Looking on the 'Positive' Side.

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My sister has been custodian of the ‘family-photo archives’

since dear old Dad left us in 1999.

Being eleven years younger than I,

she was at a loss to identify many of the relatives and friends in the old photographs.

So, they have been delivered to ‘your truly’ for an identity check!

Not a dozen or so.

Not a hundred or so in a shoebox.

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But three great big boxes.

One box contains our Grandfathers photos, the second, Fathers

and the third a load of photographs rescued from our father’s sister, our aunty Gladys.

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This is going to take me months and months I can see, but it is a ‘labour of love’ and I am grateful that these were saved for future generations.

I wouldn’t mind betting there are going to be many, many sepia faces of tightly laced great-aunties that I do not recognise either.

My paternal Grandfather was a chemist and a photographer. I still have one of his old cameras. My Father was also a keen amateur and I still have one of his old cameras. So you see there are in addition to these old prints, hundreds and hundreds of negatives.

I did a blog way back in March 2009 about the old cameras.

In order to view and maybe print from these, I have lashed out on a new scanner.

My Canon printer/scanner only does positive copies, but this Hewlett Packard model has carriers for slides and negatives, in both colour and B&W in 35mm, and many other larger formats.

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So this week I have been scanning and viewing

some of my pictures from over fifty years ago.

There was Grandfather in his chemists shop.

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There was my Mother, astride a pony, on holiday in Devon. - 1935

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Shock and horror! Mom and Dad in drag? - 1937

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Bernard’s bare bum! - 1943

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And there I was in 1961 on holiday with my first (serious) girlfriend.

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And no, - it didn’t last.

But at least the negatives, photographs and the memories do.

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I'm in Good Shape Today!

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I was up early this morning at five - like you would.

Went into the kitchen - like you could.

Bent down to feed the cats - like you should.

And I ended up looking at the lino or ‘cushion floor vinyl’ as it is now known.

It was the pattern that I found interesting.

Not squares or hexagons but, many repetitions of a complicated single shape which interlocked and covered the whole floor. This is a very common feature on Italian kitchen floors (so I’m told).

In mathematics these shapes are called tessellations. They were the brainchild of a Dr Lation, and named after his third wife, Tessa.

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First off, we have the three regular tessellations, squares, equilateral triangles and the favourite of all the quilting ladies, hexagons. (or hexies as Kath calls them).

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The versions comprising squares are found everywhere - as in a chessboard. The hexagons can be see in honeycombs and wire netting. The triangles are not so common, but I believe orchards are, or were, planted in this way to improve pollination. One identical shape to fill the whole space (or quilt).

If we introduce two shapes, say a square and a triangle, these are known as semi-regular tessellations and of course there are many designs to be had.

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Favourites with vinyl floor manufactures in this country, are the ‘hexagons & triangles’ and the ‘octagons & squares’.

Now if we visit Italy, tile manufacturers have a field day there with very intricate interlocking shapes.

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But the ultimate for me is the incredible work done by the Dutch artist M.C. Escher.

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Here is a real challenge to all those lady quilters.

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Shake off your ’Hexies’ and cut out a few of these fantastic shapes to make a

“Quilt to beat all Quilts“.

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I do apologise for the layout. I'm no expert at getting these 'medium' and 'small' pictures to appear in the right place. Think I'll have to stick to all 'large' size in future.

(Unless someone has a few hints or tips).

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I'm Going through a Bad Spell

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And do you know?

I couldn't find any music to go with today's post!

Firstly I want to apologise to those who cannot, for some reason, leave me comments.

I know of two, Francien and Myrna.

I’m really sorry.

The problem seemed to start when I put up this fancy background and opted for comments to appear ‘under’ the relevant post, rather than in a ’pop-up’ box.

None of my blog is held on my machine, apart from a back-up of the html content.

The blog is located at ’Blogger’, wherever that is. My photos are all held by Picasa, videos linked to YouTube and I notice that ’Comments’ by me and my visitors are held in yet another location. Nearly every day, when I reply to all your comments I get the message “Your comment could not be published, please try again”.

It always works the second time. I have no idea why. Does anyone else know?

I “allow” all comments except anonymous ones and only have comment moderation on, on posts over 7 days old. This is so that I can locate older comments without having to check every post.

