The view from the taps

My new header is just that , a view from the taps. Colin says its very dull, as headers go, so it will just have a short airing in the cyberworld, whilst I concoct something more pleasing for my very own Waldemar

Januszczak.

Last week Colin surprised me by getting me 2 rolls of hosepiping and all the fittings. My allotment is not near the taps, but all the plumbing is ready to put in place . I had to get permission to run my water line across next doors plot and for it to stay there for those special fill the bath days. Ray the plot holder before Bernard and I,  has passed on to us a piece of land with all mod cons. In each corner of our produce plot is a bath. According to the legend by the taps , one may use hosepipes to fill  water cisterns on even days only. There is clearly a strict regime and rulebook behind the Filey Allotments. I dont think they realise yet that Maverick Margaret has joined them , for I'm sure I'll never know  whether it said odd or even unless standing over the standpipe. Colin will be relieved that I don't need him to walk to and fro carrying cans a furrowlong or how ever an allotment is, might be a chain or a perch. Somewhere in my memory of Cavendish Road Junior School is the fact that 22yards makes 1 chain.I think thats to do with Cricket pitches though.

Sizing of allotments

Thank you! Scotland

The taxi drivers

of Glasgow are wonderful. So are the people who work for Calmac and Scotrail, not to mention the Buchanan Street Premier Inn and the wonderful staff of the St Columba Hotel on St Columbas isle of Iona. 

My sister*and I have not  Cheshire mouse hunted or Fileygardened  for many days. We dont actually remember what day of the week it is,  and have seen no TV or listened to the wireless since leaving home.

Port Ban

Sue and I have been to Iona with our aged parent as all my Facebook friends will know. I have not blogged our  adventure. You do not want to know the fine details or the menus or the itininary. We sent pictures to the family every day using the wifi in the hotel in Iona. 

Sue and I snatched moments when aged parent did not need us . We took it in turns to take a walk when we could. Sue managed the Staffa trip on the day the boat managed to get away.

I managed to go corncraking several times, but heard and never saw. 

The taxi driver across Mull, David Greenhalgh  made the journey so interesting for us, pointing out Hen Harriers, Buzzards, The Great Northern Diver, moraine, and a crannog and  Telford bridges .
Am home now and tired.Have already booked for next year!

*Just before leaving home Sue found a mouse invasion in her roofspace.

Here in Leyburn

I am sitting in Penleys cafe and Bistro doing a @simonrudiger.No wifi in our holiday cottage and no signal for the mobile. It is the Starbucks of Leyburn  with its free wifi.Im not doing any Filey Parish Blog posts this week, but want to access it so I can see the blog posts of (hopefully) others , as I want to hear about the installation  and induction of our new vicar tomorrow. I am missing the Flower Arranging at St Oswalds today, as the parish Church gets ready to welcome Andrew in style.  

I am remembering when REV Mary was installed and inducted. She fell down the Vicarage staircase and broke an ankle in the week before, and had to attend  her own BIG DOand ring the bell  in a wheelchair. 

Jervaulx Abbey

St John Eliot

I have had such a feast enjoying Baroque Spring  for the last weeks, and it finishes today with the Marathon Bach Concert from the Royal Albert Hall. 

A Passionate Life  a biography of JS Bach  on BBC2 on Saturday night was the highlight of my Easter. Even the humanist Phillip Pulman surprised me with a positive quote about God . Today the Marathon, which I am hearing through  Radio 3, the wonderful Goldberg variations are just about to start. In the BBC clip during the scene shift I thought I heard George Martins name mentioned sans hearing aid, reminding me of my favourite Beatles song , In My Life' which was heavily 'bached' by him. 

Money from son for recent birthday is spent  . It was supposed to be for a kneeler for the Allotment. I have pre-ordered my favourite Bach Cantata instead , which should arrive by Ascension Day, if not well before as is released tomorrow. 

Cardoons or Globe Artichokes?

My new gardening year is beginning to take off.

 Reighton Nurseries are just the real thing. A family business where the "rooms" go on and on . If it lives in Reighton it will live in Filey,so exposed and windy is it there on Wolds Edge. 20 years ago we bought a Eucalyptus  tree for 10p. They are still only 50p. I will coppice it in a corner of my new plot. St Oswalds will always have some. 

My mind is going round and round.I am letting my enthusiasm run away from me. In my minds eye I see happy rows of Clary and Cosmos , growing perfectly for the stone Altar. I see lunches in the yard where we tuck into salads of rocket and beetroot . I see my drawers full of lavender sachets , and in 3 years I will be giving Asparagus away to all my friends .

Tomorrow however the double digging starts in earnest as Imogen and Nick will come and help me. I will take a flask , Colin will have the small boys and I will do my best with the couch grass.

Mine is the RHS 

My allotment partner has got a greenhouse from someone and is busy levelling the ground for it.

It just doesnt get any better.

I have 

• 6 Asparagus Crowns
•  pack garlic
• Arran pilot First earlies(chitting nicely in the spare room)
• 3 packs green manure seeds
• 5 packets Chard seeds
• pack Romanesco seeds

Tonights dilemma to lull me to sleep will be Cardoons or Artichokes?

Fileygardener becomes a real one again

This is me a few weeks ago with Bernard my allotment partner .A year ago we were talking gardening after church and I said I would love an allotment again (22 yrs since my Surrey one). So we agreed that we would share one  as neither of us could manage a full one. A year later and we have it. 

