The Baker family that is. Many years ago when I was in my 20s, my dad told me his aunty used to run the Post Office at Princetown, up on Dartmoor (not a good place to be on a cold foggy day!) I have remembered that for nearly 50 years, and think I may have cracked it, finally, except I can't tie sub-postmistress Rebecca Baker (born 1868 in Plymouth) up with the rest of the Baker clan in Plymouth and I haven't found her at Princetown either, but near Exeter. My goodness, I have gone through so many permutations it's like doing Algebra and I was always hopeless at that!
I loaded the car this morning for the setting up at Builth Antiques Fair tomorrow. I just hope I will be well enough to do it as I have little hints which suggest I am coming down with a cold (best outcome) or Covid - I'm praying it's not the latter. I have had a little grumble of a headache a few times (and I never get a headache normally), a suggestion of a sore throat, and a tickle in my lungs earlier on. I slept in the - very comfortable - new bed last night, and hope whatever I have goes away - the thought of Keith coming down with it is not a happy one. I still have my sense of smell and taste though and a Covid test I took earlier on was negative. If I can't do the Fair, Tam may have to do it for me - it's £185 for the pitch for the weekend and it would be good to get some sales to cover that and help us pay the bills besides. Positive thoughts please.
Of course, last Saturday I stupidly forgot to take a mask. I put a smarter jacket on and left my red jacket which had a mask always in the pocket at home. As we were stood so long waiting in the lunch queues, I could well have picked up a bug then, though Tam's OK, so perhaps I touched something infected.
A beautiful wild Gean (Cherry) tree in full bloom beside the lane. One of many at the moment.
I shall try and keep you posted anyway. I know I worry if a blogger I follow goes quiet, especially if you know they are off colour to start with. Have a good long Bank Holiday weekend.
Hope it's not Covid or a cold so you are fit and well for the fair.
ReplyDeleteHopefully you'll sell lots of things .
Friday a.m. and feeling better - car loaded and ready (phew!) and am feeling a bit better. I was back in the marital bed last night as I got worse when I went into the spare room - with its brand new bed/mattress. I think that the mattress is still vaping and that will definitely make my chest bad and perhaps cause the headache too.
DeleteDespite the cold and wet (or perhaps due to?) the blossom this year is more beautiful than ever. Our front verge is a picture with clouds of blackthorn blossom, greater stitchwort (have lesser stitchwort in meadow too), real bluebells and primroses mingling under the hazel and hawthorn. Needless to say it will not be mown for months. Hope the fair goes well. The forecast for Wales this weekend is not great (T is camping and trekking in north Wales this weekend) so I hope you get a good customer turnout. I am being summoned for lamb cutlets and potato and leek gratin for supper so must away. Have a lovely evening BB and I hope the cold is just that. I am a bit sniffy but am putting it down to pollen as I was in the garden all day yesterday. One of my jobs was moving some of the sown by me cowslips to under the apple trees where I have established a colony of purple fritillaries. My reward reward was the first picking of asparagus this year. We have our village garden trail this weekend - one of the gardens surrounds a 14th century fulling mill which is now owned by the Cats Protection League! Sarah x
ReplyDeleteI am thinking it's pollen (though I'm on my extra-strong antihistamines now, until early August). Indeed, the forecast does not look good esp. for tomorrow. I will take a good book to read! It's always a busy fair though, as it's such a big one. People come from surrounding English counties too. Your garden sounds an absolute delight. I am trying to get sorted in mine, but this week haven't been able to do much because of the Fair preparations. Next week, in exhaustion, after a day off on Monday, I can at least weed on my hands and knees! Fancy the CPL owning that wonderful fulling mill. How I wish you had a blog and could show some photos.
DeleteI hope it's just allergies from all the pollen and blooms. Not Covid! Sadly many of my friends here are having second, third and even 4th bouts of that stupid intrusive virus. I send good healing thoughts. An unfortunate note is people are getting false negatives w new Covid permutations, esp w home tests.
ReplyDeleteCan't add to your genealogy woes as my family is tediously small, boring and documented. Only some lovely linens and lace left from dowries, Swiss/ French/ German. Only interesting folks came to America as Swiss cheese artisans.
I wonder if your blackthorn is what we call hawthorn on the marshes. Must look it up. I enjoy seeing the white foamy blooms on the still brown marsh.
love
lizzy
Hi Lizzie. The Blackthorn is similar to Hawthorn, but is basically a wild very sour plum (great for wine or flavouring gin though, or putting in hedgerow jam). What a shame you have no FH challenges. Mine are certainly that - gosh, 40years of a brick wall, and I still have to do sideways steps to try and find who she married, and was her husband actually from Ealing and not Devon?!!
DeleteWe are a small dull bunch, lol. We have a thing here DAR [Daughters of Am Revolution] so one la-di-dah cousin did that branch in detail. My dad would scoff, ''still sitting in a tiny log cabin on the uncleared land grant for Rev War service, 250 years later." I'd prob find the searches quite intriguing.
DeleteSeems blackthorn must be what blooms so early on the marshes, as hawthorn blooms after leaves come out later. But we call the bare flowered scrub tree hawthorn anyway; black thorn lives here but is not native. Confusing as all the searches sent me to UK sites. Hope Covid missed you, tho pollen allergies aren't fun either.
It sounds as though your Baker line is as mysterious as my Lewis line--both very common surnames scattered over the British Isles.
ReplyDeleteI hope your symptoms don't become full blown--I think we are more anxious since covid and its variants.
It could be worse, it could be Smith . . . Poor Tam has similar trails now she works for Archives - you can imagine all the same names being repeated - surnames of Jones, Evan, Williams, Davies, Prosser (omg, there are some of those in EVERY church graveyard I've ever been to in Wales), and similarly with Christian names being passed down generation to generation.
DeleteSince Covid appeared, I daren't blow my nose twice without worrying!
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ReplyDeletePlease use it Lizzie. Not my words, after all. I will delete your mail details but keep a note of them for myself.
DeleteThank you! Feel better!
DeleteI hope whatever is bothering your throat, lungs, etc passes quickly and you are feeling well for the fair. The flowering shrubs and trees are lovely. Plants are just starting to awaken here. Pollen isn't about here yet. Maybe that's what's bothering you?
ReplyDeleteI struggle to do these really big fairs on my own. A one day one is OK, but 2 1/2 days is murder without Keith's help, and with him at home and disabled. Thank heavens for family and friends, but this will probably be the last year.
DeleteI do hope it doesn't develop into anything nasty and that you feel better soon. Always a worry whenever you feel as though you are going down with a cold or worse.
ReplyDeleteUnless its the pollen? Good luck with sorting out the family tree conundrum.
I hope you are feeling much better now and that you have a good weekend. Fingers crossed for good weather for you too, it makes such a difference to people putting their hands in their pockets doesn't it. Have a great weekend. xx
ReplyDelete