The latest thing from blogger to irritate ….. is that when (on others blogs) I am typing the word verification, I get a ‘drop-down’ prompt of previous WV’s which completely obscures the new WV I am trying to read!

Fancy giving a prompt on ‘word verification’!! It will never be the same, will it?

Which brings me nicely round to spelling.

I was mentioning to Mrs Successful, of how I used to get words like necessary spelt wrong. We were taught little phrases to help……this was only OK, if you got the phrases right!

To get necessary right, it used to be

“One collar ( c ) and two studs ( ss )” but I kept on thinking it was

“One shirt ( s ) and two collars ( cc )” as in those days, my grandfather would have one shirt and several collars which could be washed separately. They were attached to the shirt by two studs, one front and one back.

Mrs S mentioned stationary and stationery and a way of getting them the right way round. I bet there must be loads.

As spellings go, "definitely" shouldn’t be one of the trickiest ones to remember.

But ‘definitely’ is the most commonly misspelt word in the English language, according to a recent study, with flummoxed Britons regularly writing it as ‘definately’.

Did you know that the ten most miss-spelt words were:-

1 Definitely (Definately);

2 Sacrilegious (Sacreligious);

3 Indict (Indite);

4 Manoeuvre (Maneouvre);

5 Bureaucracy ( Beaurocracy);

6 Broccoli (Brocolli);

7 Phlegm (Phleghm);

8 Prejudice ( Predjudice);

9 Consensus (Conscensus);

10 Unnecessary (Unecessary).

From a study by www.OnePoll.com)

Just for fun I tried to see if I could get them all into one sentence ……

“There is definitely a manoeuvre by the health lobby to get us to consume more broccoli, however, there is a consensus that their almost sacrilegious attitude is nothing more than prejudice, leading to all this unnecessary bureaucracy.”

Got stuck with:-

Indict

Phlegm

I expect you have all heard of this though.

I have a spelling chequer

It came with my PC

It cheques out all off my miss takes,

The ones I cannot sea.

Eye put this poem threw it,

I’m shore your pleased to no,

It’s rite in every detail,

My chequer tolled me sew!

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A Mixed Bag

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What on earth is a "Christmas tingle"?

At first I thought it must be an electric shock from a faulty Christmas tree light.

No, it was a typo, they meant to say "Christlingle".

No, someone else chipped in...it's a "Christingle".

Oh well, however it's spelt, it's a new one on me. So I had to look it up.

It appears to be ..... an orange with a candle stuck in it, and lots of sweets on swizzle sticks poking out.

And the significance of the various bits is:-

Orange = the world

Red ribbon around - Christ's blood

4 sticks - compass points

Sweets or raisins - food provided by God

Candle (or Glow Stick!) - Light of Christ's love shining over the world.

And there was I, thinking that oranges were for eating.

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How about this for OTT . The ultimate in Christmas crackers.

From Harrods - 'Very Gold'. Luxury gifts include MP3 player, £599 for six.

From Highgrove - 'Luxury Red' - with truffles and silver decoration, £29.95 each.

I could go on, but enough of this trivia. Let's gets down to a couple of jokes for Foody to put in her home-made Crackers.

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A woman was driving up the M5 doing a legal 70mph in the centre lane, the only thing wrong was that she was knitting at the same time with her hands between the steering spokes!

A police car came up behind and saw what she was doing. On goes the blue light; they come along side; the policeman winds down his window and shouts to her…

“Pull over!”

“No,” she shouted back. “Pair of socks!”

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A lady goes into the local fishmonger.

“I’d like two fillets of plaice, please.” she said.

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“I’m sorry, madam, but we’ve sold out of plaice. How about cod?”

“OK, I’ll have two fillets of plaice.”

“I’m sorry, madam, but we’ve sold out of plaice. Why not try a nice wing of skate?“

“OK, I’ll have two fillets of plaice.”

This infuriated the fishmonger, who asked the customer, “If you take the C out of cod you get “od”. If you take the S out of skate you get “kate”. What do you get if you take the “Flip” out of plaice?”

The lady thought for a moment, then replied,

“But there ain’t no “Flip” in plaice.“

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” said the fishmonger.

