Tuesday 31 December 2019

We are the World Blogfest # 32: You Raise Me Up – supporting families after the loss of a young adult …


Any loss of life will affect all ‘near and dears’ … here the local charity You Raise Me Up offers a support centre in Polegate and Eastbourne, for families who have suddenly lost a young adult …

 
Coffee Shop and Support Centre
Grieving is just devastating … so any specific support available may help others adjust – there’s a listener. 



The young adult age group (age 16 – 25) wasn’t represented … compassion and understanding come from fellow sufferers …


Offering Counselling
This family then, a few years later, had another blow … very sadly the mother died from cancer … 


... but despite the sadness the other counsellors were available to families in need.



A friend recently said his daughter had lost her husband (in his early forties) in August … but she was struggling to come to terms with his loss and the suddenness of it.

 
Listening  (1882)
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Her father was obviously struggling too … so I suggested he should get some counselling – he said he hadn’t thought about it for himself …


… but when he’d lost his wife about ten years ago – the counselling really helped: I think he was relieved … as it would ease the stress and anxiety he was feeling about his daughter and her two grandchildren.


We all need guidance, help, compassion and counselling at various times in our lives ...


This charity reminded me of many things and I’m glad to know it’s local … this year too for so many reasons we will all need raising up …


… we will need to listen as we help others …



"In Darkness, Be Light ..."

New Year post coming tomorrow …


Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Thursday 19 December 2019

Christmas Greetings 2019 … with a nod to the charity You Raise Me Up ...



Father Christmas has arrived … by bus, or if you prefer by 1908 Wolseley Siddeley …




… early to Eastbourne … but as he had so many presents to drop off … he needed more than one vehicle …




… all the up-to-date ones were out in the skies … so he resorted to this beautiful one in the showroom window … loaded up and off he went …




Santa was driving his special bus … with his Rudolph the red-nose reindeer – who sang triumphantly! … he opened his mouth, set his tongue wagging and lo and behold Christmas carols came boldly out ..





here we're back in town
... the bus would be travelling at least three routes around town … I met up with it in town at my stop … and as he dropped me off I asked Santa when he was back etc …


 


… he said – well I have to go up to Meads – one of the westerly ‘suburbs’ (now part of the main town) nestling under the Downs …








… then I’ll be back in about ten minutes …. I hot-footed it (not far, thankfully!) up to my flat, drop my shopping off and back down to the bus stop on the other side of the road for the trip back into town …




… as is the way while waiting I met up with some locals – who I’d been meaning to catch up with: good connection – and back on Santa’s bus I hopped …


… off we went – into town, round the town centre and back to where I got off at my original stop …



… the other two routes were going a bit out of my way – and I was quite busy … so thought that this bus day was the bus day …


Meads Street looking north to south
the Downs are to the right in the picture
… then yesterday I was walking into town past the showrooms – where a couple of cars were on show … I couldn’t get nearer – for insurance purposes …






Beachy Head in the foreground - recent falls;
Eastbourne is just round the corner from these falls -
still in the lee of the Downs

… and I have no wish for a large bill should I have accidentally damaged one of these precious vintage specimens … so these ‘rough’ photos will need to suffice …



That’s my life … on occasions … and though the bus runs only once a year … I’ve been able to tell everyone – the whys and wherefores …



It’s for a charity called You Raise Me Up: You Are Not Alone supporting life after the death of a child aged 16 – 25 … I will tell you more in my next post …


Have very special Christmases, and lovely holiday visits with family and friends … and remember those in need ... 


Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Thursday 12 December 2019

Write … Edit … Publish … Bloghop/IWSG hop: Footprints …



She was dreaming of Tinkerbell … the little snowflake fairy who could mist magic over the land … bringing happiness and joy to everyone …

Tinkerbell in bronze (2005) by
Diarmuid Byron O'Connor -
commissioned by Great
Ormond Street Hospital


 … all life on the earth … she knew Santa Claus would not drive his sleigh of reindeer any more, but a train full of presents for the lucky ones would come down from the northern snowy lands …






… in her dream she just wanted the world to be full of love and understanding … 




Snow cyrstals
... she tossed and turned a little – but rested again … the morning would come and there would be fairy snow …





… a new day would dawn … but for now she snuggled amongst her warm bedding, hoping her dreams would come true … 





... then she could make footprints in the snow … her excitement grew … before she fell back to sleep …


Footprints in the snow …


Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Sunday 8 December 2019

Snail-like ...


