Grannymar

I have my anonymous friend to thank for this one!

This week we begin with some great advice from Maxine!

If you have difficulty removing a stubborn screw, I often heard to pour Coke on it. But now I have a new solution and that is to heat the screw with a soldering iron for a few seconds first, and then it will untwist easily.

Has your pet lost its appetite? Try giving it a saucer of beer. It is known to perk up the appetite.

Are your pets pestered with fleas?   Put a foam rubber pad in the pets bed and the fleas will abscond mighty fast they hate foam.

Do you have stubborn staples stuck to a dry cleaning ticket on the inside of your clothes? . An old nail clippers will work well to remove the staple.

No complaints now please…. the vinegar has gone on holidays!

The other day Ramana wrote about his favourite chair.  In the post not alone did we see photos of it, we also saw a picture of the younger man and his beautiful late wife Urmeela.  We learned a little more about their life together as well as the history of the piece of furniture.

In true Ramana fashion, he threw down the gauntlet and asked if we had a favourite piece of furniture to show & share….

My special treasure has shapely legs…

It was purchased as a gift before I was even a gleam in my father’s eye.  It was a gift for a woman.  A woman I never had the opportunity to meet.  The fact that she loved and cared for it was enough for me.  It may be my treasure at the moment, but I am really a temporary guardian until the day when I pass it on to the next generation.

It arrived into its first home in several pieces and when put together there were no nails needed.  Wooden dowels were the means of locking the sections together.

It is an occasional table.  A very, very unusual occasional table.  The wood is dark but not ebony.  Each of the four legs is carved into the shape of an elephants head with added eyes and tusks in ivory.

Alas, one of my predecessors  was not over fond of the table and made it the home for an indoor plant that was housed in a heavy black metal three legged pot, the type used in Ireland for cooking on open fires many generations earlier.  The legs of the pot caused irreparable damage to the inlaid Ivory on the table top.

The weight was in the table top which was all one piece.  The legs were attached to the underside of the top and to four connecting cross bars with a central decoration like a little wooden dish. At the edge of this dish were four shapes that look like snake heads.

Is that a pineapple sitting in the end of the trunk?

A little detail of the ivory:

The table was purchased by Jack during his war time service in India, before he moved on to Burma.  He had it sent home to his beloved mother in the North East of England.  I am sure that when the parcel arrived it was rather a shock, firstly to receive such a gift but it would also be an indication for his parents as to what country he was in.  Back then letters home were not alone very slow, but censored and no mention of where the sender was stationed was allowed.  Unlike today, where those at war have mobile phone and email access with their families, back then families did not know where their loved ones were.

Jack told me a story once in the wee small hours of the morning, when the ghosts of torment and nightmares wander achingly through the dark, that his mother sat up in bed one night and shouted to his father “Something has happened Our john!”.  The story was confirmed at a later stage by his aunt who also added that on that night Clara’s (Jack’s mother) hair turned white.  It was months before they were told that he was injured and back in hospital in Lincolnshire, England many miles away from home.

Chinese Pork Balls

Serves 4 to 6

1lb Pork fillet

1 inch Root Ginger, peeled

2 cloves Garlic

8oz can Water chestnuts, drained

Salt & Pepper

2 tablespoons Soy sauce

1 teaspoon Caster Sugar

2 tablespoon Oil

Sauce

4 tablespoons dry Sherry

1 tablespoon Tomato Purée

1 tablespoon caster Sugar

2 tablespoon White Wine Vinegar

Place the pork, ginger, garlic and water chestnuts in a food processor with salt & pepper to taste. Process for 15 to 20 seconds. Add the soy sauce and sugar and process for a further 2 seconds. Form into small balls.

Heat the oil in a pan, add the meat balls and fry for 10 minutes, until crisp. Add the sauce ingredients to the pan and stir until blended and heated through.

Serve hot with Rice.

‘Questions, Questions’ was a problem-solving programme on BBC Radio 4. Stewart Henderson the Presenter addressed the intriguing and seemingly imponderable questions posed by everyday life….

“If there are two rainbows in the sky, does the second one have the colours in reverse order? If so, why?”

“Why does the bread always fall to the floor butter side down?”

Since I don’t eat buttered bread I paid little heed to the answer for that question, so don’t ask me. November 08 was the last time I heard the programme and at my age memory plays tricks. Don’t tell Elly that it is selective defective!

