Month: March 2021

A Note On Memory

~ Janet McKee ~ Leave a comment

Rereading this – I recall crawling under the loom to do the tie-ups. It was getting harder even 25 years ago! Weavers lament. Isn’t it good we can turn to others aspects of the craft and still keep going.

Janet McKee's avatarJanet's Thread 2

Here I am using my memory to write interesting items on my blog. Now today’s issue of The Daily Chronicle (the in-house publication at Ida Culver) has a front page article indicating that memories are more complex than simply remembering the past. To quote the article : “Scientists have shown that each time we recall a memory we are prone to change it slightly.” I wonder. I would have to lookout this in a more scientific way rather than relying on such a sweeping generalization in our in-house publication.

A photo from the past – this is me (Janet) at my loom in Dublin. This must date from sometime between 1994 when we moved back to Dublin for good and approximately 2005 when I was getting tired of weaving rugs and was finding it harder and harder to crawl under the loom in setting it up. Note the painting in…

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The Dodici Hustle

~ Janet McKee ~ Leave a comment

Adapt, fit in, whatever – if you like living in Italy carry on

allenrizzi's avatarallenrizzi

Of the many frustrations that I have encountered living in Italy, the Dodici Hustle is the worst. The what? The Dodici Hustle refers to the way that Italians drop everything they are doing at noon (and usually a bit before) in order to race home for lunch. Here in Italy we have the intervale when everything shuts down for three hours between noon and three PM.

Dodici refers to twelve in Italian and that’s the magic hour when it all unfolds. I have come to understand this phenomena but I don’t really understand its intensity. Let’s start with the shops and stores. Owners start getting very anxious at about a quarter to noon. They pace their floors, looking at their watches. When the magic hour arrives, the lights go off. Often you are politely escorted to the door and told to come back in the afternoon. I’ve even seen transactions…

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The Cornish Village School – Happy Ever After by Kitty Wilson

~ Janet McKee ~ Leave a comment

This sounds similar to the “Miss Read” books.

joulesbarham's avatarNorthern Reader

The Cornish Village School - Happy Ever After (Cornish Village School series): 5: Amazon.co.uk: Kitty Wilson: 9781800322684: Books

The Cornish Village School - Happy Ever After by Kitty Wilson

When Marion Marksharp has problems, everyone in the small Cornish village of Penmenna has a view. It is partly because she has worked hard to create an aura of perfection in the school, running the PTA with more than military precision, but also because she has worked hard to achieve the perfect family life with her husband Richard. This is the fifth book in a delightful series featuring those who work or have connections with the small village school set in an idyllic village in Cornwall, but the books don’t have to be read in strict order, as they each deal with a different couple. The gentle humour and the real insight into people are really good reasons for reading these books, as the people of the village skirt around Marion and her organisational skills which change lives. The…

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A “New” Relation Found Via DNA

~ Janet McKee ~ 1 Comment

I am not surprised to be notified that I have a “new” relation – discovered via DNA. His name is John Willis and he lived in Winchester Massachusetts. Not a great surprise but I am delighted to have him made known to me. My grandmother May Belle Willis lived in Winchester. She was one of nine children who grew up in the Boston area, Brookline and Boston. Many of the 9 siblings stayed in the Boston area.

The John Willis who was identified by matching our DNA is a 2nd cousin twice removed. By examining the 1940 Census I found that he lived on Spalding Street right around the corner from Wildwood Street, home of my grandmother and mother..

John was one of the sons of my grandmothers brothers.

Wildwood Street home of my grandmother May Belle Willis

For John Willis’ obituary see:

https://www.newspapers.com/image/437563118

The Relationship Between My Computer And Me

~ Janet McKee ~ Leave a comment

The relationship between my computer and me is not always a good one. This is particularly the case when it comes to scanned photographs and postcards.. Before we moved to IDCB (Ida Culver …..) all was working seamlessly. But once I got set up and working here somehow the scanning process was not working as before. And when I scanned photos and postcards they were put somewhere in the computer where I could not find them.

Yesterday I think I accidentally stumbled upon the solution to half of this problem, i.e. I can find the scanned photos now on the computer……but I have yet to find the postcard again in my collection…..but that is a whole other matter.

Where have I put postcards that I have scanned? Yes I do have a certain place for those. and I hope I have this issue resolved now. So in answer to a question from G.P. Cox re the age of a postcard I posted a couple of days ago – the postcard of an Edward Hopper painting – “Tables For Ladies”.. I can’t put my finger on the specific pile of scanned postcards containing that card……but it’s not far away. I bought the card relatively recently from a dealer in California and I think the card was relatively new as compared to old – i.e. 1920’s or 1930’s. I’ll keep looking if only to satisfy my own curiosity. Thank you G.P. Cox for your question! . .

Le vieil homme et la bouffe

~ Janet McKee ~ 1 Comment

A cantankerous cat but much loved despite his idiosyncrasies.

iamthesunking's avatarlouiscatorze.com

We have worked out that we have enough Lily’s Kitchen Marvellously Mature to last us until late April. This means that we have around sevenish weeks to figure out how in the world we are going to change the food of a cat who doesn’t like food.

The good news about a late April change is that Louis Catorze’s allergy-prone period will be coming to an end, so we won’t have to endure a food change AND maximum pill dosage AND possible deployment of Le Cône all at the same time. (In fact, as from tomorrow we will be lowering his dose to just one pill a day, as his skin and eyes are looking much less sore now.)

However, at the end of April the little sod will turn 11. And according to, erm, some random charts that I found on the internet – see below for one from…

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