Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich: 2021

Yet another Birthday Tea Towel! One of the problems about having so many birthday gifts is how you choose which one to Blog about next. Will people be offended if their tea towel hasn’t yet been Blogged about? I just have to use a pragmatic approach: if it’s easier to photograph, Blog about it.

Christchurch Mansion was easy to photograph, brand new, not a material too easily creased, relatively heavy so works well on a windy day. But you can see those creases associated with an unused tea towel. It was also on the top of the pile, no reason for that except that I needed to clear part of the table in order to have breakfast.

This was a present from Sarah, Liz’s niece, an unexpected, and stylish, gift. Sarah lives just outside Ipswich so this is on her doorstep. I’ve never been to Christchurch Mansion, in fact I’ve never been to Ipswich. Christchurch Mansion is apparently a substantial Tudor brick mansion house, built around 1548 in the grounds of the Priory of the Holy Trinity. The Priory of the Holy Trinity was built in the 12th Century. The monastery was dissolved by Henry VIII in his massive programme of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1884, it was bought by Ipswich Borough Council and from 1885 has been used as a museum, free to enter, with rooms presented as the inhabitants would have known them.

The Grade 1 Listed museum holds probably the most important collection of Constable and Gainsborough paintings in Great Britain. They may be important but I expect some people would be more excited by the 2019 exhibition called ‘Made in Suffolk’ dedicated to Suffolk born Ed Sheeran. Their shop has a huge amount of merchandise, everything from an Ed Sheeran pen to an Ed Sheeran poster.

What about the Tale of the Tea Towel? “Quo mihi fortunae si non conceditur viti,” on the bottom of the tea towel, means “What use is wealth if I may not use it”. This has poshed up my Collection. The Latin quote from the exterior of the East Wing doorway but the designers felt a detail from a marble fireplace would give the quote some connection, as a souvenir; the ‘pattern’ being part of the marble detail from a fireplace in the Rococo Room.

What a great tea towel, so unusual and a wonderful, classy addition to my collection.

70. Happy Birthday!

I have the feeling that I will be celebrating my birthday for many months to come. 143 tea towels is a lot of Blogging, a lot of memories. I had originally thought that I could talk about my ‘special’ birthday without ever having to reveal my age. I think it would have been reasonable for people to think it might have been my 50th, or possibly 60th, birthday. I didn’t bank on everyone making direct references to the number. So i declare that this was my 70th birthday!

When I met up with my cousin Amanda and aunt Catherine, just over a week ago, at Anglesey Abbey, as we finished our picnic they gave me a card, a very large card. I asked if I was allowed to open it. They were very keen that I did, and I can see why. They had unearthed some horrendous photos from my past.

The two year old, sitting on Bonzo, the dog on wheels, was memorable. A satin dress? Me in a satin dress? Didn’t wear another satin dress until I was 20 and a bridesmaid at Chris and Pam’s wedding, but that’s another story. The curls are interesting, because my hair is straight, so that it couldn’t have been straighter; on that occasion my mother told me, later, that she had curled my hair with rags. The 11 year old had a haircut that looked like a toupee. The 16 year old in a white dress, with a casual jacket over her shoulders, on an occasion I can’t remember. Both Liz (who supplied the photos) and Catherine weren’t even sure if the 17 year old wearing a black and white tartan ‘kilt’ was actually me! It was. I remember that photo being taken, while I was listening to Simon and Garfunkel playing ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’. The final one, clearly taken much later, was in Howie’s restaurant in Aberdeen with me eating Haggis, Neeps and Tatties. I was so excited, my favourite.

I saw the big picture of what looked to be a tea towel, and genuinely thought it was a funkypigeon.com special; that they could create any tea towel that you could choose from. That’s the problem with being a Tea Towel Obsessive, you believe everyone thinks the same as you, and that obviously I thought funkypigeon.com put tea towels on every card. Never did I think that I would own that tea towel one day.

