OneGuyFromBarlick

Always think carefully before switching the washer on. Pure wool socks don't like 60 degree washes! (Yes, I have some very thick socks now but I think they still might fit as they were a very generous size in the first place. I shall report, they are dry!)

The socks are only just a fit but are OK and very thick and warm!
Today's tip. (Triggered by a friend of mine who despite being well-fleshed always complains about being cold)
If you will insist on living off chocolate biscuits and wearing shorts don't be surprised if you feel cold! The cure is a normal diet of meat and veggies with enough saturated fat and proper trousers and coats!
I remember when I was in Montreal in winter many years ago being struck by the way the city was structured so that despite temperatures of over -30F it was possible to walk around the city from building to building by way of heated subways and very few city-dwellers dressed for the weather. Looking at our great cities today I suspect the same thing is happening here. No wonder people complain bitterly about cold weather.
I am never cold, if I was I would immediately do something about it!

It was cold walking into town today and a young guy passed me wearing one of those puffed up thick jackets and a woolly hat. But when I looked down he had thin shoes, more like slippers, and no socks - eek!

If you want to make a quick assessment of someone look at what they are wearing on their feet and the condition of them.
I noticed an old cock in the Pioneer Car park yesterday with good leather shoes, heavy soles and highly polished. I reckon he could be trusted!

Are you sure you weren't seeing your reflection in the shop window?

No, his boots were shinier than mine. Today's tip is if you want your boots to be waterproof and repel dirt, soak them in neat's foot oil. Only downside is they will never take a polish.

As you know I have a morning routine that ensures that my sink is as close to sterile as I can get it at least once a day. I use a piece of Sycamore for a chopping board, it is naturally germicidal and doesn't absorb flavours. I realised this week that when I do the sink I can put the chopping board in there and give it a bleaching at the same time. Can't understand why this hadn't occurred to me before. It uses the same bleach of course and so is no extra load on the environment. Only a tiny improvement but that's all we can do on a domestic level.
So today's tip is aim for cleanliness but try to avoid excessive use of strong chemicals.

Never be frightened of a bit of experimentation when cooking. I was baking fresh fish in foil yesterday and had no lemon juice which is my usual dressing with the butter and sea salt. I had stewed some plums and put a bit of tart plum juice in instead. It was lovely! I recommend it.

Funny enough, I've heard of Marmalade being used the same way.

That wouldn't surprise me Maz. I can imagine it going well with oily fish like Mackerel.

Cranberry jelly perhaps?

Reading Dorothy Hartley on historic cooking one soon realises that the same distinctions weren't made then between 'sweet' and 'savoury'. They saw nothing wrong with mixing them. It worked in reverse as well, Xmas 'mincemeat' was made with meat and fruits were used all the time in conjunction with meat. Think pork and stewed apple sauce where it still lingers on and yes, Cranberry sauce and turkey is another example.
I found yesterday that stewed plums go well with pork pie.

We like this with meat... Sainsbury's Hedgerow Conserve It contains Blackcurrants, Apples, Raspberries and Blackberries.

I am having problems with bleach and milton products, the splashes are taking the colour out of my preferred dark clothing , I suppose I will have to look out one or two of the vynal covered aprons that might just fit me. Most of what I wash are old plastic or wooden toys before they join the sale pile.

I am wondering what a blackberry pie with a top to reduce the pastry content of grated cheese and apple might cook and taste like,

You could try a large garbage bag...cut a hole for your head and two for the arms...wear it like a smock?
(but PLEASE cut a hole for your head!)
Or get one of those rain ponchos, worn at the footy.

Today's tip. The fastest way to get access to a high chimney is to call in the steeplejacks.

Tizer wrote: ↑28 Oct 2019, 09:51 We like this with meat... Sainsbury's Hedgerow Conserve It contains Blackcurrants, Apples, Raspberries and Blackberries.

We have a cupboard full but not from Sainsbury's. All hedgerow fruit gathered by ourselves and turned into jams, jelly's and chutneys by Sally. Large bioling pan, muslin draining bags, (with gantry), jam thermometer and you can produce any flavours you want. Sally has made soe chilli jams as well as her standard jams, hedgerow jelly's and other conserves.

Dorothy Hartley would have thoroughly approved Ian! She is big on hedgerow fruits including many I have never heard of anywhere else.
If you have confidential papers you need to destroy, if you have a local mill still burning coal take them along there and slip the firebeater a fiver! Local solicitors used to bring them to Bancroft.
However, don't burn a dead dog or a cat (we used to do them as well) in the 3 weeks before the fluers are due, the smell hangs about in the flues for that long afterwards and they don't like it!
A dead human body dropped in the downtake vanishes completely after a couple of months, Charlie Sutton my old fluer told me that they had often found melted gold there. He reckoned many a nagging wife that had 'run away' with another bloke had actually had a different destination.

Goodness Gracious! That needs investigating! (The hairs on the back of my neck just stood up)
It would be difficult for a woman to be capable of carrying/manoeuvring/lifting the weight of a dead adult male. She needed assistance, and someone was turning a blind eye at the furnace too. That is quite a bunch of folk assisting in a murder.

Charlie wasn't a liar and I believe him. They occasionally found bones as well.

Someone should check records...follow timelines...
(I would be really good at that. I'm like a dog with a bone when I get stuck into history mysteries.)

It's all a long time ago Maz and everyone involved will be dead. No hard evidence.

Come on...birth certificates ( if not christening dates). Apprentice records, census, marriage records, children's birth and marriage records ( noting if father was dead), council tax records, rent book records, deeds, criminal records,asylum records, missing persons records, prison records, inheritance records....divorce records once available...and what? No death or burial records??? And in a local area...
It can be done.

Marilyn, Barlick was well known as a town where people 'lived over the brush. This suggested that it is possible that many of the women, very few men work gold that couldn't be easily removed, would have already assumed false identities to cover their past infidelities. You are in effect trying to find someone who didn't exist in the first place and has since disappeared. Not an easy task.

When you find that your daughters are both approaching 60 years old you begin to realise that time marches on!
(There was a birthday yesterday.....)