Deblyn

You could carefully cut out the pretty embriodered parts and stitch them into a patchwork-type cushion cover, or intersperse with other patches to make something bigger, like a throw, or use it to start a quilt. Small parts of the embriodery could be cut, pressed and framed and hung on the wall - I've seen this done and it looks very effective.

Re: The Hills is Lonely. Lilian Beckwith has written a whole series of books about her exploits in the islands. I have finished the first one (The Hills is Lonely) and am about to start another one. I fsomeone would like the one I've just finshed, then I could post it over to the U.S., then it could get passed on again if anyone would like to do that. I'm more than happy to send it over. Let me know if anyone would like me to do this, and it could end up a well-travelled book! I wnet to the mobile library yesterday afternoon and came home with another 14 books. One of them is about a man who travels around Ireland with a fridge! He did it for a bet, completed the journey and then wrote a book about it! I'm looking forward to reading that one!

Most of what I read is non-fiction, on a wide variety of subjects. I like gardening, cookery, spiritual, philosophy, biography, travel, craft (especially knitting), art and lots of others that I dip into from time to time. At the moment I am reading "The Hills Is Lonely" by Lilian Beckwith, about an Englishwoman's stay on a remote Scottish Island in about the 1960's. It is very good with some extremely funny parts. I spent a while on a similar island, but in the 2980's, but didn't think much had changed and a lot of things she writes about are still going on. I am also able to "read" in my head in the accent, which lends a lot to the enjoyment of the book. The other one I am reading at the moment is Gaia's Kitchen which is a cookery book written by the cook at a small independent school in Devon. It is vegetarian with some wonderful recipes in it. They also do a conversion so that you can multiply up for cooking for 30 or 60 people. I hope I won't need that bit, though!

Thanks for those - I really enjoyed them and will pass them on.

Thanks Reci, I've made a note of that one in the book, it seems ideal for the sort of little samplers I make. All hubby needs now is the big barn!!!

What I collect is little quotes and sayings to make up into cross-stitch samplers for the walls in the house. I have done several so far. Everyone's favourite hangs by the front door - "Dull women have immaculate houses"! I write them up into a little notebook, and aim to do a number of them to hang in the stair well and landing when the decorating is done; that way, I have plenty of time to do them!

My hobby is housework - sadly I don't have enough time to pursue my hobby as much as I would like!! But seriously folks: Gardening, reading, cooking, knitting, patchwork, cross-stitch, jigsaw puzzles, various crafts, letter-writing, daydreaming about future plans....... probably lots more, but my hobbies tend to become an integral part of the housekeeping after a while!

If it was me that had that, I suspect it was probably my fault more than the website! Let's see how many times this comes up, then.

This has been an interesting post. I use coupons occasionally , but they are rarely available for the things I buy; if they gave more coupons for eco-friendly products, organic fruit and veg and ethically traded goods I would be £££ in, but they don't! It would also encourage more people to use these things. We have Loyalty Cards in our supermarkets; For every so many ££ you spend, you earn points, which then can be converted to a cash discount on your shopping. The best thing to do is to save them up for christmas, but I don't always manage that. They do know a huge amount of information on you throught these cards, which i don't like, and am going to stop using them. If you don't use them, it just means you don't tot up the discount. I am trying to reduce the amount of shopping I do in the supermarkets anyway, and support local producers etc. There is a big debate about the power of the supermarkets over the public and farmers going on over here at the moment which is good. After 6.30pm every evening one of our supermarkets reduces all its baked goods to ridiculously low prices, and if I am around then, I stock up on what I can, especially as the stove is still off. It also helps to fill up the freezer to help it run more efficiently. Don't start me on the ID chip thing else I'll be here for days!

My best find recently was at the recycling centre; a fermenting bin (5 gallon) with lid and two long lengths of siphoning tube, a hand operated food processor, and a big basket full of handspun jacob's fleece wool and another type which I am trying to find out which breed of sheep it comes from. There is enough wool to knit a blanket for the bed for winter, but I am trying to be disciplined and finish the knitting order I am working on at the moment, but I'm really looking forward to working with this wool. the whole lot only cost me £2. Two days later I came home from town to find a dozen handtowels left on the doorstep froma friend who was clearing out a house, and a pasta machine left by another friend who had found it at the recycling place! Sometimes it's good to want what nobody else does!

I have four favourite times in the year, all connected to the seasons. I love the few days when the season is just turning into the next one; there is a great sense of optimism and expectation, which goes hand in hand with a gradual change in the light which is barely pereceptible to begin with. My favourite change over is almost about to happen here - late summer into autumn. In most calendars in this country Autumn doesn't start until September, but in my life I come into line with the ancient peoples when August is the start of autumn, when the crops were starting to ripen, much abundance and preparation for winter. It's time to start thinking about airing the blankets that have been stored over the summer, and chopping wood for the fire, bottling fruit and picking wild fruit from the hedgerows. The wild ducks and gees will be seen shortly, which is ver evocative. It is a wonderful sight, and much more thrilling than the usual helicopters and hot air balloons that we usually see around here! Because my seasons are out of step by about a month with most people, they find it very difficult to deal with. I go by nature and the weather, rather than a date on a paper calendar, or what is said on T.V. I love autumn the best, I think. Said enough!