Things didn’t go smoothly. On the day of my birthday, there was a huge, and heavy, box sealed up. I was told to open that box first because Catherine and Amanda were excited about how I would react. I opened it, and there was just a huge pile of linen. Even I could guess that this had something to do with tea towels. Nothing was wrapped in birthday paper, although some were still in their cellophane packets. I churned them over, squealing with delight at what I was finding. Suddenly I saw something with the crimson I’d seen on my card. I held it up. They had had it designed especially for me. I hung it on the back of a chair to admire while I was still rummaging. There’s a lot of rummaging to be done with 75 tea towels and I thought I spotted another crimson tea towel, unusual colour.

Oh no. This is a duplicate of the original birthday tea towel, but why? A WhatsApp message, sent to Liz from Amanda, explained it all.

“So we bought this from Zazzle and they shipped via FedEx. It got lost so they sent a replacement via UPS. We now have two”. And lets face it, they weren’t going to keep it. They hadn’t a use for a second one. Who would you give it to? So they gave it to me.

I now have two beautiful 70th birthday tea towels. I love them. Only one can be counted within the numbers in my Collection but two are there; the second hangs on my ‘Not Counted’ Hangar. If I get duplicates I often give them away to people who would make use of them. Who would want a 70th birthday tea towel belonging to Barbara Howard, except me?

The Farmyard: 2021

The second Blog about my 143 Birthday Tea Towels. So many people contributed to the Collection, and many people have contacted me about what I’ve done. Have I catalogued the new tea towels? Have I hung them up yet? Do people not realise what this all involves? I can’t catalogue them until I’ve photographed them. And that takes a long time, and, of course, you need the right weather conditions for a photograph.

Having taken a photograph, a tea towel is written in the Catalogue and allocated a numbered hanger. Each tea towel is cross referenced to a Blog or if it hasn’t yet been Blogged about, NYBA is written beneath it. It allows me to keep a track of what needs Blogging about. The 143 Birthday Tea Towels have an additional task. My Aunt Pam gave me an absolutely beautiful book, with a hand-embroidered loose cover. I decided that this book would be used to record all 143 Birthday Tea Towels, with all the comments and stories that people have told me about their tea towels. A true Memory Book. All this takes a long time, making sure no stage has been left out.

“Have you catalogued your birthday tea towels yet?” Catherine, my aunt, asked by text.

“Just playing with them at the moment” I reply. “And no, I haven’t catalogued them”

Weirdly, yesterday, the day after my birthday, a small package dropped through the letter box. As Liz pointed out in yesterday’s Blog, I am honed to detect a tea towel package in the post. It can’t be another tea towel, surely. But it was, and accompanied by a very pretty card:

“Dear Barbara, this tea towel, I also bought in Maldon but it didn’t make your Birthday Tea Towel box on 20th August, as Amanda had already sealed the box, that’s why it’s come separately! It’s from my GrandCats – Molly, Phoebe, Rocky, Liquorish, Livy, Lyric, Oreo and Bella. Hope you had a lovely birthday, love Catherine”

One more from my aunt Catherine. The reference to Maldon is that Catherine went to Maldon a couple of weeks ago and sent me a touristy tea towel day trip souvenir. What, of course, I didn’t know was that there was a second one!

And I love it. Reminds me of the time I kept chickens, just can’t do it in a small garden. 2 down, 141 to go and here is the cover of my book, ready for my Birthday Tea Towels.

Let’s Bake a Difference:2021

In my last Tea Towel Blog (The Joy of Tea Towel Sharing: 23), I made two comments: “How can tea towels be so absolutely different?” and “There is no such thing as a boring tea towel”. No remarks could be so perfect for today’s Blog, except, of course, that “Tea towels are the ultimate form of domestic art”. Possibly odd comments, but I’m not sure how I’m going to explain all this.

