Holy Trinity Church Pioneer Cemetery Wander

The Bicentenary celebrations for Holy Trinity Church Kelso continue and on Saturday there was another wander around the pioneer sections of the cemetery surrounding the church. 

The weather was a perfect spring afternoon, so very enjoyable for all who attended.  This time, I was asked to give a talk about one of the graves.  The local family history group, together with the church historian have compiled incredible information about the early graves.  

I found the story behind my allotted grave to be really interesting, so thought I might share it here.  

MARY TINDALE – NEE WHYBROW

Mary’s story goes to show that complicated relationships aren’t a new thing.

Mary Whybrow was born in Sydney in 1815, the daughter of two convicts.

Parents

Her father, William Whybrow, arrived in 1796, having had his death sentence commuted to transportation for life. His crime was the theft of several silver items, silk gowns and petticoats and 300 pounds.  That was quite a significant theft.

Her mother, Elizabeth Clarke, arrived in 1808, having been transported for 7 years for stealing 14 yards of printed cotton, which would not be something to conceal easily.

William and Elizabeth married in 1809.

Mary was one of 7 children and when she was 5, in 1820, her parents separated and her mother, along with the children, moved in with John Poad Tindale, who later became Mary’s father in law.

Tindale Family

John Poad

John Poad Tindale married Susannah in England and they had one son, John Richard Tindale.  About a year later, John Poad was convicted of having forged bank notes in his possession and was sentence to 14 years transportation.

John was assigned to William Cox and worked on the construction of the first road over the Blue Mountains.  He was pardoned in 1816 and started to farm and acquire land, becoming very prosperous, owning land near Penrith, in Bathurst and Bylong.

Susannah

About a year after John’s transportation, his wife Susannah followed her husband to NSW as a free settler.  She left their son behind in the care of family.

Susannah also did well, establishing several businesses in Sydney. 

By 1819 she was in a good financial position, so sailed back to England to collect their son, now aged 11.

However, upon her return, she found that her husband was now in a relationship with Mary's mother Elizabeth.

John Richard

John Richard shared his time between his parents and attended Kings College at Parramatta for his schooling.

He started to acquire land from a young age.

Marriage

In 1830, when John Richard was 20, he married his step sister Mary, who was 15 at the time, here at Holy Trinity.  That was prior to the church being built, so they would have been married at the Parsonage.

They went on to have 8 children.  Records show that 4 of those children were also baptised at Holy Trinity.

After their marriage, they lived at “Victoria Farm” at Kelso, one of John Paod Tindale's properties.  This was also known as “Springdale” and established in about 1826.  The house still stands at Raglan, next to the airport, being one of the oldest homes in the district.  

Over John’s lifetime he built up an extensive property portfolio in NSW and farmed at Bathurst, ensuring a wealthy lifestyle for the family, even having their portraits painted in 1841 by the artist Maurice Felton.  These portraits currently hang in the National Portrait Gallery of Australia.

Mary is aged 26 at this time.

John is 31 at this time.

Separation

However, wealth does not always bring happiness, and John and Mary separated in 1849.  Mary made her permanent home at their property “Hornseywood”, near Penrith.

Meanwhile, John entered a new relationship with Caroline Sollis and went on to have a further 7 children.  They eventually moved to Tasmania, where he died in 1872.

Death

Mary died in 1882 from chronic bronchitis and heart disease.

Her death was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on 30 May 1882:

"May 27, at Hornsey Wood, Penrith, Mary Tindale, widow of the late John Richard Tindale, Victoria Cottage, Kelso, aged 66 years and 6 months."

So, if she died at Penrith, why was she buried at Holy Trinity Kelso?

My guess is because her children were still here.  Her daughter Frances, known as “Fanny”, married into the pioneering Lee family and is buried in the adjoining grave, as are several of Fanny’s children.

I hope you found this as interesting as I did.  

After the wander around, we all enjoyed a delicious afternoon tea.  A rather lovely way to spend some time.

Musings While Sewing on a Button

What!  Two mending/adjusting activities in a week!

