Strange day. Happy/Sad. Mother and Son. Father and daughter. Bloody yt on TV threw me a song I know too well. Coming from a Military Family (father, mother, uncle, great uncle, brother, brother, ME, husband, sis-in-law, brother-in-law) we cover all three HM Forces…Land, Sea, Air. A Tough Bunch of peeps :o) James Blunt. Monsters. A… Read More The GREAT Leveller
AS above. SO Below. That sentence is such a cliché now that it lost it’s original meaning to most. But – to me – it IS TRUTH. Post-eclipses have had a huge impact here. Two women in this house (three including the cat) have suffered the effects most. My own personal trials, at times like… Read More I AM Wot I AM : Highlander
Back with The Ressurectionists. This has had me sparking all morning as I’ve cooked our Easter Sunday Dinner. More later :o) Including the difference between The German Holy Roman Empire and the Constantinople Holy Romean Empire.
Maud the cat adopted us over a year ago. We have no idea where she came from, how old she is, or why she ended up wild and abandoned. Being a cat …and female…she quite quickly took over a house that was still mourning the loss of their wonderful German Shepherd. And then… Less than… Read More Maud : Queen of the Castle
I can smell this a million miles away. The first meeting started with – “Do I have to take my shoes off to enter?” The West & the East have very different meanings for that sentence. We had a family visit. They belong to a member of my household and it was our first encounter.… Read More Oneupmanship : A Fatal Game!
The US of A goes nuts for St Paddy’s Day. M’eh. How many of them actually lived through The Conflict? I did. Twice. Once as a serving HM.Forces police person. Once as a wife and mother…my baby son and I were so effing close to a bomb explosion in Lisburn that it still gives me… Read More Dál Riata: The Powerful Gaelic Kingdom of Scotland and Ireland
Today in the UK is Mother’s Day. I’ve been overwhelmed with love and flowers and a day off cooking because my boy’s girlfriend has cooked for us all. It’s been a bit(ch) of a week and I may officially change my name to Portia Peacemaker. The quality of mercy is not strained So said Portia… Read More Happy Mother’s Day to EVERY Mother
This family has been in my researches for so many years. Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2 were part of my English literature exams. Harry Hotspur (?) Then I came across the divine Lucy Percy when writing Weave a Garland of My Vows. Ooh. She was a naughty girl. She had an affair with Claude,… Read More From Shakespeare to Weave A Garland to 1,000 Years of History : The Percy Family
Not Kidding. We are in perpetual Weather Watch mode. Inside and out. I’ve run out of buckets to catch rain inside the house. Himself has been on 24/7 Emergency Response since the week before Christmas and has clocked up a 92 hour and an 102 hour week in that time. The Zombies are the ones who… Read More Zombies & Floods
LOL. A quick haul into the history of this wonderful, easy, tasty, fills multiple bellies, top-notch recipe has sent me from 1600 B.C to the Spanish Caribbean to Thomas Jefferson. Whatever! Being a non-lover of chicken on the bone, I always use the breast. With onions, red peppers, bacon/gammon/pancetta (all fried together.) Decant ingredients and… Read More Chicken Fricassée
We lived in Gib for two and a bit years. Youngest was born in Ulster, when he was 5 weeks old we HAD to move out of our quarter and go to Wales for a week to live with the parents-in-law before moving to the ROCK. During that week we travelled north to Cheshire to… Read More Gibraltar : Fortress of the Mediterranean
I come from a lineage of Stoics. Yes. OK. We all complain a lot about little things. But True Stoicism is inbred. Life is HARD. Sometimes life reaches the last quarter inch of the tape measure and there (Seems) to be nothing left. Does anyone remember the days when you’d save every single spare penny/pound… Read More Undefeatable: Seneca’s Stoicism for Inner Peace
I’ve just come across the most incredible quote from Homer’s Odyssey : “There is nothing more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.” Real life experience has taught me this one TRUTH. Seeing eye to eye is not always… Read More The Way Old Friends Do
Apart from porridge – and yes, a TRUE Scotsman makes it with salt. My Dad did – this is TRUE Peasant food. So easy but beautiful and comforting. I, personally, hate the taste of kale. So I always use cabbage. Either Savoy or Sweetheart or plain old white cabbage. The bacon is unsmoked and olive… Read More What’s For Tea, Mother? : Colcannon
Yup. Definitely missing that gene. Not only was Mary a mathematician, astronomer, writer and polymath, she was also a distantly distant cousin of mine. She married a son of Admiral, Sir Samuel Greig – Captain Samuil Samuilovich Greig. But decided she didn’t like him much and then married a man called Somerville. But she and… Read More My Missing Gene : Mary Somerville, The First Scientist.
