Storytelling Sunday ~ Precious at Christmas x

Hello and Happy Advent Sunday to you all. It is the first of December and time for the final Storytelling Sunday for 2013. Gosh this year has flown by. Thank you to Sian again for being our curator and motivator over another year of monthly storytelling. I wonder what 2014 will bring.

This years theme if you have never visited before has been things which are precious to us. So far this year I have shared pearls, charms, a clown brooch, owls and 11 other wonderfully precious things to me. This month, as it is December, I am sharing some things which are precious to me at Christmas.

Firstly, I love decorating for Christmas. I love finding all my old ornaments, choosing a new one every year to add to my collection and then arranging the tree with carols playing in the background. It really does bring a smile to my face. This ornament is from Paris and it was bought in 2000. As a family, we had gone to Paris to see my godmother singing in an opera and during the day, my parents and I went to Notre Dame. It is a wonderful place to be and just outside was a lovely shop full of plants, and decorations. I saw this and immediately fell in love. It has the whole skyline of Paris on it in relief and as a memento of that trip and for Christmas was perfect. It is quite large and hangs well down on the small tree I have. Unwrapping it from the tissue paper and bubble wrap each year, reminds me of our trip and it always makes me smile.

Secondly, snowglobes. Yes this is a very special one because it has the Nativity as it's focus and it also plays music. I love snowglobes. Whenever I see one in a shop you can guarantee I will be shaking it and going ''Oooh'' just like a child again. I love the way the snow or glitter swirls magically around the figures inside.

A proper Nativity scene to remind us all of the central story of Christmas when Jesus was born. As a Christian, this story and the central themes of love are where we try to focus our attention. Being brought up in this fashion has shaped me in so many amazing ways. To have Christmas without that would be very strange indeed. This is my parent's display. It is my dad's job every year to bring out the figures and the stable and to make it into a central position of devotion in their entrance hall. When we were little, my sister and I would help him a little but it has always been his job.

Family. Here is my family, we look small but there is so much love there it makes you feel big. Our family will be divided, as always, this Christmas as my sister's partner travels abroad to visit his son and his family. Our small foursome will still gather at their home and we will Skype. The joys of modern technology. We will think of all our extended family who have passed on and celebrate the life we have and continue to enjoy.

And finally I will remember that I am precious, to my family and friends. It has been another tough year healthwise and at such times, we forget how important our health is. I know how much my family support and love me despite my problems and I am ever grateful for their love. It is also a special family time for me as it is my birthday on Christmas Eve so I was kind a gift at Christmas myself. Quite whether my poor mum felt that way immediately after I was born is another matter, but I do feel precious in my parent's eyes. So I am thankful for being in this world even if sometimes I find it a struggle.

Finally I would like to wish everyone who has joined in on Storytelling Sunday this year, either by visiting, commenting or posting yourselves. It has been a wonderful year for telling stories again. I wish everyone a blessed Christmas wherever you are. I will be Journalling my Christmas again this year so watch out for posts based on my exploits. Do try and read some more tales, they are so worth the time.

Storytelling Sunday ~ Music is my first love x

Hello and welcome to Novembers edition of Storytelling Sunday a monthly meme thought up and curated by the wonderful Sian. This year we have all been focusing on things which are precious and today I am going to share some of my favourite things in the world................my records.

No not CDs, but real-life vinyl in lovely sleeves with grooves, scratches and all 45rmp and 75 rpm records. So where do you begin when you have quite few. Well for me my love of music began when I was very little girl. I have memories of listening to records with my dad on a Sunday when it could be anything from Big Band Jazz to musicals. I have a strong memory of my dad and I dancing to T-Rex on Top of the Pops as well. I even believed for years that you had to listen to both sides of the album before you could listen to the same side again, thank you Dad.

When I was about 8 or 9 my grandparents gave me an old record player with a batch of 75rpm records which included some terrors but also some great things by ABBA, yes I love ABBA, and one by Donny Osmond which I am ashamed to say at the time I loved. Suffice to say I could be found dancing round my bedroom and singing loudly to those records.

Fast forward to my teenage years and once I started working on Saturdays and babysitting most nights of the week I could afford to but my own records and I also was given records for my birthday and Christmas presents. I loved the sound, the feel, the songs, the cover designs and reading the lyrics so I could sing along with my favourite artists.

Today I still have all the 45rpm singles I have collected and a selection of the 75rpm LPs I collected so I thought I'd share a few of my favourites with you today.

