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The OS Doorstep - a helpful and supportive thread in these tough times

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  • fuddle
    fuddle Posts: 6,823 Forumite
    edited 21 June 2013 at 5:57PM
    I've heard of scrubbing the step but not donkey stone. We had an orange paint on our door step when I was little. I don't know whether thy was the cardinal a few of you speak of but it chipped like crazy.

    I've never tried a yoghurt maker but have made Hugh Fernley wotshisface recipe for radiator yoghurt. It's just plain but scrummy over fruit and a drizzle of honey.

    Welcome all our new friends!

    Edit: has anyone heard if HFW is making any new homely type TV series? Some kind soul told us on another thread - SHTF I think - that war time farm makers are doing a Tudor series for the autumn, so looking forward to that
  • tattycath
    tattycath Posts: 7,175
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    Mrs_Chip wrote: »
    I have one - the round flat type with little pots, I love it, HM yoghurt is lovely!

    Thanks.
    I bought my yoghurt maker today (new to me-only cost £4 and it was still boxed with instructions) and it has 6 little pots in it.
    I like plain yoghurt with cereal. :)
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  • Pollybear
    Pollybear Posts: 3,235
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    Hello :) A new thread seems a good time for me to post. I am a long time lurker on this and a couple of other threads but don't really have anything to contribute. I'm 60, married for 40 years, three grown up children (and my first grandchild due in September). Not as MSE as I should be but I like to read about it, and all your lives.

    Anyway, off to wash up now and then watch Miss Marple from last weekend. Back later:)
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 17,413
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    I was brought up in the east end of London where it was almost mandatory to whiten your doorstep and God help any children who marked it.My Mum would put the boiler on first thing Monday morning for the washing, then go out and do her step, after having the family at home over the weekend she wanted to make sure that no one in the street could say her step wasn't the whitest :):) Down would come the net curtains as well and they were dumped in a big tin bath of cold water to get the dirt out first. She would hand wash these in Lux soap flakes then starch them with Robin starch and they would be back up at the windows by teatime.To her a clean doorstep and spotless nets meant a clean house.She was a stickler for cleanliness and scoured everything in sight, including the odd child if you got in her way when she was busy :):)
    Monday morning was always washday, and then as the range was lit for the water she would bake afterwards, cakes for the week.To come home from school on a Monday afternoon the smell of clean washing and rock cakes cooking take me back over 60 years.She scrubbed almost anything that could be scrubbed and the lino was washed and dried with the big mop that came in a round tin from the Kleen-ezze-man.The tally man did visit our street but my mum would never buy anything that she didn't have the cash for in her purse.Lots of folk down our street did though and nine times out of ten it would end up in the 'pop' shop (the pawnbrokers) as it often went backwards and forwards for most of the time that folk owned it.One neighbour of ours Auntie Floss had a piano that was regularly trundled down to 'uncles' to be pawned along with at times her OHs best suit.The best suit was only used for weddings and funerals anyway and rarely worn.She wasn't a real Auntie but everyone called her that and she would help bring babies into the world and for half a crown lay you out if you were departing from it :):)
    No one had much money and doors were rarely locked as so few folk had anything worth stealing
    Kids were always looked after though and it didn't matter much if you fell over someone if not your mum someone elses would pick you up and give you a cuddle and if your lucky a biscuit and you'd carry on playing Only one car in our street and that belonged to a very quiet man who I think was in the civil service.His wife and children kept to themselves and my Mum thought she was no better than the rest of us .It proved true when the woman took off with the two kids and an insurance man who came round to collect weekly payments.The Husband went to the local pub and got roaring drunk and sat on his doorstep after being chucked out of the pub crying his eyes out,I had never seen a grown man cry before and found it rather intriguing .My mum bless her, made him a cuppa and took him into our house for a chat
    We kids were very interested, but wern't allowed to hear what she said, but he did go home eventually and seemed to get over his wife pushing off after awhile :):) Life was lived in full in our street and there were very few secrets from your neighbours.
  • thriftwizard
    thriftwizard Posts: 4,652
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    Hello all! Lost the plot quite some time ago with the old thread; I did try to catch up several times but never made it all the way through to the end! So will try to keep up a bit better with this one. Busy though, working towards a big Event next month & generally flying about like crazy, but I'm pleased to say I have carved out enough time for a spot of foraging, preserving & home-brewing lately. Hopefully a bit of jam-making over the weekend, too - after visiting the jumble sale!
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  • EstherH
    EstherH Posts: 1,150 Forumite
    GreyQueen wrote: »
    :eek: Mrs Fuddle! I am shocked, shocked. I thought it was a northern thing, but mebbe it was NW not NE.

