Grannymar

In my post Joanne, I began with a paragraph and invited commenters to continue the story.  It was my intention to try and piece them all together and let the story flow.

Joanne was in a hurry to get married.

It was her dream since she was about ten years old.  She had spent her days playing house and nursing her dolls.  Not wanting to stay in school a day longer than needed, she left on her sixteenth birthday.  She was fortunate to find a job in a local jewellery store not far from her home.  The baubles were a far cry from the Crown jewels, more your cheap and cheerful with plenty of bright lights to make them sparkle!

The first few weeks passed quickly in learning all the lines the store stocked and how to display them to their best advantage.  Moving baubles this way or that under the powerful overhead lights made them sparkle and dazzle the buyer.

Unfortunately, she soon found that few men came into the jewellery shop; it was patronized by women who fantasized about having the “real thing” but settled for “cheap and cheerful.”

Once she took on the duty of dressing the window, she noticed subtle changes.  She suddenly had lots of male admirers but she was never sure whether their interest was genuine or whether they thought they could get cut-price jewellery or special prices from her.

She seemed destined never to meet the man of her dreams and began to regret leaving school so early, but late one foggy, misty day a young man entered the store - more to get out of the weather than a need to purchase baubles. But he took one look at Joanne and thought, I could convince this dame that I fell madly in love with her. It was a regular game he played.

He pretended to look at jewellery but really could not take his eyes off of the beautiful Joanne. He stayed as long as he dared at the counter having her show him one piece of jewellery after another. Even though he did not have a dime in his pocket (or in his bank) he could not tear himself away from her. He could tell by the look in her lovely blue eyes that she was smitten with him, too.

Was this the man of her dreams? “No, she thought, ”It couldn’t be. The man of my dreams is tall and handsome and rich.” But why, then, is my heart beating so wildly and why are my palms so moist as I brush his hand when showing him the jade bracelet?

Suddenly, the door of the Jewellery store is flung open and a policeman enters and shouts…………

“NOBODY MOVE”!

Walking slowly and deliberately to the counter the tone changed.

“This man is a suspect.  I need you to gather up every piece of jewellery that he touched and put them in a bag.  In fact, to be sure, put every item that you showed him into that bag and we will take them for forensic examination.

Nervously Joanne gathered all the items and placed them in a chamois bag before handing them to the officer.  He thanked her and walked out the door with the young man, chatting in a very friendly way.

“JOANNE!”  Came the call from Downstairs.  Her mother sounded cross.

Oh dear!  Joanne overslept again this morning.  If she didn’t get a move on she would be late for school again today!

Our topic today was chosen by Magpie 11. Lady Magpie made contact with me a couple of days ago to tell me that he would not be joining us in the playground for a few days because he had been admitted to hospital, the latest news came from the man himself.  He has been allowed home with strict orders to behave!  I am sure that Anu, Ashok, Conrad,  Gaelikaa,  Ginger, Helen,  Judy, Maria, Ramana & all of you who have come to know Our Magpie 11, will join me in sending a resounding Get Well wish for a speedy recovery to full health.   We look forward to cracking open a bottle of good cheer and banter real soon.

Bottles

Bottles come in many colours, shapes & sizes and are often used to provide nourishment at the different stages of our lives.

Poetic licence here, the last one is not really a bottle, but I have on occasion had liquid from all the varieties shown so far!

Today I would like to concentrate on the second life of bottles.  What do you mean you didn’t know bottles had a second life?

Glass is an excellent material for re-use, it is sterile, safe and 100% recyclable.  The recycling process can be repeated endlessly without any loss of quality.  Recycled glass reduces the amount of rubbish that needs to go into landfill.

On a recent visit to St George’s Market in Belfast, I discovered two such ‘Second Lives’!

This young lady was from Greenglass based in Cornwall.  All the glasses on the stall were made from recycled bottles.  I see from the website that they also make glass bracelets and necklaces.

While still on the wander another stall sold clocks.  The battery operated clock mechanisms were fitted to old records, both LPs and EPs… now Magpie calm down, I know you think this is sacrilege, but it is a nice way to reuse a favourite old scratched record.  I saw someone purchase a David Bowie LP and have the clock mechanism attached at the stall.

On the other part of this same stall were unusual wall clocks made from recycled liquor bottles, each with their original label. I am told the bottles are super heated until flexible and then squashed flat, the label is then reapplied and a clock mechanism is fitted. The very nature of the manufacturing process means that no two clocks are the same. They Require 1 x AA battery, it is not usually included in the price.

What is your tipple?

The final part of my dissertation on recycled bottles comes from my own garden.

