Deblyn

Good on you, Lynnie. All best wishes from across the sea for the future.

My thoughts are turning towards winter and christmas now, but the watershed is my birthday in September; after that, it's time to start on the cake etc. I have ordered all the dried fruit I need, so I'm a wee bit ahead of the game. Next week will see the list of presents I need to make, and cards. this gives me plenty of time to do a little bit every so often to space things out. I do try to keep a lid on things because of the children, so keep most things low key until MUCH nearer the time!!

Usually at this time of year it's all go in my kitchen, but I still have no stove back in while the floor gets done (hopefully this weekend, I've been promised!)so it's been a bit different. The fridge packed up, so we had to buy a new one, which is good as it's twice the size of the oldone, then the deep-freeze packed up, so we got a new one of those on Monday. I lost all of the broad beans from the garden and a little bit of meat, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. So instead of jam making, the fruit is going in the freezer for the moment, and I will do something with it later on. I will be planting spring bulbs soon, and clearing the greenhouses for the overwintering stuff, getting garlic and overwinter nions in, then sitting down with the seed catalogues! My birthday in September is the watershed for my Christmas preparations, so it won't be long until thatis under way too. A lot of neighbours give me surplus fruit (plums, apples, etc) and veg, so I make cider and wine as well as jam. It is a busy time. yesterday I pickled beetroot and eggs, and have done the pickled onions for Christmas.

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!!!!