Sewing Machines

Found this little image on the web somewhere today:-

Boy! did it bring back some memories!

Here in England most of these Treadle machines were made by Singer Sewing Company,and my Mother had one just like this one.  It was made from a beautiful wood which she polished and dusted regularly.  She would often spend hours sitting there with her feet going up and down on the treadle.  She kept buttons in the bottom drawer and often took the drawer out and put it on the table so that I could play with the buttons.
Later on she bought a hand sewing machine, just the top and with the same wooden case but with a small handled wheel on the right.  This never had the magic of the treadle but when we moved house in 1957 it was the hand model that came with us.

We often spoke of the poor old treadle and during the 1970s she gave me the hand model and bought a shiny electric machine.  I made most of the girls clothes on this sewing machine as well as curtains, bedlinen etc.

Then my MIL moved out of Birmingham to Ullenhall and offered me a treadle machine, which I did not refuse!  When I got it home, after much moaning from ON, and had a good look at it I found it was in a sad state of repair.  I was not discouraged!
I quickly stripped down as much as I could and cleaned and polished that wood till it shone!  I found a sewing machine repair shop that could supply me with a new belt and bobbins and I was away!  My poor little hand model was relegated to the loft and my 'new' Treadle took pride of place.

When I left that house, I only took the hand model with me.......... my beautiful treadle stood sad and neglected, but I wasn't allowed to take it with me, although it was a gift to me, as ON said he needed it to mend the children's clothes.
I never knew how he would do that as I had the bobbins, the leather strap for the treadle and a couple of the brass drawer handles that had fallen off!!
Years later the Treadle machine was taken along with everything else and was never seen again (another story).

So my little hand model was my lifeline again, making dresses, curtains and covers etc during my life in my flat.
Then it moved with me to my present house and, sadly, is relegated to the loft again.



 I bought a new electric sewing machine about 15 years ago.




It is only the Treadle that stirs up such warm memories ............

Apple Tree and bushes

The Doctor says I'm fine and to slowly start getting back to speed again......... that's a tonic in itself!

So we came home, donned gardening boots and up the garden we went.  We washed and refilled the bird feeders and PJ rearranged them.

While he did that I started pruning the apple tree.  It hasn't been done for a couple of years and, as anyone who knows me, I can't stand having the bushes and trees too tall to reach.  I am short enough so they can't grow taller than me, well maybe a foot but THAT'S IT!  

So the apple tree (just in front of the straw) is now a short fat tree with green socks on.  lol
I know it is a funny shape but there are three kinds of apple on that trunk, Cox's Orange Pippin, Golden Delicious and Blenheim Orange.  Thankfully PJ only likes the Golden Delicious which I am not keen on so all the apples get eaten!

I also managed to prune a few bushes down the side, PJ moving into the greenhouse and clearing that out.  



It is now having a Sulphur Bomb soaking so that all the bugs and fungus dies.  Last year's tomato crop was real bad, we know everybody else also had a bad crop, but we want to try and make sure that this year is better.  The greenhouse is filled with the foul smelling smoke, but it can only be good........... can't it?






I have found a piece of knitting I started many years ago, it is beginning to worry me that I can't remember who for, but as the wool, needles and pattern are altogether in the bag .............. where the finished pram quilt is I do not know!!  ho! ho!  

Time for a barbie methinks .... PJ's little face lit up when I happened to mention that ....... just hope it doesn't rain, not that that will stop him!!!

Snow and Doctors doctoring.

The snow came back, rather thickly laid around but now it is raining and so the snow leaves us again, as silently as it came.  What was white is now black and ............. yuk!

I have tried to get back to see the Doctor for my results but was told that I would have to phone on the 25th as all appointments were taken until then.
I know it has only been a week since my ECG but the nurse did tell me it only took a couple of days for the results to come through.  I wrote a letter to the Dr explaining that I hadn't forgotten to make an appointment, it was just that I couldn't get one until the 25th.  That was on Friday.
On Monday his secretary rang and I explained what had happened and she said the the Dr had marked my results OK, so we decided that I didn't really need to see him after all.
She rang back on Monday afternoon, but  I had left my phone in the craftroom so didn't hear it ring.
She rang again on Tuesday afternoon, I am not worried, everything's ok.  There must be a change of plan so I will ring her on Wednesday.
I rang her today and lo! that darling man DOES want to see me, he wants to do some more tests.
Now I am worried.
I think I have a Doctor who cares.
I shall go on Friday morning - yes! I know that it isn't the 25th but the Doctor's Secretary found an appointment in his diary for me ........ haven't I always said that PA's are wonderful!!!!
BTW
I have learnt today that robins are very territorial creatures.  Our little bird has been chasing the bluetits away from both the apple tree food and the hanging food.  Maybe that's why it has a red breast!!!

