Karen Foster Design Cards Surprise From A Friend

These lovely cards came in the mail, a surprise from a friend.  I got to say thank you on the card with the paisley design, using my new fountain pen, with a lovely deep sea green ink, I actually mixed two pots of ink together.

Candyce and I both love our papers and pens, and lament that most stationery now seems over whelmingly to come out of China. Candyce herself does some wonderful cards, collage and stamped.  See the little card in the background, that's on the humble end of her card talent.

Christy

Views Of The Lake From McGlynns Pub

Christy

McGlynns Pub Dover Delaware

Fun, fun, fun with my girl friends.

Had a lovely reunion.  Four of us girls who have known each other ever since I came to the States over thirty years ago drove down to meet with a friend who I've known almost as long, she was a young married mum when I met Vicky in Tennessee, who now lives in Maryland.

We met half way in Dover, DE.  Shared old times and photos, encouraged each other and heard of plans for new horizons.

Both Joni and Vicky have lost their husbands in death and have kept in touch building one another up.  Vicky is making the move to possibly extend her service in a foreign field, Belize.

 
McGlynns Pub was recommended to Vicky, was not at all what I expected on the outside.  It's a new building with offices above, looking over a lake, with the Pub at the bottom, but a lovely place to eat and the food was good.

And of course Vicky and I shared a sampler of locally brewed beers.  You can't go to a Pub without having a beer, at least a Brit can't.

Here's the group left to right, me, Vicky, Janice, Nancy and Joni.

What a lovely time we had together.

Christy

My New Fountain Pens

I love to write with a fountain pen.  I always did at school.  And when I was about thirteen I ran across turquoise ink, instead of the usual blue or black and thought this was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

So here I am just a few ah hum! years later and am just as happy as can be with two fountain pens I found on Ebay and not that expensive at all.

The marbleized aqua pen has a wide nib and the Eiffel Tower pen has a medium nib.  I just couldn't resist the Eiffel Tower one when I saw it, nostalgia and all that.

So now I'm off to write some letters.

Christy

Today's High 24 Degrees F. Sorry Can't Think In C

Yes today the high will be 24f.  We used to get very cold spells for weeks on end but one never knows anymore.  Yes global warming is here though some like to stick their heads in a paper bag.  If you can now navigate A ship through the northern passage and polar bears are dying off at alarming rates, one might want to take these as signs.

Every morning I get a cup of tea in bed and if I get a good nights sleep then I'm awake to truly enjoy that, along with my iPad before the craziness of a day at work begins.

Tuppers also pays a visit every morning jumping on top of our old cast iron radiator and looking out of the window which continually has dirty nose prints on it.  She gets very excited with a birds eye view of the birds and squirrels.

Let the day begin.

Christy

Mini Cooper S with John Cooper Package

Today was a day off work, wonderful and of course I haven't done a thing that I said and thought I would do.  I have stolen time and just read all day, a rare treat for me now.  I sat in the Simla Room with the stove on and finished Reuben Sachs and started Brook Evans.  Both on the Persephone list and both from my local library.

I have wanted to introduce you to the boy's new ride, this is his new set of wheels. A Mini Cooper S with the John Cooper Package. Mum is coveting this, it brings back happy memories of youth.  Although this is far more upscale than the old Minis I used to ride around in.

Well needless to say it was most upsetting when his car was totaled fortunately he did not hurt himself and nobody else was involved.  But the whole thought of going out and looking for another second hand car was not a happy prospect.  I think the Boy took it better than his mother.

He had five different makes and models of cars on his hit list, this being one of them.  When I saw that the seller lived so close I urged Rob to go and look at it, which he did with his dad.

The seller was a man in his sixties totally into cars, already having a Porsche and a BMW.  He had ordered two Mini Cooper S the same colour when they first came out over here in 2002, he still had them both and was selling this one.

To this car he had added the John Cooper S package and a super brake package, both alone worth thousands.  The car had 122K on it and was in very nice condition.  So the Boy and his dad put a deposit on it and the Boy and his mum went back the following weekend and did all the sale transaction and paperwork at a Tag Transfer shop.  This took a whole lot longer than it should have done as it was run by a little old man who was forty years behind the times and did everything in a ledger and had no direct Internet to Harrisburg.

