Hello, it's good to see you here. Thank you for calling in. We have been enjoying glorious summer sunshine here and I can't remember when it last rained, I've had to water the pots - in April! Other things have been good too, so I thought I'd share with you some things which have made me happy over the past week.
I keep a wish list of books which I would like to read and last December, when several of you recommended The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater, I added it to the list. I keep the list on my mobile 'phone so that if I am out I can have a look in charity shops or second-hand bookshops as I rarely buy new books for myself, that would seem very indulgent indeed. I also check Oxfam Online periodically. Do you know about that? It's a great big online charity shop and I have found some real bargains there. Unfortunately, not all of my purchases have lived up to their descriptions; I received one book which had obviously been dropped in a bath and then dried out and another which was full of pencilled annotations, underlinings and highlighter pen marks, but overall, the experience has been good. Here's a link, if you'd like to hop over and have a look - https://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop
Last weekend I received an e-mail informing me that Oxfam Online were holding a sale so I got out my wish list and I had a look at the website and I found a used copy of The Christmas Chronicles for £19.99. That's £6.01 less than the listed price of a new copy but I still thought it was too much, especially for a second-hand book. I then checked into Amazon and found that I could buy a new copy for £14.84! That's more than £11 less than the listed price and as I still had some birthday money stashed away, I bought it. Please be assured that I haven't bought a book from Amazon for years, I don't like the way they operate and I prefer my money to support a real shop which provides employment for real people, especially my local independent bookshop, but I'm afraid my willpower faded when I was presented with such a bargain. The book arrived on Monday and I am delighted by it, as I suspected I would be because I enjoy his weekly column in my Sunday newspaper. I have dipped into it a little and have put it away so that I can enjoy its seasonal comfort at the end of the year.
During Lent I took part in an online photo challenge, posting a daily photo on my Facebook account using given themes. On Tuesday the theme was My Playlist which left me a bit stumped so I posted this photo of an old-fashioned kind of playlist.
(I rather feel that I've given myself away with this!) My neighbour, who acquires and sells vinyl, commented that I don't have the first volume of Greatest Hits and I replied that I don't, although I do have ABBA Gold and More ABBA Gold on CD. Within ten minutes he was at my back door, presenting the Best Beloved with a copy of ABBA Greatest Hits! "I don't like to see Mrs Tiggywinkle go without," he said. What a lovely thing to do! I was intrigued to see that on this album, the name is spelt without the first B being reversed, as it is on all my albums, but as I have been writing this post I have been listening to a programme about ABBA on the radio and I have learned that the B was reversed for the first time on the cover of Arrival, which is their best-selling studio album and which was released after Greatest Hits. (My copy was bought for me by my grandparents, at my request, for Christmas in 1977. I was thrilled to discover that the lyrics for all the songs were printed inside on the sleeve so that I could sing along. I still do, although I no longer need to read the lyrics.)
On Wednesday we retrieved some items from storage and cleaned them up ready for Tom Kitten to use. They belonged to his aunt and have been at the back of a garage for years. A couple of years ago, ivy grew in and dripped its sap all over them - I had no idea ivy could be so mucky. A vigorous brushing, some lengthy scrubbing with a solution of washing soda and a good hose down brought them up almost as good as new and I felt very satisfied indeed with my afternoon's work. These bits of plastic brought back many happy memories and I hope they will create many more.
On Friday I ate several hot cross buns. I absolutely love them but I don't eat them until Good Friday which begins with the most delicious breakfast. This made me very happy indeed.
On Sunday I went to a sunrise service at Holy Trinity Church in Dawley with three very good friends. Members of the church had built a replica tomb in an unused spot in the churchyard and used it to tell the Easter story to several hundred children during the last couple of weeks. It was the perfect place for our service and as we were leaving after a breakfast of bacon sandwiches and hot cross buns, the sun had picked its way through the trees to illuminate it. It literally made us gasp as we stepped out of the church. Our service was broadcast live on BBC Radio Shropshire and as we drove home, we listened to the highlights, condensed down to a five minutes. I had let the Best Beloved know about the highlights and he listened to them at home; when I arrived, he opened the door and said, smilingly, "I could make out your voice, singing!" If you would like to listen to it, it's apparently available on the BBC Sounds app.
My friend Cerys took this photo of Sue, dressed as Mary Magdalene, waiting by the empty tomb.
Back at home I spent a happy hour baking cakes for us to take out for lunch. We spent the afternoon with The Teacher, Flashman and Tom Kitten, picnicking and lazing in the sunshine in the ruins of Lilleshall Abbey as butterflies fluttered by. It was an almost perfect afternoon, marred only by the fact that The Mathematician wasn't with us as she wasn't able to come home for Easter.
