I've Turned Into My Mum!

From Crochet to Collectables and other Interests
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bluebell
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I've Turned Into My Mum!

Post by bluebell »

When I was a little girl (my goodness, that feels about a century ago!!!!) my mum always used to be baking bread, making cakes, filling glass jars full of every conceivable pickled or preserved fruit and vegetable. Her home-made butter was lovely.

She made all of my dresses, blouses and skirts (which I considered uncool when all my friends were being bought stuff from C&A, Etam and other high street stores).

She could crochet, knit, macrame, make rag rugs. She could repair my uncles fishing nets (which was clever as we lived about 10 miles AWAY from the sea).

Honestly, she had skills which are now dying out. Sadly, my mum died six years ago from cancer and since then I have become more and more interested to take on those skills (apart from fishing nets) which at the time I didn't appreciate at all.

Isn't growing up a strange thing - we take for granted all those things our parents try to make us take an interest in and then one day wake up and we ARE THEM. :-D
http://www.freshstartforhens.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Helping to give ex-battery hens a fresh start!

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Mo
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Post by Mo »

I was thinking about things coming round again too.
The way so many people are taking up backyard hens now.

I think that people did the grow your, keep hens, make do and mend in wartime, and earlier because they had to.

Then as a reaction to the hard slog (and with less time as more women worked outside the home), they found it easier to buy ready made.

Then with more awareness of the downside of the wonders of science (i.e. factory farming) and more cash to spend some are going back. Some of the make do and mend skills, and some of the animal husbandry and other knowledge that used to be handed down, have been lost. But our society is richer, so people buy arcs, Eglus and fancy henhouses. And get their knowledge from the internet, or watching Delia and other cookery programmes.
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Meanqueen
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Post by Meanqueen »

You're so right Bluebell and Mo. My parents never did any gardening so I don't know where I got that from, but my mum was great at making healthy meals from scratch from very little, so I know where I got that from!

She was also good at sewing and I was always using her treadle sewing machine to make my clothes. I don't make them now, I go to the charity shop if I need anything. I am so grateful to my mum for teaching me how to make the most out of your money. They should get some of the oldies into schools, passing on their skills to the youngsters, I'm up for it!

Ilona
8)
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wendy
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Post by wendy »

My Mum also.
I was the youngest of five and she also fostered. She was a wonderful woman. Why didn't I tell her that when I had her ???
But she has taught me to sew, knit, crochet and cook. Unfortunately now not many want handknitted or crochet things. Also it is so much cheaper to buy ready knitted by some poor soul in a sweat shop.
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morph
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Post by morph »

I can't sew (and have no interest), and my parents have no real interest in animals, and never grew their own veg.

I taught myself when I became interested - thank god for the internet!!! (f+
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lou
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Post by lou »

My parents never had animals while i was growing up, apart from a rabbit and cat.
But they grew their own veg, i didn't pick up the green fingers though and really have to commit myself to plants and now growing veg because now i really want to. But i can cook so thats a bonus!

When my parents were children they both had chickens, my mum came over from italy and lived in london with her aunt and they had chickens, my dad grew up on a council estate here in kent, and tells me my grandad kept the chickens in an old brewers barrel on its side, no frills, and fed them on bran and potato peelings and scraps. the looks he gives me when i tell him about my spoilt chooks.
Alot of my friends parents also were really excited when i said i was getting chickens as they all seem to have had chickens as kids too!!!
sorry )ot:
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bluebell
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Post by bluebell »

My maternal great grandparents kept pigs and goats, all my great aunts and uncles kept goats and hens.

I remember my maternal grandmother used to bake scones in an oven similar to an aga and whilst they were cooking would make a proggy (or is it proddy) mat using hessian sacks she had unpicked and lengths of rags cut from jackets, skirts and suits. Sounds cr*p but they were really lovely. The other type of rug my grandmother made was called a clippy mat. You don't see them now!!!!!!

This same grandmother used to rinse my hair in the water out of the raintub - ok in summer but hell in winter when it was frozen over - it was NEVER warmed up! Probably why I started going grey at 16!!!!! :shock: :shock: :shock:
http://www.freshstartforhens.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Helping to give ex-battery hens a fresh start!

http://thevintagebelles.blogspot.co.uk/
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saint-spoon
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Post by saint-spoon »

I have to some degree turned into my Dad, losing all my hair was just the start of it. I grump at unlikely television plots (my Dad used to annoy us when we were trying to watch the A-Team), I have got into DIY and can’t seem to stop ‘adjusting’ things, I favour real ale over fizzy foreign lager, I dance embarrassingly at family weddings, and that’s just the good points. )t'
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Effie
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Post by Effie »

I had no chance, I come from a long line of very frugal relatives - both sides of the family, plus I married into another. We resisted for a while and went along with the consumer age but old habits die hard.