The Boy said I didn't get a piece of paper like this before to tape in the back window of the car, and I said that's because this time you were time warped forty years in the past.  We laughed about it and said he wouldn't forget buying his mini.

The seller had a complete three ring binder on the car.  Every manual and bill from the beginning, even a framed certificate for the John Cooper package.

To add icing to the cake the Boy's insurance company paid him a considerable amount more than he paid for the Ford and it was the exact amount of buying the Mini, how fortuitous was that?

Mum has her eye on it.

Christy

Three Friends Happier Times

A dear friend Emmy died the last day of last year.  Saturday afternoon I attended her Memorial Service.

Emmy is on the right, I am on the left and we are here to celebrate the end of chemo treatments for my friend  Candyce in the middle, date 2004.

Candyce's daughters invited friends to an Afternoon Tea we all so enjoyed this.

I was able to pick up and take another friend Joni to the Memorial Service, she has been unable to attend these since her husband died almost two years ago.

Afterwards we relived our youth again, going to the Country Club on Cottman Avenue.

When we were single we used to turn up at one in the morning and our staple order was Cheesecake.  So Joni had the idea to go and eat here, where we started off with open face Reuben sandwich and our usual.  I always used to have cherries on top of my cheesecake.

We chatted, cried and reminisced it was a good healing time spent together.

I don't know what the young waitress thought.

Christy

Job Chapter 14 verses 14 & 15

If an able-bodied man dies can he live again?
All the days of my compulsory service I shall wait.
Until my relief comes.
You will call, and I myself shall answer you.
For the work of your hands you will have a yearning.

The Provincial Lady in Wartime, by E. M. Delafield, A Persephone Book

The Provincial Lady in Wartime is set at the beginning of WWII.  It is written in the form of a Journal or Diary, so has that stilted feel to sentence construction, the way one records events and little things in a diary. It's a record of a Provincial or maybe they should say Upper Class Provincial English lady of the era.

How will she comply to the blackout, making sure that all the windows are covered and not a chink is showing.  They must close a wing off, there's no need to keep it open with the children away at school.  The cook is protesting about the antiquated range she has to cook on, and aunt Blanche is going to descend on them from London as she can't possibly share a house with that impossible woman, who thinks she is thirty years younger and is helping in a canteen in London.

It is a witty account, of her endeavors to help in the war effort, travelling backwards and forwards from her house in Devon to London, working in the same canteen as aunt Blanche's friend.

I read this from the original American publication of this book and in the frontispiece it says events - that make up the life of an average British citizen in time of crisis ...  I beg to differ with this.  This book reflects the era it was written in, the type of person of a certain social station in life who would have the time to write and get her works published.  This does not negate the amusing chronicle of events unfolding in time of war and her eloquence of description.

Some quotes from the book on how bureaucracy works - Am struck not for the first time on how final arrangements never are final, but continue to lead on to still further activities until parallel with eternity suggest itself and brain in danger of reeling.

E. M. Delafield also refers to The Priory by Dorothy Whipple as a modern novel.

Remember my rating is within the First 100 Persephone Books and Persephone is already at the top of my list, but it does not stand the test in comparison.

Christy

Micawber Principle, New Year Principles To Keep In Mind

Micawber Principle, based upon his observation:

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

Great Britain's pre-decimal currencies were Pounds, Shillings and Pence abbreviated £, s, and d. (Or as grandma used to say LSD, I think she had no idea what the other meaning of that was.) Thus "nineteen pounds nineteen and six" was £19/19/6d, six pence less than twenty pounds, and "twenty pounds ought and six", £20/0/6d, is six pence more than twenty pounds.

I'm sure I have written this in my blog before but the principle is well worth keeping in mind, for a new year.

Christy

Starting The New Year With Crochet and Colour

I have wanted to share some scarves that I have been crocheting.  When I was back in the UK my sister BB knitted me a lovely scarf with a little pom pom edging in shades of grey, white and black.  It's a special yarn, which came from Spain and I had not seen it over here in the States.

