Late yesterday morning, I found a couple of somethings... Another royal couple was hanging out in my sewing room. What? You don't believe me? Just follow along and I'll show you.
Right up to the top of the stairs we go.
And into the sewing room...don't trip on the vacuum cleaner or that wrinkle in the carpet!
See that bag on my chair? Let's take a closer look, shall we?
Entry for January 30, 1939
Nan's diary saying that my grandfather "Jack came in around 1 a.m." Yadda, yadda, yadda and then she went to see the movie You Can't Take it With You. "Swell too" she adds. Now I want to see that movie. I'm a sucker for a good review. (7-22-2015 Edited to Add : tongue firmly in cheek over that "good review.")
And who is this?
The Queen Mother!
And her beloved King George VI!
What a radiant smile she had!
THEY WALKED among their people — and to the day of departure, everywhere joy was manifest.
Goodbye!
I think my grandmother's 1939 diary was in with the magazines because of the year. Sadly, Nan did not write about the royal trip to Canada, even though, as a loyal Canadian, she kept the magazines. This should be a lesson to us all when journaling. Do talk about the events of the day! Share some specifics!
Back to the future we come. I have been thinking about all the letters, journals, diaries under the bed right here in this room. It's all Linda's fault because she is sharing letters from a master letter writer named Aunt Polly at Linda's Life Journal. I'll let you be the judge. You can find today's post *here.* Personally? I am completely smitten.
I had taken these photos of the garden this morning and, though it has nothing to do with anything I've decided to do here, I'm tossing them in. The spider lilies were a gift from my friend Diane and I love to see them maturing and blooming three at a time, which was previously unheard of. I have many more buds, too!
This is the little "doorway" that I have been meaning to make a door for. I think I may enlist John's help with that. ☺ He'll love it!
A good day to you...
Hello, she said, crawling out from the hole...... I have a great deal to read! Remind me what you use to post photos? I have forgotten everything. Groan. xx
ReplyDeleteLinds! Is it really you?! I use nothing special to post photos...just what is offered in Blogger. I'll send a screen cap. So good to see you!
DeleteIt is good to look back. I've been looking back myself and am sad that I didn't save all my first blog posts. What a shame.
ReplyDeleteYour photos are beautiful. x
Tracking right along with you Vee... I have just posted an entry from 2011...LOL great minds and all that...
ReplyDeleteYour flowers are lovely. It is way too hot to really enjoy my yard now...
Love, Mona
oh yes, I had just found and read a love letter between my grandparents dates 1908..yesterday I read one of them.....
Oh Vee, I do love that you have a treasured diary from your Nan! How incredible to be able to read all about her life. My Mama wrote a diary of sorts at the top of her word search puzzle books. I treasure them. At Christmas we got them out with the family and enjoyed reading them so much. When decluttering we need to be careful what we toss! ♥
ReplyDeleteMy daughter tells me that all that stuff is going when it is her turn. Oh my! It makes me think I should do as Linda is and share some of the more charming ones.
DeleteAs for my grandmother's diary...not much news there. Just a list really with none of her personal insights or thoughts included. So I consider her diary efforts more of a fail than a score. That said, she did better than I because I have not kept a journal for years.
We ARE having so much fun with the past, aren't we? Do you think someday someone somewhere will be reading OUR words? I think it's important to keep hand written journals as well as online ones. I have old fashioned school memory books from Louis Dean's beloved Ellen's mother AND grandmother as well as their journals and oh, what stories they tell!!! I think we greatly underestimate the power and influence of the written word! Thanks for all your amazing research! I am going to do some as well......but right now the quads are heading my way and I MUST get dressed and ready to greet them!!
ReplyDeleteThis is so neat Vee! My mother saved all the Royal news clips and put them in a scrap book. I wish I knew what ever became of them. She also kept a diary with all details of weather etc. I have one of them and when I read her entries I'm transported back in time with her like a fly on the wall - it's magical. My only journalling is when I post on my blog - I should do more! A little door for that tree root house has me totally intrigued!
ReplyDeleteYou have journals and dairies under your bed? I would be under there with them savoring every word. I have a few scattered letters here and there but no real written records such as journals. I agree with you about mentioning note worthy topics of the day as well as personal musings and mundane happenings, it captures the history of the times. Lovely garden, the little door on your tree base will be a charming addition.
ReplyDeleteBTW I love your sewing room!
