Where? What? How?

 

I've done quite a run of daily posts, probably the longest unbroken run I have ever had.

I've reflected on words, including my own name.  I've also moaned about elderspeak.

I've thought about the garden and the chap who keeps it looking good.

I've written about the things I do to keep myself happy, like walking, drawing, eating ice cream.

I've talked about Lincolnshire, especially Brigg and initiated you into its distinctive language.

I've explained my Sunday gear when it was too hot to wear it!

Yesterday when I got home from church I was too hot (and tired) to do anything - again.

So I've run out of ideas for blog posts.  Have you got any?

5th July 2014

 

That was the date I started this blog.

I'd been reading other people's blogs for some time before I decided to take the plunge.  Many of my favourite blogs from those days have disappeared - Frugal Queen (I watch her videos on YouTube now), Mama's Mercantile, Baroness Prudent Spending, $12 a day to name a few.  I think the blog I have been reading longest is Tracing Rainbows, where the incredible Ang writes a post EVERY day!

I've met a few bloggers: Ang as mentioned above, Elizabeth from Small Moments, Flis from An Englishwoman and her Dog, and several others who are no longer blogging.  I've had correspondence both email and snail mail with bloggers all over the world.

I've never done a post every day except sometimes in December.  My lowest annual post count was 38 and my highest 149.  I've shared my hopes and dreams, my friendships and my struggles with disability, my delight in little things and my musings about life in general.  

So now I'll start my twelfth year of blogging.  If I can think of things to write about.  

My Mass Observation Report

I thought you might like to now what I wrote for Mass Observation.  This is going to be a really dull post but the brief is to write about just this one day in my life and 12th May was really dull!  

"Today I am feeling a little bit sorry for myself.  I was supposed to be taking care of a friend’s dog at her house but I have a lot of pain in my legs so I can’t do it.  I enjoy doing that particular favour as my friend’s house is high on the Lincolnshire Wolds and has magnificent views.  I regard it as a holiday with self-catering accommodation. 

 Instead, I am at home in my bungalow.  I am a tenant of The Church of England Pensions Board and the Board is an excellent landlord.  I am disabled (but usually in better nick than I am today) and my bungalow has ramped access front and back, a wet-room and an accessible garden.  Many older people have gravitated to the cul-de-sac where I live and we keep an eye on each other.  My housing situation could not be better. 

 As today is the twelfth of the month my pension for the early part of my working life arrived in my bank account.  Although I finished my working life as a vicar, until I was thirty, I worked in local government and the civil service.  These last few years have been a period of high inflation and I have had to economise, cutting down on car usage, food and energy bills.  The rate of inflation has started to drop and the latest consumer price index is 3.25%.  

 I wrote a post for my blog: indeed, I wrote about Mass Observation!  Blogging is a declining activity and seems to attract only older people but I enjoy it.  I have met a few fellow bloggers “in real life” and have written letters to a few overseas.  I read blogs about ordinary, everyday life, and people’s hopes and reflections.

 I’m very sleepy today, probably because I am taking pain relief.  The great joy of retirement is that it doesn’t matter how sleepy I am!  However, I can’t be bothered to do anything which is rather unpleasant.  I just keep nodding off. 

 Whilst I’m not able to do much I have had a few video calls with friends.  I think video calls are great.  The idea of being able to see friends miles away seemed like a fantasy only a few years ago.

Normally I enjoy cooking good food for myself from scratch but I don’t feel up to that today.  Breakfast was a sandwich which I had in the freezer and lunch was canned tuna, canned sweetcorn and mayonnaise.  For an evening meal all I could be bothered with was mashed potatoes from the freezer with a scattering of cheese.  I’ll survive.  But I shall be glad to eat properly again.

 This is probably my most boring day of the year!  I can’t move far, I feel “spaced out” on pain relief and my get-up-and-go has got-up-and-gone.  But it’s an honest record!"

