Magdalene Laundries

I saw a film on television Tuesday evening about the Magdalene Laundries or the Magdalene Asylums as they were sometimes called. I cannot stop thinking about this film, which was based on fact.

They were institutions for so-called fallen women and young girls. As Catholic institutions, they were run by Catholic nuns. They were meant to be for women who had been prostitutes and young girls who had become pregnant without being married. The text that accompanied this film stated that the institutes had been named for St. Mary Magdalene, who according to Catholic tradition, repented her sins and became one of Jesus' closest followers.

The movement soon became distant from it's original aim which was to be a sort of rescue movement for these women and the institutions soon took on a prison-like regime. The women and girls who lived there, were locked in, and frequently beaten by the nuns for disobedience as they were deemed to be 'in need of penitence'. In order to enforce and maintain a monastic atmosphere, the inmates were required to observe strict silence for most of the day. In a place that defined belief their only hope was in each other. The film was very moving and for someone who, being very tired, was only going to watch the first few minutes, ended up rooted to the sofa and watched the whole thing.

As the brief widened, it extended beyond prostitution and unmarried mothers to developmentally-challenged women and abused girls. Sometimes, young girls considered to be too promiscuous and flirtatious were sometimes sent to the laundries/asylum for just those reasons.

When I lived in Monmouth, I remember having a conversation with an acquaintance of mine about the Magdalene Laundries, and she said there had been one not far from where we lived. We actually went to see the building, which was pretty grim, but I personally do not know if this was a Magdalene Laundry or something similar. The film stated that these laundries were mainly in Ireland.

These females were usually admitted to the institutions at the request of the family or of a priest. Without a family member to vouch for them on the outside, after a period of time, some women/girls would stay in these places for the rest of their lives.

It was compulsive viewing. If it is ever shown on television again, and it undoubtedly will be, it is a must to watch. It is a part of our history, not a history to be proud of, but history nevertheless.

New Years Day

Silver Birch in fading light.

I went to my friend Ms. L today, to spend some time with her and we had a New Years Day lunch together which was nice.

I took the above picture from one of the windows in her home at the onset of dusk. This beautiful Silver Birch was covered in frost, which had not thawed throughout the day, and was spectacular to look at. I had not expected the photograph to come out at all, but I am so glad it did and I made the effort to take the picture, although it still does not capture the beauty of the tree in that particular light.

New Year Celebrations!

Big Ben New years Eve

Celebrating the New Year is always an anti climax I feel. I went to the Sports & Social Club with my friend Mrs. H this year and the best thing about it was the company! The 'acts' were not good, one passable singer, one that murdered Nessun Dorma (English: None shall sleep - there was NO chance of that with his catawalling!) and an Elvis tribute Act, all too loud and really not our cup of tea, but we amused ourselves with other things and stayed until well after midnight. We are stalwarts, if nothing else!

We started our evening by going out for a meal to a venue that we are quietly making our own. The food is always nice there, it is a welcoming place and nice 'n' warm! What more could anyone ask for on a cold winters night?

When we got to the Sports & Social club, we finally settled down at our third table, Mrs. H wanting to move around until she was exactly where she wanted to be ...she a terror for this!

We were pleased to see our formally inebriated 'friends' there from a previous visit, Dancing Spider and his wife, so we knew we were in for some kind if entertainment! We didn't have long to wait, it was a hoot! They didn't disappoint!

Mrs. H had other friends at this venue and they were all super people, the ones we sat with were dressed up as Sharon & Ozzy Osbourne. I got some cracking photographs, but for obvious reasons I cannot publish them!

We had a couple of dances just before midnight and all saw the New Year in together. When it was time to sing 'Auld Lang Syne', the closing anthem for New Years' Eve, Mrs H. disappeared, so her other friends and I sang our little hearts out without her! Where had she gone you may wonder ... outside to send a text and then had to ring the buzzer to get back in because of the door being locked with it being New Years Eve!