So firstly, my all time favourite females singer and lyricist is Kate Bush. I fell in love with her the moment Wuthering Heights came out and I have that single still. She was so different to most of the music at the time, she wrote her songs, danced and sang so evocatively and she was also beautiful. These 2 albums are my favourites not only for the music but for the album designs and the lyrics.

I have always loved the beautiful album design for this one, isn't it lovely? 

Next up is this single by Depeche Mode. I remember buying this when it first came out and I am still a fan to this day. Well over 30 years later I love their music and style, Dave Gahan's voice is mesmerising and not only have they changed and moved with the time but have retained a hugely loyal fanbase too.

Now for these guys, yes Adam and the Ants. Oh what can I say I was super into them. On a Thursday night my sister and I would dance around the lounge to Top of the Pops and do the Prince Charming dance. I know I'm showing my age but hey it was fun. They were an amazing band. All dressed up in their finery, wearing makeup, 2 drummers and they were all pretty handsome. I still love putting on Stand and Deliver and singing along.

The next single is a ''one hit wonder'' but precious because my sister bought it for me year when I was ill in bed. She used her own pocket money and I treasure it.

This final one I've picked purely for my friends Ronnie and Elliot who are on the final week and 200 miles of their 921 mile walk so I think this song is highly appropriate don't you and I'm putting in the video cos I love the song so much.

I could probably do a whole series of posts on my music collection so suffice to say these are only a few of the hundreds hiding in my flat.

Storytelling Sunday - a little owl x

Hello and happy Sunday to you all. As it is the first Sunday in October, that means it is Storytelling Sunday a monthly meme begun by my friend Sian. Each month we share a tale of something precious to us. If you want to find out more then pop on over to Sian's blog where you can read her story and those of the many international contributors.

This month I thought I would share one of my hobbies, one which I have done a fair bit of but primarily for other people. And it all began one Christmas morning many years ago.

When we were little Santa came to give us presents in a sock, now socks are all well and good but over the years Santa moved onto a big pillowcase and an even bigger Santa sack. No matter where we were for Christmas, Santa always managed to find us and provide many an excited hour of fun discovering the many small items in our sacks. One year Santa brought me a very tiny package. Inside was a small piece of linene, some coloured thread and a needle, a chart and a wooden square shape with the centre cut out. This was a mini cross stitch kit. Over the years as a child, I had made a couple of embroidered mats at school, which my parents still have, but I had never done something so tiny or so intricate. I had never done counted cross stitch before and the tiny squate of fabric made me quite nervous. However I followed the instructions and completed the little design, which looked like this..............

I left in my fingers so you see the size

The next year I had one of a Christmas candle. From here I progessed to a larger kit with my initial ''J'' and I still have this framed in my flat. However, 25 years ago, my cross stitch became even more invovled when I devised a cunning plan for a very special gift. This gift was a 25th wedding anniversary sampler for my parents. At the time I had never made anything on so large scale but I wanted to make them something precious. I found a basic cross stitch sampler kit but only used the frame of the design and then added my own pieces. Back in the late 1980s Jo Verso was the most well know cross stitch designers and I used some her books to make my design. I also spent hours in the loval library drawing a Merchant Naval cap badge as my dad had been in the Merchant Navy when my parent's were courting, indeed one of the stories my dad tells is of walking around with holes in his shoes so he could save up to buy my mum her engagement ring.

So here is the final piece which hangs in my parent's dining room...............

the final product

yes my parent's will have been married 50 years next March. The spanner 

and sewing paraphanalia represent my parent's professions and the music is the wedding march.

the top design

the church looking bulding is Glastonbury Tor which you can see from my parent's home and the money represented my sister's then job

the Merchant Navy cap badge

the flaggon and apples are for the local cider production as are the shoes 

because Clark's shoes were made here. The baby is for my 

then job as a Special Care baby nurse.

I still dabble in cross stitch from time to time and have been making a angel for ages. Hoever, my main love now is scrapbooking as you well know. I hope you have enjoyed my story and look forward to seeing you soon.

Storytelling Sunday: with just a little charm x

Good afternoon and welcome me back to blogland. I have been away for a month, can't believe it. But what a great way to start posting with Sian's meme ''Storytelling Sunday''. If you have never read these posts then you are in for a treat. On the first Sunday of the month we all share a story and this year it is about something precious. This month Sian suggested something which we perhaps carry with us or use as a lucky charm. For me though ''charm'' was the word and so I got out my silver charm bracelet.

I have had this bracelet for as long as I remember. It was a gift from my godmother who I actually saw yesterday. She can't remember why she gave me that particular gift other than she thought it was a traditional baptismal gift. I also asked my parents why they chose Felicity and they said probably because they thought she would be responsible and reliable. And in all honestly, she has been a wonderful godmother to me and even though I am now 47 years old, she still sends me gifts and supports me in anyway she can which is something I truly treasure.


