Category: Personal

Booking Through Thursday … But, enough about books’¦

Published on by Margaret8 Comments

Okay, even I can’™t read ALL the time, so I’™m guessing that you folks might voluntarily shut the covers from time to time as well’¦ What else do you do with your leisure to pass the time? Walk the dog? Knit? Run marathons? Construct grandfather clocks? Collect eggshells?

Although I do love reading and always like to have one book or more on the go, I do like doing other things too. I’m later than usual writing Booking Through Thursday as Thursday morning I go to the course (it’s only for 6 weeks) on Dante’s Florence, so you can guess from that that I like art history, Florence, Italy and history. I like to visit anywhere with historical connections, castles, stately homes, churches, museums, etc etc and take photos. I’d like to learn more about photography and improve my photos.

I’ve written before that I do cross-stitching, but recently I haven’t done much – too much reading and writing. I suppose writing does take up more of my time now than it used to, so perhaps I should say writing. Then there is family history – that has been very time consuming recently. I like going to the theatre and cinema too.


I have several Keep Fit type DVDs but the last one I bought has proved to be really hard. It’s Strictly Come Dancersize. I love the show and was so impressed with the fitness of all the dancers and celebrities that I bought the DVD. It is so hard. First of all you have to be able to dance a bit before you can start to follow the routines. Karen and Erin go through the moves and I think I’ve got it until the music starts and some of it is fast! They go through the Salsa, Jive, Quick Step Samba and the Cha Cha. I thought I knew how to jive at least, but no I couldn’t do it – the quick step and the salsa aren’t too bad. I shall persevere.

Also to keep fit we do a bit of walking, although we’re really only fair weather walkers. Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, although a little cold, so we did get out and walked to the lake shown in the blog header. There were swans, ducks and Canada Geese on the lake and as we walked up a heron flew up onto its nest at the top of one of the tall trees at the side of the lake.

Being with the family is one of the best ways to spend leisure time. We have three grandchildren and we love doing things with them, or just being with them. So for example, we’ve been on farm visits, parties, ten-pin bowling, which I love but am terrible at, watching the ballet. Of course one of the most enjoyable things to do is going out for a meal, although after watching Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares progammes I’m not so sure I should!

Family History

Published on by Margaret8 Comments
Some years ago I worked in a County Record Office ‘“ not music, but archives – and a large percentage of the people who came in to do research were looking up their ancestors. I was not really too interested at the time as these records only related to that particular county and my ancestors hadn’™t lived there. It was a fascinating job, I liked helping people to find out information and I liked meeting people from different parts of the world, mainly America, Australia and Canada who had ancestors in that county. I thought that when I had the time I’™d like to look up my ancestors too.

My sister has spent several years looking at different records and has gone back to the early 1700s for some of the family. There’™s still a lot to do and so I’™ve started to find my way around family history records. So far I haven’™t actually left the house yet as there is so much available on line. It’™s extremely time-consuming and absorbing, not to mention complicated and frustrating.

You can go back to 1837 in civil records of births, marriages and deaths on-line, but I find myself going round in circles, with page after page of name indexes. It is satisfying when you find the right person and then order their birth certificate (or whatever) on line and it arrives in the post a few days later. For information before 1837 you can look at parish registers, which record when people were baptised, married and buried ‘“ I think I’™ll have to travel all over the UK to see these, although the IGI (International Genealogical Index) is a good place to start. This contains millions of entries of names, taken from parish registers and other sources. I can look at this locally in the Local History Study Centre where they also have microfiche of the annual printed indexes to the National Probate Index 1858 ‘“ 1943. I’™d love to find an old will as these provide the deceased’s name, occupation, address, date and place of death, the names of executors and the value of the estate. Now that would be interesting, but how likely is it that my ancestors left anything like that?