A few days ago a button mysteriously appeared on my sewing machine.  I didn’t know what the story was behind it, so I just sat it to the side to investigate later.

Today it became apparent where it had come from, when we were doing the groceries this morning.  Mick was wearing some work trousers, minus button, just held in position by his belt!  Oh, Mick!  I suppose that is one way to get me to replace a button……and that explains the button on the sewing machine.

As it was a button that needed to be sewn on with a shank, I had to get out my old original pin tin (well it is actually plastic).  This is the one that Mum bought for me when we started to do craft at school in 3rd class.  It is a Dorcas and originally had a yellow foam pincushion on top.  

The reason that I needed this particular pin tin is that is where the essential button sewing on tool is kept.

A match.  Not just any match, but the one I have been using for I reckon for about 45 years when sewing on buttons.  Surprisingly, it even still had the phosphorus head intact.

Anyway, the button was duly attached and I won’t be embarrassed when Mick wears these trousers next time.  Oh, and the match has been put back where it belongs, in the pin tin.

Musings While Hemming Trousers

I needed to buy some new “good” trousers, ie: not jeans.  While walking up the street towards the shopping centre I had to pass the Red Cross shop and decided to pop in and see if there was anything there.  I don’t often think to visit an op shop when looking for clothes, but maybe I could be lucky.

Well, this time I was definitely in luck.  I came away with a pair of charcoal Sportscraft woollen trousers that looked like they had never been worn for  the princely sum of $12.00.  You have to be very happy with that.  They fit like a glove, other than being way too long, which is the usual story for this shorty.

Taking up hems is not one of my favourite jobs, but needs must.  

While I was doing the hand stitching, I remembered how much I like stitching with woollen fabrics.  When I used to make my own clothes in my teens and early 20s, wool was my favourite fabric to work with.  It has a lovely hand and drape.  These trousers are from a nice fine woollen suiting.  They will be lovely to wear.

I also got to thinking about how I used to take up hems commercially…….. Well, as a teenager in the early 1980s,  I used to get paid $5.00 to take trouser hems up for the fellow next door.  When I think about it, that wasn’t too bad for back then.

I also had a paid job of hand stitching down the waist bands on wrap around skirts that a friend’s mother used to make out of calico and hand paint with designs.  They were quite the fashion item around here back then.  The waist band and long ties were finished, but the hem was just zig zagged for the purchaser to hem themselves.  I was paid $5.00 per waist band.

These days I will just stick to taking up hems for myself, Mum and Mick, if necessary.  That’s far more than enough.

It’s Been Twelve Months

I can’t believe that my last day of paid employment was twelve months ago today!!!! How quickly the time has flown.

So, it is time to reflect on the last year and the major change in our lifestyle.

Starting our big 12 week trip up through the centre of Australia and down the west coast was the best way to start our non working life.  It was just like going on a holiday rather than leaving work, but was a great distraction to get work out of our heads.

When we returned home in early October it was like the start of our retirement.  It didn’t take us long to get into a more leisurely routine, although it did take Mick a while to realise that a job didn’t have to be completed in double quick time, as there was no customer to keep happy.  He could start to pace himself.  

We definitely don’t miss that 5.30am alarm clock each day.  I sleep a lot better, as I used to lie awake thinking about work quite a bit.  I don’t miss that stress at all.

I was starting to feel a little lost at around Christmas, but in the new year I joined my two stitching groups and we started to learn to play lawn bowls.  Now our weeks are nice and full.

Mick has been restoring a motorcycle, a job that keeps on growing.  His shed has never been tidier and he has been spending lots of time in the garden, which he really enjoys.

I have been playing in my sewing room, achieving much more than I used to, but still have loads more that I want to do.  I do tend to fiddle fiddle around quite a bit, without being productive.

Of course, we have enjoyed being out and about, both locally and heading off with the caravan.  Being able to go places mid week, without the crowds has been a wonderful change.

You hear people wonder how they found time to go to work and we have now reached that point.  Mind you, we are not rushing anything.

Life in definitely good, and no, we don’t miss work.

The Things You Find

While I was packing away things from Scrub Stitchin’ I came across something rather special that came home with me.