In case you are feeling concerned, life is looking better today and the only way is up!

Mass Observation Day 2025

 

I really enjoyed the film "Housewife, 49" with Victoria Woods as Nella Last, an ordinary housewife living in Barrow in Furness.  She contributed a diary from 1939 to the mid sixties, detailing the events of her life and how she felt about things.

Earlier than that, on 12th May 1937, people were invited to record the events of that day.  Why that date?  It was the coronation of George VI.  

In August 1939 when war was already seeming inevitable, Mass-Observation invited members of the public to record and send them a day-to-day account of their lives in the form of a diary. No special instructions were given to these diarists but 480 people responded to this invitation and their diaries are now held in the organisation's archive.

The original project ended in the mid-sixties but was revived in 1981.  These days it is not day-to-day diaries which are requested but responses to specific topics.  The spring topics are post-pandemic reflections, VE Day and Good News.  I am an observer and am writing about all three.

But 12th May is very special each year.  Today is the day everyone is invited to record and reflect on the events of their day.  

And one of the events I shall record is that I posted an entry on my blog!

February and March

The number of posts I managed in February wasn't exactly stellar.  Just the one.

For me January and February are usually difficult months and 2025 ran true to form.  Early in the month I woke one morning with incredible pain in my leg, worse than when I was waiting for the knee replacement.  Jim and Sheena, one of my cousins, managed to borrow a wheelchair so I could get to the car, and between them they took me to the doctor.  Strong pain killer and physiotherapy.  I felt more than a little light headed while taking pain relief but eventually everything settled down.

That had eased when I had a "digestive episode".  You don't want/need to know any more.  Except that things were a little miserable for several days until that settled.  

So, my post on being OK (which I wrote between these two incidents) was very necessary and hearing that lots of other people are also surviving by being OK was very comforting.  Thank you to everyone who commented.

I have high hopes for March!  I'm starting the month with eight days dog sitting which is going well.  When I get home I am looking forward to pottering around my garden and making a few plans.  Jack and one of his friends are coming for tea one day so I have to be on my very best behaviour and I have high hopes that his friend will make sure Jack is on his best behaviour too.  

The weather here is gloriously sunny at the moment so I may take advantage of that with a couple of days out.

And with good luck and a following wind I may get a few more blog posts written.

Z is for Zest

 Not the stuff removed with great care from the skin of a lemon but the sheer joy of living!

And that's what I want!  I want to live life with zest.  I want to embrace new experiences and treasure old ones.  

In this series of twenty six blog posts over one year, two months and four days I have reflected on my life ranging from big things like doing VSO in Nigeria and later being one of the first English women to be ordained priest to minutiae like enjoying a cup of coffee or taking pleasure in make do and mend.  I have shared things with you and many of you have responded with the events of your own life.

So for you too I want zest.  May your life have zing and zip.

W is for Worth it!

 It's been sad to see several bloggers decide not to post anymore but it was kind of them to tell us and not leave us wondering what had happened to them.  

I've been blogging on and off since July 2014.  I've two blogs and the other one is "off" even more than this one!  I only post if I have something I really want to say.  Blogging is a creative outlet for me, the only regular outlet I have for writing.  It's a way of recording some of the events of my life in an orderly manner.  I can float my hopes and dreams.  I can make friends through reading and commenting on other people's blogs and appreciating their comments on  mine.

Because I only write when I have something special to say, I take very long breaks and it is always hard to get back after a break.  

But I enjoy other people's blogs and this is my contribution to the blogosphere.  Like all bloggers I love reading comments.  Non bloggers may not know that we can see the number of visitors we have (but not their identity) and I find it amazing what a high proportion of visitors have no inclination to comment.  I wonder why?  Is it too complicated?  I know some blogging platforms are more complicated than others.  Are they deterred because some blogs (not this one) don't publish comments until after the blogger has approved them?  Personally I delete comments which are obviously intended to advertise betting or escort services but very rarely anything else but other bloggers have had big problems with inappropriate comments so pre approval is understandable.  

