Workshop - Success!

I love doing and making and designing................. and children.  Put all these elements together and today's Hallowe'en workshop (with very simple designs) at the Tam O'Shanter in Bidston was right up my street.  I was a bit apprenhensive because they said there could be between 20 and 100 turning up, depending on weather.  In the event it was between 35 - 40 so that was fine. I did panic a bit but then I remembered that I'm a woman and so multi (multi) tasking (more stereotyping) should come easy! The children were so sweet and the parents did as much folding, sticking and glueing as their offsprings. They want their own 'grownup' workshops too, so more opportunities to start those Creative Hubs I keep waffling on about.  Procrastination............The Art of Delaying Action............who me?  I'll keep more on that for another blog, another time!

I haven't taught workshops like this for a while but after today's fab response, I think I'll start to for look for more venues ..............and Christmas is coming - yeahhhh!!!

All a bit of a blur......

Well, I forgot to take food photos, didn't charge camera, only saw the ghost biscuits when everyone had gone (after all my efforts).  Remember the bit about school reports in last blog!!  Apart from that it was a great night though, with everyone getting into the spirit of things - bad pun, too early in the day......... Here is one very blurred photo of some of the witches (I'm the one without a hat). Mollie (on your left) even had two plastic rats hanging from a belt - very funny.  My head is telling me to lie down so see you soon and have a nice day!

                                

Start of Hallowe'en Weekend!

Once the children were grown up and no amount of coaxing could persuade them to forego dating for duck apple (as if!), I fell out of love with Hallowe'en for a time. However.......for some reason I have re-discovered it in the last couple of  years and love it again.  Tonight I'm having a coven with a load of wizened old witches (former friends and family after that!) and it should be loads of fun! 

I thought I should make a bit of an effort for them so I have been a self indulgent, domestic witch today and made ghost biscuits (although bits keep falling off - all the better to eat!) and instead of having normal flowers, I have swapped for dead leaves, decaying foliage and a few spiders - gross!  There is a goosegog crumble in the oven, steamed pud still to do and home made burgers and bits in fridge.  Add a few bottles of vino and with a wave of a wand and a twitch of the nose, it should be a spellbinding evening - groan!  There might be more photos tomorrow and Sunday, depending on whether or not I have a hangover - betcha can't wait! Wish I could really fly off on a broomstick............well, that wasn't a nice thing to say!  Do witches get hangovers???

Interludes

Bit preoccupied this week, sorry! In the old days, the BBC used to have 'Interludes' which really meant that they didn't have a programme to show, so instead we had a 'Potter at his Wheel' (pre the Ghost movie, sorry to disappoint) or cute kittens playing with a ball of wool.  So, along the same lines for now, here a few photos for you to see, the first couple taken yesterday with the new (to me) camera which I am starting to master - I heard that laugh! Anyway at least you can look at these with a brew and a biccie for five minutes - your very own interlude!

Taken at Red Rocks in the morning (below) and the evening (above).  I love to capture patterns, textures and reflections.

Oh, and I found some kittens - 16 there were, to be precise!

So many of my school reports said 'Could do better'..................nothing changed there then - ha!  x 

Friendship

I know that this week is going to be a bit manic and my creative blog juices just aren't flowing!  I am surrounded by paints, paper, spiders,bats and all things Halloween ready for a small 'do' on Friday (decided 'eyeballs' on toast is not a good idea!) and workshops on Sunday.  I do know that I want to write a piece on friends, old and new, soon so I would like to share this poem with you. For me, it probably sums up the best type of friend, especially when you have one of those 'verbal diarrhoea' days - not that I ever do of course! Enjoy.

                                            Friends

            Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe

            With a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor

            Measure words but to pour them out, just as it is

            Chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand

            Will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping

            And then, with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

                                         George Elliot

                                  Time to have a ponder ...

Spooky Customer Care!

It's great when local shops take the time and trouble to throw themselves into a festive season, especially if it's the boss who is teetering on top of the step ladders. This is what I was met with on a visit to my local greengrocers, Colin Lunt's, in West Kirby today.  Colin seemed to be taking instructions as to how to hang up all the spooky decorations, very well! He is a bit camera shy but I did my best to grab a shot or two!

Lunt's have been here for many years now and we very lucky to have them.  Their fruit and veg are always excellent quality; as local as possible whenever possible; frequently cheaper than any supermarket (or the produce is well worth any difference) and the staff are lovely - what more could a customer ask for! 

