Tag Archive | granny

Where I am from…

Nov2

I am from the chimes from the village church clock, from gravy on chips and beef-dripping on toast.
I am from the farm hand’s tied cottage, always moving from farm to farm.
I am from the wheat fields, the hay bales and stacks which were the playgrounds of my early years.
I am from the love of food and from ample backsides, from Granny Massingham and Granny Pell and generations of wise women.
I am from a world where our elders are our lifeline as well as the line of our life. I’m from where respect was given in equal measure with love.
From ‘It’s not what you said, it’s the way you said it’ and ‘Do as you would be done by’ and ‘Because I said so!’.
I am from living with the seasons and understanding their power, from scrumping crab apples and getting tummy ache.

I’m from the bike tyres stuffed with pages of the Sun when Granddad couldn’t find a new inner-tube, and the typewriter in the back yard that we used to play with in summer.
I’m from Gardeners and Bee-keepers, Railway-men and Bakers, Cattle-men, teenage mums, soldiers and Gypsies.
I am from artists who never knew their worth and story-tellers who never wrote things down. I’m from the sound of songs sung like lullabies, no matter what the words.
I’m from brothers, six, and a sister, long-awaited. I’m from much that overrides the fears and the traumas.
I’m from Aunties and Uncles, cousins aplenty, grandparents whose word was law, yet who we loved more than life.
I’m from the love of a man, whose love I can never hope to live up to, though I return it spades and try for all I’m worth.
I’m from all that life has dealt me, good, bad and ugly.

This is based on a poem by George Ella Lyon.  A template for you to have a try too can be found here.

I first saw an adaptation here, and am very grateful for the idea.

Blogging hiatus is ended… Knitting has begun!

Sep20

I have notably been absent from my blog for a little while, and I apologise.  My writing channel was diverted into producing a 3000 word essay for an End-of-Module assessment of one of my Open University courses and it pretty much drained all the juice I could muster for a while.

However… I’m back!

Next week sees the start of yet another OU module, but this time one which should see me posting even more here, as it is another Creative Writing module.  I hope to be able to share some of my scribbling with all of you on the ‘Writing’ page in due course (or ‘module’ as the OU now call it).

During my absence, and out of the necessity to find a space in mind to write 3000 seemingly unending words about ethics in end-of-life care, I have hunted out my knitting needles.  apart from one small hat when my grandson was new-born, this is the first time in about 15 years that I have knitted and completed a whole garment, nay two!

One completed jumper and hat

Here is the evidence – I bare my knitting and my soul to one and all :)

I have also knitted a pair of elbow length gloves in the past week, but they were knitted for someone else and I forgot to take a pic before sending them, about which I am somewhat irked.  Never mind, I’ll not forget again.

Next up is another hat, a striped one methinks this time, and also a Work-in-Progress, is a lacy top for teen-daughter although the summer is now past so I hope it will fit her for next.

In the planning stages, are birthday cakes galore (forgot to mention earlier that during the hiatus I had my birthday, I am now on the downward slope from 40 toward 50).  A very large 50th birthday cake for a friend and helping No.1 daughter with dear grandson’s 1st birthday cake in a few weeks time.  Photos will follow of course.

I am learning much about WordPress and hope to learn more so that your blog-reading experience becomes better here as time passes, still much more to learn – shame that there are no more hours in the day!

Till next time dear readers, TTFN

 

Toys + Nostalgia = Granny-itis Hits Again

Aug3
Toys have once again become a part of my life.  Not the teen type toys that my younger kids still have, or the Lego that never dies, but baby toys.  Toys like shape sorters and rattles and Duplo.  Teething rings that you put in the fridge which then leak anyway once your little one sinks their first pearly whites into them.  Teddies and other soft toys made of garishly coloured fabrics with incessant noises emanating from them at inopportune moments.  You know the ones – all you mums know the ones I’m talking about.
I had cleared most of the ones in our house about two years ago, when I finally admitted that we no longer had babies in the house, but now of course, we have our grandson, and the toys are quietly breeding whilst they are in the toy bag at night.  I swear that each time I tip them out; there are more in it than last time I looked.  I have no idea (honest!!!!) of where they are coming from, except for the occasional suspicious looking bag coming home from car boot sales or trips into town.  They are multiplying oh so very slowly but surely.
Last weekend, an attack of Granny-itis struck whilst we were out and a shape-sorter ball came home with us.  I felt a pang of nostalgia for the old Tupperware one that my kids had about twenty five years ago, and a pang of guilt for having shipped it off to a charity shop in the clear out two years ago.  Then a little later in the morning, I found one of these lovely toys with wire frames in board, onto which coloured wooden beads have been threaded.  It was accompanied by cries of ‘Mum look – I remember playing with one of these when I was little,’ and ‘Darling nephew would love one of these Mum!’  So I was powerless to resist, would you have been able to deprive such a great little chap of the chance to make the same memories that you and your kids have?
I admit it – I’m a sucker!  But I feel totally justified because the little man concerned loved them when he was here with us yesterday.  He got his uncles to play with the shape sorter for him – just to show him how to do it of course.  He pushed and pulled at the bead frame, then made eyes at his uncles till they showed him what to do with it.  They even went and found a few dinky cars for him to fill with dribble!  Aren’t they the best uncles ever!
I wonder if any of you other grandmas and mums out there have also been sucked in by nostalgia when buying toys?  Make a comment on this posting and share with us.