Deblyn

Lovely pictures - i especially like the one of Grandma Sarah in the garden.

Definitely the last one!!!!!!!!!!!

Thinking of you and yours - so sorry.

Believe it or not, Saddam Hussein's two daughters have applied for asylum in the UK. Apparently the Immigration Office is not going to let them in.

Royal Mail, in its infinite wisdom (hahahahaha!) has decided it will no longer utilise the railway to move the mail about. It will transfer this to air and road. They say there will be no more traffic on the roads, they will just make sure their lorries are fuller.......... ! They say that the reason is the unreliability and lateness of the trains. ESWR say that 93% of their trains are on time, which is a much higher percentage than passenger trains. What will happen to the people who will lose their jobs on the trains? What will happen to all the old mail train coaches? What will happen to the industries that are supported by the RM using the trains? There will inevitably be more lorries and vans on the road - more congestion and pollution; more air pollution from increased air traffic. A usual, short term gain without thinkin ahead of the long term consequences. Profit before people. Again. Makes my blood boil. Again

The following ad in the Atlanta Journal is reported to have received numerous calls: "Single black female seeks male companionship, ethnicity unimportant. I'm a very good looking girl who loves to play. I love long walks in the woods, hunting, camping and fishing trips, cosy winter nights by the fire. Candlelit dinners will have me eating out of your hand. Rub me the right way and watch me respond. I'll be a the front door when you come home from work, wearing only what nature gave me. Kiss me and I'm yours. Call (404) 875 - 6420 and ask for Daisy." Over 15,000 men found themselves talking to the Atlanta Humane Society about an 8 week old black labrador retriever.

A panda walks into a bar, sits down and orders a sandwich. He eats the sandwixh, then pulls out a gun and shoots the waiter. As the panda gets up to leave, the barman shouts, "You just shot my waiter!" The panda shouts back "Hey,I'm a panda - look it up!" The barman opens his dictionary and looks at the definition for panda: "A herbivorous bearlike animal that eats shoots and leaves."

I made this for the first time on Monday. 4 large heads of elderflowers 1 gallon of water 2 lemons 1 1/2lbs sugar 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar Place all ingredients in a large pan or bowl and stir to dissolve sugar. cover well and leave for 24 hours, stirring occasionally. Strain into STRONG bottles and it is ready after a few days. Strong bottles are needed as the flowers contain a natural yeast which should make the drink fizz; how fizzy it ends up depends on the amount of yeast present in the flowers. If strong bottles aren't used, there is the chance they may burst. It is a good idea just to let off a bit of pressure every couple of days by opening the cap slightly to release some of the gas. It is only very slightly alcholic, and very refreshing when drunk chilled. Mine should be ready in a few days if it doesn't explode!

it's been reported over here that she has been involved in insider share dealing and has been charged with fraud. She may face a jail sentence. Any Martha fans out there?

We have two bird tables in the garden and a great big covered one built around an old tree stump in the chicken run. We have a dozen or so nut feeders and seed feeders. Scraps go on to the tables and the ground for the ground feeding birds. I've just bought a couple of little water bottle things - you screw them on to the top of an empty plastic bottle filled with water, turn it upside down and it becomes a drinker - a bit like a mini poultry drinker. It's better than an open dish, which tends to get spilt and seeds and stuff fall in it. We have two bird baths and lots of ponds which the birds use for drinking and bathing. There are a few areas where the sparrows gather for their dustbaths. We get the following birds: two pairs of blackbirds, chaffinches, a pair of greenfinches, a pair of bullfinches, starlings, sparrows, collared doves, wood pigeons, lots of wrens, robins, dunnocks and the occasional thrush. A great spotted woodpecker has just started visiting as well - he's very handsome. And ofcourse I feed the mad poultry.............!! We usually get a lot of butterflies but there don't seem to be many around this year at least not so far. I have lots of butterfly attractant plants in the garden and leave long grass and nettles for them as well. My favourite is the Brimstone, but I've only seen one so far this year.

Do your dolls have faces on them Kelly? I have a book with patterns for Amish dolls, but they have no facial features. It says the absence of the face and hair reflect the reluctance to create an image. The dolls are lovely, dressed in lovely Amish dresses, aprons and bonnets. I've been meaning to make one ever since I got the book, but haven't yet.