Now we all have questions. Not like Captain Boyles “What is the Stars?” Or to give the proper quotation “I ofen looked up at the sky an’ assed meself the question - what is the moon, what is the stars?” - Captain Boyle, Act I of Juno and the Paycock by Sean O’Casey.

My question is: ‘Why do people say “How are you?” when they meet someone, and do they really want to know or listen to the answer’?

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What is your question?

I went shopping one day during the week for some new toys.

The bed/chair table I purchased a few weeks ago.  It has turned out quite useful.  Tobias sits nicely on the main section which I tilt slightly forward and can work on quite easily without having to put the weight on my knees.  I know, I know!  But EVERYONE uses their lap to rest a laptop on, how else did it get the name!  The side section stays static and will hold my coffee cup, (*whisper* plus sticky bun*, but don’t tell Elly ).

On the Bed table are new socks, Coiler shoe laces, Safe-T-Strips, Soapy Soles and a sock aid.  They are all available here.

A closer look at the items: Front left are the Coiler laces, they measure about 6inches as they are, but they actually fit my walking boots.  You thread them through as normal laces but there is no need to tie the ends,  They stretch as you pull on or off the boot or shoe and are neat, comfortable and secure while walking.  Below you can see one in my well used nine year old boots.

Above them in the picture are Safe-T-Strips for the floor of the shower.  The packet contains 20 permanent adhesive strips and I see from the back of the wrapper that they are suitable for the edge of outdoor deck steps or terraces.

The blue item at the back is what they call Soapy soles a footpad with suction grip to easily clean and massage the feet without bending.  It came with a free sachet of liquid soap!

The final item with the cords and blue compressed foam handles on the right is the sock aid.  I tried it with all the socks shown below.  Since I am a very cold creature and wear socks winter and summer even in bed I needed to be able to put socks on easily post surgery.  I know it may be a few months away but by starting now it will be second nature to me and not something new to deal with.

I tried it with sports socks, fine socks and the pop socks you see  on the aid.  They all worked well and there was no bending from an upright sitting position.

The final item I have to show you are my balls!

Caught you there didn’t I!  You didn’t know about them now!

I have them for a few years now… well since I broke my wrist in 2005.

They are sponge tennis sized balls ideal for exercising the fingers.  Once the plaster was removed from my hand and a splint put on it, I was able to use them to keep the movement going.  I brought them out when I went for a walk and exercised my hands as well as my feet.  I was a very lucky lady at that time as I now have full movement in my right (major) wrist.

Now back to the exercises….

And the eyes of them both were opened; and when they perceived themselves to be naked, they sewed together fig leaves and made themselves aprons.

~ Genesis 3:7

Fig    Definitions from Oxford Dictionary

• Broad leaved tree
• Fig leaf: device for concealing something
• Fig-Out: dress up (person) bedizen.

Bedizen: deck out gaudily

With those few words buzzing about in my head, began a project that took a year to complete.  The idea of Eve as a temptress somehow fits in with the ‘Fig’ definitions above.

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It was academic year 1991/2 and I was enrolled for the second year of a London City & Guilds Creative Embroidery Course, at a local Technical College.  I loved the practical side of it but had one big problem… I saw projects in 3D in my head and found it difficult to put my thoughts on paper.  There I go again the blots and the blank page syndrome!  When it came to art the only thing I was confident about drawing, was a chair across the floor!

Back then I did not have a computer so all my research loosely involved Trees - books, magazines, paper for drawing & writing on, even parts of pencils came from trees.  I began to look at and examine trees more closely.

This picture is only one example and I kept it for the colouring, it came from a magazine like so many more at that stage.  My camera was of low quality back then and I had to wait until the whole roll was complete before sending the film away to be developed, only then did you discover that half the prints were unfit for use and details a smudgy mess.  Oh! what we could have done with a digital camera.

So trees, bark and paper came between me and my sleep.  I read about Barkcloth; it is a versatile material that was once common in Asia, Africa, Indonesia and the Pacific. Barkcloth came  primarily from trees of the Moraceae family.  It is made by beating sodden strips of the fibrous inner bark into sheets of paper-like fabric and dyed or otherwise coloured.

Tapa, a papery cloth was made in a similar way in the islands of the Pacific Ocean primarily in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji.  In former times the cloth was primarily used for clothing, but now cotton and other textiles have replaced it. The major problem with Tapa clothing is that the tissue is just like paper: it loses all its strength when wet and falls apart.

