MRS. HCB'S HELPERS

Hello Lovely Blippers,

Can you believe it’s Saturday again?  We can’t either, but when we heard that Mrs. HCB would be doing some mending, we said we wanted to help - well we would, wouldn’t we - because that’s what we do and we know that dear Admirer would be happy about that!

A few weeks ago when the HCBs were at Church, they were helping Sarah, one of their friends to get out the Communion glasses etc from a cupboard.  It was quite difficult because Sarah had an accident a few weeks ago and hasn’t been that mobile, but she is much better now.  When she took the cloths out that go on the Communion table, they were rather “scrunched up” - a technical term for them looking a bit creased, so Mrs. HCB said that she would take them home and iron them.

However, when Mrs. HCB went to iron them this morning, she noticed that one, which Sarah said was very old, needed some remedial work done on it because part of the inner edging was coming away from the lacy edge.  It was quite an intricate job and we heard Mrs. HCB saying more than once that she wished Mr. HCB’s Mum, Joan, was still around because she would have done it in no time and would also have known the right way to do it.  It’s obvious that several people have mended this particular cloth in the past, because the various “mended bits” looked different, but Mrs. HCB did the best she could and then Leighton helped to iron the cloth again - and you can see Leighton, just about to start ironing, in the top right.  Anyway, we hope that Sarah will be happy with the two cloths and they do look better now they have been ironed well - so thank you, Leighton and Mrs. HCB.

Of course, we were all intrigued by the various reels of Sylko in all different colours but Mrs. HCB needed white, so had to go and search for some and also a very fine needle.  While she was looking we decided to get out the buttons from the two button boxes - one that belonged to Mr. HCB’s Mum and one that belonged to Mrs. HCB’s Mum.  What a collection of buttons!  

In the olden days, so we are told, when people gave, or sometimes sold their old clothes to the Rag and Bone Man, who came round the streets with his horse and cart, they always cut the buttons off - so shirts, coats, trousers and other clothing was sold to the Rag and Bone man minus the buttons.  We can’t remember this, but both Mr. and Mrs. HCB say they can remember the Rag and Bone man coming round and shouting “Any old rags and bones”.  In fact, Mrs. HCB believes that her great-grandfather was a Rag and Bone man in London, but on his death certificate he is called a “General Dealer” - perhaps more up-market than a Rag and Bone man!

Mrs. HCB says she should do something with these tins of buttons, but the only thing she has made so far is a bag for her granddaughter, C. - from Mr. HCB’s Mum’s buttons - so C’s great-grandmother - she may not use it, but at least it will be a family heirloom!  You can see this as an extra. 

 I wonder if you know what Penny Penguin is holding?  Something that was very useful for Mrs. HCB's Mum when she was mending socks, because they used to darn them many years ago - unlike today when they just throw them out when they find a hole!

We really wanted to go out into the garden, but there are very large puddles around and although Mrs. HCB has wellies, none of us do, so it’s another day indoors for us all.

We hope you all have a good weekend and we know we keep reminding you, but it is so important - BE KIND, because you never know what someone else is going through - and just because they are smiling, doesn’t mean everything in the garden is rosy!

Love to you all from
The Silly Saturday Gang xxx 

P.S. Mrs. HCB has asked us to thank you for all your kind comments yesterday - she is feeling better today, but as Mr. HCB keeps reminding her, she needs to rest when she feels tired.