Rememberance - I am proud of these three men

I mentioned a few posts back I am tracing my family tree.  Stories that I heard mentioned as a child have come to the fore.  Stories I heard but never took much notice of at the time and wished I had taken more notice of.  

William Prentice

The picture of the gentleman above is my dad's dad.  In my research of my family tree he is my 'skeleton in the cupboard'.  He also came back from the the war.  He came back from WW2.  He was at Dunkirk (1940).  He swam to the Royal Daffodil, a ferry boat which although had taken a direct hit from a bomb but had saved 8000 troops.  He was a Regimental Sergeant Major, and has a medal for Gallantry.  I never knew him either, I think I had met him a few times, but I wasn't very old when I had met him.  He in died 1972, I was  sixteen.

My great-grandfather, George William Greaves, whose medals I show on my 11th November posts

The medals were given to every solider who fought in WW1

He was a horse driver, he never did anything heroic, he came back, but he came back a broken man.  Although he lived till he was eighty years old, I never knew him he died before I was born.  I once heard a story that his own children walked on the other side of the road because he was drunk in the gutter.  No soldier then talked of what actually went on.  No counselling existed then, it was the 'stiff upper lip' and all that.   

(Elaine has a post of what happened to the WW1 horses - very heartbreaking)

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George William Greaves' son-in-law was my grandfather Albert Sullivan.

You can read about Albert here

He was in the Home Guard.

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I don't agree with war, I don't like confrontation, but these three men had a job to do, and I am proud of them. 

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~ My Skeleton in the Cupboard ~ 

William Prentice, my grandfather.  I couldn't find him anywhere on any genealogical site.  It was as if he didn't exist!  I sent for his birth certificate.  He was born to a servant called Florence in September 1900, I will leave you dear readers to decide as to what may have happened...................

Flowers and Makes!

I previously mentioned I had got rid of loads of books and magazines on freecycle.  On the off chance the other day I emailed the same lady who came the first time if she would like the last few magazines and books.  She was happy to take the books, she turned up on my doorstep in the pouring rain with these beautiful Dahlias as a thank you for the books.

Whilst shopping in Morrison's the other day, I was wondering aimlessly whilst Alex went to have a look on the bargain stall, he came towards me with this in his arms.  A three foot Orchid.  Reduced from £10 to the grand some of 20p - yes you read it correctly twenty pence!

The makes are here and there are few more items in my shop

Seagulls again!

These are of the knitted variety!

I have just this afternoon, put the legs on three seagulls!  

Two are an order not sure what I shall do with the third, I will probably keep him!

The pattern for you to knit your own can be found here!

Finding....... Don't Remember and Forgotten!

One thing about clearing stuff out - throwing it away, giving things away to charity shops or free-cycle, putting to one side for boot-fairs or vintage fairs, you find things that you just don't remember doing or have completely forgotten about!

I don't remember stitching this, well....... perhaps vaguely I do.  I do know it is my own work because the alphabet and numbers are ones I use on all samplers designed by me.  I must have thought I will give other stitches ago as there are a variety of designs and cut-work in this sampler.  Think I might just wash it and get it framed as a treat for me.

A close-up of the work, (click on pictures) to get a closer look.  The coin is a five pence piece so you can see the size of the stitches.  I think I am quite proud of this piece of work as I am of the following piece.

Stitched by me when I was about eight years old.  I bought the fabric myself with my pocket money from Harrods of Knightsbridge on a day trip to London with my mum.  We lived  a train ride away so it was regular trips to museums and shops at least twice month.

I think I was going to just fill it in with owls and flowers!  The patterns for the owls and flowers were from knitting patterns because that is all I had to follow otherwise it would have just been basic patterns.  I think perhaps it should have been basic patterns but I seem to have ambitious adventurous tendencies.  The more complicated I am at my happiest!

Just a quick post..........

.............I'm still here!  I just don't know why I haven't been blogging or leaving comments.........well I do and I'm ashamed to say and I apologise for neglecting everyone.  I  promise to do better in the future, and I promise to try and stop this addiction - I hope it is just a phase I am going through!   I have become addicted to Pinterest, I haven't quite got into Instagram (which is probably just as well), but Pinterest is so addictive and I must stop or I will not get anything done for the Christmas Fair at Trull Nr. Taunton on 14th December.
But.......I have finished this

which  can be found here and here.......

and I have created this little Ladybird (ladybug) 

which also can be found in the same place.

Well that's September!

Does anyone know what happened to September?  I haven't been round blogland much.  I haven't really been making - in fact I really haven't done much.  I have sorted loads of old magazines some pre-dating the year 2000.  They were all cross-stitch magazines, I put about twenty bags of magazines and another load with hardback cross-stitching books on our local freecycle.  They were snapped up, I think because the people collecting them thought they were getting a bargain!  Well they were, but you cannot sell cross-stitch books at the local bootfair for even 20p here so I decided just to give them away!  They have gone and I feel better for it - it is amazing how I felt so much better for getting rid of things - it did actually feel like a weight had lifted - so more stuff is going to go!

Now I wonder................ no I best not if I want to stay happily married!  They are the collection of 78 rpm records, there is even two piles behind the Iceland carrier, In the Iceland carrier are the Christmas 78 rpm.  I cleared out the cupboard where I kept the magazines, guess where these have gone......!   Nothing stays empty for long in this house!

It was wet, dull and dismal yesterday, so yesterday afternoon I made Peggoty.  She is a dolly-peg (clothes spin)  Dressed in white, with a light green shawl.  She will be put in my shop soon, when I have finished a sister or two.

I made pie.

Apple and Blackberry.
We still have Blackberries at the bottom of the garden

I am still stitching

Still knitting

Mr Robin has been sitting on  the tree branch singing for a mate - nice to see him back in the garden.

Just a Very Random Blog Post

Since the last post we haven't done much

I have been knitting,

and embroidering and appliqueing.

We have been to Bristol to take some of Robert and Anneka's things back to them.  They left loads of stuff with us when they went travelling  They let their flat on an eighteen month let.  Although they have been back a year they only managed to move back in August this year so now they are collecting their belonging back slowly for various places.

This happened in the garden one afternoon

Pigeon on the seed tray, Crow, Seagull and Magpie!  Think I might send it to RSPB

My husband went shopping and came back with a small bunch of flowers.........

Well its the thought that counts!

My friend Meg gave the first of the season Bramleys

We picked the Blackberries from the bottom of the garden.  This is just a few I have two bags in the freezer.

We needed a new Address Book, found this one in a charity shop - now we could see why!

Click on the picture to make larger............. Can you spot the deliberate mistake?  Answer at the end of post!

Things don't change do they - this was an article dated May 1992.  I found this morning whilst having a chuck-out.  Click on picture to make larger.

Here is the text for the article.

Have you worked out the answer ....................

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Where is the word NAME?