General Chat

Evening all...

I'm up my tree.......

Been doing some successful findings of lost relly's.

Found my dads cousin in Spain owner of properties...Wow girls we are all off to Spain soon ...LOL

Got my grand daughter here for the night......such pleasure is she.

Now going to run her bath as has some smelly's to use up !!

Grandson on the Moors doing a trek of 13miles then sleeping in a TENT !!!!!!!

He'll freeze .......poor sod I'll be awake all night thinking about him.

Maddie,
Im always leaving people out, sorry. I still cant remember whos who!!

I hope all have had a good day (and not too cold). Its been very cold here and the easterly wind made it feel even colder.
Stephen you and Fluffy Paws are very quiet, what are you up to?

Cath xx

Evening All. Doing me Dixon impression.

Right, hope I wont leave anyone out.

Dermot, thanks for the monologues, they are great fun.

Rita hope your son is feeling better.

Jean hope your aches and pains are easing.

Shelly, buy some gel insoles from Boots.

Marilyn, hope your gums are 'skinning over' and the pain is easing.

Mo your lovely grandaughter is giving you pleasure.

Stephen where are ya?

Hope all went well for Linda today.

Pat and Cath keeping well.

Pauline, hope Brent is getting out to his club, and you are walking the bracing Sunderland coastline. Not like me, I perished.

If I have missed anyone, sorry. I am trying to type and look at the previous posts at the same time.

going boss eyed. lol

See you later

Maddie
x

Evening everyone,
Rita I hope Mike is on the road to a full recovery and feeling more comfortable.
Dermot lovely tale about the donkey. I have always wanted one but sadly garden is too small. I just love animals.
Rita our greyhound is from a rescue centre in Birmingham, shes adorable and we couldn't be without her. At first she was quite reserved but now she is mad as a hatter!
Linda I hope hospital visit went ok and Marilyn how is the sore mouth.
Had some succes with my troublesome Irish ancestors today and received lots of useful info which I now have to sort through. Have been stuck with this part of tree for months so am very pleased to have some new info to get stuck into.
Jean hope you are ok after getting kicked, must have been very painful.


Cath xx

Good evening everyone.

Rita, it's good to hear Mike was able to let his wife know he was o.k, by giving her the thumbs up.
I hope he has had a comfortable day, and that the prognosis is good.
Well done Mike, you done well, we are all as proud of you, as mum is.

Ohh Marilyn, you lucky girl getting a new laptop. Pete spoils you rotten, and I am jealous, can I borrow him for a few weeks purleeze.
Hows your mouth, or should I say gums today. Has the gum started to heal yet.?

Thank you Dermot. It's amazing the things in life,we have never heard of before. A luck penny is a brilliant idea,and one I had never knew about.
A wonderful tale of your little donkey, who became a part of your family.

Pat, they have donkeys on Blackpool beach as well. When we have been there in the past, I have felt so sorry for them, having to be paraded up and down the beach with screaming brats on their backs,in all weathers.

I wonder if Jean is o.k, after her kick from the horse yesterday.

Shelly, hows your blisters. You can take it easy tomorrow,but not that easy that you sit on your bum all day, excercise excercise, thats what you should be doing.

Pauline, how was your Aunt yesterday when you visited her. In good health I hope, bless her.

Still no Stephen. Come on Stephen, it's the weekend and you should be enjoying yourself. We need you to lead us astray, as you normally do. lol

Linda, how did you get on today love.?

Pauline I am on a diet but didnt want to refuse fish and chips from the shop. I have once a month usually but it is twice now. Lol

I like donkeys they have a donkey santuary in Norfolk Red Wing when I lived up there some friends ran a boot sale every sunday to help them I use to help them when one was off sick or on holiday they made a lot of money for them.the amount use to be published in the local new paper.

They did the same for Grey hounds when they retired.

Rita

Rita, fish and chips yum!
One of my old nieighbours told me this thing about cup cakes for a wedding.
Dermot, i liked your story about the donkey. Being a townie the only time I can remember seeinga donkey was in 1993 on Skegness beach!
i'n glad it's the week-end!

Not sure if all the cancer has gone yet Pauline they took the one in the kidney out but he will have to have a check upto make sure it isnt anywhere else but they said it looks good.