Colin and I went to see it and I was overwhelmed! It is fantastic. It had been maintained up until back end, the soil is good loam, and it has a shed, two baths for rainwater, an incinerator ,an apple tree, gooseberries, raspberries, and 6 crowns rhubarb. Bernard is already negotiating the transfer of a greenhouse. He is going to be a great mentor for me, as I am a gardener of the slapdash sort , and he is neat rows and level ground, and everything in its place.

My mind is reeling with plans. 

On Friday I went for another look with all the grandchildren. (4 ,aged 6-9). They already know lots and were asking for their own bit for sunflowers, and doing the I Spy Garden book. I had forgotten just how enthusiastic small children could actually be, spotting wheelbarrows, chickens, cabbages,lawnmowers and compost heaps. I nearly forgot ; we have 2 compost heaps.  Today after lunch Colin and I , 2 small boys, Daughter and her Husband, the Filey domiciles, came for  a look. I and N have offered to dig my portion over for me.(!!) So I showed Nick how to do Double Digging. We will all go on Saturday next. I will have to give further instruction on removing all couch grass rhizomes. I saw that Bernard had already started a heap of not allowed on compost heap. We'll have a burn up in the incinerator when its dry. Daughter has asked for pumpkins. I am planning Asparagus bed and  a Lavender hedge. 

I am nestling up now with my Chiltern Seeds catalogue. I wonder if I'll get done if I try a few Echiums.

My Mouse is not dead

This is for you Daydreamer. I had such a shock when I saw the thumbnail blogroll of your post I went straight to see what you had put .

Mag and Nunc

I miss them but could easily put on a CD .

In the midst of an extremely busy weekend I just caught a snatch of this setting of the Nunc Dimittis on the BBC Morning Service for today . I remembered then that it must be Candlemas and checked the lectionary. I rarely get to hear any beautiful church music these days, its doesn't matter a bit . For many years I worshipped in churches where the music was indeed sublime, I ironed surplices for all my family, I got to church an hour before time so that chorister husband and children could do run throughs of anthems.  

Stumbling back into my very own Music Appreciation Society has recently begun as I start the routine of a new life in this little home. I have been playing my favourites again when spouse is out, and I have mental space to do my own thing. Last week I was back into all my Jacques Loussier Play Bach, next week I might be up for Handels Theodora. Today I will get to know this setting of those wonderful words from Luke 

28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.”

Sister and I are busy arranging a Simeon and Anna trip for aged parent. She has wanted to return to Iona for many years . My sister last took her 10years ago, It will take 2 of us now .

Even to your old age, I am He,
And even to gray hairs I will carry you!
I have made, and I will bear;
Even I will carry, and will deliver you.

Isaiah 46 v3

In bed with the Major General

'the plaid'

This was supposed to be a few bon mots about 25th January. I was going to talk about the Haggis in Morrisons and the wee drop of Drambuie I have been keeping to go with my Burns night thoughts. Its the 27th now and the moment has passed but I am not going to waste my 'tartan ' pictures.

Aunty Eva, Aunty Alice(died 1986) ,Aunty Bessie

My dearest of aunts , Alice Susan Bruce  was the curator of all our Scottish relics, heirlooms and in some ways ephemera. I always remember her on 26th January , her birthday. So forgetting Burns night has enabled me to write about something much more personal.

My great great grandmother Mary Mckinnon Elder married a Bruce , and passed many family things to her her grandaughters 'the Edinburgh aunts' (Eva and Bessie Borthwick) who passed them to my Aunty Alice. My aunt passed the Major Generals plaid  on to me several years before she died. 

The huge piece of black watch tartan (5 yds by 2 yds)was supposed to have belonged to Major General Sir George Elder who died in Madras in 1836. We have the Inventory of all his possessions on his accidental death,(fall from his horse) it is not there. His effects were sold in India and the monies returned to Scotland. Of course I have no way of knowing it was his. The oral tradition about it might have been blurred. It might have been given by him to my Great Great Grandmother who was his niece.  We will never know. When I was given it in 1982, it was all wrapped in brown paper, and had not been opened for decades. 

For the last 30 years Colin and I have used it. It is thin and extremely warm. When it is very cold we say 

Shall we go to bed with the major General tonight?

Talking to themselves

Taj the Grocer , from the bus to Shoreham...

Everyone seems to be doing it here. They are doing it in the street, on the buses and most disconcerting of all the lady behind the counter at the newsagent was looking me straight in the eye and doing it in a foreign language. Here in Brighton it is de rigueur to talk into an invisible microphone and talk to a friend .  I thought at first that Brighton had a high proportion of mad people. When I was little it was said that people who had mental problems talked to themselves. Now I know that Brighton has a population of young people and people with lots of friends, and people with smart phones who know how to use them.

In Filey I know 2 people in my immediate circle with smart phones, and 30 people who do not have an email address, let alone a PC. Smart phones are in Filey held by the young, the teachers, and professionals who do all their diarying on them, the nerdy elderly (my bracket) and  the plumbers and builders and electricians.

So being in Brighton for 2 weeks now I really realise just how much the internet can take over the world. Its isn't always right either. On New Years Eve I checked the website for the Morrisons store 2 mins around the corner. It assured me that on New Years Eve, yes I checked the Holiday Opening Hours, that the store would close at 10pm.  It was shut at 7pm and I| couldnt get my planned seection of salads to go.

Now we are talking Brighton, where the corner shops were all open on Christmas Day, the sales started at 8am on Boxing Day, and around the corner is a 24 hour Cafe. The big Boots  Chemist shuts at Midnight everyday, and Christmas is called Winterval.You can also wear what u like in Brighton and not look out of place, and the old people manage their 3 wheelers with no trouble on and off buses which lower to the kerb just for them. Buses run every 8 mins on scores of routes and you can buy just about anything. I LOVE IT but just for 2 weeks. I am ready to go home soon, theres only just so much avant guard I can do.

