Deblyn

Hi Cookie - welcome back sporadically!!

I'd be interested in that too. We could test out your American theories over here in England and see what happened. I am very kenn on country lore and sayings, the older the better, and would love to know more about the impending weather from signs in nature. One I'm watching just now is the theory that the thicker the skins on your onions grow, the harsher the winter. The skins on mine are pretty thick this year, so it will be interesting to see how harsh it gets. Not that it ever gets that cold in the south of England, but it will be good to test the theory. The weather at the moment is so mild here that I can go out in t-shirt sleeves at the moment. The lull before the storm (hope not literally).

You'll all be gald to hear that they are brown today. Said Hello to Stargirl in another thread, anad am on my way there now.

I really liked that one Deb! Hubby laughed politely then winced a bit when I made him look at it! (He preferred the Breasts one on the other thread, but there you go!)

You're right, it does put everything into perspective.

.......have my boards gone green all of a sudden? A rather fetching shade of Kermit I would call it. Is this a result of being dubbed a Senior Member?!

Hello Stargirl, from Dorset - where are you in England? I see Debbielee has called me "awesome" - don't know about that! It's great fun on this site explaining to our friends in the US about British ways, expressions for things etc and vice versa. Very educational, and a good laugh, but the support is there when you need it. I'm sure you'll enjoy being back here again. Look forward to all your postings.

Thankyou for the honour! (Eng. spelling of honor). Only my hair is turning white round the edges, not grey. On the rare occasions when I dye it with henna, the white ones turn pink! I look forward to becoming a blabbermouth soon.

My thoughts today are with all the little children and their families affected by the tragedy in Italy. It is unbearably sad.

"Someone" has mad me a Senior member! How did that happen? What does it mean? Should I be pleased??!!!

I'll try amazon as I have used them before; thanks for the tip. Hubby says what do you want them for, you could write them yourself!!

Carla Emery is the author of the Encyclopedia of Country Living, a standard work on living in the country and being as self sufficient as possible. She covers such topics as food preservation, animal husbandry and butchering, gardening, all sorts. The practical parts are interspersed with personal experiences of herself and others,which makes it a very interesting book to read. It is a huge book, and is best used as an encyclopedia rather than reading it from start to finish. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in these sort of things; while it is fairly expensive, it is a sound investment for the future. I only got mine in May of this year, so now actually being involved in helping Carla with the preparation of the next edition is quite amazing! Things move quite quickly when they happen at the right time! I have two groups of volunteers here in the UK, and one woman from Australia; I am incharge of collating all the info they send to me on the chapter we are reviewing at that time. I then get it all together and send it off to Carla. Will be hard work, but very rewarding, I imagine. I may have some questions, especially concerning US/English terminology for ingredients and equipment.

Just to let you know, anyone who's interested, that we have started work on the first of the chapters that Carla has sent out for the new edition of her book. She phoned me last week to have a chat about what she wants; it was nice to hear her voice, and she sounded as I expected her to. In one of her postings on another forum, whe called me her "fearless leader of the UK contingent". I am fearless now that hubby has shown me how to send six e-mails at once without having to type it out six times. Sad but true. Will keep you posted as we go along, but I feel priveleged to be in a position to help her out.

Mare - white worcestershire sauce? That's a new one on me. Can you describe, please? Thanks.

Great news - thoughts still with you all.

I have finished making mine, and they should be in the post the middle of next week, which will be plenty of time to get to everyone.

Don't think hubby would be chuffed at having to share the bed with the dog, much as he loves him! He doesn't even like him being upstairs in the house. He gets away with murder (dog, not hubby) when he's away, though. He's such a handsome puppy, it's hard to tell him off! He's nine now, and he's a Basset Hound/Lab cross called Dixie (as in Dixie Deans, the famous football player from the 1960's).

My thoughts are with you and all your family, Brigid.

I know it probably seemed a bit of a funny question, but I was just curious. It is starting to be hot water bottle weather here in England. I take two to bed with me, and they have knitted wool covers which I use sometimes. I like them very hot, and wrap my nightie round them before I put it on. We don't have central heating in our house, and it can get quite chilly in the autumn and winter. another granny story coming up................. my mother can remember that before hot water bottles were invented, they used to heat a stone or a brick on the stove and wrap it in a bit of flannelette sheet and use it to warm the bed. Then came along something called a "stone pig", which was a bottle made out of china/clay, and the end where you filled it looked like a pig's snout, hence the name. We now have rubber ones. Mine are plain pink, but the children have clear ones with little rubber fish that swim about inside when you fill them with water. Now isn't that all so interesting?!!!! When it's really cold, I wear bed socks too - real passion killers!

Do Americans use hot water bottles?

I've just finished this book with the unlikely title of Parrot Pie for Breakfast - an anthology of women pioneers by jane Robinson. It was a thoroughly good read and told of the often severe hardships of women pioneers all over the world, and their often terrible journies to a new life. One to recommend.

Recipe: 4oz butter 4oz sugar 2 eggs 3tablespoons marmalade 8oz self-raising flour milk to mix Cream butter and sugar until ight and fluffy; gradually add the beaten eggs, then add the marmalade. Add sieved flour, and mix to soft dropping consistency with milk. turn into prepared tin and bake ina moderate oven for 1 - 1 1/2 hours. when cold, can be topped with orange glace icing if liked. We eat quite a lot of this cake in our house, as it's not too expensive to make, and you can cook other things in the oven if it's going on for that long, eg baked potatoes, veg casserole, biscuits etc. Hope you like it - let me know!

And I'm still here in Dorset! But I can't find my flag!!

My two children loved it!

Porridge is made from rolled oats here, which is just flattened oats. There are various other forms you can buy oats in , such as pinhead oatmeal, but if I want anything finer, I just put the oats throught the processor! There is a new instant oat breakfast with flavourings that has just come on to the market here, which I saw advertised on television a few nights ago, but I don't buy things like that. With the Rayburn, if I want to make porridge, I put milk in a pan, put in the oats and leave it on the cooler end of the Rayburn overnight, and it turns into perfect porridge by the morning. Very handy. All this talk of porridge has tempted me to gove it another go, especially with the colder weather on the way.