Grandma P's Ramblings Through Life

There are 2 birthdays today which touch my life. They are both a part of my family.
Both birthdays are for girls called Jessie.
The births span 112 years.
I thought of my grandmother Jessie this morning. I never met her and my mother hardly knew her. She died in 1930. We have just about got to the time when I can no longer think, with some emotion, that she could be still alive and I could have known her. Few people live to 112, but it is possible.
I wonder what I would have made of her - and she, me.
I will never know if the feelings I have that a lot of me came from her are correct.

We have almost no photos of Jessie.
This is her wedding day, of course. She was just 20.
It may be wishful thinking, but I see me in her face -
I carry her name (sort of) - Jessica sounds more formal and grander than Jessie and that is what my parents wanted for me.
I also see some of my grand daughter Jessica (often known as Jessie) in the face too.

















Now, to Jessie number 2.
Born this morning at 10.15.
She is no blood relation to my grandmother Jessie. Jessie Lee is the daughter of our niece on Bill's side of the family. Bill's sister, Pam is her grandmother.




Have a good life, Jessie. You have been born into a special family.
We are proud of our new great niece.

We have been busy. We woke up and had doubts about going out - there had been quite a bit of rain.
But suddenly blue sky appeared and we decided to risk selling at a car boot sale.


By the time I took the photo much had gone.
But I see clothes are still on the ground.
Later on I was able to move all the clothes up on to the tables.
I have counted the money and crossed out all the items which sold.
And also crossed out the items which are now ready to go to a charity chop on Monday.
The job is complete.
The garage has space in it - not enough for a car, of course.
I like the feeling of clearing the decks and being ready to make a fresh start.
Having arrived late we set up stall in the last row facing the open field - very pleasant.





Chicken is roasting in the oven. We can open a bottle of wine and wish the Jessies a happy birthday.

I feel like I must have lived this day before.
I have sorted things to take to a car boot sale and boxes are loaded into the car.
This evening I am watching another tennis match with the possibility of a big upset.
Last night saw Rafa Nadal knocked out of Wimbledon by a semi unknown, and very attractive Czech - tonight Federer could go, but I have a feeling he might win through in the 5th set.
Talking of sport, we got our tickets today for the Paralympics - cycling and athletics. These come with travel passes to use in most London zones.
We will be going up on three days.
Looking forward to an early night; not that we have to be away so very early. I aim to leave by quarter past eight. Maybe I might manage a few pictures this time. There could be showers in the morning.
Now back to the tennis for a while.
Have a good weekend everybody.

Well, after yesterday's fiasco, I can assure you that i now know the day of the week and the actual date!

And on this Thursday, the alarm was set for half past five - people are already queueing to sell at Ford at that time; but we felt we would be just as well off really to arrive by about quarter past seven.
We were towards the back of the queue of course. The only disadvantage really is that our stall has to be a long way from the loos!
It had been my notion to tell the story of the day in photographs; but the truth is that the lack of photographs also tells the story of the day. For the most part, there just wasn't time.
The first half hour or so was  crazy.
People are rifling through boxes in the car, lifting boxes out of the car - and if they were not finding things to buy, would be a complete nuisance.
We had taken 13 boxes and extra things that wouldn't fit into boxes.
Why was I wanting to sell - all these other dealers were determined to have my stuff. Stuff that had been on the shelves in Dorking for far too long, or stuff that I thought wasn't really good enough for Dorking.
They obviously had other ideas.
Eventually things calmed down. I was happier once we had got everything out of the car  - and the people!
We had time for some drink - much needed on a really hot and muggy day.
And we found some time to chat to our neighbours.
The stall looked far less interesting by this time.
We packed up before half past eleven - only had 5 boxes now.
We were exhausted!
We drove into Littlehampton and slumped into the chairs at our usual table. Food and drink was brought to us, almost wordlessly.  Bless them - I finished my first cup of tea and muttered to Bill that I could hardly find the energy to go and ask for more water. I looked up and there was a jug of boiling water being brought to me. No wonder we feel at home there.
We walked by the river and saw the sea. I threw some bread to the swans and gulls. But we felt rather lifeless at this stage.
We drove home and sank into our chairs and watched some tennis - eventually I found the oomph to make a succession of cups of tea.
And I counted out our takings. We had taken £255. Very pleased.
Andy Murray won his tennis match  - pleased about that too.
Whilst we have had a hot dry day, others have been less fortunate.
The phone call from Newcastle brought us a commentary on the weather, with local radio telling us of the effects in the back ground.
Traffic was either proceeding with extreme care, or not at all. The Metro was not functioning well, with some flooding on the west side and landslides to the east.
All this under a black, yellow green sky with torrential rain.