We had a good time and remembered absent friends, The lovely Miss A who is in the Caribbean and Mr. D (.... we are his groupies! ...) who is in Spain on a gig. Maybe it would be a good idea to follow him to Spain for 2009 New Year, he is a far better entertainer than last nights motley crew !!!

A Happy New Year.

To anyone who has taken the time to read this Blog during 2008 I would like to say 'Thank You'.

I hope that you continue to join me in my ramblings during 2009 ...... and I wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

Van Gough

Peach Tree in Bloom - 1888. Vincent Van Gough

This afternoon I have been looking at the works of Vincent Van Gough. I have looked at a few others and decided that their work is not for me at this point in time. However Van Gough I like, not necessarily his most famous works, but some of his paintings catch my imagination. I am using today to try and get a feeling for what I like.

There is quite a bit of information around about the artist himself, but not a huge amount more than what most people already know. How he suffered from a mental illness, and how he cut off the lobe of his left ear in 1888 during some sort of seizure. Then of course his tragic suicide after the breakdown of his friendship with Paul Gauguin.

I think if I am going to follow through this newly found interest, I need to know about the painters, what their lives were like, information on their background and so on. Just to identify the picture is not enough. I need to know how they discovered their talent and about their life journey in general.

The picture above is one he painted at a difficult time in his life. I like it, but also I once owned a house called 'Peach Tree House' and planted several Peach trees there. It was at a time when I was very happy, so I would like to own a print of this paintings for personal reasons. I must take my sister up on her offer of a day around the Art Galleries in London where she lives. Maybe I can pick up some decent prints of some of the artists I have been talking about this week.

Michelangelo

Ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, The Vatican, Rome - Michelangelo

After being with my sister last night and speaking with her this morning, I am looking at lots of Great Masters on the Internet, but as I have said before on this Blog I have this plebeian attitude of liking what I like and unfortunately, at this point in time, does not include all works of art.

I wish I had a fraction of my sister's knowledge of such matters, but that cannot be, but what I do have is an excellent tutor in her. I looked up and read about Michelangelo this morning and have actually seen some of his works in the Vatican in the late 1980's when on holiday in Rome. I remember being in awe of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel with over 300 figures painted on it and the ceiling being well over 5,000 sq. feet. If finances allow I really must try and go there again. I remember a lot more about that visit, but for today's Blog I am tentatively focusing on the Arts.

If there is anyone out there reading this Blog I promise I will return to points of historical interest in Tredegar and the valleys soon, but for now please indulge me in my new passion!

Byeeeee .........

On the sixth day of Christmas .............

A Family Evening .....

My Great Nephews Feet!

All you Blog followers out there are wondering why I have my great nephews feet as my topic picture. Well as you will guess thereby hangs a tale!

My great nieces had received for Christmas 'Dorothy' shoes, identical shoes to the ones Dorothy wore in the film 'The Wizard Oz'. They are delightful, the shoes I mean, as you will read loads more about how delightful their owners are later.

So ..... I took a photo of the shoes as the main picture for this Blog about my lovely family, it was only when I got home and downloaded the photos, I discovered it was a video of the shoes I had taken, with my brother -in-law-providing the unrehearsed commentary in the background! It is so funny! Unfortunately, I cannot upload a video onto blogger.

Now, my great Nephew, aged 2 years, wanted a photo of his feet also. It was just as well he did, otherwise I would not have had a lead picture for this blog!!!

I has such a lovely evening with my sister and her husband, and I was delighted to meet all their grandchildren, some of them for the first time. It was hilarious with four children from 4 years downwards, absolutely charming. I watched my brother-in-law of almost 40 years looking at his grandchildren and saw such love and pride in his face.

The children, as I have said, are delightful, two pretty little girls and two handsome boys, the youngest who walked for the first time tonight when I was there! How about that for a Christmas present?

