Connie Onnie Butties ... and Other Memories

 

My brother, my Dad and me, around 1971 or 72

It's hard to date some photos isn't it, I tend to look at what I'm wearing, how old my brother looks as he's four years younger than me and then where we are.  This was taken at Pontins, the Middleton Towers camp I think, we only ever went to two of their camps, but this was my parents favourite one.

I went down a rabbit hole of thinking about the past yesterday after watching the YouTube channel British Nostalgia while I ate my breakfast.  They are good videos if you can get over the AI voiceover that occasionally gets his words wrong and puts emphasis in the wrong places, and if you just laugh at the photos not always matching the commentary.

This is the video that I watched.

https://youtu.be/bKSB3X1kXWU?si=rwyhxygZ_By1xL9c

It was very true of a lot of the meals we ate back in the 60s and 70s in Manchester, England.

It's funny, as children we never thought of ourselves as poor, although we lived in just three rooms.  They were the downstairs rooms of my Nana's house.  We shared the bathroom that was upstairs and had to be quiet so as not to disturb her whenever we used it, but I never minded that. When I was thirteen in 1973 we got a brand new council house and moved out ... much to my Mum's relief.

We ate simply and cheaply, and I could cope with most foods, although even then I hated meat.  But I was forced to eat it, we always had to clear our plates ... 'or the starving children in Africa would be upset'.  Even as a child I thought that Mum's statement was ridiculous.  Mum was not a good cook, which was slightly ironic as she was a school dinner lady!  We ate the most basic foods, overcooked to within an inch of their lives, hence my hatred of Brussels sprouts to this day ... and my brother's pea phobia .

So watching this YouTube video brought back a lot of memories, good ones and bad ones ... liver and onions when overcooked would be useful for a cobbler, he would be able to resole leather shoes with the liver glued on with the gloopy onions.  Well my Mum's version anyway. 😖

But one thing we never had, but my ex-husband did, was Connie Onnie butties, or sandwiches if you from the posh end of the street. 

 It was simply condensed milk spread on white bread and topped with another slice, and eaten over a plate or at the very least away from your clothes as they dripped.  My ex also regularly lived on 'sugar butties' as a child, just as it sounds they were simply buttered white bread with a spoonful of sugar sprinkled over the butter, then the two slices pressed together, usually taken outside to be eaten while you played or just sat on the front doorstep.  No wonder he had so many missing teeth even when we first met!  My cheap sandwich of choice was a salad cream butty, just that bread and salad cream, they were very tasty, but Mum didn't really approve.

Of course it was the days of corner shops and very small 'supermarkets' when they first arrived.  Our local corner shop had illusions of grandeur when it purchased two shopping trollies.  With only two narrow aisles and the meat and cheese counter at the end of the shop, if someone had a trolley in use anyone else shopping with the more usual wire basket, had to follow the trolley pusher around until they finally reached the till, or else try and squeeze past if the person stopped at the meat counter.  Luckily I think we were a lot more patient back in the day. 😄

What 'poor food' did you have as a child, or were you 'proper posh'?

Sue xx

Acquiring Things, and Letting Things Go

Mum's windowsill in her care home room holds her most treasured possessions, not that she knows they are, but I can talk to her about the memories behind them over and over ... and then they make her smile. Her walls are full of family photos, and we regularly go over and over who the people are with her when she asks, but she sees no one except for me, Alan and my brother, so she really is losing track if we talk about anyone else.

It makes me realise that not acquiring things, as we have purposefully done for the last few years, (apart from a few special things), has been a really good move.  We don't need any souvenirs from our holidays apart from a few photographs, there are no fridge magnets or little jars of sand to remind us where we have been.  Just the memories and some photos to jog those memories, in case they start to slip away in the future.

When we enter the world we come with nothing, and then immediately start acquiring things, at first via our parents and relatives, and then with great gusto and lots of relish when we are independent adults striking out for the first time.