I’m not much good at ‘small talk’, I’m not a party or big social occasion sort of a person. I like meeting up with people but not in large numbers. One at a time is my sort of event. For my last ‘Special’ birthday (and fortunately they don’t come along often), I had an ‘Afternoon Tea’, all home prepared, in my kitchen. We could seat 19 people around three tables. It was a delightful afternoon, eating sandwiches with their crusts off, scones and cakes and drank gallons of tea. We played quizzes for prizes. I felt prepared to embark upon a new decade. As I approached another ‘special’ birthday, I knew I didn’t want to do the same thing. Firstly, I’ve moved house and there definitely wouldn’t have been room for 19 people but also some of those original guests were no longer with us. You can’t just try and replicate things and think it will be ok. Back in April this year, I made this very clear to Liz; she already knew that I hated, really hated, the idea of a surprise party.

Come August, I knew I was ‘safe’. What I didn’t know was what she did intend to do. I had said that I wanted to go for a walk at Shugborough Estate, a National Trust property, with Liz and Pete. I’d booked a Tramper for Liz, collection time 11am. I was a bit shocked when she said “You’ll need to get up at about 6.30am.” This seemed a bit over-the-top since I knew it only took about an hour to get there. I didn’t question it, was up at 6.45am. The next thing that happened was Liz saying “I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to spoil the surprise but you need to know the background”. Surely she wasn’t organising a surprise party? “I’ll just give you this….so you’ll understand”. And she gave me this note, a long note. No wonder I had to get up early.

“Dear Barbara

Back in late April this year, you, Pete and I were sitting round the kitchen table eating and chatting. For some reason, which I can’t remember, we began talking about your ‘special’ birthday in August.

“I don’t want to do anything and I don’t want any presents” you said firmly. That’s clear, I thought, as the conversation meandered along. You (me) talked about how much you hated surprise parties and surprises in general. I think at some point Pete went back to the topic of presents.

“I don’t want anything” you re-stated, adding an offhand comment about not minding tea towels, and then laughing.

We went on to other topics but a seed had been sewn. A few days later, now early May, we met up with Jai, Roger and the grandchildren. As we were going round Wollaton Park, I mentioned my idea to Jai: “How about if we could get all our family and friends to buy tea towels,aiming for 70 tea towels for her 70th birthday?”

“Brilliant idea” said Jai “And maybe everyone could write the story of why they bought it, where it came from?”

I loved that idea and began the process of contacting people. Though I had to hold back other people’s excited ideas of a surprise party, meeting up and so on, the main response was very enthusiastic. Amanda (Barbara’s cousin) got stuck in with her usual energy and generosity and soon photos of tea towels were flying into WhatsApp from Catherine and Amanda. They were amazing. Other messages trickled through; could we do this?

That, of course, you will have to wait and see. I hope you have great fun seeing what your family and friends have sent you and that there aren’t too many duplicates. I have discovered a number of things in this process

• It’s incredibly difficult maintaining communications with other people without you (me) asking ‘Who’s that?’. I resorted to switching off WhatsApp notifications
• It’s even more difficult to stop you (me) from asking about those padded envelopes that come through the door; you’ve got a super strong radar for tea towels!
• There is no way I’d ever be able to buy you any tea towels in actual shops

So…..have fun, have the best 70th birthday ever

Liz

Having read that I was still unsure what was to happen next……cutting a long story short (because any Readers will know all the details much later on) Liz achieved getting me 143, yes 143, tea towels. Future Blogs will elaborate this in greater detail. By the time, I was due to leave for Shugborough I had only opened one box, from Amanda and Catherine, with 74 tea towels in it.

However, the first bit I will reveal is that my Aunt Catherine and Jai (and I expect a few more Tea Towel Buyers) were very successful in acquiring tea towels from Charity Shops. Jai got one from Beeston which is not far from where I live. I couldn’t believe it because, since I’ve moved to Nottingham, I have had virtually no success in buying a Charity Shop tea towel (and I have scoured the local shops). Inspired by her note with her Charity Shop tea towel I thought “Jai will not beat me at this game. I’m the expert. I’m going to Beeston to look for a tea towel”. First two shops said, categorically, that they had no tea towels. The third one, Rainbows Children’s Hospice (@RainbowsHospice), said they used to and there may be the odd one left, directing me to the linens shelf. There weren’t any there but much higher up, hidden, was a basket full of them. I picked one up and with a smug look on my face took it to the counter “I found one”.

