The early bird catches the worm ...!

Hello again and welcome back!

This week I have mostly been reminiscing and recalling fond memories of Mum, who sadly passed away last Monday.  I did have to smile when I realised the date.  If there was one anniversary date you would want to pick so that family and friends would only have to be sad once every four years, it would be 29th Feb.   Nice one Mum!

Born and bred a true 'Northerner' in the 1920s, she had been brought up by her grandmother, who by all accounts was a formidable Victorian lady, (and a strict Methodist to boot) or as Mum would say 'a real tartar'!  However she spoke of her fondly and was grateful for skills she had taught her, many of which she passed on to my sister and I (although not quite sure when I will be donkey stoning a front step or blacking a grate any time soon).   We could however both make cakes and pastry from scratch when we were quite small girls - a far more useful skill - and to this day we both still love to bake.  I can remember standing on a little stool in the kitchen as a very small child with a mixing bowl and wooden spoon beating butter and sugar for a sponge cake and rolling out pastry for jam tarts.   It was  usually all grey and unappetising looking by the time my sweaty little mitts had finished with it (probably from the number of times I had rolled it off the table onto the floor) and can remember insisting that my special efforts be reserved for Dad when he got home from work,  who of course always pretended that they were the best jam tarts he had ever eaten and then suspiciously, had to attend to something urgent in the kitchen.  Lol.  We can also both knit, sew and mend (but only if my life depended on it as I have to confess I have always been more the 'just chuck it away and buy another one' type, much to her dismay!  Let's face it, who has time to darn a sock?!  Well, me probably, but that's beside the point).  

Mum was also very fond of quoting funny old proverbs and sayings (something else handed down from her Granny) which used to have me completely confused as a small child ... "you'll be laughing on the other side of your face in a minute young lady!" .... how is that even possible? ... or "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear" ... ewwww! Why would I even went to?!  As I got older of course and understood the meaning of these expressions, I realised that many of them offered quite wise advice (although some were just plain daft in my opinion).  

There are too many to mention them all, but these are just some of those I remember her using most frequently and which I often myself using today (much to Ethan's amusement).

• 'You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear' - you can't make something nice out of something bad (or ugly!).  I remember overhearing her say this once when gossiping about a common acquaintance over tea with one of her friends!  *coughs*
• 'Don't spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar' - don't risk the overall success of a project by trying to scrimp on the details (a ha'p'orth was a half penny worth).  I often think of this when I am trying to justify buying the most expensive fabric for curtains or want some extravegant designer paint for the walls, Lol.
• 'If a job's worth doing its worth doing well' - if you are going to do something, make sure you do it properly.  She used to quote this one at me regularly after inspecting my bedroom tidying efforts!
• 'A stitch in time saves nine' - better to act on a problem right away rather than leave it until it becomes much worse and takes longer to resolve.  I didn't understand this one for ages until I learnt the lesson quite literally.  As a teenager, one of my favourite items of clothing was a long 'gypsy skirt' which was basically large circles of gathered fabric sewn together in tiers (what? It was the 70s, what can I say?)  I must have caught a few stitches of the middle tier on something and a small hole appeared.  Mum kept nagging me to get it mended before it got worse ... "a stitch in time saves nine!" ... what?? ...but as mending was not on the 'top 10 list of cool things for a 15 year old to do' (nor is it on the 54 yr old's version for that matter, see above), her advice fell on deaf ears (probably all that listening to T-Rex and Sweet in my bedroom).  One night a short while later, whilst strutting my stuff in said gypsy skirt at the local Scout Group Disco (probably to the latest Status Quo number or something equally cool), one of my 'helpful' friends remarked "oh hang on ... you've got a loose thread..." and before I could stop her had managed to unravel the whole seam causing the bottom two tiers to fall off, rendering my beloved maxi into a scraggy mini and worst of all, exposing my lily white legs to a packed parish hall full of spotty teenagers!  Needless to say, I spent the next day trying to stitch it all back on, whilst mum looked on smugly.  It was never the same again and soon relegated to the rag bag ... *sniff*
• 'People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones' - don't criticise others for a fault you might possess yourself
• 'A watched pot never boils' -  don't stand over something that will take a while to finish as it will seem to take for ever.  Not sure I ever learned this lesson. This is especially true whilst waiting for IOS updates to download ...!
• 'Too many cooks spoil the broth' - too many people trying to lead or give opinions can become confusing and spoil the end result.  Very true.  I experienced this way too many times at work. 
• 'A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush' - it's better to have a lesser but certain advantage than the possibility of a greater one that may come to nothing.  Again, took me years to understand this one.
• 'A place for everything and everyone in its place' - everything should have a set place and be returned to it when you have finished using it so you can find it again next time  (she used to say this a LOT as I recall as I was quite an untidy child and was always wailing that I couldn't find something for other! Usually closely followed, when she then found it straight away,  by the equally irritating ... "God gave us eyes to see with but oh how we do squint!"
• 'Ne'er cast a clout till May is out' - which means don't cast off your warm winter clothing before the month of May is ended (this may have just been a Northern saying as Winters could be long and severe with bitter winds).  As soon as March arrived and the first bit of warm sunshine appeared, I would be in such a hurry to put away my drab winter woollies I had lived in for what felt like months, (that's because usually it WAS months),  and get my summer togs out again and every time she would send me back upstairs to get changed or at the very least make me wear some hideous scratchy cardigan and a hideous coat (which I would invariably hide in the bus shelter on my way into town and then collect it on the way back :).  Hmmm, not sure how applicable this one is to living in Arizona where this year's February temperatures were in the 80s for all but a handful of days! Don't think I'll be needing that vest here ...
• All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy - obviously I try and live by this one religiously :) 

And finally, the one I have tried to abide by the most and am forever quoting to my boys when they are getting frustrated by not being able to achieve something at the first pass ...  If at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again! (usually met by tuts and eye rolling).

Thanks for accompanying me on my trip down memory lane and maybe you have even learned something too!

TTFN
Bev x