Than you Fiftr for you thoughts. I really have had a fun figuring out how to use some products from D's school lunch bags. Those ready meals are kind of Ok, they are basic and as healthy as they would be if you would make them at home. So sometimes not so healthy😋😋😋
We do have just as much junk food in shops that any other place in the world. But we don't have so called food deserts (where only junk food is available, no fresh products or even basic ingredients). In every grocery shop there's plenty of choice. Food is expensive around here, even junk food, partly because we do have so much to choose from. Most people know how to cook (if not taught at home then learnt basics at home economics at school - at least they know how to cook pasta and bake oat rolls).
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| But they don't teach you to cook with wood burning stove at school. |
Our cold is dry cold. Wet cold is so much worse to cope. And we usually have only mild winds, because we live inlands. My brother lives near seashore, and they do have much worse winds all through the year. So it might not be as cold as we have, but I'm absolutely sure I'd freeze and be miserable with moist sea air and few minus degrees too. It's easier to stay warm without wind.
This week was maybe the coldest week of this winter. Two mornings in a row I had to cut 'Sumawalk short because just didn't want to get freeze burns on my knees or cheeks. - 26C, thank you but no thank you.
But it's been breathtakingly beautiful.
About 8.15AM sun is not yet above treeline. It is even more pink in real life, could't change settings while taking pictures fingers and screen wouldn't work if exposed too long to below -20C temps.
Number Two had her first birthday, my sister set up a little garden party. It was fortunate it was only -10C that day!
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| I sew her a dress. |
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| Finally, the birthday dress. This is the back, front is without buttons, just like in the cat dress above. |
I bought this grey linen online, but ordered a sample first. Sis approved it so I had the right fabric. Then we spent three hours chosing right buttons, not an easy task if you can't visit the house...
First time in ages I had serious trouble with buttons. I think I sew every button at least three times. But now they are on and it's sister's headache to iron wrinkles! She wanted linen, sho got it, and she deals with wrinkles, too!
I know other people go to house parties and restaurants and visit friends and family, but we don't do any of that. Old man is still a high risk one and we really really want to have him with us much longer. So not only my parents stay away from other people, but also we who see them try to stay away any situations we might get infected. And by seeing them I mean we meet them 2m apart outside or leave their groceries on their porch without going inside. My aunt visits them, and that means we don't visit her, we only talk through open door/window. 'Suma is the only one allowed to go inside her house (and she hates furry animals but for some reason has developed a soft spot for our cats and dogs. She has dog treats and asks 'Suma to come in to eat them! She'd never ever allowed dogs inside her house before our Blackie!
That cat print dress is just adorable. My mind boggled a bit at the linen but as you say, your sis asked for it and she's the one who will have to iron it. I always think twice when buying linen for myself. I love natural fabrics but I do not love ironing. Most of my linen pieces are baggy trousers and loose tops for extreme hot weather (to me anything above 20 degrees feels extreme!) where I'm not too bothered about wrinkles - we have wet heat here too, so wrinkles are inevitable.
ReplyDeleteLuckily we live on the East coast which tends to be a lot dryer than the West coast of the UK. Windier though, but it dries up the rain quite quickly. Plus it's always a bit cooler in summer because of the wind, which is one of the reasons we chose it. Both my husband and I have that pink white complexion that comes with ginger hair and we burn so quickly. We can burn on days that don't even appear to be sunny, so we use a lot of sun cream for protection from spring to autumn.
I think your precautions are very sensible. Most people over here are obeying lockdown but there are significant pockets that are not and a lot of people cheat a little. I do myself. You're only supposed to meet people for exercise, but my neighbour and I have a socially distanced coffee over the fence every couple of weeks to exchange news and just keep our spirits up. We figure we could go for a walk but there's very little difference between moving and standing still out in the open with the wind blowing. Apart from that and chats to any dog walkers I meet who're feeling sociable I try and stay away from everyone. I did go to a shop today because my delivered grocery order was missing several items of fruit and veg. It's a greengrocers and pet shop combined, so a few treats for our dog may have found their way into the basket as well. I like them because they have changed their layout and limit the number of people inside so you do not have to go near anyone. But apart from that I haven't been in a shop since Christmas. The library puts books on a table outside for you to collect, the pharmacy does the same with medication and those are the only two things we really need in our household.
Perhaps your aunt just needed the chance to get to know a dog up close in order to want to see Suma more often. I know several people who don't like dogs in general if they meet them in the street but are fond of a particular pet that they come into contact with often. And of course Suma is very cute;)
You certainly couldn't say that the average person in the UK can make pasta or oat bread. It is getting better as people are generally becoming more aware of the health and taste benefits of cooking at home but there are still many who put all their meals on a tray in the oven.
ReplyDeleteMy generation was the first whose mothers had useful conveniences like freezers. As a result frozen and then pre-prepared food was all the rage. I remember going to a big warehouse as a kid, which was designed to supply small shops and businesses with canteens, and buying huge tins of lasagna and cannelloni, massive bags of frozen chops and sausages, fish fingers, battered mushrooms, and our diet reflected that. Half of it came out of the freezer and most of the rest out of cans. It was a huge time saver for working mums especially, as women were still expected to do all the housework, but it meant that a generation grew up with very little cooking experience. When I went to university I remember teaching one guy how to boil an egg and make toast. Like many of the crafty or useful lessons I had at school, home economics seems to be something that disappeared from the school curriculum here quite a while ago. It's good to know that children are still being taught sensible stuff somewhere out there! I always thought children should get more practical lessons like banking, saving and budgeting, home maintenance, plumbing and decorating, cooking, sewing and mending - things that will be useful throughout their lives. But everything 'vocational' got squeezed out in the rush to improve academic standards in the 80s.