I just had fish and chips for my dinner and I am so full i think I might burst in a minute

Pauline every one has something of interest happening during their growing up period.? you just have to scribble notes add little things then you will find your add to them . and it makes interesting reading. whether it is something that happened at school . or while you were on holiday.?
when I read what people have written on GR I think yes that happened to me or I recall something like that and I often think I had better not say as people will think yes here she goes again but I could fill a big book with little things that grew .into a book

Rita

Dermot, you should write a book about your childhood, if you did, I'd buy it. I can picture everything you talk about........ even though I've never heard of a Luck-Penny

When you were young, did those houses in Knock always look so clean? The plasterwork (or whatever it is) on the houses is painted white or cream and it looks very clean. It looks the same in the area where you lived, the properties are kept immaculate.

Do you think what the visionaries saw was exaggerated over time?

Rita, it must be a great relief for you to know that all the cancer has been cut out. Your son can look to the future now. It's a relief for all of us, I'm so pleased he came thought it alright.

Marilyn, did you manage to eat last night? Has the pain gone yet?

Mo, isn't it great when a baby is a good feeder? Brings a smile to our faces and makes us happy.

Jean, what are we going to do with you? Did you like hospital food so much that you want to go back?

Hope it's going OK for Linda, maybe she'll finally get a treatment that'll work. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you Linda.

Cup cakes at a wedding, Pat, ........ really?

No Shelly yet?

Hope it's not still cold, damp and frosty for Cath and Maddie, it's sunny here.

Where's Stephen? Stephen, you're another one who should write a book about your life........... I'd buy that one as well.

Not much point me writing a book, about my childhood........... nothing happened!!

Luck-Penny.

The donkey, according to Wikipedia, is a domesticated member of the Equidae family whose ancestors originally came from Africa & he gets a mention in the Gospels on Palm Sunday. Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey - a male one I believe. Obviously, the donkey mixes with the top-shelf people.

Well, our donkey didn’t have to travel that far. In fact, he was born & reared about 5 miles away from us & this is how he ended up on our farm enjoying his well-earned retirement years.

Our farm was just 40 acres - a mixture of good & not so good land. My dad had plenty around him to help in the various farming activities - his four sons & one daughter - us!.

Subsistence farming was probably an apt term for such activities on a relatively small farm like ours. Dad never actually handed over cash in payment for the assistance (except perhaps the price to attend the dances or cinema in the local towns) but he did give us a roof over our head, plenty of food & a good education - a good home life & a sound base for our futures. What more did we expect.

He occasionally admitted that he would have preferred to tinker around with car engines & the like - he was very good at mechanics - but, as he was the eldest son of his generation, the family farm was automatically his when grandfather died. Rules were rules & that’s how things happened, Will or no Will.

Anyway, time waits for nobody & we, his offspring, grew up & one-by-one left home to do our own thing. Even the wild animal offspring does the same and, if they are a bit tardy with their departure, might be encouraged otherwise by their parents.

So, there was my dad still hoping to continue running the farm on his own - no mechanisation. When harvesting came around, he would just hire a contractor for a few days with the necessary machinery .

One day, he spotted an advert offering a second-hand tractor for sale at a fairly decent price. So, off he cycled the five miles to see if a deal could be struck - after a bit of bargain haggling.

Now, there’s a word we seldom hear about these days - ‘haggling’. Amongst farmers like my dad, it was the accepted custom that, no matter what an item cost, price negotiations were entered into - i.e. haggling. And so it was between him & the second-hand tractor seller. A reduced price was agreed after much claim & counter-claim. The deal was struck with a shake of hands & money was exchanged. All that was left to do now was to ask for a ‘luck-penny’.

I’m not sure if this practice is still going on but it stems from an old wives tale. Having paid for an item, the seller would usually give you back a few shillings as a mark of respect to the Gods hoping that some goodwill would go with the item purchased - a precursor of the Guarantee, perhaps. The chap selling the tractor to my dad was no rich man either as all farmers claim to be poor - even to this day.

So, he pointed to a little grey & brown coloured donkey in the nearby field & said he would give it to my dad as a luck-penny. The last thing my dad wanted at this stage was a donkey clearly passed his sell-by-date. But, dad had a soft heart & agreed to take the donkey.

