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My paternal great grandparents were married in St. Mary’s ,just off the Main Street ,Pride Hill ,Leading from the rail station up to the shops near the market hall.
Blakemore and Maddox ,in about 1850.
Can’t get to all my F.H stuff as my son is temporarily in the room where it is stored .No room to move!
They moved to Snailbeach where the lead mine was .

Do we need an ISBN number?
 I hope it sells well. VIKTORIA.

Just as a by the by—- when living in Belgium we befriended an English lady ,
 who had lived in Manchester, her large family home was opposite my second bus stop on my way to school.

She was the only English person in the town in West Flanders.
Attended the English Church in Gent.
When she died her in laws had to clear  over 60 years of hoarding ,they roped us in to help and from very old beautiful Victorian and Edwardian clothing we dressed a whole choir for “ The Good Old Days” concert we did for OXFAM.

She had bottled whole chickens and rabbits for  when the Germans invaded.
WW2 .
Still in the cellar in 1960’s/70’s ,looking like humunculi .!

She loved the radio and had every copy of Radio Times from its inception.
I told her in laws they might be valuable so left them to do as they wished.

A hoard of Victorian and Edwardian undies,all lace and Broderie Anglaise , we used those in the concert.
She was of the proportions of Queen Victoria and two of us got into one pair of her voluminous bloomers —- we had to go everywhere together mind you!
 
Such amazing stories like diverting the spring water supply from their house when The German High Command requisitioned their home, to a supply not always pure———- she  said “ it was our little war effort” when we were somewhat  ,well , it was a crime of sorts, but she said “ Now listen to me,when you have seen your loyal employees put against your  factory wall and machine gunned , you feel you have to do something .
They commandeered our home and we lived in the garage ,seeing our belonging desecrated and the towns folk murdered.”
 
I brought the clothes to England ,used in many Ladies’Group talks and eventually went to Shropshire  Air Ambulance ,volunteers gave talks in many places for funds using the clothes.
Very popular,in Village Halls and one speaker from the hamlet where I had lived  would be asked “ When are you bringing them thur big knickers agin?”

Cheerio, Viktoria.

Blackcurrant tea— hot water with a couple of spoons of home made blackcurrant jam dissolved in it —- magic cure .
An Aspirin dissolved in warm water used as a gargle really gets to the pain in throat infections ,no need to swallow it .

A boiled onion ,still hot in a clean cloth on an abscess seems to
“ draw “ out the awful gunge and hence hastens the healing.

Old fashioned remedies ,cost nothing and did the trick very often.
Pre NHS we had nothing else.

Salty water is a good cleanser for wounds .
Clove oil for toothache.

Viktoria.

Yes Anzac Day.
Gosh, I can remember when it was only 30 years previously that what the day commemorated had taken place.
We still had The Empire then.
We celebrated it at school , later in the Sixth Form doing Greek( very badly,)
the teacher pointed out the connection to The Trojan Wars.
Gallipoli ,the beaches and cliffs which trapped the Empire’ sAnzac troops between the Turks and the sea,with the supposed site of Troy above.
Achilles and Patrocles fighting over a slave girl and Patrocles donning Achilles posh armour and getting killed .


The Anzaks’  bravery in France and Belgium, my Dad’s ashes are scattered at Hill 60, which was left as it was,all churned up from the tunnels set with explosives under our and the German trenches ,The Australian and New Zealand  troops have lovely memorials as do The Canadians who all fought in that area — amongst any others.
So far from home and very few families could make the journey to visit graves, but there are no individual ones.
 Still full of unexplored and unstable explosives it was impossible to move the huge mound of earth.
Hill 60 is the memorial site with a stone monument at the roadside .
Dad is under a Hawthorn tree tree - self seeded
Grazed by sheep and full of wild flowers,a natural wildflower meadow.
He thought it really peaceful and expressed the wish re his ashes.
We still lived in Belgium when he died 1974.

Well a bitter wind but bright and sunny.Washing dry and ironed in no time.
Tuna Pasta bake for tea .

Friend phoned to say her pretty little cat cat died in the night ,all alone ,but perhaps and hopefully in her sleep.
Don’t they break your heart!

Well a tin to open - pasta to cook ,breadcrumbs to crumb and mushroom sauce to slave over, ——- well Campbell’s’ condensed mushroom soup to open .
I still have to slave over the crumbs!

Cheerio.
Viktoria.