MIA but possibly not anymore

Sorry I haven't been posting.  I have had a new aquisition (N's laptop is back with me) that didn't really work properly, well it worked and was adequate but ................. it couldn't access the internet.  Not good for those who know me!!!

I have been busy though, trying to make it access the web .......... taking it into repair shop who found nothing wrong with it!  Trying to access the internet and now, it will access the internet but..... only if I switch the router off then on again!!  Don't ask me - man made - so hopefully I can now surf away to my hearts content, once I have transferred all my pictures etc. to my external - anybody got a spare external hard drive to give me?  he! he!

I have managed to finish one more square and started another - trying to keep ahead.........Nah! not really, got fed up of knitting my Aran cardigan.  

The story is this:- when I was first married to PJ I knitted him this gorgeous Aran jumper, which turned out a tadge too big (fits him now!) but he didn't say anything and added it to his jumper box  - we were only married a couple of years.  I always wanted to knit myself one so about three years ago, N bought me the wool and needles for my Christmas or birthday pressie.  Must of been Christmas................ as I remember starting it and wanting to finish it for the next winter.  So I decided to do a zip-up cardigan (no need to knit those interminably long thin bands for the button and buttonholes, clever thinking eh!!)
I finished the Back two weeks ago, can I just say the pattern instructions must be wrong cos it's not the same as the picture.......
So I started the Left Front, while I was watching Time Team searching for the sites of Henry Tudor's castles (King Henry VIII) did you know he had 55 castles in his lifetime?  I continued knitting - and following the pattern - while I watched 'The Last Samurai' a film I really enjoy - and, to be frank, I unpicked and knitted that many times I gave up, put it away and painted a few digis for my cards.
Those finished I then started another square.
And ..................
Here's another thing I have learnt - medical science has not stood still while I have been away.
I went for my ECG last Monday, once the wires were attached, press a few buttons and 30 seconds later  - all done.  I queried whether all the information would be there but the Nurse assured me it was.  
Last time I had this test (20 odd years ago) it took a couple of hours.  Mind you, I was in A&E (ER to our friends in the USA) and they did have a life threatening case come into the next cubicle.  Nothing was wrong with me but I always say that prayer was needed for that patient and I had nothing to do but pray for them.  So I did.  Two hours but they survived.
I think I'll go and make a few cards..............

Les Miserables............film

I eventually went  ...... tried to keep an open mind ............. but where do I begin?

The sets and locations blew me away - I was expecting large, big, bigger but ....wow!  they were magnificent.  In my opinion it was worth going just to see them.









Bits had been added and bits left out but in my opinion this made the story more coherent.  The actors were magnificent, I have to say, as I did not expect much in the way of singing.  I knew that Hugh Jackman and Ann Hathaway could sing as I had heard them on the radio.

So shall we start with  the cast list  - remembering this is only my opinion -

Hugh Jackman - Jean Valjean

 Excellent - could not fault his acting or singing

Russell Crowe - Javert

Disappointing start, what I expected but......... but........ when it came to his main songs - WOW! - that man can sing!

 Anne Hathaway - Fantine

Excellent again

Isabelle Allen - Young Cosett

one of the best performance, singing wise, I have seen




Eddie Redmayne - Marius
Amanda Seyfried - Cosette

Lovely performances, excellent voices

Baron Cohen - Thenardier
Helena Bonham Carter - Madame Thenardier

good performances but not as 'up front' as in the stage shows so I was a little disappointed.

Aaron Tveit - Enjolras

Great voice, made it easier to understand why the students supported him although the few Irish accents in some of the students came as a shock!!!



and then there was this man..............

To you who are not fanatical Les Mis fans..........

This is the man who brought the role of Valjean to the stage in 1985.


I am so very pleased that Colm Wilkinson has been included in this film, he is soooo much a part of this show.  He has played various roles, when I saw him he was playing Javert!  His voice is ...............

Wikipedia tells it like this - 
The London production of Les Misérables opened in October 1985, and transferred to Broadway in March 1987.  Originally, the American Actors' Equity Association refused to allow Wilkinson to play the part of Valjean in New York, due to their policy of hiring only American actors.  At this, producer Cameron Mackintosh refused to open the show unless Wilkinson played Valjean, and Actors' Equity relented. 