Well this was to be a brief update after the hiatus of November and time away (it got longish) … I’ve been trickling along at a snail’s pace … with ‘interruptions’ of a funeral to help arrange and …

Top half  of issue Nov 1982 - this is the Great Blizzard of 1891
(link below) sent to me in South Africa by my mother
… taking over the organisation of a monthly dinner for +/- sixty - seventy … but with us both having incompatible software – ne’er mind … next year we start afresh: or rather I do … and I think we’re almost there!


I’ve got used to having ‘meetings’ or get-togethers in buses, or for some reason charity shops … I’m donating or friends and I are just quickly looking for a missing item – that we might find which won’t cost us a fortune.  Free buses are a boon, for those without a car …


Escargots served in their shells
Snails came up via the Beeb … but then the muddled grey cells also came into play … I thought I’d spotted a snail article in that November 1982 Western Morning News Souvenir compilation –mostly photos …


Frogcatchers (1930s) ... on sale
out of a Sunlight soap box!

… but it was about frogcatchers in the 1930s in western Cornwall – they were, I hate to say it, used in medical research – which frankly after the Depression was a useful evil for those who were able to earn a few pennies to feed their families.




Back to the American snails – ne’er a story to be missed … one of those ‘believe it or not’ slithery tales … Taylor Knapp, a chef, who after spending time in Europe realised there was an opening to put fresh (cooked and rather than tinned) escargots on the menu …


Snail caviar!
… but he couldn’t bring in live products for reproductive purposes … however he found some little grey snails in California – which with regulatory approval could be bred.



These slow moving slippery critters had been around since the 1850s … they’d got past the US Customs Service, which had been in existence since 1789 and were happily breeding in California.  
George Washington, (and I have something to tell you about him too,) signed the Tariff Act of July 4, 1789 – appropriate date.


Escargots in a snail dish with herby bread
Taylor fund-raised, worked to set their living quarters up – a greenhouse – Alcatraz style – passing the USDA’s strictures and hey presto – fresh French escargots could be on the menu.


The farm is in Washington state … so heliculture is rife on both coasts … and Taylor is aiming to expand his sales beyond the saturated market of New York.


I don’t want to bedazzle you with a new word at the end of 2019 – but perhaps heliculture could be brought into posts in 2020?    
It is the science and occupation of growing snails for food.  (Blend of New Latin Helix, genus of spiral-shelled molluscs from Greek helix, and culture.)


Frogs various
I thought I’d found more information on frog-catching in Cornwall … but no – it was ‘the crowning event’, at a Rolls-Royce picnic in Canada, when live frog-catching in a pond of very rich in muddy clay was the last children’s game … after the sack race, three-legged race et al … their enthusiasm brought results: the frogs being released after the count.
  



Frog Larva about to metamorphose
What the Rolls Royces look like afterwards isn’t told … but relating back to that era – the maidservants, chauffeurs and retainers presumably would have had to deal with the mess … while the family carried on with their lives.


My life at my snail’s pace is comfortable – a few things get done – then an interlude while I deal with things … and so it goes – I am sorting my Ma’s and my own papers out – clearing the decks and am finding all sorts …


The bottom half of the Souvenir - this shows
coach and horses pulling out of
Okehampton,  West Devon
… but once done – then that’s it and makes life easier for me, or should something happen – then ‘things be sorted’  a number of things going to charity or appropriate friends/family … it takes time.


I have been out and about a bit … on a number of tours, to museums and to my goddaughter’s family near Milton Keynes – which proved a very interesting informative long weekend – where George Washington came in …


Now to think about the WEP/IWSG challenge about ‘Footprints’ … Christmas and the New Year … after which  more posts will be forthcoming …



Great Blizzard of 1891 (9 – 13 March) Wiki post … but see Weather Events listed in a table under the wiki entry … interesting!  I’m glad I was out of the country in the 1980s …

Snail Farming c/o the BBC … and more can be found on the Heliculture wiki page …

My wellie boot imprint in
Canadian snowfall
I also wandered off looking for escargot photos with fresh bread … but came across this Brit – who has opened a snail farm ineastern France – fascinating read! 

... interesting ideas for snail recipes too … sausages, smoked snails with goats’ cheese and fig, snails with Roquefort and walnut butter in a wafer case, “tikka masala snails” are all loved by the locals and expanding clientele …

Take care my footprints are on their way …

... and last but not least - of course I could have had frogs legs as an appetiser ... forgot that!


Hilary Melton-Butcher 
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories