Wednesday 10 December 2014

Oh What A Night and Shopping For Wreaths.

Did you sleep last night?  The wind played ship wrecks and sea serpents yesterday, last night and still today.  The house felt like it was at sea for many hours.  You worry about what damage the wind will have done to people and to buildings.  I only read the small print on our insurance policy last year and realised the out buildings weren't covered for storm damage.  We paid an extra tenner and it gave us peace of mind.  I hate gale season, living next to the sea!

Got up this morning and miraculously I couldn't see any damage done to the dwellings or the out buildings and  livestock housing.  Just a few beef nut bags were blowing about in the haggard.  

We went to Aldi the other day and bought two heart shaped wreaths for the graves of my parents, my dad's parents, great grandparents and my father's brother's and sisters and his aunt who emigrated to America to work in a big house and retired back in Ireland..  My grandmother had 3 miscarriages, 7 children and 3 survived.  That was back in the 1930's when life was really tough.  


I like the wreaths because they are heart shaped.  The word wreath comes form the old English word : Wraeth.  It means to twist.  Wreaths are a band of foliage or flowers intertwined into a ring and placed on a grave or memorial.  Soon we will go and crucify ourselves and visit the graves and place the wreaths on the graves nearer to Christmas.  Might even go Christmas day.  Life is short and Christmas is never the same when you lose your loved one's, is it?

At least United are on the box on Boxing/Stephens Day.  

Do you know why it's called Boxing Day?

10 comments:

  1. I thought it was when the Master and Mistress of the house served the servants their dinner on boxing day to give them the day off? I saw that on Downton abbey so who knows! lol

    Glad you are safe. I was in bed last night listening to the wind bash the house and the trees opposite out house. noisy wasnt it. Blue sky today.

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  2. Hi Sol. What a picture that would be. It would be like Upstairs and Downstairs in Reverse, wouldn't it? Could you imagine dear old Mrs Bridges and Hudson and the gang sitting at the big table, while Mr and Mrs Bellamy waited on them?

    It's called Boxing Day in the Commonwealth countries. It's the day when the gentry would give their servants and tradespeople their 'Christmas Box'. No doubt that would mean awful bottles of wine, dowdy jumpers and a box of dark chocolates.

    Most servants use to work Christmas morning and serve the dinner. Then they would be given a few hours off before they had to return to make the supper.

    Glad you are safe. You soon start praying when you get a proper gale. Thanks!

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  3. We missed the storms here but glad to hear all is well with you.

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  4. Thanks for your concern, CT. I think the north and Scotland really copped for it.

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  5. Glad you didn't suffer too much in the gales. We had some last night, we are just up the road from the Emley Moor mast, the local news reported winds got up to 61 mph there last night. Just managed to cop for hail, snow and rain on school run, we were quite soggy when we got in :)
    Thanks for your comment on my blog, we get our seeds from Aldi and sometimes fruit trees, they are very reasonable and we've had a lot of success with them.
    Whereabouts do you live? Just being nosey :)
    Twiggy

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    1. Hi Twiggy. I remember you from the sixties. Only joking! It's still blowing a gale on the Sheepshead Peninsula, West of Bantry, County Cork, Ireland.

      Aldi is very good and cheap these days. I like the middle aisles the best. The last vegetable seeds I bought were seventy nine cents. I look forward to reading your posts. Thanks for your comment Twiggy.

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  6. Now don't be offended but it looks a little like a lady's down below bits!

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    1. What her knees? Trust you John. It does look very manicured and yonic, doesn't it? I don't have yonic in my vocabulary. Good old Google yet again. Thanks for making me laugh!

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  7. I used to live by the sea for a number of years (Isle of Sheppey, Kent - it's on the Thames estuary), and well remember the horrendous gales, with wind and rain / sleet coming horizontally straight off the sea. Crikey but it did blow. And they put a flipping Tesco right by the sea wall, with the entrance doors facing the sea. It was quite a feat to get the shopping trolley to go where I wanted it to go! Plus the spray coming in from the waves hitting the sea wall also made it a difficult experience sometimes.
    I like your wreaths, and you must have a sense of your lineage with those family folk of yours being buried nearby. Mine are scattered so I do not have the same sense of where I have come from.

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  8. Hi Vera. I was only watching a You Tube video about the SS Richard Montgomery the other day in the Thames Estuary. Living next to the sea is great on a nice day and terrible on a bad day.

    The wreaths are nice - thanks! My father's family have been on the farm for at least 200 years. A lot of his family are buried near by and I often think of the lineage when I get fed up of the place. I suppose the main reason we carry on is for sentiment. We would love to buy a camp site and fishing lake somewhere warmer in France or Portugal. Don't suppose we could wrench ourselves away from here though. Thanks Vera.

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