York

Here is some Christmassy eye-candy from the beautiful, historic city of York.  We went there two weeks ago to visit youngest son who is currently studying there.  He comes home this weekend, yippeeeee!!!

We pushed the boat out a little and had tea in Betty's tearooms.  You can just about see us below.  I am wearing a red coat, youngest son is wearing a stripy scarf, and eldest son is wearing a green coat.  We stood and waited outside Betty's for over an hour in the rain, along with all the tourists from all over the world.

It was well worth it though, the food was delicious, and we ate fat rascals, which Betty's are famous for.  But we only ate 2 of them between four of us, in case we turn into fat rascals ourselves!

It was a very long day, we spent over six hours on the train altogether, and didn't get home until after midnight, but it was absolutely wonderful.

I met a fascinating lady there called Annie Austen-Meek, who runs her own business called Softpots, which involves plants growing in old tights and stockings!  It sounds a bit funny but go here to see the amazing gardens she has created.  Below is a sample of the magic that Annie creates.  I was overawed by her creativity and originality.

All the plants here are growing in old tights, and even all the cobbles and statues are just tights filled with soil, moulded into shape and painted.  I'd love to try out this idea next spring in my garden. The whole effect looked really magical, right in the centre of York.

Eco worrier

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This little dolly lies awake at night, so concerned about the state of the planet, yes.......she is an eco-worrier, hahaha!  I'd like to say this is one of my worst jokes but I would be lying.

Anyway, her name is Emma, she is a Cath Kidston beauty, and I have bought her for my beautiful, smiley granddaughter Poppy Annabel.

She came with this pretty dress, (that's the doll, not Poppy!) and I have knitted the jacket to match, plus a hat in the same fetching shade, and I am now knitting a satchel for her, and crocheting a little blanket to keep this dolly warm in winter.  These are all knitted in Sirdar Simply Recycled, very eco-friendly.

The blanket will match Poppy's own blanket that I made for her earlier in the year, shown in the pic above, along with a little pram coat I knitted for her.

I enjoy knitting and crochet so much that Poppy and all her dollies can look forward to a future of being swathed in layers of wool all year round!

I know I haven't posted for a while, I've been such a busy bunny.  But I have added some new blogs to my sidebar, including Life After Money.  If you are looking for some ideas on how to live a frugal lifestyle, look no further.  This is an excellent site.

Many thanks to all of you who have left a comment in my absence, especially to Tina, whose wonderful blog is a must-read for me, and to Quinn, who I miss so much, now you have graduated and no longer require my services!  Also to Pom pom, who is full of fun, and to everyone else who leaves comments, and those who write the most wonderful blogs that inspire, cheer and inform me.

If you are kind enough to leave a comment, I will post a picture of my beautiful granddaughter!

I'm a Granny!!!

Just a very quick post to let you know that my new granddaughter was born early this morning!

The Green Thing

My sister mailed this story to me yesterday.  It was so good, I had to share it with you all!

In the queue at the supermarket, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day".

The cashier responded, "That's our problem today.  Your generation did not care enough to save our environment".

He was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, lemonade bottles and beer bottles to the shop or pub.  They sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over again.  So they really were recycled.

But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator or a lift in every shop and office building.  We walked to the grocery shop and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower four-wheel drive every time we had to go half a mile.

But she was right.  We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's nappies because we didn't have the throw-away kind.  We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 240 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry the clothes.  Kids often got hand-me-down clothes from their elder brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that old lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room.  And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of a football pitch.

In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us.  

When we packaged a fragile item to send in the post, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn.  We used a push mower that ran on human power.  We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a styrene cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water.

We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the blade in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the tram or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums into a 24-hour taxi service.

We had one five amp and one fifteen amp electric outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets on every wall to power a dozen appliances.  And we didn't need a computerised gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest fish and chip shop.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart-arse young person.

Don't you just love it?  

Sunny Monday

This morning I am giving the house a good clean after the weekend, then youngest son and I am going out for a little shopping and a coffee.  The sun is shining, so the laundry is happily flapping in the breeze.  I could do more, but I am making the most of every precious moment I spend with youngest son before he goes back to university, so the bigger cleaning jobs can wait until after that.

"Home-management-  the creation of a beautiful and simple place and living organism which becomes a refuge of Christ’s peace and launching pad for God’s righteousness."        John Piper

Indoor Barbecue

Here at Letters From Home, we are not really into barbecues.  In our part of the world, it is rarely warm enough to actually eat outdoors, at least that's how we feel.  So this weekend I have discovered I can do barbecue food, kind of, in my trusty slow cooker.

