Gleaning in the Countryside.

Celandines

The countryside around Knaresborough was not only our adventure playground, it was a source of delightful and delicious treats. Spring brought with it the first wild flowers. Carpets of primroses, violets and snowdrops appeared in cool, leafy woods along with celandine and anemones. We picked posies for our mum on Mothers' Day. They took pride of place on the windowsill, in rinsed out Shipham's Paste jars. They meant as much to mum as any bought gift.


    Summer mornings meant dewy meadows covered in mushrooms just waiting to be picked. Oh! the joy of being out, roaming through the fields, the early morning sun warming a clear blue sky with the promise of mid-day heat. Birds singing their hearts out in praise of this bright, new day: and thoughts of fried mushrooms and fried bread for breakfast.
   Autumn was bountiful. Crab-apples grew wild. We picked pounds of them: mum made crab-apple jelly, golden and tangy. Blackberrying was a family outing. Our favourite place was Scotton Banks where thick bushes were laden with ripe, purple berries.

We followed a narrow path through tall, golden bracken, down to the river and picnicked there. In the afternoon we filled our baskets and containers with fruit and trooped the mile or so back home, tired and happy, knowing that soon there would be jars of luscious jam on the pantry shelves alongside the crab apple jelly. More immediately, we tucked into blackberry and apple pies and blackberry suet puddings until all the fruit was gone from the hedgerows.
  We went 'nutting' in Hazelnut Wood down Hay-a-Park Lane when the leaves turned golden and bronze and the hazelnuts had grown large and brown.
  As the weather grew colder and the late autumn winds stripped the trees bringing down twigs and small branches, we took our wheelbarrow and went 'sticking' in the woods and hedgerows, collecting fire wood.  We enjoyed it and every little helped.
  Bachelor's market garden, on the outskirts of town, supplied produce wholesale to local greengrocers. Any tomatoes, cucumbers and vegetables which were too miss-shaped were disposed of and taken to their tip. We paid frequent visits, along with other local kids, rooting around and proudly taking home perfectly good produce. The shape didn't matter one bit.

Nettle Beer

Some years my mother made a dandelion and burdock fizzy drink and nettle beer in an old copper,kept in the cellar especially for that purpose. How she found the time, I will never know.

  Empty jam jars and bottles were sort after. They were worth a penny each on return. It was worth trawling around the neighbours, cadging empty jars to take back. Just one was enough to buy a sherbet fountain or a bag of Kali or liquorice bootlaces.

Penny gobstoppers were the best value. I could make one last all day by taking it out of my mouth every so often and tying it in the corner of my hanky for a while. The interesting thing was, that each time I removed it, it was a different colour.

  Looking at it from today's point of view I suppose that rooting around in a tip for food could be regarded as scavenging but we didn't see it like that at all. It was simply another fun thing to do. It was like digging up a bit of treasure which happened to put food on the table into the bargain.
  We certainly didn't think of ourselves as poor or deprived. I never heard my parents moaning about being hard up or badly done to, they just got on with the job; making sure that we had as healthy and happy a childhood as possible.

Primroses

  Illustrated by Barbara Chounding.

And Now For Shopping On Line.

