Washday....

I am going to work very hard today and get work finished early so that I may call round blog visiting - where the bloomin' heck does the time go to!

Plastic offends my sensibilities.....

Oh yes - the versatility of  a Kilner Jar (you can see other ones that I use for bits of ribbon and buttons just to  the left on the picture behind this post)

I am quite sure that there others of you reading this who were also brought up with Kilner jars.  They were a feature of everyday life for us.  Clear memories of scalding fingers:  it was our job to put the seals on the jars as mum poured either boiling water or boiling syrup over the jar contents - that did smart a bit!

Clear memories  also of consuming jar content out of season - rhubarb crumble in the winter - delicisouso.  Kilner jars were indeed a necessity.  Out in the sticks our pantry was pressed into action to store all sorts for out of season use - row upon row of packed Kilner jars (wish I had a photo of that) with all types of fruit, some veg and lots of pickles! The pantry was also where the meat safe was kept (no fridge of course) and a bowl of cold water to try and keep the milk cool.  I sometimes think that we lived a hundred years ago - all essential stuff and a lot of creative thinking went into making ends meet.

This photograph below I took at Manor Farm (only just up the road and a favourite haunt of mine) - an Edwardian Farm that was 'revamped' for the BBC Wartime Farm series on the telly (which, by pure chance we saw being filmed when we were there one day).  Anyway I visit there to stare wistfully at the pantry which does indeed look very similar to the one I remember as a child....from the salted beans to the pickled walnuts we were avid preservers!

Straying from the washday theme a bit...

 Sister Gail has kept a jar of gooseberries that our mum would have bottled around about 1980'ish.....

I used to do a bit of bottling many years ago.  Funny how times change: when I was growing up  making your own jam, making your own clothes - making your own anything - was a sign of not having very much money, working class and not something to shout about.

Today I think that this has reversed somewhat: 'I make my own soap dahhling..You don't? How very non-U....'

I can see our Dad now - stooped over the kitchen sink, collar removed from shirt, bar of soap and tin soap dish (just like this one), wooshing his old razor back and forth  in the water as he shaved in the morning.  Shaving foam???  No - just soap.

The old flour sieve is used to get the lumps out of washing powder

 I AM JOKING!!!!

I am rather partial to a bit of carbolic - an evocative smell indeed.  Here I am not joking.  It is a smell that I would happily dab behind my ears. Aside from working in the hospital the smell reminds me of Dr Moser - the GP -  white coat and very formal - the whole surgery would smell of carbolic - lovely.

In need of a clean......this old sink was found in our garden when we lived in London....along with some other nice bits and bobs (the house had once belonged to a pharmacist in Victorian times and I think that he took his work home with him!!!!!)

Adding this photo in this post because I am not where else to place it!  This vintage soda siphon belongs to my sister Trudie - though I am sure that one day she will give it to me .......for Christmas......perhaps.......This belonged to our Granny (our Dad hailed from Warwickshire and near to Royal  Leamington Spa originally) and our brother was prevented from depositing it into the......

 GLASS RECYCLING

My grandparents were born Victorians so this would be my type of  'Granny chic' - all this 'new' Granny chic stuff is a bit puzzling for me...

"Cripes - just how old is she?" Message from Kandyce in Missouri

Not very good photos - taken in haste at Trudie's last New Year!

I used a fair bit of liquid judging by these photos!

Please see the link here to see how I dry my washing.........Ha ha!

 I intend to make a new peg bag for this season - in the interim this one that I made one or two years ago now will suffice....

Just the ironing to do.....

Tra La La
Fiddle de dee
That is all for now
Tatty bye from me...

PS: Thank you for all the lovely garden comments - I have trawled through one or two (!!!) old photographs and found  'rare' (!) before photographs of the concrete slabs - I did not take many before photographs - it was ugly.  In a 'rare' event I will be posting some 'ugly before images' of the garden to show that I am not talking out the back of my head when I said there was nothing there previously!!!!!  I have even fewer 'before' photographs of the house - which is a shame in a way because that was even worse and now I could bathe in reflected glory