95 days to go.

Third Friday in the month - so I've been to Mandy's for my monthly card making session.  Three Christmas cards were made - don't forget there are only 95 days to go!

I think I like the first one best!

The First Half

When I wrote it down I was rather surprised at the amount of stuff I had in mind for September and I have to admit it looked crazy!  However, nothing ventured, nothing gained so I waded in.  Here's what's happened in the first half of the month.

1.  Watering someone else's garden.  What I didn't mention was that this involved a thirty mile round trip each time.  The weather helped - I went just four times to supplement the rain.  

2.  Start crochet lessons.  I've been to the crochet group twice so far.  I could crochet already but I couldn't follow a pattern and I could work only in circles and squares.  I've started on a ripple blanket but it has involved a lot of pulling down so I'm not going to show you a photo yet. 

3.  WI meetings.  Definitely accomplished.  I showed my support for Women's Suffrage and I ate a Harvest Supper.  I also won some daffodil bulbs in a harvest quiz - a bonus to be fully appreciated in the spring .

4  One Trefoil Guild meeting attended and the second is later in the month.

5.  The baptism is today.  Also I suddenly got bookings for Sundays.  I've taken a service today with less than two days notice.

6.  Three meals out thus far, one cancellation and three meals still to go.  Does that add up to the four I had planned?  

7.  I've declined seven Harvest Festivals.  I love going to them but hate leading them.  However, I've also said, "If you're desperate . . . "

8.  The big accomplishment is that I have made 94 Christmas cards.

Can't stop though.  Lots to do.  Only one hundred days to Christmas.  (Sorry about that!)

Votes For Women!

Plenty of home made bunting.  

Out to Brigg today, to Brigg Women's Institute.  I'm a member at Brigg as well as Caistor and on the second Wednesday each month I go to Brigg.  Today was Brigg WI's celebration of the hundredth anniversary of start of women's franchise and we combined that with a meeting run with many of the elements which were common in WI meetings in 1918.

Holly Mumby-Croft

Back in 1918 only women over the age of 30 who were householders, the wives of householders, occupiers of property with an annual rent of £5 and graduates of British universities were allowed to vote.  Not exactly universal female suffrage.  It wasn't until 1928 that women got the vote on the same terms as men.

But 1918 saw that all-important start of women's suffrage and 2018 has seen celebrations of the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act.  Brigg WI decided to celebrate the anniversary in style.

Kate in charge!

We stood in our green, purple and white bunting festooned room and sang, "Jerusalem" just as our foremothers would have sung in 1918 and then we watched a demonstration of upcycling.  (Early WIs always had a practical demonstration, a talk and an opportunity to socalise) before Councillor Holly Mumby-Croft spoke about her own career in politics.  Holly is a District Councillor in North Lincolnshire and last year she stood as a parliamentary candidate winning 17485 votes but sadly the sitting MP won 20916 so she isn't an MP yet,

The WI had a great time.  Many of us, (me included) wore "Votes for Women" sashes and Kate, our President was especially stunning.  

And this is September

A whole new month!  And I've got very little in my diary.

Except a week of watering someone else's garden, maybe starting crochet lessons, a couple of Women's Institute meetings, and maybe a couple of Trefoil Guild meetings too.

Oh and I'm booked for a baptism, four meals out and a crafting group. Maybe a harvest festival or two.  

There's a skirt cut out and waiting to be sewed.  I'm not too far from finishing a sweater and a couple of hats.  The Christmas cards must be made this month. Someone has asked for a Christmas stocking.

The garden needs preparing for winter and a new freezer inventory is needed.  I'd like to sort my dining room too.

Did I say that I have very little to do?  There are only twenty nine days left in the month to get all that done!

So that was August

August was a very lazy month!  I've had a few bursts of activity but I've done a lot of lounging around.  Aren't I a lucky girl!

The high spot of my month was definitely my trip to North Yorkshire.  I feel so proud of my nephew who completed the Coast To Coast Walk with a huge grin on his face.  It's about two hundred miles long and he did it in less than two weeks so I think I am allowed to be a very proud Auntie.  Mind you, he says I am a very eccentric auntie as I sat and knitted on the cliff top as I waited for him.

This trip also brought joy as I sought out a very old friend with whom I was in danger of losing contact.  She had moved and it was by a mere fluke that I managed to find her.

I value friendship highly and have had several meals out with friends including a birthday meal for one of my cousins.  It's one of the joys of my retirement that my cousins are once again becoming my friends.  Another cousin came and sorted my TV so I can stream programmes and yet another rescued me when my washing machine had a hissy fit.

I've had another comping win - this time of tickets for a house renovation show in London but I'll be giving the tickets away.  

I've had another of those sad/happy times when a group of parishes which I've been looking after got its very own vicar so I am redundant.  I'm happy for the vicar and the parishes though.  Don't worry, another group has already approached me and I've done a wedding and two funerals!  I'm having a few Sundays in the pews of my local church then I'll be out again in the villages every Sunday, I'm sure.  

Carvings

I had to leave my car at the garage at Market Rasen yesterday and while it was being attended to the trundle truck and I went exploring.

Market Rasen is a small market town a few miles from Caistor, perhaps best known for its racecourse but yesterday I wasn't interested in the geegees.  I was interested in the town.  Especially interested in the wood carvings.

I've shown you the Fat Controller before.  He lives at the railway station, of course. 

Not far away is a children's play-park with its very own owl.

And hiding in the tree beneath the owl is an owlet.

Close by is a wheatsheaf

and a pod of peas

And to complete the scene is a butterfly, a millipede and friends.

Three cheers for North Yorkshire Moors Railway

I've had a few days away in Yorkshire, supporting my nephew who has been doing the Coast to Coast Walk and while I was there I enjoyed the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

Hagrid at Hogsmeade Station

I love travelling by train!   For me it's the best way to see the scenery of this lovely country in which I live.  Trains have one big disadvantage though - I'm not allowed to take the trundle truck (mobility scooter) which means I can't do much "at the other end".  So I booked my ticket for NYMR railway and resigned myself to the fact that the railway station would be the only part of Pickering which I would see.

Goathland Station

But NYMR is one up on Network Rail.  As soon as I appeared on Grosmont station a wonderful volunteer asked me if I would be travelling and said I could put the trundle truck in the guard's van!  How wonderful is that!!!  They brought a ramp and up I trundled with the help of a shove from the guard.  That meant that I could explore Pickering and anywhere else I wanted to see along that line.  

It really is a lovely line with the added interest that it was used for The Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter films.  Goathland Station featured as Hogsmeade Station.  

Steam train at Grosmont

There are both steam and diesel hauled trains on this heritage line and they have the most wonderful bunch of volunteers.  Thank you NYMR,

Connecting with my Family History

Out into the Lincolnshire countryside today, this time to lead worship at St Mary's Church, Thoresway. 

The 2011 census reckoned that 198 people live at Thoresway but that figure also includes Kirmond-le-Mire which has St Martin's Church, and Stanton-le-Vale which is served by St Andrew's Church so that's three Anglican churches serving less than two hundred people!  

So I went to Thoresway and joined ten people for the morning service.  Everyone sat in the choir and it was lovely.

Uncle Palmer.  The dates refer to his incumbency at Walesby

Actually I had a smile at even the thought of going to Thoresway because I remember my Mother talking about going with my Father on their bicycles to visit his Uncle Palmer (who was Rector of Thoresway) for marriage preparation.  My Mother's family lived about five miles from Thoresway and Uncle Palmer came to their village to conduct their wedding.

So I feel that Thoresway is part of my story too.

I hope Uncle Palmer would have approved of the service this morning.