Tissue paper was where I began, tearing it in rough strips and placing them to look like bark.

Then came tissue scrunched up while wet to give the effect of rougher bark.

Another idea was canvas and ribbons dyed with tea.

At this stage I wanted to work with paints in autumn colours so I went to my fabric bin and hoked about until I found a few plain pieces.  For anyone interested in trying fabric paints, you need to wash the fabric first to remove any finish from it or the paints may not take.

So this sample is from the rough mixed fibre fabric that I used for my first attempt.  I tore it in long strips and plaited them together.  I had enough for three plaits from the single width of material.  I placed the plaits on a strong layer of plastic sheeting to prevent the paints staining the surface underneath, in this case the floor of the spare bedroom.  I applied Deka silk paints randomly with a medicine dropper onto the fabric plaits.  The plaits were quite damp at that stage and I left them for about six hours before opening them out.  I then left the strips flat to dry naturally.

Using the lines formed like creases from the paint I stitched pin tucks in a variety of threads some glitter and some plain.  Very little was needed.  This sample below was dried quickly by placing between two layers of baking parchment and ironed.

Next I tried the same method on muslin, and both silk and cotton organdie.

The paint needs to be ’set’ by heat, and the easiest way is by ironing.  NB make sure to place baking parchment above and below the fabric to prevent staining either the iron or the ironing board cover.

Pleased with my results so far, I turned my mind on how to use the strips.  I was thinking of Eve but wanted a little more than fig leaves. :roll:  So the next stage was to select other fabrics to go with the bark effect panels.

The fabrics marked 1, 2 & 3 in the photo above were the direction I went.  No. 1 was my choice with No.2 for extra effect.

While taking a break from fabric paints and allowing the material to dry I distracted myself with sorting some old photos for another project.  This photo of my mother taken while on holiday in Nice, just a few short weeks before the outbreak of WW11, seemed to jump out at me.  It was the shorts.  Her shorts were purchased while on the holiday and considered rather scandalous when she came home.  ( I wore them in the garden as a teenager, I think Elly wore them once and I am sure my sister still has them!).

Shorts and ‘hot pants were all high fashion at that stage so I decided to try and recreate them for sentimental reasons and to add a heart shaped bustier to go with them.

I decided to appliqué four painted panels to the bustier with some stylized leaves to represent fig leaves.  For these I used the organdie decorated with machine embroidery.  I also used one of my other experiments - of the muslin as a base; scraps of organdie, silk and sparkle threads, fine gold mesh, braid and coloured rayon threads were trapped in food/Saran wrap and over sewn with zig-zag machine stitches.  With them I used wooden beads, covered tiny spools and machine made cords (something I love to do).

You have been very patient so far, so I’ll not bore you with the sewing.  It is time to see the finished outfit.

And from the other side…

Thats not a hole in my tights, just a mark on the photo!

The top had a second life….

For Elly’s Graduation I made, by request, a pair of trousers and a detachable skirt that started on a hip bone and went around the back to the other hip bone.  It was more like a cape at waist level and removed for dancing and that is where the idea for her wedding outfit came from.  The skirt was worn around her shoulders for the homeward journey in the early hours of the next morning!

Some people don’t have enough to do!

They sit around thinking of ideas for others to do.

I don’t wear a watch so I don’t have time.  When you are living alone and not working the days are all the same, sundays, mondays, holy days and holidays are no different.  I never really know if it is bin day, St Patrick’s Day, 4th or 12th of July or Guru Poornima unless I am told.

On 2nd July an email popped into my inbox…  At the time I was very busy with loo paper.  No, I was not in the throne room, don’t be silly I am not quite soldered to the laptop…YET!  I was busy gathering my thoughts and graphics for a blog post. So the email pinged and it was an invitation.

Remember at this stage I am deep in loo paper…  The email read:

‘I’d like to start a loose blog consortium’.

Here is the way I envision it working:

1. In a round robin fashion one of us will be responsible for tossing a broad idea into the consortium commons once a week and everyone will have the week to develop a post on the idea.

2. We will all post what we have developed simultaneously.

3. All of our posts will be fodder for our readers and each other!

I am thinking that we might come up with some hilarious and sometimes insightful posts and this could be a lot of creative fun!  What think you all?