For it is commenters and fellow bloggers who make the effort worthwhile.  Thank you for reading.    

Yes,  it is definitely WORTH IT!

Shamed!

Several people have emailed to ask if I am OK.  Thank you for your concern.  I'm fine.  I'm sure you will be glad that you haven't shamed me.

Jack has been nagging at me.  But that didn't shame me even though he tried very hard..  

The person who has REALLY shamed me is Sue in Suffolk.

Last year she too started an alphabet of blogging.  She finished within the thirty days of November.  Mine started in September and is still not finished over thirteen months later.

She's started at A again today.  So I think the time may have come to get back blogging and answer the questions you kindly left for me.  I really ought to finish my first alphabet before she finishes her second!

See you tomorrow.  

For Sue

 Sue, at a smaller and simpler life, challenged us to publish three photos of ourselves.  Sue, I accept your challenge!

Here's my blog picture.  I was less than two years when this was taken so it's around seventy years old

Now for the scary one.  I was at a village event and allowed the children to tell the face painter what to do.  They took great advantage of my weakness!

And my most recent photo. taken Sunday

B is for blogging

You've probably realised that I am struggling a little to get back to blogging.  I doubt if I will get to thinking about what X, Y and Z are for but B for Blogging sounds like a good idea.

But why blog anyway?  It's a question which appears on many blogs from time to time and it's a question which probably occurs to most bloggers rather frequently, especially when they can't think what to write about.  I am in awe of people who publish every day!

I blog because I enjoy writing.  Each post is very carefully considered and I try very hard to use just the right words and careful grammar.  I like the feeling of contact with other people, most of whom I have never met - thank you anyone who comments.  I like reading other people's blogs and this is my contribution to the blogosphere.  

I have a Facebook account which I never use and I don't bother with Twitter, Instagram or anything else.  I don't approve comments before they are published but I delete any that are "dodgy".  I've never worked out why anyone would try and advertise escort services in Mumbai on a blog belonging to a retired lady vicar in Lincolnshire!   

Joyful January.

 January is usually not a good time.  It's a blue month: not the lovely blue of summer skies but the dull, sapping blue of depression.  

Not so January 2022!  I told you my concerns about the month in this post and two lovely friends decided that they would do their bit and they have sent me cards.  How kind is that!!

And kindness begets kindness.  I'm not going to try and "pay back" the kindness of the two bloggers who sent these cards.  Instead I have set pen to paper and written letters to two housebound people.  I hope that knowing that I have paid forward instead brings joy to the senders.

And on the same subject, if you would like to be part of a chain of kindness, have a look at "Kindness by Post".  Registration will be open soon for the February letter chain.  (Sorry, I think it may be UK only but why not look if there is something similar on your country.)

(I have been an absentee blogger for several days as my laptop died and although I can comment on other people's blogs using my iPad I don't feel able to post pieces on my own blog.  I now have a new laptop.  Hurrah!)

TWNNFD

Otherwise known as That Was November, Now for December.

I feel that I should sign this post "Pincushion" as I have had my covid booster, my annual flu vaccine and the shingles shot which I was offered because I have passed seventy.

More progress has been made towards getting a wet room but it won't happen until the spring.  The landlord is also considering improving access to my bungalow and that has to wait for slightly warmer weather to get a good "cure" for concrete (apparently!) and all the work will be done at once.  I'm just deeply grateful for how much care is taken to keep me safe and well.

During November I've been out a little to shop in Brigg but the news of the omicron variant means that I shall now be minimising my social contacts again.  I've arranged to meet a couple of friends in a semi-outdoor café and I'm taking two services over Christmas but otherwise I'm staying put.   

Christmas preparations are going quite well and I am sewing a little every day.  Using this blog as a record of my progress has been really helpful.  Your comments have spurred me on!

