Tag Archives: jewellery

Nothing Going On at the Moment

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I have just ground to a halt. It’s probably easier just to accept it, rest a while and then start again instead of stressing over it. Worrying never improved anything. (In case you are wondering, no, the writing is not going well).

I’ve been looking for  Victorian name brooch tonight. I am, of course, looking for one that says Julia. Unfortunately there weren’t a lot of Julias about during the heyday of the hollow silver name brooch (about 1880-1914). If I wanted one that said Martha, Dora or Ada I’d have had a choice of dozens. Gertrude, Lizzie and Ethel too. They are all perfectly good names, and I have had several aunts with those names, but they are names of former times. I did find two with Julia.

One of them is used in an article on name brooches, the other is for sale.

I checked with Julia before buying it, as I had reservations. You have to weigh up her grateful surprise at an unexpected gift against the downside of the mournful  subject matter on the decoration – particularly the prominent cross which looks rather like a grave marker. It was the first thing she mentioned, so although I blew the surprise I avoided the gaffe of buying a brooch she wouldn’t wear.

The Victorians were keen on death and mourning in a way you don’t see these days. I suppose we have anti-biotics and a fascination with youth. They had cholera and a struggle for survival. I suppose this leaves its mark on you.

Most of my “brooch” pictures feature military sweethearts. In fact all of them do. The one pictured here is from No 56 Squadron RAF.

Study Number 1 - The Idiot

In Trouble Again

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As I dropped Julia off at work this morning she asked what my plans were for the rest of the day. I told her that I intended doing mainly housework and perhaps a little light writing. So I did some shopping, went to the pharmacy and did the washing up. Then went to the pharmacy again. I could tell you why but I imagine you can fill in  most of the details from previous posts.

It’s fair to say that, on account of the lack of decluttering, I’m not her favourite husband at the moment.

She does not seem to be impressed by my reorganised haibun storage, or that I have my submissions planned until next Spring. Some people are never satisfied.

Then I remembered her birthday is approaching. Fast. And I have not bought anything yet. That’s my next job as soon as I finish this. It’s going to be jewellery again. I don’t think boooks would be appreciated at the moment and she has enough painting supplies for some time to come.

I offered to buy her a nice new chimney stack (the builder says he is coming “soon”) but she didn’t fall for it.

I’m fairly sure that jeweller’s shops are classed as non-essential, even though they are vitally important to people like me at the moment. I’m told that stationery shops are now essential, as students need places to buy paper, and presents for a wife’s birthday are at least as important as that.  Well, they are to me.

The One about the Day Before Yesterday

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Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.

Proverbs 31:10

What version? The King James Version, of course. Don’t get me started on that, the new translations always annoy me and I’m only a whisker away from posting links to Wycliffe, Tyndale and Coverdale. Ooops!

In terms of catching up, it looks like I’m getting there.

This post is about Wednesday, which nearly brings me up to date.

Courting Pigeons

Courting Pigeons

Julia had a routine appointment at the doctor yesterday and I, selfishly, went back to sleep instead of taking her down. However, I redeemed myself by driving down and waiting in the car park. The day was bright, the traffic was light (at our end of town) and Derbyshire beckoned.

By ten to nine we were in Derbyshire and by half past we were in McDonald’s making inroads into a Sausage and Egg McMuffin meal. It was an interesting McDonald’s as it appeared to double up as a drop in centre for local people who liked to talk about their problems in a loud voice. As Julia said after we escaped, it’s not very relaxing to sit there, but you can see how it fulfils a local need. Loneliness is a growing problem, and eating at McDonald’s seems to be the modern solution. As funding is generally being cut for things like community projects it’s good to see somewhere for neighbourliness to flourish.

On the other hand, I don’t need all the details of bereavement, varicose veins and family rows…

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Duck Feeding – a timeless pastime

After that it was off to the jeweller in Bakewell to buy the pendant I could have bought last week if Julia had been able to make her mind up. It was, she said, too expensive. However, as I pointed out, and quoted at the beginning of the post, a good woman has a price above rubies, and this was a lot cheaper than something with rubies in it.

I was going to travel up on Monday but a late finish, an Amber Weather Warning and the need to be at the coin club meeting all stacked up to put me off.

Pigeons were strutting, Long Tailed Tits were pinging and a Robin called. I feel that Spring is on the way. It was a good day to be alive.