And it is with this tea towel, crumpled from having been left on a shelf during Lockdown, bought by myself, that I start the story of my 70th Birthday, having taken the courage to admit my age.

The Joy of Tea Towel Sharing (23)

It seems ages since I did a ‘Joy of Tea Towel Sharing’ Blog, actually it was 15 days ago. Remember how this goes? I post one of my own, unblogged-about, tea towels as a ‘Headliner’ and write a bit about it. This is followed by tea towels from strangers who have sent me photos of theirs, usually via Twitter. More often than not, I’ve never seen one like them before and I spend hours down a ‘Rabbit Warren’ wondering how many designs of tea towels there are, out there, across the world.

I start with my ‘Headliner’ – ‘Vintage Silverware’. Bought in 2021 at Cromford Mills, along with many others. My friend Pete spotted this one in the Bargain Basket, at half price. I wouldn’t have bought it just because it was cheap; I’ve got more taste than that. But I think it is stylish, that crisp black background with the white silhouette of the cutlery. You don’t often find black tea towels, and considering how easy it is to stain a tea towel, these can be useful!! It came with a large cardboard, black and white wrapper but no information about it except for the fact that it is 100% cotton and produced by Stow Green. I couldn’t resist a quick Google search. This is their most stylish, and expensive, tea towel. Even at full price this was cheap, half price a literal bargain. They do produce some ‘unusual’ tea towels, many of which are sold on Amazon. I don’t have any vintage silverware, not inherited or even bought in a charity shop. The nearest I’ll come to vintage silverware is using this tea towel.

Moving on to those tea towels shared by other people, I have an eclectic selection today for Readers. I’ll start with @IMcMillan. I follow @IMcMillan on Twitter, love his rhymes, and groan at his terrible jokes. Something weird happened three days ago. I asked him about having a picture of one of his tea towels, and he had already posted one twenty minutes previously, for a different reason, “Language based conundrums on a Tea Towel from the Isle of Wight”. He’s right; there are some very clever plays on words. Love it. This is followed by a second one sent in by @Williams09Liz, on the same theme, ‘Bunch of Roses’. “Another Cif by Boyd Harts. 100% cotton made by Pelmark. Love the coloured background. Found in the depths of the Tea Towel drawer. Don’t remember it at all. From my mother.” I was wondering whether ‘Cif’ was the cleaning stuff. I asked “So is Cif the cleaning stuff?”. The reply was “Yes used to be called Jif before that I think”. Well, I don’t remember being able to buy a tea towel from Cif and I’m a Cif user!

Next is ‘Mappa Mundi’ from @BCallan114 “Fresh from @HFDCathedral. Mappa Mundi for your perusal”. This is a stunning tea towel. Now there’s something I’d like to see. @WalsinghamBound sent in ‘British Museum Terracotta Army Exhibition’ “Here is my well used British Museum Terracotta Army Exhibition tea towel. It is one of those tea towels that no matter how carefully you iron it, it never looks properly ironed”. That was an exhibition I would have liked to see, although I did see the Terracotta Army in China, many years ago.

Moving on, we have a unique one from @kimeoak. It is ‘Mornington Peninsula’ and I love it, so unusual. @Williams09Liz sent in one of ‘Laugharne’, a typical touristy tea towel. I’ve been there, but many years ago, a time before there was a tea towel. “Designed exclusively for Choices Gift Shop in Laugharne where my mother purchased many tea towels. All cotton and printed in Wales. My parents remembered Dylan and Caitlin Thomas well. Can you spot the typo?” Can Readers spot the typo too?.