  

It was so delicious, I want to get it all down here before I forget what I did!  

Firstly, I browned some veggies, 2 onions, a sliced red pepper, 2 sliced courgettes, some sweetcorn.  I put all the browned veggies into the slow cooker, then I browned 8 sliced of pork fillet.

This meal was to serve 4 people, but I usually cook a double amount and chill or freeze half of it for another day.  I love the fact that I only have to cook about 4 times a week!

I placed the pork on top of the veggies.  I find that slow cooked meals always work best when the veg is at the bottom, otherwise the meal cooks well but the veg can be a little undercooked.

Then I heated about half a jar of barbecue sauce in my pan, along with a can of chopped tomatoes and a can of vegetable soup (Sainsburys cheapest, about 17p a can, probably not very nice taken as soup, but fine in the slow cooker.

I then tipped this sauce mix into the slow cooker, and switched the cooker onto High for about an hour, the length of time it took me to get ready to go out to lovely Stratford upon Avon for a shopping trip.

Then just before leaving the house, I switched it to Low.

About 5-6 hours later, i.e. the time it took us to go to Stratford, buy a new dress at Laura Ashley, some new shoes, have a coffee at Cafe Nero, just next door to Shakespeare's birthplace, etc. etc, I arived home and boiled up some rice and peas and served this with our "Barbecued Pork".  

I had never cooked meat in barbecue sauce before, I just used Sainsburys own brand of sauce, and it tasted absolutely delicious.  

That was yesterday.  Today, we came home from church and ate the rest of the barbecue pork sauce with pasta, which was nice and quick and just as delicious.  You could serve this with salad and crusty bread, maybe with a little crème fraiche on top.  With a little imagination you could do all sorts of things, maybe some tortilla chips alongside would be nice.

Here is the dress I bought from Laura Ashley.  There was a 25% discount on all clothes, so it was a bit of a bargain, although as I usually buy a lot of my clothes from charity shops it still seemed quite expensive, but it's beautiful and comfortable, and I'm sure I will wear it a lot, so well worth it.

 

We are all on tenterhooks here at "Letters", as we are expecting the birth of our first grandchild any time in the next week or so.  You can imagine how excited we all are.  This baby will create two new parents, four new grandparents, and three aunties and two uncles!  I'll let you know when we have some news.

I am currently reading The Book of Margery Kempe, the oldest known biography written in the English language.  I hadn't chosen it, it is a set text for my son's English Literature degree for this year, so I am reading it before he returns to university, and I am enjoying it immensely.  She was a Medieval Mystic, who had an extraordinary life.

I'll try not to leave it so long before my next post, although the new term starts at the University next week, so that means I will be back at work, but I am looking forward to meeting new people and taking on new challenges.

Enjoy your weekend!

London riots and other musings

Please join with me in praying for London and other cities that have been affected this week by the riots.  I have family living in London, so I am praying for their protection, and for all those that have already been really badly affected.  Our God is a God of peace, not of disorder.  Lets pray that peace will prevail.

Yesterday, youngest son and I went here.

This is a wonderful 'book farm' in the village of Astley, in Warwickshire.  They have a cafe, which sells delicious cakes, served with cream, strawberries and blueberries on the side, and very reasonably priced.  They have a 'ten bob barn', where they sell many books for 50p.  I bought this book

It is called 'The Pleasure of Reading', edited by Antonia Fraser.  I already have a copy, and it is one of my favourite books ever, but this one is for my son to take to Uni with him.

I have read some brilliant books this summer.  As well as Influential Women by Wendy Virgo, which I have already written about, I have read Family Life by Elisabeth Luard

'Room' by Emma Donaghue, which is an incredible book, dealing with a potentially depressing subject in a life-affirming way,

and Once Upon Another Time by Jessica Douglas-Home.

This is an amazing book that I found in an Oxfam shop in Whitby while on holiday.  It describes the author's secret life behind the Iron Curtain in the last years of Communism, when she carried books, materials and hope to dissident communities.  It is fascinating to read how the cultural life of the dissidents was kept alive, despite many privations.  I have read similar books about people smuggling Bibles into these same countries during that period, but this is a different angle, and shows how important it was for people to keep reading, learning, exchanging ideas, and listening to their music.  

For me, I love to read your blogs, to learn, to be inspired and entertained.  Have a great day, and keep writing!