Thursday Thoughts
Food for the Picking
Free Food - remove all the packaging! No, seriously, if you've ever wandered around your local city, or your part of it, you may have noticed things like apples etc going to waste on trees in parks & gardens. I know, it's a bit built up round here, but there are parks, & wasteland. So what could you do about it? BBC "Newsnight's" 'Ethical Man' has taken to Urban Foraging. No, I'm not explaining further, I've given you a link, Dear Reader. If you want to waste your time reading this blog you can waste further time by reading his!
Those of us who've lived in or near the country will know the joys of rural foraging - blackberrying through August into September. I remember the summers when Dad would take the five of us, plus dog, to a local beauty spot, well furnished with brambles, & we'd all pick pounds. The dog would eat low hanging blackberries straight from the bush! Of course, when you have five to feed, three of them teenagers, even five large icecream tubs full of blackberries don't last that long - which is just as well as they tend to go off a bit quick like, but Happy Memories of Burrington Combe.
More recent are memories of taking D & S out to local places with brambles & picking - watching Langstone Harbour, or over the Hill (Portsdown), or all of us (H somewhat under protest) on holiday on the Isle of Wight - getting pudding for a couple of days. The year S got a fixation on elderberries as well. Actually they're quite nice, if slightly oily, but still to be gathered for free.
This year we (ok, I) went blackberrying up the lane from Brading - when we were on holiday on the island. The blackberries growing around the entrance to the sewage treatment works were particularly succulent! As were the ones further on, along the old railway line. Mind you, the local flying club, finally released from Bembridge Airport after the high winds & rain of that Saturday, & the Sunday morning, made us both wish for an anti-aircraft gun! Blessed things buzzing round & round! Monday was much quieter - all the fliers were back earning the pennies (!) for the next weekend's flying. Happy Days!
We've generally stuck to blackberries & elderberries. Fungi we've found - including the (in)famous Fly Agaric on a trip to West Dean Gardens. Now we know that most of the fungi found in the UK come into the 'edible', 'ok if you're desperate', or 'just plain nasty', category, & Fly Agaric (the traditional 'fairy' toadstool, red top with white spots) just looks dangerous. But some are actually poisonous. So I think, to be on the safe side, I'll continue foraging guaranteed edible fungi from the market & shops.
Meanwhile I spent yesterday afternoon mounting my latest piece/pieces (it's a triptych) of creative machine embroidery. Cue discussion on different glues. I started with a tube of UHU Extra - which is brilliant, it's a gel, goes where you put it, spreads nicely, sticks what you want to stick and DOESN"T STICK ALL OVER YOUR FINGERS! Yay! Unfortunately it comes in small tubes. So, having exhausted that tube, I carried on with Bostik all purpose adhesive. Which is ok, as glue goes, but it 'strings', & sticks to everything, & leaves a thin layer over yr fingers which won't come off when you wash them & has to be picked off over the next couple of days.
So here's a plug for UHU Extra. & if I can find another source locally I shall be very pleased. Picked up that tube at the last Embroiderers' Guild meeting, it's at least another fortnight to the next & I'd like to get this piece done before then. Will try our local, family run, DIY store next. If they don't stock it they may well know somewhere that does. They're good like that. Usually they do stock things, & are more than happy to tell you the best way of using them too, if you ask.
Right - you can go gather your own News today. I shall merely comment on this item - a young US Marine was sentenced for killing an Iraqi civilian - apparently there were eight of them involved. Methinks some young men (& women) could do with training in anger management, as well as counter-terrorism He, the youngest & lowest ranking of the patrol, 'fessed up, did a deal, & will be jailed for 18 months!!! Without the deal he'd have been given five years. How long have some 'suspects' been held in Guantanamo Bay now???
One more - a police investigation has found that most "Date Rape" cases occurred not when the victim had been drugged, but when she was extremely drunk. So there you are, Dear Female Readers, don't go getting plastered on your dates, and, Dear Male Readers, just cos she's all over you when she's plastered doesn't mean she's saying 'yes'. So keep yr jeans zipped!
OK, something has to be done around the house. If nothing else there's all those bits of dried on glue need vacuuming up. Y'all have a good day now!
