My mother - born this day

My mother was born on the 30th April  1888 in the reign of Queen Victoria.   She lived through the reigns of Edward 7th,  George 5th,  Edward 8th,  George 6th and into the reign of Elizabeth  2nd.  She was born partially blind with cataracts.  Nowadays that would probably have been sorted out in no time but she spent a number of weeks in hospital in her childhood before her sight improved slightly.
Her grandparents were farmers in Essex but she lived with foster parents in London who owned a dairy. "Uncle" was the milkman and delivered milk three times a day.  This being in the days before fridges.  Mother used to go with him before school.
At 14 mother went into service.  She was so badly treated at her first job that she climbed out of the window in the middle of the night and ran home.  It was in service that she met my father.  He had trained as an artist and cartoonist but drifted into service.  His father was a bootmaker in London.  Whenever I see the film "Hobson's Choice" I think of him.
At one period in their early married life they worked in the household of Sir Edwin Lutyens, the Architect who designed the Cenotaph in Whitehall  amongst many other famous houses and buildings .He was married to Lady Emily  who was tthe dau.ghter of a Viceroy of India.  My mother was the nursery maid.  She did all the jobs the Nanny was too superior to do.  Lady Emily and her sister, Lady Constance Lytton,  were much involved in the Suffragette Movement and all the female staff were expected to attend meetings.  Lady Emily and her children were vegetarians but not Sir Edwin.  On one occasion he was reputed to refer to his fish course "as the piece of cod that passeth all understanding".
My parents had 4 children, two of whom were stillborn.  My brother lived to be 91 and I am still here on my way to 90.  Survival of the fittest!Despite her poor sight my mother was a great knitter and made our jerseys and even knitted her own dresses (see picture - mother, me and doll all in knitted dresses! My brother is looking severe - and possibly fed up.)
I think of her today on her birthday with great affection.

Charities

I hope the Government are going to decide to drop the proposal to cap tax relief on charitable giving.  The small charities that rely on donations will suffer.  I am thinking especially of Calibre Audio Books.     www.calibre.org.uk   This is run on a shoestring mainly by volunteers and provides a wonderful service for people like me who love books but have difficulty reading print.  The service is free and relies on donations and fund raising events. It doesn't get any grant from the Government.
If you backed the winner on the Grand National  -  remember Calibre.

Scones

I feel guilty.  Having just had my 89th birthday I read that the problem of the aging population has become acute.  I'm afraid that I no longer contribute much to the P.M.'s Big Society.  I don't know what I can do about it except to say "Do not resuscitate".

Oh well! to cheer myself up I made some cheese scones.

April Showers

My mood today is a bit like the weather - sunshine & showers.  I am pleased to be wearing a new pair of shoes which actually fit me.  I seem to have a lot of bits of paper with problems to sort out but they are going to have to wait until tomorrow.  After the fiasco with my blog I'm not going to try anything new so if Mr.  Cameron is reading this there is nothing sensational to report!
There have been some amusing letters in the telegraph about overheard conversations.  The two that made me laugh were as follows:    A woman standing behind me in the bus queue said to her small child who was eating an ice cream cornet "Don't brush your ice cream  against that lady's fur coat, you'll get hairs on it".  The second one was when I was coming out of a cinema with my father-in-law after a rather dreadful film and we heard a man say "What a waste of money.  I reckon they should have paid us to go in and see it".

Hiatus

Sorry my dear readers if you have been looking  for pearls of wisdom.  Google encouraged me to click on something new and I completely lost my head.  I couldn't find my way back to my blog, try as I may..  I thought poor old Jay May  is past it.   However the Cavalry arrived(just as I was going to throw the whole caboosh in the bin) in the shape of Amanda  and she put me back on track. Google has obviously never heard the saying "If it aint broke, don't fix it".  I was doing very nicely as things were.  Why do so-called improvements end up making life more complicated?  Here ends today's rant!  See you tomorrow, I hope.

Getting There

I read today that your best chance of living to be 100 (presuming that would be desirable) could be having parents or grandparents who lived to be centenarians. This is regardless of whether you give up drink, fags or cheeseburgers. I'm doing my best. Both my grandmother and my mother lived to be 95. (So, incidentally, did my mother-in-law). They were not in very good physical shape for the last year or so but their minds were very alert. So I shall persevere with the Telegraph crossword.
If I sound a bit sozzled in future it is because I may try out a new remedy for my painful arthritic joints. Raisins steeped in gin! Skol!