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Tuesday 20 January 2015

Valentine’s Day - history and ideas for presents

Valentine’s Day is a day internationally recognised in most countries, especially in the West.

Also know as Saint Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, it is celebrated on 14th February mainly in the West (calendar set by the Western Christian Church) or on 6th July / 30th July in the East (calendar set by the Eastern Christian Churches).  When we were in Japan, I was pretty sure we celebrated it on 14th February together with the Japanese all over! You learn something new every day!

No matter which day it is celebrated, Valentine’s Day is now universally associated with Love, Romanticism and Affection.  However, things were a little different when they started up in Roman times.

Before it became a huge commercial enterprise with flowers at overinflated prices and other gifts donated all over… Valentinus, a roman Christian Gnostic theologian was imprisoned by the Romans for performing weddings for soldiers (who were not allowed to marry).  While in prison – legend has it – that he healed the daughter of his jailer and when sentenced to death his last written words to the young lady were: “from your Valentine’ before his death on 14th February 269!”.  Valentinus was considered a martyr and was eventually given sainthood.

In Roman times the celebration of Valentine’s Day did not have any romantic connotation.

Fast forward a bit and in the Middle Ages, XIV century, when the poet Geoffrey Chaucer started the romantic side of the celebration and the tradition of courtly love started to flourish; Chaucer wrote a poem to celebrate the 1st anniversary of the engagement of Kind Richard II of England and Anne of Bohemia (both 15 year old!) with the poem ‘Parlement of Foules’ in 1382 where he mentions “love birds”:

For this was on seynt Volantynys day Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.

["For this was on Saint Valentine's Day, when every bird come there to choose his mate"]
(Information obtained from Wikipedia)

By the XV century Valentine’s day had developed into an occasion where lovers gave each other presents to express their love: flowers, confectionery and - greeting cards (that became known as ‘valentines’) – These started to get produced mechanically in great quantities from the XIX century and became recognised as presents fit to declare love to a loved one.  Cupid’s figurines, heart shaped items and even doves are nowadays the most popular images to show love on Valentine’s cards.

The practice of sending a Valentine’s card by post became more popular when in the XX century it became cheaper to buy a stamp, making sending Valentine cards more popular.  The practice of mailing Valentine cards made it easier to send anonymous cards and some began to appear with ‘racy’ verses in the then prudish Victorian’s times.

From the middle of the XX century exchanging cards developed into also giving gifts such as roses and chocolates, packed in heart-shaped boxes and wrapped in red paper.  In the 1980’s the Diamond industry pushed for jewellery to be given to loved ones and in the XXI century - with the advent of the internet – e-valentine cards have become very popular, with more than 15 million being sent every year.

The perception given all around it so make us think Valentine’s Day is a day to be celebrated only if you are part of a couple.  However, years ago an American friend taught me to celebrate the day not only with your ‘romantic loved one’ and to extend the celebration to the rest of your family including your children and close friends.  It certainly puts a different and more social spin on celebrating the day when you do not have that ‘romantic person’ in your life and to make it a day to be positive rather than moping around!  





At Crafts of the World Online we stick with tradition – heart shaped objects – and also by thinking out of the box and offering different ideas for presents to buy your loved ones – being that a lover, a friend or family member - like candles and friendship’s bracelets, all at very affordable prices.  We have a whole section dedicated to Valentine Day, take a look!





At the end of the day, it is the thought that counts and who gave / sent it to us.  Well, that’s my feeling anyway!


Happy Valentine’s Day to you all!




Thursday 15 January 2015

January - Time to make homemade orange marmalade...

Where I set up to show you in a video how to make your own homemade orange marmalade. 
January is the perfect month to find in store or at the market Seville oranges which are the best for making proper homemade orange marmalade.





The marmalade lasts for a long time (even years). I make it for my own use and occasionally I am so good and give it as present to friends at Christmas.


Wednesday 14 January 2015

Walking the Hadrian Way / Hadrian Wall Trail - Tranche 1 / Day 3 - Corbridge - Cholleford / Chester Fort

The following morning I decided – after taking advice from the locals – that I could walk the 15-20 minutes to Port Gate. Also decided to make it more scenic by following part of a local walk (Milkway Lane) and then finishing by walking along the A68 – which unfortunately has a verge that is not for walking.  Local knowledge didn’t seem to be accurate as it took me 1.5hr to reach Port Gate, even accounting for the slow pace once I reached the A68, this was definitively more than a 15-20 minutes' walk and it was closer to 3 miles! Be warned! If I were to do it again, I would follow the local walk through small lanes and footpath back to the wall and then retrace my steps to Port Gate walking along the Wall’s path. Much safer and pleasant.

From Port Gate I picked up Hadrian Wall Path was again faced with climbs up and down the stone walls that divided the fields. These were more like ‘deer styles’ whereby you climb steps over the top of the wall and then you soon climb back down.



Three miles on (some of which in a pine wood) and I reached Oswald’s tea place. Along the route it was saying that it is closed on Mondays, fortunately being a BH Monday it was open!! Stopped for a restoring pot of tea and biscuits (they had lots of appetising things) and when I started walking again with a better spring in my step!



Three and a bit more miles and I was to reach Chollerford and Chester Fort (the end of my day's walking before returning to Newcastle (NC) for my train home).




3rd day

Towards Chollerford the signposted route went different from my guide book. I got directed first on a small narrow pretty lane, but then I was sent onto a main road and basically end up walking all the way to Chester Fort along the main road. If I’d known I would have taken the shorter and more direct route along the ‘military road’ and at least I would have saved myself time and miles. As you get to Chollerford Bridge you get the option to take a detour to see where the old roman Chester Bridge was. As I was tired I didn’t go to see it. Might do it when returning for the next tranche of 3 days walking. Certainly the actual bridge and the site are very pretty and worth seeing.

I had planned to eat at the café at Chester Fort. It turned out to be on the roundabout not connected with Chester Fort National Trust site, so decided to catch my AD122 bus to Hexham, get the train connection to NC and have a combined lunch/dinner in NC at a pizzeria I had seen when sightseeing in NC on the Saturday.

The place is called the Herb Garden and it was open at 4.30pm when I got there! Yeahhh! And what a good decision it was… see pictures and comments on Trip Advisor.  I think my 2nd trance of walking will end up in exactly the same place before catching my train back home!!!