Unbought Delicacies

Sunday, 6 September 2009

Show business

Some pictures from the County Show this weekend:

These from the Guild pitch at the County Show; it went very well, a huge amount of interest in it all, lots of contacts made, much talking and laughter. I only bought one lot of wool (but what wool - Manx Loughtan, bred in Dorset, local and organic to boot) and one fleece, which I watched being sheared.

Show business III

These ones form the Great Dorset Steam Fair; the machine is an antique Belgian lace machine - very tempted, I have to say, but it didn't come home with me!

Saturday, 5 September 2009

Fields I have known...............

........ and continue to know LOL.
I spent all last Staurday in a large field/deer park. I spent all day Thursday in a different field, this one of several hundred acres I should think, if I knew my acres. I spent this morning in yet another field, but inside a tented area. I will spend all day tomorrow and all of the next in this field too. As a complete contrast, I spent tonight in Crewkerne Town Hall.
Life is never boring around here................LOL
I will report back.

Thursday, 3 September 2009

Great Dorset Steam Fair

This year is the 41st Steam Fair, here in Dorset.I haven't been to them all, but I've been to a fair few! It started out with a few engines and enthusiasts in a field, and has grown to a huge international event, covering I don't know how many acres of farmland in the heart of Dorset. There's so much to see, we were just saying tonight you'd have to camp for the whole duration to get to see eveyrthing. I love it all - the smell of the engine smoke, the noise, the steam organ music, lots of laughter, a great atmosphere, zillions of dogs of all shapes and sizes, cider and beer tents, excellent food, always bump into someone you know - I met the fishman this morning , there LOL. The weather was changeable with a few heavy showers, but everyone just piled into the nearest beer tent. I came home with a few very nice treasures, but will post about them a bit later.
Looking forward to the County Show this weekend, hope to get back with some good photos :)

Wednesday, 2 September 2009

September

September is one of my favourite months - well into the start of autumn and all that the season promises; lots to harvest, to process towards preparing for the winter, the winding down of the summer garden, thinking ahead for next year's planting, autumn onion sets, jam making, wines bubbling, thinking towards winter and all the preparations that entails - food, drink, weather proofing, wood and fuel, animal welfare - Christmas to start thinking on, darker evenings, windy days and rainy mornings, hop picking, ripening pumpkins, last of the tomatoes, squishy medlars to pick, even more apples, winter craft projects, reading by the oil lamp, lighting the woodburner.......
Although I like to take each day as it comes, living the sort of self-reliant life I do means I inevitably have to think well ahead and make preparations, do research, get things ready, dig things over, all with an eye to keep the self-reliant wheels well-oiled and working well. Nothing beats good and thorough preparation so that projects go smoothly, therefore avoiding the likelihood of disappointment through waste of time and materials/ingredients.
Spetember holds all this , and more, for me.

Tuesday, 1 September 2009

Anniversary

Today is our 20th wedding anniversary - not bad going! LOL The picture shows us just before the wedding, outside our little cottage where we used to live. Not sure what we're up to today I think MrL has something up his sleeve, but not sure ...........

Married in September's glow,
Smooth and serene your life will go.

I have found such joy

I have found such joy in simple things;
A plain, clean room, a nut-brown loaf of bread,
A cup of milk, a kettle as it sings,
The shelter of a roof above my head,
And in a leaf-laced square along the floor,
Where yellow sunlight glimmers through the door.
I have found such joy in things that fill
My quiet days: a curtain's blowing grace,
A potted plant upon my window sill,
A rose, fresh-cut and placed within a vase;
A table cleared, a lamp beside a chair,
And books I long have loved beside me there.
Oh, I have found such joys I wish I might
Tell every woman who goes seeking far
For some elusive, feverish delight,
That very close to home the great joys are:
The elemental things- old as the race,
Yet never, through the ages, commonplace.

~ Grace Noll Crowell

Ideas for handmade gifts

Small knitteds - gloves, scarves, hot water bottle covers, hats, tea cosies, phone covers, little toys,,cushion covers, bags. Some of these can be felted/fulled for extra interest.
Edibles - chutneys and jams, pickles, nice teas in a vintage/retro tin, sweeties, toffees, mustard, home made wine and liqueurs, home dried fruits, ketchups.
For the home - trimmed tea towels, handknitted dishcloths, quilted wallhangings, small samplers, restored picture frames, pot pourri, lavender bags, covered coathangers, little scented bags for hanging on handles, framed photos of family,etc you've taken yourself, pincushion,needle book, scissor keeper, book of promises (eg babysitting, 1 hour's housework, the ironing, etc)
Bathtime - homemade soap, bath oils, bath salts, knitted washcloths, herbal bags for the bath, hand sewn toilet bags, trimmed hand towels, homemade lotions and potions packed in pretty jars and bottles.
For the garden - home saved seed in handmade decorated packets; homemade handcream, exfoliating soap, wheat bag for those digger's aches and pains!

Handmade books, personalised printed notepaper and envelopes.
Hamper of bits and bobs from the above lists, packed in a pretty lined basket.

I'll add some more as and when I think of them; These can be used all year round and easily tailored to the recipient - everyone loves a homemade gift. :)

Inspiring thoughts.............

I saw a man, an old Cilician, who occupied an acre or two of land that no one wanted.
A patch not worth the ploughing, unrewarding for flocks, unfit for vineyards;
he, however, by planting here and there among the scrub cabbages or white lilies and verbena and flimsy poppies, fancied himself a king in wealth, and coming home late in the evening, loaded his board with unbought delicacies.
Virgil

I had no theories to prove. I merely wanted to try living by my own hands, independently as far as possible from a system of division of labour in which the participant loses most of the pleasure of making and growing things for himself. I wanted to bring in my own fuel and smell its sweet smell as it burned in the hearth I had made. I wanted to grow my own food, or forage after it. In short I wanted to do as much as I could for myself, because I had already realised from partial experience the inexpressible joy of doing so.

Harlan Hubbard, Shantyboat: A River Way of Life

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