ReplyDeleteAhhh....a fairy door would be perfect! I'm sure John will put that at the top of his priority list. And I love to read old diaries. I have journals that I've kept from the '70s if you can believe it. I didn't write as much in that decade but it's interesting. (I was a birthing coach and saw quite a few babies born....way back then!) Hugs, Diane
ReplyDeleteFun post, enjoyed a peek into your sewing room. Good tip about journaling. Thanks for sharing Vee, this is always an enjoyable place to visit. ~ Abby
ReplyDeleteOh yes..a cute little fairy door...I love it! Can't wait to see what you do with it. Love the old nostalgia too..
ReplyDeleteHave a great day!
I wish my Grand's and mother had kept journals. That would be such fun to read their thoughts and how events shaped their lives. Sadly, I believe I'm the only chronicler in the family. It's up to me to pen pictures with words. Thanks for sharing yours! Oh, do build the Elf door. I think those are adorable. Hope your day is blessed lovely lady. ~:)
ReplyDeleteLove parts of history, especially in a person's own words! I've kept a diary since I was little and my girls do as well. It is so neat to go back and reminisce over what happened years ago. Great post! Have a wonderful day!
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Jill
Love to read about history...especially in journals/diaries. Thank you for the smiles, friend. I enjoyed the trip upstairs, by the way, we have the same table--mine, I painted red (your table in the sewing room that the vaccum is protecting, smiles). Have a beautiful Wednesday, oh I can't wait to see if John will make a door, smiles. Blessings
ReplyDeleteI used to keep a diary all the time I was in high school. We had a flood in the basement and they were all destroyed. I'm still sad about that. I wish I had them to read. I find that I can blog and not write anymore so my blog is my journal these days. I sometimes go back and read what I wrote and remember.
ReplyDeleteOh, I love that you have your grandmother's journal! Even if it doesn't have a lot of detail, it is still something. Handwritten letters and journals, even cards...they are such treasures of the past. I hope that my blog is something of a journal, with bits of my thoughts and feelings preserved for my family. I hope that at the very least they would read it and know how much they were loved. I really should look into having my blog printed into a book each year. Have you ever done that, or considered it?
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post. Many days I don't have any "events" to write about...B-O-R-I-N-G...but we just never know what someone else might find interesting. I have a tree with a couple of doorways in them and yes, I have actually had a fantasy about creating a little fairy scene there and add a door. It reminds me of the old-time cartoon shows and the little critters that lived in them. And this has nothing else to do with anything except that I greatly admire that lovely chest of drawers at the top of your stairs :)
ReplyDeleteI think the only thing I have that has my grandmother's writing is a recipe for pumpkin bread that she shared with me. Very nice to read about what was going on in her life in 1939? I am enjoying those letters at Linda's blog too!
ReplyDeleteDeanna
Oh my goodness, Vee, when I was a junior in high school, a played the daughter (the normal person) in You Can't Take It With You. What fun memories you jogged in my brain. I've never seen the movie, but sure enjoyed having a role in the play.
ReplyDeleteWhat a treat to have your grandma's journal!!
I am so upset with myself, can you hear me slapping my wrist?.I cannot believe I have missed so much, I get so busy, I seldom pick up my computer, how I found the time to post Monday, I will never know.Whine
ReplyDeletewhine whine!
Where do I start? loved the july photo challenge, I wanted to do this with Katie, but knew I would not have time, I should have done as you did, doing them weekly. (wrist slap)
Enjoyed your blueberry scone's recipe, and your gifts are so lovely!
Today's post really spoke to me, I have been so neglectful of my journaling lately, and keep reminding myself, of how important it is, but I just let business get in the way, I am happy to say that tomorrow will finish my canning until apple and grape season, I feel a happy dance coming on, though I do enjoy preserving the food we grow, it has become a little tedious as I tire more easily lately, I think the extreme heat didn't help, whine whine whine!
I am so glad I got to know a few things about your Nan, and your mother, through blogging, I felt they were very special people! My mother is a journal writer she keeps teasing us by saying "you all are going to be surprised when you read it", makes me straighten up and fly right ~smile~
Always a joy to top by,
Love,
Sue
,
Vee, having your grandmother's diary is beyond neat. (Or should I say "swell?") ♥ that!
ReplyDeleteYou have the PERFECT little leprechaun "door" for that tree. It's going to be neat to do that. (And actually may save the tree from being from the inside out keeping larger things out of it.)???
Your blog posts are always so unique.
Yes, sometimes I think my blog is just the recounting of our ordinary days and I do hope maybe some little ones might enjoy reading about the mundane many years from now if they can find my posts but...they would be so much better if I added a little of what's going on in the big wide world or not...