From BBC news  web page.











This is the main road in Fawdon.
Ashley's small road is off this road.
He said this evening there has been blue skies and sunshine.










http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkua3S0hhQQ
Somebody was so thrilled with their brief filming of the storm that they put it on YouTube.
And now, we are planning to another car boot sale on Saturday - not at the same venue.
I have clothes and shoes to get sorted.
And I can find more redundant stock.
This time we will let things go at extreme rock bottom prices.
Today, generally my prices ensured that I didn't make a loss.
But the last things can go at any price - we will get come money and all the space back in the garage.
And a period of relaxation without thinking about when and where we would get around to setting up a stall.
Not much eating has gone on this evening - good thing too, really.
I have been keeping an eye on the tennis and the football.
Time for another cup of tea, I think.

I thought I would google today's date.
Has it been such a day in the past - a day of malaise and feeling not quite right.
It wasn't a good day for Michael Jackson a couple of years ago. On the other hand 19 years ago all the people of Slovenia (well most them I presume) were overjoyed to become an independent free state.
Nothing dramatic like that has happened here of course. But then I am so full of malaise that I had no idea of the date!  I was looking at June 25th. On June 28th there seem to have been lots of bad events in history - Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assasinated thus leading to the first world war.
We thought of going for a short walk - walked into the garden and found it was raining.
We didn't get our walk.
The car is loaded with stuff to sell at Ford tomorrow. I hope we clear half of it.
Then we will take the remainder to Sayers Common on Saturday.
I shall go to bed early (how often do I say that and then find it is half past eleven?). I want to be up by half past five, so that we leave home at half past six. I expect we will still be at the back of the queue for sellers.

I will finish with a couple of pictures of joy and contentment.


I have never been to Wimbledon - maybe next year.
My niece was there on Monday.
She looks joyful.
She saw Federer play.















Thai sunset.

This was taken just about 100 metres from the JJJJ home.

Rural and tranquil eh?
No wonder they are contented.
No wonder I am looking forward to being there again.

The day has felt wrong.
I have felt wrong - and not to be outdone, Bill also began to feel wrong.
I was determined to sort out all the stuff I have set aside to take to a car boot sale. There is so much - too much.
I had boxes out in the garden and I made sure that the contents of each were similar and I added some more things too.
I have 14 plastic crates and some larger items to try and get rid of.
I worked really hard - bending, stretching, carrying and happily got it all piled up just inside the garage door.
I also tidied up stock on the shelves.                                                                                                                                  























It looks like the shop, doesn't it?



















Once we have done one (or maybe 2) car boot sales, I will do some sort of stock take.
But once I had finished the work, I felt dreadful.
Would I pass out? I felt so weak and nauseous and my head was both tingling and pounding.
I had to lie down flat.
The worst part of it passed quite quickly, but the fatigue and headache have been with me all day.

This afternoon, Bill cut the lawns.
As he finished the task, he felt much the same as I had. It passed more quickly, but he had the same symptoms.
I had wondered if mine might be because my blood pressure was low; but that is not something Bill is prone to. Did mine suddenly shoot up?
It is a bit worrying, because that is twice within a week. It happened last week when we climbed up the hill to Handcross on our walk.
Or is it a global virus? Only joking, but Mam in Thailand had the same thing last week.
I have wanted to eat all day - first strong tasting salty foods (like crisps); but this evening I would be so happy to have some chocolate. Don't have any.


Early night tonight. Then rest up, ready for the hard work of selling at  a boot sale on Thursday.

The year was 1953.
It was a hot June and I had chicken pox.
I was off school and confined to bed -  people did take to their beds with illnesses in those days.
During the day I was allowed to rest and play in my parents' room, where there was a radio.
And there I fell in love with tennis and the tennis players.
It is interesting that at the tender age of 8 (nearly 9) I could fall for the male tennis players based upon the words of commentators on the radio. I was actually a bit disappointed when I finally saw Ken Rosewall, many years later!
For a few years, as a girl, I kept a Wimbledon scrap book and kept a full account of the matches as players were knocked out.
So, next year will be my diamond Jubilee as a Wimbledon fan.
I can look back over the years and recall faces and names.
I can look back as well to some tennis playing. I played some matches for the school.
But I was not a disciplined or willing school pupil.....one of my tennis memories is of bunking off school at lunch time to go and watch tennis for the afternoon.
We didn't have a TV at home and nor would I have been allowed to miss off school. But Min Langridge next door, didn't mind! I remember some happy afternoons with Min.
And so today I came back from our day in the shop and turned the TV on. At this point in the day the BBC were concentrating on the no hopers - the Brits! Except, Heather Watson proved to have lots of hope and determination and thoroughly beat a higher ranked opponent.
It has been a sunny day and  tennis is played until quite late in the evening - a semblance of balmy summer is in the air.
I had hoped that a day of good weather would bring people into the shop. Yes, people did come - but sales were not remarkable.
We spent the day with Stephen, who had swapped with Monika.
Bill enjoys having another man about the place - and they both went off to the pub for a pint and a bite to eat.