On my braclet there are many charms but I have chosen my fave 3. Firstly is this little fella, the stork and baby which is what I assume was my first gift. The baby is minute and moves in his beak and the stork's legs move back and forward so he is quite intricate.

                                                  

The second is the this one, a merry-go-round. I loved these when I was a child and if I still could I'd still ride those musical horses like a little girl. The horses go round on the charm too which makes it unusual.


                                         

Third is this lovely key which I received for my 18th birthday. A key is traditionally given as you're meant to get the key to the door or something along those lines.

                                                      


I also love the heart shaped lock on the bracelet and it really strong which means I haven't lost it. Phew. Hope you have enjoyed my story today.

Storytelling Sunday Pick your Precious ~ the clown x

DISCLAIMER: THIS POST DEALS WITH ISSUES WHICH MAY CAUSE

 SOME PEOPLE TO FEEL SAD OR DISTRESSED. 

Good morning and welcome to August's edition of Storytelling Sunday brought to you in association with Sian. If you have been following this meme for 2013, you will know that each month we are encouraged to pick something which is precious to us. This month's item is extremely precious to me and is completely irreplaceable.

Here he is.................

He is a small clown pin, one of those pins you put through your lapel on your coat or jacket. He is smaller than my thumb nail but his meaning is taller than a mountain and stronger than an earthquake. It is whom he represents that is the central tenet.

As many readers know, I was a Neonatal Intensive Care nurse for 12 years in a number of different towns and cities in the UK. Doing that job where you care for very, very sick and premature babies is extremely hard. I thoroughly enjoyed my time working with the babies and families I had the great privilege to meet, in fact one of those babies is now my goddaughter. However, I would be lying if I told you that all those babies got well and went home, because a small number of them did not.

This pin is a gift from the parents of one little girl I had the honour to nurse for a week several years ago now. She was truly a mini miracle and measured no longer than my hand. I have a photograph they gave me of my hand next to her tiny body. She has her eyes open and is looking intently at the camera. Her parents loved her so deeply and had an immense amount of strength, faith and courage when she died. As her nurses, we were kindly invited to her funeral service and after this her named nurses were given this pin to remember her by.

In all honesty, I can remember every single patient I have nursed who died, don't ask me how or why but I do, right back to 1984 when the first patient I met died one night between me leaving on a late and coming back for the early shift. It was not an easy thing to handle. Sadly I do not remember that patient's name but there are alot of individuals whose names I remember extremely well. In nursing, we are told not to get attached and never to accept gifts, but in such circumstances how do you do that without insulting the people who have thought long and hard about how best to thank those who cared for their loved one? Working on intensive care how do you separate yourself enough to not feel or empathise with the families and patients you care for? This has puzzled me ever since I became a nurse. In all honesty I think that you cannot.

I would love to be able to thank those parents for this gift which I treasure. It has a small paper banner attached which says their baby's name and a remembrance. I could never forget that name even if I tried, and I would like to tell all my readers that if you have ever had someone die then their nurse will probably still remember them and if they are like me, will often think about them and light a candle in their memory or in this case wear the clown with pride.

Storytelling Sunday ~ an unassuming box x

Hello Sunday and welcome to July's edition of Storytelling Sunday, yes it's July and that means there are only 5 more Storytelling Sundays til Xmas. Or put another way 5 more months until my birthday! Yuck.

Anyway here we are in July and celebrating 7 months of fabulous tale telling about our precious things courtesy of Sian.


This months I was to tell you a tale. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

If you into the wardrobe in my bedroom, nestled beneath the coats and dresses you will find this unassuming box. It didn't cost very much I bought it because it was pretty and biggish, but what it holds is more precious than money, and in fact it is priceless. For within this box are the papers, photos, writings and research I have completed over the past 15 years looking into my family's history. Shall we open the box and see what's inside?

First let me explain how I came to start this task. For my dad's 60th birthday, I decided I wanted to make him a pedigree family tree, this is basically children, parents, grandparents and so on for one side of your family. I knew I wanted it be in calligraphy to hang on the wall. I thought it would be easy ~ well we all know thought did don't we? I began by seeking my mum's help to tell me stories about dad and his family. Having no surviving grandparents on my Dad's side though I was pretty much running blind and it wasn't until the day of my dad's birthday that certain pieces of the family jigsaw began to come together. If you want to retain the knowledge of your family for future generations then I beg you to record it all and talk to your elder relatives and family!

