Front of havy T-shirt embroidered with a bee and flowers (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

Back view of navy T-shirt embroidered with a bee and flowers (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

At Christmas I hit upon a rich seam of potential presents for my grandchildren as my hand embroidered and appliquéd T-shirts went down very well. But finding perfectly plain, unadulterated tops for me to embroider has been quite a mission.  Sequinned unicorns, glittering rainbows and machine embroidered this and that fill the shops and website pages alike. Whenever I came across plain tops I pounced on them like silver tokens in a Christmas pudding only to find them out of stock in the size I wanted. In the end there were 6 tops that were ok – 3 long sleeved, 1 short sleeved and 2 sleeveless, though none of the colours were at all bright and summery as I would ideally have liked. Daughter No 1 should, however, be quite pleased with the first couple I’m sending as she has visions of her daughter looking smart in any shade of blue from indigo to navy … and one is navy and the other indigo!

Details of T-shirt embroidered with a bee and flowers (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

The smallest person of course has her own opinion about dressing and bats away proffered items of clothing that promise no clash or sartorial argument with what she’s already wearing. She’s a wellingtons with swimming costume, tutu and Fair Isle jumper sort of girl, which is pretty much what she was wearing when they dropped in last Sunday. She is not so keen on the perfectly lovely denim Boden dress her mother longs to get her into, although yesterday morning she apparently stopped mid dismissal of the garment, thought about it for a second and then announced she might wear it if granny’s did some flowers on it!

Indigo T-shirt with embroidered feather design (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

Clothes in circulation may require careful handling with the smallest person, but last week it was the clothes taken out of circulation that presented a greater problem. While lying on the floor of her parents’ bedroom, she flipped up the bed’s valance and made a horrifying discovery, for there packed in unfortunately see-through storage boxes were the clothes that no longer fitted her – clothes that she suddenly realised she had missed, clothes which she had loved so very much …  clothes which had obviously been ‘stolen’ from her and stolen by of all people, her mother. Properly distraught, she straightened herself up and laid the criminal charge full at her mother, enjoining her brother to come and see, for his clothes too had been stolen. This she sobbed was a terrible thing to have done – how would mummy like it if she had come into her bedroom and stolen all her…make-up…  We have been warned. Meanwhile her brother is almost completely oblivious as to what he is wearing – though he does say he loves his insect T-shirts!

T-shirt with embroidered feather design (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

The sense of smell has been much in the news recently as its loss has become recognised as one of the important symptoms of Covid 19 infection. Bees apparently can now be trained to stick their tongues out when they smell someone with the illness and from this research it is hoped that a hand held device can be developed using a biochip with insect aroma detectors which would identify a range of volatile substances.

Detail of feather design on T-shirt

Napoleon, however, had no truck with detecting his own natural smell for he would splash himself excessively, compulsively, even neurotically, with eau de cologne. He used between 36 – 40 bottles of cologne every month, rising up to 60 according to one of Josephine’s ladies-in-waiting. A contemporary biography refers to him almost drowning himself in the stuff, while other sources describe him not only pouring great quantities over his head but even drinking it! While normal use of cologne is harmless, it seems indulging in excessive amounts is really quite dangerous because large amounts of essential oils in the cologne can act as endocrine disruptors and alter natural hormone balance. There may also be a link between the gastric cancer discovered in his post mortem and such endocrine disruptors.  Rather than being poisoned by his wallpaper (one theory for his death involves damp conditions triggering the release of arsenic from the green pigment of his wallpaper), it seems he may have poisoned himself through excessive use of eau de cologne. Suddenly my use of perfume seems very minimal … and quite healthy.

Detail of feather design