Grandma P's Ramblings Through Life

It was a dismal drizzly morning. I felt a bit dismal too.
I shouldn't feel down - especially not on my birthday. But there are uncertainties in my life right now and I was feeling insecure, not sure if I could cope.
I don't suppose the young couple (my parents) were feeling at all dismal in a Kentish farm cottage 69 years ago today as they cradled their baby girl. Wonder what the weather was like that morning.
What a lot of experiences that baby girl has had......enough to have learned how to cope, surely?

The weather gradually improved and we followed the plans I had suggested.
We went to the Irish Festival at The Hawth.
We  took chairs with us and a couple of bottles of drink and enjoyed Irish folk music in the sunshine.
We bought a snack and celebrated my birthday when I opened the cards that had come by post.




































We were very happy to meet up with Bill's cousin and some of her family.
We stayed at the festival for about 3 hours.....probably photos will appear here tomorrow.
Earlier in the day it had been suggested that we call in to see family for a while.
So off we went to Ifield.
And there I had a lovely surprise.

Cards and flowers and presents.
And decorations and bunting!
Wow!
To think I had been feeling down earlier in the day!

We enjoyed a lovely barbecue meal together - the boy's Papa from Madagascar likes to cook and he did the sausages and meat and a lovely vegetable mixture.















The boys had made cards for me.
Very special cards with red roses and ladybirds.










































A cake with candles......now where are the other 66 candles?






















































Maybe you can see a present that I gave myself this morning?
A new red hair colour.


So many wishes for the coming year.








































When we got home I posed with my cards and flowers.
And enjoyed a present I had bought recently for myself.



















These are all pictures of Mount Caburn, near Lewes.
This was our view from "camp"  the family holidays of my childhood.
Top left we have one I recently bought from Paula Oakley. Underneath it is a print of the farm we knew, painted by Eric Ravillious. I must get a frame for it.
Top right is a picture of the view of Mount Caburn from the farm. It is signed by Peggy Gill. I want to ask experts about this painting - I still believe it could be by the daughter of Eric Gill.
Bottom right is a picture painted by my niece, Meg.
I put the pictures on the wall together yesterday.

Thank goodness that we are forecast another week of sunshine.
I have always seen my birthday as a marker - a sign of the end of summer and the return to school.
The sunshine will lift me - just as I have been lifted today by the thoughtfulness and generosity of family and friends.

Happy birthday to my sister in law.
I am sure you have found ways to beat the weather.
Your birthday card is in the cupboard......no, sadly not your cupboard! It's in my cupboard. It was supposed to have been posted yesterday - but sorry, it remains in the cupboard.
I can't say I have felt on top of today. I didn't like the dreary wet weather.
I had plans to make the most of an "at home" day - but things went exceeding slow.
My plan was to re-start my Ebay selling.
But I hit stumbling blocks.
First, I had forgotten my password.
Then I realised that Turbo Lister, which I use, needed backing up and new updates installed.
It took an age.
So I photographed 15 items and was ready to weigh them in order to work out postage.
Bother! The battery on my scales was dead - so I had to go out and buy a new one.
Finally I did begin to describe and now have 5 things listed.
It's a small beginning - but happily one item has a couple of watchers already.
I must work hard on  Ebay and hopefully will have earned enough for my next Thailand trip, whenever that might be.
I have to wonder if it will be suitable for Bill again.
I know I can go alone - but will he be OK to leave alone?
Coincidentally I am just at the point, February 2007, in my sorting of old photos; that time I did go alone.
The weather forecast is for improving conditions. We should get out tomorrow, but I haven't decided our destination yet.
Finally a wonderful picture - well, special to me.
For 42 years Clare has avoided being photographed and despaired of her appearance.
Today she posted several on facebook with great pride and joy....she is looking good.

Today, with fine weather, we had a short walk at Charlwood, along the tracks and footpaths that ancestors would have known.
We had a small meal in The Greyhound, an old Charlwood pub - which those ancestors may well have known. It has been taken over by a chain - a bit like Wetherspoons really. But Wetherspoons would have made much more of Charlwood history; today's pub was rather lacking in soul, I thought.

We walked down Chapel Road to the cottage where Bill's great grandfather, Abraham Monk lived at the end of his life.
Earlier he had been at Fulbrooks Farm.




















I don't know which one was his.

