Well, Betsy and I are still doing our crazy walks down our road and even managed to make the local paper. Thank you to the residents who got in touch with them!
I’ve also got a few more images of some of our other walks below…
Category Archives: Day to Day
Walking Away Those Blues
Covid-19 Morale
I hope you have all been staying safe and healthy in these unsettling times! It can be incredibly intense and claustrophobic being isolated, but you are doing great.
To update you with what I’ve been up to…every single week day, my 4 year old daughter and I dress up in a different theme and take our 1 hour of exercise time. My plan was to create some crazily cool memories for Betsy, focus on something fun by dressing up and bring some morale to the street. I suffer with depression quite badly and love the escapism of fancy dress or costuming. The fact I can use this outlet as a ray of sunshine for other people and keep my mental health more-or-less stable in these uncertain times is brilliant.
I began by writing a list of characters we could do and even bought a mic that has a little inbuilt speaker so that I could sing to the residents too. At first we only saw a couple of people looking, but now most of the street waves or twitches their curtains at 11.30am each morning!
When I moved here 4 years ago I became familiar with about 4 people in my street. Who would’ve known that a desperately worrying time would lead to so many more friendships being formed from 2 metres away?
So far we’ve done Disney Princesses, Unicorns, rainbows, fairies, Maleficent and a dragon, Steampunk dolls, Mary Poppins, Dorothy Gale (Wizard of Oz) and Glinda the Good Witch, 1940’s, 1950’s and my favourite… Santa and his elf!
It was BAKING this Tuesday and I was dressed in full Father Christmas outfit, complete with beard, wig and hat. I had ordered a pack of 50 toilet rolls that I stacked inside my cart, which was decorated with tinsel, a reindeer and more! I put some vintage festive songs on my Bluetooth speaker and we made our way down the road. Everyone who waved got a toilet roll and I ran out! I left one on a parked ambulance, along with some sweets. “Ho ho ho! Meeeeerrrrry Covidmas!”
What else have I done? Oh! I wrote a parody of ‘It’s in His Kiss’ (made famous by Cher in Mermaids). It’s called ‘Is it Covid’ and you can see it HERE.
I’ll keep you updated on happenings. I’m just trying real hard not to lose my marbles. X
Day 1 of Covid 19 Self Isolation
1.) Richard to start mowing lawn. CHECK
1a.) Get Flymo caught in clothes line, propel towards daughter and hurl lawnmower away from child like Superman saving Earth from a giant meteor. CHECK
1b.) Break Lawnmower. CHECK
2.) Kitten to move precious plants out of the area to be populated with Betsy’s playhouse and relocate them. CHECK
2a.) Trample upon said plants, whilst trying to position Wendy house and make sure previously unmoved plants get a foot-battering thanks to bum-prickle by rose bush. CHECK
3.) Break kitchen door lock because B&Q is obviously shut. CHECK
4.) Pull tap handle off in kitchen because it feels left out. CHECK
5.) Try to forget there are 12 weeks of this left. PENDING
Rotary Great Britain and Ireland 2020
Thank you Paul and Bala for asking me to entertain at this month’s meeting. It was an honour to perform for Rotary Great Britain and Ireland. Looking forward to more!
The Rotary and Bill Gates charity have raised enough money between them to provide over 18 million polio vaccinations so far. What an incredible achievement!
I very much enjoyed wearing the Rotary logo bow tie, cummerbund and pocket square gifted to me that day…
Blenheim Palace Illuminated Light Trail
Well, first of all HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my friends, family and faithful followers!
I’m not the biggest fan of celebrating on New Year’s Eve, but this year was one of my top 3 experiences. We decided to go to Blenheim Palace‘s Illuminated Light Trail and Alice in the Palace event. It was quite pricey, but prayed it was worth the cost. I can’t even tell you how incredible it was. I’m still absolutely blown away by the whole afternoon. The amount of effort that went into every little detail was staggering; From the beautifully decorated house to the mind-blowing lights and sounds on the 2 mile walk in the grounds. I would recommend wrapping up very warm and wearing comfortable shoes! Betsy was snug in her vintage Silver Cross drop-toe pushchair, so we were very envious.
We decided to dress for the occasion and our efforts were definitely appreciated by staff and visitors! Betsy was the Cheshire Cat (or ‘Treasure Cat’ as she calls it), Mr.Mew was the White Rabbit (he left his ears in the car), Coco was Alice and I was the Queen of Hearts. Luckily we all had most things already in our wardrobes!
My photos and videos don’t do it justice at all, but I’ll post them anyway. I will do a second post with the palace photos as I took those on my camera before the battery ran out. The below were taken on my phone. We will definitely be going again next year. I hope they do a theme like Peter Pan or Narnia!
