Wednesday Witterings . . .

 

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Welcome to you rich autumn days,

Ere comes the cold, leaf-picking wind;

When golden stalks are seen in fields,

All standing arm-in-arm entwined;

And gallons of sweet cider seen

On trees in apples red and green.

With mellow pears that cheat our teeth,

Which melt that tongues may suck them in;

With blue-black damsons, yellow plums,

Now sweet and soft from stone to skin;

And woodnuts rich to make us go

Into the loneliest lanes we know.

~W.H. Davies (1871-1940)

 

I picked up Eileen early afternoon yesterday and she is safely ensconced here at home with me. She is still sleeping at the moment. She is afraid to be in her apartment alone she says.  There are wasps getting in from somewhere and Tim is the one who deals with them. He is gone to Ontario now with his mom and dad to visit his brothers. I am not surprised that Eileen doesn't want to stay in there with wasps. They are pretty scary and this is the time of year that all these things are trying to get indoors. I remember that cottage we lived in when I worked at the Manor often got wasps in the upstairs.  One time we could see them coming in from around the base of the light in the ceiling in the main bedroom. We were surrounded by orchards and so wasps were quite a common thing.  We also used to get those big hornets from France. They were very aggressive and vicious. I was terrified of them.

Occasionally we might also get a bat. Bats were a protected species in the U.K. You were not allowed to harm them.  They would sometimes get into the Manor when the family were away and would set off the alarms.  It was a bit of a nuisance as you would have to go up in the middle of the night and determine if it was a real break-in or a bat. They had huge fireplaces in the Manor. Bats often came down through the chimneys and into the house and the motion detector alarms would go off.

 

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It's not quite as cool this morning. Right now it is 13*C/56*F. We had a bit of rain and drizzle overnight, which is good, but a sunny day is expected.  Eileen has a cooking class this afternoon. She says they are making taco bowls and apple crisp. She is really looking forward to that. Last night we watched a movie on Netflix. "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret." I had watched it before and thought that she would like it.  I was right. She did. It's a really cute movie and reminded me very much of when I was a young girl. I also liked the music in it. If you haven't seen it, you should give it a go. I think you would like it.

She was really pleased with the Little House Books. We got them all in the right order of reading for her. There are about seven or so books in the collection I got for her. I told her to think of it as being an early Christmas gift.

I also had some new t-shirts for her. Her old ones were looking very threadbare. I am surprised that the CSS workers don't take them shopping for new clothing when the clothes that they have are in such bad shape. The shirt she was wearing yesterday when I picked her up had quarter sized holes in it. She says it is her favorite shirt, but I suggested that she might want to throw it away or keep it for just wearing around the house as it is in very bad shape. She seemed to be amenable to that. Anyways, I had some newish t-shirts that I don't wear much if at all, and I gave them to her. She was pleased about that, and it made me feel good to be able to do something positive for her.

 

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Do you remember doing projects at this time of year when you were in grade school. Projects where you had to collect seeds and leaves for science? I remember doing that and I also remember really enjoying the process. It was always very fascinating to me, this process of nature getting ready for the Winter ahead. The trees shedding their leaves, other plants drying up and producing seed pods that would help them to grow again in the Spring.  I think acorns were one of my favorite things with their jaunty little caps. They still are.  I also love Teasle.

I will probably have to try to hire that girl again to come and bring my gardens into some semblance of order. It is not something which I can do myself. But I have my car safety coming up and I want to winterize it and have the winter tires put on so I don't think I can really afford to hire her to come. I am in a bit of a quandary.  I will have to think about it.

That is one thing about getting old that is a pain. Having to hire people to do things you might have been able to do for yourself when you were younger.  I have a problem reaching now because of my shoulders and I have not been able to get down on my knees for quite some time.

 

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I had to ban someone from my English Kitchen page yesterday, which is not something I really do very lightly. Oh, I often have to ban those men who come in and start harassing the ladies to add them as friends, etc. That happens on an almost daily basis.  There was a man yesterday who started shouting the odds about my page being run by a Canadian who knew nothing at all about English cookery. And when some of my readers dared to call him out on his ignorance, he made derogatory comments to them about them probably being Charlie Kirk supporters. I won't tolerate that type of political nonsense on my page. It is a cooking page and that has no place there.

I occasionally get people who complain because they say I don't post typically British recipes all the time. Well, to be honest, there are only so many ways to do typical British recipes and I have already done most of them. If they bothered to go through my archives, they would notice that. Also, now that I am living back in Canada, it is a bit more difficult and quite expensive to get typically British ingredients. I have to make do with what I can get. 

People can just be so ignorant from time to time. I know I should have a thicker skin, but I don't have a very thick skin at all, and this type of thing does bother me. For the most part, my readers are really very lovely however, but these horrible people that pop up from time to time really spoil it.

I work really hard on my food blog. It takes hours of work every day. Creating new content, posting new content, doing all the social media attached. I always try to respond to every comment, etc. It is a bit discouraging when you have such negative people pop up. It does take an effort for me to put it into perspective and tell myself that this isn't the norm, just a troll. I am such a people pleaser.

People even take offense if I use the term Fall instead of Autumn.

And mine is not a really popular blog/page. There are far more successful ones out there. I am sure they must have to deal with this sort of negativity even more often than I do. People love to hate a winner. Sad but true.

 

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I have really been enjoying the photos that people have been posting over this past month of their zinnias and dahlias. All so very beautiful. I notice that a lot of the flower places now have pots of mums for sale for people to decorate their porches, etc. with. This was the first year that I didn't buy any hanging baskets or anything. 

The fact that I cannot afford to purchase such things myself, or even garden myself, does not stop me from enjoying and appreciating the efforts of others. There are so many talented people out there. (You know who you are!!)  Are we not so blessed and incredibly lucky to live in an age where we are able to share in the beauty of the heartfelt labors of others? I think we are. I am always so appreciative of the labors of others and the efforts they take to share photographs of what they have achieved. It always cheers my heart to see them.

There are so many talented people in the world, in so many different areas. I am always happy to see and enjoy the fruits of their labors!

Well, I hear someone moving about so I think Eileen is about to get up now so I will have to cut this short!  There is no rest for the wicked! ha ha

A thought to carry with you  . . . 

☾ ° ★° * 。  

• ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • •。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★

*Friendship is the icing
on the cake of life.
~Unknown• ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • •。★★ 。* 。

• ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • •。★★ 。* 。 

In The English Kitchen today  . . .   Bacon Big Boys.  These tasty hot sandwiches are like hotdogs on steroids. A recipe from one of my vintage cookbooks.

I hope that you have a beautiful day. Whatever you get up to, I hope it brings you peace, joy and happiness.  Don't forget!

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⊰✿░G░O░D⊰✿⊰L░O░V░E░S⊰✿⊰░Y░O░U░⊰✿

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And I do too!