Wheat field

The wheat is beginning to show signs of ripening - not quite a field, but a decent sized patch to make it worthwhile. I wanted to prove to myself I coudl grow it, harvest it, mill it and bake it. On course at the moment, although it has taken a bit of a battering from the weather. Pleased with progress, another piece of the self-reliance jigsaw falling into place. The lawn's days are numbered, I fear :0)

Pasta, knitting and General Custer.............

On this day in 1867, a patent for barbed wire was granted to Lucien B Smith..........

Today is also the date of Custer's last stand in 1876, the infamous day when he led 650 soldiers into battle against thousands of Native American warriors in teh vally of the Little Big Horn river. Custer had been ordered to wait for reinforcements before launching the attack, and his decision to "go it alone" - variously seen as an act of great courage or great folly - resulted in the deaths of 267 officers and men, including Custer himself (Chambers book of Days - note to self : wonder why the number of Native American deaths seem not to be recorded?)

In between cooking and washing yesterday, I got some more squares knitted for the blanket swap, and made up the quilt squares int he evening; this is a nice block, simple and effective. I think it would lovely in a red and white quilt.

I decided to make pasta yesterday, as I hadn't done it for a while; turned it into a "How to........" for the forum, which can be found here:

http://creativeliving.10.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=2907

It was to use up some bits too; a rather elderly pot of dried wild mushrooms lurking in the alrder served well as a base for the sauces, with some tinned tomatoes, pesto and cream; topping is yoghurt and mozzarella. It was very good, if I say so myself!

Not sure what's happening today, apart from going to work for a while - I do a home help for someone in the village a couple of times a week, so always need to remember to go and do that!

No-shop shopping.................

I've finally done it - convinced OH that we should try out my non-shop shopping idea. I am not a fan of ordinary shopping, be it food, clothes, whatever. When I moved down here, back in 1987, we had little choice apart from a large Safeway, so we shopped there; then there came along a couple of farm shops, and the supermarket started stocking organic milk. It has boomed since then, down here, and now, where we live further up the county in an agricultural area, we are spoiled for choice for everything. Within a not very large radius, we ahve numerous farm shops, game dealers, local meat consortiums, farmers' markets, fish delivery man, local butchers, local cheeses; also, a small independent shop, which does sell an excellent selcetion of local, organic and Fair Trade. However, it's not enough for me. The difference in the Farmers' Market I went to at Wimborne the other week, and the food in even the local independent wee shop is astounding. The market food was alive - fresh-vital; you wanted to touch it, eat it, cook it, take it home! The producers had time to talk and have a laugh, lots of info freely given, you could taste, touch, smell, choose your own.

So, from this week, I will be embarking on my non-shop shopping experiment. I should qualify that, and say we will still use some shops, but not the normal ones - we will use secondhand, charity, specialist, hardware shops, etc, but no supermarkets (caveat on that, which I will outline below), notmal clothes shops, etc, to the best of my abilities. So, that is why, this Friday, I will be up at 5.30 am and off into town with OH (he works there, so no extra fuel used), where I will buy from real people who know there food, save some money and not have to face what has become, for me, the soul destoying weekly shop in a metal trolley, full of packaging and tired looking food of dubious origin. I have always been careful of the food we eat, but feel ready now to take the next steps. So, Farmers' Markets, roadside stalls, our own produce, Suma wholefoods, bulk buys from the internet for me. I am aware of how lucky I am to have that choice, and am grateful for the chance to exercise it.

Supermarkets: not for me, but I understand why some poeple like them - it can be convenient sometimes to do a one stop shop in one place; others really have no alternative. It makes me cross when some people come over very self-righteous about not shopping in them, and get snooty and snobby about it, but I realise that for some, the supermarket it is, for their own reasons. Not everyone has lcoal independent suppliers, farmers' markets or the physical ability to shop otherwise, so each to their own. I have also seen the quality of some of the food they sell improve in leaps and bounds - local. organic, fresh, etc. However, for me, the trick is for YOU TO USE THE SUPERMARKETS- NOT LET THEM USE YOU. So, we will not be seduced by bogofs, loyalty cards, bright lights, sneaky marketing tactics, gross overpackaging and habit shopping. We did use Sainsbury the other day - I wanted some tins etc to start off a new store for my prepping endeavours (cheap tins and pasta for storing), so we went in and, yes, dear reader, I USED THEM- THEY DID NOT USE ME!

So, new project - non-shop shopping. OH looking forward to saving a bit more money, I'm looking forward to real food in my wheelie basket and more from the garden.

View across the vale

This is the view from our bedroom window; I have a look out over the vale every morning with the binoculars - what a start to the day! It's especially lovely on mornings like this - early light, clear and bright. The building on the left is an old stone barn the pub uses for storage, and the table you can see in the pub garden is the one we sat at for knitting last night; it was so lovely sitting out there, just knitting away with all that in the background. There are corn poppies in the field too. I don't suppose very much has changed from Thomas Hardy's days and his Vale of the Little Dairies; if you go up on to the hill behind, Bulbarrow hill, the view laid out before you is just stunning. On a quiet day up there, with few people about, it's just you and the wind. If we take the telescope, we can see our house; it's a good hunting ground for gorse, brambles, sloes, wild garlic......... There are about 3 or 4 houses up the hill - imagine living there! Bit bleak in the winter, but I wouldn't mind that, it would be worth it for the views.

New in the garden..........

This is my virginia creeper, which has decided to do its thing properly, and is heading off up the chimney on the east gable wall; eventually, in the autumn, it should be a blaze of colour visible as you enter the village from this end. I love the wee suckers it puts out - reminds me of the feet of tree frogs in the rain forest..........

My philadelphus has bloomed for the first time; what a sweet scent.........

Been in the kitchen.....

Sponge cake for tea this afternoon




Tattie scones - family favourite here!

Fish pie for tea tonight





Off to put the kettle on!

More on Monday................

Starting off today's post/s properly now :) The knitted square is winging its way ot New Zealand as I type, as part of the forum swap - quite pleased with it, it's pretty colours. The rest of the family was at teh dentist on Friday afternoon, so I had a quick whizz around the charity shops in Sturminster Newton; no knitting books, but I did pick up the rose/blue scarf which is so pretty, and then on to the wonderful Hansons, where I could quite easily live, where I succumbed to the light green and rose cotton - a remnant of 0.9m at only 4.28. I think it may be a cushion cover by the end of the day.