Grannymar

“May I go outside for a smoke?” asked the young lady politely. She sounded so gentle that I hardly recognised her! Elly was on best behaviour. We felt very special as we were honoured guests at the home of the Bride-to-be, just two evenings before her wedding.

On our journey along the road in West Barnstable on the Cape the houses were brightly lit and decorated for the forthcoming Thanksgiving Holiday. On arrival at our destination the Bride’s brother was there to guide us to our parking space. The pathway to the door was lit by candlelight. It all looked very romantic. The greeting was heartfelt warm and welcoming, but to the disgust of our hosts we were arriving during a power outage. So life on the other side of the pond was not very different to that back in Ireland. We were quite used to power cuts back at home, sometimes they were scheduled but alas on other occasions, due to vandalism.

Introductions were made and we immediately felt at home and the chat flowed freely, the drink glowed in the candle light and we drank a toast to the young couple and to their families. After an hour the lights came on and our surroundings were revealed to us, a very comfortable home with some beautiful items of furniture.

Being a mid November evening and rather cold outside Elly was taken to the ‘Studio’ for her smoke. “Mum you should see the Studio!” Elly said to me on her return some time later. “Ask Stephen, I am sure he would love to show it to you!” I didn’t need to ask; Stephen had heard and immediately invited me to the tour. There I was in a foreign country, with a strange man, on my way to see his etchings wonderful works of art.

I already mentioned the table where I had my breakfast in a previous post. On this occasion I was enjoying work on a totally different plane, it showed the amazing talent and wonderful sense of humour of my host! Stephen only uses recycled items, timbers discarded and considered well past being useful. With careful thought, time, care and love he breathes new life into his amazing creations.

I actually sat in here.

Stephen calls it an ‘In-House’, it is actually a little office with desk and bench seat. The seat is lifted in the photo above!

And for something totally different:

Or for when my time comes

To save space you can put me on end

I originally set out to write about cooking implements but the final item totally blew my mind and took me off on a tangent. I hope you enjoyed my travels!

I was doing a little bit of spring cleaning yesterday morning. I even made it to the Recycling centre with a boot-load of rubbish. Not sure which skip, bin or wire basket to put all the various bits and pieces in I headed for the staff work hut. Now they do have a proper purpose built red brick building, it has been there for years. Last time I called my old TV still had pride of place and it was working away.

Today there was another temporary metal work hut along side the red brick mansion. I noticed that the door and window of the red brick were no more, the space was bricked up! I hope there was nobody inside. The door to the metal hut was open so I ventured in. Five, yes I did say five, men in visi-vests were sitting around drinking tea and reading page three! I told them my tale of woe and one of them jumped up to help me.

“Oh! I get a Toyboy to help me” I said.

“This sounds like my specialty” says my man grabbing his coat. The chap with page three shouts over “He only gets up to help weemen”.

” I could understand that if it were a young slip of a blonde, but an old biddy like me, well that’s a different matter” says I.

Page three pipes up once more “You call yourself old, sure that has an advantage, there would be no bairns!”

With that I open my hand and drop a dozen or so batteries in to the bin

muttering “I’ll not be needing these!”

On the way home I realised I needed some help to finish all this cleaning quickly. I decided on the latest gadget from Singapore. With this little fellow all will sparkle!

The quick answer is Yes, I have been known to commit stitches to needles at times over the years. My bones do as well! They had the chance to prove it a couple of years ago when I broke my wrist!

First off there was the strip of garter stitch on the short plastic needles in wool that started out as my ‘most’ favourite colour and then some months later became the one colour I hated for life! My problem with the strip of school knitting was that I never managed to have the same number of stitches on any one row. I think the ideal was twenty, while I had 18 or 19 with a lacy pattern (dropped stitches or holes), then later magically the stitch count was 21. Mammy spent hours sitting in front of the fire showing me what to do. I remember the rhyme: ‘In around, out and off’. It sounded easy but never seemed to work for me.