Into July

 

One thing I forgot to comment on in my last post was blogging itself.  Back in May I decided to give myself a kick up the proverbial and I resolved to do twenty posts before the end of June.  Well, I managed seventeen.  Not Bad but Could Do Better.

My July hopes are directed towards crafting and making things.  I've usually got my Christmas cards made by the end of July so that has to be a priority.  I've got a day booked to make cards in company with my cousin and I'm looking forward to that.  

I also want to make a few Christmas presents and to build up a small stash of gifts for when I need a quick "Thank You" or "Happy Birthday" or whatever.  I've been sorting the room where I sew so now I want to enjoy the fruits of my labours.  There is still, however, more sorting to be done.  

A few days out would be great.  I want to get out before the school summer holidays.  Children are great but they can't cope with the idea that while they stand staring at my trundle truck I can't move!  It may be that I will be called for surgery before long so if I'm having days out they need to be soon.

I've got a session booked with my spiritual counsellor.  I haven't seen him since before the pandemic and I have much to reflect on.  These last sixteen months have been "gift time".  However, covid infection rates are rising again and, although I have been fully vaccinated, I still feel very vulnerable so I may face further seclusion which I want to use well.  

And maybe I can keep up the blogging momentum!

So far

 I have to confess I am struggling!  On 27th May I committed myself to writing twenty posts by the end of June.  Since then I have written ten so I am just about on track.  It's important to me to do this as I think it may be the best way of reviving my blogging mojo but that mojo seems distinctly moribund.  Today is St Barnabas Day and he is the great encourager so I shall take heart from him!  

So, what has been happening here at Frugal Follies?  I haven't yet got a date for surgery and, truth to tell, I am quite happy to wait.  The pain isn't bad at the moment and I am very aware that there are many who are suffering more than me.  I am continuing to lose weight and have shed just three pounds since 28th May.  I'm not walking much though.  

Jack has been twice and my garden is looking good.  It's a very small garden but I love it.  Jack built me a little patio and I delight in having meals or just coffees out there.  Jack has now toddled off to the family caravan on the coast but his daughter won't let him idle his time away: his job this weekend is to wash the exterior of the van.  Just to encourage him, here are pictures of the veg plot on 30th May and another today, less than two weeks later.  

I have one small worry: he has threatened to bring me a present back from the seaside.  He is also worried: I've got a present for him and he doesn't know what it is.  

But that's my eleventh post written!

TWMTIJ

 TWMTIJ?  That was May, this is June!

As I've already said, one of my hopes for June is to get blogging again and to write twenty posts on one or other of my two blogs.  This will, no doubt, result in some very strange posts as I scrabble around in my mind for ideas for posts!  

My big hope for May was to get out more!  I wasn't too bothered where I went but I wanted to start leaving the house more before I became so set in my "pandemic ways" that getting out became too scary to try.  I went shopping, to visit friends' gardens, to church, to Clumber Park, and anywhere else I could think of and I shot past my target of twenty days outside my own house and garden.  None of this would have been important most years: after all I need to shop, visit etc. but shifting my personal boundaries is important in 2021.

I call these things "hopes" rather than "goals" as this seems gentler on myself. Calling them hopes keeps me hopeful rather than feeling that I am a failure when I don't score goals.  

I've got a few other ideas of things to do in June and all will (eventually) be revealed

And now I need to get a wiggle on.  Jack is coming today.  At the moment I have a few Brownie points as I wrote a very polite post about him but if I want to hang on to them I need to get moving.  

It will mean, however, that I won't need to scrabble in my brain for the subject of my next post!

I know! I know! I know!

 I've been a very naughty blogger.  Or to be more accurate, I haven't been a blogger at all for thirty five days.  Thank you to everyone who has emailed me to check.  And I think thank you to Jack who has been nagging at me but I'm not so sure about thanking him for that.  

