The trouble with simple living is that, though it can be joyful, rich, and creative, it isn't simple. ~Doris Janzen Longacre


The best way to bring a sustainable change in the world around me is by bringing the change in myself



Showing posts with label Past and Present stories.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Past and Present stories.. Show all posts

Thursday, March 17, 2011

I got a wee story to tell ....

Standing at work yesterday, a little bored, i thought of a little something for my other blog. I do that all the time and unless I write it down right there it just comes and goes without putting pen to paper. so pop on over and read The Hitch hiker ... there for a look

See ya all and have a great day
Rina

Friday, February 25, 2011

Buying Memories ....


Well yeah that's what I been up to this week, you can wonder how that's possible but the Ebay offers are hard to resist for this collector of old wares. I had promised myself to stay off Ebay and stop going to the antique auctions but it so hard to bypass these memory making items. Oh some 45 years ago (now I am giving away my age)my mother and I were baking biscuits, lots of biscuits, the kitchen table was packed with baking trays and cooling racks, hot biscuits just out of the oven. And more baking trays with pretty shaped flowers, stars and other shapes, dough just piped out with a biscuit maker. Filled up with dough and then pushed out like an icing set thingy. I remember making rectangle biscuits and spreading an icing filling on the smooth side and then putting another biscuit on top, just like a sandwich. Strangle how a child sees things so much simpler than an adult. This is what I purchased to make memories with my grandsons and maybe grand daughter one day. We're going to bake biscuits!



My childhood was sometime a little lonely as a only child, but I got to spend a lot of time at my Grandma's house. Those were the best days and I had her all to myself, Mom was like an only child, her half brother was at least 20 years older than her. He never really came to visit my Grandma (she married her brother in law, a sheep farmer, when her sister died, it was different those days, the child needed a mother and out of duty? she married my grandfather. He passed when Mom was 18yrs old)
Now one of the things we did at Grandma's house was make butter, real butter! Stirring that butter churn was hard work for a little girl, waiting for those little yellow specks to form and then bigger blobs of yellow butter. Then Grandma would take over, add a little salt after draining off the liquids. She'd mould it into a square block and we'd give it a taste tester on freshly baked bread. Those loaves where raised high with a round crusty top. So as you might have guessed by now, I bought a glass bottled butter churn, it's got a metal screw on lid with a wooden paddle, that tells it the real thing, used long ago by a busy housewife caring for her family.



Talking about my uncle, he had owned a small saw mill and struggled to make a good living. The farmhouse they stayed in was old and in need of TLC, and no power. My cousin was just a few months younger than me, so it was quite a novelty for me to have candles burning and kerosene/paraffin lamps to light up the house. My mom had just bought me a new wardrobe for the holidays, old cloths was just not on you know, and this was our first stop, then on to the other family. Well by the time we left there I had only the clothes on my back cause I had given all my new clothes to my cousin. Mom had to buy me more for the rest of the holidays, something that she can laugh about now but it was done and there was no going back. My next purchase was a set of green glass paraffin lamps. It is made in China so is not very old but it will be handy at the farm and blend into the deco.

I did also buy a whole lot of seeds, so tomorrow we need to go get a few bags of mushroom compost to dig in ...
and I have a date with a few chooks ...
Happy weekend for everyone
Rina

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Announcing new blog Past and Present

It's here ..... New Blog "Past and Present" www.pastandpresentstories.blogspot.com

As some of my friends might know, I am a member of a few forums, mostly South African ExPat's and I just love Journalling. So I have been going through all the old post and decided to put them in one special place. I am adding a few comments as well, with permission from the members if I can get hold of them. As many move on with their lifes settling in their new country, we lose contact with them.
One of my friends from Twisted Sisters,you need to be invited to join, Betsy is a wonderful writer and with permission I have included a tale from her. Some are in Afrikaans but I am working on translating them, and will post as soon as they ready.
Just follow the link or contact me at rinaspostbox@live.com.au if you would like to post a story of your own.

See Ya My Maties
Rina