Today is a day of celebrations here at Dollyville.
Firstly - it was shopping day. Nigel is a wonderful hunter - caveman-like! He goes out braving what I am too scared to do and, for my peace of mind as much as anything, he is meticulous. He wears gloves so carefully and knows what to touch gloved and what to touch ungloved. We have it off to a fine art now as everything comes in and is either quarantined for three days or washed carefully and put away. He delivers to the doorsteps of neighbours then strips, all clothes are washed and he showers. And the sense of relief is immense.
We are so glad lockdown is continuing and I worry about when it is lifted if I will ever feel safe again. We will see.
You have to laugh - this is our quarantine room where we have labels (Nigel of course) telling us when they are released from quarantine. Oh yes, we are organised.
We are also celebrating as I have my certificate in hair cutting - just about. For the first time ever I cut Nigel's hair. Oh, it was scary but he was very positive about it and said if all else failed I could buzz cut it with his shaver. However, I managed to do a reasonable job. Possibly not as short as he usually has it cut, but I was nervous. I even managed to thin it and add layers. He did, however, decide that he wanted to be dressed for it and so wore my silky dressing gown as he said the hair would just fall right off it. It didn't but it was funny.
I now have to pluck up the courage to sort my fringe and layers out. I am not worried about the general length but the fringe does need doing.
Finally, our other huge celebration is that Kira and Fiki turned 17 today. Not quite sure how my little kittens have gotten so old. In some ways, it seems like we have never been without them, but at times it seems like only yesterday they were babies of just 4 weeks old.
Cat cake was enjoyed ... candles possibly not so much.
I made this yesterday on the last day of my 16-year-old boy!
Those of you who like traveller's notebooks will love the new bundle from Miss Fish which is absolutely amazing. You can find it on special offer for just $7 here (and a reminder I get mine without payment in exchange for creating and promoting and I have to state that legally)
An anniversary page
and the first page of the Garden Olympics.
Today I am thankful that
- the shopping is done
- we decided 17 years ago that getting Bengals would be a nice idea
- we have been blessed to have them share our lives for 17 years ... we know we are on borrowed time.
Just found this made me chuckle.
They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & Sold to the tannery.......if you had to do this to survive you were "P### Poor"
But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot......they "didn't have a pot to pee in" & were the lowest of the low
The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June.. However, since they were starting to smell . ...... . Brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odour. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting Married.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!"
Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof... Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold.
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old. Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would Sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.
England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive... So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer.
And that's the truth....Now, whoever said History was boring?
