Wizardry, triplets and a 90 year old father!

The view from Tam's bedroom window.  Snowy hills just visible in centre.

 Well, the predicted snow is sprinkled very lightly on nearby hills, but the hills beyond Hundred House in the distance are white.  I drove down to collect my prescription and have a word with the Pharmacist.  He said this is a very persistent virus, and to steam myself 3 times a day, 10 mins each time, and have short walks.  So, that I shall do.  I walked up to the junction and back but the very cold air effects my asthma so I had to put my gloved hand over nose and mouth to warm the air before it made me cough. I will wear a scarf over my face later.  Tea tonight is going to be Spag. Bol, so will throw that together shortly.   Update - if you have asthma, blood thinners or heart problems - you cannot steam!  It was working well too . . .  Glad I checked it out, but not the Pharmacists' fault as he didn't know me from Adam and it didn't occur to me to mention these problems, just what I was suffering from.  (Have steamed in the past and thought I was ok to do it now).  

I found a very useful Manx Family History link today and have been going through Newspapers.  Nothing that I am actively searching, but had to smile at Mr Dupe, gunmaker, St Aldate's, whose wife "about half his age" presented him with a daughter.  He has only drunk water all his life, and his wife is similarly teetotal.  His age . . . 90 years in 4 months time!!! (this was around 1841 I think).

Then there were two lots of triplets.  One set to a woman in Limerick, who had not had a child for 6 years now (obviously catching up after the rest!).  Another (unnamed) woman, a framework knitter from Leicestershire, gave her husband John Lee three fine daughters, which were named Faith, Hope and Charity . . .  Clearly the Manx papers collected news snippets country wide if of sufficient interest.

Then there was a case of Wizardry.  "It appears that some feud existed between Cringle and Clucas, when suddenly a cow belonging to the latter fell sick, which was attributed to the wizard agency of his foe.  However, a panacea was quickly devised by the enlightened rustics to neutralise the enchantment, and to save the animal from inevitable death.  The remedy was this: the dust was swept from the threshold of Cringle's door by the wife of Clucas, and rubbed upon the poor stricken cow.  The effect, as anticipated, was electrical; the cow was as well as ever before the rubbing ceased, and the whole vicinity are loud in their praises of the specific, and wish us to publish it.  We have done so, but not for the purposes of recommending it, but solely to apprize the Home Missionary Society of a station and hope they will despatch a teacher without delay to the benighted inhabitants of the above district (Oak Hill)."

Within in our family grouping, we have Mr Thomas C----e of the Glaick, aged 68 years, who married Miss Ann C----e, aged 27 years.  I would love to know the nitty-gritty of this relationship - did she marry for love or money or ???  That's quite an age gap.

Not the best . . .

 New Year's Day.  I woke early, intended to start the New Year with a walk.  I needed to use up some fruit from the fridge, so made raspberry muffins, an apple and raspberry crumble and apple gingerbread whilst I had a little energy.  Then I hit a brick wall.  Slept for an hour and have gone considerably downhill ever since.  Peak flow taken a wallop too, and I am off to the GP tomorrow, as despite no sinus pain, I clearly have an infection (and probably have since Christmas).  

I have been watching archaeology programmes, and will share this lovely red flint with you.  In one of the programmes I was watching this afternoon, Prof. Alice Roberts said that to find a Neolothic site was challenging.  Well, this flint came from the beach at Brightlingsea, Essex.  We were sat looking for pretty stones, and Gabby came across this flint - and there were some others too, but this the only red one. To find flints on a pebbly beach is quite something! It is a red silex and would have been very sought after because of its unique colour and properties.  It can be found on the Isle of Heligoland - in other words, it comes from Doggerland, which was once the land bridge between Britain and Europe.  To sit down, right where flints had been worked anything up to 10,000 years ago, and to find flint debitage was nothing short of miraculous!  Gabby had been asking for this flint so she could frame it.

It brought back memories of them hunting for flints when we were walking across the field track to West Kennet long barrow, and they found them too!  They had keen eyes, my kids.

I don't know what I shall be eating for tea - nothing that needs much cooking, of that I am certain.  I have no appetite.  I may just have a bowl of soup.