I particularly like the Census Returns, which list people where they were living on a particular day every ten years. These are available from 1841 up to 1901. You can look at these on line too. After a while your eyes begin to feel as though they’™re to big for their sockets, you get a headache, hunched shoulders and a round back from sitting and staring at the computer. But at least this lists everyone living at an address at that date, gives their age and occupation, relationship to other people at that address and the place they were born.

I like to pad out the information as much as possible. So far, I don’™t think any of my ancestors have left diaries ‘“ that would really be a bonus. I can’™t find it, but I remember seeing a photo of my Taid (grandfather) wearing a ‘slouch’ hat in a group of other young men, dressed in khaki. He told me it was taken when he was in South Africa. This week this set me off on the trail of the Boer War records and I found that there were three people with his surname and initial listed in the Roll of Honour as recipients of the Transport Medal in 1900. One was the second mate on the ‘Hawarden Castle’, a ship transporting troops to South Africa in 1900 and as he was 20 in 1900 I can’t think this was him. The others were officers in the Royal Hussars and that couldn’t have been him either. I can’t think where to look for more information.

There may be a lull in my book posts while I’™m delving into the past. One book that may help is Tracing Your Family Tree by Jean Cole and John Titford and there are realms of websites to keep me busy, before I even leave home to see if I can visit the places my ancestors lived.

There are so many resources to investigate, too many for this post, for example I love looking at old maps and finding out what the area was like when they lived there.

Happy Christmas

Published on by Margaret12 Comments

I’m nearly ready for Christmas, at least the presents are wrapped, just food to prepare and a bit more shopping to do and then I can sit down and relax.

We’ve not had snow here and the forecast for Christmas Day is heavy rain, so it won’t be a White Christmas. We’re seeing our son and his family for Christmas and my sister over New Year, so as this will probably be my last post for a while I’m wishing everyone who reads this blog

A Very Happy Christmas

Any One for Brussel Sprouts?

Published on by Margaret10 Comments
We had to stay at home today, waiting for deliveries, so we had our shopping delivered as well. All well and good. We opted not to have our shopping put in carrier bags (thinking of the environment), so most things were loose, with just a few items wrapped. Everything on the order was there.

Imagine my surprise to find a little bag containing one tiny brussel sprout. When my husband had done the on-line ordering he hadn’t noticed that he needed to enter the weight required and had just put “1”, so that’s what we got – one sprout costing one penny! Fortunately he says he’s happy to share it with me.

A Christmas Meme

Published on by Margaret1 Comment

I was tagged by Sam for this Christmas meme.

What is your most enduring Christmas memory? I don’t think I could single out one particular moment, maybe remembering back to my childhood when Christmas was a magical time, later enjoying it through my son’s excitement and these days through my grandchildren’s eyes.

 

Do you have a favourite piece of Christmas music? Silent Night, but don’t ask me to sing it solo.

Do you stick to the old family traditions? Apart from giving present and celebrating with lots of food, no. My grandmother used to stand to attention during the Queen’s speech but no one else did, much to her disapproval.

What makes your mouth water at Christmas time!? I love all Christmas food.

How soon do you put the Christmas tree up and when do you take it down? It varies – we haven’t put one up yet. It has to be taken down and all Christmas decorations put away before Twelfth Night.

I would like to tag Nan, Kay, Cornflower and Geranium Cat for this meme.

Preservatives Booking Through Thursday

Published on by Margaret14 Comments

Today’™s question comes from Conspiracy-Girl:

I’™m still relatively new to this meme so I’™m not sure if this has been asked yet, but I’™m curious how many of us write notes in our books. Are you a Footprint Leaver or a Preservationist?

I’m a Preservationist who occasionally leaves Footprints. At one time I would never, ever write notes in a book. It was considered a desecration. I’m a bit less strict these days and occasionally bring myself to underline in pencil or add a little asterisk next to a passage I like.

Having said that when I looked at my copy of Reformation Europe 1517 -1559, which which I was given as a prize at school one year I see that I have underlined sentences in red biro. I can’t believe I did that!