fermenting

2024 – What will it bring?

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So, we’ve reached the turning of the year once more. 2023 was an odd one for us… I do feel we’re on the cusp of great changes that have been brewing for a long time, but are not quite there yet. (Possibly not unrelated to the number of inhabitants of this house steadily falling into the normal range?!) Hoping for a wonder-filled, marvellous & brilliant year, for us and for all my family & friends, and for all of you out there too!

There were some wonderful things to celebrate, such as DS1 marrying his lovely fiancée, but towards the end of the year we lost the use of both of our vehicles at the same time; my beloved van had developed an intractable fault which would have cost me the best part of £1K to get sorted. I’d already faced the fact that I needed a vehicle that did considerably more MPG with my 97 y.o. mother sliding gracefully downhill 42 miles away, so it was sold on. Simultaneously, my Other Half’s 16 y.o. Citroen suddenly “died” because of little rusty shreds mangling the gearbox, having just cost us £500 in new tyres and £400+ in EGR valve replacement. The secondhand car market has evidently gone insane, apparently because of supply chain difficulties, and finding a suitable, affordable replacement took weeks because everyone else was also looking for a vehicle that’s adaptable, economical to run and has a big boot, just like us! Cars were being sold online within hours of being listed, long before we could go to see & test-drive them. Can’t help feeling that people are prepared to take an awful lot on trust now…

We were lucky enough to have the use of DD1’s car as she & her partner are off travelling in South & Central America for a couple of months; it would have been an even more expensive nightmare otherwise as we’d have been limited to the local garages, in a very prosperous area where 10K might buy you a 10 y.o. little runabout. We also discovered that at 65, the “finance” offers are no longer as easily-available as they previously were, despite the fact we’re still working, fit & healthy. But we did find a reasonably-priced, reasonably economical vehicle with a reasonably big boot in the end.

At the same time, we found that the back had essentially fallen off one of the two sheds that I’d been keeping some of my less-constantly-relevant stock (and a few other items, like DD1’s 8-shaft sample loom that’s not in use but hasn’t sold) in. Rain and leaves had been pouring in through the gap, for weeks if not months. Quite a lot of stuff had to go straight to the tip, but I was able to rescue some of it. I would normally have taken most of that to the Scrapstore, but I had no transport, and they have had to close until mid-January anyway because of a problem with their building. So I offered it on Freegle straight away, and most of it was collected very quickly, but a few of the better bits have added to the chaos in my sewing room.

A coiled-rope basket…

The last few weeks I’ve been making coiled-rope baskets, using up scraps & following YouTube tutorials. They are very easy, given a sewing machine with a decent zig-zag, some cotton washing line and lots of scraps, which I certainly do have, and the process is strangely addictive! They make great presents & look good enough that I might even be able to sell a few. It’s not doing much to reduce the nightmare muddle of my sewing room, though. I’ve finally realised that I need to get rid of the day-bed in there, which takes up a whole lot of space that could be far better used for a cutting table/space to keep the overlocker out on. A sturdy old gate-leg table would work very well & I suspect I can find one of those locally for pennies, as it doesn’t need to look good, just be functional; I hope I’ll be able to fit one into my “new” car! And find a good home for the day-bed, which has been used just once in the years that we’ve owned it.

One of Pembrokeshire’s many beautiful beaches…

DD2 & I enjoyed a week in May and another in October house- & pet-sitting for our eldest in glorious Pembrokeshire, before the van started to play up so badly. The charity shops of Haverfordwest proved to be a very fertile hunting ground for materials for “upcycling” - which reminds me, I have far too many projects lined up already; did I mention the mess? – though I did make a couple of rugs whilst there. One in twined-weave (which now lives there) & the other giant-crocheted for a small-but-absorbent mat for our shower room.

It’s not been such a bad year at the allotment – assorted beans especially did well! – or in the garden; preserving & fermenting the results has kept me well busy.

The freezer is still full-to-bursting, even after feeding the hordes over Christmas. So a frugal January is indicated on the grocery front! And one of my main resolutions for this coming year, apart from de-cluttering, and being a little more regular with the blog posts, is to dive further into the marvellous art of fermentation; amongst this year’s successes have been a tasty Salsa Verde, using the tomatillos in the picture above, grown from a packet of “free” seeds from a magazine, and Tepache, a delicious zingy drink made using two 50p pineapples from the market.

Salsa Verde ready to ferment…

Wishing you all all the very best for 2024 – because we’re worth it!

Long time no see…

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I know it’s been a whole month since I posted, but I’m not referring to that – it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to see quite so much of our floor! I’ve been busy, very busy, decluttering like mad. It’s needed doing for a very long time, and bringing all the shop & market stock back here tipped it from something that really needed doing, to something acute – if I didn’t do it, I was going to go under mentally, or break my neck tripping over a pile of something. There are still a few piles hanging around, waiting for new homes, but I reckon I’ve reduced the rubble by something like three-quarters over the last four weeks. Some things have been sold on, although the last vintage market was cancelled, but most have been given away, either to charity or on Freecycle/Freegle, and some even dumped.

It’s interesting that now the kids are older (youngest now rising 17) the resistance to change has diminished. When they were younger, they’d complain about the mess, but often actively derail my attempts to actually do anything about it. But now, they’re helping me clear & deep-clean, and are full of ideas as to how we might redecorate & reorganise; we may not always see eye-to-eye about this, but it feels like a huge step forwards. I think I’ve been too easily discouraged in the past; there was a point about two weeks ago, when I seemed to have been working flat out for two weeks but it didn’t look any different. At that point, I nearly went under & gave up, but thanks to an inspirational thread over on MSE, and having a bit more time on my hands, I kept going this time and now it’s really beginning to look like the home that I’ve always wanted to live in.

Some of the things I’m parting with I’m very sad to see go, but I have to face the fact that one lifetime is too short to do everything I’d like to do & learn everything I’d like to learn, and one household, shared with 6 other people, isn’t big enough for 2 treadle sewing machines and 9 spinning wheels. And I was spending too much time looking after things, or indeed looking for things, to actually achieve very much at all!

But some of my attempts to reduce my hoards have been blind alleys… this morning, I emptied & cleaned the fridge. I’d decided that some of my beloved cultures had to go, too – one of my “endearing eccentricities” as DD1 calls them, is a belief that we in the West don’t eat or drink nearly enough traditionally-preserved or cultured foods, or a wide enough variety of foodstuffs, for optimum health – but I failed miserably! I’d just about brought myself to the point of pouring the milk-Kefir down the sink when DD1 announced that she loved the stuff & would take over responsibility for it. The Kefir a l’uovo smelt gorgeous, so that got refreshed too, and the ginger-beer Kefir is a household staple, much loved & drunk daily by several of us. The sourdough starter’s in regular use & I have some Kimchi virtually every day; that only left the Kombucha, where I’ve had first my old SCOBY, then a newly-bought one, die on me in short order for no apparent reason. So I’d made up my mind that I’d stop making that, but I came across a bottle at the back of the fridge, and I’d forgotten just how lovely it tastes! Oh dear, there’s no hope for me, is there?! But the small amount of work & space involved in looking after my “fridge-pets” pales into insignificance beside the complex, healthy & above all, delicious tastes they reward me with, for almost no money. However, the four half-empty jars of mayonnaise, several “stubs” of home-made jam and three bottles of tomato ketchup did get rationalised…

One positive thing that has emerged from the chaos; I’d forgotten just how nice some of the things I’d accumulated were, even if it’s no longer appropriate for me to hang onto them. Below is a pic of one little beauty that I rescued, looking very sad & with bits hanging off her, from a street market about 18 months ago. A bit of elbow-grease & know-how returned her to working order & decent appearance quite quickly & she’s on Ebay now. She’s not a practical wheel to spin on for any length of time, unless you have tiny feet & a lot of patience, and want very fine yarn, but isn’t she pretty?!