my lovely Valentine

Blogs are a curious thing, they are either personal diary type things or subject specific, so I’ve been been in a bit of pickle about whether to continue blogging seeing as I’m not in Portugal and I’m not permaculturing, but I thought well, one of us is still in Portugal and sort of permaculturing,  and whilst it may be a while before Rick writes anything for the blog, I thought what the hell I’ll carry on, writing about whatever from wherever I am, if thats ok?

So, let me introduce you to Valentine, 

she was born on 22nd December, 1983, she’s a Citroen 2CV Special, what's so special about her you might ask, well she’s special to me, we go back a long way, we’ve been through a lot together. She was the first car I ever bought back in 1997, she made me smile, she made other people smile (or was that smirking), she lifted people’s hearts, she made people’s hearts sink......she bought a tear to your eye, you can wind her up when all else fails, you can take bits off her and replace them, you can takes things out of her and sleep in it, you can frighten people in her and outside of her, she’s my lovely Valentine.

One of my very first trips out in her, (other than the practicing around the railway station car-park on a sunday), I drove at speed over a not very level railway crossing, not knowing that it wasn’t very level and not knowing that the chassis was rotten as hell, I broke her. I didn’t know anything had happened until I went to turn right and the car went straight on in a flintstone kinda way....

So lots of expensive mending ensued and a new chassis, she was as good as new, if not better. Those of you that have ever had a love affair with a car will know that after you’ve had a car re-built, you have a deeper understanding of them, they’ve revealed their souls to you, their guts, they wrap themselves around your heart and you know that you will never ever let them go. Thats what so special about “the special”.

It came with much regret when I had to get rid of her. It was one of those awful deals you make with your partner, one's that you know morally you just can’t go back on, even if every part of you is screaming NOOOO. (I think they call it compromise, I call it something else).

“You get rid of your dysfunctional, impossibly expensive to fix motorbike that I can’t even fit on ‘cos I’m too fat and it’s too small... and I’ll get rid of my humiliating, embarrassing “clown car” (his personal name for her)...so I did.

I then spent several years having to drive a very boring, safe car. It gave me no pleasure at all, it made me cry inside everytime I got in it, I hated it so much I seemed to be constantly crashing it, in the end unsurprisingly it got written off, phew....

Now don’t get me wrong I like comfort and safety in a car and I like driving fast, but I also like character and interesting but I can't afford an Aston Martin, so the most interesting it’s gonna get for me is a 2CV.

As fate would have it a couple of years after selling her I inherited some money and decided to call my old 2cv mechanic just out of interest to see if he'd seen my car again and what had happened to her (he understands everything 2cv, so knew how much it had pained me to let her go) and would you believe the people I had sold her to had rung up the day before and asked if he knew anyone that wanted to buy it, knowing that these things don't happen for no reason, I bought her back, it seemed like the right thing to do it would have been rude not to.

Sadly when we left for Portugal I couldn’t take her with me. But it never entered my head that I would ever get rid of her again, I’ve had many arguments with rick about why I wouldn't get rid of her a second time, I just couldn't, I explained that she was my Armageddon car and he eventually gave up asking, and thankfully sticking to my guns has paid off, It is now my Armageddon and I need my Armageddon car.

I've got her back on the road, she's more broken and tired than ever (much like me), She still has a lot of character (much like me), she's very reliable (much like me), she's fun to drive (ermmmm), you can't just kick back and not really pay attention to what you are doing, she requires your full attention... (much like me), she's been round the block a few times (ahheemm), and around the clock too (once or twice, can't remember), but also, she is incredibly cheap to run (much like me). I can now get classic car insurance (not ‘cos I’m ancient), it costs me £22 to fill her up, she does 61 mpg or in new money 4.6 litres to 100 Kms, so we have a lot of similarities me and valentine (except that I am more expensive to insure and you could fill me up for a lot less than £22 and I can't run that fast), but never-the-less we go well together, we're sticking together me and my valentine.

What to do when your teapot breaks

The teapot had been a bit leaky for a while and then in one of those weird moments when one thing happens, taking with it a whole load of other things it did break. The colander fell off the wall knocking ricks favourite mug onto the floor, smashing it into four pieces and then promptly took the spout of the teapot off in one fell swoop. 

The end of an era. 

