A lasting legacy

You may remember Dear Reader that my lovely friend June died before Christmas. Well, last weekend TG and I went up to her house in Nottingham because she had made me one of the beneficiaries in her will and her executor had asked me if I would help her to go through June’s things.

This is one of the most awful things that I have had to do. I felt almost like a burglar in her house going through drawers and cupboards. Deciding what to keep, what to donate to charity and what to bin, rifling through her personal belongings, collected over nearly 80 years. It made me sad and immensely flattered to find letters and cards that I had written her years ago and to see all of the cushions, quilts and other bits and pieces that I had made her, not shoved into cupboards or drawers, but on show.

We laughed together (her friend of 50 years and I) as we remembered all the outfits that we removed from 4 wardrobes – some of which dated back 30 years or more and tried on her mink coat just to see what it felt like. We bagged up about 20 bags of clothes, shoes and handbags, found at least 200 lipsticks and 50 different nail varnishes and an enormous amount of costume jewellery. And that was just the tip of the iceberg.

It’s astonishing to see a lifetime’s worth of stuff. Things that have been collected, hoarded, loved and looked after for nearly twice as long as I’ve been here for. I like to think that we cleared with empathy and respect.  TG was brilliant when I showed him the pile of things that I wanted to take home. He didn’t bat an eyelid at the 20 or so cushions that June had made so beautifully, or the watercolours she painted (of which there were many) that were put into the car. He didn’t question the half-dozen hand-made pincushions, the two quilts made by June’s Mum or just the stuff that reminds me of her. He understood.

Our house now smells of June and is home to her cushions and pictures and very at home they look too. I would have been so upset if these things had just been binned and was so glad to have been there for part of the clearance. We have to go back again. This time to clear her ‘studio’ which is home to more wool, embroidery threads, sequins and beads that I have ever seen outside of a haberdashery department. I am hoping to donate it to a school or sewing group or somebody who will appreciate and use it.

June left me a brilliant legacy of some of the most creative things I could own. She was a clever bugger on the quiet and I think she knew that her things would be safe with me. I still go to phone her on a Sunday and have to stop myself.

Miss you Juney.

We are going to need considerably bigger buns……

Well Dear Reader. I’ve only been and gone and got one of the lead parts in Calendar Girls, to be performed in Cowes in September. I’ve got the part of Annie – or for those who are familiar with the film – the Julie Walters part. To say that I am chuffed is an understatement because there were more ladies auditioning that night than I’ve ever seen for any production I’ve done here. My good friend and fellow thesp Mrs G will be mostly being Chris (or Helen Mirren). We’ve been in lots of stuff together and we’ll have a blast! Nothing will kick off for a few months but the director now has who he wants and it’ll be more than exciting when it all does.

The diet begins today :0)

Out of the mouths of babes…

Picture the scene Dear Reader. There I am in the changing room of Next with the Smallest Baby Girl (who has insisted on joining me) trying on a new frock for New Year’s Eve. She is sitting on the shelf in the changing room, legs swinging nonchalantly The conversation proceeds thus:

SBG – ‘Are you going to be naked Nanny?’

Me – ‘No (she looked relieved at this). I’m just going to try this on over my jeans.

SBG – (looking with great interest as I struggle to do the zip up) ‘Is it going to do up Nanny?’

Me – ‘I hope so’.

*Long pause*

SBG – (In a considered fashion) ‘Well you are a BIT fat Nanny’.

*Slightly stunned silence from me*

Note to self – do not take small children into the changing room of ANY shop. EVER.

2012 – disappearing at the speed of light!

 

Oh for heaven’s sake Dear Reader. 2012 is dashing by at the same speed as the past year did and not a blog entry to be found!

In no particular order – a small update.

Theatricals are taking centre stage (see what I did there) at the moment. Currently in rehearsal is ‘Cash on Delivery’ – a very funny farce with lots of cross dressing, being knocked out by doors and ‘in one door and out the other’ moments to keep the audience amused. Next on the agenda for February (one night only) is The Vagina Monologues which we are performing once more in aid of the Island Women’s Refuge. We had SUCH a laugh doing this last year and it was so successful as a fundraiser that it was decided to wheel us out again this year, vajazzles and all! And lastly there are auditions next week for Calendar Girls  to be performed in September in Cowes. Whilst being somewhat dubious about the stripping off thing and needing to lose half my body weight at least a stone, I am going to go along and see if I’m successful. Watch this space.