After our time at the airport at Shoreham, we parked the car on the beach side of the River Adur (Ay-der).
The tide was very low.
Just as it had been 60 years ago when my Father took some Shoreham photographs.

Just like then a vast expanse of mudbank was exposed at low tide.
We walked out to the river edge along a solid path and took our photos from there.


















Sixty years an on - and not so very different.












We walked over the footbridge to the town.
It was very windy!
Very soon construction will begin on a new footbridge - very modern and glass sided.

This picture is from another blog that I found.
http://hovedailyphoto.blogspot.co.uk/







My picture, looking under the footbridge to the stranded low tide boats.











Dad also photographed the old boats at low tide.



















Bill looked for interesting details.
The sign marks where telegraph cables were laid on the river bed.


















He found a poppy amongst the rye grass on the river bank.















There were poppies outside the church.

Today we have been in Shoreham.
The car boot sale was not much to my taste, though Bill enjoyed the fact that there was lots of space, so it felt more relaxed than Ford. But I saw little that I really wanted to buy.
And it was very windy across that recreation field.

We were at Shoreham Airport by quarter past nine.
I can recall the little road that winds round the outside of the airfield from way back.
A long way back - it was in 1952 that I cycled along that road a few times.


My Dad had stopped his bike, thown it to the ground and took a picture of planes lined up for an air race.


It is now officially  announced  that  the Daily Express  S o u th Coast Air  Race,  is  to  take place  on August  2nd—will be he d  at  Shoreham. 
Organized on lines  approximating  to  those of last year,   the race will  start from Shoreham  Airport, cover a  similar  course,  and finish  at  Brighton 
West  Pier.  Further  particulars will  shortly be available from  t he 
Royal Aero Club. 








There were no races today.


This was our view as we had breakfast......what a meal it was.
We opted for the omelettes - huge 3 egg omelettes with masses of filling - 2 fillings. I had ham and onion - the ham was thick and fine quality. The meal came with hash browns and beans.

That's Lancing College beyond the air field.





Bill relaxes with coffee after clearing his plate.


















After breakfast, we wandered outside.














Flying in.
We watched as a father and son (boy of about 12) clambered out of their small plane and come into the airport building.
Bill overheard that the boy was taking part in some sports activity and they would be leaving at about 3 o'clock.
We used to take our boys to sports activities in a second hand car!






Welcome to Shoreham Airport.

The building is a fine example of an art deco structure and is a Grade 2 listed building.














Picture in the airport museum, showing just how popular air events were in the 1930s.











As the morning progessed, there was a steady stream of take offs and landings.

This bi-plane needed almost no runway to take to the air.







Such a simple clock on the wall - but so art deco in style.











Inside the large central hall of the terminal building.





















































One day we must enter the building as passengers.
I would love to go up in  a little plane over Sussex.
I slightly resent that after all these years, Brighton has muscled in to claim the airport as theirs!


Love the art deco window.







































We take out leave of the airport - with a plane in the sky above.
We will return.

Shopping - how come we spent so much this week?

Somewhat dreary weather today.
I am glad we made the most of yesterday.
Our walk began in Handcross, through deep dark woods, managed woods - looked after by the Nymans team.
The foxgloves in the woods were looking good.
The ones in our garden are now past their best.




















In the woods.
These are Nymans woods - part of the Nymans Estate.
The path near the bottom of the valley was an avenue through Californian redwood trees.












The path is wide.
Where it is very steep, steps have been cut and edged.


















Nice colours and pattern.




















The lake, down in the valley.
We are actually only a few miles from the lake we visited last week at Slaugham.

































 When I was a child I learned the Sussex country name for this wild flower.
It's a ragged robin.




















Foxgloves by the water.



















Clump of wild orchids in the meadow.





















We stopped in Staplefield at The Jolly Tanners for some lunch.











The pub was very busy.
We played with our cameras whilst we waited for our food.








































Bill had cider - not Bulmers.





















My drink was a dark beer, named Ram Rod.
















Bill tucks into a toasted bacon and egg sandwich with salad and very well cooked chips.
I had a cajun chicken sandwich.











A straggly robin hopes for some dropped crumbs.













We walked back through the woods.
The final steep climb up to Handcross was hard.
I needed all my concentration for climbing....and breathing!
No more photographs!