In the evening I had a long bath, deep and hot, with lavender-scented bubbles and a good book before donning my pyjamas and eating two more hot cross buns, toasted and buttered. I think it might be the best Easter Day I have ever had.
I hope that you, too, have had some happiness this Easter.
I hope that you, too, have had some happiness this Easter.
See you soon.
Love, Mrs Tiggywinkle x
A lovely post. Another ABBA fan here, the soundtrack to my youth. I love the recent films too. Glad you got hold of a copy of the Christmas Chronicles. It’s definitely something I will bring out each year. A new addition to my Christmas build up. Enjoy Tom Kitten and all those lovely toys. B x
ReplyDeleteThanks Barbara. I love the Mamma Mia films too, I've seen the show twice and I saw Abba: The Movie at the cinema about forty years ago. Not that I'm obsessed or anything! I'm delighted you're a fan too (I am a bit surprised because I remember your David Bowie post). x
DeleteWhat a wonderful Easter service, with the empty tomb, that is truly meaningful. Wish I could hear you on BBC but I can look at things on there but it won't let me hear anything. Hot Cross buns, my mouth is watering. Easter happiness to you also!
ReplyDeleteThe service really was very special, Kay. The birds were singing their heads off in the trees all around us and the BBC ensured that was included in the broadcast, too. x
DeleteA lovely post, ha ha for your playlist very good. Some record players allowed you to stack them ready to drop down and play - who needed Spotify. Many years ago I worked on the record counter at Boots, this brings back memories of ordering and rearranging the 7" singles charts display each week. Cx
ReplyDeleteWhat a fab job! That sounds much more exciting than my Saturdays in the lighting department at BHS although, strangely, I really did love that! x
DeleteWhat a lovely Easter you've had and you're all set for Christmas as well although we're not supposed to talk about that yet! x
ReplyDeleteYou couldn't help yourself - you had to mention it! x
DeleteWhat a lot of happy things. The Easter service sounds wonderful, and how lovely to tell the Easter story to children in this way. I always think that children take things in so much easier when they're brought to life like this. I loved Abba when I was young, I had all the albums too but foolishly discarded them when I got older, I don't know what happened to them. I just wanted to thank you for the lovely comment you left on my last post about the death of my mum, it was very much appreciated and helped so much to know that people were thinking of me at this difficult time xx
ReplyDeleteOh Jo, be kind to yourself and take it as slowly as you need to, especially now that His Nibs has gone back to work. I'm delighted that you are also an ABBA fan, all the best people are! x
DeleteIt sounds like your Easter weekend days have been just about perfect. We got home from a little jaunt on Good Friday so have spent the weekend pottering and sitting in the garden - unusual for April, watering pots and beds too. Glad you found the Nigel Slater book at a good price and you now have it to look forward to for later this year. I prefer my hot cross buns toasted too:)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you were able to get away Rosie, although sad at the reason why, it must still feel very strange without Max. Wasn't the Easter weather fabulous? x
DeleteSounds like a wonderful day. You've made me wish I had some lavender for a soak in the bath tonight . . .
ReplyDeleteI pruned my lavender bushes last week and when I came indoors I could smell it on my clothes. Lovely! x
DeleteI'm glad you had a lovely Easter. We and our teenage children used to sing along to an ABBA tape all the way down to Italy and back again when we went there by car in the Summer holidays. Of course, they knew all the songs by heart and still love the ABBA movies. (Can't reverse the B here). I didn't know about the history of the album covers - interesting. Lavender is my favourite perfume for bath-related products. The afternoon out in the sunshine having a picnic sounds relaxing too.
ReplyDeleteThanks Linda. Your children had an excellent musical education! When my younger daughter was three years old we were at a party with karaoke and she took the microphone and sang all the words of Dancing Queen, surprising and charming everyone who was there. Some of them have never forgotten and she's twenty-three now! x
DeleteOh, we are fellow ABBA fans! I used to have all of their records - they sadly didn’t make it through international moves, but I still love a good sing-a-long to their GOLD and More GOLD CDs. I love hot cross buns - my willpower lasted until Holy Week, but I did bake some before Good Friday and they were delicious. Glad to hear that you had such a lovely Easter. Marie x
ReplyDeleteThanks Marie. I am SO pleased that you are an ABBA fan too. I have told my daughter that I am singing nursery rhymes to Tom Kitten - Swedish nursery rhymes from the 1970s and 1980s! Well done on baking your hot cross buns, I considered it but I've only done it once before, many years ago, and as I am the only one who eats them I thought it would be silly to make a whole batch, but I wish I had because I would like to try. Maybe next year. x
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