Hours later at tea-time they reach Granny.
`Here you are at last,’ she cries in fluting reproach, rushing out in her medium-heeled court shoes and wool dress, embracing gingerly as she inhales a waft of dried sick, trying not to wince, as older children tread mud all over the carpet. Read the rest of this entry »
Christmas Eve — and the excitement starts to bite. Little Nicholas and Carol, already in a frenzy of excitement, are opening the penultimate door of their Advent calendars. The wireless is playing a jazzed-up version of ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’. For Scarlett, there’s not much rest ahead, but she hopes everyone will be merry.
Granny and Grandpapa arrived yesterday. Having been woken twice in the night, firstly by the departed neighbours’ burglar alarm, and secondly by the lodger coming in tight at three o’clock in the morning, they are downstairs by 8.30 a.m., shivering, their breath rising like incense. Scarlett can’t light a fire because the log man still hasn’t arrived. Read the rest of this entry »
The hostess scurrying around at Christmas seldom feels the cold, but her guests will, particularly if they’re old, and most of all if they’re newly widowed or separated. It is essential to heat up the drawing-room, and have electric blankets or at least hot-water bottles and an electric kettle in the spare rooms. If you’re the sort of hostess who can deputise, and is not distracted by chatter, heat up the kitchen so that people will gravitate there for warmth and you can get them grating onions or peeling sprouts. Read the rest of this entry »
The role of a mother has long been revered, with Mother Earth being worshipped in many forms. The origins of Mothering Sunday, known in the USA as Mother’s Day and celebrated later in the year, are therefore unclear. It may have very early pagan origins but it is probable that it began with the medieval practice of visiting the cathedral of the diocese or Mother Church on the fourth Sunday in Lent. Read the rest of this entry »
Knitted garments from the Channel Island of Guernsey, situated between the south coast of England and the north of France, have been popular gifts since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The fine quality stockings knitted on the island at that time were often given to the royalty.
The style of tubular knitting which was used to make a Guernsey jumper was developed from the traditional method of knitting stockings Read the rest of this entry »
Christmas generally results in a spate of drinks with the locals, in which you stand about, easing your chilblained feet out of high heels, asphyxiated by everyone’s toiletries, agreeing with grannies that you can’t think how their daughters do it, as little satsumaholics charge out of control through your legs.
No one ever gets off with anyone at Boxing Day drinks, because everyone’s wearing their new Christmas jerseys — in wildly unbecoming colours — so that Rich Great Aunt Phyllis who gave it them can see how thrilled they are with it. Read the rest of this entry »
Not a Beecher’s Brook at Christmas but definitely a rather hairy water-jump. Try and get thank-you letters written on Boxing Day or a dreadful paralysis sets in, and you get sliding- eyed teenagers home for half-term in February saying defensively, ‘Well I definitely wrote, but your writing in the telephone book’s so lousy that I may have read the address wrong.’ Read the rest of this entry »
BABY GOWN
2m (21/2yds) fine white cotton
White cotton thread, pins, needles
Lace tape, if desired
Narrow satin ribbon for back ties
Broad satin ribbon for neckline facing, if
desired
Cut the following pattern pieces
1 skirt length
1 bodice piece
2 sleeves
Neatly hem the cuff edge of the sleeve. Turn the cut sleeve piece inside out and fold in half, right sides together. Stitch along the open side, 6mm (1/4in) from the edge, to form the sleeve. Repeat to make the second sleeve. Sew a single even row of running stitch around the top of the sleeve and gather slightly so that the sleeve becomes the same size as the sleeve opening in the bodice. Read the rest of this entry »
A child’s favorite doll teddy bear is very special and often becomes a memento that is kept throughout a lifetime. A number of famous bears belonging to presidents, prime ministers and royalty have crept out of the toy box and into the limelight in their owners’ adult years.
Dolls have been around since at least the time of the Greeks and Romans. From the literature and art of the time it is known that both civilizations had jointed clay dolls; rag dolls date from Roman times. Girls in Greece were expected to sacrifice their dolls to Artemis, goddess of the Hunt, once they had been outgrown. Dolls of other cultures were crudely shaped from pieces of wood or corn stalks and representative of a god or spirit rather than used as a plaything, but in the eighteenth century glass-eyed dolls of heavy wood began to appear. Read the rest of this entry »
It is known that certain toys were in existence in Ancient Greece and Rome, including hobby horses, hand carts and tops. Later, in the Middle Ages, childhood was not considered as a separate stage of life and children were expected to hunt and work alongside adults. Consequently the toys that were sold in fairs around the country differed little from those of hundreds of years before. There were still hobby horses, although they were more elaborately dressed, their bells and painted finery perhaps imitating the horses of jousting knights. Miniature farm animals were also popular, reflecting the mainly rural society, and tops and dolls were also commonly found. Read the rest of this entry »
