History, Herstory with Hilary …

Eight years down and now into the 9^th … Blogversary, my Saint’s Day and Birthday collide forever onwards … I am still staggered (and honoured) at how much you appreciate the blog and its contents … so this post is for nostalgia sake …

… and gives a little more detail on my past and about how I got to this ninth year of writing – 825 posts written, but 26 (left-overs from the 2016 non participation) in the A-Z to come … let alone the lingering cobweb of posts behind the scenes.

I’m also doing a Memoir, or Epistolary type course under the auspices of the University of the Third Age … really just how we want to record our lives – mine is pretty varied, as with no children, I can go back and/or sideways – and the families are interesting … so that’s my way.

Looks like a library to me - but is actually a bookshop:
Daunt Books - various shops in London

There is another bloghop somewhere! asking why and how we got blogging etc … at the end I post a link to Karen Lange’s blog – she interviews bloggers … I appear once!  But there are many others with plenty of advice on blogging and its benefits.

I’ve been wondering where my learning comes from … most is from blogging – as I was not ‘learnéd’ at school … but I did enjoy geography and sport …

Our pink empire is now rusty brown!

… thus I learnt about those pink countries in the world (aka British Empire) … but they’ve become more ghostly as time goes by … Brexiting away as we speak …

John Lennon's stamp album

… from stamp collecting which I did for a few years in my teens, when I was at home … so I enjoy seeing Bob Scotney’s stamps over at his blog …and thus learn more.

Colour coded continents

Geography gave the outline of the continents, and via the stamp collecting and, of course, geography I could put countries into the continents, South America being the easy one.

Waterstones - one of our high street book
chains ... "The Noise of Time" - Julian Barnes;
"When Breath Becomes Air" - Paul Kalanithi;
"The Goldfish Boy" - Lisa Thompson;
"The Ashes of London" - Andrew Taylor

The one thing I do have is a fair amount of is common sense and practicality … so I guess would learn the obvious … but those extras – reading, maths, literature, grammar or languages, Latin and French, art, physics and chemistry, biology, even needlework and cooking – there was not much sticking into the brain box when I was a kid. Something stuck obviously!

Interesting - this is from the Council for the Protection
of Rural England website - and was my first job!

Practical aspects – meant I found it easy to drive and navigate my way round the English lanes, I was lucky I’ve done a little travelling – but not a lot … I enjoyed different foods and cooking … so again another learning curve …

… then work – I had some interesting jobs, not career ones … but I worked for the Farnborough Air Show … taking on board how to address VIPs (as that was my section) …

Munich posters ... I still have a set

I was lucky to work for the British Olympic team and the 1972 Munich Olympics – again an opportunity not to be missed and a 3 day trip to the Games … then spent some years working for East European organisations ... another learning curve ... 

Green: independent; Yellow: British; Blue: French;
Dark Blue: Italian; Red-Orange: Portuguese;
Orange: Spanish; and Brown: Belgian

Then I toddled off to southern Africa … so started to pick up aspects of that part of the world … and over time we glean new things that add in to the tapestry of one’s learning.

I had enjoyed learning to cook and had the fortune of growing up with parents who would do what they could to help educate and entertain us … always with gardens at our disposal …

Back here and into blogging – why because I needed to learn what was going on in the internet world and thus needed to be involved – then my mother became bedridden and needed me to be available, and my father’s brother-in-law grew frailer after his wife died …

… so, though, I didn’t need to nurse them I took on the caring role for both … and needed to have intelligent things to chat about … I quickly took on board … my mother’s ‘well go home and google it’!!!  Thus appearing the next time with interesting articles … and something to intellectually challenge her and for us to chat about …

Mediterranean foods - my mother and uncle would have
loved these sorts of meals

… when I visited my uncle – all he wanted to do was to see what I’d written on my blog … he opened the envelope and got stuck in – I made coffee/tea or lunch … and waited til he was free!  A huge compliment …

But I couldn’t and wouldn’t have started blogging if the main source of information wasn’t in English … we are lucky if we are English speakers … being a poor linguist (lazy too) … I admire everyone who learns to speak another language, especially English …

Spanokopita - spinach and cheese layer
in filo pastry ... 

The University of the Third Age, other organisations, museum and historic places that interest me … have added to the layers of knowledge that I’ve acquired over the years … my uncle and mother would have loved these …

It’s interesting how the layers stack up quietly … and each episode of life adds to its glory … I never thought I’d be that interested in politics, but I do find the Brexit scenario very interesting – complicated, historically interwoven …

Art work in St Hilary's Church, St Hilary in Cornwall
it is by Joan Manning Sanders (early 20th C) - she was a
ten year old child.  (postcard copy)
"Flight into Egypt" from a series of Nativity scenes.

I wonder where we’re going … the thing that frustrates me as another year passes – yes Friday 13^th … it was also the day of the week I became 13 … and I’ve lived in a number of # 13s …

… is that I will still be around for a while – but I doubt I’ll see it out … or where we get to … I hope those heavenly clouds up there will allow me to glimpse out and see how life pans out …

Here’s to a glorious life ahead for us all … and let 2017 be kind and generous to one and all …

Karen Lange’s blog – this is to my guest post … but the tabs at the top will lead you to others …

Bob Scotney and his stamps … his post on a Royal Mail stamp set of stamps - which Sir Edmund Hillary described as the 'Greatest Survival Story of All Time'

The epistolary post … Dear Reader Does the Epistolary Novel still have a place in modern Literature?

I have been evaluating how best to tell my stories … yes the A-Z, and the different sections (herbs and spices), bran tub eclectics, blog sandwich updates … and then my own history Herstory … the Her of She Who wouldbe Mary Wollstonecraft … and so it goes on –

-        but I’d better stop as you’ll all be thinking – Golly Gosh does the woman ever stop.  My mother loved my ‘Golly Gosh’ exclamations … one day I missed out Golly … she didn’t miss it – where is he, she asked!  He was by the seaside ... I replied!

to me and my blog ... 

So forgive the excess … it does happen only once a year and that ageing comes around far too quickly … 2017 hasn’t started too well, nor did half of 2016 .. but by 2018 – life will be renewed!

Hilary Melton-Butcher

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