One of the original Scrubbers, Diddles, passed away a few years ago and her stash has been shared at Scrub Stitchin’ over the last couple of years.  This year there were smocking items, which were used in a very creative way, and some threads.  In amongst those threads I found two that I was happy to bring home.

If you look closely, you will see that they are hand dyed silk threads from Gumnut Yarns. So, what’s the big deal?  Well, we purchased our current home from the lady that creates Gumnut Yarns.  My sewing room was her work room.  Those yarns would have been hand dyed in my laundry and packaged in my sewing room.  They have now come home to roost.

It doesn’t take much to make me happy.

What is a Linen Prover?

Have you ever heard of a ‘Linen Prover” or “Linen Tester”?  I hadn’t until Sunday, when we came across one in a little, out of the way second hand and antique shop in Deepwater.

As soon as I saw it, I guessed it was for counting the thread count on fabric.  We were both intrigued, so we bought it.

A little Google search revealed very little about them, but I did find a very interesting article.  It’s worth having a read.

It appears that our version is the rare French one.  It is rather surprising how well the little magnifier glass shows up the threads of fabric.  The various openings show 1/4 inch for different countries, when sizes were apparently not standardised.  There is also a 10mm, 5mm, 4mm and 2mm opening.

We are quite pleased to add this to the collection of interesting sewing and textile bits and pieces we have.

Last Week and On the Road Again

This is a short catch up on the last week’s stitching, as I shared my main projects in my last blog post.

Other than those projects, my crafting time has been spent on secret stitching and a bit of progress on my knitted scarf.  This last week has been incredibly busy, so just a little each day was all that I could achieve.

However, I still managed to keep up with my 15 minutes each day.

My tally is:

15 minutes day/week = 7/7

15 minutes day/March = 19/19

15 minutes day/2023 = 76/78

Success Rate = 97.44%

I’m linking up with Kate at Life in Pieces.

In non stitching happenings, we have been to lawn bowls twice.  

Sometimes we surprise ourselves with our brilliance fluke shots and at other times we are all over the shop.  At least we have a good laugh at ourselves on those occasions.

Thursday and Friday kept us busy, assisting with the set up of our local church fete.  Sadly, most of the parishioners are very elderly and not in good health, so a few of us get in and give a hand.  

The fete was on Saturday and was a resounding success.

I found one cute little item.  I would have loved this when I was a kid.

We did not help with the pack up of the fete, as we started on our latest trip with our caravan.  Getting ready to leave, also kept us busy this last week.

We weren’t sure how far we would get and ended up reaching Gunnedah.  We had initially intended to free camp, but our part of the state has been experiencing record high temperatures for March, reaching the high 30s C.  We amended our plans and stayed at a lovely little caravan park - with power for the air conditioner - and a pool.  Bliss.

We made a very early start yesterday morning to beat the heat.  The silly thing was that the further north we headed the cooler it got.  

What we also noticed was that from about Gunnedah, the landscape was so very much greener than at home.  Yes, there was lots of flooding in November in our area, but since then we have experienced very little rain, lots of strong winds and in the last couple of months. rather high temperatures, culminating in some pretty serious bushfires in the last couple of weeks.  The season is much milder in the northern half of the state.

We saw a few summer crops, mainly sorghum and cotton, as well as quite a few properties in the process of sowing this years wheat and other grain crops.  We wish them well.

Having left early, we aimed to reach Glen Innes for a late breakfast/early lunch.  There is a cafe that serves delicious fruit loaf and in recent years we have not been able to time things right to enjoy some.

I did enjoy my toast, while Mick enjoyed his smashed avo.

Further up the road, at Deepwater, we called into a little antique shop.  We found a couple of interesting things that I will share shortly, as they are in the ute and I am in the van.  One was really interesting.

I always love this falling down old railway bridge near Tenterfield and finally managed to get a decent shot of it as we drove past.

We crossed the Queensland Border in the early afternoon.

Before stretching our legs in a nice park at Warwick.

