A Lost Family

 I went to The Royal Marsden Hospital to have my routine six monthly blood test first thing yesterday morning. It is such a wonderful place and so perfectly run. When I first got my Royal Marsden letter three and a half years ago I left it on the coffee table unopened all day. I didn't want to open it, I didn't want to go there at all. When I finally did open it and of course go to my appointment I was so surprised at how different it was to what I expected. It almost didn't feel like a hospital it's so friendly. It's not just the feel of the place though, they dealt with each problem in such a matter of fact way and organised way. I really trust them and as soon as I walk in I feel as though I am among friends. Hopefully I will be told my blood results are fine when I have my appointment next week, but if they aren't I'm sure any problems will be dealt with in their usual professional way. 

It was quite a coincidence, as I mentioned a while ago a young woman had contacted me to say some family had found two large framed photos from around the 1920s in their loft when they moved into a house in Shirley near Croydon. They contacted the previous owners who weren't interested in them and a local history society who didn't want them either. After an internet search this young woman found my Photo Archive website and asked if I would like them. Of course I was thrilled, it is just the sort of thing I put on the website all the time, forgotten photos that no one knows what to do with. She emailed me this week to say she had an appointment nearby and would drop them off yesterday. When she arrived with them she told me she was on her way to The Royal Marsden, which is just up the road, to have chemotherapy which she was receiving for cancer she was diagnosed with last November. I told her I had been there that morning and we had a little chat about it all, she was so young and kind and I couldn't get over she was taking the trouble to bring these photos round while she was in the middle of her treatment. I wished her all the best with her treatment but told her in my experience she was being treated in the best place in the world. Sometimes fate can make you meet someone in your life, just fleetingly, but you feel all the better for having met them.

I spent an hour yesterday taking the backs of the photos and giving them a good clean. They are enormous! Sadly there is no way yet to identify the photos but the photographer was in Peckham. I love them! I think the family look almost theatrical, definitely different with lots of character. I copied them while they were out of their frames so I can add them to the website. 

It turned into such a lovely afternoon, I managed to get a few jobs done in the garden. The little fox cub was round and about again. It seems rather sad to see him on his own all the time, with no siblings. In the evening when I was putting things away, he (or she) was asleep on our neighbours shed, no doubt sleeping off his evening meal we had put out earlier.  

Of course there's another big game tonight. Poor Tom is on a late duty and will miss it all, driving an empty bus around all evening, in the rain apparently, while everyone else is watching it. Have a lovely day everyone what ever your plans and I hope you manage to avoid the rain. xx

A Busy Day Of Rescuing Birds And Neighbours

 Yesterday I  proved to myself exactly what I had written about yesterday. It's very hard to work from home without being distracted, at least it is in our house! I settled myself down at my desk to work.  I was slightly distracted as a friend of mine and his wife were hiking Helvellyn and along Striding Edge in the Lake District and he kept sharing the most stunning photos in our Whats App group, but as he seemed to only stop about every half an hour to send a photo for us to comment on and encourage him to keep going I kept quite focussed all morning. I caught up with a lot and was feeling very productive and pleased with myself by lunch time. A young woman in Croydon has contacted me asking if I would like some photos her parents have found in the loft of a house they have moved into in. Apparently the previous owners had lived there for decades and decades and although they have contacted them they are not interested in collecting the framed photos (can you imagine!) so the new owners have been trying to find a home for them. The local museum aren't interested either so after an internet search they have found my website and asked if I would like them. I'm not getting my hopes up too much as often people contact me and then nothing materialises, but I have offered to go and collect them so hopefully I will have a few more interesting photos to research soon. 

