Shropshire's Mayflower connection ...

 Hi all, 

Isn't it strange how history is sometimes right on your doorstep? I am passionate about history & so when I read about the Mayflower connection to a local church & the Hall next door, I knew it was going to be on my 'to visit' list. 

St James' Church, Shipton Shropshire is also known for its amazing displays of snowdrops in Spring so it was opportune to see it now. 

There is a memorial plaque in the 11th Century church to the four More children & their Mayflower connection. Eilnor(8), Jasper (7), Richard (6) & Mary (4) were placed under the care of their father, Samuel More of Larden after a long & protracted court issue because he accused his wife (a cousin of his) of adultery with Jacob Blakeway, a local yeomanry farmer. Samuel had been 17 when he was married to his cousin Katherine, 26, in an advantageous marriage to unite two branches of the family & to control the lands each held. The children were all baptised at the font in the church where they are remembered. 

Samuel gave the offspring of the scandal - whom he claimed were not his - to the Puritans setting sail for the Americas. Samuel was the right hand man to the Right Honorable Edward, Lord Zouche who had been one of the commissioners at the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots & he had discarded his own wife who did not please him. Zouche was a active member of the Virgina Company which in 1618 began transporting children from London to meet the labour shortage. 

Samuel More paid out £80 (double the cost per child) & a further £20 to see that the children were taken care of with regard to "meate drinke apparell lodginge and other necessaries"

Eilnor (Ellen) was put with Edward Winslow from Droitwich, Jasper with John Carver who became the communities first Governor in America, the first ever elected colonial Governor. Richard More & another of his brothers was put with William Brewster (the brother was in fact Mary). 

They joined the Mayflower in London before it set sail for Plymouth with 102 passengers, 34 of them children. It left Plymouth on 6 September 1620 & after a stormy passage, reached Cape Cod on 11 Nov 1620. It was a dreadful winter - "In 2 or 3 months time halfe of their company dyed, sepetialy in Jn & February, being ye depth of winter & wanting houses & other comforts; being inected with ye scurvie & other diseases, which this long vioage & their inacomodate condition had brought upon them"

Jasper & Ellen may never have set foot in America, they are thought to have died on the Mayflower. Mary died in the winter & only Richard was left. His guardians, William & Mary Brewster & their two sons Love & Wrestling had survived so Richard made his life with them. 

Richard marries in 1636 to Christian Hunter & they moved to Salem where they had 5 sons & 2 daughters. It is through the older daughter Susanna that possible descendants could be traced. Christian died in 1677 & Richard married Jane Crumpton, a widow. No children were born of this marriage ... 

Salem records give his date of death between March 1694 & March 1698, a date disputed but he was the last male survivor of the Mayflower & he is the only known gravestone of a Mayflower passenger. 

(The above information credit to the booklets by Donald F Harris, historian, that are available for sale at St James' parish church Shipton, Shropshire.) 

This story is well documented  in Shropshire's Mayflower Children  

I hope you have enjoyed the story, thank you for visiting, keep safe & well, 

Dee ~💕~

You are enough ....

You are enough ... 

Most of us are familiar with this phrase  - I heard it again this week amidst the busyness of life but what exactly does it mean to you? 

Each of us comes to the table with a different set of values based on our upbringing - not a single one of us is the same, not a single one of us is perfect.

In  the fascinating ‘One, None And A Hundred-Thousand’ by Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936, Nobel prize winning novelist),   Vitangelo's wife makes him understand that absolutely everyone he knows or has ever met, has a different understanding of him in their own minds - he is different to everyone of them & very different to the one he has of himself in his own mind too. 

This interesting supposition weighed on my mind on my various trips to South Africa two years ago: I met with many family members - aunts, uncles, cousins, friends & we spoke about family members & others - what stuck in my mind is how differently we all remember people, places & past events based on our own experiences & how we view the world. 

Sometimes people in the same family remember events quite differently & this is a difficult one to understand so this is how I explain it:

I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a niece, a cousin to many, a sister-in-law, a friend,a patient, a teacher who is both patient & persistent, an intermittent blogger, a close & distant neighbour and each of those people have a different concept of me, each of those people see me differently to how I see myself. There are many versions of myself & none of them is not of me but none of them is the whole me, the one I know of myself. 

The books title explains it as - 

One - how we see ourselves 

A Hundred Thousand - how others perceive us, the many views others have of us, based on how they experience us, personally, professionally, socially 

None - none of these is the whole story

I hope that in all of the above, the main thought is that I am enough for each of them, that I have done my best for each of those people & that perfection does not exist in any of us - we just do what we can at that moment in time. 