Altogether an enjoyable time.  I would certainly go and see it again ........... hint ....hint

It rained and now we have sunshine!

What a joy!

I had forgotten what my poor tired garden looked like!

It rained all the snow away overnight on Saturday and my poor garden .............

I have managed to get round most of it this morning  - in the sunshine - and it looks as though the majority of my plants survived their blanket of snow.

I  hope to be back later but at the moment I am sitting stitching..........

Snow, snow ...........

At first snow is good, we all stop what we are doing to watch the magic of snow.  Then we go out in it and it is wonderful - unless you are not prepared and still wearing high heeled sandals and flimsy clothes!!  


When the sun comes out, or under the street lights at night,  everything sparkles as though there is a layer of sequins or diamonds splashed about on top.  Still magical even with the black line that is a road cutting through it all.




But when the snow becomes a blizzard ................





and starts to cover everything with inches of the white stuff ...........



then it is no longer nice.....pretty.........soft............lovely.  
It becomes too deep.  


Now I know there are others in the world who go up down to -49C but they are USED to it, we are not........ every one in the UK will agree with that one!!

We have poor animals ....... 



stupid yes! but it's still a shame.........

They feel the need to go.........



Then there are (in my opinion) the very stupid who should know better!! 


 I ask you!  

look at that!!      (in the red circle)

 it's a shame that at 75years old ish he should feel the need to do this........
in a blizzarding snow!




So here we are  - left with this.......... bearing in mind I am viewing it from the house, I don't go out in it ....... I might fall and I can do without that thank you very much!!  

So I view the snow and the animals and the STUPID people............... 



and my poor garden whose bordering fence has almost disappeared,







 whose plant pots have hats while everything else gets buried.




whose tree is decorated with snow yet in a few months will bear racemes of yellow blossoms


whose bird bath stands frozen............
 because although we traipse up the garden to fill the food hangers(tucked in the bushes at the very bottom of the garden),  we cannot unfreeze the bath.............. we place small containers of water hanging from the bushes alongside the food, in the hope it won't freeze.




I only take these photos so that I can look at them in the summer heat and remember............

GG and the sixties

GG used to  meet his friends up the pub on a Friday night, they had a few bevvies and then moved on to another pub, nothing unusual back then.  

One night they noticed a couple of girls sitting at one of the tables playing cards, they were there most Fridays afterwards, maybe there before but never noticed.
GG was egged on by his friends to go over and chat them up, TB defo wanted to meet them.  He was tall, blonde, not particularly good looking but laughed a lot.  AH was shorter and quieter while GG was tall, slim and dark haired.  Sometimes CP met up with them, he was shorter with dark curly hair.
GG went over to the girls and asked what cardgame they were playing and the boys were in!!  For the next month or so, they met up and played cards, the girls playing Gin until the boys arrived when Brag was the game of the moment.
One night GG asked the girls if they would like a lift home as he had his car and before one of them left he had asked to see her the next week.  They went to another pub and chatted most of the night but as she had to be in by  22.00hrs the night finished early.  GG and the girl continued to see each other, making up a foursome with TB and his girlfriend on occasion.  They travelled out to places during the summer months, visiting Cheddar Gorge, Banbury, Stratford etc.  Life was good.  
Some time before all this GG had a motorcycle accident which left him with metal plates in his head and in his left arm but now worked for a sweet company in the wages office.  The tendons on the right side of his neck had also been damaged (the pressstud of his jacket embedded there) which left him unable to lift and bend his arm.  He had managed to learn to write left handed, drive a car; his hair had grown back and the large scar on his arm was slowly fading.  He introduced the girl to his parents, she took him home to meet hers and they continued to go out together.

Snow, snow and more snow

I know that we don't have it as bad as some - checking out Ice Pilots - but it sure does cause some chaos.

We had to go out this a.m.  in the car, just a lickle jaunt to the Drs and ....... honestly...... do people not know the highway code?   Note 231   We could not get home quick enough but the Good Lord brought us through.

I have found my comments page today and have been sorting through and ......... wow!.......... 195 spams.     what!            when!          Oh! my goodness!  
Not the way I was going to spend a few hours today but it had to be done ............. hit that delete button, and again, and again...........

sorry folks, I am still learning this blogger thingy

but now I know they are there ...............

Cottage pie for tea, slightly curryfied - the gravy is spiced up a bit!  Not hot but close and for pudding ......... ginger cake and custard - hey!  it's cold here ..................... and ginger is good for you.