Smorgasbord Blog Magazine – Weekly Round Up 24th -30th October 2022 – Tapestry, WIP, 1940s Hits, Kiri Te Kanawa, Food ‘J’, HMS Beverley, Poetry, Book Reviews, Health and Humour

Welcome to the round up of posts you might have missed this week on Smorgasbord.

I hope you are well and have had a good week. We have been catching up on the dry month of September and first two week’s of October with inches of rain and high winds. I have a feeling Halloween will be a bit of a washout and not much fun ‘trick or treating’. To be honest we don’t get much out where we are as it is quite sparce on houses, but it was a great excuse usually to get a tub of Quality Street in just in case!  I have avoided the temptation this year and of course the door bell will chime to prove me wrong.

I hope that if you are celebrating Halloween you have a great time and get more treats than tricks.

I am in the last stages of my current tapestry and my WIP. Both of which now undergoing line by line editing. For the tapestry this involves finding the odd stitch that has been missed, which is easy to do, the back of the canvas then needs tidying with loose threads being snipped back and then a steam pressing to make sure completely flat before going to the framers. I will take a photo when it returns. I have another half finished canvas of a large bowl of cherries which is next and I must say I am enjoying getting back to the stitching.

My WIP a combined poetry and short story collection should be available by the end of November and more news on that nearer the time.

Contributor News this week.

William Price King joined me for The Breakfast Show for the next in the series on hits from the 1940s and the last in the post on the extraordinaryly talented Dame Kira Te Kanawa. Coming up on Friday a new series on the music legend Tony Bennett. You can also find William – Blog– IMPROVISATION– William Price King on Tumblr

Debby Gies​ is here on Monday morning with her next post in her Spiritual Awareness series on Angels….and she joined me for the laughter post on Tuesday with some Halloween funnies. Over on her own blog you can enjoy Debby’s Sunday Book Review for The Second Mrs Astor by Shana Abe, and a link to her wonderful interview with Christy Birmingham- Reyes. Follow the link to Debby’s posts …D.G. Kaye

Carol Taylor was here on Wednesday with her  A-Z of food with the letter ‘J’…on her own blog you will find Monday Musings looking at some innovative ways to recycle waste, Ricotta, blackberry and walnut toast for a breakfast treat, a post on walking which is healthy exercise both free and effective, a launch post for Jacqui Murray’s recent releaze, a look at more edible roots and Saturday Snippets exploring the world of ‘lost and found’.  Here is the link to Carol’s round up Carol Taylor’s round up 23rd – 29th October 2022

Thank you too for all your visits, comments and shares during the week. As always very much appreciated…♥

 On with the show….

The Breakfast Show with William Price King and Sally Cronin – Chart Hits 1940s – Billie Holiday, Glenn Miller, Vera Lynn, Nat King Cole-

William Price King meets the Music Legends – #Classical – Dame Kiri Te Kanawa – Part Three – Career Highlights

Carol Taylor’s – Culinary A – Z Rewind – ‘J’ for Jelly Beans, Jalapenos, Jack Fruit and Jerky all with a little Jus

Podcast – #Poetry #Flash Fiction – Halloween and The Witch’s Handbook

Size Matters: The Sequel – #Morbid Obesity – The power of sleep when losing weight and to be healthy by Sally Cronin

Memoir – Life on the Ocean Wave – Part Four – 1942 – HMS Beverley – American shipmates and rough seas by Eric Coleman

Dorothy Cronin (1949- 2006) – Emer’s Song

#Comingofage #Fantasy – Knuckleheads: Dreamer’s Alliance Book 1, by Dan Antion

 

Previous Reviews 2021 – #Dogs #Mountains #Humour – Olive, Mabel and Me: Life and Adventures with Two Very Good Dogs by Andrew Cotter

Previous Reviews 2021 – #Poetry – Son of Booku: More Halloween Haiku by Annette Rochelle Aben

#Fantasy #Comingofage – Realms of the Mist by Jude Itakali

#SocialMedia #Cyberbullying – The Bubble Reputation – Alex Craigie

#Historical #Medieval #Romance – The Wild Rose and the Sea Raven by Jennifer Ivy Walker

#Espagnol #English – Chile: Southern Cross for the 1st Time by Rebecca Cuningham

Hosts Debby Gies and Sally Cronin – Trick or Treating and Halloween Puns

Fright Night Halloween – Host Sally Cronin and the Senior Team

 

Thanks very much for dropping in today and I hope you will join me again next week… Sally.