I am now able to cook like Otto Lenghi, I have got the Pomegranate Molasses and Preserved lemons in Tajs. Oh I will miss Tajs.

What we did this morning

Grand Central

We thought we had made a mistake when the train came into York, as Coach F was clearly in the middle of the train and  not at an end. Whats more it was a Grand Central Train from Sunderland to Kings Cross and I had to get C to double check the ticket. Usually we travel to Kings Cross on East Coast Mainline. In fact we have travelled so much to Croydon and back since May I have acquired hundreds of points on their Reward Scheme. So this is a first for us,Grand Central.

Non stop to Kings Cross on the busiest travelling day of the year our carriage is nearly empty. The complimentary tea is good (never , never have coffee on a train), the wifi very easy to access.We are not sitting in the allocated seats . We have found ones we prefer. I have a table to myself, and C is across the aisle at a table to himself. So I am spread out with my netbook, and the mobile is happily charging across the table. I have an uninterrupted view of sodden fields and new lakes. The train is so clattery that I cant get spell check and so had to look up uninterrupted in Google search on my phone. Oh! its a busy life. I have just remembered that I did choose this train because it WAS Grand Central. We had seen it so often and anyway 1st Class was only £36, way back in October when I spent the evening online doing the tickets . 

I cant possibly upload the picture of C eating his free mince pie; the table is shaking too much, and the cups and saucers are doing an Evelyn Glennie. I will delight you with them when we get to the Brighton flat that we rent for Christmas every other year .The  rest of our family are not denied our presence that way and the Yorkshire ones have a year to recover.  Only teasing of course.

Lost track of time

My friend is staying with  us. She is Post Operative by a week , and we have all lost track of time in this household. I say that because we are presented with another episode of Holby City , thinking we had only seen the last one 2 days ago. 

We are all going slowly. A is walking a bit further every day. Spouse is hoping A's recovery is slow as he is loving the food. A doesn't realise we don't eat like this every day. My butter curls for the breakfast tray get better each day. I am the mistress of the understated  effort, and spouse the master of interesting conversation. 

On the other hand , poor A does not usually watch any TV, and here she has a rich diet of it. A doesnt usually eat much, and here our nod to sensible eating is to try and use smaller dinner plates. We are all jogging along together nicely. Small boys burst in after school to provide a 5 min diversion and we of course have the welcome visits from the Betterware Lady and Dustbin men, but this is a very quiet household at the moment.

I have been to Beverley today to see Aged Parent, and spouse has been on duty here. Aged Parent has spent the last 9 months juggling her engagement diary. She has visits to Chiropodist, Dentist, Oncologist, Surgeon ,Diabetic Clinic and Tescos in rotation and often mistakenly in tandem.

No I daughter started a new job last week . She is loving it  and we are all relieved. We have enjoyed the 6 weeks she spent between jobs, as she was often here with us and educating us in the fashions , fitness routines and food habits of a young person .We now know the part Primark pays in the budget of  the under 40s, why Sushi is popular, and what life is really like at the school gate.

I have't yet got used to the death of Samson . No one is rushing to the fridge door when the smell of chicken wafts into the kitchen .

So you might think we are settled back into our regular and routine dizzy life. We haven't .

 In 10 days we go back to Croydon to finish off the clearing of Aunty Jeans flat before the exchange and completion.  WE have managed to get us tickets for Hedda Gabler at the Old Vic . We will also factor in a trip to the V and A for the Exhibition of Hollywood Costumes.  On the 4th November we will go to the chapel at Whitgift House  for a Service of Remembrance  for those who have died there in the last 12 months. It will I hope bring a kind of a closure to our hectic travelling, our manic bus riding round the leafy suburbs and our heartbreaking disposal of a lifetime of ephemera.

Jean Marjory Jacobs 1923-2012 FIBMS Semper Fidelis

I am not going to use the official Jeanne today as I have had to for the past fortnight or so on official documents. She didn't like it, and she was no Marjory.

Jean ,Colin and I had been having 'what to do when the time comes 'chats for the last 20 years, and what to do if I have to leave my flat talks for the last 10 years, and how to clear my flat talks for the last 4months. Everything was written down somewhere, and strong wishes made very clear. We of course have kept to the plot.

We have used the flat for all the last months. I know every bus between here and  Whitgift House, and Thackeray House. I know the way to the opticians in West Wickham, the Hearing Aid Centre in High Street, the Nat West in the Whitgift Centre and Wagamamas. Actually I think Jean might have quite liked Asian Fusion food , without onions of course .

Weekly trips from North Yorkshire to Croydon were not a chore, I have seen the countryside enfold and grow, have worked out how to get first class return tickets for £41  and above all have gone past the going to see Aunty Jean to going to be with Aunty Jean. I have known Aunty Jean since I came as a newly qualified teacher  to work in Battersea in the 1960s.  And yet , do you know, I did not know the spiritual wealth , the depth, the insight and the faithfulness of my cousin 4 times removed until I actually  stepped up a gear into the role we knew I would have to do eventually. 