We called it quits for the day at a nice little caravan park in a rural area not too far south of Toowoomba. There are a few Model T Fords here, having participated in a rally over the weekend.  They are nice to see.

We will continue to head north today.

I won’t be doing the daily posts, like I did on our big trip last year, rather just the occasional update.

Ta Da - Times Two

It has been a fairly quiet week this past week, but I do have two little finishes to share.

Yes, I have continued to spend at least 15 minutes in the sewing room or knitting every day.  That keeps my copy book unblemished for the year.  100% success rate.......so far.....  That will shortly change.

Anyway, most of the week consisted of just a short time knitting my sock and today I finally finished it.

Ta Da!

The stripes don't line up.  However, this was my first go at socks, so I'm pretty happy with them.  I think I may have to knit some for Mick now.  We'll see.

My second Ta Da is the little baby quilt.  What a drama!!!!!

My test quilting had been going fine.......then......

I loaded the little quilt on the frame, changed the colour of the thread and stitched the first partial row.  I had a look and it had skipped a few stitches.  Not enough to undo, but still not good.  I changed the needle, although it was very new, and the problem went away.  Yay!

Then, I quilted three rows and after I wound it on I discovered that the bobbin tension was too tight!  Aaaaah!  At one spot there was a birds nest as well.  There was nothing to do but unpick it all.  Not that it was too hard with the tight tension.

Let's rethread top and bottom and see if that makes a difference.  Tested and no.  I then put my previous test quilt back on and fiddled with the tension until it looked OK.  I hadn't touched the tension, but let's hope that does the trick.

It ended up OK.  I know that it is fairly rough and ready, but as my Dad used to say "A blind man would be glad to see it".

I used a free pantograph called Flower Power.  The texture on the back looks rather nice.

In other happenings, Mick has been plugging away with the mechanics of the BMW motorcycle he purchased while we were away.  There was more needing to be done than initially expected.  He would fix one thing, just to find another problem.  He took it for a little test ride today and he thinks it is ready to get registered on historic plates.  It's been quite a journey to get to this point.  Mind you, it has kept him occupied.

The other thing Mick has done is remove his company name from his ute.  He has decided it is finally time to wind down his business and be fully retired. It's a bit sad, as it is the end of an era.  He worked for himself for 23 years.

Now you see it...

Now you don't... It looks rather plain.  He may have to have a decal of some description added.

And that’s about it for the past week.

I’m going to link up over at Life in Pieces.

Blogger Comments Work Arounds

Following my recent request for help with comments I now seem to have a couple of work arounds that may help some others. Thanks particularly to Jo.

Just to recap, Blogger is asking me to log into my Google account to comment, but is then going round and round in circles and not letting me go any further, even though I am already logged into Google.

I have worked out, by playing around, that the comments work beautifully when using my desktop computer. It is not an Apple.  It recognises that I am logged into Google.  However, I am usually commenting using either my ipad or iphone. Some blogs will let me in on my ipad, but not my phone, while others won’t let me in on either.  By the way, I read blogs in Feedly and then move over to the blogs from there.

So, to the work arounds.

PROBLEM 1

When I saw this blue sign I was really stumped.  I could get no further at all.  This was on my iphone. The work around I found was to click on “View web version” under the HOME button.  It then took me to a further screen and let me comment like normal, obviously recognising that I am, in fact, signed into Google. 

However, on my ipad, if I click on the blue “Sign in with Google” button it does take me to a screen to sign in with Google, not go round and round in circles.

PROBLEM 2

This problem is a bit different, in that it looks like an normal comment screen, except it is defaulting to “comment as Anonymous”.  It is the same on both the iPhone and ipad.  

When you click on Google it returns you to the blog post.

The only way I have been able to work around this one is to click on “Name/URL”. It then takes you to another screen where you type in those details and can eventually get to post a comment.  All rather cumbersome, but the only fix I have discovered.

I hope this helps some others with the same problems.  It would be so nice if things didn’t change all the time.

February - My Other Goals and Bits and Bobs

Well, if that was summer, it is now officially over, with only a handful of days with temperatures over 30 degrees C. Quite unbelievable.  What is also unbelievable is the flooding in south east Queensland and north east New South Wales.  I feel so much for those affected.

