ragdall
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Post by ragdall on Dec 6, 2018 13:14:18 GMT
What a great way to celebrate with the pie! I hope that the bulldozer will live up to all the expectations and serve you well.
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Post by sandrainsydney on Dec 6, 2018 22:26:28 GMT
I'll second that, & I hope the chickens are felling better now ... tho when it starts levelling ground ...
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Post by meganl on Jun 20, 2019 6:57:59 GMT
After getting out of hospital Roy was very frightened and down so to cheer him up and rebuild his confidence we would build memories. As a result we have gone places we had never been and did things we have never had the chance to do together. On one day we decided to visit Japanese gardens both very different but lovely one near Edinburgh and the other near Perth. The one at Cowden up towards Perth was fascinating The story of Ella Christie who decided to go travelling in 1904 and ended up meeting the Dali Lama is here www.cowdengarden.com/the-garden/history/ she commissioned another amazing lady Taki Handa came over from Japan to create the garden for her. Another day we headed south leaving the motorway we threaded our way up hills and down dales on winding narrow roads amid towering hills till we reached the twin villages of Leadhills and Wanlockhead where we boarded the Wanlockhead Heritage railway www.leadhillsrailway.co.uk/. There was lead mining in the area since pre Roman times. Next stop was the mining museum there were some parts we couldn't do because of restricted mobility but we had a lovely visit to the museum before wandering into the café for a grand lunch of homemade soup sandwich and a scone ( the hardest part was making sure Roy ate enough food).The lady who served us was delighted when I went back up to the counter after the meal to ask her to pass on my thanks to the cook and whoever made the delicious scones, it turned out she was the baker what a lovely light touch she has. Our final visit of that day was the Leadhills Miners Library www.leadhillslibrary.co.uk/history/ , the oldest subscription library in Britain of the 23 founding members all were lead miners except for the minister and the schoolmaster. I will need to sit down soon to work my way through the photos on my phone to work out where we went and when.
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maeve
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Post by maeve on Jun 21, 2019 13:01:05 GMT
Brilliant, Megan-what an inspired way to help Roy heal and rebuild confidence and cheer! All three trips sound intriguing. I look forward to following your links.
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Post by meganl on Oct 19, 2019 7:53:04 GMT
I haven't added one from the food memories series for a while so here is "In service"
In service Memory tales
this is a short memory from a bygone time
When mum was young she went into private service it wasn't a large household, no male servant, butler or footman but the mistress still insisted on afternoon tea and sending out 'at home' cards to her friends. The modern afternoon tea with its thickly filled sandwiches and French patisserie would have met with a frown from the lady of the house.
The bread was very thinly hand cut and all crusts removed. The butter had to be warmed enough that it spread evenly without dragging or tearing the wafer thin slices of bread. If the bread was thin, the cucumber was so finely sliced it was almost see through each slice placed carefully on a clean teatowel for a short time to absorb the moisture the lady's guests could not be served soggy sandwiches.
A few small fancies carried back carefully in their white cardboard box from the local bakers would compliment the raisin cake, shortbread and plain cake (from mums description this could have possibly have been a lemony maderia cake) that had been made by the cook.
The small low table which could be easily reached by the lady of the house was laid with fine Irish linen and a delicate tea service which was a wedding gift from her husbands Aunt who had married well. A side table held a fairly small kettle that sat over a spirit lamp to keep the water hot to top up the teapot as the ladies gossiped their way through the matriarch of Glasgow society in relative privacy, because contrary to what the mistress may have thought or wished the servants were neither deaf, daft or disinterested.
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maeve
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Post by maeve on Oct 20, 2019 15:46:44 GMT
Such a fine description, Megan. I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when you and your mum talked about her days in service.