Staying in her lovely flat has been joy, noise of traffic and slow draining sink aside. It has been such an insight into the scientific mind  of  a FIBMS. It runs like a well ordered laboratory.There is just the right amount of equipment, placed strategically. It is pristine and maintained, the paperwork for the new Boiler is to hand,  and just enough cutlery and crockery and kitchenware to be functional without fuss. I know too that a systematic clear out has been going on for years, as Colin and I have been part of it  for the last couple of years, with our trips to Cherry Orchard Road  with the Royal Doulton ,on her instruction. (Cherry Orchard -If ever the name does not match the place these days).When Jean realised she would not be going back to the flat , she started conversations with 'What shall we do with my pictures of Switzerland? Who would like Mothers paintings? What are you going to do about the books? And so we had realistic  talks about strategy and logistics and got on with the job. We found hundreds of beautiful pictures  and slides of foreign holidays  ,Malta, Cyprus, Austria, France, but mostly Switzerland  and just binned them on instruction.

We have not had the heart to throw away the Girl Guides UK collection. I have kept  the Archive for some one else to bin. The Guiding Movement was a great source of joy , enjoyment and occupation , service and  companionship for Jean Jacobs. I expect her arrival to inspect a camp must have thrown many a stalwart Captain . I remember well how Stella of  the Dorking Guides didn't seem too thrilled when we told her that Aunty Jean , a Commissioner  from Croydon , might be coming to see Imogen and Alice  camping near Waverley Abbey in c19871! 

I have thrown away recently, hundreds of printouts of Jeans own bloodtests. A funny thing to keep , except that now I realise just what a scientist she really was. I had no idea that Jean had worked for the Wellcome foundation in the 1950s on Cancer Research. No wonder she was always so interested in all the facts of the treatment my sister Sue received for Hairy Cell Leukaemia .Until ,that is, the new treatment in 2009  put her in remission after 26 years of chemo (DG). Jean always wanted to know all ones medical stuff. My aged parent tries to forget that her own social life seems to revolve around Dr This and Mr That ,and in hours of talking to her cousin on the phone ( mostly after 9pm) tried to turn the conversation to more positive topics. Here I really applaud my tenacious AP for talking Jean into applying for Attendance Allowance and trips to Burrswood.

Jean was not what she appeared.  She was a thoroughly modern woman. She embraced technology with aplomb, did her Finances by DD and was learning to up her Computer Skills.  I was working out that I would talk her into an ipad or Tablet as she adjusted to life in a Nursing Home, but the adjustment just never came or was even started.

Semper Fidelis is the best epitaph  for my much loved , quirky , and individual  Aunty Jean.   It is the motto for her old school Whyteleafe,  for ALWAYS FAITHFUL is just how SHE WAS, to her family, her friends, to her God-daughter, and to GOD.  RIP

O Lord, support us all the day long of this troublous life,until the shades lengthen and the evening comes and this busy world is hushed, the fever of life is over , and our work is done.

Then, Lord , in Thy mercy , grant us safe lodging, a holy rest, and peace at the last, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

I found this prayer on a  worn card  amongst  Jeans Treasures.

Just seeing how Daydreamer is doing..

I am home for 3 days before off to London again . I am still seeing to the selling of my Aunts flat. She is safe but not happy in a wonderful nursing home in South Croydon. I couldn't watch anything on TV at the moment about the Elderly.

I have spent the last six months shouting to the deaf , discussing the drip symbols on Pads and facilitating Transport to clinics, Chiropodists, Doctors and Out Patient departments with my Elderly relations.That is as well as moving house and helping our Parish to do the Parish Profile  as we depend on God to get us a new vicar.

So I am up in bed with the netbook and ITVplayer. I have just watched ' Lewis' as Colin watches the programme downstairs about Care Homes. So I thought I would see how Daydreamer was doing.Guess what , Ray is blogging about getting older!! I love her blog. She is always herself, and because she is not out to impress she succeeds in doing just that.

I am going to be a lazy Old Lady . I know how to sit in bed and wait for cups of tea. I know how to spend hours doing Twitter and blogposts, adding comments to those Blogs I follow. I am not going to moan about not having a shower, I will get them to wash me all over, the Care Assistants. I won't let them call me Margaret. I am going to be Mrs Rowling until I am gaga. I am not going to do a Living will as everyone knows my Statement of wishes already. I am not going to let anyone recycle my body parts, and I like Prawns and Hummous and would like the Asian Diet if I have a choice.

 In Aunty's Nursing home there doesn't seem to be any spicy food to tick every day when the menus come round. Aunty of course doesn't like anything!

 I am going to have the very latest TV with a 38inch screen, but I am going to use earphones.

I think I will start labelling my underwear now, as I don't want to end up with underwired bras belonging to someone else.

I hope I get a room with a view. My aunt looks over the Cricket field of the Whitgift School. I would like a road as well so I can make up Maths games with  the Traffic, and south facing would be good if I could have a blind that is controlled from my bed with a remote.

Aunty has been in 4 places since she lost her mobility but not her brain. I have told her that this one is  5star and I meant it.  The Care Assistants, Nurses, and Admin Staff are a dedicated  and loving team. Some of them will be doing unspeakable tasks on the minimum wage.

My Fileygardening posts are on hold. I have not done any Fileygardening.  I have not even done any Fileyweeding. The garden at the Old House is fully overblown. It looks wonderful. Today I found an Echium had crossed (More later). The spinach is rampant. The garden at the cottage is a small back yard. 4 nights away from Colin have enabled him to buy even more plants we don't need  to add to the pond in a tank (complete with tadpoles and a frog staircase) that we have no room for. When my washing is on the small line it has to negotiate pots , canes, a 3'bay tree, a 4'olive tree, 2 tomato plants and a wall of ivy before it can dry.