Now there is a rude version of this on the web. It’s called the ‘Broccoli’ joke and it’s on a site called ‘oldjewstellingjokes.com’

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"I'm Stumped"

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Professor Sir David Read, told The Times that one of the crucial findings of a recent report, was the importance of woods in river catchment areas. “Trees intercept rainfall and retain water, and one of the problems we are seeing now in the Lake District is [that] there is nothing to stop the water running off the hills,” he said. “We must look again at the contribution of forestry in the uplands and returning them in the direction they once were before we deforested them.”

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And then further on I read.......

“Eight million real ‘Christmas’ trees are sold in Britain each year and the Nordmann fir has become the favourite because of its dark green needles, which do not drop.

Growers last night warned hundreds of thousands of the most popular varieties will not be available here this year - pushing up prices in the process.

The shortage is being blamed on the poor exchange rate, which makes it less profitable for foreign producers to export to Britain.”

Well I say “Good!”

Do we really have to ship dead trees around the world just for decorative purposes. There are so many excellent artificial trees available - it isn't necessary to cut down the real thing only for it to be dumped a couple of weeks later.

If you can’t abide artificial trees then it makes more sense, rather than purchasing a cut-off stump, to simply buy a small "Christmas tree" to make a permanent feature in the garden. This could then be decorated each year. Much better than wasting millions of good trees every year for a few weeks' fun.

When I was a child we had a small one growing in the garden. This was dug up each year and placed in a large pot. In those days the Christmas period started twelve days before the ‘big day’ and finished on 2nd January, so the tree was not long indoors. Of course there was no central-heating either to dry it out. It survived many years of this until it got too big for its pot.

Plastic trees are also reasonably good and have improved vastly in recent years.

It seems such a waste to kill a tree for one day's festivities.

Don’t get too upset …..this is only me and my old fashioned views.

But..........

..... out upon the hillside,

Where the Christmas trees had stood,

All was completely barren,

But for little stumps of wood.

The little trees that flourished

All the year, were there no more,

But in a million houses,

Dropped their needles on the floor.

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Stumped?.....Yes I was stumped for sheet music,

although I did find "The Cherry Tree Carol".

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"Just Browsing"

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As requested in earlier comments. Click to enlarge.

For Foody.

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For Kath.

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And for Sage and any other interested readers.

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"A Right Handed Stir-up"

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No, it's alright......I do know what date it is......but.....

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On visiting Foody’s blog on Monday, I read that she had been making her Christmas puddings.

I enquired if she had made wishes and stirred the mixture in the correct direction? And had she heard of “Stir-up Sunday”?

She had heard of the later and of the wishes, but did not know of the “direction of stirring”.

So I did a bit of research and found out that the Christmas pudding began as “plum porridge”….raisins, spices, meat broth and wine thickened with breadcrumbs. This mixture, with varying quantities of ingredients, evolved by the 17century, into the familiar solid pudding. In Sussex and many other English counties the day reserved for the making of the puddings and the important ceremony of stirring and wishing, was called “Stir-up Sunday”.

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Indeed, in old prayer books, the Collect for the 25th Sunday after Trinity begins with the words “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord”.

This is of course nothing to do with stirring a pudding, more of “….the wills of thy faithful people”.

As the Sundays of the church year are governed by the movability of Easter, Stir up Sunday does not fall on the same day each year.

Good, then I can mention it today as I have no idea when the 25th Sunday after Trinity is.

Foody said she had made nine puddings, but on reading further I discovered that she should have made thirteen.....one for each month of the year and an extra one, known as the "Judas" pudding. This last one was not eaten but left to moulder......unless a beggar was seen on Christmas Day, in which case it could be given away.

I also discovered that it was a tradition that each member of the family stirred in turn, three times in the direction of the sun’s path (in winter it was as well to ensure that the sun would return next spring and to take any available opportunity to help it on it’s way).

The mandatory number of three stirs was important; in later years the number was conveniently associated with the Trinity and with the Three Wise Men though it had a far older significance, being a pagan good-luck number.

Finally, in order of age, each member of the family wished three times. Only one wish would be granted however, and the nature of the wish was never revealed or it would not be granted.

The pudding mixture was set aside for the return of any absent person so that no-one missed his chance.

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Five "Joey's" from my Grandmother.

The mixture itself gradually came to include, among the well-to-do, a number of silver charms. To begin with it was a silver farthing, then a penny. After the Great War, it was the smallest silver coin, a silver threepenny bit, or "Joey". When they went out of circulation it was a sixpence.