Maybe that's why I'm so lush, green and thick!!!!!!!!!1

......... are two books I've recently enjoyed by an author called Rafaella Barker, and could recommend them. Both fairly lightweight, easy to read, quite funny, about English family life; littered with eccentrics as usual! A bit of romance and all going right in the end. I've got another by her called "Hooks" which is sitting on the shelf waiting to be read.

haven't got it yet, but the mobile library isn't due until a week tomorrow - it comes once a fortnight. We could do with it at least once a week in this house, the amount we read! Especially Bethany - she must read a dozen plus books a week. I am continually haunted by the question "When are we going to the library again?"!!!

At the moment, Dorset is one of the most expensive places to live outside of London, just for "ordinary" houses. For villages like ours, where we have an ancient church and pub, school, shop, post office and service station, lots of history and thatched cottages, quintessentially "English" for want of a better expression, the prices are astronomical. We reckon our house has increased in value by about 150% since we bought it. There is a 4 bed thatch cottage next door but one that was for sale for £300,00; a little two bed cottage which used to be the saddler's cottage, dates back to 18thc has just been sold by my friends for £185,000 - it only has two bedrooms! It's complete madness!!!!!!!!!! Rental of properties in the favoured areas are also very very high. Dorset is in demand as it is a good, safe place to live compared to a lot of other areas in England. The history and general ancientness of most of it accounts for the high prices, as does the fact it is now within commuter distance to London. When are you moving over here?!!!!!!!!

Lois, I will have a looksee and see if I can turn any up. We are lucky to have a few good cookshops nearby. Will let you know if I'm successful.

I don't think the actual Martock beans would be available over there; they are a very old English land-race bean (an original type never knowingly crossed with any other type of bean). They are not available commercially; I get mine from the Henry Doubleday Research Association, which is the leading organisation for organic gardening in the UK. If the seeds are not on the "approved" lists, they are not allowed to be sold commercially; with so many small producers not being able to afford the huge sums to register with the "authorities" to market their seeds, a lot were in very grave danger of being lost for ever. The HDRA runs a seed saving scheme, and as they are not allowed to sell the seeds as such, you pay what is in effect an annual joining fee, and you can choose six packets a year from their rare seeds list. You can also swap with others in the scheme for just the price of postage. gardeners are generally a very generous lot, and everyone is willing to share so that the more people growing the seed, the more chance there is for saving the seed for perpetuity. Prince Charles is a great fan and member. i grow several things from the HDRA in the garden at the moment: purple podded peas, crimson flowered broad beans, Argentine Primitive squash, Alderman peas, Madeira Maroon climbing beans. I love my climbing beans - apparently someone who loves beans and peas is called a legumaniac! Our soil in this part of Dorset is predominantly heavy clay; the man who lived in our house before we bought it was a great veg gardener and added literally tons of manure from the farm next door, so my soil is in particularly good heart. I do my veg on raised beds for a variety of reasons, but down about a foot and a half into the soil it becomes clay that you could make pots out of! The other side of the village, ie acroos the road and up the other side of the street not only has the clay but it is chock full of stones as well. With clay, it gets waterlogged in winter and bakes hard like cocnrete in the summer - you can't win, apart from a few days between rain and warm when the soil is perfect; with my raised beds and the addition of lots and lots of chicken and duck manure plus home-made compost, my soil is becoming very good and fertile. Our climate here in the suth of England is very very mild. The lowest winter temp in the sixteen years I've been here has beed - 9, which isn't very cold when you come from Scotland! We have our last frost usually about the second week of May, sometimes earlier. In a nutshell, spoilt rotten for growing almost anything. I'm trying aubergines (eggplant) outside for the first time this year due to lack of space in the greenhouses. I think they should do quite well. Famous last words..........!!!!

If I come across some English muffin rings in my travels I will send some over to you! It's funny how things turn up just when you need them, so it wouldn't surprise me in the least!! There is a very slim chance my own rings might turn up one day at the back of a cupboard. Knowing my luck they were probably commandeered by Ethan as part of his space ship/rocket building project...................

