Dear FOG ( Friends of Gloria ),

Do you like flowers? I think these are gorgeous.

Guess where they are from.

Believe it or not from a bucket at the roadside outside the junk shop at Colliers End, £3 a bunch!

Last Saturday, as I write, we went back there again to see if we could find out the name of the nude maiden chained in, or actually on, the bath at the roadside. See my last Letter.

Curiosity will out, and this time we were lucky.

The boss of the shop, Dave, is not well, but fortunately friendly son Joe had decided to open up while he was doing a bit of garden chair reconstruction.

Joe didn’t know if she had an official name. He said that for himself he always called her the Blue Lady.

This of course is a fine name for a while until you realise that she is not blue at all. She is Beige. All over.

He then explained that in the past she had been repainted. Once upon a time she had been Blue, a nice bright nursery Blue, and he continued to call her that, which is not unreasonable.

Any way, we get on fine together.

So then out of interest we asked where she had come from in her bath marked Fox & Hounds, which quite surprised Joe.

This IS the Fox and Hounds! See the sign.

That is what it was called when it was a pub, and that is still what it is called. The only house in the village with an underground cellar. We could open again nowadays as a pub if we wanted to, but we don’t want to.

Joe said they had a web site for the Fox and Hounds. Later I found the Blue Lady amongst outdoor locality pictures labelled The Fox and Hounds, Colliers End.

On the way back south along the old A10, being a special outing, it seemed a good idea also to pull in and have a better look at the Monument half way down the hill, or up depending on your direction, just north of the Feathers Inn, Wadesmill.

Thoughtfully there is a special parking space provided for just one vehicle to pull in on the downward side of the road.

This is where in June 1785 (vaguely a hundred years before steam trains were even thought of) Thomas Clarkson, a student who had produced a report on slavery, stopped his horse on his way south to London to consider, and decided in desperation that the misery and deaths on appalling slave ships must be stopped, and for something to actually start happening he must devote himself to doing it

Details on the display board tell how after 20 years William Wilberforce presented a Bill in Parliament to stop slave trading over the Atlantic. Pressure then built up so that after another 30 years slavery was abolished altogether. Very interesting to read.

Notice that with the flowers I also had the church magazine with me, although it may not stand out terribly well for displaying in the church Christmas Day competition for where magazines have been to.

So often I find good places for a picture with the magazine but have forgotten to take it with me. On the other hand there are times to show the magazine but no place organised.

How about this friendly display, showing the magazine alongside three out of the cast of the five actors known as Roughshod?

They put on a performance at Cheshunt United Reformed church, and afterwards the two lads stayed here overnight.

The jolly picture of the five by Andrew Dyer is on a post card which the boys gave us, with this kind message on the back.

Of course our chosen magazine picture should be under wraps until Christmas morning.

I have been looking at the pictures we have used already, together with my trophies in olive wood which are all the way from being made at Bethlehem.

Unfortunately I can’t tell you which one came when except for the special 2012 Olympic one with the red ribbon. Strangely there is a mystery.

This earned the first award for showing a church magazine on Christmas morning in 2009, specially coloured with marker pens.

The second picture for Christmas 2010 was taken in mid-summer, and embellished with a happy message.

The third picture, for 2011, dwelt more upon my educational skills,

while the fourth picture for the extra special Christmas 2012 after the London Olympics was taken at teatime in the back garden.

For Christmas 2013 I was showing off my BCM Magaluf T-shirt whilst on an electric scooter.

As I write you can see this picture of me’ in the church vestibule, taken when fundraising previous to the Christmas 2014 display.

Now we find the mystery:

Seven awards but only six Christmases. How can that be?

I just don’t know. Maybe you can be the detective. Incidentally I had no pictures at all taken in 2008.

Leaving you to think about it, I close, sending much love from Gloria.