Flutterby Patch

White linen for Christmas

On my desk this Wednesday is newly washed white linen waiting to be ironed.

Vintage table cloths and napkins, tray cloths, mats and table runners all handed down to me by my parents and grandparents. I love them all but keeping them snowy white isn't always easy as 'vintage stains' have left their mark over the years. Boiling, bleaching and any number of hot washes with biological detergents have had little effect on a handful of items with stubborn stains. But then I discovered Oxy-plus.

My blogging chum Jan recommended it to me a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't wait to try it. I found a tub in my local hardware store, parted with my £1.50 and returned home thinking I'd probably just wasted my hard earned cash. The instructions on the label tell you it can be used on food and wine stains, grass stains, mould, mildew, tar in fact virtually anything. Colours won't fade, nasty odours will be removed and it can be used for washing by hand or by machine. In the end I decided it all sounded a bit too good to be true so I half filled a bucket with very hot water, added a scoop of Oxy-plus and put a badly stained tray cloth in to soak. I was sure it wouldn't work as nothing else ever had.

How wrong I was. After 40 minutes the stains had completely vanished, the cloth was brilliant white and sweet smelling and all it needed was a good rinse. Since then I have washed other items using Oxy-plus in the washing machine and had similarly good results. So thank you Jan for recommending this magical powder. Do be sure to visit Jan at Redwood House as she's a very creative and talented lady; I always look forward to reading her posts.

So now I have snowy white cloths for my Christmas table. I wish I could say this was actually a picture of my table but sadly it isn't.

It can be found in this book. Its one of my all time favourites and I will be returning to it again nearer to Christmas.

Meanwhile I think I'll settle down with some of my other Christmas publications and look for inspiration for this year's festivities, keeping a watchful eye for ideas that recommend the use of snowy white cloths!

Books, boxes and even more books

On 19th October I showed you pictures of our study and the work that was being done. After several months of upheaval I had hoped to have all the furniture, books and other bits and bobs back in there by now. Frustratingly chaos continues to reign and our dining room is still a very untidy storeroom piled high with the entire contents of the study.

Heaps of cushions...

 
...and a new cushion nearing completion.

Boxes containing china and glass that I will hopefully return undamaged to...

the the newly painted cupboards.

Here is a sample of the other items that are waiting patiently for their return to the study. Books! Everywhere books!

On window sills...

...on shelves...

...and on more shelves....

...and in more heaps. I adore books and have been buying old and new ones since I was in my teens. Above is a selection of my oldest. All leather bound and all well thumbed by previous owners.

This enormous bible, seen at the bottom of the pile, was printed in 1715

The paper is thick with a texture resembling blotting paper. There are sets of illustrations accompanying each chapter.

Many books from the 17th and 18th centuries concentrated on religious and moral subjects. This is my oldest. It dates from 1689 and is written for 'The Holy, Serious, Diligent Believer'. The owner in 1791 was R Baxter and by time he wrote his name in the book it would have been 102 years old. I wonder if the books printed today will still be in use 102 years from now or will books be obsolete by then? I can't imagine a world without them.

I wonder how many people have owned it over the centuries?

This book is entitled 'The Essays, or Councels, Civil and Moral of Sir Francis Bacon with a Table of Colours of Good and Evil' (what a title!). Date of printing 1691. I particularly like the bookplate which dates from the 1700s and reads 

This book belongs to
JH Hogarth

If though art borrowed by a Friend
Right welcome will he be
To read, to study, not to lend,
But to return to me.

Not that imparted Knowledge doth
Diminish learning's store,
But Books I find, if often lent,
Return to me no more.

Read slowly, Pause frequently,
Think seriously,
Keep cleanly, Return duly
with the corners of the leaves not turned down.

The inscription under the bookplate is written in red and reads
Percy Smith
July 25th 1914
Bought Bradford Market

'The Spectator', which is part of a set that I have, is dated 1767 and like the others in this group has a charming illustration facing the title page.

For fear of boring you with my shabby old books I will make this my last.  'Punch Vol. X' contains bound volumes of Punch magazine January to June 1846.

There are hundreds of satirical illustrations relating to topical subjects of the time, many of them political. Perhaps not surprisingly some of the topics under discussion are still being debated today 162 years later. The following made me smile.


This picture entitled 'Designs for Dwarf Houses' accompanies an article written in 1846 regarding Sir Robert Peel's suggestion to Parliament that England should seriously consider offering asylum to the world's smallest people, namely dwarfs. He had the wonderful idea that a series of tiny homes could be purpose built for these 'shorter than average' people and the dwellings could bear the name 'The Royal Lilliput Quadrangle'. Punch magazine reported this and the article was accompanied by this amusing illustration. Judging by some of the subjects that get debated by today's Parliament I think this ridiculous idea could easily be debated again. I wonder what the result would be!

Ship-shape and ready to sail

On my desk this Wednesday is just one item. It's something we've had for over 30 years and we all look at it but rarely touch it. Its a ship made of glass.

This delicate vessel dates from the late Victorian era and has spent the last 100 or so years since its creation under a glass dome. They were very popular ornaments in Victorian homes but it isn't difficult to see why few have survived to the present day. Whilst in our care it has always lived on a top shelf well away from harm's way.

Today I carefully removed the glass dome for its annual wash. Its always a 'hold your breath' moment as it would be so easy to damage the delicate masts or their rigging.

One more photograph before replacing the dome for another year. This view reminds me of pictures I've seen of Ernest Shackleton's ship HMS Endurance when it was stuck in the ice during his 1914 expedition to Antarctica. What an adventure that was.

I don't know who owned the vessel before us or how many journeys it has made. Thankfully we have only moved house three times since owning it because its transportation always causes a few problems and has to be well planned. Each moving day I have placed it in a strong box cushioned by all manner of soft objects and then, when the time has come, the box has been given prime position in our car for the journey to the new abode. The glass ship is always last to be packed and first to be unpacked as I should hate to damage it. It is now safe once again under its dome and will sit on my desk until I place it back on its shelf for another year.