If you look carefully there is a Long Tailed Tit in the tree

If you look carefully there is a Long Tailed Tit in the tree

With the pendant secured, we set off in search of books and cake. That will be covered in another post, as I need to get to work now.

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A Robin in Bakewell – February 2020

Things That Worry Me

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Number One – my teeth disintegrating. As you may know, I’m in for a tooth extraction tomorrow (despite the fact it’s barely twinged since I went to the dentist about it).

I have been thinking I was over-reacting, but last night it started aching again and I’m now very keen on having it removed. It’s been going on a while so it’s time to be decisive.

For the last few months I seem to have been finding a lot of chalky bits in my mouth. It’s worrying, particularly after I had one disintegrate a couple of years back.

I seem to spend a lot of the evening finding bits of chalk in my mouth, which is bad news, and has been occupying my thoughts far too much. However, I realised what it is a couple of days ago. It’s the chalky bits from the tablets I take every night.

Number Two – plumbing. The house’s plumbing, not mine. Mine is way down the list. In winter I always worry about the plumbing. We’ve been here 30 years, we’ve had a couple of plumbing problems, but nothing we can’t cope with. But I spend several weeks each year worrying about it. It’s a Christmas tradition.

 

Bakewell, Derbyshire
Bakewell, Derbyshire
Bakewell, Derbyshire

 

As you can see from the black spot in the duck picture I’m using the old camera. I’ll explain why in a later post. The spot only shows when you use the zoom.

Number Three – cocking up Christmas. A month before Christmas Julia starts refusing to tell me what she wants as a present. Then, a week or two later, she hands me a wad of cash and tells me the whole Christmas holiday depends on me. Then, just as we reach the posting deadline for Amazon, she tells me what she wants.

I wake up at night sweating at the idea of disappointing Julia or failing to produce Christmas dinner.

It was quite relaxing spending last Christmas in Suffolk, though I did worry about the plumbing a lot while we were away.

A number of you are probably shouting “death” at the blog. This, I hope, is a comment on the fear of death, rather than a critical reaction to my blogging.

Well, to be honest, I’m not much afraid of death. At 60 I can still pretend it’s a long way off. Anyway, compared to the stress of Christmas, death isn’t that bad.

 

The Padlock Bridge
Emptying out by 3.15
My sandwich – in memoriam

This afternoon, to avert the chance of a disappointed wife, I took a trip to Bakewell, where I visited an excellent jeweller, ate a hot turkey sandwich and was shown how to avoid paying 20 pence to use the toilet. I saw “shown” as I’m not admitting to anything…

I can show you the shop but as she reads the blog I can’t picture the things I bought. I may show them on Boxing Day. Prepare to be surprised by my lack of imagination.

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It’s Christmas…

 

Home for 4.30.

The days can be short in winter…

29th Wedding Anniversary

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We’ve just celebrated our 29th Wedding Anniversary. The traditional gift is, it seems, furniture, which I take as a sign that the romance may have faded.

I broke with this tradition and gave Julia a silver brooch and chocolates. Actually it wasn’t much of a break with our tradition as I normally give her a jewellery and chocolates. She likes jewellery and chocolates, and it saves me having to do much thinking. I made sure she had plenty of chocolate so she could share it round.

The longevity of our marriage owes little, as regular readers may guess, to my qualities as a husband. It does, however, vindicate my policy of waiting for the right woman, even if she did make me wait nine years. By “right” woman, I mean, of course, one with low standards in men.

The traditional gift for 30 years is pearls. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I know that the value of a virtuous woman is a price above rubies, but have you seen the cost of pearls?

 

Matlock and Macaroons

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We had a good day today, as I said in the previous post, despite the rain.

It started with a breakfast at McDonald’s, which I view as a treat when taken in moderation. I didn’t bother to tell Julia that I’d had one after yesterday’s blood test in case she went all diet-conscious on me.

After that we moved on to a doughnut and a cup of tea at Sainsbury’s in Matlock. Julia resisted the doughnut and just had tea, but I was in a relaxed holiday mood. We didn’t actually stop for tea, it’s just that I have a Pavlovian response to seeing a teapot. We actually stopped because my breakfast tea had worked its way through. This tea and toilet cycle was to be a feature of the day.

House Sparrow at Bakewell
Bakewell
One of the famous macaroons

Next stop was Bakewell, which was the point of the day. We were looking for a birthday present for Julia’s sister and an internet search had located the item we needed in Stone Art in Bakewell. You may recall that we went there some time ago and bought a pendant for Julia. This time we bought a pendant for her sister. Pendants are good for presents – no need to know a finger size and no need to know if someone has pierced ears.

