Breaking News…..

50 Replies

Apologies, I have been away panic buying fairy lights and fingerless gloves. I am hoping that the fairy lights will perk me up during the endless Winter of 2021 – 2024, just like they did during the endless Winter of 2014 – 2018. I have made preparations for the knee deep mud, and the inevitable Beast from the East, which will hit the UK for an afternoon in March. I have also made my garden a TRAMPOLINE FREE ZONE – bouncers beware.

Meanwhile, I have cobbled a collage together from bits of old newspaper and a vintage map of London.

Let us have a closer look at the news story from about the late 1950’s…
Click to make big.

If only news stories were as innocuous as this in 2021!

The woman poking her tongue out in the photograph is my Grandmother. She appears to be doing a Miley Cyrus impersonation…

The Blue family are always ahead of the times, and with this in mind I suggest that all of my readers go forth and buy fairy lights, as come 1st December the shelves will be bare of all Christmas decorations aside from two streaks of threadbare tinsel, and a grubby angel with wonky wings. You were warned.

50 thoughts on “Breaking News…..”

  2. Scarlet Post author

    Lulu – She does look sassy doesn’t she! I think the photo is from the 1920’s, and she used to work in a china shop.
    To be fair I still have some lights left up from last year, so I thought I’d add more.
    Yep, Halloween pumpkins don’t last!
    Sx

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  3. Mistress Borghese

    You are absent for a while. I thought maybe you were pregnant. But thanks heavens it was just winter and deep mud prepartaions. LOBE this latest bit of work. And touching you incorporated your grandmother into your creations. Your a chip off the block I see.

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Mistress B – The deep mud preparations do take a lot of time, and possibly therapy. I’m am psyched, I am ready to do battle, I have a hosepipe, I have rubber sheeting and lots of towels, I will survive! During the summer month* the mud kit can be used for more pleasurable activities.
      Thank you for your kind words re the collage! I would love to get into a regular habit of making them as I’d like to send them to my blogging friends – I need to get on a roll with them – more doing and less daydreaming!
      Sx

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      2. Mistress Borghese

        Id be more than happy to hear more about the summer mud kit. I have no mud to speak of, but you had me at the pleasurable activities part. And I will have to email you to get your address, so I might add you to my Christmas card list. But my cards are bound to not be near as exciting and worthy as your fine craft.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Scarlet Post author

        I would love a Christmas exchange, Mistress B! I was asked if I wanted to do a Halloween exchange this year with a group of calligraphy friends, but I ducked out so that I could focus on Christmas correspondence from now until February 2022!
        Sx

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  5. Inexplicable DeVice

    I wish that a non-stopping train was the only newsworthy event we need concern ourselves with, as you say…
    Smashing collage, by the way, and lovely inclusion of your grandmother. Although, she needs more practice if she hopes to win the “Can you touch your chin with your tongue?” competition. Did The Very Mistress write the bit about scrubbing in Marigolds, perchance? We know she wages a constant war against the microbe.

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Mr Devine – I love that the train story made the paper – I think it was from an Evening Standard. Oh for that to be the height of our drama now.
      I imagine The Very Mistress bulk buys Marigolds for personal use, and that somebody else is employed to do her scrubbing whilst wearing a Hazmat suit.
      Sx

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Z – I love this photo! I have some gems, and the non-posed ones are the best. It was probably either my Granddad or my Great Aunt that took it – my Aunt had a very good eye. What surprises me is that my relatives mostly looked very bohemian in the twenties – they looked like they were having fun.
      Sx

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  7. dinahmow

    I love your Granny! If the All Blacks ever need an extra for their haka…
    There were some twinkly lights around the patio when we moved to this house and we took them down to do some work.I spent hours wiping the little twinkles clean!(adds small brass hooks to shopping list)

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Dinah – I know we all say it, but my Gran was special! I wanted to grow up to be like her – but I’m a little bit too grumpy – she was never grumpy! She would have approved of the twinkly lights though.
      Sx

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  8. Jon

    As long as Wilko doesn’t sell out of humbugs, I’m happy.

    Jx

    PS Your grandmother’s tongue probably was the distraction that caused the driver to forget to stop at Purley. Having been there, mind, I don’t blame him for not wanting to stop!

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Jon – I’m happy so long as I have soup. And fire logs.
      I have never been to Purley – flown through it on the train, and maybe they decided that that’s the best way to see it!
      Sx

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  9. Kylie

    Granny is more classy than Miley!
    I love the collage and despite seeing many of your collages I suddenly realise a collage might be a good use of some of the random old stuff I have collected. If only i knew where I have put it all….
    Fairy lights also sound good. I have a current obsession with an imaginary dessert buffet I would like to have at the end of lockdown. It would be improved by fairy lights

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Kylie – My Gran is definitely more classy than Miley!!
      Everything is improved by fairy lights – I have a set around the window adjacent to the kitchen sink, and they even make the washing up more bearable.
      Oh yes, that’s one of the reasons I started collaging – I’ve inherited so many fascinating scraps of paper that I wanted to display, rather than have them bundled away in a box never to see the light of day.
      Sx

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  10. llcooljoe

    I wish I could get out to buy fairy lights but I have virtually no petrol left, so I’m conserving the bit I do have for dental appointments. God life is so fun.

    And there was me thinking that Miley was the first person to ever stick out her lounge like that!