Hi Marjorie, Yes you're right about the sheets; the worn middle parts are then on the outside so get tucked under the mattress, and the good bits that were under the mattress become the middle of the sheet, so you get twice as much use from the sheet. You're right about the collars too. Talking of sheets, a couple of years ago we went back to sheets and blankets on our bed and gave up the duvet. My friend has been clearing out the house for the relatives of a friend of hers, and was invited to take anything she could use from the airing cupboard. Knowing my penchant for real sheets and pillowcases, she came by with a large bag of pure cotton sheets and beautifully embroidered pillowcase for me. I can't wait to get them on the bed. My idea of luxury is to change the bed linen every day, so I would have clean, cool, pressed cotton sheets to get into, topped off with handknitted blankets and a hand quilted cover on the top. Mayber one day.........., but not this week!

Hi from England DannyLou - I'm sure you'll enjoy the site as much as I do. Welcome.

Not canning/bottling because of the stove problem but am harvesting courgettes, golden wax pod beans, runner beans, blackcurrants, parsnips look to be ready soon (early this year), potatoes, peppers soon. Tomatoes very poor this year, but loads of cucumbers. Can't win 'em all!

Please - what are lilocks? I'd like to know if I have them in my garden too! Thanks

Yes, I can safely say that I am a gardener! Really enjoyed that one.

Hello again! First off, corron wool is a typo - it's meant to read cotton wool! I don't know if there is a different name in America for it, but we use it for babies and taking off make-up etc. Runner beans are pole beans, I think, or something similar. They are called runner beans cos they run all over the place if you don't keep them in check! Good mead left to mature for over a year tastes like a honey drink, but can be quite high in alcohol content, so watch out if you're driving! Wines are made in much the same way - the fruit or veg is soaked in hot water to extract the flavour, then yeast and sugar are added to begin the fermentation process. Let it work until fermentation stops, then bottle and keep as long as you can. I quite often make half batches of things according to the ingredients available, just half the quantities and carry on. I have just checked the wines in the litchen again and they have started to ferment well - there is a crusty looking layer of yeasty bubbles on the top of each one. The day after tomorrow I will get it into the demi-johns and start off some more. I have about nine gallons sitting in the store waiting for bottling which I haven't got round to doing yet; I've been ill over the past week and not got as much done as I should have, but it can wait. I'm on the mend now, but am left with an awful rib-racking cough. It's very very annoying!

I have ducks and they can be noisy, especially the little call ducks, and they can be very messy; they paddle all the grass down with their little wide feet. The drakes can really hammer the duck in the spring when they're in the mood for mating, and can be quite aggressive. Having said that, I wouldn't be without my ducks! They lay throught the winter when the chickens don't and I spend hours watching them because they are so funny. Most of mine have names as well, and can get quite friendly. they are good with children too. We love out ducks!!

A fermenting jar is usually a demi-john, made of glass with a narrow neck into which you put an airlock to let the gases (produced by the fermenting process) escape and the bugs out. Any jar with a narrow neck would do, and if you have no airlocks you can use corron wool or similar. Just don't stop it up completely or the thing will explode with all that pent up gas! The fermentation will produce bubbles which go up through the air lock as gas and make a little popping noise. When any action like this is no longer visible, then it is fermented out and can be bottled, but use a siphon tube to avoid the gunk in the bottom, which is the sediment from the yeast, fruit etc. I use wine bottle which I get from the pub over the road for free - saves them taking them to the recycling bank. They get a good wash in v. hot water and the labels removed then they are ready to go. Are you going to give it a go? My freezer decided to dfrost some soft fruit this week for reasons known only to itself, so I have unexpectedly made raspberry, gooseberry and runner bean wines this morning! they are now bubbling away nicely in the kitchen.

That's a good one - I'll e-mail it to my husband! It reminds me of a true story I read: a man comes home from work most days to find his wife exhausted and worn out. After a while he starts complaining about this - you're always tired, I'm the one who goes out to work, I don't know what you do all day. One day she has had enough of his wining, so she does nothing apart from feeding the children. He gets home to find her sitting with her feet up and the place in total chaos - toys everywhere, laundry not done, beds not made, dog not fed, curtains not drawn, dust everywhere, no dinner prepared, children not bathed and ready for bed - you get the picture. he asks her what is going on and she waves her hand over the whole mess and says "THIS is what I do all day!" By the way, women deserve more than three cheers!

I don't drive at all!! My husband does though, and he has a Citroen for every day, a 1957 Austin A35 (called Trundle!) which needs work, a 78 Camaro and a harley Davidson Armstrong bike. I walk.