Did I mention it was from Conrad?  So then he runs off to light the BBQ and have a little holiday. Huh! some friend he is.  We have to sit about chewing our nails waiting for the when, where and what about…

The scapegoats idiots participants willing to give it a go are:

• Ashok - India
• Conrad - USA
• G.L. Hoffman - USA
• Marianna - British Columbia, Canada (When she mends.  Get well soon Marianna!)
• Ramana - Pune, India
• Yours truly - little old me - Northern Ireland, UK.

So the lonnnnnnnnnng weekend is finally over and another message pings through the ether:

Just to kick this off, how about we set this time for the publication of our weekly topic: 9:00 AM PDT, 9:30 PM in India, 5:00 PM Ireland on Friday of each week.

So we all get to press the button at the same time and there will be no talking in class or cogging ideas, it sounds like an exam to me.  I wonder who will correct the papers?  Will it be you?

And how about this for a kickoff topic: Creativity.

Now I am off to chew my pencil for a bit, see you at 5pm!

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If I pass the test today, Fridays posting will be at the later time of 5pm.

It was a glorious summers day.

The sun was high and so were my spirits.  It was the dawning of a new life.  I woke early and quietly set about pressing my outfit for the day.  The outfit was bought months earlier and spent the intervening time rolled in a ball and stuffed in a weekend case on top of the wardrobe!  Freshly pressed I hung it in readiness at the back of the bedroom door.

The household was at this stage coming to life so I made my way down to breakfast.  I met brother No. 2 on the stairs, he was on his way up with breakfast on a tray for my father. In the kitchen my mother was finished eating and ready to keep her appointment with the hairdresser.  My sister-in-law (sil) stood to pour me a coffee and offered to make some toast.  The chat was sparse and in hushed tones…. it almost had a funereal feeling about it.  You know, when people whisper in case they waken the corpse.

Once the dishes were washed the kitchen cleared my sil and I headed for town to have our hair done.  It  was soon time to return to the house where I applied my mother’s make-up, sorted my sil’s cut shins, calmed my father and dispatched Brother No.2 to collect Jack from where he was staying.

Brother No. 4 arrived and took my mother and sil to the church, leaving my father who was pacing the floor, and I in my semi dressed state to the silent house.  Brother No. 4 would lead mammy to her pew and then return to collect my father and I.  It was time to don the outfit.  As I moved to reach the hanger there was a knock on the bedroom door.  It was Brother No.1  He had dropped his wife off at the church (8 minutes away), spoken to Jack and came to have a quiet word with me.  He hugged me (the only one I had by that stage of the day) and he wished me all the happiness in the world in my new life.  He told me that Jack was waiting for me and he looked happy.  With another squeeze he was gone and I stepped into my outfit.

Descending the stairs, my father was still pacing the floor.  He turned and the words he offered were “Is that you ready now”?

Making sure I had no lipstick on my teeth.

Brother No 4 had the car turned and the doors open for us so off we went.  8 minutes and we were at the Church.  Brother No.1 was at the door to meet us.  Brother No.4 was with us.  Suddenly, my father who had poor health, said

“I cannot do it!”

I think the boys were half expecting this, so after five minutes discussing the various options my father said he would walk me up the aisle.  It must have looked like a real comedy piece with a brother walking up each side aisle, pace for pace with my father as he walked the nave with me.  The idea was that if he became unwell, one brother would take him out and the other would walk me up to Jack.

A few tense moments

I was passed over to Jack and as we turned to face my Uncle who was officiating, the Angelus Bell rang.  It was 12 noon.  My uncle smiled as he greeted us remarking aloud about us getting the time spot on.

Very soon the Marriage Service was over and we were on our way back down the aisle and on to the house for the party in the back garden.

Happy Ever After

We had a small wedding by choice - immediate family only - 24 in total turned out that day.  My mother wore the same colour as I did.  My sister wore white and five of the ladies, three of them sister in laws, wore pink!  So much for communication and consultation.

That was 32 years ago today.

I mentioned the day once before here.

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Marriage is certainly about more than fancy outfits, new hairdos, walking aisles and big parties….  There is of course the everyday living with the quirks and habits of those we marry to deal with.  Even today when I hear a man whistle it is a reminder of Jack and enough to pull me out of a daydream.

The following video is sad but I hope you will see the funny side too.  It is what makes life real.  I stole found it at Alice’s My Wintersong

One night, Celia and her husband were sitting in the living room and she said to him,

‘I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug.’

He got up, unplugged the Computer, and threw out her wine.

Somehow I don’t think that was what she had in mind…….

Sometimes you got to love emails!