What a great story! I have helped in my parents' gardens and grandparent's garden ever since I remember. At college in city flat I still had a yearning for a bit of ground tow grow things; my flatmates were highly amused by me growing herbs on the windowsills. but I couldn't see anything strange in it at all. At school, whenever i went round to friends' houses, the first thing i would do would go and look around their garden, usually with their mother!! Even today, most of my friends are a good 30 or so years older than me, and most of them seriously into gardening. My grandfather was Head Gardener for the Duke of Norfolk on one of his estates in Scotland, so it probably comes from there. Neither of my sisters or my brother are remotely interested in gardening; my brother wanted to have a go at veg gardening a few years ago, but he has a lazy wife who couldn't be bothered. it may catch up with him when he reaches a "certain age" though! One abiding memory of one of my granny's gardens is always stirred by the smell of blackcurrant bushes and their leaves, a smell I love to this day. When we moved to this house, our immediate neighbours had very little interest in gardening; I re-did our front garden completely with lots of plants and two ponds; the neighbour on their other side returned from America after four years and took up where he left off with his gardening. So my immediate neighbours, inbetween him and I have now tidied up theri front garden (and back), put in plants and pots, flowers, etc. While not to my taste, it is certainly a vast improvement as tow how it looked before. So not only is gardening addictive, it is infectious, as your story also proves.

"If you shake a Martock man he rattles" is a known saying round here; Martock is a village near us over in Somerset that has its own special martock bean, like a braod (fava) bean; because they are cheap and nourishing in the past people ate a lot of them, hence the rattling bit!! They nearly became extinct a few years ago but the HDRA saved them. I have four plants to grow this year to bulk up seed for the future. It will be interesting to grow and taste such a historic variety.

That's a good idea about the tuna can (I would have to find similar tins as I don't buy tuna any more, but don't start me on that one!!!!). Glad you all like them! Cat: MacDonalds? (but don't start me on that one either!!!!!!!!!)

Yes, it is fox hunting. They hunt right up to our garden fence some years - the owner of the Estate lets them hunt on his land. Our whole family is staunchly anti-hunt, and we go out and shout rude things at them, make signs and send them miles away in the wrong direction when they ask for directions to the village where the hunt is starting that day. This last one scored me mega Brownie points with my daughter. The man would have to do a round trip of about 50 miles to get back in a circualr route to anywhere near where he was meant to be going! Aren't I bad............

Well done seldiesgirl - you are getting garden-addicted. I have a husband and children, but it is definitely "my" garden!! Mr Lowie helps with the heavy stuff - moving bags of compost, fencing, stones, building things, putting up greenhouses etc, but I do all the planting, weeding, cutting etc. The children look after the bird tables, and also grow some things ina little plot or in pots etc. They all enjoy eating it needless to say!! I grow my veg in raised beds, so don't have room to be self-sufficient in potatoes really; but I always make sure that I put in a few earlies or second earlies because there is no taste in this world like home grown spuds straight from the ground and on your plate! I hope you enjoy them when the time comes. Muscles that ache from gardening aren't as bad as those from housework, I've found...............!!

Exactly right! This was aimed at world leaders in general; when making decisions, they can directly or indirectly affect the whole of the world. It just means try to see the effects of your decisions from another's viewpoint, its ramifications and how other humans who share the planet will see the decisions and their implications from their own point of view. Also to be long-sighted enough to see how and why others have their opinions of you and what you do. The world is in a real mess at the moment. it is one of my all time favourtie quotes and I'm afraid I use it rather a lot!

Hi Lois, English muffins are very different to US muffins. Theya re not sweet and not cake-like. I have made them once or twice in the past, but no longer have the rings. English Muffins 1 oz yeast 1 pint water 1 1/2 teasp. salt 1 1/2lb flour Mix yeast with warm water, add the salt to the sieved flour and add the liquid and yeast a bit at a time. Beat well with your hand for 15 ninutes (could use a mixer) - throough beating at this stage is essential. Stand batter in warm place for 1 1/2 hours, covered with a cloth. Beat it up again and leave to stand a further 1/2 hour. Meanwhile, take a deep baking tin, dust liberally with flour and put it in a warm place. When the mixture is ready, turn it on to a floured board and cut into even-sized pieces. roll portions of dough into flat cakes rather smaller than your muffin rings and put them in the floured tin. allow to prove for 20 minutes. Have ready a moderately hot girdle or hot plate, grease the muffin rings and heat them. Drop muffins into rings and cook for 5 minutes; then turn them over and cook a further five minutes. Remove the rings and press the sides of the muffins to see if they are cooked. If necessary, cook a further minute or two. these are good split and buttered, still warm, with a fried egg in for breakfast. The muffin rings are bottomless rings, usually made of aluminium these days. They are quite hard to find now, though, as relatively few people do so much home baking. Mine disappeared when we moved house somehow and have not reappeared since! Have you tasted English muffins?