Calendars and cards and stuff …

Righty-ho – you can find all the details of how to buy your calendars and cards right here:

http://www.cccare.org/Christmascardsandcalendar.htm

In the meantime, the Christmas Fair is (shudder) almost upon us. We have just four working days left in which to organize everything. I ordered the sandwiches (for delivery on Saturday morning) and we’ve got our most faithful cake-bakers lined up and raring to go. The on-the-day raffle priizes are sorted, the Great Spring Raffle prizes are displayed and the tickets printed and the main Trivia Quiz is ready.

The ‘Abandon Hope’ trivia quiz is proving more intractable. I’m stuck for two final questions. I just can’t think of anything mean enough … (believe it or not).

Christmas must be coming …

I’m currently engaged in making a poster for our Christmas Fair (Saturday, November 14th – if you happen to be passing), and raffle tickets for – wait for it – our 2010 Spring raffle, which are going to go on sale at said Christmas Fair.

I’ll be posting details of the main prizes (and they’re little crackers – trust me on this …) very soon, but in the meantime  I can announce that the Centre’s calendar and Christmas card are ready to buy.

The Christmas cards (blank inside for your own greeting) are A6 in size (that’s approxinmately 5.75″ by 4″) and are  60p each or £3.25 for a pack of six:

The Calendar, which is wirebound and opens to A3 to hang on the wall,  features six views from around the Centre.

Calendars are £6.00 if you collect them yourself and £6.50 if you would like one posted to you.

Ordering instructions to follow shortly …

The wisdom of emails …

I’ve persuaded all but four of the little swine to go through.  They saw the error of their ways.  The four standouts have no idea how much trouble they’re in …

*SOB*

I’ve just spent all morning setting up an email mailing list for our Autumn/Winter newsletter, and of the 69 newsletters and enclosures I sent off, fifteen have bounced straight back.

Yours, through the tears,

M.

If you have nothing better to do …

Remember, back in the summer, I went off to Penrith to give a talk to the Romantic Novelists Association at their annual conference?

Well, you might like to read this sometime … Crazy Like a Fox.

It’s an abridged version of the talk I gave.  It comes, however, with a warning.  ‘Abridged’ only means it’s shorter than it was.  It doesn’t mean it’s short.  It’s only ’short’ if you’re comparing it to – say – “Gone with the Wind” – which I wouldn’t.

Think ‘De Profundis‘, only more cheerful.

Meanwhile … back in reality …

The Shepley Engineers apprentices are doing WONDERFUL things with ironwork in the garden here at the Chase …

As well as our gorgeous garden arch:

They’ve also refurbished (ie: almost completely rebuilt) the steps to the workshop in the rear courtyard:

AND … they’re in the process of putting gates on the old storehouse in the vegetable garden …

If we get much posher, we’re going to start charging people to come in and admire us …

Snap!!

And in today’s post …

We’re think about matching ensembles …

Some mistake, surely?

This arrived in the post this morning …

Oh my dear life.   They MUST have the wrong person …

LATER IN THE DAY:

This day just got stranger.  I’ve been asked to be one of three judges of The Romantic Novel of the Year award.

That settles it.  I’ve slipped into an alternate universe again …

Your starter for ten …

Is there ANYONE out there who can identify THIS baby garment:

If it’s any help at all, it measures about 18 inches from side to side as laid out in the photo, and around 9 inches from ’shoulder’ to hem.  The ‘arms’ appear to have been set in upside down and those bizarre slits in what should be the shoulders are just plain strange.

It belongs to a friend of the Centre and comes from a very, very old house.  She has more than one of them – so the design is deliberate, not a mistake.

The only suggestion I’ve had so far that makes some sort of sense is that we’re looking at it the wrong way up, and that those sleeves are in fact, for little baby legs and it’s some sort of nappy job … but it’s a very fragile thing – and was never  robust, being (beautifully) made from very fine cotton lawn.  Age estimate – early Victorian?  Possibly late Georgian?

Any and all suggestions gratefully received.

Yep, that figures …

We live on jumble.  Nay, we positively THRIVE on the stuff – each new delivery is greeted with little squeaks of joy as Gretchen and I try to beat each other to best bits …

And we get some jolly interesting stuff, too … but sometimes, the back story of how we ended up with an unwanted gizmo is more interesting than the gizmo itself.

Take the bio-feedback machine (list price over £100) designed to help you lower your stress levels and therefore blood pressure by controlling your respiration rate.  Virtually brand new, used once, perfect working condition, with all necessary accessories.

It’s a well-regarded and proven way of reducing hypertension without drugs.

So – why did we end up with it?  We asked the donor that very question as she was sitting in the kitchen clutching a mug of tea.  Her reply:

“I didn’t have the patience to use it.”