Friday, 27 August 2010
Thursday, 26 August 2010
Things lost that can't be found...
Today I'm at my Grandmother's house waiting. Just waiting for people to call, waiting for my son to finish his long afternoon nap, waiting to be able to go home and get dinner on. Just waiting.
I'm in my Grandfather's study. When I first set up Making Do and Mending last year the 'Mending' referred to the fact that I lost both my Grandfathers last year in the space of just four weeks. As my Mum said later in the year, 2010 owed us a good one, because 2009 was just about people dying. So now I'm doing my waiting while sitting in the place where my Grandpop did his filng, typing, thinking and writing.
When my Grandmother is gone I know that this house will be gone too, but I am sitting here wishing that we could keep this room to visit whenever we liked. There is so much of my Grandpop here. Literally, he had so much filing! But also, it is just so amazing what he kept in here, and what he kept. I've just found a little magnet stuck to the side of his filing cabinet that gives his name and what it means. I have no idea who gave it to him but I know that he must have kept it because it meant something to him, like the little cartoon that someone drew him to thank him for monitoring a conference, or the pictures of the family, or his little address books and a neat drawer of his pocket diaries going back decades.
Last week I looked after my Grandmother for the day and I went to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy. Seeing my Grandmother's name on the prescription they asked me how my Grandfather was and I had to tell them that he passed away. The pharmacist said that he had always been coming in and that she was only commenting to another member of staff this week how they hadn't seen him in a long while. I was really taken aback. I knew that he regularly went to the high street, did all his shopping there at the same shops every week, but it had never occured to me that anyone else had noticed, or that he had spoken to people or made an impact on their lives. It made me smile, so like my Grandpop, and then miss him terribly.
My Mum says that people stay alive in our memories. I hope that I have stories to tell my son about Grandpop so that even if I can't sit in this room or touch any of these things any more I can still feel him close like I do today.
I'm in my Grandfather's study. When I first set up Making Do and Mending last year the 'Mending' referred to the fact that I lost both my Grandfathers last year in the space of just four weeks. As my Mum said later in the year, 2010 owed us a good one, because 2009 was just about people dying. So now I'm doing my waiting while sitting in the place where my Grandpop did his filng, typing, thinking and writing.
When my Grandmother is gone I know that this house will be gone too, but I am sitting here wishing that we could keep this room to visit whenever we liked. There is so much of my Grandpop here. Literally, he had so much filing! But also, it is just so amazing what he kept in here, and what he kept. I've just found a little magnet stuck to the side of his filing cabinet that gives his name and what it means. I have no idea who gave it to him but I know that he must have kept it because it meant something to him, like the little cartoon that someone drew him to thank him for monitoring a conference, or the pictures of the family, or his little address books and a neat drawer of his pocket diaries going back decades.
Last week I looked after my Grandmother for the day and I went to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy. Seeing my Grandmother's name on the prescription they asked me how my Grandfather was and I had to tell them that he passed away. The pharmacist said that he had always been coming in and that she was only commenting to another member of staff this week how they hadn't seen him in a long while. I was really taken aback. I knew that he regularly went to the high street, did all his shopping there at the same shops every week, but it had never occured to me that anyone else had noticed, or that he had spoken to people or made an impact on their lives. It made me smile, so like my Grandpop, and then miss him terribly.
My Mum says that people stay alive in our memories. I hope that I have stories to tell my son about Grandpop so that even if I can't sit in this room or touch any of these things any more I can still feel him close like I do today.
Sunday, 1 August 2010
If you get lemons... or courgettes...
One of the things that I can't get my head around my life is that I don't have a garden. I would love a garden. I'd be out there everyday. I would open my back door and stand nursing a cup of coffee looking out at the world to start my day. I don't mind what is out there in the garden, a bit of lawn, a bit of dirt, a nice patio, slabs of concrete, I wouldn't care, I would just be out there enjoying a bit of the outdoors that is all my own.
I would have a chiminea, a small table and chairs so that I could sit out for longer during the year, not just in the summer.
But more than anything I would grow vegetables and herbs. I know that you might have worked out by now that I already do this, but I mean that I would really do this. I'd dig up the lawn if I had to in order to have an allotment space that matched my ambitions. I'd grow vast quantities of everything that I grow at the moment - rows of tomatoes, courgettes, potatoes (OK, I've kind of done that this year but mainly because last year's pots came back to haunt me!), onions, garlic - of all varieties and store them in cans, jars, the freezer, as jam, as chutney, to keep us in local tasty produce all year round...
But alas this is not meant to be. My balcony herb garden, with a few trays of lettuce, does give us mint tea, rosemary, thyme and taragon on a regular basis and our courgettes are coming on a treat but it isn't the same.
However, I've found a solution - the local farmers market. Today I bought broad beans (mine got eaten by black fly last year, so I didn't even try again this year), peas, marrow and courgettes (fabulous ones in yellow and green shaped like gourds, not just the common green ones we are growing) and came home to cook up a storm. Shelling peas and beans while the babe chewed on pods and threw around a few fresh peas and roasting courgettes for a local ratatouille made me feel the satisfaction I get when I'm cooking my own produce. And before you think 'yes, but what did this all cost', well I got around 500g of peas for just £3, fresh from a farm in Kent, marrow for 80p, five weird shaped courgettes for £1 and two bags of broad beans for just £2. Everything was fresh, local and in season so it was all going for a song.
Delicious food from not so far away for not so much, now that is a dream I can get on board with until my garden dream becomes a reality.
http://www.lfm.org.uk/
I would have a chiminea, a small table and chairs so that I could sit out for longer during the year, not just in the summer.
But more than anything I would grow vegetables and herbs. I know that you might have worked out by now that I already do this, but I mean that I would really do this. I'd dig up the lawn if I had to in order to have an allotment space that matched my ambitions. I'd grow vast quantities of everything that I grow at the moment - rows of tomatoes, courgettes, potatoes (OK, I've kind of done that this year but mainly because last year's pots came back to haunt me!), onions, garlic - of all varieties and store them in cans, jars, the freezer, as jam, as chutney, to keep us in local tasty produce all year round...
But alas this is not meant to be. My balcony herb garden, with a few trays of lettuce, does give us mint tea, rosemary, thyme and taragon on a regular basis and our courgettes are coming on a treat but it isn't the same.
However, I've found a solution - the local farmers market. Today I bought broad beans (mine got eaten by black fly last year, so I didn't even try again this year), peas, marrow and courgettes (fabulous ones in yellow and green shaped like gourds, not just the common green ones we are growing) and came home to cook up a storm. Shelling peas and beans while the babe chewed on pods and threw around a few fresh peas and roasting courgettes for a local ratatouille made me feel the satisfaction I get when I'm cooking my own produce. And before you think 'yes, but what did this all cost', well I got around 500g of peas for just £3, fresh from a farm in Kent, marrow for 80p, five weird shaped courgettes for £1 and two bags of broad beans for just £2. Everything was fresh, local and in season so it was all going for a song.
Delicious food from not so far away for not so much, now that is a dream I can get on board with until my garden dream becomes a reality.
http://www.lfm.org.uk/
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