Now, back to my goals.......

I only had a few other goals for this month.

As usual, I wanted to have at least one book read.

I picked this up at an op shop at Bingara on our recent holiday.  It sounded like a bit of light hearted fun.  

It was published in 2012, the year of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, but is set a little earlier.  The story goes that the Queen is feeling a little down. She is still feeling sad about the "annus horribilis" and Diana's death, as well as struggling with technology and hates feeling dependent on people for help with it.  

To cheer herself up, she sings the song "My Favourite Things" from The Sound of Music and wonders what her favourite things are.  The royal yacht "Britannia" comes to mind and on a whim, she decides to catch the train to Edinburgh to visit it.  However, she neglects to tell anyone.

The story follows the endeavours of those close to her within the household to find her, keep her safe, bring her home and avoid any publicity.

Obviously, all ends well, but it was an amusing, light hearted read, as expected.

My next goal was to try a new recipe.  Well, for someone who would never say that cooking is one of her favourite things, I seem to have spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen this month, although not really making new recipes, as such.

Firstly, we filleted the little fish.

Then I made the plum clafoutis.

Then it was time to make tomato relish - a rather large batch.

This resulted in a little disaster, thanks to our little friend, Joey the cat.  It was latish in the afternoon that we finished, so the jars were left on the kitchen bench overnight.  Carefully moved to the centre, just in case Joey decided to jump up there during the night.  To our horror, in the morning, half the jars were knocked over and one smashed on the floor.  What a mess!  He must have jumped up and landed squarely on top of them all.

It didn't clean up as well as we'd have liked, so we hired the big floor cleaner from Bunnings, moved all the furniture out, and cleaned all the tiled floor in the kitchen, dining and sitting areas.  The machine is good for a general clean, but still doesn't do a great job on the grout, so in the kitchen, we were both down on our hands and knees scrubbing.  I know it was a job needing doing anyway, and looks so much better now.

Back to the cooking.......

We don't have a lot of tomato plants, but we are getting a lot of tomatoes.  After making the large batch of relish, I then filled the boiler again to prepare some for freezing.  I had three big bowls of tomatoes, added a kilo of onion, heaps of garlic, basil, thyme, parsley and pepper.  Once cooked I blitzed some and left some chunky.  There are ten tubs in the freezer to use for pasta, as a base for a casserole or for soup.  

On Sunday, there was another three bowls of tomatoes sitting there, so I got chopping and cooking again, but didn't add anything to the tomatoes - I was too lazy.  That ended up with another seven tubs in the freezer.

Our latest adventure in the kitchen involved these.  A mate told us he had heaps of blackberries this year, if we would like to come out and pick some.  Of course we would. We rather like our berries, and don't normally have access to blackberries.

It didn't take all that long to pick half a bucket full - two and half kilos worth.

The next day, they were popped in the boiler and turned into jam.  The reason we had hoped to find some wild apples on our Friday outing, was to add them to the jam, but it ended up just being straight out blackberry jam.

Of course we had to do a taste test on toast.

I had also bought some plums at the supermarket that were on special, so two batches of jam were made on the one day.

The pantry is now well and truly stocked with preserves for the year.  We may make another batch of relish, but that would be a bonus.

We are getting plenty of veges every day now.  There are several meals of zucchini slice in the freezer, as well as eggplant curry and eggplant mince to use in moussaka and the likes.  Fortunately, the beans are just about finished, as we don't need any more.  Our poor freezer is just about as full as it can get and I still want to freeze more.  

At least there are plenty of easy meals ahead.

We were fortunate to have a few fun days during the month.  Thankfully, events are starting to happen again and things open up.  As of this week, it is no longer mandatory to check in to most places with a QR code and from Friday, we were no longer required to wear masks to most places.  Having said that, most people seem to still be wearing a mask around the shops.

As expected, we didn't get away in the caravan during the month.

So, in the end, February was rather a busy month.  The next couple promise to be somewhat the same, so I'd better start thinking of my next goals.