A little further down the road turns into a track, unmade and leading to the fields.
And there we find Providence Chapel.
The character of the building is so unlike other old Charlwood buildings - more New England, Amish style,







It is no longer used as a place of worship on a regular basis.
Indeed it has been offered for sale with many provisos about its use and continued use as a graveyard.
The Charlwood Society are now trustees and I am sure can be trusted to ensure that the character is retained.



























We know that Bill's great uncle John and wife, Susan were regular worshippers at the chapel. But there is only one family grave that I can find......in the foreground of this picture.

You can just make out the name, William Monk.

This William was Great Uncle John's cousin. He died in 1923.
His wife, Charlotte is also here.
There are two dates when the chapel will be open in September and I have marked the dates in the diary.

We continued our stroll around the fields until we reached the C of E church - where the majority of the Monk Family were baptised, married and buried.




















































































































Having spent an hour or so walking in the footsteps of ancestors, it was fitting to discover that as we walked there had been a new arrival on the family tree.
Our great niece/nephew number 38 was born.
Nancy Fay arrived in style.
It had been thought she would be born yesterday, but the hospital said "not yet".
Today young Nancy decided to skip the hospital facilities and arrived on her grandmother's bed at home.

Here she is - about 3 hours old.




















Welcome to the family Nancy.

It rained hard during the night.
Bother!
The weather could interfere with plans.
This morning, maybe it did......we might have gone to Ford. It was gloomy and more rain fell; but on reflection I thought it wisest, for both our sakes, to restrict ourselves to just one outing a day. So that was the reason we had a long lie in.
By the time we set off on the afternoon outing patches of blue sky were appearing.
Thank goodness!
My attachment to St Catherine's hospice is great. Maybe I should do more than just donate some cash and be a part of the weekly prize draw.
But just maybe I want to leave the the love and care I received there in the past.
But I was very happy to take part in another's money making activities this afternoon for the hospice.






Well, who wouldn't be happy faced with a table decked out with superb sandwiches and cakes?
My sister in law has for some years been a dedicated and successful fund raiser for the hospice. Today she organised and hosted an afternoon tea in her garden.
I am thinking that a goodly amount of money was raised - people were very willing to hand over the cash for raffle tickets and for boxes of any remaining cakes.
Bill's sister, P, came with us. Good to get an afternoon out - although on this occasion she might have wanted to return home fairly promptly. Her son and partner's  baby daughter is due and the parents to be were at the hospital - but not for long. Baby is not quite ready to make her grand entrance.
But back to those cakes........










I can think of no good reason that I missed out on this cake!
Yes, I might have been being sensible and avoiding cream......but no, being sensible was not on my agenda.


Was it sensible to eat 2 of those beautiful cup cakes?

I don't think so....but it was a great pleasure.

And I shall eat another before bed time.
I also bought home some cakes and gladly added more to the hospice funds.






















Bill enjoyed tucking in too.
He also loved the scones with jam and cream as well as cake.





























And just to cap a very fine afternoon, I won a prize in the raffle and brought home a bottle of wine.

I abandoned the list of things to do and we took ourselves off for a picnic.
It was such a lovely day.
I had not heard of the chattri at Brighton before this year and I resolved to visit it.
We parked the car just off the A27 - a noisy spot with all that traffic whizzing by.
But we soon found peace.

With a glimpse of Patcham windmill, the views were immediately rural.




Walking away from Brighton.











Out onto the gentle South Downs - golden at this time of year.



















This large bull had been sitting across the footpath.
No - we didn't shoo him away!
But he didn't like being stared at and moved off a little way.


















I feel so sorry for this butterfly - fancy being that beautiful and called "common"

There were hundreds of common blues out today.

But I felt lucky to get a good shot for they didn't stay still for long.
Point, click and hope was my only method.











Thistle down seeds.

































The chattri.
Over 1 million men from the Indian sub continent joined our forces in WW1.
Many must have died in battle. Others were wounded and shipped back to the UK hospitals. One such hospital ward was set up in The Royal Pavilion in Brighton.
Some of the patients died and the bodies of the men were brought to this spot on The Downs for cremation.
After the war a permanent memorial was built there......known as the chattri, which is the Hindi word for umbrella.























There were some seats and we enjoyed our picnic with this as our view. The poppies had been lain there in June, when the annual service of remembrance is held.















































I assume the flowers had been left there by the family of a more recently lost soldier.
The label said "Dad".

I would have liked to stay longer - but at this point I was affected by a wee problem, which I could only deal with at the car.



















































So, we paused briefly to think of the men who had died so far from home.




























And then we strode back towards Brighton.....well, to our parked car.