I have repeated more times than enough that I live on a hill.  The garden at the back slopes away from the house in two directions.  Half of the plot drops quite suddenly more than the height of a two story house.  It was unsafe for Jack to work there because of the war injuries to his left leg.  I at times found it difficult to balance on two good legs and anyway we could spend a major Lottery prize on landscaping and never be able to enjoy looking at it from either the top of the garden or from inside the house.

For safety reasons I decided to build a wall.  The wall I had in mind was of bottles!  Jack thought I was crazy (and you all know that I am!), but I persisted.  I could see it in my head… just as I do with most projects.

I dug a foundation and built it in the usual way.  Oh!  Did I not tell you this was a do-it-myself job with as little expense as possible?  They are the projects I like the best.

It was 1984…. Not the book, the Year 1984!

Now Jack liked a whisky and he always poured me a sherry when I was preparing a meal, wine helped wash down the dinner and for casual enjoyment I would chose a G&T.  It would need to be some party for all the bottles required for My Wall!

Thinking cap time…..

There were at least six pubs within a 100 yards in this Town of ours.  I would ask them about non returnable bottles.  I did.  They were glad to be rid of them so I began collecting on a weekly basis, then slowly started building up the layers of bottles mixing the coloured glass randomly as I went.  Three rows at a time were cemented into place and left to set before the next rows were added. I was able to work from each side of the garden until we met in the middle.

Now this was not your common or garden straight wall.  No!  I had to be different weaving it in a curved fashion to keep some plants in the top garden and leave some that I thought uninteresting to grow wild behind it.  This all took time.  I collected all the non returnable bottles from the six pubs for five months,  Well it was over seven months if you count breaks for holidays and weather interruptions.

Poor quality photo, but it will give you the idea.  The gap in the centre was yet to be filled.  I was not into cameras back then so digital picture quality was as yet unknown to me.

Miss Elly using her swing as a climbing frame (is that out of the box thinking?), this shot gives a clue to the curves in the wall.

I set the bottles on their sides with the ends facing the house.  I didn’t want to take away the natural light as a timber fence or brick wall might do.  But even I was in for some surprises.

A more recent photo with the shrubs well settled around the wall.  I laid a cement pathway through two sections of the wall to allow for garden cuttings and grass clippings to be disposed of and returned to nature. The curve in the wall is almost a full circle at this side of the path.  I used shorter bottles and the odd jam jar at this stage.

In the mornings the sunshine played on the front of the wall….. but in the evening the setting sun gave it a total different look:

Now after all that hard work, I think I need a drink!

The Dublin Wheel at the Point Village on a clear day in August.

A young woman brings home her fiancée to meet her parents. After dinner, her mother tells her father to find out about the young man. The father invites the fiancée to his study for a drink.

“So what are your plans?” the father asks the young man.

“I am a Torah scholar,” he replies.

“A Torah scholar. Hmm.” the father says. “Admirable, but what will you do to provide a nice house for my daughter to live in as she’s accustomed to?”

“I will study,” the young man replies, “and God will provide for us.”

“And how will you buy her a beautiful engagement ring such as she deserves?” asks the father.

“I will concentrate on my studies,” the young man replies, “and God will provide for us.”

“And children?” asks the father. “How will you support children?”

“Don’t worry, sir, God will provide,” replies the fiancée.

The conversation proceeds like this, and each time the father questions, the young idealist insists that God will provide.

Later, the mother asks, “How did it go, honey?”

The father answers, “He has no job and no plans, but the good news is he thinks I’m God.”

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Thank you Ramana for this weeks contribution.

Maybe you were expecting to see some more experiments with the aluminium cans, but the truth is that I am not a big fan of carbonated drinks.  I do have a few cans waiting to be opened and a couple of people keeping a specimen or two for me to play with, but that is for the future.

Today I have another experiment …..

I only have the one photo for you.  I did try with both the phone and the camera but it was impossible to get closer detail.

It is a sample of crocheted beading wire with beads attached.  A slow, very slow process.  It takes time to work with the wire as unlike wool or thread, the wire has no ‘give’ in it.  It is a project for an ‘untidy’ worker as the stitches are seldom uniform.

I only became aware of this technique on my recent visit to The Point Village Market in Dublin.

Perhaps my choice of beads were not the best as most of them disappear in this tiny sample.  I did have rather grand ideas when starting out but it is so frustratingly slow.  Now that is not something you hear me say very often when it comes to craft work.  I am usually happy fiddling away for hours on end and almost need an alarm clock to remind me to eat!

I will try the technique again and I see many possibilities, but there are several unfinished projects to tackle and complete before I go there.  I tell you of my successes so it is only fair to tell you about my disasters too.