I am however feeling very upbeat, I have plenty to look forward to and that I think is going to be the secret of my Old Age when it comes further on. I shall pray against pain, and try not to complain. So dear Daydreamer you might not be doing the Budgie any more but I look forward to the dotage posts . I am with you on staying in your own home too. Just make sure you can find room for a bedroom downstairs.

Home for the Olympic Torch through Filey Monday 18th June

For the past couple of months I have been making frequent trips to London to facilitate the move of an aunt into a Nursing Home. She reached her hoped for destination on Thursday,  as at last a bed came up in Whitgift House. She has been in three other Nursing Homes and Mayday Hospital, sorry University of Croydon Hospital (what nonsense and expense all the re -branding) during the wait.
So now I am home just in time to stand at the side of the road with rest of Filey at 14.24

My grandsons teacher Mr Clayton from St Martins Scarborough is carrying the torch part of the way in Thirsk. Seems odd that he cant have carried it in Scarborough, and that no Filey person is carrying it thro Filey.

Update , ( on behalf of) Aged Parent Rant and Gratitude

A brief lull today  in the removal process.

 I'll just update you all.

This picture will help.
Downsizing is such a positive experience. We have been ruthless.

• The Family Bible has gone to Godson, my mothers Confirmation Dress (1930) to Vintage (St catherines Hospice), along with my Grandmother's evening dress (1936), our Victorian China Cabinet  (1840), nearly all my novels(100,s),any utensils and pots and vases  not used for 6months, all ornaments and decorative articles which are not useful , except  a few paintings . I have still got my Herbarium , until friend at Kew  back from French Guinea can decide whether they want it or not. |Rare books have gone too, round the family and to good homes.
• Have given away 8 duvets, and and 21 pillows, and 20 sets of bedlinen. How awful to admit to having had so much!
• A drawerful of posters collected from  Sunday Times, programmes from Coronation, Silver Jubilee and Royal Wedding(81) and 11 has gone.Teachers do horde what might come in useful for a lesson. Daughter no 2  has agreed to having the Gas mask and ration books from WW2. 
• Daughter no 1 has agreed that it is foolish to get rid of 50 scores of Oratorios , and bound music, and kept those for her musical progeny, with  1 violin, 6 recorders,an ocarini , Aunty Elsie's castanets  2 music stands and a block of  beeswax, and my Bongo Drums
• Son has has my desk ,my curio cabinet  and the Hall Table (Arts and Crafts)
• The Flower cupboard at St Oswalds is about to get 20 Towels for spills
• 2 Demijohns of Homemade wine dating to 1993 were amazingly taken by friend in Homegroup.
• etc etc

It actually seems obscene  to have had so much. I read last week of a man in the Sudan who owned just 1biro.God Help us in the 1st World.

My rant comes next.

I am unable to take my aged parent to appointments  now that I am without a car. She has lots of appointments, hospital, doctor, clinic, chiropodist, dentist. She manages very well. Westholme Cars of Beverley are truly wonderful. But her new venue is in Hull . So we have encouraged her for the first time to arrange Hospital Transport. She is 92, she couldn't get on a bus, or train unaided. She loses her balance easily and is frail, but feisty.She has the War-time Spirit, when she was in charge of people in the WRAF. Phones have never worried her.

 However Arranging Hospital Transport was a Phone call too far for her. 

So I had a go from Filey for her. 

I could hardly hear the options Press 1 for medical Professionals, 2 for Transport to be cancelled , 3 for transport for today , 4 for Transport in future. Pressed 4 having heard the options 3 times to make sure. Now press 1 if you live in North Lincolnshire, 2 if you live in York and North Riding 3 if you live in East Riding, 5 in Hull. 

I had to start again to get here again and pressed East Riding . 

Got through to charming lady who took all the details of Mothers appointment. BUT she was not in the system. Question should have been asked first. Has She used the Transport before? 

Now I had already had to remember her address, and date of birth, had to call Colin for the Address book for her post code, and then the blow fell 'What is her National Health Number?' 

How on earth would I know that,

I'd given them her PATIENT number, showing she was not a figment of my fancy.  So I say I will ring back with Mothers National health Number.I ring mother  and shout at her down the phone as she has not got her hearing aid in. (Ive not got mine in either)She gives me her number straight away, it on a letter by her chair. 

I ring back Hospital Transport , and get thro immediately. I know how to do it now. Except , Mother has given me her NI number not her NHS number. 

I ring off, take the name of the clerk, Bess. I ring Mother. The District nurse just happens to be with her, and helps her find the right number on a hospital letter. (She has dozens). 

Plain sailing now. I ring back,through all the hash keys and numbers, BUT am in a queue now. No Musak thankfully but they do value my call and will be right with me. ....

.................

''''''''''''''''''''''''''

?????????

You are next in the queue

I want to speak to Bess. Its Beth actually , I nearly heard correctly, but Mothers Details were saved on her database so far. I proceed, correct number now, then Who is her GP. I think , stab in the dark , and get it right, Address and Postcode of GP, Stab in the dark no 2address nearly right, Postcode no way. They have got it now by some miracle of autocomplete. 

The transport is arranged.

Phone Aged parent back. Realise that if I had such trouble HEARING, and making the options, and acquiring info, how much HARDER is it for OLD PEOPLE , those with their Marbles, and HOW IMPOSSIBLE for those who are confused. 

Mother said she had not wanted to admit to finding phone calls very distressing and stressful as SHE JUST COULDN'T follow what to do. MOTHER ! I CANT DO THEM EASILY EITHER, IT IS NOT YOU!

