Do your remember when

A good day out was going out with mum and dad for a drive and taking a picnic with you.  Quite frequently in our case the primus stove used to come too and the frying pan and sometimes we would have a hot meal but there was always a welcome cuppa.  Taking the primus meant we did not have to spend pounds and pounds on drinks or anything else. We got out into the fresh air and enjoyed things cheaply.  An old blanket would come as well and we used to sprawl on that whilst eating our tea. The modern equivalent of a primus is a single gaz stove.  The primus used to run off paraffin.

Quite frequently we would be taken out to collect things.  My mother made wine so frequently we would be on a foraging expedition to collect nettles, blackberries for making wine as well as jam and for the freezer.  Then there were the crab apples and the rosehips.

Another time we would go to the beach and collect samphire and go cockling armed with buckets and a couple of rakes retrieve the cockles and then leave them to soak and remove the grit.

Another time we would go to the woods for a good walk and there was always a picnic plenty of walking and fresh air.  There was also plenty of laughter and pleasure in doing something from the norm.  We did not need to be entertained we entertained ourselves.  Sometimes we would find mushrooms and they used to come home to be used in a fry up the following day.

We used to go to a woods called Wakerley woods near Kings Cliffe.  I have been many times since with my step children as well.  Its a lovely place to be to get the kids out into the fresh air and simply be.

But whatever we did, we did it together as a family and enjoyed what came our way pretty cheaply.  Nine times out of ten it gave us something for either the table or the wine cellar through working together and group effort and just being with our nearest and dearest but most of all it got us out into the fresh air and getting plenty of exercise without realising it.

My father and grandfather were both great walkers and we were walked in all weathers from being quite small.  Even now when I want to think I go on a walk. 

Today for instance I needed to go to a local supermarket just to get a couple of things (I also managed to get a few gooseberries to pop into the freezer for OH as he is quite partial to gooseberry crumble) and so I walked and put a few things straight in my head as I did so.  OH did not know I had been and gone but it stretched my legs and I got the bits that I required.  

Later we walked Missy and narrowly missed a light shower and so I stretched my legs again.  It has been threatening rain all day but not quite materialised.  We desperately need it water levels are low as we have not had a very wet winter compared to normal and I know that the farmers have been irrigating already around this way.  We need the rain for water to drink and to feed the crops and provide our food.  Without the rain it will force up food prices again.  So we need to keep an eye on things generally and put a bit up if an when we can.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

x