Postie has just been and delivered part of my latest order from SarahRaven.com See image. Giddy with delight. Earlier a box of bare rooted Wallflowers arrived and I opened it with eagerness. Only to find the plants in a plastic bag with a rubber band around and zero imformation. I’ve relied on Sarah for about… Read More Sarah Raven : Love, Grow, Learn
My mother died 33 years ago this year. She had a great fondness for calling out gobby women as TARTARS. 33 has such a bad rep. FFS. 1152 to 1185 is 33 years. We have 33 vertebrae in our spine. Islamic prayer beads have three sets of 33. And on and on. Got to love… Read More Happy Birthday, Mum xxx
This is becoming an act of vengeance, methinks. My aunt, mother’s sister, was instrumental is getting Anne (Nan) out of her home and into care for the elderly. Nan (being a Sagittarian like me) baulked for years and years. Until she gave in. Aunty went into overdrive. She got full power of attorney and sold… Read More A 17th century Sicilian Franciscan Monk & Sweet Peas
We Brits are such experts at weather. We talk about it all the time. We Brits are so Rubbish at coping with slightly mad weather. We WHINGE about it and fall into mass hysteria. OMG. Tesco is shut. Closed down. Flooded and unavailable. Nearest supermarket is the Co-op. Full of very shouty customers and just… Read More Quite Wet Here!
There is a strange “conspiracy theory” going round that Abu Simbel was the final resting place of the Comnenus family, Isaac, his wife (Kata/Irene/Mary) and their two sons, Andronicus and John. Today will never know the full truth. Although there are many strands and hints and mistakes made. Like telling the world that the mummified… Read More The Moving of Abu Simbel/The Aswan Dam
Youngest was away overnight and before going he asked : What’s For Tea Tomorrow, Mother? Standard reply when feeling cool, calm and collected : What do you want, my love? (Standard Reply when NOT feeling cool, calm and collected : I run a set menu, not a la carte. So there.) He wanted a wonderful,… Read More Unseasonably Warm in the UK : What’s For Tea?
There has been no secret here about my love for Freddie and Queen. Freddie aka Farrokh Bulsara. He was born into a Farsi/Parsi family. I’ve worked with Farsi/Parsi in Karachi and Dubai. Freddie has a voice that defies all vocal coaches. He also died on my birthday. 24th of November. 1991 – We’d moved from… Read More Freddie & Me : Highlander
Loving Neil Oliver. Nanny Lily, Dad’s Mum, was born and bred there. She gave us my Dad. My Dad gave us me. Ergo : Blaming Glasgow for my life … Laugh Out Loud :o) It’s not a city that I know well. I know Belfast better, and Berlin, and Karachi. Strange but True. And my… Read More Glasgow : The Making of ME
This is one reason (amongst many) that I have a great hatred for Harry Potter’s Adventures. Three of my extended family were all sent to Boarding School at the age of 11. Their father was in the British Army and climbing the ranks and HMForces paid 90% of the fees in those days. Which meant… Read More Boarding Schools: The Secret Shame
Picture This : Wife doing her stuff in the kitchen. Husband doing HER stuff in the garden. Then a forceful voice is heard throughout the house. I’m Going Back To Work. It’s Easier Than This deleted deleted deleted Gardening Shit! Shrug. It needed a manly man to finally uncover the original Victorian flower borders at… Read More The Reluctant Gardener
Pantry Renovation Still Ongoing. I chose The Cornish Milk Mineral Paint in the colour Thrift for several reasons. I live in a house with 3 blokes so pink is not seen very often. This paint is fantastic and has so many uses. Wood. Plaster. Ceramic. Metal. Plastic all can be painted with it. Some of… Read More Pretty in Pink
To my little but not littlest brother. OMG. This brother is so much a Virgo he drives us all insane. But we love him dearly :o) Three kids in three and a half years. No wonder Mother was stressed so often. Happy Birthday Iain. Love from your big sis xxx P.S. This is the only… Read More HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Andy and Alex have just posted this. OMG. I cried. I have two younger brothers. Mum and Dad always worked and I was Mum/Dad for them both by the time I was 8 years old onwards. We don’t – and have never – live in each other’s pockets. But they are, like my two sons,… Read More He’s MY Brother
I keep a close eye on my stats. Not for validation but for knowledge. Ever since posting The Hidden History of the Romani, my stats have wilted to less than a handful of fingers. Interesting Info. A part of this recent research encompasses the history of genocide. The wilful slaughter of people. My own family… Read More Statistics/The Romani/Clan Gregor
