My little great grand-daughter is two years old today. I went to her party yesterday (Sunday) and she was so delighted when opening her presents, that to watch her was delightful for us too and kept all her grandparents and her two great grandmas happy just watching her.She liked the set of drums I bought her and so, I think, did her Daddy. Mummy will probably not be so keen! I have offered to keep them at my house if they become a nuisance - but I am willing to bet I shall not be required to do so. She had lots of lovely presents and they should keep her busy for a long time.

Well Christmas is upon us and we haven't had any snow yet! Not like last year - but I can't say I am sorry - I don't like being housebound because of the ice. Last year I couldn't get the car out for a week and did my grocery shopping online. How easy it is! A lovely young man carries in the goods. unloads them and all I have to do is put them into the cupboard. That means I handle the stuff just once instead of six times - once into the basket, a second time from the basket to the till, then again into the basket and once more into the car. Then when we get home I carry the goods into the house before I can put them into the cupboard. If you haven't tried online grocery shopping yet I can recommend it!!

I have recently been on a diet and lost a stone in weight - but - I fear some of it will be packed on again over Christmas. I have gone up a couple of pounds this last two weeks as I have been out for quite a lot of meals this month. My New Years Resolution will be to get back on the diet!!

Have a good Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

I would just like to wish all my followers and readers a

Happy Christmas

and a great New Year.

We have just put the clocks back and I am still waking up rather early. My internal clock takes a week or two to settle down and adjust to the new times. Why on earth do we have to do it? Couldn't we settle for one or the other and stop all this chopping and changing? Do other countries change their time twice a year? Surely we ought to be on Greenwhich Mean Time and stay there. There are numerous conflicting opinions as to the benefits/disadvantages of different timings and no-one seems able to agree on which times are best.  Apparently it was in 1916 that the Daylight Saving Bill was introduced and we have been following this silly system ever since. We must have managed before this and I'm sure we could manage again!

If Jo Cottingham reads this - I did try to email you back but there was an error in your email address and it kept aborting.  Please do try me again.

I have just come back from a few days in Venice. Very nice hotel and the weather was splendid (wall to wall blue sky and 30C temp) so when I got home I felt cold for a few days. Venice was beautiful and I got some great pix.

I have had a query about the windmills of Swineshead recently and am working on that subject at present.  Apparently there were two mills down Villa Lane, one at The Ivy and one at The Villa. They were both demolished just before WW2 in the late 1930s. There also seems to have been one somewhere near Tarry Hill as the Benefactions board in the church states that in 1699 William Hart left a windmill, two cottages and land near Tarry Hill. The cottages referred to as Hart's Cottages were at the southern end of Tarry Hill so perhaps the mill was near them. There was also a mill in Park Lane known locally as Wilson's Mill that was demolished some 70 or 80 years ago. Houlder's mill, built in 1833, was demolished in 1963 and North End Mill is still standing and is now a pet shop.

If anyone out there has any information about any of the mills in the village I would be pleased to hear from you.

I am ashamed to see that I haven't written in my blog for some time. At least it suggests I have been busy with other things. It has not been a good summer for my usual activities such as gardening, but instead I have been going to the gym. I am now much fitter and ten pounds lighter than I was a few months ago. I must try to keep it up this winter.
However in winter I tend to spend more time working on my computer. The book was coming along well until I went into summer mode, but I shall be getting back to it soon so excercise may be put on the back burner.
I have had quite a lot of enquiries lately for help with family history/info re Swineshead, and answering the emails keeps me fairly busy. However I do enjoy that and it is lovely to have contact with people all over the world.

I have just had a birthday - no I am not going to tell you which one! - but today a late present arrived in the post which has really excited me. My sister-in-law has sent me a note book that belonged to a soldier in WW1 or WW2, I am not sure which as there is no date on it, but it seems to be a recipe book and at the back some notes on lectures. I think he must have been training the men who were to be in the catering corps as the recipes are for large numbers of men.
Here is the first one in the book:

Recipe for 100 men - Cabbage, Bacon and Potato Soup.
Ingredients:
25 quarts of stock
4 lbs of onions
10 lbs of clean cabbage
10 lbs of potatoes
8 ozs of marg
4 lbs of bacon bones or trimmings
4 oz of salt
1 Faggot
I won't give you the method as I'm sure no-one will actually want to cook it, suffice it to say the last instruction was to skim of the fat and remove the faggot!

I am now going to read the rest of this book to see if there are any clues as to its age. It is in remarkably good condition whichever war it has come from. I will keep you posted.