Relatives across the Pond

I have a lot of cousins in America, but I thought you might be interested to see - and hear! - about two of my cousin Marilyn's three children.

Ashton is on the right in the black and white dress photographed at an opening in Las Vegas. She works as a P.A. to Kelsey Grammar (Frasier) - and has a jet set lifestyle. Good for her! you are only young once.

Gary has just graduated, but is going forward into more education. He is a member of a band called 'The Counter Regiment' and you can listen to him by clicking here here

Thunderstorms and hail

On Saturday after sweltering heat - we had the worst thunderstorm I can recall... the sky went black and the amount of rain and hail that fell was amazing (and scary!) I took a few photos at the beginning from our back door - but the rain was so heavy - and the noise on the conservatory roof unbearably loud once the hailstones started, that I had to give up.

The hail became the size of bantam eggs - briefly with us - more widespread a short distance away. My friend rang me in the middle of the thunderstorm (whilst I panicked about being struck by lightening through the phone line!) to say her lawn was totally covered.

Like us, she had put up a fabric garden marquee a short time before - all floundering under the fury of the onslaught!

Before the hail began, we watched from our front windows as the water level couldn't get away down the drains on either side of the road - and threatened to meet in the middle!

Not what we wanted to hear...

I think our son had better say it in his own words http://matsmusings.blogspot.com/

Giant Hogweed

Where the Giant Hogweed now march, was once a place of allotments when I was young. Although we grew vegetables in our back garden, we also had an allotment.

My dad would take me down there (perched on the crossbar of his bicycle) to help him and although I wasn't much good at digging, I was useful for getting the water for the crops. The land itself is actually quite marshy, although I imagine it regularly dried out during the growing seasons.

The allotments were placed in between two rivers - The Cray and The Stanham - and I would stand in the shallow Stanham with a wartime stirrup pump, drawing the water up into an old metal bucket.

The land at that time did belong to Vickers (the armaments factory) and I wonder if the land was turned into allotments to help in the the wartime effort for raising food and that it continued in use for that for some years afterwards.

These photos were taken today - the rushes behind me to the right of the photo borders roughly where the edge of The Stanham is - and where our allotment was - Giant Hogweed is dangerous to the skin, so I didn't think I should risk getting any closer!

Summer Solstice - A Blessed Midsummer Day To You All...

Our Garden

Remember to click collage to enlarge.

Flint and Stone

I took these photos on Tuesday. The sea was very calm and blue but - as usual! - the wind was blowing a bit too strong and cold for me.

The Old Chair

Several times I’ve been temped to take this battered old kitchen chair to the recycling centre - but at the last moment I just can’t part with it...

My dad gave up all his furniture when he remarried back in 1961 so I have a feeling that this chair was probably one of a set which originally belonged to my stepmother’s mother.

Whatever it’s origin, it remains an integral of my memories... then, when I married and my stepmother died, the set must have been dispersed and just this one chair remained. So although there was a better quality table and chairs in living room, dad continued to eat at the kitchen table whilst sitting on this chair.

My dad was short - and rather rotund! - so the rickety chair did an awful lot of creaking when he sat on it!

When he died, I had only been out of hospital a few weeks myself and as he lived in rented accommodation everything had to be removed very quickly. Because of that, I made decisions which were probably too hasty and I gave away all his things - leaving me just with his personal effects like photos, medals and documents etc - and this chair...

As time has passed and with it the realisation that I too must start to reduce the the abundance of possessions accumulated over the years, I have looked at the old chair - which doesn’t fit in with our furnishings anyway - and keep telling myself that it really is time for it to go!

But something stops me... we sit on it... it creaks... and I just don’t have the heart to part with it...

Field Mouse

This may not be very clear - my camera is just a cheap one - but I've managed to capture a little field mouse

Flapper Beauties

SS Princess Alice - Thames Paddle Steamer disaster 1878

The above map shows where we live (marked in green on the right hand side) - and our proximity to the position of the river disaster.

It was on September 1878 that the worst British river disaster occurred...

The Princess Alice was a passenger steamboat which, on that evening, was returning from Gravesend on the River Thames to return back to Swan pier near London bridge. (they called it a 'Moonlight Trip')

As she was was steaming towards Gallion’s Reach, just before Woolwich, she collided with a steam collier ship called the Bywell Castle.

The Princess Alice - licensed to carry 936 passengers - was thought to be carrying about 750 people returning from their pleasure cruise. The Bywell Castle was about four times her size and she was sliced in half - taking her four minutes to sink to the bottom of the river...

Bodies were taken to Woolwich Town hall where they were laid out in rows...

It was a horrific event and only about 100 people were saved. The local Watermen were paid 5 shillings for each body they recovered and were still doing so for weeks afterwards - although not all the bodies were recovered. Many were buried in a mass grave at Woolwich Cemetery. A memorial cross was raised - paid for by national sixpenny subscriptions, to which more than 23,000 people contributed.

The sinking happened very quickly - that area of the Thames was highly polluted from raw sewage that was pumped out - and the cross tides on the river are notoriously dangerous so that the chance of many surviving was always remote...

(In fact, a friend of myself and my husband, was fishing from a boat slightly further downsteam in the 1960’s. His boat overturned and although he was a strong swimmer, he drowned - just a couple of months prior to his wedding...)

The River Thames is beautiful - and deadly... I often think of that terrible evening in 1878 when we walk along the riverfront.

The Poppies are back

The poppies are looking lovely in the garden - despite the wind doing its best to blow all their petals off.

60

Body is struggling but, against all the odds, I've made it to 60