Of course while I have donated most of my randomly acquired things and ornaments in a bid to declutter my life over the years, there are some still things in the 'memory box' that I have. It being a memory in it's own right as it was made for me by a blogging buddy when we moved onto our very first farm.  I may even need to revisit that at some point and photograph the 'things' and just have them that way.  We'll see in the run up to our move what will happen.

Of course I have lots of books, but even my book buying has almost ground to a standstill.  I have paused my Amazon Prime membership. With no deliveries and little on Prime that I wanted to watch on television there didn't seem any point in supporting a huge company with a multi-multi billionaire at it's head.

Taking my life down to a simple level, and a much more satisfying stage seems to be such a good idea.  One day I too might only need a windowsill to display my possessions. 

Sue xx

Memories of Easters Gone

So many memories tied up in photographs.

Every Easter when we were children we would go round to visit my Gran.  She was my Mum's Mum, and gosh I loved her to bits.  Mum criticised her all the time to my Dad in the hearing of me and my brother and I never understood it or thought it fair even as a child.  Now as an adult a lot of the things that she said and did still seem so unfair, especially considering that my Mum is so like her in so many ways.

We are stood outside her large four story rented house in this photo, she was relocated there after the family home was totally flattened by a bombing raid during World War 2, and she stayed there until she was rehoused in the early 1970's.  As a child I loved the old house, but found parts of it very spooky as it was very gloomy in all but the front 'best' room, hence the photo being taken outside on the street.

It was about a forty minute walk to get to Gran's house, but back in the day we were all used to walking much longer distances weren't we and it just seemed normal.  Gran would walk round to ours most Saturdays as she loved to watch the wrestling on the television, she refused to have a tv in her house until her dying day, she thought that they would burst into flames willy nilly.

I have to say none of mine ever have.  😁

 We didn't have to travel any where near as far to visit my Nana, Dad's Mum.  We lived downstairs in her house.  So we would get our new Easter clothes on and troop upstairs to receive an Easter egg and have our photo taken.  I loved my Nana, just as much if not more, although sitting and posing for a photo with her seemed strange.

I would go upstairs and watch television with Nana most nights, our favourite evenings together were Mondays, when it would be at least one quiz show, usually University Challenge ... Nana did like Bamber Gascoigne ... and then Opportunity Knocks.  A highlight of watching tv upstairs was that I got to sit on a chair, downstairs we only had two armchairs so me and my brother would sit cross legged on the floor when we watched anything.

It's funny, but oh so nice, how two photos can bring so many memories flooding back.

Wishing a very Happy Easter to all my readers, wherever you are and whatever you are doing.  Perhaps you are making memories for the future, or simply reliving lovely ones from the past.  Both are wonderful things to do.

Sue xx

Gadgets ... and Simple Meals

 

I claimed the soup maker back from Alan a few months back, he wasn't using it at all ... the level of dust on top was amazing.  😄

He regularly makes soup but he makes a humungous pot full at a time, and he loves it so thick and unblended that his Granny would be proud.  She used to say that a good soup was one that the wooden spoon stood up in the middle of pan all by itself.  His soups are just like that.  I like mine in smaller quantities, blended and liquid enough that you can dunk your bread easily and even occasionally drink it out of a mug, and the soup maker is very easily controllable for all these things.

We've had this particular gadget for well over ten years now, we bought it when we had an Aga and wanted to be able to turn it off in warmer weather if necessary.  So we cooked with our gadgets anytime that the Aga was off.  We used the soup maker, the Remoska, the microwave, the rice cooker and the toaster, sometimes gadgets are very handy and it's always good to find the ones that work best for your needs isn't it ... as long as you have the space to store them when they are not in use.  I still use all those mentioned.

Anyway, with all this chilly weather the soup maker has been in weekly use, it makes me three good meal sized portions at a time, I usually have a couple over two or three days and pop one into the freezer for future use.