Sad as it sounds – my brothers and I spent quite a lot of our childhood visiting our paternal grandparents in Kinghorn, Fife. We are old enough to remember those hazy, crazy, days of childhood and the FREEDOM to roam. I’ll never remember just how many times we’d walk down the hill from grandparents’ flat… Read More Kinghorn Railway Station
Nope. I’m not being Chicken Little. I’m actually watching the sky fall. We have VANILLA SKY syndrome. Yay :o) Bloody hell. It has been so muggy. In the UK, a heatwave in September is called an Indian Summer. I’m bitten to buggery by mozzies. Grumpy. Dozy. Ranty. Sweaty. Salty. Antsy. Nasty. It’s a fact that… Read More THE SKY IS FALLING
My father-in-law joined the British Army aged 15 as a Royal Engineer. He began as a Sapper and ended as a Major and somewhere along the way he was given command of a Gurkha Barracks in Nepal. My boys’ father and Aunt went to live in Nepal when they were 6 and 4 years old… Read More Kukris & The Smell of Brasso
My thanks go to Static in the Attic for bringing this video back into my attention orbit. We (me & he) were talking about his work-mates this morning and it blew my mind that well over half of them – age ranged from 20’s to 60’s – were coke and/or meth heads. Apparently all and… Read More The Four Stages of Ideological Subversion (1984)
What a great compliment after my self-pitying rant about working most of the day on the last room in the house that needs a major deep clean, re-decorate. All that sweating and swearing and aching muscles and it STILL looks like an explosion went off in a junk yard. Sigh. Gotta love a good, solid… Read More Don’t Diss Yourself : You Can Do Anything
This family owns and operates MY local bakery to this day. They freshly bake everything every morning and the shop is tiny but heavenly. REAL Plum Loaf is a Myers family recipe from 1901. It’s yummy. With salted butter and really sharp mature cheddar cheese. I bought some today. Indulgence :o) P.S. Either side of… Read More The Real Thing : Plum Loaf
Get a dictionary or several and look it up. I’m VERY sarcastic but I know Dignity. Give respect, Get Respect. Give Vile, Get Vile. Divine Law, loves. Deacon Blue? I love them. Deacon Blue are a Scottish pop rock band formed in Glasgow during 1985. The line-up of the band consists of vocalists Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh, keyboard player James Prime and drummer Dougie Vipond.… Read More Dignity?
My entire childhood/teenagehood was spent with one of these hanging on the living room wall. ALWAYS above the fireplace. The how and why is now unknown to history. Dad probably bought it. Absolute True Truth. P.S. I have a modern croquet mallet in the bedroom. That’s so poncy :o(
It’s a Celebration. Sunday, chez moi. :o)
OMG. My youngest son’s bestie is the son of one of MY besties at school. I don’t see her often now, even though she lives just 10 miles away, but I pass her messages through her boy- who calls me his second Mummy. LIKE : Ask your Mum if she remembers that teenage week on… Read More THESE Are The Days of Our Lives
I know a bit about this branch of HMForces. Being the daughter of, the sister of, the wife of… Dad may have chosen to play in The Royal Marine Band but he trained as a Commando. My brother passed his training at Lympstone when he was 17. Dad, Mum and I went to see him… Read More Royal Marine Commandos
I’ve loved Vasi’s videos for a few years now. She always vibed with me and I never truly question why. When you know, you KNOW. She’s been very open about her Tartar ancestry but a recent DNA test told her that she was also Scottish/Irish or Irish/Scottish. Most of my DNA is Scottish, slightly less… Read More A Vasi Vibe : When You Know, You KNOW
This is in the family Top 5 meals. When my traveller-in-crime and I did our European Tour, we both agreed that we’d go all cultural. Not just the arty farty history stuff but food and drink. Only eating local meals in local places. ROME. Wow. Authentic pizza? My, arse. Cooked from frozen. The next evening… Read More On The Menu Today : Carbonara
Because Himself is more of a Pamplona Bull (Taurus) than an actual scurrying crab (July born Cancer) he’s slightly violent when it comes to J.Edgar Hoovering the cobwebs! Our downstairs loo’s curtain pole is the latest victim so it has no curtains at the mo. And (even though it has frosted glass windows) being situated… Read More Boho Curtain and Pamplona Bulls
Musk. I wrote a scene in Weave a Garland that had Wat Montagu wrinkle his nose as he smelled the arrival of Henry Rich (Wat’s most dearly despised) before he saw him. Henry was a fan of MUSK OIL. Did you know? I do. Let’s talk BOLLOCKS :o) Neil Oliver….talks Musk
This is one of my favourite houseplants. Having been sent a handful of Tesco Club Card vouchers the other day, I have managed to buy two days worth of meals without spending much money. Yay. Thank you. So. In my head was this idea… For nearly 40 years we have shared our home with houseplants,… Read More String of Hearts
Uncontrolled Historian 