Smorgasbord Posts from My Archives – #Memoir – Life on the Ocean Wave – Part Four – 1942 – HMS Beverley – American shipmates and rough seas by Eric Coleman

As part of the latest series of Posts from Your Archives which is focused on family, I thought I would share two series from my own archives from 2016. One is my father’s memoir about his life in the Royal Navy that we persuaded him to write two years before his death in 1996, Life on the Ocean Wave.

The other series is the first book, The Colour of Life, we published for my father-in-law Geoff Cronin, who sadly died in 2017 at age 93.

Both were great raconteurs and I hope you enjoy reading their exploits.

In the previous chapter In the previous chapter my father described his part in Operation Fish; the secret mission to transport the National Treasures to Canada for safe-keeping and to also pay for ammunition and supplies to support the war effort.

My parents married in 1940 and my mother travelled from her home in Wickham in Hampshire to meet my father’s ship when they docked briefly one side of the country or another for the next eighteen months. She told us terrifying stories of a longer stay in Liverpool where his ship was docked for a number of weeks for repairs, where they were subjected to bomb raids night after night.

My father now continues with his story as he joins HMS Beverley in Canada.

Part Four – 1942 – HMS Beverley – American shipmates and rough seas

HMS Beverley

There were four Destroyers tied up, in two pairs alongside, in Halifax Dockyard. They had four funnels, a very tall mast and very narrow beam. Not the best combination to face the rigours of the Atlantic weather. The mess was in the bows, with bunks for sleeping and not hammocks. In fact everything for maximum discomfort at sea. The equipment was all American and we spent a week getting familiar with its operation and location. The mess coffee pot was never switched off.

I had a bunk in the gyrocompass room, in the centre of the ship, which was much more comfortable than in the bows.

We had lots of assistance from a small crew of US sailors and the second week was spent at sea, making sure all was well. We then sailed for the UK with the other three boats, via St Johns, Newfoundland. Three made it, one returning to Halifax with engine trouble. My guess about the sea-going qualities soon proved correct, as during the trip to St. Johns we seemed to do everything except turn over.

HMS Beverley – photograph from the book by Geoffrey Blewett – HMS Beverley – A ‘Town’ afloat and the Town ashore – 1940 – 1943

We eventually arrived in Belfast, where quick repairs were carried out and various pieces of RN equipment fitted. These included a very early Radar set with the aerial on top of the mast, which was rotated by a hand-wheel in the office, through a “bowden” cable.

We joined an escort group and started convoying duties across the Atlantic, between Halifax and Londonderry. I occasionally managed to get to Wickham for a couple of days, which involved a train from Londonderry to Larne then ferry to Stranraer then train via London to Portsmouth time of arrival unknown due to delays etc. The stay was generally short, but very worthwhile and I usually managed to bring a few goodies from Canada.

Unfortunately I was somewhere in the Atlantic when our eldest daughter Sonia was born on 27th February 1942. Mollie had managed to join me in Newcastle for a short spell during a refit and also in Liverpool, during a short spell when the ship operated from there. They were very happy times we enjoyed them to the full. I left Beverley on 22nd March 1942 and early in 1943 she was torpedoed in the Atlantic and there were only two survivors!

A return to Portsmouth and family life.

I spent a very welcome three months in the Barracks at Portsmouth and was able to get to know Sonia and enjoy home life at Wickham and on 31st July I was sent to Roedean School at Brighton, which with St Dunstans had become the new HMS Vernon, due to the bombing in Portsmouth. I found a lovely place in Rottingdean for Mollie and Sonia to live and I did my qualifying course for Chief Electrical Artificer, which lasted for two months. Then I had to wait to see where my next job would be. When I was told, we were delighted. I was to join HMS Forth a submarine repair and depot ship in the Clyde 14th October 1942.

My father died in 1996 and so was unable to attend the memorial service for HMS Beverley and her crew in 1998.  There was a wonderful book written by Geoffrey Blewett, my mother had number seven of 200 copies.

Buy the book HMS Beverley : Amazon UK – And: Amazon US

©Eric Coleman 1994

I hope you are enjoying this slice of history and as always welcome your feedback as always.  Thank you Sally