Kitten Von Mew, taken at Stratford Garden Centre by R.Thompson
Betsy Rose
Remembrance Sunday 2019
This was my 4th year doing the Post Remembrance Music Cafe at Snitterfield Village Hall. Angie Tomes, my co-host, does soooooooo much work for this event. From putting up the bunting to baking mountains of delicious treats, she really is the driving force.
Yet again, we had a full house. It was a complete whirlwind as the crowd arrived, fresh and chilled from the service at White Horse Hill. They laughed, chatted and socialised between mouthfuls of yummy cakes, brownies, biscuits and tea, before leaving to start their afternoons.
Thank you to Hilary and Mama for donating homemade cakes for us to sell too!
My laptop seemed to decide that Sundays were indeed days of rest, forcing me to sing A capella for half an hour. I did manage to put on some 40’s tracks (thanks for the help Mr. Mew) and we had a little dance, before counting all of the donations and helping to tidy up.
My chosen charity this year was Service Dogs UK. They provide dogs to veterans suffering from PTSD and seemed like a wonderful cause. There is so much proof to show that pets can be great therapy for depression and anxiety (I think they mean cats, dogs and fish, not tarantulas and scorpions). We raised £240 through donations and cake sales, so a HUGE thank you to everyone who came along.
Next year we will be doing something a little different, so stay tuned!
Remembrance Sunday 2019
I will be back in Snitterfield Village Hall this Remembrance Sunday (10th November), for our annual Remembrance Cafe! Angie Tomes will be serving homemade cakes and treats, along with hot and cold beverages. I will be singing vintage and Disney melodies and hoping you will all donate to our wonderful charity of choice: Service Dogs UK!
There is no admission charge, but we are hoping you will help us raise some money to unite British veterans with therapy dogs. It is well known that pets can help with depression, anxiety and stress, so imagine what one could do for men and women who have seen the horrors of war.
Welshpool WW2 Weekend 2019
Here are a few pictures I snapped of the event. Was lovely to see my friend Jayne Darling again! Just a shame that there aren’t more vintage people attending the event, there is mostly general public. Hopefully it will see more through the years.
A wonderfully colourful sweet shop on the main road. If you look past the gaudy window stickers, you can see some Art Nouveau mirror borders with flowers and the word ‘Toffee.’ Very tricky to photograph, but absolutely stunning.
Inside the town hall where I had my vintage stall and performed on the stage. Always lovely stall holders and relaxed atmosphere up there.
Avon Valley Railway 1940’s Event
Today, poorly or not, we decided to go to Bitton in Bristol. Somewhere we haven’t been for 7 years, but changed our lives forever. This pretty little volunteer run Railway was I got married in 2012! The first members of the public to wed on the line, I immediately fell in love with the place and friendly staff.
Whilst showing me around our possible wedding venue, I happened to glance in the engine shed at a large pile of iron. The Station Master tried to distract my attention back to the steam loco, but I enquired what they were doing up in the shed. It ended up being a Diesel engine used in the D Day landings (WD70031, later named Grumpy on a another war department mission where each loco was named after one of the seven dwarves) and eventually our wedding train.
I couldn’t wait to see the place again and it was a shame that only a couple of volunteers there today were around on our big day. I consoled myself with spam fritters and enjoyed the short train ride up and down the line.
There was a fantastic prop Spitfire, many military vehicles and in the centre of the display… our Grumpy. It’s not a pretty loco, it wasn’t made to be, but it felt like an old friend and I was rather emotional seeing it again.
This was obviously the highlight of my day, other than showing little Betsy. I think she very much enjoyed the Punch and Judy Show featuring Churchill and Hitler.
What a joy also to see our friends Lady She and Jayne Darling too! Lady She gave me an excited squeal when she saw us and gifted Betsy a lovely necklace. I think she was also rather delighted with the Fry’s Chocolate Train too!
Mermaid Shoot with Neil Kendall Photography
I meant to post these amazing photos ages ago, but due to one thing and the other it has taken until now to show you!
It is no secret that I flipping LOVE mermaids and have wanted to do a shoot for years in this theme. Well, I was booked in with Nez to do a Halloween shoot (I adore his dramatic sets and lighting)…but then BHAM! He has to go and get a giant clam shell and get me all excited didn’t he.
I bought a little white taxidermy stoat from him a while back and decided to hide him in the photos! Using EVA foam, I fashioned an old fashioned diver’s helmet for the little critter and he hasn’t taken it off since. See if you can spot him in the pictures below.
PRE-WARNING! THE FOLLOWING IMAGES ARE NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN. THEY FEATURE BOOBIES IN PASTIES AND A WHOLE LOTTA SHADE. SO LITTLE KIDDIES…SASHAY AWAY…
Please note that all images are copyright Neil Kendall Photography. Image of stoat diver (Nez) copyright Kitten von Mew.