Finding a coin brought the promise of wealth to whomsoever found it on his plate on Christmas Day; a thimble denoted the prospect of a single life, while a silver ring forecast a wedding.

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My Mother's old cookbook again showing her recipe for the year 1951 (every year there was a subtle change....I can't imagine why). The silver threepenny bits are the actual ones used by my Grandmother and have been passed down in the family.

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A Horse or a Sweet?

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Following on from my 'Conker post', I thought I'd try to clear up a query about eating chestnuts!

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Now I have an excellent book on all the trees in Britain, Europe an North America. It lists hundreds and ...well...hundreds.

All with excellent details and helpful pictures.

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Without going into all the Latin names it appears that there is one big family called "Horse Chestnuts and Buckeyes".

It then goes on to list them.....California Buckeye, Red Horse Chestnut, Yellow Buckeye (Sweet Buckeye), Ohio Buckeye, our Common Horse Chestnut, then an Indian Horse Chestnut, Red Buckeye and finally a Japanese Horse Chestnut.

Nowhere does it say they are poisonous (sorry Foody), but it does say the nuts are inedible.

Several pages on, is another (Latin) family which contains the Sweet Chestnut or Spanish Chestnut.

It says it is native to Europe but is also grown in North America as an ornamental, in parks and gardens. It is edible, and of course the one we eat here at Christmas.

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"Chestnuts Roasting on an open fire"

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Just a Photo and a Thought

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The Frog and the Cat

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A frog leaping out of a pond, and placing himself on a rock, made proclamation to all that he was a skilled physician, and could cure all manner of diseases. This discourse, uttered in a learned jargon of hard and cramped words, which nobody understood, made those listening admire his learning, and give credit to his vaunting.

At last the Cat asked him, with much indignation, how he, with his thin lantern jaws, speckled skin, and disfigured body, could set up for one able to cure the infirmities of others.

Physician, heal thyself.

From Aesop’s Fables

He’s wise who leaves his neighbour’s faults alone,

And tries his talent to correct his own.

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The First Nowell?

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Some months ago I read that Jan had bought a 'Kindle'. An electronic book.

I said "I thought a Kindle was a collective noun for a group of kittens". I looked it up and it is actually spelt 'Kendel'.

Then in the same book I noticed that a group of cats is referred to as a 'Clowder'.

Jan reckoned this sounded more like a fish soup than a load of cats!

The book I found these in, listed about thirty names for groups of animals and another thirty for collective gatherings of birds.

I won't trouble you with all sixty but here are just a few;

For horsey lovers:-

A Harras of horses

A Rag of colts

A Stud of mares

A Pace of asses

A Baren of mules

And for those who like our feathered friends:-

A Nye of pheasants

A Brood of hens

A Muster of peacocks

A Flight of doves

A Badelynge of ducks

Now yesterday, whilst out for a walk over Winter Hill I came across my Christmas dinner!

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No reference in the book to a group of turkeys.....any ideas. How about a 'Nowell of turkeys'?

No that's a bit unkind.

And to finish....here's a little dittie on plurals:-

We’ll begin with box, the plural is boxes,

But the plural of ox is oxen, not oxes!

One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,

But the plural of moose should never be meese!

You may find a lone mouse, or a hole for mice,

The plural of house is houses, not hice!

If the plural of man is always men,

Why shouldn’t the plural of pan, be pen?

The cow in plural form is cow or kine,

But bow if repeated is never called bine.

If I speak of a foot and you show me two feet,

If I gave you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and the whole set is teeth,

Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be beeth?

If the singular is this, the plural is these;

Shouldn’t the plural of kiss be kese?

Then one may say that, and two will be those,

Your hat in the plural would never be hose;

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,

But though we say mother, we never say methren!

Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,

But imagine the feminine she, shis and shim!

So, English, I think you will all agree,

Is the Silliest language you ever did see.

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Strange Shapes

In a bit of a rush today!

Just off to Kidderminster area for a bit of a family 'do'. In fact a double Birthday party.

So I need something quick and I was going to pop theses up last week on the tomato post but couldn't find them.

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I found the picture of the rabbit tomato in the papers, and it was one of the best I had seen.

My crop this year produced some strange shapes but none of them seemed to resemble anything on this planet. I wonder what causes them to go off into these unusual shapes?

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Oh, well, it's back to making chutney again on Sunday!