Having dealt with my problem I really wanted a calming cup of tea.
Maybe we could go into Patcham village?
Or Lewes?
Yes - Lewes........but then did I want a bustling town?
Oh, I was unsettled!
We stopped at Offham farm shop. I must point out that Sussex people pronounce this village Oafum.
It is a farm shop mostly devoted to butchery, from their prize winning animals.









The cup of tea was most therapeutic - thanks to the butcher who served it to us.
On the way out we enjoyed some communication with animals.










































Just 4 of the 17 piglets.
I loved the way mother pig got up and barred the door to the pen - making sure I couldn't open it and steal one of her precious babies.

Feeling tetchy and tired.
Went to Crawley for some bits.
Been on phone with people.
Frieda came round.......she shocked Bill with a memory lapse! One of those awkward silences as she commented on new fangled ways..."they'll be putting men on the moon next!" she exclaimed.
Yes Bill, you can come across as bad sometimes.
Maybe this and my snapping a bit at him just before yesterday bedtime as prodded him into something more "in charge".
I snapped with some despair....I have mentioned the loud rhythmical noises Bill can make. I merely expressed my down feeling to him that I may have to put up with it for the rest of my life.
He truly has controlled it better today. Thank you Bill.
I finished dealing with 2006 photos.....all now sorted into themes and mostly re-numbered.
It has been a pleasure to wander down that particular memory lane.
There may be less photographs in 2007 - a difficult year for me.It began with pain and insecurity and ended with major surgery and continued insecurity as a result of some complications.
Thank goodness all of that has been resolved.
Now - sleep again. I fell deeply asleep on the sofa this evening.

Gosh! I am tired!
I think I have been attacked by the curse of the early autumn hay fever. Of course, it's not hay that does the damage - probably the pollen from late summer flowering and spores in the air.
I have been sleeping badly - waking hourly to sneeze and rub my itchy eyes; eyes filled with streaming stinging tears.
Today I remembered to buy some anti histamine tablets - which should help with both the allergy symptoms and the sleeping.
It has been a busy shop day.
Surely it didn't need to be so....I just wanted my bird cage well presented for people to admire.
What a lot of things were moved to achieve that affect.




































I just knew that I wanted the cage raised up- to be more at eye level.
I took the twin doll's pram in today as well.
I took quite a bit in - but didn't get it all sorted before 5 o'clock, home time.




































By the time I had done all this and also drank cups of tea with Steve, who was in again working on the building, it was time for lunch.

After lunch I continued sorting. Steve is working hard on creating a new bathroom and kitchen area for us to use that I wanted to contribute something.
I filled 2 boxes with things that have been dumped on the back counter - dumped and forgotten about.
I am not sure how helpful it was - it left 2 boxes which need to go somewhere; but not before people who might own and want the dumped items from going through them and claiming them back.

Eventually I got around to things on my normal agenda - checking the sales of last week and making sure the new stock is priced up.

It's good to be busy.

But activity and hay fever led me to a deep sleep on the sofa after this evening's dinner.

By the way I gave you a wrong web address for Jamie's trip to the Bird Park, yesterday.
https://www.jamiesphuketblog.com/2013/08/phuket-bird-park.html

Off to Brighton again today.
We went to the car boot sale at the race course. And I am very pleased with my birdcage. I seem to have a thing about birdcages, which is strange because I don't really like seeing birds in small cages.
I plead with Bill every time we go to Thailand to let me bring back a wooden Thai bird cage - still don't have one.
And the one I bought today might be mine for a short time only - after all selling on is the name of the game.



































Of course this birdcage will never house a bird again. I can see it with plants in a conservatory.

After the racecourse we went to The Marina.
Before breakfast we wandered round the boot sale held on the top floor of the multi storey car park every Sunday.
As it tends to start at dawn (before in the winter), we were very late. But I like to wander around.
You never know what might be found.
And I found a tea trolley.
It is very different from the tea trolley my grandmother used to have.



































It still needs a clean and a liberal dose of WD40 to get the wheels turning again.

Home then for Bill to sleep and me to play with photographs.
The project will last for some weeks.
I am moving all my old photos from chronological folders to subject themed folders. I would have deleted lots when they were originally dealt with and now I am deleting more - but still thousands remain.
Today I sorted photos of people (Bill and me and the Thai family) taken during our 2006 trip. There are 300 of the Thai children and parents.
The Thai family have explored another Phuket facility - I look forward to going too.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.498949530196462.1073741843.110718202352932&type=1

Do have a look, Rog - a picture of young John is looking rather like young you.