Oatcake Annie? Galanthophile Annie!

Galanthophile: a snowdrop enthusiast.

Shown: some pictures from the day at Attingham Park.

I do an annual “snowdrop walk”, sometimes here and sometimes at Rhode Hall, in Cheshire.  The weather, as can be seen, was glorious and, considering the past few days’ temperatures, relatively warm.

My dog accompanied me and she, as well as I, enjoyed the walk round , looking at the flowers, visiting the walled garden and peeking inside The Bothy; the range and some of the interior of which is shown in the pics. I’ve posted the chair pic twice!

The walled garden is well underway to its full fomer glory, a picture of it from 2008 was on display there and it was pretty much scrub then. Now it is growing, growing and growing produce , for sale to the public these days, but originally to provide the Berwick family with most of its food.
It even  has beehives, not pictured, for honey.

I’m rather interested in these gardens and home farms, as, like today, people in past times liked to have a year round supply of foods. Some of the ways that this was achieved is interesting to hear and some of it rather distressing, for example, some aristocratic families liked to have a year round supply of grapes, the estate gardeners grew them on vines in the glass houses, then broke off
bunches of  them, putting the stalks into the neck of a bottle and then sealing the neck up. No one quite knows how, but the grapes remained  fresh for weeks afterwards, ready to serve with the family’s cheese course at dinner.   I read on one of the information cards that, before modern beekeeping and hives, bees would be living in a skep and then killed off to get the honey. Thank goodness for modern methods.  I once attended a basic beekeeper course and one of my neighbours keeps bees, modern hives are all about keeping the bees alive and healthy to produce their honey and to make sure the hive thrives. I would recommend anyone, even if they don’t then go on to keep bees to attend a course,  just to learn about this fascinating insect.

I’m a member of the National Trust, so the day was free (apart from the cost, if you like, of driving there), although I purchased a couple more pots of snowdrops to add to the ones I purchased when I last visited a couple of years ago.

Snowdrops are best planted out “ in the green”, that is to say, when they have come up and are beginning  to to die back down. The ones I have already are not yet fully out, their little flowers are still closed up, probably because they are not in an exposed location. These, along with the little pots  bought today, will be replanted into a nice garden pot, ready for next year.

At this time of year, the main house is still closed, but some of the buildings can be visited , eg, the stables and , of course, the tearooms and shop. Well worth a visit.

One of the pics shows a couple of chickens and “their” cockerel, who crowed loudly when I went past in the car  on the way out. I had to take a photo of that bold bird.

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Saturday Night’s All Light

Last evening, my mother and I braved the bitter cold to drive into Burslem for this free event. Over the past couple of years or so an organisation called Appetite Bites has been busy organising these things and, so far, I’ve been to a few. Based at The New Vic theatre in neighbouring Newcastle under Lyme, this theatre-in-the-round is renowned for the quality of its ideas and productions.
Last year, I went to see the circus show it organised,.  Circuses were all over the place in the area , due to it being the anniversary of the birth of Phillip Astley, the man considered to be the father of the modern day circus, who originated from N u L.

The Enchanted Chandelier. The Water Fools.  The No Fit State Circus. Excellent, offbeat, arty and quirky productions and last night’s little display was no different.

The pictures show some of the light displays around the Mothertown of The Potteries and the culimination was a procession led by drummers  to find 2 light puppets and a drum dance display with the large puppet of the two. When I say large, the puppet was probably about 12 feet tall and lit up. How the drummers and puppeteers managed to stay in sync, I don’t know, but the display was excellent.

This show was free, the others I have been to had a small charge to see.

All highly appropriate for an area which needs a good injection of revitalising serum and an inexpensive one, as since most of the pot banks closed, work, especially well paid jobs, are a rarity.

More out of cold than thirst, we took advantage of the 10% off (on production of a Light Night programme)  at the local Titanic Brewery pub, The Bull’s Vaults and got warm by the real fire in there. Downside was that I had to have a soft drink, as I was driving, rather than a pint of the Titanic brew, but one can’t have everything.

Burslem, The Mothertown, has some beautiful and historic buildings and boasts The Leopard Inn, which is detailed by Josiah Wedgwood himself to have been the place where he met and dined with James Brindley to discuss the building of the Trent and Mersey canal.

By the way, there is a local connection with The Titanic ship, after which the locally brewed Titanic ale is named. Captain Edward Smith, The Titanic’s captain,  was born and lived in Well Street, Hanley (another of The Towns), until he left the area by running away to Liverpool to become a merchant seaman.

In my own little Cocoon

Well, I've been considering this sewing challenge for a while now - one of the legendary designer Poiret's designs, the Cocoon coat.  