    I was told about this by pals who are expatriate Lancastrians who are about 60-ish. It was already a bit old-fashioned in their childhood, sort of rubbing the donkeystone over the front step titivate it.

    Here's a Wiki

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_stone


    There, never let it be said that I have not delved deeply into the Trivia Mines to fetch nuggets of randomness to the surface to share with y'all.

    It's definitely something that happened in the North West, don't know about anywhere else. The pictures great. Looks like my mum and gran and they donkey stoned the step. Esther x
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  • nan2many
    nan2many Posts: 28
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    I too have lurked for a very long time, I had a breakdown 3 years ago and you lot brought me back to me. I have cried, laughed and worried with you all, but you are a lifeline and a tonic to so many so keep up the good work. Bless you all. I too wish I could send Fuddle some elderflowers, our trees here are literally dripping with them'
  • Possession
    Possession Posts: 3,262 Forumite
    edited 21 June 2013 at 6:33PM
    Welcome Nymphadora Nan2many and Pollybear!
    Tattykath when I was a child my parents always had a pot of yoghurt on the go (in a flask, don't think yoghurt makers had been invented), just as they always saved the cooking fat for roast potatoes, etc etc. It's only now I realise how OS they were, but when they first started out they weren't at all well off so had to make do and mend along with lots of others I guess.
    Last week I made cauliflower cheese as a meal not a side, with a slice of bread to go with it as I remember having as a child. When I think back, most of our meals were made very cheaply. We sometimes had cheesy cabbage too. My DCs enjoyed it so if you can get a good deal on cheese (or use a packet I guess) it's a cheap meal to do.
  • Popperwell
    Popperwell Posts: 5,088 Forumite
    tattycath wrote: »
    Thanks.
    I bought my yoghurt maker today (new to me-only cost £4 and it was still boxed with instructions) and it has 6 little pots in it.
    I like plain yoghurt with cereal. :)

    At that price I don't blame you...I think I would've. I tend to eat my yogurts like you and at breakfast time either with fruit or cereal etc...
    "A government afraid of its citizens is a Democracy. Citizens afraid of government is tyranny!" ~Thomas Jefferson

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  • shegar
    shegar Posts: 1,978 Forumite
    Hi to all the newbies:wave:.........

    Thanks for the new thread, but the old was still doing well, apart from a couple who thought theyd upset the apple cart, but they couldnt do that.........:)

    Ive got one helluver head cold and dripping nose, must be because im low.......Never mind im resting as much as poss, so hopefully it wont hang about.............

    Tried a gooseberry today in the garden and dam it nearly drew my ar*se up to my elbows:eek::eek:, think they need a few more days to ripen up.........No chance the birds will nick them tasting like that............

    I had a quick ready meal of shepherds pie for tea , just couldnt be ar*ed to do anything, mind you I hate cooking in any case, I hear some of you on here cooking and baking away happily , and I cant get interested at all, id rather clean the house or do the gardening any day than cook.........

    Now please you lot dont stay up til 12 on here tonight , cos when I come on here tomorrow I shall have 6 pages to catch up on.........

    Oh I do hope Lyn lurcher can find us now we moved to greener pastures :D......Sheila
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