I was lucky enough to have the birth, marriage and death certificates of my dad's parents and so I could glean some information from those, I also had some very old family photographs which helped me too. I spent many hours in local record offices, requesting certificates from The Registrar, I travelled up North to Hartlepool and spent hours on the Internet. I was also lucky enough to find a relative who had looked into their family history and had a family tree of sorts, although now there are more places on the Internet some of those pieces are incorrect. I also spent ages on The Church of Latter Day Saints IGI site looking for family members.

                                                

My great-grandparents William and Annie in approx 1906.

I can tell you the story of how I discovered my Great Grandfather William Henry Jones served with the South Wales Borderers and then the Royal Engineers from a lovely man in a medal shop in Romsey when I showed him a family photograph. I can show you photo of him in his uniform


                             


 and also at the Front in France.............


                          

I am very lucky to be able to show you his attestation papers, most were destroyed by the bombing in WW2  and the death certificate therein telling him his daughter had died of diphtheria.

                           


                           




                           


 I can tell you a cordwainer is a guilded shoemaker. I can tell you my ancestors in County Durham were seafarers and fishermen and they possibly hung a monkey thinking he was a French spy. I can tell you my Great Grandfather died of injuries from steam engine exploding because I have the newspaper describing his final moments.

                                          

I can show you the census returns for my family some back to 1851.
I can tell you how my Great Aunt Elsie emigrated to Canada with her husband and brother-in-law. How those brothers then joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force to fight in WW1 and how my Great Uncle died at Passchendale but his brother survived. I can even tell you the colour of their eyes and what tattoos they had because the Canadian records of their service are free online. I can also tell their son founded an orchestra in Winnipeg.

                                 


                                              

However, what I cannot tell you is where my Great grandparents are buried in Cheltenham because they were both buried as paupers and after so many years someone else was buried on top of them. I can tell you roughly where they are but not exactly.

I cannot tell you much about my Great grandfather William Henry Jones' family because it is such a common name in Cheltenham at that time it will take alot of research to figure out the correct man. So I cannot tell you whether he siblings or where they came from. I cannot tell you what it felt like to fight in WW1 or to find out that way that your child had died.  I cannot tell what their real lives were like, how they lived, parented, what they enjoyed or looked forward to. These are the things I wish I did know because it would make the two-dimensional images I have truly three-dimensional and vista vision for me. All the pictures and papers I have only give me snippet of their lives, but not THEIR LIVES.

People often ask me why I blog and scrapbook. Well this is why................

to make my life and my story three dimensional not just the facts of a life but what my REAL LIVE LIFE was and remember it.

Storytelling Sunday ~ pick your precious ~ Willow x

Happy Sunday to you all and welcome to another monthly post called Storytelling Sunday in association with Sian of High in the Sky fame. As always this year, I am picking a precious and what's more precious than that fluffy creature I call Willow.

Willow's biggest fan my ~ dad x

Well apparently Willow is also know as Princess Willow, delusions of grandeur somewhere, and also Pretty Baby Girl today or Stupid face as I sometimes call her.

Anyway this year she is seven, not very old but she's had an eventful life. Let me go back seven years and tell you about Lotty. Lotty was the first cat I had along with Holly. We all lived very happily togehter in Southampton until one day while we were enjoying the sunshine her back legs seemed to go paralysed. Off we went to the vets and sadly I had to make that awful choice to have her put down. It truly was one of the worst days.

 first birthday

Flash forward almost a year and I am reading the local free paper and an advert comes up for Persian kittens as a majorly reduce price. I had always wanted one so made some enquiries. To cut what could be a really long story short, Willow and her siblings were all 7 months old as the people who were meant to take them home kept changing their minds, so I found my self one evening going to visit the breeder and the kittens and choosing Willow to come live with myself and Holly.

Willow and her breeder the day she came home.

 this is Willow's mummy Poppy.

Holly was standoffish to begin with but Willow has never been afraid of a challenge and off she went to beguile Holly into loving her, which in the end she did. Willow should have no brain apparently Persians don't and when I got her there were rules I was meant to follow like don't let her out! Well Willow I'm afraid had other ideas in fact she is one of the most outdoor cats I've known. She loves nothing better than chasing butterflies, playing in the dirt, collecting twigs in her tail and running through fields.

She has had her fair share of mishaps. There was the time she climbed a tree across the road from our house in Southampton and got stuck. The RSPCA wanted to leave her there for 2 days but a very handsome prince shimmied up the tree to rescue her. There was the incident with the badger/fox where she had half her face gouged out and needs stitched several times, got a bone infection and nearly lost her eye followed swiftly by the hernia incident.

