Barter - alive and well in The Vale

My good friend Jill came over yesterday and we had a wonderful barter with our cup of tea! I had a new waxed kagoul  (like a Barber type thing ) which was an unwanted present. She had been giving a huge pile of  linen, so barter was the order of the day. The linen is the finest quality I've seen, really top of the order stuff; it feels beuatiful in the hand, has a good weight to it and came in the most gorgeous retro ice cream colours; mongrams, embroidery and the neatest sheet patching I have ever seen. The sheets and pillowcases had obviously been very well used, but it's testament to their quality that there is still so much life left in them. I'm not sure what I will do with them, but would like some as pillow cases, with fine hand made edgings I think. In the meantime, it's neatly folded for careful storage - which leads me on to the first pic in the mosaic up there ^  I was thrilled to get some of it in a  Galaries Lafayette bag, celebrating 100 years of this iconic Paris shop.  A visit to the shop was one of the highlights of my college trip to Paris away back in 1980. I love the connectedness of stuff, people and happenings :)

Bargain of the month

I've long been interested in preserving food, as you all know by now. It's been on my to do list for a few years to build both a hot and a cold smoker outdoors. I even managed to acquire a couple of oil drums for the projects. Things took a different turn to the expected though, as you also know, so  I gave away the oil drums. Still at the back of my mind to make them, but not until enxt eyar now.
However, am now able to strike one project off the list. I actually picked up an almost brand new in packaging  hot smoker at the tip this afternoon!  It looks as if it's only been used once, is complete with instructions, all the bits and screws etc.
Can't wait to put it all together and have a go! lol This is it here:

Made by American company Char-broil 
http://www.charbroil.com/Info/About-Us.aspx

It cost me £5 - what a bargain!

Every day..................

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something ...no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity. ~Christopher Morley

 

Photo by Tone Batt

 

Twice the pleasure

Several years ago, my friend m put up a recipe at Creative Living for a homemade wine from cheap tinned fruit cocktail - you know the stuff- hard bits of pear, peaches and two tiny weeny cherries per tin lol It's often available quite cheaply in the supermarket, so makes an economical wine. I've made it quite a few times, and it's been good, but I've just tried the first of this year's batch and it really is the best yet- sharp and fruity, nice and cold. 'Someone' knocked a chunk out of my favourite bleu wine glass recently, so I have gone over to  using one of my beautiful hand painted Celtic ones - conveniently hold a MrsL sized anount of wine - the glasses were painted by - yes, my friend m. So tonight, it's her wine in her glass - all for me. Cheers m!