I was in Joanne Fabrics and I came across it.  There are three different makes there.  I have tried two of them.  The one most similar to the Spanish one is Patons Pirouette.  Unfortunately it's twice the price and half the length and really you need two to make a scarf.  The other two makes, are long enough for one scarf.

I phoned my sister and asked her how to knit it, but I just could not get the twisted look.  We laughed I'm all thumbs with knitting it looked like a ruff.  So I went on YouTube and found a way to crochet the scarf.  I prefer crochet to knitting and it's so easy.  You can also adjust the length of the scarf by the number of the stitches you crochet into it each time.

You can see the different lengths of the scarves the shortest one is the Patons and I will have to use another ball.  But the other two scarves are the same yarn Sashay but one is longer than the other because of the number of crochet stitches added in each time.

This type of yarn is call fishnet.  I like the Patons because it has the little sequins and the pom pom edging but not as large as the Spanish yarn.

I found a use for my Vera Bradley Poppy pattern pull case, for my crochet.  Just love this pattern; which may be discontinued now.

My mum gave me the Beamish mug which she bought there many years ago when we were camping up there altogether with mum and dad, my sister and her little boys, no Rob then. Filled with Chili Hot Chocolate and Mr. B made a delicious Chocolate Chip and Rum Cake.

Fortunately I turned it out before we had a power cut.  I was able to make the butter cream rum frosting in front of the fire by candle light and frosted the cake by torch light.  That was Sunday evening we lost the power for about two hours.

Well the new year is upon us and I am watching Camelot. 

I would like to share these thoughts with you as expressed at:

 John Chapter 15 Verse 11

"These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and your joy may be made full"

Christy

Looking Back and Forward

I'm not one to recap the year and make new year's resolutions.  I guess there were a couple of mile stones this year.

• This is the first year in my entire life that I have worked full time.  All I can say about this is, that it is a philanthropic effort to help my family and totally altruistic and disproves evolution.
• The Boy, Rob graduated High School and bought his first car and had his first accident.
• My nephew got married.
• My dear mum died. 
• And the first time I have been back to the UK twice in one year.

And apart from those things we live pretty mundane lives.

All you dear folk who have left comments read my wandering thoughts and put up with a zillion photos of the UK, my thoughts and thanks are with you.

And next year I will try and stay with more photos of where I actually live the USA.  As all folk know, who grew up in one country and live in another you are always betwixt and between, both literally and emotionally.

Take care,
Christy

The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield a Persephone Book

I've started on the Provincial Lady in Wartime, but as soon as I began reading The Home-Maker, I'm afraid I ditched the former book.

The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield is one of Persephone's American author choices. Set in 1920's mid town USA, in a town not too near other towns.  We come to know the Knapp family.  Lester the father, Evangeline the mother, Helen 13, Henry about 10 and little Steven about four.

Lester works at the only department store in town.  Old Mr. Willing's has died and now his nephew has taken the reins.  He is young in his thirties and wants to move the department store into the 20th century.

Lester quite college to marry Eva, taking a job in the accounting office at the department store, he loathes his job.  Eva went straight into being a house-wife; these were the expected norms of the time.

Eva is efficient her house is a bandbox, dinner is delicious, at the stroke of the hour.  But everyone seems to suffer from stomach problems.  Although on a limited budget she can make anything out of an old discarded piece of clothing, she has style and the eye for it.

Lester had come home to dinner and has told them that he has been passed over yet again for a promotion.  As she says:  There never would be anything else for her, never, never!  But is was Bitter!  She looked wicked.  She felt wicked.  But she did not want to be wicked.  She wanted to be a good Christian woman.  she wanted to do her duty.

Eva was at constant war with Stephen they butted heads all the time.  As Lester left the house after another confrontation was in the works he thinks.  The opinion of a man who couldn't make money was of no value, on any subject, in any body's eyes.

One day he goes into work and is told that he is to be let go.  On leaving work he's in a daze, he'd be better off dead to his family at least they'd have the insurance money.  His neighbor's chimney is on fire, he rushes up and falls off the roof.  He is taken home paralyzed.