Well done to you all and here's to selling loads of pumpkins and toffee apples over the next couple of weeks!

'Eastham' Ferry Cross The Mersey

If you have been reading the blog for a while, you will know that one of the things I want to try and do from time to time is review and (hopefully) enthuse about different areas of the Wirral.  If not enthuse, then at least provide some historical background and perspective. 

So, as there is so much to do on this, the west side, that I rarely go over to the other (but not dark!) side of Wirral, on Saturday together with Kathy, a good pal of mine, we meandered over to Eastham Country Park.  It was a good choice, no doubt helped by glorious weather and we were both very impressed!  

Eastham is cited as one of the oldest villages on the Wirral Peninsula and has been inhabited since Anglo Saxon times.  Since the Middle Ages, a ferry service operated across the River Mersey between Eastham and Liverpool, run by monks from the Abbey of St. Werburgh. In 1846, the owner of the ferry, Thomas Stanley, built the Eastham Ferry Hotel and shortly after the Pleasure Gardens (now gone), were added to attract more visitors. The gardens were landscaped with plants, ornamental trees and fountains. Attractions included a zoo with bears, lions, monkeys and antelope, an open air stage, tea rooms, bandstand, ballroom, boating lake, water chute and a loop-the loop roller coaster too! In its heyday Eastham Ferry was known as the 'Richmond of the Mersey', but its popularity declined during the 1920s.  There is still a part of the woods known as ‘the bear pit’ so now I know why!

The Eastham Ferry Hotel looks pretty ordinary now and I was trying to explain to Kath how, as a little girl, I remembered a 'conservatory' on the front (again, long gone).  At the time, I lived in Rock Ferry and was taken there with a friend (Marita) and her dad.  Marita shone at Irish dancing and I used to watch her, mesmerised!  Anyway, I had ginger beer and remember picking bluebells in the woods – ah, bless!  I have just found this old photo (not in my album, I'm not quite that old but on the web) so I know I wasn’t dreaming but I don’t remember the other building at all. How splendid it all looks!

                                                         

The other pub, The Tap, was clearly a biker’s weekend rendezvous with masses of bikes of all makes and sizes on show.  Of course, as a biker at heart I had to have a good ‘ol nose and may even go back……………………

We walked along the river bank for a while and came across quite a few fishermen who were just as happy to have hooked a few hours sunshine

                             

as a fish – ha!  I doubt the scenery along the banks was much different years ago and I could just picture the sailing ships and pirates (okay, so as a child I watched too much Long John Silver, maties!).                  

We then stumbled across the most idiosyncratic café I have probably ever seen, all differing levels of garden with plastic animals, artefacts and a great profusion of plants everywhere
you looked!  The Mimosa cafe calls itself ‘A haven in a hectic world'

                              

and that is just about right. They did a great cappuchino though, even better!

After this pleasant interlude and a bit of a gossip (of course!) we walked up into Eastham Village which is just beautiful.  The church, the pub, the cottages and shops are all so atmospheric and take you back in time in a jiffy.  We talked about time travel, intuition, premonitions and lots of really interesting stuff!

To be continued……………………………………………

                               

The Sisters Aren't Doing It For Themselves

Firstly, I write the following as a woman who loves doing, making, cooking etc and thinks the years spent raising a family were terrific. However, this week reviews have appeared about a new book which advises us that Everyone can be a Wonderwoman. This is written by a woman who is married with 3 children, works in TV, claims very little help in the home and yet, on top of what just this alone would entail, she also tells us that with just a bit of organisation and a few ‘to do’ lists, there is no reason why the female of the house shouldn’t also (as she does):

• Have the cleanest laundry in the land
• The most sparkling oven
• The shiniest taps
• Make the finest fairy wings for daughters
• Find ways to iron twice as fast
• Make own scented, ironing water

She also seems to do her own DIY, offering tips such as how to decant leftover paint, hang pictures, turn jam jars into votives, beautify a box file.  There is also a section on having the perfect hair and nails and ………wait for it………making your own body oil!!  Of course, not forgetting making bunting (for heaven's sake!). Even Kirsty Allsop (I love her) admits to lots of help so she can raise her family and work outside the home.

