Saturday 9th April

My job list for the week is only half done because the weather wasn't good until Friday and many of the things I wanted to do were outside. I just can't get up much enthusiasm for outside work when it's cold.

But I was out there long enough to spot these, which were a nice surprise. What a good thing I didn't do much weeding earlier because the leaves just look like  grass. They're Fritillaries and there are 5 flowers all together- very pretty and not something I've ever had in any of my umpteen gardens before.

Now need to get busy with the hoe as there's ground elder coming up again.

 

It was warm for long enough to get a few beetroot seeds in and I also spent a little while in the greenhouse so the tomatoes have all been pricked out even though they didn't yet have their seed leaves - or much root - they were getting too leggy- they are now on the living room window sill and hopefully will survive.I've sown some courgette and chard seeds too plus cucumber seeds, although I'm now thinking that the seeds I've sown are not what I ordered. Not all female which is a nuisance . I'll have to search for some more seeds.

The poor Magnolia (pictured Here in March) is a sad looking thing now, last week the windy weather was blowing the petals down and this week  one over night frost caught it and turned all the petals brown and nipped the tips of the Buddleia too. In theory my back garden should be sheltered but in practice it seems to be a place that gets gusts of wind and a bit of a frost pocket too.

The council grass cutter was round yesterday and cut the bit out the front which is between the footpath and the road - chopped some of the W.I daffodils, but cleverly managed to avoid three clumps which is good - I was afraid in the hurry to get done they would just run over the whole lot.

Because I don't do on-line selling anywhere I got Daughter in Law to take some photos of the 4 things in the garage that needed to go, and she did a brilliant job of advertising them on the local facebook page and 3 have gone, just the little fridge left and I am £60 better off!  

I'll need the space in the garage to store some things from the bedroom because I've definitely decided to go ahead with alterations that will see the very cold en-suite (with the silly Saniflow maceration toilet, shower and basin) turned into a storeroom with access from the back garden (for the freezer and tumble dryer) and a new en-suite made at the end of the bedroom with drains going directly into the mains sewer. It means I'll have to cope with builders sometime later this year but hopefully it will take less than a month to do.

 

  This week I am grateful for 

• WI getting back to normal
• Decision made 
• So many good books to read 

Hope you all have a good weekend - I'm not doing much at all this weekend - just reading and a car boot sale of course. 

Back Monday

Sue

Can It Be The April Library Book Photo Already?

Doesn't seem 5 minutes since writing about the books I collected from the library van in March but four weeks have passed and lots had arrived for me to pick up.

There's no way of knowing when books will turn up, sometimes I request them when the library have only just got them on order themselves - that means a wait of several weeks while they are bought and processed and sent from stock unit to the mobile depot and maybe another 3 or 4 weeks before the van is due round again. Of course some books have long waiting lists anyway and in that case it depends on how many copies the library have in stock and how quickly people read them.... hence 8 books last month and this HUGE pile this time.

 

There are all sorts here and some from authors mentioned on blogs that I've not read before. Namely crime by Camilla Trichiery, Katrine Engberg and Judy Daykin. The non-fiction are by Jan Morris, Beverley Nicholls and Spirit of The Blitz by Paul Addison plus a cookery book. Then old fiction by Dorothy Whipple and D.E.Stevenson. One children's book by Eve Ibbotson, a British Library Crime Classic by B.J.Farmer and finally more recent crime fiction by authors I've read before....Marion Todd, Alis Hawkins and Peter May and not forgetting of course the most recent Elly Griffiths. 15 in total! ....so many books and the Easter family visit and gardening to do too.

Better get reading...................

 How did I get on with last months books?

I read six out of the eight above, but not the Jane Johnson or Jumping Jenny which is one of the three Anthony Berkeley books that arrived all at the same time. I can't precisely remember why I didn't like either of those I didn't read.......presumably just didn't get into them. Those I did finish are on the Books Read 2022 page.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

Dr. Barnardo and the Suffolk Children

 The subject for the April speaker's presentation at Bacton WI was " Barnardo's children in Suffolk 1890 - 1950".

It was a really good talk as the speaker had done so much research. His interest in the subject had begun because of the old school records in his village (Wickham Skeith in Mid Suffolk) which mentioned all the children listed as "boarders".

He gave us some background on Barnardo himself

Thomas John Barnardo was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1845. As a young man he moved to London to train as a doctor. When he arrived, he was shocked to find children living in terrible conditions, with no access to education. Poverty and disease were so widespread that one in five children died before their fifth birthday.

His first step, in 1867, was to set up a ‘ragged school’ where children could get a free basic education. One evening a boy at the mission, Jim Jarvis, took Barnardo around the East End, showing him children sleeping on roofs and in gutters. What he saw affected him so deeply he decided to abandon his medical training and devote himself to helping children living in poverty.

Then came the children's homes both for boys and, after his marriage, also for girls who were housed in cottages in Barkingside. By 1900 the Barkingside ‘garden village’ had 65 cottages, a school, a hospital and a church, and provided a home – and training – to 1500 girls

Although he was famous for his children’s homes, Barnardo believed that ideally a child should grow up in a family setting.As early as 1887 he introduced the practice of ‘boarding out’ children to host families – an early form of fostering and that's how so many Barnardo's children came to be living in so many Suffolk villages."away from the industry of cities in healthy locations". The families were paid a few shillings a week to take care of the children and in a low-paid farming area this could have been one of the reasons so many children  were "boarded" in Suffolk.

Census and Barnardo's records show many of the foster parents were widows and this was especially so after the first and second world wars.

Then there was something that is now seen as controversial .........

Barnardo’s was one of many children’s charities that sent some children to start a new life in Australia or Canada from the late nineteenth century to the 1960s. This was a popular policy, supported by the British government, who believed that the children would benefit from opportunities they wouldn’t have in the UK. We now know that however well-intentioned, it was a deeply misguided policy. The last Barnardo’s child to be migrated was in 1967, to Australia. In 2010 the British government formally apologised for the UK’s role in sending more than 130,000 child migrants to former colonies

 

I found the whole talk especially interesting because where I grew up  the houses each side of me both had "Barnardo's children". They were adults of course by the time I was born but I grew up knowing these people had different surnames to the mothers (both widows). On one side "Auntie M"  only found out she had family in Australia after her 'Mum' had died . She'd got to retirement age thinking she was an illegitimate only child but actually had come from a family ( perhaps where the mother had died in childbirth which was the most common reason for children being in care) and had a sibling who had been sent abroad. So sad. Luckily she got to meet up with her Australian family about 15 years ago.

Barnardo's collection box

 There is one part of WI that happens in all the groups that I have belonged to ....The Birthday Posy......and my birthday is in April so......

Coffee and cakes were served of course and we got the programme for the next 4 months. If I go to the June meeting I shall hear the lady doing the armchair tour of Ipswich that I heard at the Over 60s group last week! 

One of the 'problems' of belonging to three groups that all have speakers.

Back Tomorrow

Sue