Wintery skies

I woke up this morning and remembered that it would have been my grandmothers birthday, Winifred florence Sockett nee hammersley born Newcastle under Lyme 17 january 1906. She was a good gran indeed, not a kissy huggy sort of gran, but one who showed by deed how much you were loved by how she cared for you.Scrubbed knees, hair plaited so tight your eyes were high in your head when she had finished. Then the treats of silk socks with sometimes, if you were lucky, a fine colour band at the cuff of the sock. Silk ribbons for my hair,Patchwork pieces to make dolly clothes.  Into Cannock on a saturday to do the shopping together, buying a hot roast chicken which i carried in a big bag to keep my hands warm, then chicken baps with stuffing for tea, Oh and the treat of a Ladybird book every saturday, if i was good , and i took ages choosing one, while gran was trying to hurry me up because we had a bus to catch.  Then Roast beef dinners on a Sunday, sewing together, starched clean white sheets, icy cold and white,spotlessly clean home, she didnt have a lot of money but she kept home sparkling.She worked so hard all of her life and bought me up in her own home . Most of all i remember her laughing with me as I grew into a young woman, when we could exchange confidences.My wedding day when after the wedding we all went to the train station and we sat opposite a vicar on the train and gran was knocking on the train window making us laugh and saying do you want him to read it again.She lived to see me have her great grandaughter Jenny and hold her and to visit, what wonderful Happy memories, no sadness just joy to have had such a wonderful granny.
Then I got on with the day as you do for life goes on, and i was up early enough to capture a wintery sky full of colour aginst the dark of the trees.



January early morning sky




The sky taken looking east



Two of my favourite winter poems by joyce grenfell

 Then i baked plink plonk cakes, they were supposed to be butterfly cakes, but i cut a hole and the shape of the butterfly wings did not emerge, so i plonked them on as a lid,hence the name plink plonk cakes and very plinking  nice they tasted too. Note my Christmas present a wallace and gromit radio from martin and laura.

As evening was setting, i captured yet another sky, by now it was really getting cold, but January gives so many lovely skies that I hope to take more.