Huzzah!

Whatever undefinable disk problem, or software problem, or disk-drive problem happened earlier today, it has healed itself.

So here are the "historical" pieces. Interestingly, they were made at about the same time, but in very different places. And I received them from very different people.

First, the crochet piece:



This is something my great grandmother crocheted. My understanding is she made it in the 1950s when she was living with her daughter (my mother's mother) after having a mild stroke (it did not affect her ability to crochet). It was originally destined to be a dishcloth, but it's too nice for that.

It now resides on one of my china shelves, under a couple pieces of milk glass and my two-parrot vase.

I received this because the widow of my mom's brother, in the process of downsizing, found this in her house (I do not know for sure why she came to have it - part of a gift, perhaps?) and she knew that my mother and I "make stuff," so she passed it on. And my mother asked me if I wanted to have it, because I have so much that is green in my house.

The second item...

well, what made me think of photographing these is my Mrs. Miniver comment of yesterday.

My parents have a friend, a retired geographer. She grew up in Great Britain and was a young woman (teenager?) during World War II (I cannot quite divine how old she is - she must be at least 80 but seems younger). She is an absolutely FASCINATING person to talk to, one of the most interesting people I know, because she has so many great stories and so many interesting opinions.

Her stories about wartime and post-war Britain are alternately inspiring and hair-raising. She was (apparently) a Land Girl for a time, and she remembered the bombings, and she remembers a lot of the rationing. (One of the hardest things, she said, when she moved here after the war, was seeing kids at a camp play egg-and-spoon races. She couldn't believe that eggs - which had been SO rationed and SO precious in Britain - were used so cavalierly here).

I always like visiting Jo when I go to see my parents.

Anyway, she's in paring-down mode right now, and she said she had something for me, if I wanted it:



It's a doily. She didn't knit it (she claims to be no good at fancy work - she can sew and knit and all that but makes mostly functional things. She claims her hands are too large and she has a hypothesis that my mother and I are good at "fancy work" because we have small hands. I never thought of my hands as small until Jo had me compare mine against hers. Then again, she's much taller than I am). A friend of hers - I think she said she was a secretary in the department where Jo worked in London - knit it. It was obviously done in the round, made of fine crochet cotton.

What makes me smile is that Jo wrote out a "provenance" for me. And it was knit in "Ealing, London, UK." It makes me smile because I think of Ealing Studios, which made so many wonderful comedies (many with Alec Guinness), which I remember seeing on Public TV's "movie show" or somesuch.

(I guess they are still in existence, actually - which makes me happy).

So, now, in my little dining room, on two opposite bookcases, I have two 1950s pieces of needlework: one made by my great-grandmother and which found its way, circuitously, to me. And one made by a woman I will never met, but given to me by a woman I like and respect, because she knows I "make things" and will treasure it.

Things like that make me happy. At least I can be a custodian of these items for a while. Eventually the crochet piece will go to another family member - I'm hoping for nieces or nephews who care about such things. And the doily - I don't know. When I'm no longer able to enjoy it, I hope it finds another good home.

I also sent Jo a (somewhat) belated thank-you note for the doily yesterday. For two reasons: first, she is the kind of person to whom that sort of nicety means something, and second, I know that as a fellow woman-living-alone there are few things nicer than opening up the mailbox and finding a real, personal letter addressed to you, rather than just bills/junk mail/catalogs you probably won't order from.