While I was sitting eating my sandwich and watching the news, Tom phoned and said he was on the way home with a baby pigeon he had found. His work garage had brought in pest control people over the weekend to kill all the pigeons who were roosting in the eaves. Tom had found this little pigeon sitting all alone under a bus which was parked in the corner of the garage. While he was finding a box so the office staff could keep an eye on it during the day until he came back to the garage one of the other drivers said "Just stamp on it, it's only a pigeon." The whole story made me feel so sad, as human beings why we feel we are so superior to animals and why some animals seem to be right at the bottom of the line of caring. The long suffering office staff, they are used to looking after waifs and strays for Tom, looked after the pigeon all morning, and then Tom bought him home on the bus. "How is the dove we looked after?" they asked. Tom promised to send them a photo of her living happily in our aviary. When Tom arrived home I had sorted the cage out and set it up for the poor little chap. He had called him Todd as he found him all alone. That's Todd Sloan which means alone for anyone not familiar with cockney rhyming slang!

I sent this photo of him to eldest daughter who before she became a police officer worked in the, now closed down, London Wildlife Hospital for two years so is quite an expert with this sort of thing. She says it is very borderline whether he will be able to feed himself as he still has some of his yellow baby feathers and will still have been fed by his mother but just learning to feed himself. I tried syringe feeding him as I have had lots of practice with hand rearing baby cockatiels but he just refused to open his beak, hand rearing really needs to start before about three weeks old to be successful, although I have had some successes older. In the end I tried him with softened oatmeal biscuit and later some warm scrambled egg which he did pick at a bit. He's still alive and picking at his food again this morning so I hope he will survive. He spent the evening sitting on my knee on an old towel watching the first half of the England match, so at least even if he doesn't survive he is warm and cared for, which is more than all his poor family. 

In between all this pigeon drama, our lovely jazz pianist neighbour came round as he had accidentally locked himself out of his house and asked if we could help him get in. His house is completely double glazed and it seemed like an impossible task, what an earth do people do in this situation, I had never really thought. In the end he asked Tom to smash the tiny little window in his front door and as Tom has long arms he managed to reach in and open the lock, of course then a glazier has to be found to make his house secure again and between all this and baby pigeon feeding the rest of the day passed by and I didn't get any more work done. While all this was going on my friend made it to the top of Striding Edge and I missed commenting on the dramatic photo of them posing with their dog in triumph! 

With baby pigeon Todd safely back in his cage, I was recounting all the days dramas to youngest daughter, who was sitting watching the second half with us. It was a nice end to the day even if not at all as I had planned. I suppose a life has been saved, our lovely neighbour was safely in his house and England won. I just had to share this photo of Tess and Layla watching youngest daughter eating crisps during the football match. You can see who gives the dogs unhealthy snacks in our house!

I'm off to my Dad's this morning. My sister is taking him for a blood test first thing this morning and then I am going round a little later and we will do his shopping and have lunch with him and then all the other little jobs we have to do. My six monthly blood test at the Royal Marsden is due this week so I will have to try and fit that it too at some point. At least the sun is shining. Have a lovely day everyone what ever you are doing. xx

Working From Home And Surviving

 It was a really rainy day yesterday which wasn't very nice but I had so much work to catch up on, it made me feel a bit better about staying in most of the day. I haven't worked at all over the last couple of weeks and you can't work from home and just swan around all the time, so this week there is going to be a lot of catching up. All my income from my two work websites is from commission, so I'll have to find time to catch up over the next couple of weeks. I have worked at home for twenty years and apart from a few times when life has been really difficult with family or my own ill health, I work out a work plan for the day in two hour blocks and it  has all gone really well. Some days I work more than others and fit in around what I am doing that day but always try to work in my two hour blocks, and either work two, four or six hours in the day depending on what else is going on. I make enough money with Tom's wages to get along, and as we always look for ways to save money and aren't really interested in buying expensive items, have managed. I like being my own boss and there is only a few things I miss about going out to work. I am well aware I am rather vulnerable if I am ill but then again I don't have to worry about a company I work for not surviving in difficult times. Whether I sink or swim is really down to me and how I adapt my work over the years. I really enjoy that feeling of independence.

It is a way of life more and more people are having to adapt to. So many people are working from home I do wonder how many will manage as time goes on. I have a large family, which although I moan they distract me, I can't imagine what it would be like working from home all day with no one coming in, in the evening to share your day with. Even though eldest daughter is a police officer, her work is mainly office based now. The team she works on, have adapted to work phones and computers set up at home, online meetings and even court presentations online. Her kitchen is starting to resemble a police incident room! The trouble is sitting at a kitchen table on your own is hard after several months. If Scarlett is off nursery ill and wanting attention, an online meeting with a Detective Inspector and a magistrate takes on a whole new level of stress she hasn't had to deal with before! 