Other simple meals, not done in the soup maker, have been simple noodle dishes to make good use of bits and bobs from the vegetable drawer in the fridge.

And a really simple red kidney bean, cumin and onion mixture served with brown rice, using the rice cooker.

It's good over the years to whittle away at any gadgets that you might have bought and rarely used ... my brief foray into having an air fryer springs to mind ... but when you have limited space everything that you have really does have to earn it's keep.

I would say out of all my gadgets, my Remoska* is the one I would choose if I could only have one ... what would yours be?

Sue xx

*Gosh they are expensive now though, but currently on special offer.

My Diary ... and a Warming 'Mince Mix'

 

For many years I kept a diary, a large A4 page to a view one usually.  I quite enjoyed the start of the year filling in of all the names and addresses, some personal information and any things that I needed to pull forward from one year to the next.  

Then I started finding that process tedious and slightly ridiculous so I reverted to my old, old way of a personal organiser.  It had been vital to have one of these when I managed two shops in two different towns and needed lots of information about both at my fingertips as I travelled between each of them numerous times a week.

For the past six years now I have just purchased a new 'diary section' for my organiser and all the other pages stay the same.  The names, addresses and phone numbers, the banking pages, the Christmas lists and birthday pages.  It also means that once I slip the new section in, I can put the previous years into the plastic bag the new one came in and my history takes up very little space in the drawer of my sideboard.

My old A4 diaries made a spectacular little bonfire before we moved house from Wales.  😀

Today has been bitterly cold so I kept myself busy in the kitchen making a 'mince mix' from store cupboard items.  Nothing complicated, just a bit of chopping then a lot of slow simmering to let the flavours develop.

It might not look much, but it tastes delicious.

Hopefully it will be nice and warming for Alan when he gets home later.  He's been out in the frosty, snowy weather helping the builder demolish the garage at the bungalow, ready for it being rebuilt next week.  He must be chilled to the bone.  I gave him firm instructions to take a break and either call home, which he hasn't done, or go to Booths for a fresh cup of coffee and a warm through.

I was going to turn the mix into the base for a Shepherdess Pie, but after being reminded in yesterdays comments that I have a couple of part-baked 'cook at home' baguettes waiting to be used, I might just serve it with one of those each for dunking and scooping purposes.

Sue xx

The Year of the Horse

 

I've always had a passing interest in the Chinese years, also a slight interest in astrology, made more profound because virtually everything that I read about Aries people, of which I am one, seems to be so spot on.

I used to read the horoscopes in the paper many, many years ago.  Now it's just a passing interest if something comes up online and catches my attention.

Back in the days after my divorce had been finalised, and just before I met Alan I signed up for Yahoo Personals, the online dating site ... yep that's how we met, we were pioneers of online dating.  Back when it used to be a much safer place with no 'catfishing' and very little scamming.  One of the adverts that I replied to was from a guy called John, who advertised with:

Pisces Monkey seeking Aries Rat

I was intrigued, as no doubt was his plan, so I responded, well I am an Aries rat!!  We had a couple of dates, and the main ... no the sole ... conversation was about astrology and Chinese years, calendars, animals.  

I moved on as rats tend to do when there's nothing of interest on offer.  🐀

What is your astrology sign and Chinese animal year?

Sue xx

Blogmas Day Twenty Four - Christmas Memories

 

Christmas is the time of year that memories come flooding back.  Of good Christmases and bad, hopefully the good outweighing the bad.  We have had many and all of them hold a place in our hearts.

Our Christmas Piggies always used to make me smile when we lived in Wales, and this photo reminds me of the many family get togethers at Christmas time, with food being laid out buffet style so that there was no pressure for anyone to arrive at set times.

