Mrs Finnegan’s Almanac: A Celebration!

This Almanac is One Year Old! It was on the 28th day of March 1836 at 8 O’ clock in the morning that I picked up my quill and started to write the very first letter A (for Almanac, do try to keep up).

I promised you Saints and I have delivered them in abundance from Gladys and her family (wife, husband & six children – all had halos) to Simeon the Stylite who stood on top of a pillar for 37 years and finally to Saint Caron about whom nothing is known except he was a man who might once have walked through Dyfed.

I also gave practical household remedies because, although I am an AUTHOR, first and last I am a housekeeper.

You surely recall how I explained the importance of having an emergency bottle of gin available. No? You can read it again HERE. I also revealed the very BEST method of cleaning brass and copper (click HERE) using a tool that is always to hand.

My Almanac has been a schoolroom. It was in these pages readers first discovered how butter was invented (Click HERE if you missed it) and when potatoes arrived in Sussex (click HERE). May that knowledge stand you in good stead because…

An Announcement!

All good THINGS must end.

I promised both Mrs Hankey, the Mistress, and Peregrine, the husband, that I would write an Almanac for a year ONLY and that twelve months has drawn to a close.

This missive is like the evening flight of a dragon fly, magnificent and final. Dear gentle readers this is the very LAST edition.

Do not weep, do not grit your teeth in fear and and anger (it’s so unbecoming) or RESENT the extra time I will have at my disposal. I intend to use it well.

I cannot allow you to walk unprotected and naked into the world (in a very non-pictorial, metaphorical sense).

I shall return once a month to see how you are doing and to hand out nuggets of guidance to help you on your way.

Even BIGGER Announcement!

I shall ALSO use my time to do something long requested and often discussed.
I am not certain of the process. I am at the very beginning of this endeavour and all I have is a box of sharpened quills. At some point it will involve this:

and in the end there will be a

BOOK

I don’t know how long it will take but come on this journey with me. The first task is for Master Peregrine and I to seek out every scrap of paper I have written on. It will take some time. I shall need your HELP in the future though, that much I do know.

I have nearly run out of ink…
I had intended to produce a final edition bursting with erudition and enlightenment and other words beginning with ‘e’ but this very spare, potted issue will have to suffice.

NEWS
Michigan was made the 26th state of America. It happened just after Christmas but I have only just heard. I fail to understand why they need ANOTHER state. I believe it is pronounced Mick-Hig-Ann.
Public Ball held at the Old Ship for the Sussex County Hospital. Tickets 7s. No one I know went.
Snow We had a lot of it at the beginning of the year and more is threatened
ODD BIT OF INFORMATION YOU MAY NEVER NEED
Hunting the Squirrel is a game played by villainous stage coachmen. The large, heavy coach follows a delicate one horse chaise and then passes by at speed, brushing the wheels with the purpose of frightening the passengers (and probably the horse). Men!
SAINT
Saint Herbert of Derwentwater Feast day 20 March
Anglo-Saxon hermit who lived on the tiny St Herbert’s Island in Cumbria. (The island must have been called something else when he was alive.) William Wordsworth wrote a poem about him.
VOCABULARY
Absquatulate: to leave in a hurry which is what I am about to do as Mrs Hankey has 15 to dine tonight and there isn’t enough pastry forks to go round.

It is more important than EVER that you Enrol in our ENTIRELY free subscription service as you will be told when the ink is dry on my next missive. DO NOT MISS IT
Delivery is executed by a gentleman from The Regency Town House (please don’t offer a tip) or by some other means. Click HERE and we will meet again.