will get some of them back in drinkable form!

So I might do some ironing, I might do some housework, but that chances are I will watch telly, knit and snooze.  As Beth and Al are round for Sunday dinner tomorrow, I will do a bit of prepping for that too but, all in all, another very easy day!

7 comments:

  1. Hey Joy, I just live the way everyone wrote beautifully in the olden days - it’s just so beautiful. What a lovely find. Sorry to hear you been achy and painy and can’t wait to see your knitting x

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  2. Isn't it nice to see little handwritten notes, or names and address in books. I always hold onto treasures like this.

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  3. That little book is a treasure indeed! I’m glad your back is feeling better.

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  4. So glad to hear that you're feeling better. Your Grampy's book is a little treasure ... it's seeing his handwriting that makes it so special and for that alone it earns its place in your memory box. xx

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  5. Such lovely writing.

    I have/had 4 uncles who fought in WWII who never spoke about what they saw or did while overseas.

    God bless.

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  6. Thanks, everyone. The handwriting is, indeed, lovely. The first entries are Grampy's writing while the last one, the Kingsley Ave one is my Nanna's writing. It's lovely to have both.
    xx

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