We've been doing that for years

First a quick THANK YOU to everyone who leaves me comments. I write my blog as something of a scrapbook come daily release because there's no one else to talk to of an evening so it's always lovely to find out that what I write is interesting enough for others to have a read. I appreciate your comments, especially when they ones that give me that just been cuddled feeling. :)


Now back to the title of the post...
Growing up we were on a very low income, my Dad did work full time but his wage was low. That meant free school meals, school bus passes, what clothes were not handmade by Mum were from the jumble sale. (charity shops were few and far between in those days) The clothes that we had were repaired, darned, adapted to fit someone else and then if nothing else could be done cut down for rags.
My Dad had a huge allotment which we were all expected to pull our weight on, literally. I remember my brother pulling the handmade plough that my Dad had knocked together. We would collect seaweed when there had been a hightide as it was a great compost apparently. The downside of having an allotment is the surplus in vegetables. As a child I was not a huge vegetable lover...well that was just tough! It was a eat what's on your plate family and as a consequence of too many hours spent forced to stay at the table by my Mother till the peas were gone I now at the age of 40 still hate peas.

My Dad also built his own shrimping net, which yes my brother yet again would pull and my Dad would push through the low tide. I would work with my Mum sorting out the shrimp, from the crabs and wee fish from the net.
This is not a picture of my Dad btw and the net that my Dad made was at least twice the size of this one. Idea being the bigger the net, the bigger the haul. That was why my brother had to pull as my Dad pushed, the thing was too big for one person. And before you think well wouldn't your brother walking in front of the net disturb the shrimp....they devised a system of whereby my brother pulled off to the side and not directly infront of the net. Clever man my Dad LOL
Once back with our haul we would then sit at the kitchen table shelling the shrimp, once they were cooked obviously, one for the mouth and one for the pot until our wee tummies were bloated and the freezer was full.

My brother and I would also spend summer days, inbetween rock climbing with no ropes or helmets and daring each other to do other daft feats, (don't tell Mother!) fishing off the rocks. Invariably he'd catch the big fish on the rod and I would be in the water scooping whitebait up in a carrier bag. It still makes me chuckle seeing the price restaurants charge for a bowl of them now.

We spent hours picking blackberries from the bushes on our local walks which my Mum would then turn into jam.
There was a ramshackle greenhouse at the bottom of the garden that was probably several different greenhouses cannibalised into one, where all our tomatoes and cucumbers were grown.

My first bike was a wee trike that my Dad had again cannibalised from other bikes and my boot was a bread bin. The whole thing was painted with some pink paint found in the back of the shed. :)

So what became of that little girl who desperately wanted to be like her friends and have clothes from the shops? I know I know handmade are best, I know that now just back then everything about us was different and not in that hippy way but in that we have nothing but we have to pretend we are the same as the rest of the world kind of way. My Mother didn't instill a sense of 'it's ok to be who you are' in us. We were brought up to conform, not to question just to do. Obviously as a teenager I rocked the boat and my Mother would still tell you now that 'she (meaning me) has always been different' but I'm ok with that and I always, always, always tell my small people that it's ok to be you.
Sorry went off on a tangent then and that's a whole different tale. What I was going to say about how I turned out is...
that growing up with no money it's probably amazing that I didn't go crazy once I got out into the working world myself. But I've never had a credit card, if I can't afford it I don't buy it.
Clothes are the things you wear to cover yourself and spending silly money just because some designer has sewn his label into it doesn't appeal to me at all. I do love my converse though but only buy them when I have the spare cash. As long as I look ok I'm happy. I just wish I had a vintage sized body so I could wear the kind of things I'd really like to.

It's funny how living 'The Good Life' has gone from necessity to trend back to necessity again. I'm just glad that for the good and bad stuff from growing up at least I have the skills that have brought me this far in life and the knowledge that no matter what we'll survive.

Chocolate or cleaning?

Happy Easter everyone.


I hope you've all had a lovely day. I was home alone today, big one is away at a Rally and wee one was spending the day and the night with her Daddy. So with nowhere go to and no one but me and the dog to entertain I set to a bit of Spring Cleaning.


3 bags of rubbish, 2 bags for the charity shop and several empties of the hoover later and they now both have tidy and clean rooms.
I've gained half my glasses and mugs back, the recycling bin is looking very healthy, the washing machine is groaning and would quite like a break and there have been one or two discoveries of things that have been lost for some time.

Now to just tackle the rest of the house.

The things you find even when you're not looking

One of the wonderful things I love about t'internet is finding new sources of things that I have lived the whole of my life without but suddenly they become things I need.

Thanks to the lovely ladies at Domestic Sluttery I now have Hidden Art bookmarked as one of my favourites. Let's see if any of you agree with my, sometimes odd, likes.

Haven't we all at some time in our lives wanted to dive head first into a plate full of cake? No! Really? C'mon I know you have. ;)



I'd love this in my new (yeah like when is that going to happen) kitchen. But would worry that a visitor would think it was a pan embedded in the wall after my throwing it. LOL Not that I do that...honest!