It's only my opinion of course, but I really think women need to ease up, both on themselves and others. What happened to the Sisterhood?  Why do (some) women continue to give themselves even more work (as if raising a family and working outside the home too isn’t enough) and in the process risk shaming other women into feeling they just aren’t working or achieving  enough.  Did women fight for the vote and equality to then be harder on other women than ever, and sometimes more so than men? And where is her husband in all this, what mention of shared responsibilities?  Just making a reasonable living is difficult enough today for the majority of families.

I do understand that some of you might actually want to do all she suggests; you might be very happy to (seemingly) wait hand and foot on the family in addition to other work but trust me, there will be a price to pay and it will probably be your mental and physical health and certainly your relationships.  Do as much as you comfortably can and need to, then banish guilt from your life.  We think we have all the time in the world but actually we don’t because it passes incredibly fast so give the children, your partner and other loved ones more time/hugs/love and sod the ironing.  As for the bit that says ‘Start the day with a to do list to avoid rising panic, but keep to a maximum of three things’  (unbelievable!) I would suggest that having an extra ten minutes in bed with your partner (if you get my drift) is a far better start to the day. A wanton Wonderwoman sounds much more fun!

Being busy, busy, doesn’t make you a better person, just a more stressed one.  I will  leave (almost!) you with a quote:
“All the unhappiness of men and women arises from one single fact – that they cannot stay quietly in their own chambers”  Blaise Pascal.

This is the last paragraph, honestly!  The lady below, Marie, was my maternal grandmother and along with many of her contemporaries, really was a Wonderwoman.  She raised seven children (and buried others).  Within a few days of each other, her husband died of cancer and her eldest son was torpedoed in the war, leaving her to raise the remaining young children alone and in deep, deep grief. They did it because they had to but I don't know how. I remember the parties 'at me Nin's' though, so thankfully she did learn to smile again and I still miss her wit and wisdom.  Oh, and her favourite flowers were enemas - as opposed to anemones - priceless!

First Act of Kindness

I was originally going to call my blog 'Random Acts of Kindness' but decided it limited me a little.  Some examples have appeared from time to time (see Flower Power in August and Second Sunday Blog in September) but I realised I haven't said what finally prompted me to do this in the first place - typical! 

Well..........I was out walking in August and going up Grange Hill and I could see a woman coming down the hill with an armful of wonderful sunflowers.  Anyway, me being me, I made a little comment as she passed and we had a chat.  Then she offered me a sunflower, saying that she had decided she would do this with the first person who spoke to her about them.  Actually she gave me half a dozen which I thought was a lovely thing to do!  Off I went on my walk and then towards the end, I did the same thing.  I hope those sunflowers lasted a long time and brought a smile to a few faces! I didn't take a photo at the time but here's an old sunflower collage to remind you how gorgeous they are.

                                  

 Follow up..............                                

If you recall, in August I told you about the lovely railway employees here in Hoylake who have decked out the platform with an abundance of plants (see photos too).  One of the chaps is called Bill but unfortunately, the other one isn't called Ben, far too corny!  So, today I was helping a pal move house and as I was nosing around the new garden I came across this figure (and lots of others, but that's another blog) and quickly established that it wasn't wanted.  I intend to give it a wash and wrap it up as a pressie for Bill.  Quite funny I think -flobalob!

                                                        

And Finally For Sunday.............

Weatherwise it hasn't been pleasant today but here's a sunset photo to help keep you in a chilled, Sunday frame of mind.   Sorry I can offer cool music link from Ibiza or a meaningful quote too, will learn how to do that for next time!

                                 

Sunday Afternoon

I’ve had a ‘doing and making’ afternoon today as I needed to finish the card order for Newsmag, near Hoylake station (just done!) and also come up with ideas for the Hallow’een activities afternoon at Tam O’Shanter Urban Farm on the 30^th Oct.  I thought painting some salt dough shapes would be fun to include so did these to try.  I am just a big kid really!  I’ll post finished items when I get round to actually painting them.  The Hallow'een photos shown as part of the collage below, are old ones - eeeeh, by heck we did have a laugh. I once tried to make black meringues but despite the mammoth amount of black food dye I put in, I still ended up serving people with coal grey cinders - ha!

If anyone wants templates etc (not for cinders!) then just send me an email and I will sort it out.  Off to eat a couple of slightly burnt flapjacks now..................

                          

John

It’s coming up to the 5^th anniversary of my husband’s death.  It’s the build up to it that affects me more because I sometimes (not constantly) catch myself thinking this is the day X happened, or the doctor told us this, or I had to leave work early because…..  It’s a strange feeling and I don’t wail anymore, there’s just sadness mixed with resignation now.  Then the day is here ….. and it’s okay really, I just concentrate on all the good stuff, as usual. 

