Today is a catch-up day. I have spent the morning baking (Pineapple Applesauce Cakes - pictures and recipe to follow), preparing 6 x large green mangoes for Mango Chutney (they were 29p each at Lidl last week) and listening to Radio 4, which has provided a morning of absolute pleasure. I particularly enjoyed Womens' Hour, which based its entire programme on the 1930s. There was a fascinating piece for the History of the World in 100 objects - todays' was the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus. Then there was Writing the Century, where two girls hear about the Aberfan disaster. I was moved to tears by this and remember it vividly, how people dug with their bare hands to try and rescue the children - people leaving their shifts -miners, office workers, everyone - and forming human chains to move the coaldust, hoping against hope that not all the children were dead.
There was a great wildlife programme too (A Local Patch), talking about the wildlife in your "patch" be it your garden, or an area visited very regularly by you and which you know intimately and have perhaps recorded. One man from Newton Abbot had recorded nearly 4,000 different butterfly and moth species in his urban garden (have to say, they were mostly moths by several thousand! Only about 17 different butterflies, but even that is pretty good going). I have just registered with the British Trust for Ornithology in order to join in their Garden Bird Watch, but unfortunately you have to join the BTO before you can take part, and money is tight right now. Perhaps when we move . . .
Here are two photographs of the beautifully embroidered woolwork cushion cover I paid just 50 pence for at the Car Boot Sale on Sunday. It looks to be 1950s from the design. I love the fluffy cut-wool flowers. It needs some gentle cleaning but then I will put it to use in the sitting room.
Oh, and Aromatic has tagged me to take part in a MeMe telling you 7 things you might not know about me:
1. I hate milk after being forced to drink it (it was going off - YUK) when I was about 6 years old.
2. Until 2 years ago I was convinced that I didn't like custard. I then discovered I was wrong.
3. I am afraid of heights.
4. I am frightened of the dark.
5. Were it not so far away from my family, I would move to Scotland tomorrow.
6. My step-grandmother had one brown eye and one grey.
7. I have a natural talent for copying drawings (this is through one line of my Devon ancestors - my paternal grandmother's.)
Hullo BB,
ReplyDeleteNot a great fan of pineaplle but its one of the lovely G's favourites.
I remember the Aberfan disaster well. I was 7 and as a child in a mining village there was a real air of despair around. I remember seeing reports on the TV and being held tightly on the lap of my crying Mum who wouldn't let me go.
I had forgotten all about it.
Al