make do and mend for tougher times

fuddle

crumpets were lovely I'm going to try cost it out when I[STRIKE] can be bothered [/STRIKE] have more brain power but I suspect it will turn out more expensive than supermarket value makes. :cool:

Thanks for the nettle info. I will look at the nettles in more detail next time I'm by there.

Socks! Starting my socks again today. I have reserved a sock knitting book at the library that i'll pick up on Tues. Hopefully it will help me out.

I've also looked at my bucket list. Visiting Provence is on there winking at me. I can't see how i'll get there in the near future but me being me I have decided to learn how to speak French - all about being proactive you see. Library it seems, will be my friend, unless I can find a free download.

Pooky

Fuddle - have a look for a download, we found one that was called something like "tea break French" and it was very basic, short little pod casts that we put on when having tea, just to try and encourage DDs with their French.

:mad: rant alert :mad:

Mad day yesterday with people popping in and out, friends were coming at 7 and they knew I was cooking for them, they phoned at 6.30 to say a) they'd be late and b) one of them wouldn't be eating as doing a new diet. Then they turned up with the other two munching on takeaway burgers and chips :mad: we hadn't eaten all day so that we'd enjoy our meal and they said "oh don't worry about us, just leave it a few hours and we'll pick at what we fancy".

These are good friends who I can't believe we're so rude, I spent a lot of time prepping for meals that I really didn't need to be doing with all the other stuff I had on yesterday. I was gob smacked and really hurt.

Ive got a good mind to send them a ruddy invoice for the wasted food. I know they're short of money which is why we offered them an evening here but there was obviously enough money for takeaways.

I shall go take my anger out on the ironing

Popperwell

We all get highs and lows PAH. I think we do well on the whole considering many of us are looking at ways to survive on lower incomes. have health problems, worry about surviving on savings, whether our loved one's will get the care they deserve when you need to ask for help, whether some will find work or lose it and changes coming with the "Universal Credit!"

I have a couple of anons on my blog who keep telling me I am a quitter or have given in to what has happened. Where as I think I have done better than I might have and still may continue to surprise myself. I will have good days and bad days many years down the line. There are no right ways to cope with adversity you find your own way and what works for you.

People who criticise may be talking rubbish because they are not in a similar situation and not had things go wrong and may still have loved one's around them so they think you can just "Pick yourself up, quickly and carry on!" Maybe they have seen difficult times and have coped so they think everyone else will be the same. We are all different.

Then again perhaps they hope by being blunt it will shake up the person so they get that fighting spirit going...

I think you are doing brilliantly PAH. Often, we don't see it ourselves...

Like you I have found a lot of support on here and it means so much.

Popperwell

Sorry about the ruined evening Pooky. People can be so thoughtless(not sure that they actually realise themselves)but no doubt you see them in a different light and may decide not to do a similar night again or change it more into something more lie a buffet where your meal and hard work cannot be spoilt.

prepareathome

Ah ((((Pooky)))) understand how you feel, you are worried enough about your relatives, doesn't matter what age they are, losing them is losing them and just waiting is very hard. It is something that also gets me angry when people say they are short of money but then buy takeaways, when we are short no way we can afford them, I just presume my idea of being short is not others. Can nothing be salvaged from the food, not frozen, daft question am sure you will have thought of that.

Hugs and Love to allxxx

[Deleted User]

POPS - I would say you are a tryer not a quitter. You're learning on your feet and making the very best of your difficult situation from what you post on here. More strength to your arm and much respect for your attitude. Keep up the good work, Cheers Lyn.

kidcat

Just racing through quickly to say the toilet roll offer is thurs at Ald! not today - definitely need to cut back on the pills today!!

Will catch up later hugs to all

jpscloud

Byatt wrote: »

I went out foraging and came back with 10...not pounds, but 10 blackberries ...it seems in the deepest darkest south west ripe berries are rare! I did find nut looking (not me! :eek:) berries on a tree that looked almost like an oak, ,but wasn't, they are round/oval russet apple colour, hard and the size of cherry, but I don't know if they are edible or what they are...any suggestions please?

Possibly this, but I wouldn't try using the berries unless you get a proper real life ID!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorbus_torminalis

Byatt

jpscloud wrote: »

Possibly this, but I wouldn't try using the berries unless you get a proper real life ID!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorbus_torminalis

Thanks JPS, that's them!

I will grab a leaf next time I'm there, I think my berries need to be bletted...:cool:. It's an old hedgerow and is around oak trees.

edit Just read in my Food for free book that the fruits can be gathered, strung up in clsuters around a stick, hung indoors, by the hearth and they will ripen...

grandma247

Kidcat given the weather we had for a couple of years I would be complaining loudly and widely about that. Last time I looked we were living in England not Sparta or Siberia in the gulags.

What the heck is wrong with these people? I hear so many stories about such things these days it makes me angry. it is no wonder young people have little respect for them if they have such petty rules and regulations. OOh I could go on but too cross.