Grannymar

“May I go outside for a smoke?” asked the young lady politely. She sounded so gentle that I hardly recognised her! Elly was on best behaviour. We felt very special as we were honoured guests at the home of the Bride-to-be, just two evenings before her wedding.

On our journey along the road in West Barnstable on the Cape the houses were brightly lit and decorated for the forthcoming Thanksgiving Holiday. On arrival at our destination the Bride’s brother was there to guide us to our parking space. The pathway to the door was lit by candlelight. It all looked very romantic. The greeting was heartfelt warm and welcoming, but to the disgust of our hosts we were arriving during a power outage. So life on the other side of the pond was not very different to that back in Ireland. We were quite used to power cuts back at home, sometimes they were scheduled but alas on other occasions, due to vandalism.

Introductions were made and we immediately felt at home and the chat flowed freely, the drink glowed in the candle light and we drank a toast to the young couple and to their families. After an hour the lights came on and our surroundings were revealed to us, a very comfortable home with some beautiful items of furniture.

Being a mid November evening and rather cold outside Elly was taken to the ‘Studio’ for her smoke. “Mum you should see the Studio!” Elly said to me on her return some time later. “Ask Stephen, I am sure he would love to show it to you!” I didn’t need to ask; Stephen had heard and immediately invited me to the tour. There I was in a foreign country, with a strange man, on my way to see his etchings wonderful works of art.

I already mentioned the table where I had my breakfast in a previous post. On this occasion I was enjoying work on a totally different plane, it showed the amazing talent and wonderful sense of humour of my host! Stephen only uses recycled items, timbers discarded and considered well past being useful. With careful thought, time, care and love he breathes new life into his amazing creations.

I actually sat in here.

Stephen calls it an ‘In-House’, it is actually a little office with desk and bench seat. The seat is lifted in the photo above!

And for something totally different:

Or for when my time comes

To save space you can put me on end

I originally set out to write about cooking implements but the final item totally blew my mind and took me off on a tangent. I hope you enjoyed my travels!

I can wait!

What do you think?

I keep saying it – Where would we be without our commenter’s?

A ‘Strange but True’ themed day was suggested by Steph, so get your thinking caps on while you read this and then share your story.

One bright September morning when I was aged four, mammy dressed me up and put a large bow on my hair. We were taking my older brother to school. At the time I didn’t realise that she wanted to enrol me for the following September. The school was run by an order of nuns and Sister Patrick the Principal, announced to my mother that she would take then and there that day! I had no time to prepare and Mammy left in shock without (at that time) her only daughter!

My teacher for the first couple of years was called Miss Kierce. Naturally when I came home I talked non stop about her. Daddy said to me that in his part of the country (Co Clare) she would be called Kearse and that I was to tell her. I think it was the first thing I said to her the next day. The banter went backward and forward through me, and we discovered that she was from Ennis in Co Clare, not many miles from Kildysart where my father was born.

Miss Kierce asked if daddy ever went down to Clare and precocious little me said “Of course he did, he went to see Granny Kildysart!” So the message came home: “Daddy Miss Kierce says; next time you are going to Kildysart will you drop her off in Ennis!”

Weeks passed and eventually daddy was arranging to go to Clare, so I again brought messages back and forth. Times and dates were sorted and on the day teacher came home from school with me and she and daddy set off on the journey. Driving from Dublin to Ennis at the mouth of the Shannon in the days before motorways, gave plenty of time for questions to be asked and answers given. Daddy’s first question to all young women was usually “Did I know your mother?” Daddy did not know her mother but discovered that he knew her Godfather!

Miss Kierce’s Godfather was daddy’s Uncle Jim! The same Uncle Jim who came to our house for lunch every Tuesday and stayed all day!

Grand Uncle Jim

When I married Jack back in 1977, I wanted a simple wedding with no fuss. My friends were all well married and at 30 I was considered a very late bride (thankfully that silly talk has vanished)! I settled on a two piece outfit with crochet top and linen skirt in Ecru. It was right for me with my deep auburn hair. Jack as I have said before was older and walked with a slight limp due to injuries he sustained in Burma during WW11. Jack always referred to the injured leg as ‘the wooden leg’! He was a widower when I met him.

Walking up the aisle with Daddy who was ill.

Now we are married!

Several years later my brother was researching our family history. On a visit to Co Clare he spent several hours looking at the archives of the Clare Champion, a local weekly newspaper. He sent me a copy of a cutting. It was a description of a wedding. The date was 30 Jan 1900 and the Groom a widower, was marrying a woman much younger than he was. She had auburn hair. The description of the bride’s outfit told us it was the same colour as mine. The Groom did have a wooden leg. How do I know? The bridal couple were my paternal grandparents. The bride was Granny Kildysart!

Now you must have a strange but true story to share with us. I’m off to buy a horse, I’ll talk to you much later!

Over the years I have slept in many beds.

There was single, three quarter, double and King size.

I actually started my life in ‘Donal’s Cot’ as did my Elly, but that is a post on its own.

In my apartment in Wiesbaden, Germany there was a bed-settee in the living room. By day it was not recognisable as a bed. The seat was an upholstered mattress and the back rest was made of teak forming a hidden storage area for a duvet and pillows. It was used often and provided a comfortable nights sleep.

I have slept on fold-up & camp beds, and on one occasion while camping on Achill Island I slept in a tent, on a ground sheet with no bed! That bank holiday weekend in Achill, I went away with a bad cold. The mist was down and so thick we had to scramble around at snails pace. On the Monday we woke to glorious sunshine and I was able to see the scenery for the first time. Magically my cold had disappeared with the mist!