Every Mummy should have one of these.



These hand hooks are brilliant


but I think I'd have to have this one for those visitors that you really could live without.


Unfortunately I can't afford an online shopping spree just now but window shopping (what is the online word for that) is just as much fun.

Just to let you know I've added comment moderation on as I keep getting chinese posts and I don't want to open any doorways to spam.

Only in Scotland

Yes I did post about winter conditions and yes there really was snow, infact there still is snow lying on the ground in piles by the side of the road where the snow plough has shoved it. But Mother Nature has decided that we do actually deserve a bit of sun and while the rest of the country seems to be sodden and wet the sun has well and truly got his hat on.

So to make the most of a lovely sunny day we went out for a drive and ended up in a local wee fishing village.


I love the no mooring ropes on the light sign, can you imagine how many lamposts were bent out of shape before they put that up? LOL

Obligatory arty lobster pot shots.

Looking at this I could almost pretend I was at some little Greek fishing village. Ok ok I know too much of stretch, the houses would have to be at least white and the sun would be a whole lot brighter and the sea blue instead of the North Sea grey it is. :)

This is a barometer built into a granite pillar that is a Victorian memorial to the seafaring men of the town and there is a plaque to the memory of a local lad who was killed serving in the Royal Navy aged 27 and his ship sank in the China Sea. I couldn't get a better shot as there was a car parked right in front of it. :/

A clear shot of the harbour walls. Romantic or gloomy...you decide.

On the way home wee one said she would like to do some crafting so we got out the beads and she made some earrings.

She made herself and one of her best friends a pair then carried on and one.

The plan is now that she's going to take them to school and see if she can sell some to her friends. My little entrepreneur. She'll be on Dragon's Den soon looking for backing to start her own Etsy/Folksy shop LOL



And of course to finish the afternoon off nicely you have to have a bit of cake.


It's carrot cake so that's one of my five a day covered. :)

Please, please, please

would someone please nominate me for an Ikea Kitchen Squad do over!



I've got unit doors falling off, no decent working space, a sink that is so low my back is agony everytime I do the dishes and I promise I'll cry buckets when they show me the new one.

Please!

My Big Night Out with The Hairy Bikers

These are a couple of pictures I sneaked before the show started.
There was announcements once I'd taken mine saying no photos, no video blah blah blah. Anyway rebel that I am thought I'd do no harm just taking a picture of the stage before the main men stepped out.


We were close enough to see the guys properly and certainly close enough to smell the amazing aromas that were coming from their two menus of the evening.
Two couples were chosen, one for each part of the show. The first couple were treated to South Indian King Prawn Curry that had my taste buds screaming. That was served with a bread that I have totally forgotten the name of but looked yummy.

Oh and I have recipes from the show programme, I assume I'm allowed to share that with my friends if they ask ;)

The second half saw them cooking a steak and a corgette linguine. Thanks to my lovely Si I now know how to cook a steak, take the oil to the steak, place in hot pan then leave it. Don't prod it, don't poke it, don't touch it. Leave it! Obviously then you flip it so the other side cooks :)

It didn't surprise me to learn that Bob Mortimer had a hand in the production, the song and dance routines and baking tray being hit off the head were definately his touches. I learnt a whole lot more about the lads too. Dave suffered from alopecia totalis as a teenager and my lovely Si was a drummer who got his girlfriend up the duff so sold his kit, got married and became a daddy.



I could go on and on but suffice to say it was a brilliant show and I would definately book to see them on their tour.

Ummm hello

Did we or did we not just put our clocks forward an hour to British Summer time?
Is it or is it not supposed to be Spring?
Then why did I wake up to snow and howling gales today?
Oh and did I mention no electricity. The lines went down in the early hours of the morning so that meant no heat and more importantly no alarm clocks and we had to have big one down the road for 8.45am to get her on the mini bus as she's off to the Isle of Wight on a Scouting Rally. Fortunately we made it in time, none of us showered or even fed but we did it. :) Their troop is the only Scottish troop going so they'll be flying the flag for Scotland while they're there. There is a full range of activities so no doubt come next week we will be collecting very tired kids off that bus.


I'll be phoning my Mum tomorrow to make sure she's ok as I see from this evenings news the North Wales coast line is taking a battering from the sea my nephew sent me a link of face book and the according the pictures from the local news part of the sea road has been ripped up, houses are flooded but not in my mum's immediate area thankfully.



So frustrating, its not until you're without something that you realise how much you rely on it. Thankfully we got our power on by mid morning so wee one and I snuggled down under a blanket and watched a dvd before her Dad came to whisk her away for the evening. That's probably another reason I'm feeling sorry for myself, one baby on her way to far away land Isle of Wight and wee one off to her Dad's house. Me home alone needing a cuddle.

That's my moan over :)

The Hairy Biker show was brilliant, unfortunately I didn't get chosen to go up on the stage and eat their food but they certainly didn't come across as a miserable pair so I'm assuming my pal got that wrong. ;) I'll do a proper post all about it next time.