Eldest son and I talk about it all a lot and he often says to me "Human behaviour changes very quickly." He has the most wonderful business brain and I think he is right, there was an article on the news yesterday about the massive new warehouses being built to cope with the parcels waiting to be dispatched from all the online shopping we are now all doing. In a way it is very sad but in another way there are exciting new opportunities for people. I would say to anyone who is worrying about whether their job will survive or who are furloughed and don't know if they will have a job to go back to, to start their own business. There will be new ways forward I'm sure. If I was younger and not so close to our retirement plans (although they still involve another business!) as a dog lover I would start a really good dog boarding kennels. Everyone has gone puppy mad in the last year and many of these people are going to want foreign holidays in the coming years. They will soon discover how hard it is to find good kennels. I think there are lots of new ideas for businesses if you just look around at how life has changed and instead of feeling despair at how things are going maybe we should see it as a new challenge. Eldest son makes me smile, he has a motivational line for every occasion! This is one he often uses.

I'm still catching up with work today and hoping I will be a bit more on top of it all by the end of the day. Tom enjoyed being back at work yesterday though, he said it felt nice being back in the swing of it all, so I know working from home is definitely not for everyone. I'm desperate to get out in the garden to tidy up but I'm trying to be strong today. The snails have been causing havoc with all this wet weather. I managed to save a couple of little plants that I particularly want to make sure survive and have brought them into the kitchen window sill. One is a Tree Peony and the other is a little Silver Birch tree the only ones of them left that haven't been eaten by the snails. 

I only have a few dog walks planned to break up the day today but I hope everyone has a lovely day what ever you are doing. xx

Business Ideas And Coronavirus

After early rain it brightened up a bit yesterday and for a while was quite sunny. While it was raining  I dashed about getting jobs in the house out of the way then straight after lunch when the sun had come out I went out into the garden. Everything has grown so much and weeds are appearing every where so I sorted out as much as I could then I re potted some of my little trees. I have taken such care growing them I don't want them to die through neglect now. I have about 10 little crab apple trees grown from one of our crab apples that has a lovely rusty red leaf colour. It is interesting as about half the trees are growing in the same colour as the parent tree and half are just plain green. I have read this and am looking forward to seeing how they turn out over the next few years. The oak trees and hawthorn trees all look exactly the same. I would love to have a bit more space to grow more trees and maybe set up a tree nursery business. It would be really eco friendly as I could grow from locally collected seeds and berries. I'll just keep experimenting for now and see how things turn out in the long run after coronavirus.

One of my favourites, our aquilegias are growing beautifully now, but these are a plant that can take over if you are not careful so when they have finished I think I may have a bit of a clear out and save seeds for next year.

Eldest son phoned me and his friend who is working with him on the coaches taking people from India to quarantine hotels has caught the Indian variant of coronavirus. He said he is at home but feels really unwell. I was horrified. I have worried and worried and eldest son said "Don't worry we have no contact with the people who are travelling." Well his friend has caught it somehow. Luckily as they work at opposite times they have not had any contact for several days. Now I feel like phoning eldest son a couple of times a day to make sure he is OK but don't want to be appear like a panicky mother. He is the only one of us not to have caught coronavirus and the rest of us have all recovered so I'm sure he would too but I worry as he lives on his own. I will be so glad when all this is over. 