I have no reason, not even an excuse so, if you don't mind, I'll stop grovelling and get on with a post.  

I'll start with a couple of updates concerning my health.  First of all, I've had my second vaccination but as yet I haven't a blood test for antibodies.  I am still being very careful where I go.  I shop only early morning or very late evening, I won't go into cafes etc.  I am, however, making myself go out.  The infection rate around here is very low so the risk will be correspondingly low and I need to face the world again.

Secondly I have now seen a surgeon about my very dodgy knee and I will be having surgery fairly soon.  He said within a couple of months but I'm not holding my breath on that one.  A lot of people have had surgery delayed over these last fifteen months and I'm no longer in agony.  I want it to be done but I really don't mind waiting.  I've stopped my walking around the block but I have started to make more effort to lose weight and this year I have lost two stones (28 pounds) so I am very happy with that.  If I have to wait I will lose more weight!

So, I have decided that it is time for a bloggy challenge to myself.  This is only my twentieth post this year so I have decided that by the end of June I will have doubled that number.  Nagging is allowed, other than by Jack

A life of idleness

 Jack has been hinting that I really ought to blog more often.  Trouble is, I'm not doing much.

On Monday Annie-the-home-enhancer came.  Annie has school age children so once they go back to school I don't want her to come but during August she's been three times to sort me out.  I now have a lovely home again.  I'm still "deep decluttering" and will be doing so for the foreseeable future.  Jack came too to bring a huge bag of greengages.  Then I nipped to a village about twenty miles away to collect some clothes from one (paternal) cousin for another (maternal) cousin who is a dressmaker, to alter. 

Tuesday I was totally worn out from the amount of work Annie did on Monday!  So I just sat and finished a hat for the Sailors Society and a twiddlemuff for whoever.  Oh and I roasted tomatoes and made soup to freeze ready for the winter.  And made a loaf of bread.  And a batch of greengage jam.

Wednesday I went to take craft stuff to yet another cousin who is very involved with Brownies and things.  My deep decluttering has unearthed quite a bit of stuff which I am unlikely to use so the Brownies can have it.  Then I cast on another twiddlemuff - I'm trying to use up the odds and ends of wool which I keep finding.  In the afternoon Sainsbury's brought my groceries.

Today I visited a friend, had a routine corona test, made two batches of chutney, wrote a letter and did my telephone "pastoral visiting". 

So as you can see, I have a life of idleness

And now I am struggling with the new Blogger trying to create this post.  I haven't yet come across a blogger who has a good word to say for it!

(I've put links to twiddlemuffs and the Sailors' Society but just in case you don't know a twiddlemuff is a muff with buttons, ribbons and other bits and pieces firmly attached.  It is given to dementia sufferers so they have something which will keep their hands warm but which they can fiddle with harmlessly.)  

Housewife, 49

Victoria Wood as Nella Last

Nella Last was a very ordinary woman living in Barrow in Furness. an industrial town in Northern England.  In 1939 she accepted the invitation to write a weekly diary for the Mass Observation Project which was set up to record the lives and opinions of ordinary people. She continued to write her diary throughout the war and indeed until 1966.  Forty years later in 2006 her wartime writings were made into a film starring Victoria Wood and the name of that film was "Housewife, 49", 49 being Nella's age when she started her writing.  

Bloggers are a sort of twenty first century mass observation project. We come from all walks of life and all backgrounds.  Some blogs are political. others commercial, others reflect the special interests of each blogger.  Most of the ones I read are written by people with quiet, hidden lives.  I read of people struggling to make ends meet, mothers with young families, older people reflecting on how the world changes around us.  We know (hope) that what we write will be read by total strangers but we choose our own subjects to write about.  