Two more tea towels plus a Reader’s comments. First of all, a tea towel from @TCYJimB “Found an Orkney one the other day…sorry…slightly crushed”. The second one is from @townsendtowers which I call ‘Smells’ “Lovely tea towel sent to me by a friend, designed by her clever daughter Cat Hayward”. How can tea towels be so absolutely different? @winludivine says “I love a nice tea towel. We bought two new boring blue and white ones from @waitrose last week and it has improved the washing up no end. They are huge and downy. But will they last? Some of my grandparents’ linen is still as new after 80 years”. I have two comments to made: firstly, there is no such thing as a boring tea towel. All tea towels are beautiful. And all should be displayed in #thejoyofteatowelsharing. Secondly, where is the picture of these blue and white ones? I promise to display in Number 24.

Thank you to all Owners of Tea Towels who have featured today in #thejoyofteatowelsharing. There will be more soon.

Cornish Pasty Recipe: 2021

The Cornish Pasty is a mystery to me. I remember the first time I had, what I considered to be a genuine, Cornish Pasty, in Cornwall, at Land’s End, in 1978, when I had cycled from John O’Groats to Land’s End. This was my celebration ‘meal’, eating it from a paper napkin, in the open air and being thankful that there were only a few miles to go, back to Penzance Station. I remember the smell: unmistakeable. I remember the texture: full of meat and potatoes with swede. I remember that almost spicy flavour due to the seasoning. And the feeling of satisfaction from the pastry enclosing the contents. It also had a beautiful ‘D’ shape. It wasn’t one of those pies whose pastry wasn’t strong enough to hold the contents; it was sturdy.

For me, I’d always assumed that the European PGI Status (Protected Geographical Indication Status), awarded in 2011, meant that a Cornish Pasty could only be called a Cornish Pasty if it was made in Cornwall. Two years ago, after I’d moved to Nottingham, I wandered down the road to the local shops. There was a traditional butchers and it sold Cornish Pasties, labelled as such. I bought one and it certainly brought back all those memories from 1978.

Then the question rose in my mind: how can the butchers be selling a Cornish Pasty that was not made in Cornwall? And the answer is? Well, many things come into play. The PGI refers to the Traditional Cornish Pasty. It also describes the content and the shape. A Traditional Cornish Pasty has to have beef skirt (can’t be vegetarian), potatoes, onions and swede. The contents are wrapped in pastry, shaped like a ‘D’ with crimping round the three remaining edges. A Traditional Cornish Pasty is not crimped on the top. My butcher sells a Cornish Pasty that is crimped on the top, so can’t be ‘Traditional’.

Do you know that a Traditional Cornish Pasty amounts to 6% of all Cornish food economy? That’s an awful lot of Traditional Cornish Pasties. With Brexit, I wondered how the PGI Status fared. Apparently, for all UK foods with PGI Status, it continues to be valid in Europe, after Brexit. Once Brexit has been achieved, that is now, there will be a UK PGI Status which will be valid in Europe. Any new European applications for PGI Status will be valid in Europe but will also have to apply for the UK PGI Status, if it is to be valid in UK. What a complete waste of time!! If it ain’t broke don’t fix it! I wonder how much money will be spent devising a new scheme, a new logo, new guidelines, new procedures when there was a perfectly good one already in existence.

Anyway, my Nottingham Cornish Pasty may not be ‘Traditional’ but it certainly is good!

Anglesey Abbey: 2021

One of the joys of a continuous membership of the National Trust is the ability to revisit properties time, and time again. It means you don’t have to see everything in one go. You can pick and choose which bits you want to see; sometimes it will depend on the weather, or maybe how much time you have or possibly the season of the year or there might be a particular reason for going (like last week).