I saw this photo on social media and it reminded me immediately of the year me and my brother got a mesh stocking each in the mid-sixties.  The first year they were filled with the plastic toys that they had come with, which I thought was brilliant.  Then in subsequent years my Mum and Dad filled them with little toys and things that they had bought specially for the stockings.  But as a child I had loved the plastic 'tat' of the first year the best.  😄

Each year we would get a selection box, always a real treat to have all those lovely sweets all at once.  Oh how I loved Spangles.  Look at the prices in this image, we were obviously just into decimalisation!

Me and my brother posing with our presents in the late 1960s.  We opened everything in our bedroom and then later had to put everything under the tree for a photo opportunity ... my Dad loved his camera.  It also kept us out of the way while Mum cooked the Christmas dinner in the tiny kitchen/living/dining room.  

We lived in just three rooms for the first thirteen years of my life, while I think of them as reasonably happy years my Mum's memories were always very different.  But I do remember the stress she felt, the anger of cooking a full dinner and my brother refusing to eat any vegetables.  So when I had children of my own I always made sure that they shared the preparation in some small way and shared in every part of Christmas Day ... I do hope they have good memories of that time.

It's lovely to have time to think about Christmases past, be they good, bad or indifferent they were all a turning point in the year and a very special celebration.

A little smile for Christmas Eve.

Sue xx

Logs ... Past and Future

 

It's funny what pops up in your Facebook Memories.  The other day this photo appeared and the one below, it made me go back and read the blog post that they were originally on.

It's HERE if you're interested.

I read a few of the other posts around it, and I had to laugh because only a couple of days earlier I had been saying how good I was getting at chopping wood with an axe!!

A post all about logs and kindling ... which seems very apt at the moment as we hope to be able to have a log burner in our new bungalow.  Although we won't have a barn to store all the logs and kindling in, so we will have to be a lot neater.

We are going to be all electric with solar panels, so with the rise of power cuts over the last few years we think it might be a bit prudent to have an alternative heat source as well ... and of course a log burner is lovely to sit in front of and to look at on a cold Winter's night.

I might not be writing so romantically about it once I have to actually chop wood, or even just keep getting up and down to put another log on the fire.  😄

Sue xx

History in Letters, Jars and Food

History in letters, well half of them in this case are 'Blueys' the free to send lightweight letters for Army use.

I was doing a final check through my Mum's document files ready for delivering them back to the bungalow with all the documents that relate to it ready for my brother.  When I came across all the correspondence that my eldest son, Simon sent to his grandparents during his time in the army.  

They start during his basic training days, and then go on to chart his history of deployments, and continue when he was on the frontline.  The final couple are when he was serving his last weeks in the army as a sentry at Catterick barracks, before heading home.   I've kept them all to hand back to him next time we see each other, as they will match up nicely with the letters that Mum and Dad sent to him.

I obviously have all the ones he sent to me, and he has the ones that I sent to him, maybe one day we will match them together as well.  It seems a lifetime ago that I wrote to him twice a week, and sent him a weekly 'goodies' parcel through the free parcel service the Post Office offers for military personnel serving overseas.

It's also been a busy week for sorting in other areas.  I sold a selection of Kilner jars on Facebook Marketplace that I no longer had any use or space for. 

The sale paid for this weeks little shopping top up.

Oh, and just before the weather turned really atrocious I managed to get the garden virtually put to bed for the Winter.  There are just a few pots left to tip into the compost bin, or throw away.  

The white curtain pole is on top of the mesh so that Ginger and his feline friends can see it's not safe to jump down off the fence there.  It looks a mess but it does the job.

Finally ...

It's most definitely reading and tv watching weather at the moment.

Stay cosy everyone.

Sue xx

 

Paintings ... and Tattoos

 

I was asked for a closer look at the picture that was seen in the third photo of THIS post.  Here it is for your delight and delectation. It's a print of an original by Judy Boyes that I bought just before I met Alan.  

It's called My Old Fireplace.

