Welcome to my blog

I hope you enjoy reading my posts, and please leave me a comment. I always enjoy reading them, and will try to visit you in return.

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You are welcome to copy any of my designs, as long as you do not take credit for them yourself. I am very happy for you to sell them. If I have used anyone else's design, I always try to give credit where it is due. If I have missed anything, please let me know and I will put things right.


This is intended to be mainly about my crafting stories, as a personal record of what I do. However, I interpret crafting quite widely, not just paper crafting but other things too. I have a butterfly mind and like to change from one thing to another depending on what I feel like on a given day - knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, cards, baking and several others, including my favourite right now, parchment, both traditional skills and Groovi, very relaxing and calming to do.

I have decided to put some structure into my blog so that each day will have something of a theme.
Monday- for Mindfulness; Tuesday - Tidy Up Day; Wednesday - What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday; Thursday - Technique and Tips; Friday - Finish Off Day; Saturday - Start Something New; Sunday - Anything Goes
These themes are not hard and fast and will be changed if I feel the need.

Sunday 10 November 2013

We will remember them

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them
 
As a family, we were very lucky throughout both World Wars.  Yes, the men of the family went off to do their part and the women were left behind to worry and take over their work.  Yes, the men saw horrific things, and never talked about them; things that coloured their lives for ever.  We were lucky that all our men returned home, largely unscathed physically.  We were lucky that their marriages survived intact and healthy.
 
My grandmother had three sons, one in the Army, one in the Air Force and one in the Royal Navy, and all three returned safe and sound.  We were lucky.
 
On Remembrance Sunday, we should also remember how people were mentally scarred by what they saw and experienced during war.  Those memories were buried deep until old age, in many cases, when they rose up again to torture their minds. Many old servicemen have required treatment and counselling to allow them to cope with those deeply buried memories.  We, as their descendents, will never really know what happened to them and what the war was like for them.
 
All I know about my grandfather and his WW1 experiences is that as a high grade saddle maker, he was in great demand to fix the kit of the senior officers and their horses in the desert. He was also a good footballer and played for his unit.  The teams had regular fixtures against other unit, often being left behind to play those matches and then having to find their own way back to their own units.  Grandad was invalided out and sent home after being close to death from Malaria.
 
As I said, our family was lucky.  Today, we should remember those who were not so lucky, and those families who are still suffering in wars now.