really old style living?

seasalt_2

RAS wrote: »

Personally it was the experience of living in small communities that encouraged me to live in a city (that and the jobs). Knowing that everyone knows whether you had bacon for breakfast and has a view on it does not necessarily make for comfortable living.

Worse is when it is only a rumour that you had bacon for breakfast but one that is circulated as gospel truth. :rotfl:On the other hand, there is genuine neighbourliness, even where there are differences/disagreements and, on balance, I (mostly) think it outweighs the lack of privacy/anonymity.

But hugely more dependent on the ferry and the mainland than would have been the case even 50 years ago so that maybe doesn't bode so well, mardatha.

ETA It is ironic, to say the least, that the St Kildans had to leave and almost ever since other people (army/NT/conservation/research groups etc) have been living/working there.

mama67

NualaBuala wrote: »

Oh and ceridwen, is there any book you don't have?! In so you many of your posts you mention some book or another - I'm having book-envy. I'm interested in herbal medicine too, studied a little of it in college but would like to know more.

Mardatha - £15 is super-cheap for chimney cleaning, is that for sending a child up? I paid €50 today which is quite cheap for Dublin. It probably didn't need doing but I figured better safe than sorry.

I paid £30 to get mine done at end of August

ceridwen

Very much swings and roundabouts then in a "smaller community" context and I guess it depends to some extent who are the "lead people" setting the tone of how things will be then.

As in - in a small "community" of choice then you know you HAVE to get on with everyone else in it - you cant just bomb off and vanish to some larger community if things dont work out. Is that where - maybe - we have problems in our current society - as in most people have an attitude of "If it doesnt work out in this 'community' then so what - we'll just move on to another one..." but if you know there is no option BUT to work things out...then maybe things do....??? I dont know - I'm speculating (based on the "communities of choice" I move in are sorta self-selected to some extent - which must make things easier - but we all know we HAVE to get on together in another respect - so we put a lotta effort into making sure we do on the other hand)....

Hmmm...definitely a subject for debate here methinks...

ChocClare

I'm like you, parsonswife, we live for our books and our library.

In our last (huge) house, we had a "proper" library, complete with comfy chairs, mahogany table and cases and cases of books.

We now live in a small cottage and our bookcases are too tall for our ceilings here

We had to have a very large cull of our books, and we have four double-fronted bookcases lining the garage. Not quite such a comfortable arrangement as before :rotfl:

My kids "expect" us to have books. DD was outraged that I didn't have a copy of Dracula the other day, as that is the first time she's asked for a book we didn't have on our shelves. DS was pleased that I DID have the complete works of Oscar Wilde, as he is just reading the short stories and wanted to look further. We have French books, Italian books, English classics, Harry Potter (of course!) and a whole library of children's books and that is only the fiction section. We have "how to" books on every subject under the sun - loads of peak oil, permaculture, self-sufficiency, sewing/knitting/craft blah-di-blah-di-blah.

My daughter has already said that her MAJOR requirement for any house that she buys is that is should have a room for a library. I asked her how she thinks she is going to fund this (she is 14) and she said that even if she had a tiny flat, she would find a corner for a (very small) library. And so the gene is passed on...

ceridwen

'Cept its not a gene ChocClare - well...not in my case anyways...I dont know where the heck being a bibliophile came from...there simply ISNT anyone else to my knowledge either side that it coulda come from.....Some things are a mystery and this is one of them in my family...I must be a throwback.....

Hippeechiq

seasalt wrote: »

Worse is when it is only a rumour that you had bacon for breakfast but one that is circulated as gospel truth. :rotfl:On the other hand, there is genuine neighbourliness, even where there are differences/disagreements and, on balance, I (mostly) think it outweighs the lack of privacy/anonymity.

Hmmmm - not sure I agree with that. Having lived in two very small, remote villages for the first 40 years of my life, I never much cared for everyone knowing my and everyone else business.

It may possibly depend on the size on the village, but small villages breed small minded people in my experience.

Winged_one

Having a home library is always helpful. SIL is rolling her eyes but in a good way at the minute as she is benefitting from stuff when planning her house. It makes for interesting evenings in winter too.

I have to remember to bring the chimney brushes back with us from PIL when we visit again - we usually manage to remember every summer but have been lax this year. I think there are about 10 families locally to PIL who borrow them - can be messy but it's free (well, they usually get a cake or something in return). I think they cost about €40 in the DIY stores (but for us, getting a set and keeping them would just take up too much room - so we borrow when we go to Cork anyway and bring them back next visit).

maryb

I have so many books I have run out of room. But I LOVE my Sony ereader. These days I find it easier to read than print in many ways and you can get any classic for free from the web. Try the University of Adelaide ebook library. It's quite small compared to project Gutenberg but it's beautifully formatted. You can also try the mobilread forums. There are members on there who upload out of copyright books on all subjects in a very nicely formatted style.

There is also a free bit of software called Calibre which makes managing your ebook collection an absolute doddle - think of Itunes and you've got the idea. It will also convert formats so if you find an ebook in one format on the web it will convert it to the format your reader uses. This is not about removing Digital Rights Management protection by the way - none of these sites will do that. However I think DRM is a complete pain. If my daughter buys an ebook she cannot pass it on to me to read on my ereader. At least with Itunes you can share you Itunes library with people on the same home network. They will have to do something reasonable about that if they want the ebook market to grow.

This may seem off topic when we are talking about really old style living, but in fact I think it ties in very well. It's all about preseving information. I have also started using Microsoft One Note which is brilliant for capturing, organising and storing useful stuff I come across on the internet. This has helped me cull some of my books. I scanned the one or two recipes I use regularly from each of about half a dozen cook books and saved them in a OneNote notebook then I was able to let the books them selves 'bless' another home (in Flylady speak)

mardatha

RAS, the state of the highlands makes me mad. It would take a major catastrophe to make people want to live there again and probably one day it will happen. Re famines, yes many bad years but now we have better and more varieties of veg & newer methods of growing them. I am sure it would be possible. I have always wanted to visit Norway, they seem to have things organised so much better there
Re villages etc yes I agree with hippy, people are so much more annoying when you're up close LOL- the secret is to mind your own business and talk only of the weather !
And the only really OS thing I feel like doing today is building an Ark. Is Noah in today ? I could do with a blueprint!

Kiwisaver_2

Hippeechiq wrote: »

Hmmmm - not sure I agree with that. Having lived in two very small, remote villages for the first 40 years of my life, I never much cared for everyone knowing my and everyone else business.

It may possibly depend on the size on the village, but small villages breed small minded people in my experience.

I spent my formative years in a very small community and have to say as a place to be a kid it was perfectly blissful, but oh boy as soon as I was old enough to want a life of my own I couldn't wait to get out of there and have an abiding dislike for that small-minded insular feeling, where strangers are to be feared, curtains twitch and everybody knows who you are, where you've been and who you've been with. I have some family still there and must admit that now I am a lot older, I can see the appeal again - it's perfect for old dears. :rotfl:

I see similar issues here with many expat Brits who cite that they emigrate purely for their kids sake, so that they can have that outdoorsy freedom, smaller 'more caring' communities and schools etc but the sad thing is most of those kids will outgrow the surroundings and up and leave for bigger and better opportunities once they've finished their schooling. We already have a significant brain-drain with young graduates heading off for the brighter lights of Australia where they can earn significantly more money and have more career prospects.