So my thought to everyone who is balancing too many things is - you are enough. You cannot be all things to everyone but as long as you are doing your best, going kindly through the world, then you are enough, you are unique. 

We should focus on the progress we make through life rather than the perfection of life - we are bombarded by perfect social media images of life - perfect homes, relationships, figures, behaviour, meals, holidays, cars, homes, gardens, Christmas trees, social skills, popularity but that is really an illusion that is largely unattainable & it keeps everyone beating themselves up because they compare their life with this illusion. 

If we stop & say ‘I am enough’ then it keeps it all in perspective - when comparisons creep in, stop & say: I am enough.

Have a blessed 2022
Dee ~💕~

Happy 2022

 Happy New Year to all - I can scarcely believe 2022 is here. 

I have been absent & have just not found my voice as 2021 was a trying year for many of us & just when I think that travel will reopen, it doesn’t. 

I have unfinished business to deal with in Southern Africa & it is elusive because safe travel is still a pipe dream. 

So my wish for 2022 is that life will return to a recognisable normal for all of us & that this year will hold all the things that the last did not. 

We started the year with a favourite breakfast, just the two of us, hoping this year will see this as the normal ....

May you & your family be abundantly blessed. Thank you for still looking in, I will post regularly this year .... 

Thank you for your time; each & every visit & comment is much appreciated, be safe all  💖

Dee ~💕~

Summer salads, herbs & micro herbs ...

 Hi all, 

Our hot weather has arrived after a rather wet & grey time - it is welcome & the garden has needed attention as everything has just shot up. 

While doing lots of other things, I have neglected my salad planters along the wall of the house - they still contained the remnants of the winter greens that had bolted or just gone leggy. 

I shared these very useful & versatile planters with you before 

This in 2017 when I decided they were a good idea & and the progress of the first planting 

One of the planters, the green on closest to the small water butt has nasturtiums that self seeded from last year. The flowers & leaves are used in salads (we use no chemicals at home at all)  so they are a welcome addition. The celery in that planter has bolted to seed but it looks pretty so will stay for now. 

I grow celery by just placing the cut crown in shallow water for a few days until it roots then moving it to the planter where we use the new leaves in salads. 

The other two black planters were cleaned out & salad leaves sown in one, the second will follow once these have about 2 weeks start on them. 

I love the freedom of picking some fresh salad leaves from the planters right by the kitchen door to use on sandwiches or in salads. 

I was gifted this pretty micro green set for my birthday & grew some soon afterwards but I think it was still a bit cold & they did not do too well. I did a second lot of 5 pots & these will go on the kitchen window sill for now where I can keep an eye on them before just popping them in the planters outside. 

Gardening in the heat is hard work so herbs picked for the water jug - chocolate mint, fennel, camomile & lemon grass brewed in hot water, cooled then added .... 

With few cut flowers in the garden, a  vase of herbs will do nicely as flowers ... 

 

The parasols are up, the sun is high in the sky, & shade is needed .... 

These hollyhocks were sown last year in lockdown from a packet of seeds I had collected from the mother in laws home when it was sold. The first sowing was not very successful so I thought I would try again last year in lockdown & used random flower pots we had & they took - the second year & better than before ... 

The patio table is moved to the side under the fats Japonica & next to the laurel bush for shade ...

Thank you for your time; each & every visit & comment is much appreciated, be safe all  💖
Dee ~💕~

Happy Summer Solstice

 Today marks our longest day,  & is an important part of the ritual of time. The sun will rise at 4.52am  and set at 9.26pm, giving us 16 hours & 38 minutes of sunlight / daylight.  

The Solstice marks the beginning of the astronomical summer. The word ‘solstice’ comes from the latin word meaning ‘sun standing still’ which is a good description of how the day will seem to hang around. 

Pagans mark this day, often at Stonehenge because they believe mid summer has special significance.  

People used to light fires to keep the dark & bad spirits away.

Some of the folklore sayings associated with mid summer

One swallow never made a summer

When the summer birds take flight, there goes the summer with them

Welcome summer, the long days & short nights are very welcome after a long winter. 

Some previous blogs on this day:

summer solstice 2015

I will light candles tonight for my light, unfortunately there is no sun today which would have given us brightness. 

However, this weekend we have been out taking photos of very summery scenes in Shropshire - the poppy & daisies in the fields 

Beautiful, lush green fields amongst green trees 

Thank you for your time; each & every visit & comment is much appreciated, be safe all  💖

Dee ~💕~