JULY 2008 REPORT
August is the month when we do not usually hold a meeting, but instead go on an outing or have some sort of summer celebration. As this year we are not visiting anywhere we decided instead to arrange a ploughman’s lunch in the village hall on the second Thursday followed by a social afternoon during which we will endeavour to make some decorations for a Christmas tree which will be displayed in Falkenham Church at the beginning of December. Preparing for Christmas makes it seem as if the year is rushing by!
Pat Adams came to speak to us at our July meeting bringing with her many fascinating antiques from her collection. As a nine year old girl Pat came home one day to find her mother had given away her dolls’ house to a cousin, considering that at nine Pat was too old to be playing with such childish things. This was a terrible deprivation which she regretted for years until one day at a sale she saw a very expensive but exquisite dolls’ house. This she bought for herself to make up for the one lost as a child. A similar thing happened to her husband Mike when his mother gave away his collection of farm miniatures. Maybe this was one of the things which encouraged him as an adult to make his collection of old farm implements.
Pat showed us many interesting artifacts ranging from Victorian fairy lights to a pair of tongs for killing wasps. She also gave her opinion on a number of objects brought in by members. One of her possessions, a farmer’s mug from 1870, bore the following verse.
Did such a bucolic Eden ever exist, I wonder.
Let the wealthy and great
Roll in splendour and state
I envy them not I declare it
I eat my own lamb
My own chickens and ham
I shear my own fleece and I wear it
I have lawns I have bowers
I have fruits I have flowers
The lark is my morning alarmer
So jolly boys now
Here’s God speed the plough
Long life and success to the farmer.
V E Bines
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