Slow Return to Normal

My heart is still not in this, and I have been working all hours for the last few days, but I have managed to get to a long overdue redesign of the blog this evening.  It was more time consuming and fiddly than difficult, so it was the perfect project for an overstimulated brain.  The new image across the top was taken in Lacock last spring. The pictures on this posting were some other candidates for the 'mast head' with closer connections to our family, being ones of Weymouth, Fontmel Down, and Hengistbury head with the Isle of Wight in the background.  I just liked them, so thought I'd pop them up here for others to see.

Oh yes - and the new blog title is taken from "On A Fine Morning", by the Dorset poet and novelist, Thomas Hardy.

Change

I think the sea has thrown itself upon me and been answered, at least in part, and I believe I am a little changed - not essentially, but changed and transubstantiated as anyone is who has asked a question and been answered. 

                                                                            Hart Crane

After a sudden departure from all that was normal in my little life, and then a couple of weeks spent in the American mid-west and nearly 2,000 km in a car each way,  I am home and back to the blog again.

So far, this project has focused on the past lives of one branch of my family, but recently, I was thrust upon a journey in the intense present with another branch, as we accompanied a singular man through his last days.  He was my father's only sibling, and someone who no one was ready to lose.  But, of course, we have no say in these matters, and when a previously treated melanoma turned out to have metastasized to his brain, the time between diagnosis and death was swift.

And so, another dear soul has joined our ancestors.  I hope that all of them had the good fortune to have had even a fraction of the love and esteem that Uncle Rob had in his life.  Rich, indeed, would they have been.

Uncle Rob's Garden

Loss

Multa ferunt anni venientes commoda secum; 
multa recedentes adimunt.

                                     - Horace 

(The years, as they come, bring blessings, and as they go, take blessings back again.)

Interesting Occupation Listings

    

Here are some interesting occupations I've found listed on 19th century census returns:

                        - Umbrella maker
                        - Cordwainer
                        - Gingerbread maker
                        - Photographist
                        - Medical Officer & Public Vaccinator
                        - Tobacco blender
                        - Ostler
                        - Fly proprietor
                        - Scripture reader
                        - Collector of Poors' Rates & Income Tax
                        - Staymaker
                        - Brush maker
                        - Fishing rod maker
                        - Corn Inspector
                        - Tallow chandler and soap boiler
                        - Percussion cap maker [ammunition]

Imagine living in a town where there  is such a demand for gingerbread that you could have a career as a gingerbread maker.  And to save you looking it up, a cordwainer was someone who made luxury shoes and boots out of the very soft 'Cordoba' leather from Spain.

I'll add to this list as I note other interesting occupations.

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindyiscrafty/6839067607/sizes/m/in/photostream/

May Day

Photo credit

First things first: I have seen another picture of the suspected Adams shop, taken in 1939, and it is indeed Adams on the newer sign. Alas, this picture is on a commercial postcard site, so I cannot put it on this blog. Although, I suppose if I were to order a copy of it, then I could do what I like with it, as I believe there are no copyrights on old postcards (? - will check into that). In the mean time, if you go here:  http://www.francisfrith.com/cranborne/photos/   you can enlarge the thumbnails and see for yourself.

On the same site, you can look at the "Memories" page for Cranborne, and one of the ancestors of the Adams that owned the shop when the picture was taken has written a note.  He must be a third cousin 4 times removed, or some such thing.  I'll have a look for the people he mentions and see where they come in.  So far, I haven't gone forward with any of George's uncles and aunts and their offspring.  It will be one of Thomas's brothers that was the shoe and boot maker, and his son(s) that took over from him.


Another interesting thing on this website is a note from a person who writes that he remembers seeing the Hindenburg (!) fly over Cranborne. I looked it up and found out that the Luftwaffe used the Hindenburg to do some reconnaissance photography while it was touring over southern England in 1936, and it is known that it flew over Portsmouth and Plymouth (the two main British naval bases), so it's entirely possible that the airship was spotted from Cranborne.  I expect Portland Harbour would have been of great interest to the Germans too.

As it turns out, it is the 75th anniversary of the Hindenburg disaster in 5 days.

To the garden with me now.  It has warmed up sufficiently to start on phase II of the fish pond relocation project. 

Picture credits: http://www.avpu52.dsl.pipex.com/Coronation%20maypole%20dance%201911.jpg , http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/milestones-of-flight/world/1936.cfm