Free Food - remove all the packaging! No, seriously, if you've ever wandered around your local city, or your part of it, you may have noticed things like apples etc going to waste on trees in parks & gardens. I know, it's a bit built up round here, but there are parks, & wasteland. So what could you do about it? BBC "Newsnight's" 'Ethical Man' has taken to Urban Foraging. No, I'm not explaining further, I've given you a link, Dear Reader. If you want to waste your time reading this blog you can waste further time by reading his!
Those of us who've lived in or near the country will know the joys of rural foraging - blackberrying through August into September. I remember the summers when Dad would take the five of us, plus dog, to a local beauty spot, well furnished with brambles, & we'd all pick pounds. The dog would eat low hanging blackberries straight from the bush! Of course, when you have five to feed, three of them teenagers, even five large icecream tubs full of blackberries don't last that long - which is just as well as they tend to go off a bit quick like, but Happy Memories of Burrington Combe.
More recent are memories of taking D & S out to local places with brambles & picking - watching Langstone Harbour, or over the Hill (Portsdown), or all of us (H somewhat under protest) on holiday on the Isle of Wight - getting pudding for a couple of days. The year S got a fixation on elderberries as well. Actually they're quite nice, if slightly oily, but still to be gathered for free.
This year we (ok, I) went blackberrying up the lane from Brading - when we were on holiday on the island. The blackberries growing around the entrance to the sewage treatment works were particularly succulent! As were the ones further on, along the old railway line. Mind you, the local flying club, finally released from Bembridge Airport after the high winds & rain of that Saturday, & the Sunday morning, made us both wish for an anti-aircraft gun! Blessed things buzzing round & round! Monday was much quieter - all the fliers were back earning the pennies (!) for the next weekend's flying. Happy Days!
We've generally stuck to blackberries & elderberries. Fungi we've found - including the (in)famous Fly Agaric on a trip to West Dean Gardens. Now we know that most of the fungi found in the UK come into the 'edible', 'ok if you're desperate', or 'just plain nasty', category, & Fly Agaric (the traditional 'fairy' toadstool, red top with white spots) just looks dangerous. But some are actually poisonous. So I think, to be on the safe side, I'll continue foraging guaranteed edible fungi from the market & shops.
Meanwhile I spent yesterday afternoon mounting my latest piece/pieces (it's a triptych) of creative machine embroidery. Cue discussion on different glues. I started with a tube of UHU Extra - which is brilliant, it's a gel, goes where you put it, spreads nicely, sticks what you want to stick and DOESN"T STICK ALL OVER YOUR FINGERS! Yay! Unfortunately it comes in small tubes. So, having exhausted that tube, I carried on with Bostik all purpose adhesive. Which is ok, as glue goes, but it 'strings', & sticks to everything, & leaves a thin layer over yr fingers which won't come off when you wash them & has to be picked off over the next couple of days.
So here's a plug for UHU Extra. & if I can find another source locally I shall be very pleased. Picked up that tube at the last Embroiderers' Guild meeting, it's at least another fortnight to the next & I'd like to get this piece done before then. Will try our local, family run, DIY store next. If they don't stock it they may well know somewhere that does. They're good like that. Usually they do stock things, & are more than happy to tell you the best way of using them too, if you ask.
Right - you can go gather your own News today. I shall merely comment on this item - a young US Marine was sentenced for killing an Iraqi civilian - apparently there were eight of them involved. Methinks some young men (& women) could do with training in anger management, as well as counter-terrorism He, the youngest & lowest ranking of the patrol, 'fessed up, did a deal, & will be jailed for 18 months!!! Without the deal he'd have been given five years. How long have some 'suspects' been held in Guantanamo Bay now???
One more - a police investigation has found that most "Date Rape" cases occurred not when the victim had been drugged, but when she was extremely drunk. So there you are, Dear Female Readers, don't go getting plastered on your dates, and, Dear Male Readers, just cos she's all over you when she's plastered doesn't mean she's saying 'yes'. So keep yr jeans zipped!
OK, something has to be done around the house. If nothing else there's all those bits of dried on glue need vacuuming up. Y'all have a good day now!