You must read this book to see how it all works out.

Here are some of my favourite quotes from the book.

Evangeline held the suit up, looking at it and thinking gratefully how it would help some woman through a difficult year in her life.  She remembered suddenly the Mrs. Warner who had so pathetically longed for that bright green sports sweater.  This would satisfy her wistful, natural longing for pretty things and yet be quite suitable for her age.  Evangeline had so much sympathy for women struggling with the problem of dressing themselves properly at difficult ages!

So relate to that.

The two were silent father and son.  Lester said to himself, shivering, "What a ghastly thing to have sensitive, helpless human beings absolutely in the power of other human beings!  Absolute, unquestioned power!  Nobody can stand that.  It's cold poison.  How many wardens of prisons are driven sadistically mad with it!"

Another quote:

"He that is down need fear no fall, 

He that is low, no pride,"

said Lester Knapp aloud to himself.  It was a great pleasure to him to be be able to say the strong short Saxon words aloud.

This reminds me of Winston Churchill's writings:

Used to rally his countrymen and the English-speaking peoples in the dark days of the Battle of Britain. The best remembered words sound like this:

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

We shall not flag or fail. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

The words Churchill used are overwhelmingly Anglo-Saxon, the old short words he thought best of all. 

She came to feel that talking to Father, when they were alone together, was almost like thinking aloud, only better, because there was somebody to help you figure things out when you got yourself all balled up.  Before this Helen had spent a great deal of time trying to figuring things out by herself, and getting so tangled that she didn't know where she had begun or how to stop the wild whirl racing around in her head.  But now, with father to hang on to, she could unravel those twisted skeins of thought and wind them into balls where she could get at them

I had so many more quotes referred to in my notes but I think I would over whelm you, so will stop here.  Do read the book.


I've been thinking that after I've read all 100 Persephone books, I would somehow like to list them by preference, but one to one-hundred would be too complicated, so I came up with the idea of 5 categories.  So the 5 Star Rating would go to the top twenty books and so on down the line to 1 Star.

Of course this is just within the Persephone Books which I already consider at the best end of a good read.

Christy

Snow Day Greyed Out

Mr Bit Brit and I decided to go for a walk in the snow.  It felt good to get out.

There were hundreds of Canadian Geese and they all took off, they start talking to each other and then off they go.  In flight they look like the Draconian Space Ship from Star Trek, or more likely they got the idea from a goose in flight. I didn't think to video them.  It's so wonderful to hear them cackling and calling to each other and off they go.  I wish I had caught that.

 Everything was very greyed and flat looking.  One showing of green was where a little runoff comes down the hill always in the same place and here the celandines grow and bloom yellow in spring.

We ended our walk by going to the super-market bakery and buying two delicious chocolate eclairs with fresh cream and taking them home, I don't think I've ever had an eclair with so much chocolate on, delicious.  Dinner was cooking slowly in the oven, so that was nice to come home to, followed by tea and our treat.

I've added a new banner from our walk yesterday and I've done a little house cleaning on my blog to start off the New Year.

Good news on the car front for Rob.  His wish list was very specific being a boy and it couldn't be the base model, no everything had to be the X, Z or S version, then he started getting picky about colours, but we set him straight on that, this was last on the list of needs.  It's quite interesting trying to keep an eighteen year old on track.  We think he's found something that hits all the check points will keep you posted.

Christy

Our Day In Ely, Cambridgeshire

Ely is in the Fen Lands of East Anglia.  This is all land that has been reclaimed from the sea and marshes, much like the Netherlands.  The land is flat with wide open views and vistas of the sky, criss crossed with dikes and canals.

Ely sits atop a high point with Ely Cathedral being seen for miles around.

You can't not have one meal of fish and chips while in the UK.  Here my BIL and I are dining al fresco, very al fresco, as the showers kept coming on and off.  There was a very big willow tree right there that kept us nice and dry.

The town market.  Also several nice charity shops where I found two lovely sets of knives and forks with the white handles.

 Ely Cathedral

Christy