'Bah Humbug' - for a day!

Christmas tree at Tredegar House - not mine unfortunately!


While I am not a huge fan of the Christmas razzmatazz neither am I a 'spoilsport' about it. However today, I have been a real misery about my Christmas tree, this feeling has been building up for days. You see my real, once fresh Christmas tree is shedding it's needles as if they are going out of fashion!

I have brushed and hoovered, shaken rugs and generally tried to find some enthusiasm for the wilting tree. I have tried convincing myself the tree is lovely and it smells good, I've moved it and talked to it, but still the needles come raining down! So today was the day - IT HAD TO GO!

I got up fairly early and started immediately so that I would not changed my mind; as soon as I took the first bauble off there was no going back, I had induced an avalanche! I thoroughly dislike this laminate flooring in my living room, but today it was just the right medium. It meant that I could sweep the needles into a pile and scoop them up with a dustpan and brush (well dozens of dustpans full actually). I dusted the ornaments and packed them away, returned the Star to it's tissue paper home and then I started to wilt, so I phoned my friend Mrs. H for a chat and some encouragement!

When it was finally all done and the sitting room returned to it's cosy normality ....... I felt sad .... I missed it, the scraggy old half dead thing that it was, for it represented Christmas.

Better luck next year maybe?

First love ..........

Me and HIM - Whitsun 1963

This badly marked, poorly scanned photograph above is of me aged sixteen and my very first love. Taken in Bedwellty Park in Tredegar in 1963.. it was a Whitsun time and my suit was new for the occasion, pearl grey with white accessories. HE had just met me from Chapel.


What is it doing in the Blog you may wonder. Well I found it in with some other old photos earlier tonight. All the photos of me and HIM have always been kept separately in a special place, but somehow this one escaped! It has now been placed lovingly with all the others, but I couldn't resist the temptation to scan it into the Blog and say something.


We met in school when we were both thirteen years old and had some super times together in a very immature way (because that is what we were - immature) no worldly knowledge for us in 1963.


I have asked, when I have visited Tredegar if any one knows where he is now, but no one seems to know where he went after he left Tredegar. He seems to have disappeared! Well I would just like to say 'Thank You ... for a lovely first relationship full of fun and normality, without any of the pressures that young people often seem to have these days. I am glad we knew each other in the early sixties'.

Update - Boxing Day Hunt!

When I mentioned yesterday about the Fox Hunting, I had not realised what a big event it is in Bassaleg. I picked up the nightly paper this evening, something I haven't done for over a week, and there was a report in there about the Hunt - the Tredegar Farmers Hunt- so named because of it's close proximity to Tredegar house.

It was the 60th Anniversary of the this Hunt over 2000 people tuned out to see them off. It is a traditional Boxing Day event, but what with it being a special anniversary the crowds came out to support tradition, remember and generally celebrate.

The next largest support group was at Abergavenny, where over 3000 people turned out to see the Hunt meeting at Cross Street, Abergavenny. There were other Hunts, also well supported, in surrounding villages. Whatever the debates and issues this sport evokes in people, (of which I personally do not have a view) it was good to see so many people pulling together and supporting a common cause in their towns and villages.

A bit more about Turner!

Ludlow Castle - J.M.W Turner

Having had a bit more time last night, I read some more of my Christmas book on the painter Turner.

In my previous Blog I speculated that he might have come to Wales, as I had found a painting of Tintern Abbey. (see blog dated 25th December 2008). Well he did! He began a series of tours in search of suitable material for watercolours and oil paintings which engravers could reproduce and sell in large quantities. The series that included the Welsh paintings was titled 'Picturesque Views of England and Wales'. There were others of course, 'The South Coast of England' and 'The Rivers of France' and so on .....

No doubt there will be more about this man and other painters in this Blog in the future. I am starting to enjoy all this!