So, there you have it. My dad drove the tractor home slowly - his bicycle thrown up the back & the donkey walking beside him - a sight rarely seen in our locality before or since.

It was getting dark by the time dad arrived home proud as punch with his purchase. The poor donkey was very tired after walking those five miles back to our house. Without disturbing anyone in doors, dad just opened the gate to the best pasture field he had & beckoned for the donkey to go in & help himself which he did. Getting his head down to eat the lush grass, the donkey would occasionally stare back as if to say ‘Thank you. This grass tastes lovely”.

To everyone‘s amazement, the donkey spent several comfortable years on our farm, no work expected of him, keeping company with the cows, calves and, of course, Dan - our pony plus Prince, our blind dog. He often stood around uncomplainingly with the other animals, his neat forelegs set close together & his ears pricked. And another thing, he became known by everyone in the locality as ‘Luck-Penny’. That became his new name and why not!

THE DONKEY (by G.K. Chesterton)

When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born.

With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil's walking parody
On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.

Marilyn,
Naughty girl for eating near a computer!
Apparently cup cakes are the in thing for weddings now!- so I've been told

Hi Everyone,


I got a new Lappy.........very updated one.

My old one was full of food ..!!!! LOL

So now must cover my keys while eating .......

Pete felt, sorry for me yesterday so first thing this morning he went out and bought me my new lappy....Awwh Bless.

So I'm sitting here experimenting with new keys shining like a new
sixpence.....

Waiting for someone to send me an Email...LOL

Jean ...my neighbour got kicked in the arm a couple of years ago and had it broken ......her life was changed for 6mths as she could not drive or do anything that she used to and boy did it get her down, you have to be careful as you well know.

I was sitting here answering my emails and the postman came with a large envelope from my sister, she had gone to Brent Archives Tuesday to search for some building information in our Willesden Reseach.
we are doing.

when I opened it I found a large map of Willesden dated 1860 (I have one dated 1895) where are Street was , this shows nothing but farms stretching for miles including large ones named "Willengreen Farm" and "DuddenHill Farm. " "Elm Farm" to name a few. I found two school on the map one was St Marys Infants the other St Marys Junior school. both schools I went to. I never realised the schools had been that old., I feel really old now.
I have still not found what I am looking for a big House called "Mead House" , but what a find this map is.
The road I lived in was built 17 years after this map so you can see how old that little cottage house was.

Rita
x

No there not Dermot, only if you have the money to afford tiers,

other wise you are stuck with a bottom only.
Lol

Rita
Thats a good one. gave me a laugh.

If weddings are supposed to be happy events, why are wedding cakes always in tiers?

Hi Everyone,
we are getting to be like agony aunts on here telling everyone what to do when we are ill Lol good isnt it ? to have others advice I try other things when poeple tell me what they have taken for cold, flu and toothache etc.

It is very cold here in Surrey there was a light flurry of snow earlier this morning it didnt last long but it has gotten colder since.

I will have to have the man back to seal my double glazing windows as once again they have come appart there is a gap and the wind comes in, this is in both sittingroom windows and my two bedrooms. windows, They were quiet expensive to be done yet they have had to come back four times in five years. I dont pay as they are covered by the guarantee,

Thank you Linda and Cath. I am hoping MIke will be feeling alot better today than he was yesterday, but the main thing is they got that cancer out.

see you all later.

Rita
x

Morning all!
What no brekkie!
Linda I hope everthing goes ok at the hospital.
Rita I hope Miek has a good day.
Take care everyone else.
Going to the library to take my books back and get some more out.
x

Rita
Still sending Healing Thoughts for Mike
Hope you slept a little last night and todays news is good

Linda :o) XxX

PS Thanks Cath

Morning All.

Very cold and damp. Urgh.

Hope everyone is well and warm.

See you later

Maddie
x

Morning everyone,
Linda good luck at the hospital.
Cold and damp this morning, would rather stay inside in the warm but have to take my mum shopping.

Rita hope Mike is more alert today and not in too much pain, good that he gave his wife the thumbs up.

Have a good day whatever you're doing,

Cath xx