Apart from that, the Smallest Baby Boy is one on Friday and has just taken his first steps (he is a lazy little git) and he and the SBG are coming for a sleepover with Nanny and Pops at the weekend. Whilst this fills me with joy, it also fills me with dread as you can’t take your eyes off the SBB for a nanosecond otherwise he’s on / in / under or behind something. Either that or he’s jamming something totally unsuitable (including parts of the cat) down his throat – parcel tape is currently looking like the best option…..

Apart from all that, there has been gardening – well why not as it’s so flippin’ mild and a few undercover projects on the go to be revealed in due course…

These are busy but exciting times, Dear Reader and I shall update soonest. I may meet myself coming back (as my Nan used to say)…

In which I am resolute.

Well Dear Reader, here we are at the end of another year. I won’t go on about the year just past that has had its highs and lows as it has, I am sure, for you all. Neither will I leave some long list of diets and givings up – none of which will last past New Year’s Day!

Instead I shall leave you with the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson which say most succinctly how it will be for me next year. I am no saint (not by a long way) but I shall endeavour to fulfill the following.

“To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived – this is to have succeeded.”

–  Ralph Waldo Emerson

A very happy New Year to one and all. xxx

 

And so that was Christmas..

So. The mayhem and siege mentality shopping is over. The 21lb (yes 21!!!) turkey has met its end and my liver is protesting quietly.

For your interest (or not) a few little mementos of the festive day which started at ours with the small people coming over for presents and some friends dropping in for a little lunchtime tipple and ended with 13 of us ranging from 5 weeks to 76 years old sitting around Mr and Mrs Folly’s festive table.

For some, unless you can wedge it in your mouth, it’s a rubbish present

For others a £3.99 bracelet with your name and a fairy princess is enough to make you hyperventilate with joy

There were friends

And young love

Family

Some general silliness

Beautiful girlies

The obligitory Santa dog…

And the world’s teeniest Father Christmas

And a good time was had by all (if you don’t count the teenage hangovers the next day!!).

Have yourselves a merry little Christmas……

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay,
From now on,
our troubles will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more.

Through the years
We all will be together,
If the Fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

Thank you for all your kind words and comments. Thanks for tuning in. And in the words of Judy Garland, more poignant this year than ever Dear Reader, have yourself a merry little Christmas. xxx

When a box is more than just a box…

The small people came round this morning for a visit bearing Christmas gifts for under the tree which The Other Child had brought in a box.

Small children are a bit like cats where boxes are concerned – they are far more interesting than the contents themselves and must be sat in.

You can play peek a boo

And pretend it’s a boat

Or just look cute for the camera

Not to mention a bit smug at how clever you are on the quiet…

Big sisters however, remain unimpressed and have been know to avert their eyes away from all the nonsense because they are FAR too grown up now for that sort of thing

And in the end it all just gets too much for a boy.

In which the halls are decked

Well now Dear Reader, I was experiencing a little bah-humbuggery this Christmas not least because of all the stuff that’s been going on recently (just fyi there has been no change in Dad’s condition). I suggested to TG that maybe we’d not bother with a Christmas tree and all the assorted paraphernalia that goes with it this year and his little face fell. I also said that I wasn’t prepared to spend the rest of my life hours hoovering a billion pine needles up off the sitting room carpet (he has selective memory when it comes to this and insists that he ALWAYS does it – it would have been hard to hoover from South Africa last year….). So in the great spirit of compromise we have a droppy tree outside the front door – currently preventing the postman delivering and a little tree in a pot indoor which he ASSURES me won’t result in my hoovering for hours on end come twelfth night.

I do like a decoration and a light or three

So the halls are decked, the tree is up and the pre-Christmas row has been had. I am one Christmas party down and one to go and have my birthday next week at Sadler’s Wells watching Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker to look forward to.

In the meantime and with another lot of stormy weather on the way, we shall be battening down the hatches, looking at the decs and watching lots of pre-Christmas telly. Bloody perfect!

Friday amusement