Fun Monday# 28

Apologies to those who feel they have read this before that's because you have!!
If I wear an apron (which I don't that often) I mainly use the OXO one (can't remember if this was a free gift or cheap offer), the plastic Mrs Beeton's apron was a present back in the 80's and has been well used over the years. The red one with Swanage on belonged to my granny and she went there every year for a holiday. The blue one belonged to my MIL and 'the chef' to Embee's aunt, so I keep them for sentimental reasons. The little turquoise one was made by daughter Sam mostly by hand-not sure how old she was at the time. So that one is a real treasure.
When I wrote about my aprons last time Beccy wanted to know why I hadn't shown her favourite pink and purple one. So although there is nothing remotely interesting about it I'm showing it just for Beccy. I also found this rather tacky looking plastic Christmas apron in my drawer. It's still in the packet and I think it was another free gift. Now this could well become a future prize if I could only think up a competition !!!
As you can see I have a large collection of tea towels and the majority of these are unused. The dishwasher dries most things and I tend to use linen glass towels for everything else rather than the decorative tea towels. They sit in a drawer and never see the light of day. In fact until I came to take the photos for this post I had forgotten about half of them and the stories of how I came by them.

 

The oldest ones are the set of three diffent back coloured grounds with the Koala bears. My ex-hubby brought these back from Australia in about 1964 and when he left they went into the drawer. In 1973 I went on a trip to the West Indies (ex-husband was Merchant Navy Officer and wives could take the occassional trip). We were quite poor at the time and I was wondering what I could buy to take home as a token present for friends. What did my ex find among the cargo (but not on the ship's manifest), a pack of a dozen tea towels (The one from St Vincent and the Grenadine Islands) so my present problem was solved! I kept this one as a souvenir of having visited some beautiful places long before they became really popular tourist destinations.

The oxo tea towel matches the apron and it was a free gift. The calorie one I'm racking my brain to remember where that came from but it's a useful reference. No guesses as to what do you give someone who loves tennis!! I love the Rudyard Kipling poem 'If' so know exactly where I can find the text if I need it.
Bath is a beautiful city about 12 miles from where I live and this tea towel was a present, as was the one from Osborne House.
The field flowers I keep for reference, well you never know when you might be asked by the grandchildren! The cross stitch and the Rockingham forest are of no significance, they were left behind by a tenant and I just put them in to make up the numbers for the collage (thank you Beccy- can't do it on my imac)!!

My mother's parents lived in Nettlebed (Oxfordshire) and I was born not far from there. A few years ago my brother took my mother back for a visit and she came home with tea towels as a reminder. I still have very vivid memories of my grandparents small holding which was in the middle of a wood where he kept pigs, chickens and fruit in the orchard. They went to look for the cottage and found the place where it once stood.

The tea towel with 'gaffer' was a Tetley tea promotion, I have some of the little figures and pottery houses. You never know they may become collectables in the future!!

I've rambled on for quite long enough!

There are a lot of entries again this week so a big thank you to everyone for supporting me. I'm putting up the list of participants under a separate post.