In these last few days I have noticed that many bloggers are writing more posts than usual for we are living through "interesting" times.  We bloggers are recording how world events are affecting each tiny corner of the globe not as mere theory but as real experiences.  We read about how families cope when schools are closed suddenly and indefinitely.  We read about the battle of the supermarkets not as a mass event but how each household worries about their own supplies of toilet roll and tinned tuna.  We share hints or recipes, we write about caring for the vulnerable, we reflect on the generosity of neighbours and, sadly, the stupidity and selfishness of others.

These last few days and weeks have been unique in the history of the world.  There have been pandemics before but never have there been the opportunities for ordinary people to make their voices and feelings heard.

KEEP ON BLOGGING!

Keeping in touch

Isolation is becoming my new norm.  I'm used to spending lot of time alone.  I have very well stocked cupboards and freezer.  I've got excellent neighbours.  The idea of twelve weeks relative seclusion really isn't bothering me too much - in fact I'm rather looking forward to getting a few things done.

But sleep is proving a problem.  For several nights I've gone to bed feeling dog-tired but as soon as my head hits the pillow a Grand National of thoughts starts racing.  How will I manage the garden?  What if my computer breaks down?  What will happen if I get this wretched virus and I am on my own?  Generally about 4am I drop off through sheer exhaustion!

Then I nod off during the day but invariably I get woken after ten minutes by some kind person ringing to see if I am OK.  I'm really grateful - I live alone and kind support is really comforting but it's very frustrating!

Last night the exhaustion pushed me into sleep around 10.30pm but it didn't last long.  By 1am those jockeys had their horses racing around my brain and so at 2.30 I got up  and decided to read a few blogs. 

And there on Small Moments was a post about my letter swap which I wrote about a few days ago.  I had been in touch with Elizabeth who writes that blog to ask her advice about setting up a swap.  Many years ago I joined a swap which she organised. Later on I met her at Trelissick Gardens, a National Trust property in Cornwall.  We enjoyed a coffee and a walk (well, she walked and I rode my trundle truck).

It's great to make contact with fellow bloggers especially by letter (or even better meeting face to face) because letters are so much more personal than e mails.  There's no cut-and-paste, no personalising a basic document which has been sent in modified form to several people: instead there's something which the other person has touched and indeed created just for you.  The choice of stationery, the style of handwriting and so many things mean a letter is so very personal and could only have been created by just that one individual.

My letter swap is open until 27th March so you have over a week to decide if you want to take part.  You can e mail me at FenellaatCaistor@GMail.com.  Terra and Joyce F, you both said you would be sending me an e mail but I haven't received so could you send me another please - I will acknowledge receipt of all e mails.

I've had several e mails from people saying that they don't want to be part of the swap but they would like to be my pen-pal.   I've thought long and hard about this and have decided that as I can't say yes to all I will not say yes to any.  You can specify that you want a partner in your own country or abroad but you can't specify who.

Update.  In the comments below Marcia refers to this post by Elaine.

Letters

I love getting letters!  And I enjoy writing letters too.  Letters aren't just about the words we write, they're something of the essence of the person, something which they've taken trouble over.  Our handwriting is highly individual and to see a friend's offering on the mat is one of the great pleasures of life.

I’ve just written to a dear friend of mine, Doreen.  Doreen and I have been friends for around forty years.  She even reads this blog so now she knows there’s a treat in the post for her.  I’m staying away from people for the moment while this wretched virus is around.  Maybe you are doing the same.  It can get a bit lonely though.  I’m glad of phone calls and e mails but letters will be a great help.

So I’ve been wondering if the idea of exchanging letters appeals to you, Dear Reader.  If so, I’m happy to facilitate a swap.  If you want to join in put a comment below letting me know if you want a swap in your own country or whether you’re happy to send your letter overseas.  I will need your e mail address so I can let you know who your exchange is.  My own e mail address is on my profile page if you'd prefer to use that.

I’ll keep the swap open until 27^th March (that’s two weeks today) and won’t organise the exchanges until then.

Update  I will acknowledge all e mails that I receive.