Yes, I do some sewing. And knitting. And lace making. I've yet to master the art of crochet, as I need
to find someone in the know to show me. I learned my knitting skills from an elderly next door neighbour lady years back, sadly she is no longer with us.

After much research on the style of the 1910s and Edwardian era, though I cannot remember what got me started on this, I found a website which sells period and vintage patterns, probably for theatre and TV costume departments, but sells to the general public as well.

Imagining that the pattern would be very complicated, I was pleased to discover that the coat is a three piece pattern and the style comes mainly from the draping.  Included in the pattern is a small evening bag called a "reticule".    This garment doesn't seem too complicated to make,  however, the luxuriant fabrics suitable for this design, e.g. Velvet, etc, are difficult to work with.

I'll give it a go.   I did purchase another pattern at the same time, an Edwardian day dress, which I will also try. The picture above shows a similar dress and, of course, the Cocoon.

One thing I did notice, especially about the dress, is the similarity in style to a 70's maxi I came across on another blog. What goes around comes around..........

I'll post the result here, once I have it. 

Saturday Night at The Movies

This film I have seen many times before, it is my "go to" flick if I want to binge on Fifties glamour.

The tale involves Ingrid Bergman as an actress who falls for Cary Grant's character, even though he's married.

 The story line is enjoyable enough (needless to say, good old Cary turns out to single) but the main focus for me is the out and out high life of it all, not a kitchen sink in sight.

The costumes the ladies get to wear, utterly fabulous.  The excellent grooming of the men.  They wear suits! Three piece ones, usually,  now when does THAT ever happen these days?  In the evenings, of course, its dinner jackets and black ties.

The sets - Ingid Bergman's character's apartment, with its fully serviced and staffed building is of an irreplaceable, largely bygone, era.

Cary Grant is my all time favourite movie actor. Sure, not the best actor ever, IMO, however, in terms of style and charisma, for me, he cannot be surpassed.  Suave, well dressed, charming, always, (his on-screen and public persona was, at least).

Very, very,vintage. Very, very  glamourous. (Very, very  envious...........)

A Few Do's and Don'ts

No I'm not giving instructions; rather, I'm stating what, in terms of  internet, I do and don't.

Do: this new blog!
Some very limited FaceBook, in that I am a member of a closed group devoted to Go Pod caravans, this is because I'm considering purchasing one, perhaps later this year.
Pinterest: for the ideas it gives me.

Don't:  Instagram
Twitter
Social media in general
A wide and comprehensive FaceBook involvement.


Do I need to give reasons for the apathy toward this aspect of internet life?  Well, ok, here goes.
Mainly, I'm not that sociable!  I'm certainly not so interesting that that others need to share every aspect of my daily life, this would be rather dull for them, as well as time consuming for me.  From what I can gather, some folk out there post almost hourly.

So there we have it, in a nutshell, as it were.  Concise and without frills and unnecessary verbiage.

The Handbags and The Gladrags ...........

Yep, clothes. I love 'em.

And I have a lot of them. I love dressing up, I'm not ashamed to say and get fairly dismayed by today's penchant for " dress down".

I, frankly, enjoy spending time getting outfits and "looks" together, I do dress in some vintage  but these days I'm a much larger lady than I was, therefore find it a bit more difficult to find vintage that fits me.  I  use mainly modern take offs. and repro.  Still, I have some nice vintage clothing pieces and, of course, vintage accessories and jewellery are one size only! (And fit me just fine).

And vintage accessories and jewellery rock!

I'll have a go at all eras, anything before the age of the jogging bottom, puffa jacket and shell suit, really and before effort and decorum became deeply unfashionable.

 My current favourite is  the Mod look, Pattie Boyd, Marianne and Anita, of course, Jean Shrimpton,  Cathy McGowan, in their Sixties heyday.

Inevitably, I get digs and snipes and comments, which, equally inevitably, I ignore.  Sure, if people want to wander about ungroomed that's ok by me, after all, we all have our own circumstances, but just don't expect me to do the same.

So, this leads to one of my resolutions for New Year - pack as much style in as I can before 31 December 2019!

Happy New Year and (hopefully) Happy New Blog!

Quite what has prompted me to start to dabble in the ways of blogland is not clear even to me, but here goes.

When I look at the histories of some of the blogs I've taken to following, the realisation is that, typically for me, I'm about ten years behind the rest of the world!

Still, better late than never, as the saying goes.

And I am the woman who once said, out loud, that computers would never catch on! (I've never lived that one down),  the internet endures, along with the 40 million or so live blogs, despite my hilarious prediction.

I may decide to give myself a year at this blog, then reflect, lol, - the challenge being whether I can get Oatcakes to catch on ........................