Whoops again! Sorry about that! I can knit socks and grow veggies, but I'm not much good on the computer yet!!!!

We all watched the WW2 house series. The children kept commenting on all the equipment and stuff they had that was just like ours, even down to the green and white gingham curtain infront of the sink! We also have the wooden draining boards on either side. A lot of the things they did in this series are things my granny and mother did. I now find myself doing the same type of things. I used to laugh at my granny washing out polythene bags and hanging them on the line to dry so she could re-use them - now my line is often decked with not only polythene bags, but lots of other things. I also turn shhets sides to middle when needed, turn collars on husband's shirts, and other things that she did. Everything comes full circle I suppose. I think husband would draw the line at pillow cases made out of flour sacks. when I told him that's what my granny did, and I had actually slept on them in the bed in her house he didn't believe me until my mother confirmed it. We have a lot to learn from our elders, if only more people would listen to them. Now I sound like my mother!!

Here is some infor and a recipe for mead which was asked for over on the Homestead forum. Mead is the product of the vinous fermentationof honey and water, without the addition of herbs or spices, fruit juices aor vegetable extracts. It is a drink of very ancient origin and before the introduction of grapes into Britain it was usual to drink mead at festivals and weddings. Celebrations for the latter usually lasted a full month, and this gave rise to the word "honeymoon". Recipe: Place 1 gallon of water in a large pan to warm, add 3 lbs honey and stir, warm to dissolve the honey, bring to the boil, simmer 5 minutes, no more, remove from heat and stir in the lightly whisked white of one egg. Leave to cool to blood heat, then add the previously activated yeast. (1 tablespoon yeast and a little sugar in some warm water to cover, leave until well frothy). Cover and leave for two days, then transfer to a fermenting jar and ferment out. Bottle, then leave at least a year, longer if possible. Caution - very strong! I make it usually when I acquire an amount of honey. I hope to start my own bees next year in the garden. The type of honey affects the taste; I believe that heather honey gives the best taste, but have not tried that yet. Let me know how you get on if anyone tries this out. POSTED BY LOWLANDER

I hope no-one thinks I am hogging thsi to myself! I enjoy sharing my knowledge and experience with anyone who is interested. I make quite a lot of chutnies out of both fruit and vegetables. the best ones so far have been apple and plum, courgette (zucchini) and tomato and runner bean. I make green tomato chutney when I get them too. It is used in the same way as relish, and goes particularly well with chees, but i like it by the spoonful! It's good in all sorts of sandwiches too. Mead and beer are not the same; mead is a much older drink than "modern" beer, and has been brewed since ancient times. It is made from fermented honey; sometimes herbs were added for variety of flavour, and this is known as Metheglin, which I have not tried yet, but hope to soon. Beer is made from malted barley and flavoured with hops. Type of beer depends on the length of malting the barley and which type of hop is used. I make beer from our own hops I grow in the garden; I have four bines of Fuggle hops. They are ready to harvest end of August into September, which is a sticky smelly job, but you do get a lot of hops, and it can be done in a day. My husband enjoys harvesting them, probably because of the end product. The hops are dried and stored for use throughout the coming year. They can also be used in herbal pillows to aid sleep because of their soporific effect. That's why you fall asleep after too many beers, I suppose! I'll post my mead recipe, which is fairly straightforward) over on the stove site if anyone would like to have a go, as long as you tell me how you get on with it! Sadly Debbie, I don't have a farm, just a garden. Some people think it is fairly big, but it's never really big enough. It's about 160ft x 40ft out the back. We have planted everything that is in it, including all but three of the trees. We have the following fruit: 3 old varieties of apple (Winter Queening, Devonshire Quarrendon and Sheep's Nose), plu a Cox's Pippin, 1 Victoria plum, then damson and elderberries, birch trees (you can tap them for sap for wine making when they are mature), hazel, blackcurrants, whitecurrants, redcurrants, rhubarb, raspberries. Next year we are going to plant a hedge along one boundary and I want to incorporate greengage, wild plum, quince and medlar trees. We also have rowan trees. We have not acquired the polytunnel yet, as my husband is going to build it. I want it for winter veg and salads. I hav one aluminium and one wooden greenhouse. The al. one has Brandywine tomatoes in it, peppers and gherkins(dill pickles, I think you'll know them as) and trays of weedlings, basila dn parsley and other bits and pieces in. The wooden one is full of three types of cucumber, chilli peppers, lettuce, violet tomatillos and cape gooseberries. The cucumbers especially are doing well this year. I'm already looking forward in the garden and starting to collect seed for next year. My other great love is herbs, and I have a designated herb garden where I grow most types, with a beautiful ancient variety of pink and white striped rose in the middle. It has the hops on one side and can be pretty secluded in there, so I've put in a chair and can go and hide in there when it all gets too much for me! It's no bother at all to answer all your questions if I can! It's nice to have someone to share it with. My family all enjoy the garden, but they cease to be amazed by my wild and wacky(I don't think so!) schemes and ideas!!