Scarlett is coming this morning and I'm really hoping it is dry as we love getting out for our walks. I bought four more flags to finish the bunting and they have arrived so if it rains at least we can finish that. I hope everyone has a lovely day what ever you are doing. xx

Kathleen's Purse And Ignoring Lockdown

When I'm out at car boot sales or jumble sales (pre-coronavirus) I'm always on the look out for interesting, unusual little items. I don't know what it is but sometimes something will just catch my eye and I think it is something I would like to photograph and put on my social history website.  I have memorial cards, old letters, Victorian birthday cards, diaries and certificates. I just can't help rescuing them from old boxes under tables at car boot sales. I always think one day I may find a family member who would be so pleased to have them back in their possession.  I can't bear to think these once precious items may end up being thrown out. Several years ago I bought from household auctions and sold many of the items on ebay or cleaned some up and sold them on for a profit in antique auctions.  I would buy large boxes of mixed items, often from house clearances, and then just sort them through. Sometimes it would make me feel so sad. Yesterday when I was looking through a drawer I found something I had put away from one of these house clearance boxes. 

It was a purse I had found mixed amongst old china and cutlery. I had forgotten about it  but when I saw it I remembered at the time I couldn't bring myself to sell it. Inside the purse were a house key, a library card and a hospital property receipt for this little gold locket made out to Kathleen Davidson and dated September 2000. 

The two photos inside are of a little girl and an Edwardian looking gentleman. Was this Kathleen and her Dad I wonder? I have photographed them and I'm going to add them to my website and they are carefully stored  with all the other items now in the hope one day a member of Kathleen's family may find them. I felt pleased all day this purse had turned up again.

Eldest son's girlfriend popped round to pick up a parcel that had been delivered here for him as hadn't wanted to be out and miss it. With all the lockdown restrictions I hadn't seen her since last year so we had a lovely chat about all that had been happening. On the doorstep of course but it was better than nothing and still so nice to see her.

When Tom got in from work last night at 9 o'clock and had had such a bad shift. A whole crowd of about thirty youngsters had got on his bus in the evening, refused to pay and refused to wear masks. He had no choice but just to let them get on with it and they were on the bus for about half an hour skating up and down the top deck on scooters. So much for lockdown so many people seem to be ignoring it now. He was really fed up when he got in. I had cooked his favourite scampi and he bought a portion of chips in from the fish and chip shop down the road and after a glass of wine with it he had cheered up no end and was really looking forward to the four days off he has now. 

Scarlett is coming this morning so it will be a nice first day of the four off. It definitely looks nice enough to get out for a long walk and maybe even some seed planting in the greenhouse that I been promising her. I hope everyone has a lovely day what ever you are doing. xx

Back In The 1950s

 I worked for several hours yesterday. Even though it was dry with sunny moments, it was quite cold so I only ventured into the garden to feed the ducks and birds and have a quick tidy up. Many of the new photos I acquired were of the Isle of Wight so I joined an Isle of Wight history group on facebook and submitted some of the photos. Firstly I thought it would be nice for them to have access to them and secondly I wanted some help in identifying them. The clever people in this group managed to identify the places and decided they were taken in the mid 1950s. Photos from a different simpler time, post war so everyone had their own set of problems but better times where on the horizon. 

Coincidentally while I was scanning all these 1950s photos, youngest daughter was sitting in the room with me playing her "Fallout 4" video game on the television. It is full of 1950s music which she loves. For the last five years all I can hear is 1950s (or 1980s that is another love of hers) music coming from her room. Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Doris Day are among the songs blaring out. It's wonderful. She was listening to a song by Nat King Cole and we decided he was so incredibly talented. It reminded me of a story my Dad had told me which I relayed to her. 

When Dad was a teenager around 1950 he loved Nat King Cole. He was lucky enough to see him in concert when he was home on leave from the Merchant Navy. Nat King Cole was wearing a white suit which my Dad thought was so cool, with nearly all his pay, he bought one similar in Liverpool before he signed up for another tour on a ship. The tour took him up The River Ganges in India where they docked. While ashore for an evening out with his friends, to Dad's dismay someone spilt a drink on his precious and very expensive white suit and stained it. He asked around the next day if there was any place locally he could get it cleaned. Dad paid a young Indian man who assured him he would take it away and carefully get the stain removed. Later on in the day Dad looked across the River Ganges from the ship, which was so filthy it had dead animals floating in it, and there was the young Indian man washing his precious suit between two rocks in the river.  I can never hear a Nat King Cole song without thinking of this story but I do love Nat King Cole and for anyone else who loves him too this is the song we were listening to. 