During one holiday travelling through mainland Europe, we were three young girls out to discover the world. We booked a room for the three of us everywhere we went, giggling about the adventures of the day as we waited for sleep to take over, was all part of the fun.

I remember spending a night in Liechtenstein where our room was enormous and contained four large beds. There was a door at the end of the room and when I opened it there was another room beyond with three beds. The only access to the three bedded area was through the first room. It was a wonderful elegant old building with high ceilings, elaborate plasterwork and each room had two heavy carved doors, the first one opened out to the corridor and once opened you discovered the other one that opened inward.

The Reception area was busy as we checked in, and we chatted and laughed while waiting for our keys and have our passports checked. We were told our bags would be delivered to our rooms in a few minutes. Elevators were not a necessity in those days. Having bounced on, and checked all seven beds I returned to the corridor to see if the cases had arrived. Several of the other guests were of the same mind and standing looking out of their rooms.

All of a sudden I was swept up in a strong pair of arms and carried down the hallway squealing with laughter to a room where I was deposited in the largest cot I have ever seen! The cot was placed at the foot of a King sized bed and was the full width of it. The strong arms were attached to a good looking gentleman who had checked in at the same time we did. He had heard me laugh and decided that I was a ‘fun’ person! The girls finally came in search of me, and only then was I lifted out of the cot! We had a good laugh about it and later at dinner the nice man had a bottle of wine delivered to my table.

Another comfortable bed I shared with my husband was during a self-catering holiday in Denmark. We were staying on a Pig farm! We were in site of the pig houses and there was something missing…… There was no smell! We only became aware of the piglets ten minutes before their feeding time. They started to squeal to remind the farmer it was time to eat. Once he appeared they stopped. Denmark provided wonderful memories and perhaps someday will be the topic of a blog post or Podcast.

Finally I come to the bed that inspired this post.

I made my one and only visit across the pond to the United States of America in November 2003. I was there to attend a family wedding. The Bride was from Cape Cod and the Groom’s family (my relatives) had taken a wonderful house Crocker Tavern in Barnstable Village on the Cape for the duration of the celebrations.

The bed I slept in was a great big Four-poster pictured above. The Bride’s mother called to meet us the morning following our arrival. We sat and had coffee at the dining table and she was able to tell us that her husband, the father of the bride had made the table. It was a work of art and he only uses recycled wood for his Studio Furniture.

Tommy Cooper (1921-1984)was a Welsh ‘prop’ comedian and magician who made an art form of getting magic tricks wrong.

Eileen Reid sang with a group called the Melody Makers in Dublin during the early sixties before joining the Cadets with whom she made the above hit record. She has continued to act, in films as well as on-stage. I last saw her portraying Imelda’s mother in Alan Parker’s The Commitments.

The song “I Gave My Wedding Dress Away” is very much in my head at the moment. You know how it is – you think of a line and you find you are singing it all day long!

Well now I will be able to say “I Gave My Wedding Dress Away” and mean it. For the past eighteen months I have worked on (When health allowed) a very special wedding dress. In fact I have always referred to it as ‘Elly’s Wedding Outfit’. That is because it was not really a dress at all. For most of her life my daughter REFUSED point blank to wear a dress! Jeans are her usual choice of apparel.

No way would I let her wear jeans walking up an aisle, no matter what building she chose for the wedding.

We did go out one day a lifetime ago or so it seems, so Elly could look at and try on dresses, even though she had already asked me to make her special outfit. I wanted her to be sure and not commit until she had tried several different styles.

There were one-pieces, two-pieces, meringues all frills and flounces, slinky little numbers and the more traditional with big skirts. She tried while I looked. My face sometimes told more than the mirror even if I was slow to comment. One she liked had a rather full skirt with mountains of underskirts to support it. I reminded her of how she disliked being restricted and she agreed that yes it would slow her down far too much. “Anyway Mum, your arms would not hack all that weight of material” she said. I think I was secretly relieved.

Since Elly’s Graduation outfit (which I made over ten years ago) really pleased her she hankered after a similar one for her wedding. I hunted out ideas and we settled on a boned bodice, trousers and a train. Detachable sleeves were also an option. We ditched the sleeves last month and the train unhooks for Dancing.

I set to work on the train as it would not be affected by a change in Elly’s weight. Next I did the sleeves and then the trousers. I left the waistband and hems semi-finished for the second fitting. The bodice was the last piece to be tackled as it was boned and the most difficult to alter.

All this was going on some 125 miles apart from each other. Each time we met her weight seemed static and her shape & measurements remained the same. I took a chance on it and went ahead with the boned bodice.

In February work decided to interfere with the calm steady arrangements. Work trips around the globe were suddenly arranged and Elly took off on her travels. Mammy sat calmly (on the outside) sewing away wondering when we were ever to have a fitting. I kept a stock of safety pins at the ready, after all Liz Hurley got away with it at the Oscars!

I travelled to Dublin for the Irish Blog Awards in March armed with Wedding outfit, sewing box, sheets to spread on the floor for the fitting etc.

Ha, ha, ha! Serves you right mother! Elly lost a little weight. Where? Up top of course, so the alterations started. I still had time… 23^rd June was a couple of months away.

Elly arranged to come up on 10^th June for the final fitting but the car objected and gave up on her north of Drogheda. The car was sorted and she finally managed to take time away from work on Friday 15^th June. We had a good six or seven hour’s together but:

Whaaaa! More alterations were needed. Beading had to be removed to do them properly. I managed to do the crucial ones while Elly was with me and that left four days to get it all finished.

All that work just to ‘Gift Wrap’ the most precious treasure I have before willingly and lovingly entrusting her to George.

George all I ask is that you mind her, love her and may you both live long and happy lives together.

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