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Post by meganl on Oct 24, 2019 7:43:05 GMT
Two in one week im either on a roll or stuck in with rain Dearie me when I was wee I used tae peel the totties Discussing soup i mentioned mum rinsing the lentils (Or any pulse ) seven times, soaking them overnight before adding them to the soup. as the youngest it was my job to stand on the stool with the big jug and swirl them around with my hand before tipping them into the sieve to drain before repeating and woe betide if you tried to skimp on the number of rinses. We didny have a fancy tattie peeler so i learned to peel them with a wee knife the blade was only a couple of inches long it would be a good few years before i heard the term paring knife. You got what for if you left to mach potato with the skin. Tattie skins were something you put on the compost heap not deepfried with cheese. I mind on standing on the stool cawing the handle on the old mincer (I was a wee smout back then) as mum fed in beef to make mince for our tea. The first thin she did when a new butcher came was to get mince if he couldnt make a decent mince he would not be serving her again. Cooking back then could be hard work with no fancy machines ( and those that there were were often cumbersome and difficult to work. My favourite gadget however took me back to potatoes it was a bucket inside was like course sandpaper you put in the tatties and some water , put on the lid and turned the handle like a salad spinner. after them rumbling about for a bit oot they would come naked as a newborn but mum still insisted i had to howk oot the eyes before they were fit for the pot. One of the big events at the Kelvin hall was the Modern homes? Ideal homes show there was always new gadgets to buy which would be used a couple of times them put in the back of the cupboard. Mind you I still have the one that you screwed into a lemon that had a wee spout you could pour out a wee bit juice without having to cut a lemon. I also have the one that has sharp triangles that closed up like a flower when you turned the base which of course was for vandyking tomatoes and eggs so 1970s as was the one with the plunger to make different shaped canapes. Mind you our hardships were as nothing to my grandmothers generation she cooked in a three toed pot that hung on a swee over the fire baking was things like bannocks and welsh cakes which could be cooked on the girdle again hung on the swee. When they moved from Banton down into Kilsyth she was amazed at the difference since that house had a coal fired range. When I finally left home i stepped back in time the cottage was two hundred and eighty years old when we got married its most modern asset was a doric coal fired cooker which was built in 1953 and with legs cost £33 ours must have been a little dearer since it was the version with the closed base. We bought a second, third or perhaps fourth hand gas cooker since the doric had a hole in the oven and was liable to drop soot on anything placed in there. The doric was still the best for stews or slow pot roasting since it could be left on the hot plate all day and it the plate was scrubbed and oiled you got the best oatcakes and pancakes, or at least we did until the day the door of the oven exploded of the front and flew across the room. Thankfully I had just gone out to the other kitchen to put something in the gas oven when that happened. Our landlord at the time looked at the doric, shook his head, tutted a little sucked in a breath before announcing "weel beuy I supposed we had better get a new lining for the oven ye kin pick it up the next time yer in toon"
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Post by meganl on Sept 23, 2020 10:02:45 GMT
I am finally keeping my promise to kat laughing by gathering all my bits of writing and taking them to a local publisher to see if there is enough for a small book wish I had the skill to illustrate them but the publisher might know someone not to dear to do it
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maeve
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Post by maeve on Sept 23, 2020 11:33:58 GMT
Oh I am glad to hear this, Megan. Yes, publishers do usually prefer to use illustrators they know and trust. Please keep us posted, and do keep trying if this first publisher is not a good fit.
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ragdall
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Post by ragdall on Sept 24, 2020 10:22:53 GMT
Best wishes, Megan. You include a wealth of information in your interesting and engaging writing. I hope you will be able to find an appreciative, enthusiastic publisher who can arrange for the illustrations.
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Post by meganl on Apr 9, 2021 8:50:17 GMT
don't know if the press was a thing across the pond but for many in Scotland it is a strong memory.
The press
There was a time BF also known as before fridges. This wee memory drifted down the phone the other night. The covid restrictions are taking their toll as older folk sit at home without activities to stimulate them memories have begun to fade.
That is why many of our evening calls now contain the phrase "Do you mind?" mind in this case being the old way of saying remember.
He started talking about Grans house after I had mentioned jam, she was well known for her preserves and pickles which were kept in "the press"
This magical place was a cupboard about six foot long by almost four foot wide with fairly narrow shelves from floor to ceiling.
There were two shelves made of marble and close to an air brick, for those who have not seen one these looked like a normal house house brick except for the holes making it resemble a clay pegboard or as though it had been attacked by very precise woodworm.
On the face of the brick inside the house was attached a fine metal gauze which allowed Scotland's fine bracing air to enter the room while keeping out undesirable visitors like midges.
The jams and preserves were meticulously arranged on the narrow upper shelves while perishables like milk cream and cheese were carefully placed on the marble shelves in bowls or jugs with dust cloths over them. The cloth was often a circle of lightweight cotton or lawn which had a beaded edge to weigh it down over the sides of the vessel it covered.
Gran died while I was a baby but from his description not much had changed by the time I came along. Dinner at the house was always plain fare but if we were very lucky my uncle would have got someone to fetch Dawson's pies a high treat. The adults always ate at the drop leaf table in the living room while children (anyone under 15) were relegated to the kitchen, mind you on a chilly winters day that proved no hardship for there was a pipe that snaked its way down one kitchen wall carrying hot water to the sinks.
So while adults jockeyed to get as close to the small fire as they could we children basked in almost tropical warmth
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maeve
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Post by maeve on Apr 10, 2021 13:13:03 GMT
Hi Megan- I enjoyed your memories as I always do!
Your "press" is familiar to me. More common over here would be a linen press for bedding, toweling, tablecloths,etc. We would call the press you write about a pie safe. I keep my pickles and preserves in a jelly cupboard. I like the notion of cool shelves of marble- great idea I don't think would be available to most folks here. Perhaps in vermont where there is locally mined marble and soapstone. Milk, cream and butter would be more likely found in a root cellar or wellhouse/springhouse in this area's past (even today in some places.) Many pantries would be kept cool enough for butter, at least. Some folks kept dairy products directly in a brook or suspended down a well, sealed and secured under water. When I lived in a tiny shed for a couple of years I kept such perishables in a bucket of snow or cool water, but neither was satisfactory.
I have a pitcher cover right now. It works a treat when flies are buzzing around.
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maeve
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Post by maeve on Apr 23, 2023 18:15:59 GMT
Still anticipating Megan's book with great delight.
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