Odds, ends and beginnings

Blogs Worth Visiting
 I should make a regular habit of extolling the virtues of some of the blogs I love visiting. I have decided to start today with Cait’s Photos.  I was particularly attracted by one of her postings the other day – about stone. I also love taking photos of groups of pebbles and stones. I can spend a happy hour wandering the shore beneath GB’s house just looking for suitable groups, of which there are always plenty to be found. These are Gneiss (pronounced ‘nice’).

And these pebbles are at Buddleigh Saltertton near where Daughter-who-takes-photos lives.

Another blog I call at regularly is Messymimi’s Meanderings.  As well as keeping us up to date with the doings of her children and her cats, Messymimi’s blog covers the exciting events that happened this day in history (along with the various celebrations around the world – including Fairyland). The events side of it is the blog I wish I’d written (and indeed set out to do but only managed about four days before giving it up).

A Piece about Hair (There's a pun there if you think about it)

From the Victorian Era Fan Guide:-

“A woman’s hairpiece from the mid 19th century. The extravagant hairstyles which were popular throughout the Victorian period called for large amounts of hair which many women did not naturally pos-sess. To make up for this they frequently turned to wigs and hairpieces made from human hair. The demand for hair was enormous and some-times desperate women sold theirs to earn a little money from the growing market. In 1848 8,766 pounds of hair was imported into Britain from France alone. This hairpiece is a ‘ringlet bunch’ or ‘set of side curls’ sewn onto a braid base which could then be attached with the use of hairpins. By the 1860s such additions had acquired nicknames. Long side curls were known as ‘rats’, smaller ones which were placed above the rats were called ‘mice’, the large roll of hair that sat on top of the head was a ‘cat’ and the chignon at the back of the head, which sometimes had a wave of loose hair flowing from it, was called a ‘cataract’ (named after a type of powerful waterfall).”

My Pump has Died 
Sadly it’s not just a case of this sort of pump dying…

I'm glad I checked my money on Tuesday and booked the hotels. If I had checked it today I would have had to take into account the fact that the central heating pump has gone for a burton. It'll be a few hundred pounds, said the boilerman, so you might as well replace the whole system - it's rubbish and it's about 25 years old, he said. That'll only be a couple of thousand. Perhaps we'll just go away in October and freeze for the rest of the winter.

 And the postcards .....
And the postcards keep coming in. Thanks to everyone who has sent me them. I thoroughly appreciate them but have fallen so far behind with my postcard blog that I can’t see how to get it started again. But I am determined that some of the best postcards will get a public airing at some stage. But how to define ‘best’? I think out of about 800+ that I have received so far I have been disappointed in half a dozen or so. And that, obviously, is simply because my taste is not the same as that of the sender and no reflection on their enthusiasm for Postcrossing.

So, to all of you out there who are kind enough to think of me when you pass a letterbox, many thanks!   I trust you look as smart as this when you post me a card!!!