Boxing Day

The Hunt at Bassaleg

Today I went to my friends Mrs.H for the day. We went to see the Local Hunt ride out of the village, something I haven't done since I was married. I have no strong views on the Hunting issues that are around, so didn't mind going.

As far as I can gather, arguments over the rights and wrongs of hunting are still fierce despite being well aired. The anti lobby say it is a cruel and inefficient way of protecting livestock from foxes and controlling their population. However the hunters say that shooting and poisoning would be far more cruel and that hunting with the hounds is an important civil liberty. I reiterate, I have no opinion on this issue.

During the morning I realised that I had left my curling tongs switched on, so I had to dash back home to switch the blooming things off!!! When I got back, having missed the Hunt moving off, Mrs. H had been joined by two of her sons, their wives/partners, some of her grandchildren and another friend.. They all graduated to the local pub where I joined them after I had completed my mercy dash to the curling tongs! The place brimming with people, we all sat at a huge table, and was full of atmosphere and laughter, so totally 'Christmassy'.

We eventually got back to Mrs. H's home where she had prepared a superb buffet before hand and we spent the afternoon there eating (far too much) and chatting. A real traditional Boxing Day. Nice!

A Christmas present

One of my Christmas presents was a book about the painter Turner. I was delighted. If there is anyone out there reading this Blog, you will know that I have developed a belated interest in the Arts. An amateur interest I agree, but an interest never the less. I have said in this Blog previously that I like Turners work. About seven years ago I went to The Tate Gallery and saw 'The Turner Exhibition'. That was probably where my interest stemmed from, but with all the ensuing hoo-ha over my marriage breakdown and all the dross that went with it, that it is only now I am really thinking about such things as the Arts.

One thing I was intrigued with, just leafing through this book, is that Turner painted Tintern Abbey (see picture above). I lived within a few miles of Tintern Abbey (as the crow flies) for several years, and have very many photographs of it from different angles, but didn't know that it had been the subject of a sketch by Turner; but there is a lot I don't know about such things!

I know, through my sister, that Wordsworth had written a poem about Tintern Abbey in 1798, but had no idea that Turner had painted it. It comes from one of Turner's sketchbooks, which were a 'storehouse' of ideas for later paintings. It is dated 1825. I wonder if I can get a nice print of that.

There are other works of his from this part of Wales and across the border in Herefordshire, so he must have spent some time in these parts. I am seeing my sister this coming week, so I hope her knowledge of Joseph Turner is up to scratch!

Mmmmm ........ I must end this little missal or I will be late for my Christmas lunch, and as I am a guest so that will never do!

A Christmas Carol

This is my favourite Christmas carol. It started life as a poem by Christina Rossetti and it was later that it became a much love carol. I though it was fitting for Christmas morning.

A Christmas Carol

In the bleak mid-Winter

Frosty winds made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow has fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak mid winter

Long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him

Nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away

When he comes to reign:

In the Bleak mid-winter

A stable-place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty

Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim

Worship night and day,

A breastful of milk

And a mangerful of hay;

Enough for Him, whom angels

Fall down before,

The ox and ass and camel

Which adore.

Angels and archangels

May have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim

Thronged the air;

But only his mother

In her maiden bliss

Worshipped the Beloved

With a kiss.

What can I give Him,

Poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd

I would give a lamb,

If I were a Wise Man

I would do my part, -

Yet what can I give Him,

Give my heart.

Homeless at Christmas

I know that many people have their own perspective on the homeless, but I have been surprised this year as to how many people, people I know, actually know so little about people on the Streets and in particular the 'Big Issue' sellers. So, after speaking with a vendor this afternoon to make sure my information is still current, I would like to clear a few points up this Christmas Eve evening.

While we all are doing the traditional Christmas things at home, the preparation for Christmas dinner, for Santa Clause to come and going to Church there are actually people local to us that don't have homes to go to. Not all are drunks and tramps, there are people out there that are where they are through circumstance, and not all of them get benefits. Some slip through the welfare net and some don't qualify because they are of no fixed abode.