RANT OVER

CC to Age Concern , NHS, and MP

Gratitude

Small grandson is poorly today and came to us. We have had a lovely day in our MOVE WEEK. We watched Milkshake, Sooty, Animals on the Shelf, did Moshi Monsters on the Internet, looked at the DR WHO book, then more Cbeebies. A relaxing Day indeed. Thank you God. (the difference between grandson under the weather and grandson normally is astounding , and today very welcome)

ABC ,Avocets, Brief Lull and Charity Shops

I am keeping up on the FileyParish Blog by processing and posting all the offerings for the Lent Blog.This has been my priority since Ash Wednesday.

All else is on hold until after our move is complete . Tomorrow Christ Church Bridlingtons  Man and Van come to move more furniture over to the cottage. We did a trial run with them some weeks ago to see if they could actually get our sofa through the door.

 New carpets are on the first floor of the cottage. When we lived there 20yrs ago we could see the sitting room through the bedroom floor where the carpet didn't fit . The yard is stocked with logs now for the woodburner, and the second bedroom ready to be the study. The cull of the books has had its second sweep. The eyes of the  helpers in the Filey Charity Shops almost glaze over when they see Colin and I approach with the sholley and the basket on wheels. Sometimes they find some treasures. We laughed when the firescreen sold the minute it went in the window, and  my posh shoes and my italian pink Grazia jacket.(I am blowing my own trumpet now , I cant bear the smell in the Charity Shops so I always wash all my offerings, C says its an unnecessary fuss.)  Funnier still was the 40's Persian Lamb coat that belonged to my grandmother , such items are now called 'Vintage' and have a rail of their own.My daughter tells me that 40s clothes are bought for the  Wartime weekends at Scarborough castle.

I am having a break from all things 'move'today'.I have had an extraction at the dentist, so have to sit quiet according to the handout. So I am enjoying an afternoon off, and thought I would just let you all know that I'm still here. My favourite TV night too-University Challenge and Only Connect. I am not moving a muscle, C is waiting on me. 

The Dams Filey-saw an Avocet

The picture of Filey Dams was taken 2 weeks ago. Since vicar Mary told us she will be leaving us at the end of June the PCC has been putting a Parish Profile together.  I was asked to submit some pictures to show Filey to anyone who might fancy being our vicar.
 I have been going to do a long post about this ever since my PhotoWalk. I just wanted to admit to having lived here for 20 years without taking a 20 minute walk across Filey to the Nature Reserve and Bird Hides of Filey Dams. Thankfully there were serious birders in the hides and able to let me see an Avocet using their Field glasses.So thank you for your help East Yorkshire Bird Tours.
A postscript.
As we will also be getting a new ABC , I have just read the Anglican Covenant through word for word. Thought you might like to know that.

Death and resurrection.........

There is a dead squashed frog outside our gate in the road. I think it must be one of ours. Even after we had to remove the pond  as small children became regular visitors here, we have still kept  water in a small sunken container. We always have tadpoles even in the smallest container. As I garden  and dig, cut and prune and  I know at least 3 of the frogs by markings. There might be more frogs, much smaller ,lurking in out of the way places. 

I was actually surprised at how sad I was to see the dead frog, as I'm sure Its one of ours. There are you see no ponds left in the middle of old town Filey. When Mitford Court was built in 2004  the last pond within 100 yards of our house was destroyed  to make way for the new build . Everyone around us has a small back yard. We and Rose Cottage(no Pond)  have the only gardens around. I am hoping that some of the gardens in Queen street  around the corner have got ponds. 

We need you see to have an exchange of genes in the Frog population. I wonder how far frogs actually will go to spawn? The Country Park a mile away has hundred of frogs in the pond near the marker to the Wolds Way. The Filey Dams will have thousands.I just need a few here. They eat the slugs and bugs and are a gardeners friend.  

I am sure the dead frog is ours. I have watched enough CSI to know . It was prone and past, facing from our gate out . I know it was on the lookout for  mates. We have spent enough time talking to small children and answering the question what are those frogs doing to know that the ritual goes on for  often days.  Yes it was on it way out , and hadn't done anything in our garden or we would have seen. 

I have just looked in all the regular frog spots, behind slates, under drain covers, in amongst the leaf mould. The container of water by the greenhouse contained a dead frog, killed by the freezing temperatures a week ago. Not a sign , and then remembered the COMPOST HEAP .

More Frogs of Filey -Please come to my garden but look before you cross.

Free Des Res for discerning frogs-tell your friends

Keeping going .Thanks Steve Robinson

I have always liked the appellation Webmistress, and I knew when I gave up teaching for money in 2007 that God was steering me into helping Filey Parish to have an online presence. 

I found it hard to get enough work when I moved back to my native  county in 1992 with three teenagers and a Londoner for a husband. Teaching when there is a shortage of jobs is as hard to break into as any other profession.  I was not prepared to work 30 miles from  Filey in Hull . I needed to get to work on Public Transport when necessary, and knew  my limitations, couldn't do languages, and not able to Word Process.

  I got in by the back door- and never turned Supply teaching down , until after a few years the head of Hilderthorpe Junior School, Steve Robinson,  Bridlington, gave me a Part time contract .  He will never realise what a significant affirmation that was. I  filled the rest of my time up  as wisely as possible.by going to as many Adult Learning Computer Classes as possible run just around the corner here at the Evron Centre by Yorkshire Coast College.