I had checked my bank balance when we were in Sainsbury’s, so I was able to do the decent thing and secure a pendant for Julia.

She, as you can see from the header picture, responded by buying coconut macaroons. She also bought a Bakewell pudding, but there is less comedy potential in a Bakewell pudding.

A good shop
Love Locks at Bakewell
Love Locks at Bakewell

We paused to take the customary pictures of the locks on the bridge, and the trout under the bridge before crossing the river to the car park, which is where the previous post starts. Sometimes I confuse myself with all the time shifts, but I wrote these two posts in order of how much the events annoyed me, and it’s much easier to get annoyed about closed toilets than it is about buying jewellery.

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We got caught behind a wide load coming down the Via Gellia and the satnav picked a peculiar route through Matlock on the way back. I hadn’t used it on the way to Bakewell and was only using it on the way back because I hadn’t switched it off after using it to get to the bookshop. It doesn’t seem to know there’s a by-pass these days.

Finally, back at home, we found a letter from the anti-coagulant service – I have four more weeks until the next blood test, having hit the target again. This is good news, particularly for my inner elbow, which was starting to get quite tender.

We then had seafood linguine and Bakewell pudding and custard for tea. Julia did the cooking and Number 2 son did the washing up.

All in all, an excellent day. And I still have material for another post.

 

 

 

 

The Birthday Present

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Better late than never, as they say.

We went to Bakewell today and finally bought Julia’s birthday present.  We’d originally gone to the retail park just off the M1, then Matlock Bath, and finally Bakewell. Derbyshire seemed quite busy, with several Christmas events taking place.

We eventually ended up in a very nice jeweller’s shop and selected the pendant and chain in the main picture. It’s forget-me-nots in a silver mount. I’m not sure what the clear stuff is – it’s tempting to call it crystal but it’s probably some sort of plastic. This is the 21st century, after all, and it was very reasonably priced.

To sum up – Julia likes it, it looks good and it wasn’t expensive. What’s not to like?

When we left the shop they gave us a crystal angel decoration to celebrate their 15 years in business in Bakewell.

If you happen to be in Bakewell they are in Water Street and open from 10.00 until 5.00.

http://www.jewellerybystoneart.co.uk

They have a great selection of stock and I could have bought more, but Julia decided to be economical.

 

In which I have some Brilliant Ideas

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I dropped Julia at work this morning then went to the jewellers.

We didn’t talk about jewellery much, but we did set the world to rights and form the idea for a new TV programme.

The programme will take place in two shops in Nottingham and feature two groups of miserable old men sitting round moaning about how things used to be better. We already have one shop with three miserable old sods (even though one is quite young, he moans with the best of us) and have another shop and group of old gits in mind for the second one. We’re going to pitch it to a successful producer we know and see what happens.

People like antiques, reality shows and grumpy old men so I think it has legs as an idea. Personally, I’ll be looking for some advertising and a book spin-off. If Scarlett Moffatt can do it I’m sure I can, though, looking at her profile, I may need a new middle name. Karloff seems good. It has the right ring to it and you can see why William Henry Pratt adopted it as a stage name.

We were talking of the things that used to worry us, like Russia invading Afghanistan. Do you remember that – we all thought how stupid they were for trying – it rarely ends well for the invader.

Now we worry about recycling and financing kids through college.

We also spoke of the good old days and a local dealer who just bought a forgery of a rare coin, losing £2,000 on the deal. It was offered to him, gleaming and uncirculated, in the middle of a parcel of average worn coins. There’s a place where enthusiasm for coins, and the love of profit muffles the alarm bells that should be ringing.

How, he should have asked, did such a remarkably well-preserved coin end up in a batch of worn silver? It takes remarkably little wear to downgrade a coin in the eyes of a collector. Terms such as bag marks and cabinet wear are used to denote the sort of damage that can be done to a coin even before it is circulated. Bag marks are the marks that occur during manufacture and packing into bags. Cabinet wear is the light scuffing that occurs when a coin moves in a cabinet as you open and close the drawers. That is how fussy they are.

Anyway, he didn’t ask, he paid the money, and he can’t get the seller on the phone number he supplied, which gives me an idea for the next TV programme – CSI Coin Shop.

Stranger things have caught on…