I am using the broken teapot as a metaphor for what has been happening to us and countless other people the world over. Our world had been leaking for some time, we had stretched ourselves beyond normal limits, hoping that as the build progressed things would heal themselves and life would get better......it didn't. We kept moping up the spillage and still pouring more out and making more (mess and tea).

In the end something had to give, the spout fell off. 

We are having to figure out a new way to make tea. The relationship is in the bin and the teapot is unusable, there isnt a glue available here to stick it all back together.

When we've figured out a way to make a pot of tea again, we will. Until then we are making tea with one cup and one tea bag in two different countries.

roll up, roll up

what on earth do you make an eighteen year old girl for her birthday?????? 

definitely not a tea cosy or pan holder or anything householdy.

 So with much wracking of brains and umming and ahhing...this is what I came up with

A make-up roll, genius

very handy

I stopped my sister-in-law from putting some old children's clothes into the local clothing bank and insisted on waiting at the school gates with said garments draped around my neck.......I really don't care much these days and anyway it was blooming cold.

I knew I could do something with it all, so far this is it :

a round of applause please

the shit, II

some of you may remember "the shit", a much admired and talked about item of clothing made from a shirt from the local bin.....

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5611074422043722304#editor/target=post;postID=4047585629196984556

I hate to waste fabric, so I kept the collar and cuffs and sleeves for future ideas. Then I had an idea, only one mind you, but a good one. I took an old long-sleeved top (slightly stained) that I didn't wear anymore, mostly because the arms seemed too short, I hate too short arms, I'm always trying to pull them down, it's a comfort thing I guess. So this is what I came up with,

it was a bit fiddly and I didn't do it very well, but it's a good start, the look is a bit preppy, but thats ok, preppy meets farm hand is OK, isn't it?

autumn watch

robbing elderberries for elder rob (and other stuff)

now is the time (here anyway) to get those elderberries in....packed full of vitamin c, they make a fantastic winter remedy for staving off colds and coughs etc. Looking for recipes I came across something called "elder rob", which despite my years I'd never heard of, criminal!!! anyway, I decided to make some and added some blackberries for good measure.

Picking them is not so easy, growing very well by water, of which there is plenty here (just not on my land!), makes it all a bit tricky, requiring either sturdy footwear or no footwear at all. I gathered several carrier bags full from 3 different farms

http://herbalmed.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/2010/09/20/elderberry-rob/

This is the recipe I used adding the blackberries, I've ended up with 4 litres of the stuff, tastes yummy and should last, drink either watered down cold or heat it up as a toddy

I'd also fancied a go at flavoured vinegar, so tried this recipe, which I finished making today, just over 2 pints

http://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/blackberry-vinegar/

And lastly and probably lastly as the beetroot have been pathetic this year and doesn't look like they will grow anymore, my delicious and much coveted beetroot relish

1kg Beetroot

500g onions

750g cooking apples (peeled and cored)

500g raisins

3 tablespoons ground ginger

1kg granulated sugar

1 litre malt vinegar (actually I used all sorts of old vinegars as I had no malt and a friend also told me that if you use malt vinegar things take longer to "be ready")

Peel beetroot and grate, dice onions and cooking apples. Combine all the ingredients in saucepan, stir the mixture and heat gently until sugar is dissolved then raise temperature until boiling. Continue gently boiling with occasional stirring until mixture is thick. (approx. 2 hours) To test when ready create a trench in the surface of boiling mixture with the back of a spoon. When the trench does not immediately fill with liquid, the chutney is ready. pot into sterilsed, hot jars and seal.

onions

Normally I leave my onions in situ to dry naturally but this year I have had a plague of moles who have developed a taste for raw onions, so had to come up with another plan for drying them

the picnic table came in very handy

and now they are all home and hanging, hopefully should see us through the year

getting crafty again

I was asked by a friend here to make a gardening pinny, I did, she loves it and never wants to take it off!!! result

also made a tea cosy for my sister-in-law who is training to be a vicar

perfect slogan, how often does the chance to put that on a home-made tea cosy come around?

Also embarked on peg bags, this is the first one I have made, given to my dear friend Pat, who doesn't want to use it!!!! not sure if that is a result or not, but if you're not going to use it Pat, can I at least have the pegs back!!!

14 poppies