Star Forever Young

During the lockdown I have been busy making journals and sewing. This is one I made for a very special lady who requested it.  I don't think I would have thought to make a hamster journal myself, but once I got into it, I really enjoyed it. I hope she likes it too. The journal is handmade with a semi-soft cover and decorated inside with lots of pockets for keeping special bits and pieces.  I have also left a lot of the pages blank for her own decorations and writings. I used to keep hamsters myself many years ago although I never had a breeding pair.  In the main I think they are solitary animals.  They sleep all day and play all night so if you have one, be prepared for it to keep you up with its continuous running around in its wheel or trying to chew through the bars of its cage. Star  

The  Battle of Bosworth Field  (or  Battle of Bosworth ) was the last significant battle of the  Wars of the Roses , the  civil war  between the  Houses of Lancaster  and  York  that extended across  England  in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 August 1485, the battle was won by the Lancastrians. Their leader  Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond , became the first English monarch of the  Tudor dynasty  by his victory and subsequent marriage to a Yorkist princess. His opponent  Richard III , the last king of the House of York, was killed during the battle, the last English monarch to die in combat. Historians consider Bosworth Field to mark the end of the  Plantagenet dynasty , making it one of the defining moments of English history. You can read more here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bosworth_Field This is my own white rose, nameless for today because I can't  remember...

Since the start of the pandemic, flour has been hard to come by. It flew off the shelves in my local supermarket and soon we were having to find alternative ways of providing for our daily meals. I have always done a lot of cooking, but now I was faced with make it yourself or do without it scenarios. I also felt that I should be doing as much as I could myself because I have the time. Time, however, became ever shorter because more cleaning is also involved. After a week or so of the shutdown, which started in March here in England, the house had never been cleaner, but I was getting pretty fed up with cleaning doorknobs every day! In the kitchen, I decided to try my hand at making some bread. This is something I used to do when my boys were growing up, but had left behind because supermarket loaves were so easy and labour saving. With the shortage of flour I had to find an alternative means of supply. I looked on the internet and found a mill about fifteen miles away, who provide all...

  This is one of my favourite books. I just love the Thrush Green and Fairacre novels. They are beautifully written and full of detail about the countryside here in England. They are the books I turn to in the morning, when I'm not quite up to a taut thriller or a ghost story. I have almost the whole set now so I read them in order, over and over again. I think I know the stories by heart, almost!  The other day I discovered that I had two of the above books so I need to pass one of them on to someone who thinks they may enjoy it. If interested, please say below :) Throughout the years I would look in the bookstores at Christmas to see what the next book would be. Miss Read always published a new book at Christmastime.  I never received a new hardback one - they were too expensive at the time, but if I could be patient a bit longer, the paperback version would be out later in the year. I read them all. 'Dora Jessie Shafe was born on 17 April 1913 in London, the younger of...

This is a new blog and a hello from England. My other blog is no more because I was getting far too many anonymous comments of an unwelcome nature on it. I hope that my old friends and some new will join me here in my new home and follow along as I share my life in the sixth decade. During the lockdown I have been sewing a lot and making my junk journals so my hands have not been idle. We have been lucky, so far, that the virus hasn't found us. We lead a quiet life and don't go out much, but even so we have to be careful. Larry has now been living in England with me for 7 and a bit years.  It doesn't seem possible that it is that long. He now has his permanent leave to remain, which is a relief for both of us and we are very settled here with my family close by. Sadly, Larry does not see his own family, but they keep in touch on the internet, which is a blessing for people who live on opposite sides of the globe. Here are some pictures of a rag doll I made recently. Her nam...