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Whilst on the subject of chutneys, have you ever tried pickled nasturtium seeds?

It has been a good year for these also. They taste very similar to watercress with that peppery flavour. A bit like capers.

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You need to sort out the small juicy ones from the old 'woody' ones.

Only pickle the small ones.

Those on the plate will be used for next years seed.

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"Tomatoes or Tomartoes"

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I don't usually wander around the garden looking up, but this morning I was looking up at the apples on the tree by the greenhouse when I noticed this.

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One of the tomatoes had gone clean out through the roof vent and was happily on its way to heaven, complete with trusses of tomatoes!

It's not been a bad year for tomatoes here.....in fact I've got more than I know what to do with.

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These are the 'Gardener's Delight'. Cherry tomatoes under glass.

Whilst out on the "back yard" as we used to say before moving south to "patio" country, the three bush varieties were sagging under the weight.

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Tomatoes, tomatoes everywhere......and fourteen bowls of soup.

(In the freezer)

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I must try my hand at something else next year.

Miss Lettuce has the biggest heart

In all the kitchen garden.

Be sure to pick her in her prime,

For if she isn’t caught in time

Her heart is apt to harden.

You’ll find her at her best, ...I mean

When she is young, and fresh....and green.

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Edwardian "Twittering"

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Twitter, the microblogging website, may be thought of as a 21st century phenomenon, but researchers have discovered the Edwardians were ''tweeting'' first.

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In the days before ‘twittering’ or text messaging, the public were using the humble postcard to impart their thoughts and opinions.

Introduced in 1902, the picture postcard, containing an image on one side and room for writing on the other, became an instant hit according to a study by Lancaster and Manchester Metropolitan universities.

In the early days, you were only allowed to put the address on the 'stamp' side.

This one is dated 1903.

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Any little message had to be squeezed on with the picture as at the bottom of the next.

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Just a simple 'Love from...'.

Using Postmaster General reports, researchers calculated almost six billion postcards - an average of 200 per person - were posted in Britain between 1901 and 1910.

With up to 10 postal deliveries in major cities a day at this time, the medium allowed users to write and respond quickly and cheaply, the study found.

Later on, the cards had a split side which gave a bit more space. Obviously the postal workers were issued with better spectacles and found they didn't need the address to be quite as large!

Like Twitter, which restricts users to 140 characters per ''tweet'', postcard writers only have a limited amount of space to pen a message.

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I bet you are wondering what is on the other side of this 1914 card?

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"Spooning" by the light of the Silvery Moon.

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The study concludes: ''We suggest that the low price and efficiency of the Edwardian postcard has meant that as an informal written communications technology it was not equalled subsequently until the 21st century.''

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Those were the Days My Friend....

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As a quick follow on to this mornings post, I thought I would show you the way it was when I built it 12 years ago!

The only way to get it back to this state, is to clear all that growth, and start again.

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Ah, those were the days my friend....

And now for something completely different for no other reason except that I like it!

When he wooed me by the woodshed,

Where we two used to woo;

And he kissed me when he left me;

And he told me to be true.

Then he gave me a Geranium,

And I placed it with me Ferns;

And I’ll water his Geranium,

‘Til my true love returns.

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A Lack of Water

A non musical bit today.....not even an old mill by this stream!

"You’ve never finished working in a garden,

Until ’tis time for you to go to bed.

You’re either squirting soapsuds on the roses,

Or picking out the pansies that are dead."

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Once a year I have that awful job of clearing out the ponds.

Years ago I built a series of ponds, seven, in fact.....only small, but each overflowed into the next in a sort of cascade.

The lowest had the pump in it and water was transferred up to the highest..No 7.

Well, that was the theory at least!

All those Iris roots (above) have to be got out and thrown away.

But, where has all the water gone?

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Just look how much growth there is in a year.

Now here is the source of the lack of water. Apples falling off the tree above float down to the next fall and block it.

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"Perennials are the ones that grow like weeds,

Biennials are the ones that die this year instead of next

And hardy annuals are the ones that never come up at all."

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Ah, that's better.....water on the move again.

"Kipper had a garden,

And he tended it with care.

He took a can ....and watered it,

Each slug and snail....he slaughtered it;

There were no greenfly there.

He scratched and scraped it with a hoe;

There were no seeds he didn’t sow,

Yet somehow ......only weeds would grow!"

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