This and That

 Sun out nice and early, temperature above freezing, snow going gradually, half past nine in the morning and folk already out walking their dogs.   My Carer has been, helped me wash and dress, got my breakfast (I can get it if she is not here), made my bed - done other esentials and gone.

Sundays are always long days and now that we are not meeting for our usual Sunday lunches (oh how I miss them - the friendship, the conversation, the food,) the day seems endless.   So today I am determined to keep myself busy one way or another.   The sun is already rising higher in the sky (it is, after all, a month since the shortest day) and is already shining into my sitting room this morning.   I am putting out of my head my father's old saying 'as the days lengthen the storms strengthen').

Over my second cup of tea I was reading a bit of Monty Don's 'My Garden World' - the bit where he speaks of Geese and how many farmer's wives used to keep a few geese to sell at Christmas to add to their coffers.   How they used to get them 'oven ready' and how they would all be ordered well before Christmas.   It brought back memories of my parents when I was a child.   We lived in a small Lincolnshire village of, maybe, a couple of hundred inhabitants.   There was a post office and village store, a Co-op grocery store and a Butchers.   Mr Green, the Butcher, whose shop was almost opposite our house, had an arrangement with my mother.   She dressed all his poultry for him (she loved doing it) and in return she never paid for her meat (she was a real meat-eater, which probably explains why I am not all that keen on meat having had it almost every meal as a child).   My father was happy to kill the poultry humanely and he would also light the copper (outside in the wash house) so that he could 'dip' in the dead birds to make plucking easier.  Thinking about it I suspect my parents somehow kept the goose down because we always had goose-feather 'mattresses. '   In fact I rather think my parents still had one right to the end.   My father was a 'reluctant changer' (remember the collar studs and the short sleeved shirts from earlier posts).

I had thought about this yesterday evening too watching Rick Stein's 'Cornwall' (which I am enjoying tremendously) being repeated on BBC 2.   The women of Cornwall were 'dab hands' at dealing with the fish - especially in the days when huge shoals of mackerel were being caught and exported rapidly all over the country already 'gutted'.   It does seem that often women do essential support work in some industries.

And to change the subject again - if you are at a loose end today and need something to watch - Rachel suggested I watch Mark Lawson interviewing John le Carre (available on iplayer) - I watched it yesterday tea time - rivetting - do watch it if you haven't already seen it - absolutely brilliant.

Have a nice day. And - if you blog with BB at 'Codlins and Cream' do join with me in wishing her and her family all the best wishes now that they have moved into their new house.