So. I haven't got very far with the resurrection of my blog. I'm afraid this is going to be a lot of nonsense.

 Reading this book at the moment "Bess of Hardwick" by Mary S. Lovell. Bess was a wealthy woman  through her four marriages, but also by her own good management of her lands and properties. She was widely believed to be the second richest woman in England after Queen Elizabeth I. Bess was always involved in improving and building her homes, and is best known for Hardwick Hall, her own design. Lord Burghley quipped that Hardwick was "more glass than wall" for its large windows which set a new fashion for the times. 

     Her fourth husband, the Earl of Shrewsbury, was appointed custodian of Mary Queen of Scots, a position that had great status but nearly bankrupted him, as he was expected to pay most of Mary's expenses, including the upkeep of her servants and horses. His pleas to the Queen (notorious for her close-fistedness) for more money only led to the Queen suggesting that Mary's number of servants be reduced by half. At first, Mary was quartered in the same house as Bess and the Earl, and Mary and Bess became friends. However, they later fell out as Bess believed Mary was playing the couple off against each other for her own gain. As he aged, the Earl became increasingly mentally unstable, probably with dementia, and he believed that his wife was plotting against him to steal his property. He was removed as custodian for the Queen of Scots as he was unreliable, and her care passed to others. 

     Bess continued to buy and improve her properties; she was like a very good CEO and never hesitated to go to law against any who gainsaid her, in particular her stepson Gilbert who believed he was entitled to receive all her property when she died, because she had married his father. An interesting read which reveals much about the everyday life of Elizabethan times, and not about royalty which is refreshing. 

 Back again.

I've decided to reactivate this blog after 8 years!

I did think to make a new blog, but it's much more trouble as "They" want to verify me with a cellphone number. I don't have one. "They" are Google and they have bought blogger since I last posted. Many things have changed in the world in eight years, not all of them (in fact, very few of them) for the better.

One of the better things is that I'm now retired. I want to practice my writing again now I have more time, and it will be one way of getting me away from Facebook and boring my friends with my incessant posting of things I find interesting, or fun, or beautiful, or enraging. This is called "pebbling" because it's what penguins do to other birds that they like. Penguins offer each other pebbles for nest building, apparently. (They also steal pebbles as well.) So I'll think of myself as a penguin, walking along a pebbly beach, squawking with joy when I find a particularly nice pebble.

I hope I can remember how this works. Somewhere there is a grammar/spellchecker if only I can find it.

Anyway, here's a nice picture of Florence.

The last post.

Sadly, I've decided that this will be my last post.  I've really lost enthusiasm for blogging, and have found it hard lately to find things to write about that would sustain my interest and the interest of readers. I'd like to thank those who have been regular readers and have offered kind and thoughtful comments during the seven years I've been blogging here. I won't be doing Instagram or Twitter as I find them too brief and superficial; I just don't like the "shoot from the lip" culture and don't wish to support it. So I wish you all well for the future, XXXXXX.

Catching up

Jungliness; green, green, green!

     I've been neglecting this blog lately, because I've started doing my family history. This has proved to be quite addictive. I don't know a lot about my family, because my Dad was estranged from his and he and my Mum both emigrated to New Zealand in the 1950s, so I never knew any of my other relations personally. Three of my grandparents were already dead by the time I arrived, but since they were in England anyway I only knew my surviving grandmother by her letters to me. She died in 1968. So being "orphaned" on many levels meant that I knew little about the past, and then only what my mother knew or chose to tell me.
     Some of the "family stories" that she told me have been proved to be quite wrong. Whether she made them up or whether she was told wrongly I don't know. Her belief that both of my great great-grandmothers (on her side) were Scots is totally untrue. There is a Scotsman, but a long, long way back.
     It's fascinating but also frustrating. My paternal grandfather seems to be a man of mystery entirely - where he came from has so far eluded me. There have been some interesting discoveries; my favourites so far are Joseph Morgan Melville, who worked as a shipwright in Chatham Naval dockyards in the early Victorian period, and William Douglas, a ropemaker, also employed at Chatham around the same time. Chatham Historic Dockyards website is interesting, and I found several youTube videos about the ropemaking process.
      This is the part I enjoy most about family history, finding the social history behind the names. It takes you to places and subjects you never would have thought about otherwise. Investigating my grandfather's role as a gunner in the First World War took me to books on field artillery, to see what kind of guns he would have been using - not something I would ever have had an interest in normally.
  Anyway, here are some garden pics. A lot of rain has made the garden quite jungly, but things are coming out in flower regardless.

Garden pics today

Irises starting to come out now. Planted potatoes today.

Thomas the Lettuce Slayer

Ixia

Bits and pieces

The bluebells were picking up reflected light from a window, making the blue quite glowy.

"Waterlily" camellia

Rhododendron in the morning light (not sure what this is called)

Church fair treasures. Old books, old jewellery, an embroidered doily and a funny battered old vase for miniature roses and jasmine.