Alphabe-Thursday F is for Ferries

At least one person I know is going to know where this is leading. As I think about ferries I find myself wandering off into all sorts of nostalgia.


REEDHAM FERRY

Reedham Ferry is just down the road from the house where my mother's cousin and his wife used to live in a place called Nogdam End, Norton Subcourse (I haven't included the name of the house, although he sadly passed away some time ago and his wife doesn't live there any more) It is a funny little boat that is pulled across the river on a big chain and saves a trip of about 30 miles. It takes ages and you can go on foot or by car. This is a post card of the old ferry, I think there is a newer one now. All very unhurried because it saves nearly an hour of driving. When I was a lot younger I used to go to our cousin's house and have wonderful meals and drink their own wine made from their own grapes (yes! in Norfolk!) with my mum and granddad and it was a lovely walk to the ferry along a country lane that was, weirdly, below the level of the river, so boats would go past and you would have to look UP at them


ON THE DOVER - OSTENDE FERRY

This next picture was going to be the one of me at the age of 14 on the Dover to Ostende ferry on a school trip to Germany. It was a long journey and a step back in time when we got there. The school my school was twinned with was in Southern Germany and everything was like the 1950s or so it seemed. I have just spent half an hour trying to find said photo but so many are stashed away in shoe boxes waiting to be sorted out I have given up. However, this is one that I took on that trip in 1969 from the rail. I got very sea sick below decks so froze in the fresh air. I fell in love with a boy called Klaus who had a lovely dark green courduroy jacket and danced with me a lot because I was the only one of the English girls who knew the Polka


PULLS FERRY - NORWICH

This one is Pulls Ferry which is in Norwich, you can see the cathedral in the background. My granddad grew up in the late 19th Century in Norwich and told some grand tales. We used to visit him a lot and I still love going there. Norwich Cathedral is wonderful and the Castle Museum is fascinating and the old parts of the City just gorgeous. I haven't been for a long time - must make the effort again.

And so to the most important ferry of them all
Have you guessed?



BRYAN FERRY

I have loved Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry for the last 35 years and more. I still listen to their music and enjoy it even though my tastes in music have expanded over the years and tend towards the classical. The early albums take me back to the back garden of my friend Marion's house when we were still care free teenagers. A lot of water has passed under a lot of ferries since then!

You can see what other folk have written here

E is for 18

This week we are up to "E" in our Alphabe-Thursday challenge. If you would like to visit some other offerrrings go HERE
Next Monday me and him celebrate our eighteenth wedding anniversary. There were some who said it wouldn't last. A 36 year old spinster and a 60 year old disabled bachelor both very set in their ways. I think some of his family thought I was after his money. Little did they know he didn't have any. One friend said "You'll end up looking after him" Isn't that what you do for people you love? In fact I think he looks after me in all sorts of ways. I am amazed that he put up with me at the beginning. I was not the sweet, kind, patient person you see before you now. I have learnt so much from him and he is kind enough to say that he has learnt from me too. I think the people that know us well would say we have been very good for each other
Now, enough of this soppiness! E is also for earrings. I have a few, here's a picture. I do not have pierced ears but I make a lot of my own earrings and put them on those little screw fixings. I love beads. Unfortunately I often lose them so I have an interesting selection of single earrings which are waiting to be re-made into something else
By the way, what do you think of my efforts with Paint Shop, I am spending way too much time playing with it.

Sunday Stealing 14/02

Sunday Stealing: The Clown's Meme 1

I'm doing this on Saturday as I won't have time tomorrow

1. How old will you be in five years? - 10 years older than I was 5 years ago

2. Who did you spend at least two hours with today?- My husband

3. How tall are you? - 5ft 4" if I stand up really really straight

4. What do you look forward to most in the next six weeks?- Warmer weather

5. What’s the last movie you saw? - Blade Runner

6. Who was the last person you called? - a friend to remind her she's invited for pancakes on Tuesday

7. Who was the last person to call you? - my mother

8. What was the last text message you received? - Can't remember, hardly ever use it

9. Who was the last person to leave you a voicemail? - don't have voicemail

10. Do you prefer to call or text? - Write

11. What were you doing at 12am last night? - Sleeping

12. Are your parents married/separated/divorced? - Mum is a widow

13. When is the last time you saw your mom? - Last week but will be seeing her Sunday morning which is why I am doing this on Saturday night