Tom and youngest son and daughter are all out at work today so I will have plenty of time to catch up with things that need doing but I think I will pop to Morrisons this morning and have a look at their plants. I haven't been in Morrisons for about a year so it feels a bit of an adventure!  I hope everyone has a lovely day what ever your plans. xx

Thinking Of Descendants And An Anonymous Letter

 Yesterday we filled in our census. I filled in the part about the house and my details and then got everyone else to fill in their sections. I wanted it to be them speaking in their own words for the future. I wish I hadn't bothered! When Tom got in from work he moaned about it and said you fill it in. I just ended up asking him the questions "Would you like to be known as British or English" "Either I don't really mind" "Qualifications?" "I can't remember that far back!" and so it went on with frankly no interest at all! Youngest daughter took it much more seriously wanting her descendants to know exactly what she was like and pondering on how every word would be interpreted in the future. She spent so long on her job description I had to remind her she wasn't actually filling in a CV! Then at 10 o'clock at night when everyone else had finished along came youngest son.

Now youngest son is very opinionated and if there is a "bolshie" gene in the family then he has definitely inherited it. He has however inherited a family sense of humour. There is no situation that he doesn't crack a joke about. He is so witty he has a funny aside to add to every conversation. A night out at a pub ends up with tales about every minute of the evening which are always hilarious, he can keep us entertained for hours. 

When he sat down at my laptop there was a look in his eye that worried me. "Now remember you can be fined if you aren't serious on this" I said. I'm not actually sure if that is true. "Remember your descendants will be scrutinising this in 100 years" "I couldn't care less what they think of me, I won't be around to see it" Oh dear. Although he reassured me he was just messing with me as he was loving the look on my face, I just know there will be something. One little thing he will have to add to stamp his personality on it. When he finished he said "All done then, I'll press submit." So that is it, it has gone. I'd just like to say to our descendants if there is anything odd on our census, it's nothing to do with me!

The other exciting thing that happened was an anonymous packet was delivered to me. Now when I say anonymous there was a note inside saying they hoped I would find the photos useful, but no address or signature. I have two work websites and one is a photo and social history one full of photos of people and things. A bit like with a census, I feel that every tiny detail in a photo or every little item is a moment in history that should be preserved for the future. So many photos that other people would throw out I scan and store on the website. I usually buy the photos at car boot sales or auctions but some kind people have donated photos to me that they no longer want. These photos that arrived yesterday are so lovely. A mixture of family photos and 1960s holidays. I spent the evening (between census filling) scanning them and I'm really looking forward to adding them to the website. The site is totally free to browse and enjoy the photos, if anyone wants to have a little look UK Photo And Social History Archive

It's quite chilly this morning, Tom is at work and I think I will set too adding some of the photos. It is very pleasurable work and maybe one day one of their descendants will find them! I hope everyone has a lovely day what ever you are doing. xx

Missing Out

 I managed to find book shelf space for all the books I have decided to keep and have boxed up some I know I won't read again. I even fixed some damaged spines on old books, only with glue, I'm sure a professional bookbinder would be horrified, but they all certainly look nicer when they are on the shelves. I like to think it is all sorted but I do have a vague recollection of putting a few boxes in the loft and I may go up and have a search so I can feel I have completely got on top of it. Now what to do with the ones I'm getting rid of. Everything is shut at the moment and I just hope there is no problem to hold me up. We have a large Emmaus charity saleroom near us which we usually take unwanted items to but a year ago before the first lockdown I noticed they were getting a bit less likely to take everything as they used to. A  couple of times we were told they weren't taking books or toys at the moment. However none of this would be a problem if things were back to normal. There is a yearly sale that used to happen close by to us that I miss so much this year. 

Every year in the February half term there is the Epsom Charity Book Fair. An incredible 65,000 books all in boxes sorted in categories by volunteers to browse through over four days. Rooms and rooms of them. It's not only books but vinyl records, my idea of  a good day out! There is a fixed price for hard backs £1.75 and paperbacks £1.25. I have bought so many lovely books there and any we have finished with can be donated in the week before the sale. Looking at this photo last year when there was only just the murmurings of the problems to come, makes me feel so sad.