Brother No.2 was quietly watching these lessons one day and then disappeared. Ten minutes later he was back! “Is this the right way mammy?” he asked. He was back with two wooden skewers that had started life in joints of meat from the butchers and a ball of string! Are you allowed to hate your brother? He was standing there with a strip of garter stitch as long as his arm and there were no dropped stitches!

Then there was the year we were learning to make socks! We learned to turn the heel and fashion the toe. They took me the whole school year to complete and then a brother would only wear them inside his Wellington Boots. I did improve and made several cardigans and jumpers for myself.

Recently I have felt the urge to try again and while surfing the net I discovered this lovely looking yarn

Recycled Sari Silk is popping up on the web. Generally sold by the ounce, every skein varies greatly in its colour way, gauge, twist and texture. This yarn is 100% silk in a myriad of vibrant colours.

It is imported from Nepal, where it is spun from the snipped ends of saris into this wonderful textured yarn. Each skein is unique in its colour ways and natural inconsistencies of the fibre, turns the simplest project into something very special. The women use these skills to provide additional income for their families.

It is noted that some of these yarns have a certain ‘aroma’, in other words ‘The yarn starts out dirty and musty’, It is recommended that the silks are hand washed and dried before knitting up; this loosens the fibres making it softer and nicer to knit with. Most web sites recommend if you are making a big garment that you knit a couple of rows from each hank alternately to prevent obvious colour-banding.

I have not found it in any wool shop here in Northern Ireland. I don’t know of anyone who has tried to use it. I would like to buy one skein to play about with, but on line it comes in bundles of at least ten. Did you ever hear of it? Have you used it?

That was the title of an article in the latest edition of a local freebie newspaper that pops un-requested through my letterbox every week. The article was announcing a new carton recycling scheme launched by our local Council. Wonderful I hear you say. But is it? I am all for doing my bit to save the planet and actually did a Podcast about my selection of bins for various forms of recycling and waste disposal back in January this year. At last count I had a compost bin in the garden, 3 bins of the wheelie variety and a box, all of them emptied at the kerbside. General waste (for landfill) is emptied each week, while the garden waste bin and recyclable box for glass, plastic etc are fortnightly and the paper bin is every six weeks.

Back to June 1999 a small number of Council representatives in Northern Ireland agreed on the merits of a partnership approach to the development of a Waste Management Plan to comply with Article 23 of the Waste and Contaminated Land Order 1997. By 2000, 11 Councils joined together to form the Eastern Region Waste Management Group and embark on the collaborative initiative known as arc21.

Is it another quango I wonder?

The Draft Waste Management Plan was issued for public consultation in February 2002. It considered the different waste options in detail and proposed a solution for managing waste until 2020. All eleven of the ‘arc21’ constituent Councils adopted the Plan by January 2003.

This new initiative is for paper-based cartons used for milk, fruit juices and other liquids. According to the article, after collection these items can be recycled into a number of different products, ranging from plasterboard liner to high-strength paper bags and envelopes.

The recycling Manager for the Council reminds us that “This new scheme will allow ‘us’(Councils) to further increase our recycling rates and hopefully encourage more people to take a sustained interest in recycling as a way of life.” No mention of the kick up the tail-end that all UK Councils received from the EU about improving the figures! Presently just over 70% of all household waste goes directly to landfill sites.

So the new initiative is all very good, but it is not to be part of the kerbside collections. I have a total of FOUR bin Lorries calling into the cul-de-sac to empty bins from my driveway. FOUR bin Lorries, belching out fumes to dissolve the ozone layer even more and now because they have come up with this great idea, I have to get into my little car and tootle along to my nearest Recycling and Civic Amenity Site with my washed and squashed Tetra type packs.

Using an average of one a week I now have to find a way to store them until I have a decent bundle or bag full to dispose of.

Do you think I should use a plastic bag to store them in?