14. What color are your eyes? - mud

15. What time did you wake up today? - 7

16. What are you wearing right now? - grey denim skirt, grey shirt, bright orange tights

17. What is your favorite christmas song? - Three Kings from Persian Lands Afar

18. Where is your favorite place to be? - Sutton Hoo

19. Where is your least favorite place to be? - Any supermarket

20. Where would you go if you could go anywhere? - India

21. Where do you think you’ll be in 10 years? - not far from here

22. Do you tan or burn? - Neither, I don't sun bathe and cover up or stay in the shade

23. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child? - I didn't know what it was, that's what made it so scary

24. What was the last thing that really made you laugh? - Giles Coren in The Times today (Sat)

25. How many TVs do you have in your house? - 2

26. How big is your bed? - big enough

27. Do you have a laptop or desktop computer? - laptop

29. What color are your sheets? - at the moment they are lime green on the bottom and a sort of sparkly shiny mauve and pink and grey on the top

30. How many pillows do you sleep with? - 1

31. What is your favorite season? - They all have their attractions

32. What do you like about Autumn? - late sunshine, gorgeous colours in nature,

33. What do you like about winter? - the fact that it doesn't last for ever

Woodbridge in the drizzle

I've been for a walk in Woodbridge again and this time I remembered to charge the camera battery, and to put it in the camera, and to put the camera in my pocket. I worked in Woodbridge in the late 1980s and again in the late 1990s. I used to go walk about at lunchtime, sometimes along the river, which is mostly where I have been today, sometimes round the residential roads looking at front gardens. There are some nice houses in Woodbridge, and some grotty ones, but I guess that's what most places are like. There's a market there on a Thursday, and some good independent shops too so it is worth a visit.
Today was not the best for taking photos as it was drizzling and a bit cold but I wrapped up warmly and walked fairly quickly. Once I got away from the busy part of the river walk it got quite grey and spooky and there was a curlew calling and it was very therapeutic
By the way, if anyone can tell me how to put photos side by side rather than one under the other I would really like to know!

Bring me sunshine

I'm all of a flutter because Caralicious has awarded me a sunshine award. Gosh, I'm quite tearful and need to thank my mother, my personal trainer, my stylist, the back room boys (see what they will have) Katie Boyle and everyone else who knows me, sorry I can't mention you all sob! gasp!

The rules of this award are pretty simple:
- Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
- Pass the award onto 12 bloggers. (or however many you can manage, I haven't treated the 12 as compulsory!)
- Link the nominees within your post.
- Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

And now I'm giving this award to the following bloggers:
(Sorry I haven't had time to sort out 12, having difficulty moving around in blogger so I may add to this over the next few days)

easternsparkle
Lady Banana
PoshTotty
Lynne's Days (who has promised to try harder)

D is for Dictionaries

It's Thursday again and that means another post for Jenny Matlock's challenge Alphabe-Thursday. Go HERE to see other D posts

I have just gone round the bookshelves in our house and found 24 dictionaries. I won't list them all individually but there are 2 Law, 3 French/English, 1 French, 2 Quotations, 4 English, 2 Latin/English, and 1 each German/Eng, Modern Greek/Eng, New Testament Greek/Eng, Bible, Phrase and Fable, Synonyms and Antonyms, Rhyming, Crossword, First Names, Initials.
I don't have an American/English dictionary which is a shame because I now realise that my B post confused a few people because I talked about blackberry jam and blackberry jelly and I now realise that what the English call jam is what the Americans call jelly. Not sure what Americans call what we call jelly in this context because I'm not talking about Jello but a jam that has been strained through muslin to get rid of all the seeds and pips and lumpy bits
We do a lot of looking things up in this house. We like to use words correctly. Like "Decimate" which means to reduce BY a tenth not TO a tenth. So if your crops are decimated it isn't that bad!
Another favourite word of ours that begins with D is "Discombobulated" which I often am. No, not telling, if you don't know you'll have to look it up in a Dictionary