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Joey – Dental appointments? Oh no, I hope they go well and you don’t have to have too much work done.
      I ordered my lights online 🙂
      Lounge, tongue – they have lolling in common!
      Sx

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Joey – I hope you can get your sight fixed soon.
      I thought my main reply would be at the bottom of your comments – I’ll never fully get the hang of how my own threads work!
      Sx

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  13. batarde

    Gosh, sorry I’m late. Spot of bother with a dog – nasty five-headed brute guarding a petrol pump. As Billericay Vicki told the reporter the other day, this fuel clustershambles is a bit of a nightmare, innit.
    Anyhoo … my compliments on your Grandma, Scarlet, and your latest Synthetic Cubist thingamajig. May your gumboots twinkle and your fairy lights remain watertight. B.

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  15. Mitzi

    The harlot with the cloche hat, walking behind your Grandmother, exposing her knees! You’ve got to admire the stoicism of her generation, my grandma gave birth to my mother on newspapers in the scullery, she wiped her fanny with a floor cloth, had a Wincarnis and a fag and got on with her
    jobs.

    Have people been panic-buying grapefruit juice and cans of diet D&B?

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Mitzi – I think every product you can think of is in the running for a panic buy these days!
      I am going to come back to you tomorrow because I was going to look up some dates, as something struck me about my family history, as in one side were maybe wealthier than I thought!
      Sx

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  16. looby

    A relative used to work for a local paper and they used to hold a competition at Christmas for who could bring in the most boring headline. One year, it was won by “Cyclist Had to Brake Suddenly.”

    I thought it’d be an idea then (this is pre-internet) to have a look for my own most boring headline, and I came across a dairy-based story in the FT: “Liechtenstein Butter Exports Up 4%”.

    I love your collages — the little glimpses of strangers’ lives and the way you can use your imagination to invent some back story to them is a real pleasure. Happy Christmas trawling my dear and do let us know if you find any children’s illuminated wellies as dinahmow suggested above. You’ve clearly got modelling genes from your female forebears!

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Looby – Apologies for my lateness – sometimes I have a battle to leave comments on my own blog.
      Modelling genes!! My gran has better knees then me – and definitely more shapely legs!!
      Thank you for your comments regarding the collages – I really want to make a habit out of making them, but something always comes along to distract me. I will keep trying.
      Sx

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  17. Nick Rogers

    I never buy fairy lights for humanitarian reasons. Have you any idea of the oppressive conditions the fairies have to endure as they assemble all those lights? By the time Christmas arrives, they’re totally done in. But I’m glad you’re rejecting trampolines. New research says all that bouncing can dislodge your eyeballs and cause your ears to drop off.

    I hope you follow your gran’s example and stick your tongue out as much as possible. It’s the only sensible response to the madness that surrounds us.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Nick – Apologies for my late reply – WordPress security wouldn’t let me in to my own blog – it’s a disgrace. Maybe the fairies and elves have made complaints about me?
      Sx

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  18. melaniereynolds

    I love the picture of your Grandma! I was just saying to my mister the other day how you and your mister are the British versions of us. Where are their hats? That’s one of the things I love about old pictures. I shall post in kind on my site.

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Mels – Apologies for my late reply – WordPress – Grrrrr!
      Yes, where are their hats?? I wondered this too. The lady in the background is wearing a hat. Maybe my Gran and her friend were too modern for such fripperies?
      I love recycling all this ephemera into something new 🙂
      Sx

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  19. lisleman

    “…angel with wonky wings” – now that must be the angel of wonky words. Every blog should have an angel. I would have a hard getting one since I doubt their existence. I’m a blogger short on angels.
    Any more detail on the story of your grandmother’s picture?

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Bill – Again, apologies for my late reply – WordPress making me jump through hoops, etc.
      Alas, I have no more detail about the photo. I did ask my dad before he died, he only confirmed that it was my gran. I know she worked in a china shop for a while, and also that she brought up her siblings. She worked in a match factory for a time during WW1. I wish I remembered more of the stories she told me when I was a child.
      Sx

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  20. numberonenativeamerican

    Aha! Found you again! And how excellent is that collage? Very excellent I must say! I love the picture of Granny, and the wonderful headline. Content aside, it’s a very balanced and wonderful piece of art. Reminds me I must get arting again.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Scarlet Post author

      Apologies, Ms Nations, I have left you dangling here.
      I love collage – no need to buy new materials – I can simply play with the plethora of junk I already own! I am a recycling Queen.
      Yes – Please do some art!!
      Sx

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  21. 63mago

    “Mohorning häs brokääähn …”

    I’ll sing this until you post something new. Every damn day. I’ll even make a recording. It will be terrible. And because I know only this verse, I will sing all this verse ten times or so. Mohrning häs brohkäähn …” I will tell everybody that MsScarlet made me do it. Yes. Finally I found my destiny.

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  22. Scarlet Post author

    Mr Mags – I shall look forward to the coming days, and look forward to the recording!
    Apologies, I have been having a few laptop woes, but that is sorted now – AND, I am doing my Winter cleaning, meaning I have fairy lights to drape. I will be back shortly.
    Sx

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  25. Scarlet Post author

    Where, Mr Mags? Do you mean my own fair hand?! I really ought to write more italics as I haven’t done so in years and I am very out of practice – I promised a friend that I would write her in italics.
    Sx

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