Cooking, baking, preserving, knitting, sewing, home brew :) , DIY (love elecrics) , gardening, .....Never have to rely on/pay someone else to do/make it for you.

My Mum was convinced there was going to be a food crisis (in the 70s) and invested in a rifle so we could 'source' our own rabbits to eat. She's still preparing for it and produces plum jam at an alarming rate! I got quite handy at shooting things too ((w

Busy passing the skills onto the kids now, it's looking like my Mum's crisis might be around the corner. Nice to know we're prepared! But no gun this time :!:

Effie
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taff
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Re: I've Turned Into My Mum!

Post by taff »

bluebell wrote:Isn't growing up a strange thing - we take for granted all those things our parents try to make us take an interest in and then one day wake up and we ARE THEM. :-D


I know, it's scary.
I've turned into my mother and my father since I was a bit of a tomboy.
I know how to cook, clean, mend, and basic DIY - never very pretty but it gets the job done.
My father is a skip junkie and it's passed on to me.I also scan outside some houses because I know they'll throw out perfectly good stuff, like a Dyson vauum cleaner, needed the filters cleaning but right as rain.
It's very rare that I come home from a visit to the recycling center without something else I didn't go with. Had a 40 watt peavey amp from there last time, the pots need cleaning but everything works fine, but missed out on a cast iron fire basket..I'm still gutted about that one.
Gardening has been another thing I like doing in the last few years, I can thank my father for that, as he grew the stuff, and my mother cooked it.
Yup, I pretty much look like my mother, know a lot of stuff she did, thanks to her teaching me, and also my father, since my sister was a girlie girl and was never interested in damaging things with a hammer, or taking the back of the telly off to see how it worked ;)
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Post by kattcollins »

Ahh I'm very envious of you, wish I could do all those things I think its so brilliant, oh well maybe in my next life I maybe a bit more like that..(i hope so) :-D 8)
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Post by New to all this »

I am turning into my grandad!!!
My parents can't understand this fascination with chicken, growing your own etc.. They have a beautiful garden - everything is bought from the garden centre ready and raring to go. They have the cleanest pation I have ever seen. - mine you have to avoid chick poop if you want to go out side :oops: :oops: (And they shop for ready meals ARRRgghhh!!!!)

Now my grandad... (God rest his soul) Kept chickens in the war, had a greenhouse full of veg/fruit, had a mini orchard (pear and apple), peas and beans growing up every fence in his garden and a lovely old fashioned potting shed. If he could see me now!!!

Faye x
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taff
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Post by taff »

You can do all those things, you just have to have a go.
I'm always scared of doing a job before I do it, and put it off till it's a set thing in my head that I AM going to do it, whatever.
I fetched a turf stripper today, and I've been playing with it this morning, it's amazing how fast it can strip compared to me with a spade, and it makes a satisfyingly growly noise, so you think you're playing with something really impressive :-D
Don't be scared, you can do stuff, have a go, nothing is as complicated as some people would have you believe, you just need the tools ( which you can borrow or hire if you haven't got them). You'll be surprised how simple things are.
Readers digest do great how-to books, for DIY, or the Collins one is equally good with lots of pictures
The only thing I'd recommend you stay away from is electrical stuff, unless you're just replacing what's there already, or gas stuff.
Everything else is fair game.
to err is human..to moo, bovine...
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taff
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Post by taff »

New to all this wrote:
Now my grandad... (God rest his soul) Kept chickens in the war, had a greenhouse full of veg/fruit, had a mini orchard (pear and apple), peas and beans growing up every fence in his garden and a lovely old fashioned potting shed. If he could see me now!!!

Faye x


He'd be really proud.
to err is human..to moo, bovine...
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bluebell
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Post by bluebell »

Totally agree with Taff, your grand-dad would be as proud as anything, Faye. )t'
http://www.freshstartforhens.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Helping to give ex-battery hens a fresh start!

http://thevintagebelles.blogspot.co.uk/
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