I last visited Anglesey Abbey in 1993. I don’t remember much about it, possibly because I’m always surprised that Anglesey Abbey isn’t in Anglesey, but in Cambridgeshire. Stupid really, because it isn’t far from me so I could have visited much more often. In 1993, I bought a tea towel. It was a National Trust tea towel of it’s time: linen, detailed with an image of the feature building (and it’s still going strong on Hanger 45). Now this is what I like, leave revisiting for 25 years and there will be another tea towel, another design, so I can justify another buy, with another story.

Last Friday, we arranged to meet with my Aunt and her daughter for a picnic, at Anglesey Abbey. The pandemic has meant I haven’t seen them since December 2019. At my age, that’s a long time. However, I can’t say that I haven’t been in touch with them. My aunt is Catherine who has written more than 50 Diaries for the Virtual Tea Towel Museum about her experience of Lockdown and the Pandemic. It was she who bought me the tea towel of ‘Maldon’ which I Blogged about last week. Amanda, her daughter, is the person who sent me, on the first day of Lockdown Number 1, 101 tea towels that her friend Vanessa bequeathed to the Museum, courtesy of her mother. I’ve received some additional crazy tea towels, over the last couple of years, to keep me amused, along with the largest bar of Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut I’ve ever seen.

With Catherine I have joined her Alphabet Challenge, a text every morning using as many words with the letter of the week. We’ve been through the alphabet once, seven days with one letter, moving on to the next letter of the alphabet. We did one week of 26 word texts, with a word beginning with each letter of the alphabet, in alphabetical order. Now we are on to themes for each week: A was Gardening, B was Waterways (with some very obscure seas and lakes and every canal in the UK), C was Flowers (carnations were frequently used) and this week is Professions beginning with D (so far dentist is quite popular). There are seven of us on a WhatsApp group, set up by Amanda so we can see what everyone else has written.

With such contact, you might imagine there was nothing to talk about. Not so.

“I don’t want to rush, but I’m worried the shop might be closed and you won’t get a tea towel” said Amanda. It’s not that Amanda is a Tea Towel Person, but was obviously concerned for the Museum.

I looked at my watch; twenty past four and I had no idea how long the return to the shop would take (and that’s not including packing up the biggest picnic ever). The Call of A Tea Towel made me put a bit of speed behind me, asking several gardeners on the way “What time does the shop shut?”. There was plenty of time, after all it doesn’t take long to suss out whether there is a tea towel.

“Is there one?” Amanda asked me, amongst hoards of frantic shoppers also not wanting to miss a tea towel.

“Ooooh yes” I hold up my little, neatly folded tea towel in its cardboard, recyclable, cover with a history of Anglesey Abbey in a few short sentences. Success!!

It was truly lovely meeting up with Catherine, Amanda and Wade. The weather was warm, there was masses of space to socially distance; the downside might have been the flying ants but we chose to ignore them. It was disappointing to have to say goodbye but the promise of future meetings was heartening.

Excitedly, I got home, opened my tea towel and just fell about laughing. The new ‘style’ of the National Trust tea towels is an image of the main feature of the site, only one splash of colour and a saying that sums up the property, at an affordable price. On the Anglesey Abbey tea towel is a quote from the 1st Lord Fairhaven “Collecting is the greatest fun”, a tea towel designed for me. And how right he was.

Maldon: 2021

“Sunny standing at the bus stop. Off to Maldon” texted Catherine, last Saturday. I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard of Maldon, although looking at the map, it appeared to be near Heybridge Basin, and I’ve been there. Had a nice tea room, with loose leaf tea. Back to the story.

“What’s at Maldon?” I asked.

Catherine isn’t renown for long texts “Salt” she said, followed by a second text “Countryside”.

“Useful” I say.

“Ha ha”

Trying to get the essence of the day, I asked “Eating out?”

A longer text followed “Out of the house, out of Harlow, with my friend Wendy. Yes, eating out”

“Shopping? For salt?” I pursued.

Back to the short texts “Might do”

Couldn’t resist the next question because I know that Catherine is not a big Tea Towel Person “Tea towel?”