So if you have a moment to spare, raise a glass to John, he would have liked that!

I Love To Strip!

Furniture of course, sorry to disappoint - or was that a sigh of relief!

I have always loved finding an object or piece of furniture which looked like it needed a revamp because as a have a go, recycling kind of girl, I could give it a new lease of life.  Oft times I’ve been heard to say “I’m not paying that!  I could make, paint, recycle instead!”  Over the  years I have worked on tables, chairs, fireplaces, a piano and even pots which I then sold to Harrods………ooohhh!  Together with a pal ages ago, I used to teach paint effects and stencilling, quite lucrative it was too.  All these ideas for stripping can be stressful sometimes though, especially when I run out of room to store things or don’t actually do anything with them – yes that does frequently happen!

Anyway, I haven’t done any for ages but am now in the process of stripping and polishing some tables for good friends Sandie and Al.  The room stinks of Nitromos.  I’ve taken a few ‘before’ photos and I’m putting them on the blog as an incentive to actually finish them by Christmas, in between everything else!

The other photos show a sea-chest, a chair and a dresser. The old sea-chest is undercoated and waiting for me to decide what colour to paint it.  It’s really old and my late father-in-law used to store his dahlias in it, so it has sentimental value – ah...  I hide all the ironing in it (for months) now - shush! The dresser was a bargain buy from the saleroom which, together with a table and four chairs, I paid £40 for, not bad.  I have painted each chair in a different colour just for fun. This green one was painted red in places underneath first, then the red was covered with candle wax (to create a barrier) which was rubbed off with wire wool after the top, green coat was dry – are you still with me??

I’m having a practical week as I am starting to do some arty/crafty workshops again, starting with a Hallow’een one, so I will try and put some of the ideas on the blog. 

I love getting messy!!! Good music, glass o'vino, some nitromos and wire wool - what else can you ask for, perfick!  (Just read this bit again.  How sad am I?!!)

Nowhere Boy and My Mission (but not connected!)

On Friday night we went to see Nowhere Boy at Hoylake Community Centre.  This was organised by Hoylake Village who, "Are seeking to prove that Hoylake can realise its full potential; that together we can develop a strong sense of identity and pride in our vill age, and make the most of Hoylake's many excellent assets to ensure a more prosperous and, importantly, more sustainable local economy" This is no easy task but the team have taken it on with a passion and are doing a great job. So, support it all you can.  I can't do this on a weekly basis myself but after Friday, I decided I would volunteer to help whenever possible, particularly with larger events when they need numbers boosting.  Maybe you can do the same?  We all benefit and it helps to create a great place to live, to raise children and to pass something good onto future generations.  Vanilla Lounge did the bar and thanks to them too, plus other volunteers on the night.

I am on 'mission' (okay, a small one) to explore, photograph, blog about and promote the Wirral in general.  It takes 25 minutes or so to cross the Wirral and to do so takes you from the wealthiest areas of Gayton and Caldy to some of the most deprived in the whole country, such as Seacombe and parts of Birkenhead North.  I am sure we have all read about the national issue regarding the lack of social mobility and the Wirral seems to be a microcosm of the country as a whole in this. Do I have the (any!) answers? No. Am I concerned?  Yes, because ultimately the decline of these areas will affect us all. I have a foot in different camps as I am originally from Liverpool and have lived in New Brighton and Rock Ferry, then West Kirby and Hoylake.  I know these places well and in my own small way, I want to try and show that nearly all of them have something unique and special and a heritage to be proud of.  So every now and then I will give them a mention (with photos) on the blog.  I would like to encourage people to visit places for themselves, go to the local history and heritage sites, understand what the impact of losing Cammell Laird, for example, had a whole community. I would also like to encourage volunteering!  You don’t have to do this every week but many places would welcome support even fortnightly or at special events and maybe look to the smaller, local charities first. Of course I know there is a bigger picture and many other factors playing out here but I am only Mrs Ordinary and this is only a blog. 

 I'll leave you with a collage of photos taken in New Brighton recently showing the Magazines, the fabulous villas, Vale Park and the view from Seacombe across the Mersey. Oh, and my glass of wine taken in the Mags beer garden!  Take a day out there, well worth the trip.