How to Get Through The Tough Times The Old Style Way.

ceridwen

GreyQueen wrote: »

Joeck, you're worrying me! Deadly nightshade has highly toxic berries, one of the umbellifica cow parsley type plants has poisonous roots (and one is edible) plus there are mushrooms like Destroying Angel and Deathcap.......why do I happen to have this stuff in my head?! HTH

Some mushrooms are indeed difficult to identify - hence I have a collection of mushroom books - but have only done accompanied mushroom foraging to date. There is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS a "DO watch out/be careful/be VERY careful" proviso in all modern day mushroom foraging books and on modern-day foraging courses. A lot of foraging "trainers" simply refuse to say a word about mushrooms - because of the risk of misidentification...

Lindy_-_Loo

Hello everyone,

tried to read the thread everyday but appears at the minute that I dont have two minutes to spare!

Having a month of spending lots, boys needed new shoes and trainers, they have out grown 90 percent of teir clothes, luckily ethan has aarons old clothes but im doing lots of bidding on ebay as there was nothing at sundays car boot.

Had parent meetings this week, boys doing good, ethans teacher thinks he may too have dyspraxia but we wait until hes 5 to get him referred. Ended up buying lots of bits from ELC to go along with aarons exercises and to get ethan to practice.

Was offered two jobs in school, one in office, one in kitchen. Couldnt do either dur to child care but an hour a d ay in the kitchen would be great once september comes and both boys are full time at school.

Any ideas how to get the smell of wee out of a mattress? Aaron had a bad dream and wet the bed, soaked himsel and through the mattress protecter

jackieglasgow

put bicarbonate of soda on it in the morning, leave it all day and vacuum it off before making the bed at night, that will sort out any nasty whiffs

HariboJunkie

I thought I had stumbled on the wrong thread with the posts on poisoning and hidden agendas in foraging books on how to end pregnancy. _pale_:(

On the point of the Japanese disaster, my heart continues to go out to these people. They have done nothing to deserve this and brought none of it on themselves and no amount of preparing for tough times could have prepared them for this.

The pictures are heartbreaking and I think we could all learn something from their dignity and stoicism.

purpleheather2810

Redlady congrats on getting an allotment. For a while there was a big waiting list at ours - seems like a lot of people jumped on the bandwagon, gave it a go and then gave up quite quickly so now there are vacancies again...

ceridwen

Okays - I've sent that PM - and I want a copy of the book if it gets published please.

Goes off thinking "I DO hope my 'radar' is working full strength right now here - as I believe it IS a novel we are talking about here....."

On a different topic - I think we all admire the Japanese for the way they are coping with this and have gulped visibly at seeing some of the photos coming out - eg that baby girl wrapped in the pink blanket and the teenage girl just sitting there devastated. It would take a hard person indeed not to find themselves blinking back tears at intervals at the thought of what the Japanese nation are going through right now..

MaLarkin

Evening All

GQ since you won't be needing that lump hammer could I borrow it please? Got called a f*****g t**t at work today. Refused to serve alcohol to someone who was already well oiled. Very uninspired insult I thought. I used to work in prisons and have been insulted by experts so water off a ducks back.

I continue my OS quest for fitness by walking with the stupidest, pooiest dog in the world. Should carry a bucket and shovel instead of little black bags. Doing well went for BP test and it was perfect.

Very jealous of those with allotments been on the waiting list years to no avail.

modern_millie_2

Hi everyone,
sorry to hear so many still with job uncertainties, so unsettling when you don't know what's to come. We are in a similar state, dependant on the tourist trade so really don't know how we will do this year. We are at the point now where all last year's income has been used up, so if we don't start earning soon we'll be into reserve funds - lucky to have this I know, but it won't go far if we have to do this every year. I've found a few hours extra work at least temporarily, which should help a bit. Someone mentioned vet's bills - our cats annual MOTs are overdue but have been putting them off as this will be another £100 bill.
On a more positive note, had a power cut this afternoon but had already made soup and bolognese sauce, so got the gas burner out and sat smugly having a cup of tea in the knowledge that dinner was sorted!
Someone (Joeck?) was asking about veggie alternatives for meat lovers - may be worth trying soya mince, available in health food shops and some supermarkets, has that 'meaty' texture, you can use Marmite or similar to flavour. I don't often buy it but it's usually pretty cheap.
GQ, fingers crossed on th IB front.

Have to say, news from Japan does put things in perspective. Feel grateful to be safe, fed, warm and with my family.

joeck68

ceridwen wrote: »

Okays - I've sent that PM - and I want a copy of the book if it gets published please.

Goes off thinking "I DO hope my 'radar' is working full strength right now here - as I believe it IS a novel we are talking about here....."

Hi ceridwen, many thanks for the info - don't worry, I'm a genuine writer, just finishing a degree in literature and creative writing. For part of the course I had to write some sample chapters, and the idea of the village poisoner took shape - I'm now re-visiting that work and trying to turn it into a book. Obviously a lot of our old wisdom about herbs has been forgotten and my library hasn't been much help, but I'll see if I can locate copies of the books you so kindly pm'd me. I'll mention you in my 'thanks to......' if I ever manage to finish! :A

Primrose

ceridwen wrote: »

I was positively fizzing under the collar today at hearing that British people who had gone out to help with the rescue operation had been stymied by the "officialdom" jobsworth attitude so prevalent in Britain - ie the British Embassy had refused to provide some vital "bit of paper" to enable them to get on with the job they came for and they had to come back here again without having had the chance to do it. Oh I am so going to "be on a mission" to kickass once I'm retired at any and every bit of "officialdom" that wants to sit there playing jobsworth - when commonsense dictates that there are people there needing help and just get stuck in and do so. ?"

We really need a public campaign to "name and shame" these people. Splash their names and photos across the front of some of the newspapers, including the local ones so all their neighbours can find out what petty little tyrants are living in their street. Sadly all that seems to happens to them is that they negotiate nice redundancy or early retirement deals with a big fat pension.