I had been going out with another guy, and on one of our first dates he bought himself something very similar by the same artist for his old cottage in Cumbria.  I loved that it had the two cats pictured in it that I had at the time ... Pepper and Ginger (my Ginger, not the current Ginger who came to us already named as a foster cat).

We parted company not long after, and I thought sod him and his mean ways, and I travelled back to the original shop up in the Lakes and bought myself this one.  I tend to do this after a failed relationship, I have a tattoo on my arm of a gecko, he's called Freddie Freedom and he came to live on me after my divorce was finalised.

The picture is almost as permanent and has travelled with me through many addresses.  And of course this can be passed on to one of my sons, whereas a slice of my skin can't!!  😁

Yes I have a strange sense of humour ... but then you knew that didn't you.  😉

Sue xx

Books and Signatures

 

I took a break from reading my other books to go right through this one last week.  It was good to refresh my mind on  things to do with leftovers.  Of course it's right back on my shelf where it's nicely to hand for any last minute dithers over using up bits and bobs.

It was only when I finished reading it that I noticed Suzy's signature inside.  Of course I knew it was signed when she sent it to me, but in the intervening years I had forgotten.

It made me pull out a few of my other books that are signed for a quick look.

Suzy's book, one of Ella Woodward's ... all my copies of her books are signed ... and the most recent acquisition on my cookbook shelves is the latest one by Gaz Oakley, also signed.

There's something nice about having a link to the author of a book, well for me there is anyway.

The covers of the books above.

We used to have all of the River Cottage books, all signed by the authors, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, Mark Diacono, Pam (the Jam) Corbin and John Wright, all signed when we visited Park Farm for various events when we had our farm and smallholdings.  

Our very first signature off Hugh was in the diary we purchased from Park Farm as it was known then, right at the beginning of our self sufficiency journey, it was the quickest of signatures but the longest of chats as Hugh and Alan got on really well. 

I have to say that when we sold most of our River Cottage books via Amazon we managed to get a much better price for them because of the signatures.  😃

One final book that I remembered while I was having a little look through the book shelves was one of my Harcombe Diet books, again they are all signed, but this one has contributions from me in it and I got a thank you off Zoe.

I thought this was a nice touch.

 I do have some more signed copies of books, but my books in general seem to be here there and everywhere at the moment. I really need to get them organised and maybe ... shock, horror ... have a bit of a cull.

Sue xx

A Bag Full of Memories

 

When we all met up at the weekend to celebrate Finley's 2nd birthday, (see yesterday's post if you missed it), my ex-husband Pete very thoughtfully brought with him a bag full of both our sons early things, he wanted me to have them now.  

Special things like the cards we received when each of them was born, the little shoes that they both learned to walk in, both size 4, both blue.  Their earliest colourings, drawings and writings from school and lots of other little special bits and pieces.

For me the absolute star of the bag of goodies were these two hand-knitted jumpers.  Knitted by my Nana, because she knew that Simon loved to be dressed like his little brother, but with one just a little bit more grown-up and fancier than the other.  At almost 90 years of age she raided her wool stash and came up with the design for these two little slip overs.  Funnily enough I was only thinking of these a few weeks ago and feeling sorry that they had 'gone'

Then last night Jason sent me this photo from his baby album of the two of them modelling them at home.

They were both as thrilled to see them as I was to receive them, and they stirred lots of happy memories.

He also included this lovely little blue cardigan that my Mum made when Simon was born, and that both boys wore as babies.  Aren't hand knitted items so precious for babies and small children. 💙 

Sue xx

A Piggy Past

 

All this week my Facebook Memories has been throwing up images of our rare breed pigs and news of their new homes, as this was the month in 2011 when we suddenly had to rehome our gorgeous girls, their babies ... and Jack the boar ... as sadly we were having to travel backwards and forwards to Scotland as Alan's Mum was in the last few months of her life.  We needed to be able to leave our farm at the drop of a hat.  It all went so smoothly looking back but it was a hectic time of our lives for sure.

