Celebration!

21 years ago today I was wearing this.........



that little person in between hubby and I is Zoe, who if you remember gave birth to my Great Niece Madison Dec 2006. Thats how you know time has passed, but it doesn't seem anytime since I met my man!!

Anyway to celebrate I made chutney and lots of it.
I was inundated with cucumbers and I had alook around the internet to see what else you could do with them that didn't involve pickling. You see that silly little book got me going!
You can make a refreshing drink, but I didn't fancy that.
Raiti yoghurt mint & cucumber, doesn't last long.
Then I found a Cucumber Chutney recipe, not sure if it sounds appealing but I have been assured it is very tasty even after 2 yrs.
So first weigh your cucumbers


slice them thickly and mix with the thinnly sliced onions



add the spices and the white wine vinegar and cook, now this is after 1 hours cooking, wouldn't you have thought that the cucumbers would have gone to mush, I did but they didn't!



you can see them in the jars, it did seem very 'oniony' and slightly on the dry side so the last jar filled will have to be the first eaten. Smelt abit like picalilli. Can't wait to try it!




Then came the Autumn Chutney, here are all the ingredients, including the pre-prepared frozen plums



chopped and sliced and put in the pan




being cooked



Hey Presto, Autumn Chutney!



I'm quite into this chutney making, Julian Graves has a half price sale on so I'm off to buy some dates as my next chutney is going to be Date & Banana!

lol!!!!

Diversion?

After all the palava of making sure people, dishes and clothes where washed, buckets at the ready etc etc, we woke up to water? Odd? Continued getting water???? Took daughter No 1 to work, still had water, Daughter No 2 to driving lesson, still had water!! So phone the water company to find out what was going on

and the answer was.............

they did it overnight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hrmph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whilst number 2 was on her driving lesson I went and bought various bits and pieces for chutney making, all will be revealed on my blog later! I then perused the charity shops for books and bought one that caught my eye
'Ration Book Cookery'! I know, I know, I don't really like cookery but with all this hoo haa about the water it got me thinking, how did they do it. Makes for fascinating reading, just for your interest:-

Chronology of Rationing

29 Sept 1939 National Register set up. Identity cards issued.
8 Jan 1940 Food Rationing begins. Bacon, Ham, Sugar and Butter 'on the ration'!
March 1940 Meat Rationed
July 1940 Tea, Margerine, Cooking Fats and cheese rationed.
March 1941 Jam, Marmalade, treacle, and syrup rationed.
June 1941 Distribution of Eggs controlled
November 1941 Distribution of milk controlled.
December 1941 National dried Milk introduced.
June 1942 American dried egg powder on sale.
July 1942 Sweets rationed
December 1944 Extra tea allowance for 70 yr olds and over.
Jan 1945 Whalemeat and snoek (fish like barracuda) available
July 1946 Bread Rationed!!!!

It took all the way to June 1954 until there was no more rationing!

When you look at the above they are your average everyday foods. People grew alot of there own veg and some where even able to keep a pig and 'A limiting factor for many would-be poultry farmers was the fact that grain for chicken food was as scarce as for bread manufacture' so maybe I would not have been able to keep my chickens!!!

OOoooo! don't forget Spam! Who used to get Spam sandwiches in there lunch box for school!!! lol!!

I'm sorry for my diversion but I sometimes think, although I would never wish a war on us, that if we all fell on harder times and foods became scarce that we would appreciate everything more including are neighbours!

Just to prove you are still on the right blog..............

I bought some plants today!!!
This is Eucomis comosa 'Sparkling Burgundy'



and this very cute one is........
Eucomis vandermerwei 'Octopus'

Interruption To Water Supply!

We have lived here for exactly 20yrs 234days and in all that time we have never had a 'major' interruption to our water supply. Because we live in a village we have the occasional day about once a year where they 'flush the pipes' to flush out the 'bits' probably because we actually don't have enough houses to keep a good flow going! That takes about 4 hours usually sometime between 10.00 and 15.00.

Last week we got a letter, so we have had about 6 days notice, which stated 'Wessex Water will be carrying out essential improvement work on the water distribution network in your area and this will involve interrupting the supply to your property from:
23.30hrs on Wednesday 30th July until 15.30 hrs on Thursday 31st July 2008
I thought, well that's not so bad, but then I thought that includes early morning and the usual early rush for the loo! Some men seem to have an alarm clock set to there bowels and when they need to go theres no waiting they have to go, well I married one of those (although I didn't realise it at the time), his morning ablutions are ridged, this I think is because he has A.D.D. Routine is paramount. I suggested he left for work earlier, No wouldn't consider, so I suggested he visited the loo once then left for work, No, he didn't like this either, so we could use buckets, this was acceptable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So I bought two new buckets, one for use upstairs, one for downstairs. In the upstairs bathroom I will fill the bath with water the night before and everyone can
Scoop
Bucket
Chuck it!
Easy!!!
Downstairs is just a loo and wash hand basin! MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmm!! Outside the back door is a very large water butt, so the bucket will have to be filled from there! Lets just hope its not raining like it has been the past few days!!!
Now water, just how much water does one use during this time scale? I though about filling pans and kettles etc. etc. then I plumped for the easy option, some very large bottles of water, 15 litres should be enough!
So I think we are ready, tonight everyone can shower, all animal waters will be filled all plants watered, dishes washed, uniforms washed (K has to wash a uniform each night she comes in from work).

See how easy we take water for granted, because its on 'tap' so to speak. If we always used the 'bucket & chuck it' method would we use the loo as much as we do now? What would we do differently? How did they cope before toilets?

Never too Old!

To have a paddling pool!



fill it with water



get in and think mmmmmmmmm! bit cold!



after awhile its actually quite cool



obviously a bit too cool for 'T'!



Oh look K is out warming up and T is in??? But the pool looks fuller??



My girls aren't so soft, as the hose heated up it warmed the water inside it so they topped up the pool with the Hot, yes hot water from the hose!



Sassy thought it a bit hot too but likes to be close to the girls!



The chickens have been moved again, but they found it hot as well so took themselves to bed early!



When ever we go to see to the chickens, Tango always walks with us.