Family mystery

My granddfather was one of 12 children, of whom 9 survived to adulthood. Two brothers went to Canada at different times, and a sister later on, and I am in contact with their families. One "cousin" is a regular correspondent by e-mail and is trying to piece together a family history, with the help of her late grandfathers photo album. One of the brothers (Arthur) who stayed in the UK married before World War One and had one son. Then my cousin in Canada came across some photos of "Betty" in 1932, in which said Betty looks around 5 or 6 years old. One of the photos also describes her as the daughter of Arthur. Now Arthur died in 1917 and neither the info given to me by my Granddad, or information checked out with another cousin (grandchild of one of my Great Aunts) ever mentioned Arthur having more than one child. We are now coming to the conclusion that Betty may have been Arthur's widow's daughter by her second husband. So now I need to try and find Arthur's marriage details to establish his wife's maiden name and then see if I can find Betty by reference to the surname we think was Arthur's widow's second husband's name. But although I think I have found the entry in the BMD of Arthur's marriage, it is before that record recorded the name of the other person so that would mean ordering a certificate without knowing if it was the right one and it's all going to get too expensive. One of these days I am going to try to draw a family tree and I have come to the conclusion that I will have to do it on a roll of lining paper stuck to the bedroom wall!

C is for Catalogues and Choirs

The letter we have reached in the Alphabe-Thursday Challenge is C
C is for catalogues (or, for my friends across the pond, catalogs) and choirs Do you remember the excitement of going through the mail order catalogue when it came, just to see what you might want to buy? Maybe you still do it. I used to go down to my Aunt's and sit with her and her daughter and scour the pages for something to spend my money on - those were the days eh? I particularly remember some awful polyester trousers in garish colours, with polyester jumpers that matched. This was when I had an allowance from my parents that I had to make do for all my personal needs, good training for money management. Then after I started work I ran two catalogues myself and made quite a nice little bit of money from them.
The first thing I bought from a catalogue was in 1969. It was a black evening dress, shirt style top, ankle length sunray pleated skirt and little diamante buttons and buckle to the belt. I paid £4 19s 11d over 20 weeks. Does this require translation? In 1969 we had not yet gone decimal in our coinage so you say that "Fourteen pounds nineteen shillings and eleven pence" And that was very expensive. The reason I bought it was that I needed a full length black dress to sing in my first proper choir. I had been in the school choir and as my voice was quite low I used to sing tenor sometimes (all girls you see) but started off as a soprano so I could sit with my mum when I joined the Billericay Choral Society aged 14. The first work we sang was Medelssohn's Elijah. It was a choir that sang oratorio most of the time and I loved it. I soon found my confidence and switched to the altos. Then imagine my delight when a few years later my first love (another C for Clive - he looked a lot like Hank Marvin) took over as accompanist. He had been my piano teacher until he went to college. My passion was not reciprocated by the way, poor Clive, these days I would probably have been arrested for being a teenage stalker.
Sorry if I find it difficult to stick to one subject, some letters bring so many things to mind. If you have time, please read my Mission Statement (link in my profile)as it is something I feel very strongly about at the moment
And if you would like to see some other bloggers take on "C" go HERE

Crochet Jacket

I made this long jacket by sewing granny squares together (in various shades of purple plus some black) and then extending the sleeves and collar with the same groups of three trebles just straight but with a decrease at the shoulder seams to shape the collar. Looks a lot better on than it does on the hangar - honest!

Mission Statement

These days being positive is the in thing. Which is fine if you are that way inclined. I am, sometimes. But one thing which I would like to say is that I am not going to confuse positive with conformity. Lots of women of my age which is 54 and nearly three quarters, are persuaded to think that being positive means trying to be younger, trying to look younger, trying to persuade other people that they are younger. And if that's what you want to do then that's fine. But please accept that it is also fine, if it's what you want to do, to let your hair go grey, stop thinking about sex and buy some comfy shoes. At long last I have realised that I am a grown up and I do know a bit about life, having lived it in various disguises, and it really is OK to be who you want to be and not what other women, or men, want you to be. SO THERE!