Sew far sew good.

My Mum let me take this sewing machine from her loft a few years ago when I was helping her to undertake a major declutter and sort. In my head I had grandiose plans of getting it serviced and then learning how to make my own clothes. Two years ago I plonked it on my bedroom floor, bought some replacement bobbins and then there it sat😊

Let's be realistic if it was going to ever happen it would surely have happened by now....all it's been doing since is getting in my way and making me feel a bit guilty. Freecycle is my saviour....I offered it last week not expecting many replies and was quite taken aback by the huge number of requests. In the end I plumped for the lady who has a contact who services the machines. It's then going out to a part of Malawi which has no electricity and it will be given to a lady who will be able to set up her own tailoring business. Sewing for her local community will enable her to put her children through school.

I am simply delighted that my decluttering has resulted in some good.

Arilx

Mary had a little lamb.

Yes she really did and yes it did follow her to school one day. Her teacher, Miss Coward, was unamused at the kerfuffle her little hand reared ovine pet caused and banished it from the classroom apparently.

Mary Hughes was the daughter of a Welsh sheep farmer and often used to help her father out by feeding the orphaned lambs using an old teapot. On this particular occasion three sisters from London were visiting the area and upon hearing about the incident one of them, Miss Buel, penned the famous lines. Or so the theory goes...if you read the Wikipedia entry it claims its origin is American!

Whatever the truth Mary Hughes moved to the South coast in later life and is buried in the Broadwater Cemetery in Worthing. The lamb on the top pays homage to the tale.

As for me? Well I was doing you might wonder? Attending a themed tour called "Scandal and Intrigue". This was nothing to do with the talk I hasten to add I just happened to notice a sign highlighting this little gem as we walked past.

Arilx

Just for fun.

I wonder what sort of shenanigans I might spread?! Hope everyone has a smashing weekendx

Arilx

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

With my Wednesday afternoon client away on holiday recently I've been able to pay one of my occasional visits to a local book exchange in the village where I work every Wednesday morning. Several titles took my fancy, but this one provided the perfect reading material as we travelled up North to collect TYM at the weekend.

It's not a title which had me reaching for the dictionary every other word or scratching my head over complicated plot lines. It's the tale of a non descript kind of man called Harold Fry who leads a humdrum, routine bound life until one day he received a mysterious pink envelope. The contents force memories from 20 years before to bubble to the surface and he makes the spontaneous and lifechanging decision to walk from his home in Devon to Berwick.

The story is presented in a fuss free manner, but he is the quintessential English gentleman who doesn't want to make a fuss or put anyone to any trouble and as you accompany him on his unplanned journey the changes you witness in him and those who have known him for years or those he encounters fleetingly create a narrative full of moments of humour, pathos and surprise. It is an outer and inner voyage of discovery for all those involved and a gentle, original approach taken to the familiar topic of overcoming adversity.

I had hoped to make it my book of choice for our Bookclub, but they read it a couple of years ago and it was apparently a popular choice.

Arilx

It's all glitz and glamour here!

Well now I've been featured on a video has all this fame gone to my head you might wonder....I had a free day yesterday so was it spent enjoying caviar and champers in one of the boxes at Wimbledon....

Was it heck! I've been up to my elbows in plastic milk bottle tops and other lovelies sorting out the next batch of recycling to send off for charity and making these info boards for an event I'm helping out at on Sunday.

In between these celebrity activities I baked a lemon drizzle cake....even now at 51 I'm always delighted to have a bowl to scrape afterwards. Cook's privilege and all that! It feels splendid to have cleared some of the backlog of unfinished chores, but next time I have a day off I have arranged to spend it not bogged down in gruntwork!

Arilx

A Homecoming Gift

Poor old Humphrey is a bit up tipped at the moment. Being a black cat he's not overly fond of the heat anyway and with the arrival of TYM home late Sunday afternoon, all the bags and cases make him decidedly twitchy. Normally we ship him off before we pack as he heads for the hills otherwise the minute he sees luggage...to him it can only mean one thing. The Box of Doom where cruel owners take their helpless pets to the cattery or worse still the VET.

Both the feline and TYM keep similar hours...sleep in later and stay up later so the two of them often cross paths in the early hours when we are dead to the world. Last night TYM headed off out to catch up with some mates over a couple of sherbets. As is oft the case he fell asleep on the sofa downstairs until the small hours and awoke to find a special cat gift for him from H. Evidently he'd gone to a lot of trouble with his choice, but TYM didn't appreciate his efforts. It may have been unique, but TYM was not thrilled to find a dead mouse in his shoe. I laughed like a drain when he told me and even he saw the funny side when I pointed out that poor old Humph could hardly be expected to buy him an ASOS voucher now could he!

Arilx

Keeping Within the Lines

[Image from Pixabay]

Back in the Dark Ages when handwriting, as opposed to typing on a keyboard, was still a thing I used to envy those who could write freehand in a straight line. Perhaps you had penfriends around the world like me and sending newsy letters was very much a hobby. If it was an informal affair I could get away with a funky coloured ink on foolscap paper, but ones like thank you letters required a bit more formality and care. Left to my own devices it would all go downhill very quickly as my writing would gather momentum and make a break for the bottom right hand corner of the page as fast as it decently could. To avoid it happening I recall either having to draw lines across the paper or trying to use that lined bit at the front of the pad which always frustratingly would slip all over the place!

It would seem this is an age old problem and this unremarkable looking little object in the photo below was the 13th century answer to this very issue.

This is a manuscript pricker and it was used to prick holes down each side of important documents so that lines could be drawn between the holes across the page before it was written on. It was found in one of the digs at Carisbrooke Castle.

Arilx