Listing Sunday

Day Of Photography And Listing.

   A quick cuppa before I start a long day of photographing and listing ceramic and lampwork beads and pendants, I was up and about early this morning with the excitement of opening the ceramic kiln and after a quick look I'm very happy with the results. Yet more ceramic beads will be fired this evening so touch wood there will be more for me to list tomorrow evening too.
   Again we are lucky here to have another bright sunny morning tho it's a touch cold, we had no frost so all looks well in the kitchen garden with the freshly planted beetroot seedlings looking well and getting stronger each day.
   It's bright spring mornings like these that remind me so much of those Sunday mornings I spent as a kid helping my grandad in his garden. I would often arrive at hid wonderful old thatched cottage to find him standing at the kitchen mirror having a wet shave, braces hanging down each hip wearing a white vest this tall strong hero of mine would cover that bristled face with thick white shaving soap and start shaving it away using an old silver razor that looked a hundred years old, I still to this day remember wondering how long it would be before I too could shave and if I would own such a razor married to that little stumpy brush with soft bristles and wooden handle.
   The radio would always be playing in the corner of the kitchen and the sounds of Sunday service would fill the room until it was time for the Archers. The large range would always be lit keeping those large kettles warm on the top ready to fill the teapot at any time of day, it was a large range around five or six feet long, it had two or three ovens and what seemed like five or six rings on the top where those kettles would live their lives. The fire box had a small grate that allowed you to sit and watch the flames on a cold winter evening, a place where I sat to listen to many a tale about the village characters of the past.
   These Sunday mornings were spent in that fantastic old garden, the most wonderful place for any child to learn about growing and nature, from the hard jobs like carting dung around the beds to watching the wildlife on the river that ran through the bottom of this haven of peace. Jobs for this time of year were often those that including building frames of some sort, frames for the sweet peas and french beans, the runner bead poles were taken from the shed and cleaned down ready to support this years crop. I remember sowing huge long rows of veg such has peas, beetroot and carrots, I would use that old string line that was wound around two ancient sticks to guide my rows and mark their position with yet more sticks pushed into the ground.
   I would learn about the fruit blossom, which flowered first, how it was pollinated and shown where the fruit formed, it was explained to me at a very early age how all flowers are just blossom that produced what we call fruits but what is really just a case in which the plant keeps it's seeds safe until it's time to let them drop to the soil where they will grow new offspring, it was all explained very simply so I could understand it and remember it, isn't it a pity the schools these days don't have gardens like they did in the 50's and 60's to show the children how to grow veg, to think there are indeed some children who only see veg coming from bags in the freezer or from tins and that is such a real shame and that fried chips is the nearest some get to veg is a crime. I guess I was lucky having a family that worked the soil and living the life of a village boy and I'll always thank my family for bringing me up that way, not only did I learn so much about the countryside around me but also I have so many happy memories that will stay with me forever, maybe now at my age it's time I started writing them all down.