The 'Big Issue' was launched in 1991 and a lot of people seem to be under the impression that the vendors/sellers are given the magazines free of charge to sell. This is simply not so. They have to buy them for 75p each and then they can be sold for £1.50 meaning that the vendor gets 75p profit. It was set up to give homeless people a chance to make an income. Most vendors are homeless, but they can be ex-homeless or vulnerably housed. The ex homeless can still sell the 'Big Issue' if they are found to be still in need. A homeless person being housed is only the first stage in getting people off the streets. There are many issues to be addressed after that, as for us all who have homes.

All 'Big Issue' vendors carry an identity badge with a number on it and if you want to complain about a vendor you must telephone the following number and quote that identity number. Though my personal experience is that most of them are polite with plenty of patience, but there are exceptions to the rule as with all walks of life.

If you need to complain this Christmas season please telephone: 029 2025 5670 and quote the ID number.

If you see a 'Big Issue' for sale, try it, it is packed with your local issues wherever you may live ......... and you will be helping someone out this Christmas.

LLwydcoed, Aberdare

This morning I went to Llwydcoed Crematorium in Aberdare to put some flowers on my parents place of rest. It is a long way from Newport and it is always so much colder up there than down in Newport. I was okay wrapped in my warm duffle coat and my long fluffy scarf, but then I have had a lot of practice in the elements at Aberdare! I have never seen so many people there .... and it wasn't raining, which is very unusual!

There was a service in progress when I passed the chapel and that brought back memories, but all in all it was a positive visit. You cannot put too many flowers in the receptacles as they are so small - crematorium plots - it's not like a grave where you have lots of space. Anyway, I did the best I could with what flowers I had, and when I finished I thought it all looked quite nice.

It just started to drizzle when I got to the car, well it couldn't not rain in Aberdare now could it?

Winter Solstice

Daybreak - Winter Solstice over the Bristol Channel

Every year I wait, in my mind, for the 21st December, The Winter Solstice. Why? Because it is the shortest day and the longest night and after it has passed the days, very slowly at first, get longer and I feel we are heading for Spring.

It passed on Sunday and as I have such a wretched cold, I was so immersed in self pity, (not an attractive quality) I forgot about it! Then lying in bed this morning, in the dark, I suddenly realised that it had passed and that from now on the days would gradually get longer and the nights shorter.

The Winter Solstice (also known as Yule) was a pagan celebration and celebrated in Britain long before Christianity. However many of the Winter Solstice customs have now been incorporated into the Christian and Secular celebrations of Christmas.

Isn't it funny how some things that you learn in school spill over into your adult life?

Modern day journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

Today I had an email from my friend Miss L. It contained the following link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7789479.scm (all one - no spaces).

BBC correspondent Aleem Maqbool is walking from Nazareth to Bethlehem retracing a journey made by Mary and Joseph in the New Testament story of Jesus birth. He is doing it, in 2008, on a donkey, well several donkeys actually, and keeping an online diary. There is fascinating text and video links as he goes about his travels.

It is well worth linking into this. This is what Christmas should be about not 'shopping until you drop'!

Thank you Miss L for sending me the link and I hope someone reading this Blog will pick up on it and will think about what Christmas really means.

Robin White Breast?

Robin with a white breast - taken from a television picture.

I sometimes switch on the visual news in the middle of the day and before it comes on I get the tail end of a Magazine programme, whatever is running before the news.

This morning they were talking about an Albino robin, so I stopped to listen. It seems that Albino robins are unheard of in the wild, this one lives on Hampstead Heath! It seems that Bird Watches all over the country have been asking the RSPB to record the number of sightings of this little chap and asking for more information about this visitor.

The RSPB's response has been to tell people to photograph it if they can and 'savour the moment' because it is highly unlikely that another one will come along again ...particularly at Christmas time.