  To most of you, shopping on line is easy-peasy, so when I tell you that, for various reasons, I thought it would be a good thing for me, I can hear you say, 'So what?'
  So it took me four months to complete my first solo, shop on line, supermarket shop.
That's what!
Here's the story.
  As instructed by one of my long suffering I.T. consultants, I go to Google and type in my 'Chosen Store'. A long list comes up and hidden away amongst it is 'Chosen' Supermarket. I tap on this and a long list comes up, 'Chosen' this, 'Chosen' that. Ah! 'Chosen' on line shopping,  Tap on that and everything disappears, the screen goes blank. No indication that I can see as to where to go, so back to Google. This time, after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, I take the right turning and find myself in 'Chosen' store with it's lists of goods on screen just waiting for me to start shopping.
  My intention is to stock up on tinned and household items, all the heavy stuff, to save the good Samaritan who does my shopping from having to heave bag loads of groceries around.
  I tap on tins. Everything disappears. I am back at Chosen this and that.
  Oh! Dear God in Heaven, Amen. How did that happen! Now, how did I find my way to the shop? I tap one thing then another. Gotcha! Tinned goods are back, but what is wrong with the darn thing? The stupid list is whizzing up and down at the merest touch and every so often it jumps back to general goods, It's taking ages to select the items I want. I'm getting a headache, I need a cup of tea, I look at the clock. I can''t believe it, three hours have gone by chasing tins but at last I think I can move on. Better check my trolley.
  Trawling through, I come to fourteen tins of the same product. WHAT! How did they get in there? I can't possibly have tapped fourteen times on the same tin. I have to get rid of them: but how? I can't see anything that says 'Delete'. I'm either blind or thick: and obviously, I'm not blind.
 My head is throbbing now. My neck aches, my shoulders ache. I want to scream. With tremendous will power I refrain from hurling my tablet across the room. Instead, in order to get rid of fourteen tins of mackerel in savoury sauce; [a new line, ONE of which I think I will try], I empty the whole trolley and shut everything down. I'll try again tomorrow, I WILL NOT GIVE IN!!
  I take two co-codomol and go to bed.  
  A new dawn, a new day. I am ready to have another go. I start from scratch and make progress. The screen is still jumping about and the list of items races up and down like a mad thing but my trolley is  slowly filling up. Everything is on offer. I am buying in bulk and saving money. I have enough tinned soup to float a battleship  so I move on to salmon, tuna, meat and fruit. That's lunchtimes taken care of for the foreseeable future. You must be thinking, -all those tins!- Sadly I don't cook any more, so needs must.
Now for household; washing powder, bleach, cleaners etc: all added to my trolley.
Phew! Finished at last and it has only taken me three and a half hours.
  What do I do now? Check out, delivery date, card details. I am lost, so I phone the help line on the screen and speak to a very pleasant young man who gives me instructions. I try again without success so I phone back. The same young man answers and this time he talks me through the process and I find the relevant page. Now all I have to do is fill in the details and Bob's your uncle.
  Really? No! of course not! My card is rejected. I phone again and this time a young lady answers. I ask her why my card has not been accepted and she informs me that their store does not accept on-line payments with the debit card I am using. I need to register with a secure company such as Pay pal. As I do not have any credit cards, that is my only way forward.
  I am fed up with the whole business now and can't face tussling with Pay pal so I dump the trolley load of shopping just as it stands.
  I take two co-codomol and go and lie down, but do not think for one moment that I have given in. I am just taking a break!
  A couple of weeks go by. My great niece, Anne and her husband are visiting. Bob knows his way around computers and tablets etc; so I am happy to accept his offer to sort Pay pal out for me, which he does. Password, double safety checks, the works, so  it is all ready for me to use. When I look at my card it is only valid for a couple more weeks. Oh well! might as well wait for the new card  now. Card arrives and I head back to Pay pal thinking the end is in sight and soon my store cupboard will be overflowing with goodies.
  Really? Of course not! Now there is something wrong with the tablet. A battery malfunction is all I get on the screen, time after time.Everyone tries everything they can think of: nothing works. The screen finally goes completely blank; no face book, nothing. I am bereft.
 Time goes by. It is now July. My son is visiting and my daughter is over from Australia. They take me to Curry's and I treat myself to a new tablet. Barbara sets it up for me and I slowly begin to find my way around the basics. I tell Barbara about my on-line grocery shop fiasco and the trolley load of goods I dumped weeks ago. We bring up the super-market and straight away it goes to my Chosen Supermarket.
  Lo and behold! There is my trolley load of goods, still waiting for me after all this time. Hopefully, I arrange a delivery date, check out and go to pay and discover that my new debit card has been changed to one that is now acceptable. I do not need Pay pal. Brilliant! All sorted! Is this really happening at last? I will believe it when I see the delivery van outside my house.
 Well, Hallelujah! On the designated day, there it is. Ten minutes late, so the delivery charge is waived. I am so chuffed that three weeks later I do a full on-line shop and last week I took delivery of my first solo, on-line, super-market shop. Hang out the bunting, hire a band, I feel as if I have run a marathon and though I have come in last, at least I have reached the finishing line.
  I don't know if anyone is still with me, if so, I have to dash now. I'm off to have a look round Marks and Spencer's. Happy shopping!

  I dedicate the above to all the lovely people who have helped me complete my shop-athon, and to Julia, who has "delivered the goods" for me over the past years, week after week, come rain or shine. What would I do without you all?