Here's a real blast from the past, a full post from my old blog Our New Life in the Country. 

Friday, 8 July 2011

The Large Blacks in their New Home

Don't you just love it when......you know you've done the right thing.

We've known Lulu and Lottie since they were two weeks old, they came to live with us when they were seven weeks old.  Liz and Jack both came to us when they were four months old.  So they've known us and we've known them almost all their lives.

We felt like parents sending their children away when they left the farm this week.  They trusted us and we felt we'd let them down.  Then we get a phone call to say that Lulu has settled in well after we delivered her to Jimmy's Farm last week, and has made her home ready for her babies to be born.  Then yesterday we get an email with the picture at the top of this post, along with others showing more of Jack, Lottie and Liz's new home, grassy pastures surrounded by woodlands.

The lovely folk that picked them up from our farm took loads of pictures in the orchard, documenting the loading at our end and the fun and games we had in trying to move a 30st boar in a direction he's not keen on going in.  Luckily Lovely Hubby is a strong man and Jack is a friendly boar.  Henk and Annemie who are the new owners, were amazed at Jacks lovely temperament, and that he walked into the trailer and let them close the dividing door ready for the loading of his wives.

Now we feel we can take a deep breath, like parents who have raised their children well and sent them off into the big bad world with the knowledge to live their lives well, we feel in a small way we have done the same for our pigs. 

Jack, Lottie, Liz, and later Lulu and her litter when she joins them, are forming the start of a breeding herd of Large Black pigs in the Netherlands, supplying rare breed quality pork and keeping their rare bloodlines going.  Animals reared the natural way.  Henk has had to work miracles to get permission to do this, animals are not permitted to be kept outdoors in the Netherlands, something I knew nothing about.  He is breaking new ground and bringing a better quality of life to farm animals and educating people on what their meat should taste like through his restaurant.

We are so happy to be a part of this.

Sue xx

 Gosh it really shows how different things were in our lives back then.  Hope you all have a good weekend.

Sue xx

To view this post easier on a mobile, scroll to the bottom and click on 'View Web Version', it makes it much easier to read as my old and latest blogs are done in a slightly different formats to each other.

Thanks Angela ...

 

Angela from Tracing Rainbows gave me a real earworm yesterday ... all day.  

Her post was about granola and she very cleverly called it 'Her Name Was Lola ... She Ate Granola'.  The tune was stuck in my head, the only way I could get rid of it was with the old Postman Pat trick, but Lola came back again and again. 😐

The reason that most of Barry's songs turn into an earworm for me goes back to the mid eighties, when he was really popular with my ex-husband.  I made the mistake of buying him the double album on cassette tape for Christmas ... it was the only cassette tape we owned and our little orange Mini car had a cassette player in it.

From then on every single journey we went on, local or long-distance, had a Barry Manilow soundtrack, and we travelled to Manchester every week from Barrow in Furness.  We must have had the only five year old that knew the words to all of Barry Manilow's songs off by heart.  Simon would sit in his little car seat in the centre of the back seat of the Mini belting out the songs as loud as his little lungs would let him.  If it got too much I would tell him to sing very quietly and we could see his lips moving via the rear view mirror.

Happy memories in so many ways, except for the earworm that I have now given myself!!

https://youtu.be/Yj1r0sGV38s?si=saGu2xVpXfVFJnK_

Sue xx

Remembering Suky

 

It's one year ago today that Suky went for her final walk with Alan and Mavis and collapsed on the tow path.  Dying shortly afterwards, completely naturally and in her own time at the vets.

To say that I miss her would be the understatement of the year, she was everything to both of us from the minute we visited her in South Wales as a five week old pup, and then picked her up and brought her home just in time for Christmas as a big girl of eight weeks.

She was my constant companion and the light of my life.

Suky 13th October 2011 - 6th July 2024  💔

Sue xx