So I started with Text Processing, then Desk Top Publishing  , then Spread Sheets, then Databases and with no computer at home.
This was the start of my adventure.
 Internet skills were then started at Filey Library with the  BBC Webwise CD, and the librarian set me up with my first e Mail Account with Yahoo in March 2000.
 I was given an old Viglen and this faithful friend along with a Monitor the size of a microwave and the gift of a £25 Printer kept me going until my retirement from the  East Riding, when I was able to buy my first laptop, and  afford Broadband.  I  picked up a MiniMac along the way, which I still use, and the printer is still going strong. My little family has grown, a scanner and an iphone and a netbook for trips to London. I have just had a new Hard-drive on the laptop, and an Old IBM  has gone. I am looking forward to being able to afford a Mac Air and an iPad. This reads like a boring list but I am leaving it as all nerds and techies like me will enjoy it.

My part time job in 2001 became full time for the next 5 yrs and only because I was now Computer Literate and able to use my School laptop,  post all my lesson plans to the Head via the Server , use the Computer Suite with all my classes, and joy of joy use an INTERACTIVE WHITE BOARD. I realise that I was ahead of the game. I know that Steve Robinson is about to retire himself soon as he reaches 60, so I am publicly thanking him for giving me a Chance  . All the skills I had to use teaching ICT have not been wasted. I  try to realise that 12 years ago I hardly knew what a tab key was and had no idea how to blog .
 Now  my chief retirement job as a webmistress of the Filey Parish Blog, trained by blogfathers Simon Rudiger and Pete Finch has brought me to my 4th season of  Lent . God and I have plans.


This post was going to be about Hockney and Word from Wormingford.That will have  to wait.
If any of my regular readers would like to contribute a short blog post for Lent on the Filey Parish Blog, please email it to me< margaretsudtone@yahoo.co.uk>-read the post Sexagesima and the Beatles first !

Croydon has some good bits after all

Not daleks but the NLA Tower

A quiet night at the Renaissance St Pancras

Well not actually in it , but across the road in the Youth Hostel. I will have to post the photos later  as I have not yet worked out how to upload the photos from my phone to this netbook. 

Ill talk you through it-we are having Continental breakfast on the ground floor of ST Pancras Youth Hostel. The room is full of the over 6os and only earnest young people with their parents .Outside the window the working world is going to its working world. The traffic has been going all night, but quietly through the double glazing. Our room is ensuite and double. The shower is better than in a Boutique Hotel. Thank God I remembered we needed to bring our own towels. C is thrilled that we found the shaver point hidden in the light fitting.

So our view across the road to the newly restored (starting@£190) St Pancras Hotel is great, the sun shines on every restored brick and remodelled window . But I think , and Sir Gilbert Scott and Sir John Betjeman would agree with me that you cant beat the view of it from our YHA window.
I am working out how to get inside the renaissance Dream and have a look.. Mother used to tell me never to use WCs in  PCs but always ask for the Powder Room in City Centre Hotels, this might work, but more likely is to go and just have a coffee in it init.

London's Macclesfield Street today

and a very Happy New Year to my neighboursat the Gold River

David Hockney at the RA

WE are off to London tomorrow. The excitement is building as the papers today are full of reviews of the David Hockney Exhibition which opens today at the RA. I dont care what any critics have to say. I know we will love it and the pictures. We bought our tickets in November. We have been to all the exhibitions of his Yorkshire Pictures. 

I have blogged about them from my blogging infancy

• The bigger puddle
• My road home

Moving our books

Since we decided to downsize to the small family cottage in Old Filey ,Colin and and I have been sorting our books. We did the first sort in November, and removed all the novels that we knew we could easily get out of Filey Library if we wanted to re-read them. So the first 5 boxes went to charity shops .  Next came the first editions, my Lindsey Davis's, my Donna Leon's and Leo Walmsley's,  we gave those to my Cheshire Sister  as well as all the very old Family books with inscriptions that would only mean something to us. That sorted another couple of boxes. Since Christmas, as the next phase of serious thought began ,we have removed all the books from the cottage, this time about 100 large biographies, and books about London. Years of considered Holiday reading for the discerning guest, left quietly ;also detective novels, Margaret Drabble's hints of Filey novels and light classics that would only take a week to read, HE Bates to Jane Austen, and the quirky books Colin thought visitors might enjoy : Perfume, The Necropolis Railway, The day they kidnapped Queen Victoria, and A history of Madame Tussauds. My offerings were always  less esoteric 'Fossils of the Yorkshire Coast' and Roget's Thesaurus (for restful  Crosswords).

The First charity shop had to turn us away with yesterday's offerings. They simply couldn't cope with any more of our books! Colin didnt really want to push the Sholley (my aged parent left it with us) too far around Filey incase folk thought he had joined the Geriatrica. But the upside of this is that we both realise just how good a Sholley is. I shall use one as soon as I need one , but wear sunglasses. My children already avoid being seen with me in the street as they are embarrassed by my wicker basket on wheels.

