2025 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Baileys_Babe

Sarahspangles said:

Liverpool_Anne said:

@weenancyinAmerica thank you 😁, now I understand it was all about having dates fixed around the alleged date of the birth of Jesus rather than the actual cycle of the earth it makes sense 😁. I wonder what the rest of the world, the non Christian bit, did? They must have had their own calendar based on other things, maybe they were still based on the earth cycle or the moon. Very interesting topic that will no doubt send me down an internet rabbit hole 😂😂
Take care everyone

As a gardener, I’ve always thought the solstices and equinoxes were good reference points. For some years I’ve started a journal on the Winter solstice, which works for me as I find there’s sitting around time at Christmas. Three months later, at Spring Equinox, it’s time to plan for the new financial year. The rest of the year, the quarters are good points to change over my wardrobe, or at least take stock. And the garden, the quarters are planning points for the next season. Midsummer is the easiest as there should be nothing to do until the next Equinox!

I like this idea and feel it would work for me, thank you for sharing.

Laura_Elsewhere

Sarahspangles said:

As a gardener, I’ve always thought the solstices and equinoxes were good reference points. For some years I’ve started a journal on the Winter solstice, which works for me as I find there’s sitting around time at Christmas. Three months later, at Spring Equinox, it’s time to plan for the new financial year. The rest of the year, the quarters are good points to change over my wardrobe, or at least take stock. And for the garden, the quarters are planning points for the next season. Midsummer is the easiest as there should be nothing to do until the next Equinox!

For years, I've had my own personal seasons, going by what most of the plants do- it doesn't seem to have changed significantly with my moving from Scotland to the Midlands, either!

Winter: Nov, Dec, Jan- the months when most plants lie dormant
Spring: Feb, Mar, Apr- the months when most plants put forth new young growth

Summer: May, June, July- the months when most plants are in flower
Autumn: Aug, Sept, Oct- the months when most plants are in fruit

I get people arguing quite fiercely with me because it doesn't fit with the accepted idea that eg August is summertime or February is winter, but in fact it works really well in terms of plant activity- and it does mean that Midsummer's Eve is actually in the middle of my summer, and midwinter is in the middle of my winter. 

But it works well for me. I feel I can taste a change in the air when the seasons go over, at some point in the last/first couple of weeks of each... my eyes are mostly fine but the colour perception is now really quite wonky with the two different sorts of cataracts, and I definitely get something extra with the greens- and I've started noticing the colours of trees changing far more than I used to. There's a LOT more variation than I had thought! 

florianatwobob

As an August baby I would tend to agree with you Laura, August is Harvest time near me, school hols are in August for this reason too. Some point late Aug/early Sept the wind changes, the air smells difference and autumn definitely arrives

PipneyJane

Very off subject:  have you seen the notice at the top of the Thread?  After ?? years in the new-style forum, they've finally figured out how to do email digests again!

Now to see whether we get everything that's written or if the posts are truncated.  (Having re-read it, I realise there's a third alternative, i.e. that we get links to whatever some MSE staffer things is interesting, like a newsletter.)

- Pip (signed up for Daily Digests, of course.)

Nelliegrace

I shopped from home today and got four pairs of thin cotton socks for summer out of a drawer in the spare room. They are definitely before clothes rationing, from when I had to wear plain navy blue or black socks with my uniform trousers for work. I have been retired for more than ten years. 

Cherryfudge

I love that, @Nelliegrace - your former self looked after your current self!

weenancyinAmerica

Fall definitely starts at the beginning of September according to our tree. I can't go by the temperature for the seasons here as August to October are usually the hottest months, but the weatherman is saying this will be a hot summer starting this week. Our weatherman tells when the Equinox changes the seasons and that helps. I only know about the calendar changes because of doing family history (since 1962!). 

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, very interesting conversations about the seasons and I tend to work on the earth cycle, equinoxes etc, makes much more sense to me. I kind of agree with @Laura_Elsewhere but I also tend to stretch the months a bit as I think August and sometimes the beginning of September is still summer for me based on the local trees not starting to lose their leaves and the start of February tends to be still winter based on local plants, not even snowdrops, appearing until the end of February here. I think it's because we are close to the west coast and benefit from the North Atlantic current keeping us warm going into autumn but the cold of the winter definitely extends into February here. February is the month I like the least as I have had enough of the cold weather by then 😁. But then I think months are quite arbitrary having varying numbers of days and going with the earth cycle and local weather patterns makes sense to me. On the day after the winter equinox I always think summer's coming 😁.
Take care everyone

Cherryfudge

I have some crocs to declare (5 coupons) and a hat (0 coupons) and I still have two tee shirts to add to my signature. Possibly something else as well - socks. Oh dear, I wish I were organised.

PipneyJane

Cherryfudge said:

I have some crocs to declare (5 coupons) and a hat (0 coupons) and I still have two tee shirts to add to my signature. Possibly something else as well - socks. Oh dear, I wish I were organised.

Don't worry, @Cherryfudge.   You aren't alone. In some ways, I feel just as disorganised. < sigh >

 I seriously hope that this week is the start of something good because, right now, I feel like I'm waiting for the bombs to drop. I hate being reactive, rather than proactive.  I have had a little good news - my contract has been renewed for another 6 months - but I'm fed up with feeling like I have to jump through hoops all the time, since my boss did his part of the process a month ago and it's been sitting in someone's inbox ever since.  (I'm also bored with being under-utilised, but I have a plan to resolve that.)

More on-topic, I started the shawl for my friend, the thank you present one.  Sadly, while I tried the classic "string bag" approach, as suggested by @Laura_Elsewhere, it didn't work with the yarn.  Instead, I'm knitting this pattern from www.Knitty.com.  It's called "Glitz at the Ritz" and is a wrap, designed to use 400m of sock yarn.  I'm doing it without beads.

- Pip




PS:  Re my comment about the Daily Digest email, at present they're the worst of both worlds, neither curated nor linked to threads that I actually follow.  Humph!