It's not just what I am missing out on though, maybe it's for the best when I am having such a sort out I can't add to my collections but whether its Emmaus or a charity book sale that attracts crowds from all around, they are all missing out on donations and money. I'm sure it is difficult times for many charities who are waiting and hoping this will be a bit more normal very soon. One thing I am sure about though is when things are more normal I will not take things for granted as I think I probably did before.

One bit of good news yesterday was I received a call from my doctors surgery to say I could have my coronavirus vaccination on Saturday. I was ever so pleased as it feels as if it is a step back to normality. I really want to go to Hastings to visit our eldest son as soon as we can. A walk along the seafront in the sunshine! That's just what we need. 

Sunshine and showers are forecast today. I have quite a lot of work to do with a pile of new documents to sort through and add to my social history website. I always find it quite exciting, you never know what you are going to come across but I hope I will have time to spend some time outside too. I hope everyone has a lovely day what ever your plans. xx

Any Repair Shops Still Out There?

 Yesterday was a work all day, day. I have always tried to work six hours a day but some days in the last couple of years it has been hard to do this many, so I'm always doing mental arithmetic to make up to the total over the week. I think of it in two hour blocks and if I get up early I can fit in a two hour block between 6 and 8 am and other evenings I will work from 9 to 11 pm. No matter what happens in my week I juggle around these two hour slots until I have made up my time.  Yesterday I managed to bank a couple of extra two hour slots so I'm feeling quite pleased with myself.
   I didn't have much time spare for anything else but I did get out my old 1970s Roberts radio in the evening. I can look at this and remember those early episodes of Junior Choice with Ed "Stewpot" Stewart progressing to all those David Cassidy songs through my teenage years and then evenings struggling to keep the signal on Radio Luxembourg.
   Junior Choice! I had almost forgotten about it until I looked at this radio. It was full of sing a long songs and Sunday mornings were always spent listening to them on this little radio, I searched out a playlist from the show and Tom and I spent the evening singing songs I had forgotten all about (much to our youngest son and daughter's horror!). Ernie by Benny Hill, White Horses by Jackie, Morningtown Ride by The Seekers and Champion The Wonder Horse by Frankie Lane. They were all favourites on Junior Choice.
   I had thought for a while I must get my little 1970s Robert's radio fixed and buying our caravan has pushed me into trying. Are there any radio repair shops still out there? I'm determined to try and find one. Sadly it won't play music from those happy days but at least when I look at it I can remember!

    When I was walking back from the shops yesterday evening there was a sign in the charity shop window saying 50% of all bric a brac so I am off there this morning to see if I can find any good buys to sell on ebay. I hope everyone has a good day.

An Organising Kind Of Day

What a rainy day! I was stuck in on my own today so decided I would make the most of it and get things done. There are lots of jobs I needed to catch up with so I thought I would just work through them all day. My first job was listing the items I bought this week on ebay, which without any distractions I got through quite quickly. I could have listed more but I needed to photograph them and the light was too bad on such a rainy day to do that. The problem is, the more stock I add the harder it is to find places to store them safely. I added todays items, carefully wrapped in paper to plastic stacking boxes but as time goes on it gets harder as only a percentage of the stock sells each month and this has to be taken into consideration when deciding how big to become as a seller. I am keeping meticulous records for my ebay and etsy selling, which brings me to the next task of the day.
   End of tax year books. I'm very old fashioned, all my book keeping is written down, then I feel happy. All new books need to be started next week and I put a lot of work into getting them just right. I am starting a new household budget book at the same time. Every month I write a list of bills and direct debits due and put the money aside for them first, then I can work out how much we have left to spend each week and any excess goes into our savings. Then weekly money is broken down again into food, petrol and other essentials during the week. This is the figure I am always trying to reduce. New books always give me motivation to try and get the outgoings down and incomings up even more. It's a bit like that feeling you had with new school books in September when you started writing on the first page. I always thought I would do my very best in this book. I hope it lasts a bit longer than in my school days! Even though I am sick of this rain it has certainly helped me get through some work today.