Back to the mighty tomes.
Today , we did the second sort of the Kiaora Library. I am simply amazed that I managed to put ' Silver marks of the world' and all four novels of Graham Taylor's novels into a Charity Shop box. More still that daughter no 1 who is moving into our house says she will keep all my books from school on Literacy , Numeracy and all points History, Geography, pond life and Science.
 Just 16 shelves to go now. 3 of Poetry, and 2 of Christianity, 2 Classics,and 5 Plants and Animals, 4 of Pevsners , Maps and  all our Pelicans and Black Penguins. We can't stop now, we feel ruthless, and liberated, most of the time. The sooner Sue Ryder and St Catherine take possession of our offerings the more likely we are to carry on being sensible with the rest.
 Anyone want 12 boxes of my fathers 35mm slides of our garden in Sutton on Hull and our holidays from 1958 until 67 ?
H/T to Simon Lewin at All things considered for this

Kathleen Ferrier Centenary Year started in Scarborough

Proceeds to Cancer Funds

I have been playing my CD's of Kathleen Ferrier for days in anticipation of my evening out. And what a fluke we even heard this concert was on, as daughter no 1 mentioned it casually as her choir, Graham Community Choir was doing stewarding for it . I doubt that any of my children even know who Kathleen Ferrier was. Actually I should say IS, for her legacy of recordings is very much still with us. My  family know that I am waiting for someone to digitally remaster Bachs Cantata 11 for Ascension Day  , the Ferrier One, though they will all recognise her picture as it is on the front sleeve of the record which is on my desk next to my Peter Blake Beatles sleeve.

The concert today marked the first in her Centenary Year, and I think might be a unique one as the recital had exactly the same music as the one in Scarborough 60 years ago tonight. 

My singer husband thinks Anna Stephany has a glorious voice. My daughter thought Simon Lepper is drop dead gorgeous. I think they are both right, but still like RogerVignoles .

I was waiting to hear the 4 Brahms songs, thinking they would be the emotional highlight of the evening,but Imogen, Colin and I all agree that the Vaughan Williams song Silent Noon was the top spot. The Programme is here. I am too tired to type it out.

We are planning to go the the Albert Hall in November to hear another Centenary Year  Concert, of  The Dream of Gerontius . That will be something, Colin has sung it several times, and I have argued about its theology, but am informed that the doctrine of  Purgatory has been abolished by the Roman Catholic Church , all that aside, the music is sublime.


Here is  a recording of Kathleen Ferrier herself singing  Silent Noon.

Thanks for the link! A treat indeed and the whole work ! See Comments

Good place to be

I was crabby and bad tempered yesterday and I'm afraid my family got the brunt of it. Small boys took cover as the verbals escaped, son in law asked if 'I wanted a brew?' daughter bought me some flowers and husband got out the Madeira Cake.  Those of you who sleep badly will understand my mood, as 4 nights of wakefulness combined with the anxiety of being asked to be in charge of Flowers at St Oswalds erupted into a sort of mania. 

I am over it now, as I took myself down to the front to see the expected Floods and High Tide which had been retweeted by everyone with # hashtag fever. 

There was nothing of course, a bit of a swell, a lovely light after showers, a rainbow over the Brigg , and joy followed as son in law brought car down to fetch me, no questions, no angst , just care. The views and harsh wind and fresh air and time alone with God had done their deep ruach through me  .

I have just got back from St Johns , and my weekly get together with my Prayer Partners. Calm again, and ready to proceed, Flowers  no worries, and I had a great nights  sleep  . 

Got any to add..

Wild Flowers of Filey 

Let me know if you have any pictures to add to this (Public )Album

Wild Flowers and Birds of Filey

Its a good time for Bittermints..

Bendicks  are definitely the best. The members of the  Homegroup that meets  in our home gave us a huge festive bag of  gourmet Christmas foods, including a box of these mints. 

What a great time we've had. This has been the busiest few weeks I have had for many years, all children , partners and progeny  and assorted aged ones have been coming and going here . I have made Yorkshire Pudding with Turkey gravy, as a separate course , by request , 3 times. I have washed what seemed like every towel and pillowcase I possess twice. No dusting has been done , I am so sensible, and cover every available flat surface with gaudy trash and artificial poinsettas making cleaning impossible until 12th night.

Today was my last day of doing  happy hostess. On Christmas day I made life easy by not doing Turkey but doing 1/2 Chicken breasts with bacon round, but I still managed to forget to put on my best top and appeared at table still with apron and no lipstick . My collection of small children who love Grandma because she lets them go on miniclip do not eat mints . They say they are spiky (spicy). C and I have eaten  the rest of the box. They are such adult mints, delicious and good for ones digestion.  We kept them to last ,as aged parent gave us Thorntons Mint selection (all went Christmas Day) and clever Arty Son gave us Marks and Spencer Marzipan Mint Selection (all went Boxing Day). 

 The hit food this Christmas has been Beetroot (Raw and grated , and covered with horseradish sauce and mayo, thanks to Hairy Bikers I think). Today plain bread and butter , that staple of my 50s childhood is once again tempting the palates of small children who are all stollened out. By 7 oclock everyone had gone home, as a Disney Nothing finished and C and I fell asleep in the sitting room . We  came round to Eastenders, with a remarkably hale and hearty looking Pat dying of cancer , wearing earings and support for her bust under her night gown.  This woke us right up.  BUT it made me think. 

How easy it would be to fall out with those who are our  relatives.  I know 2 people  who have children and do not know whether they are alive or dead, they have not communicated for many years.   Many of us have relatives who are difficult and awkward. (Many of us are difficult and awkward ourselves). This whole season just reminds one of the stress that just coping with relationships may bring. Pat was reconciled with David before she died, but that was just fiction. Eastenders is not real, but its exaggerated reality  won a ratings war.  I don't DO resolutions. I do  DO Thank Gods . 

Here are my recent ones

• Thank God I managed to keep my mouth closed most of the time and did not upset my children
• Thank God I was honest  and did not pretend that I was not tired when I was 
• Thank God that I managed to hear the Archers Omnibus ( I was going to pray for Pat and Tony then I realised they are not real)
• Thank you God that all my children said 'It was our best Christmas Ever!'
• Thank God that I realised that I do have to pray for the gift of FAITH for Sir Terry.  

Love to you all

from this house full .