And that was the end of that Textation but I needed to add “Best wishes to Wendy. Have a good day” By this time the bus must have come! Probably five hours later, some photos came via WhatsApp: ‘Maldon Ducks and Swan’, ‘Wendy , My Friend’ and ‘Fish and Chips’ (and those fish and chips looked good, so good I’ve included them in the Blog).

“They were delicious, no cooking or washing up, makes it more special” Catherine ended with.

It sounded like a good day out but I needed to follow the ‘Rabbit Warren’ and looked up the reference to salt and, yes, Maldon is famous for Maldon Sea Salt, produced in the town since 1882. Who knew? But did you know that Maldon was also the location of the first Tesco store in UK, designated as a supermarket and opened in 1958. Wow!!

Catherine obviously had had a great day because the following day she was tired out. On Monday, I received another text “Isabella, I have posted you a present. Please let me know if it gets there. Tilly”. (So Isabella is my cat and Tilly is Catherine’s cat). What on earth are the two cats doing, texting each other (and now I know I’m bonkers!)? And true enough, a small package, addressed to Isabella, fell through the letterbox yesterday. Postage is speedy from Harlow! Cat’s paws are not good for opening envelopes so I opened it for Isabella and, yes, there was a tea towel of Maldon. There was even a note attached.

“Dear Isabella, a present for you from Maldon. Hope you like it. We enjoy looking at all your photos and hearing your stories about squirrels, birds and shrews and killing garlic and onions. You brighten our day up. We know we will never meet up but you’re in our thoughts. Love Tilly, Tinker, Blackie and Rupert”.

A tea towel always deserves a thank you ‘note’, no matter how crazy that sounds “Dear Tilly, Tinker, Blackie and Rupert, Barbara let me send you a message on her phone because I don’t have one of my own. Thank you so much for the beautiful tea towel. It is the first one that I have of my own although I’ll let Barbara use it. It is sooooo great. I’ll send you a photo soon. Love Isabella”

The fact is, despite all those bonkers texts, I love a traditional, touristy tea towel, one that can remind you of a place, an adventure, a happening. I may not have been to Maldon but this one will always remind me of the Textations between me and my Aunt Catherine. I’d quite like to see those Barges on Blackwater River! Thank you so much.

Sheep in Sweaters: 2021

It was a really warm, sunny day with a breeze that I hadn’t expected. Liz had decided to take her two grandchildren to Shipley Country Park for the day. There are walks to be had, outdoor gym equipment to use, challenging parks for all ages, places to eat sitting outside, well socially distanced. There are four Trampers to hire and….after 18 months, the Gift Shop was finally opened.

Shipley Country Park had had Trampers available for most of Lockdown but didn’t open their Gift Shop when other non-essential shops could be opened. It was a real shame because the Gift Shop sold a good mixture of tea towels, most of which I have, not necessarily from Shipley. There are Emma Ball ‘County’ tea towels (both Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire), Perkins and Morley ‘Collective Noun’ ones, a lot of ‘Dog’ ones because Shipley is certainly loved by dog-walkers. However, it is always difficult to spot the tea towels in there because they are scattered across the shop, linked with mugs, table mats, aprons, fridge magnets……

I refused to go in the shop when we arrived because if I’d bought a tea towel, I’d have just wanted to ‘play’ with it. So I did my ‘Steps’, had my sausage cob and cup of tea, walked round the lake and was drawn magnetically back to the shop. The grandchildren were too but only because there was a mound of ice creams. While they were choosing, I was able to scavenge the Gift Shop for tea towels. In the end, frustrated, I asked an Assistant where they were.

“They’re scattered around” she said “But I’ll just check”.

Another Assistant pointed and said “They’re in the Tea Towel Section”

“Ooh” the first Assistant said “I didn’t know we had a Tea Towel Section”

And, sure enough, there was a Tea Towel Section with loads more than they had had pre-Lockdown. The ‘knowledgable’ Assistant said

“What sort of design are you looking for?”