ReplyDeleteLove the possibility of a little doorway at the base of that tree! Now I'm quite curious about the movie "You Can't take it with You"
My journals are more about me than about what's happening in the world. But now and then, when I think about it, I try to include something of what's been going on. I find it so interesting to read diaries from the past. Lucky you to have some of your family writings.
ReplyDeleteA fun peek into the past, and into your sewing room.
Oh yes, John is just the man to make a little door for that doorway. For some reason I am picturing a little mouse in an apron holding a broom just outside the door. I think this is a vision from one of my many children's storybooks.
ReplyDeleteI loved this opportunity to climb to the top of your stairs and pop into your sewing room. The chest of drawers at the top of the stairs looks very similar to one I have in my dining room.
How neat to have your grandmother's diaries and magazines. I completely agree with your thoughts on sharing the events of the day. When my mom passed away I inherited her diaries/journals dating back to the 70s. They reside on my closet shelf. Once in a while I open them just to see what mom was doing on this date many years ago.
I love the fairy door idea. I am silly, but I can just see pine paneling on the wall!! lol
ReplyDeleteHow interesting about the journal and newspaper clippings. I would love to browse through something similar. Our neighbor had her first baby last summer and I gifted several magazines from the week of her birth with current events for mommy to keep for her. I know just in looking back through my nieces and nephews childhood photos, I most love the ones where they are wearing t-shirts that show current popular themes etc. Wishing you a good evening, Vee.
Fascinating post. Thanks for the advice about journaling about current events. Good counsel.
ReplyDeleteAnd by all means, make that elf door for the base of your tree! My sister has one at her house.
I guess maybe I shouldn't shred all my journals.
ReplyDeleteWe have home movies of Queen Elizabeth waving to us when we lived in Scotland. The royal family was at the Highland Games.
I too have some of my grandmothers journals and enjoy reading them now and again :) I'm envisioning a door and whatever else you come up with.
ReplyDeleteYes, a door would be perfect there. Lots of scope for the imagination, as Anne would say.
ReplyDeleteMy mother has her aunt's journal from the early 40s. It is so interesting to read; she liked to go to movies, double features, and seemed to like everything, Except one. apparently she saw Mein Kampf. Didn't like that one. I didn't know there was a movie. don't think anyone would have liked that, and esp. during the war.
I never thought of recording current events in my journal. Probably a good idea.
He'll love it, really Vee? I do agree it is perfect place for a fairy door.
ReplyDeleteYou have such a treasure trove of family mementos. I have to admit that I am jealous!
I think about journaling, but that's as far as it gets. My blog is a bit like a journal.
I have often wished that my mother and grandmother had kept diaries. I have very little written words from them other than signed cards. Which reminds me that I should get my journaling going again...with specifics. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the photo of King George, I thought at first it was his brother Edward. They really do resemble one another, I think.
I do hope John builds you a door for the tree. How about a fairy garden?
Okay, I'm hitting publish before a kitten jumps onto this laptop and messes things up for the upteenth time!
You are right, we should probably record more events on our blogs because they are journals of sorts aren't they! xx
ReplyDeleteHow neat to have those diaries, they are a treasure indeed! It's sad, myself included, that journaling is a forgotten art to most!
ReplyDeleteWell, I certainly enjoyed the trip back into time :) Thank you so much for sharing with us, Vee :) Have a splendid afternoon!
ReplyDeleteI love reading old diaries. I have a leather bound one that my aunt sent to me as she thought it was written by a family member back in the early 1900's. I still don't know who wrote it but it has some interesting things in it. I remember the Star Weekly that came every Saturday. My photos that I take pretty well daily, are a journal of sorts. I usually type under them what they are about and they are all filed in my computer by date and backed up. Have a good evening Vee.
ReplyDeleteThe fascination with the royals was quite prevalent with the Queen Mother, what a personality she had. Last year I purchased the clematis 'Queen Mother' and I have been amazed by the grace and control of this plant - unlike anything I've ever seen with a clematis, the name fits the plant perfectly!
ReplyDeleteBack when I started my gardening column there was an older woman who wrote a newsy column for the pocket village she lived in. She told about wedding showers, issues farmers were having ...and gossip - I loved it. A new and younger editor took over and immediately cut the column as she wouldn't have understood how rural folks like that sort of thing.
Queen Mary had such a sweet smile. She always looked so happy in photos--naturally happy.
ReplyDeleteI will be sharing my NYC trip photos--just need lots of time to edit them all and I've been knee deep in grandchildren since I came back home ;)
Queen Mary was Elizabeth II's paternal grandmother. This woman is her mother, also named Elizabeth.
Delete