...........and this is the damaged leg incident x

But all in all she is precious to not just me. My dad is her no 1 fan, she has 2 marmalade cat boyfriends, their owner jokes they'd have beautiful kittens who were balls of ginger fluff. The children round her love her as do my neighbours. She is so cheeky she goes into my friend's houses without so much as a by your leave.

At the end of the day she is precious to so many people, I think that means she's a hit.

Storytelling Sunday..................... music x

Good morning and welcome to a musically themed Storytelling Sunday. If you've never read a Storytelling Sunday then where have you been? It is a monthly blog linkup run by the wonderful Sian who blogs High in the sky. On the first Sunday of each month, bloggers around the world tell a story about something important to them. This year we have been given the task of blogging about our precious things. So today I am going to talk about the preciousness of music in my life.

I first started playing music when I was about 5 or 6 I think and I learnt the recorder. Not the most exciting instrument perhaps but it taught me how to read music a little, the importance of correct fingering, making a good sound not a noise and how to play music with others. Somewhere I have a photo of me at primary school playing in the Christmas play.

Anyway, from the recorder I started learning to play the piano. Both sets of grandparents had had pianos so lil sis and I had always hammered out a sound when on visits but then my dad joined a male voice choir in Cheshire where we lived, and the leader taught piano. His name was Ted and he was really lovely. I started learning and did quite well and so I did some exams and passed. As the years went on I also learnt to play the guitar and joined the choir. I was by now playing the flute at school and playing the the orchestra. I was also in the school choir and the school musical society. At around the age of 13 or 14 years, my piano teacher suggested to my parents that I was ok at the piano, but that my voice was my true instrument. She advised them that I should have singing lessons. So with the help of Mr Spinks my music teacher at school I started having singing lessons with this lovely lady, Lena Philips.

I was so very lucky to have lessons with her. I learnt loads not just about singing itself, but breath control, making warm sounds, how to sing a scale and arpeggio with one breath, lots about different music and songs. Through her, I entered into music competitions in Worthing, Chichester and East Grinstead and I even won some cups. One for solo singing and a couple for duets with a girl called Claire. We also had the opportunity to sing at The Purcell Rooms on The Southbank in London.

I am still lucky to have my soprano voice and love nothing better than singing around my flat and I hope singing with the Wells Cathedral Chorale in the autumn.

Storytelling Sunday -

Happy Sunday to you all and welcome to March's edition of Storytelling Sunday. Regulars will know that on the first Sunday of every month, blogger from across the globe join in telling stories of all shapes and sizes. This year we are talking about precious things. The stories are all linked together via their founder Sian who sits High in the Sky overseeing the posts.

So today I welcome you to another one of my precious items. Today I would like to introduce you all to my grandparent's clock.

Here she is, the clock my dad's parents had on their mantlepiece for as many years as I can remember. When I was a small girl, my grandparents lived in Leckhampton, a suburb of Cheltenham in a large terraced house. It was the kind of house which still had an outside loo and two lounges. Well one was the best front room and the other was a small parlour. This was the room where the piano stood along with chairs, a special glass cabinet and the TV. The mantlepiece had the clock. I can remember watching my grandpa winding the clock at bedtime with the key which lived under the clock. It had a chime for the hour and every quarter hour.

After my grandparents died, my parents let me have the clock and when I owned my own house, it sat on my mantlepiece above the fire. Now I used to wind it up too but people complained that it ticked too loudly and chimed incessantly so sadly the clock hasn't been wound for a very longtime. Nowadays it sits on top of the TV cabinet surrounded by photographs of friends and family and occasional flowers - currently it is daffodils.

Lil sister and I playing piano at our grandparent's house (me in red/orange).

 

Despite it not being wound up, that clock lifts my heart every time I look at it, it brings back memories of a happy childhood

•  playing in my grandparent's garden, 
• helping my grandpa on his allotment, 
• walking round to the swings at the park, 
• smelling my grandma's perfume, 
• the bristles of my grandpa's beard, 
• his dents in his scalp from bullet and shrapnel wounds at Dunkirk, 
• the funny old china hot water bottles and eiderdowns on the beds to keep us warm in the house with no heating

and many, many more. It is amazing to think that one item can evoke so many amazing memories but I suppose in a way this clock is so rapped up in my childhood, that the memories are deeply ingrained into the wood cabinet of the clock, and the times are measured by the ticks of the clock and the movement of the hands across the face. I think today, after all this time, I will take that key, and just like my grandpa, I will wind the clock and listen to the echoes of memories the ticking brings.

I wish you all a memorable Sunday and many happy times reading the stories brought to you today.