There was really only one possible response “Anything I’ve haven’t got already, and that might be difficult”. Then I saw ‘Sheep in Sweaters’. It had to be that. It had made several appearances on Instagram during Lockdown and I had wanted to see it in ‘real life’. So now Emma Ball’s ‘Sheep in Sweaters’ has joined my collection. Don’t you think those sheep look so cute in their Fair Isle jumpers?

So my trip to Shipley was lovely and ended up with a tea towel. What could be better?

The Joy of Tea Towel Sharing (22)

My ‘Headliner’ today is the ‘Floral Hare’. I bought it back in April, just after non-essential shops were opening up. It was from the shop in Wollaton Park. I was interested in it for two reasons. Firstly, it is designed by one of the artists that Wraptious use. Ask me to explain what Wraptious is and I can’t. What I do know is that I own a number of tea towels sold under the banner of Wraptious. I think its time that the Virtual Tea Towel Museum did an In Conversation With…. Wraptious. Watch this space. The second reason that I bought it was because my friend Gwyn, who I’d known 41 years, was a lover of hares. She had paintings and pictures, ornaments and cushions, and one tea towel. Hares always make me think of Gwyn; it is just over a year since Gwyn died. Yesterday, I was sifting through the last of my photos, scanning them onto the computer, when I came across a load of us together in Paris, in February 1989. On top of the Eiffel Tower, drunk in our hotel, on the Eurostar to and from Waterloo, outside the restaurant where I discovered couscous and swore I would never eat it again. Just the mention of it makes me feel sick. I’d forgotten that we stayed with my mother on the way (because she lived in London). There are photos of us eating in her lounge, sitting on her bright orange sofa, eating Quality Street (because my mother always plied her guests with Quality Street). Those were the days, said with a big sigh.

Moving on the tea towels people have shared with me. The first two are from Beth. Readers have seen others from Beth recently because she had made several into cushion covers. The first is from Australia ‘Aboriginal Art’. She doesn’t have the background to it. But, wow, how stunning. The second one is a map of Scotland made up of city and town names. “This is fitting due to the fact that I will be leaving for Scotland in 64 days! (Less than that now). “Probably my favourite, for obvious reasons. At this point in my life, I think I know the geography of Scotland better than I do my own country or state” (California). I understand Beth has given up making cushion covers because otherwise she would be overrun by them!

Moving on to the tea towels that my friend Fran shared with me. She has been staying in her family home near Worthing “Another stash just excavated…they never went to Aussie, that must mean it was a gift. The Guinness one is my favourite by a mile – the reason I was born in Dublin was because my Dad worked for Guinness. My Mum never threw anything away so there would have been loads I’m sure. My brother has been gradually running down the contents of the house”

I have talked about Ian, the plumber, who was using a tea towel to collect drips from my radiator. He returned yesterday, to drain the system and yes I caught him drying his tea towel on a garden rail. Couldn’t resist a photo. @RodhamKaren sent in a tea towel “I was just looking to replace my hand cream and noticed their tea towels”. I do like the Farmers ones. It makes me wonder what sort of hand cream she was buying! And @GeoffRimington submitted a great tea towel ‘The Perfect Cuppa’. “With immense thanks to the lovely @FluffyRona for seeing this and sending it to me. I am the proud owner of a Tunnock Tea Towel!! And here it is, fresh out of the packet”. No one can do better than a Tunnock Tea Towel.

And the last three tea towels today are from @BrianCo5554378 “I love tea towel sharing. When I entered a kitchen I love to see a tea towel hanging on an oven door”. His second one was ‘Campbeltown Sketches’, a traditional touristy one “Hope you like! This is from Campbeltown in Scotland” and finally ‘Outback’. In my experience of Australian tea towels, this one is quite unique “The Australian one is creative. It’s made of a strange material and is more like silk. My cousin sent it to me from Australia. She lives in Brisbane.”

That was an eclectic selection of great tea towels and I hope there will be more! #thejoyofteatowelsharing