Still Snowed In

I am still snowed in. We haven't had much in the way of snowfalls but everything is still there from the inches that has fallen over the last couple of days. The only upside of this is that in the snow my scruffy garden looks every bit as good as everyone elses. The tree in my back garden is a Staghorn Sumac and is originally a native of Canada so should be right at home in the snow.

My neighbours have been great. they call in every day to check if I need anything. My niece collected my prescription for my today as the school where she teaches was closed due to the snow but as her car is covered with snow she would not have been able to travel to it as it is not on a direct bus route. The teenager next door shouted to me that she had fallen twice on her way to the village which makes me even more determined not to go outside. I have even put my rubbish bags in the garage until I can venture outside to the bin.I have a door to my garage from my kitchen area.

My niece took a photo of me in the shawl now it has finished blocking and says she will take the shawl and my nephew in law's parcels up to the Post Office for me when she calls again on Saturday.She was unable to get me any long life milk today as everywhere has sold out. I have enough fresh milk to last me until the weekend and my neighbour got a loaf for me so I still have a loaf in the freezer.

Last night I was watching The Hairy Bikers on TV and their new programme is all about passing recipes down from mothers to daughters and sons and they have a web site now with over 200 recipes. Not the fancy dancy recipes that need expensive ingredients but more the family favourites that families actually eat.I think there should be more programmes like this as a lot of people are on a budget these days for one reason or another and need to know how to turn out good healthy food quite cheaply. back to basics is what we all need to do.

I can remember food rationing as it didn't end in the UK until 1954 and I think this is the reason why I always have a stock pile of tins for emergencies. It comes down to the times in my childhood when my mother had to make meals for the family out of nothing much. My mother was great at spreading a bit of mince out with potatoes and onions to make a pie for 4. I have eaten some weird and wonderful bits of offal,tripe and tongue in my time.I think that kids today would benefit from a bit of rationing. They would not be such faddy eaters. Luckily for us my grandad had an allotment and kept chickens so we were occasionally given eggs,cabbage, carrots and rhubarb to eke out the rations. I can remember going blackberry picking as any kind of fruit got turned into a pie of some description so I was taught to keep a look out for wild fruit wherever I walked.

I have quite a bit of sock wool to knit up but have not been in a sock knitting mood lately. I decided to break myself in gently with a pair of bed socks on 4.50 mm needles and double knit to get myself in the mood for the rest of my sock wool. This pattern is Lacy Bed socks by Mary Hickmott from the Knit Today magazine Issue 13. I managed to make one sock whilst watching the Hairy Bikers and a very old episode of Taggart. I got the Patons Diploma wool in a Sale and got 3 balls for 99p a ball instead of £2.20p a ball so there will be enough for 2 pairs. I originally made the bed socks in the wool specified Rowan Kid Classic and whilst it was lovely I accidentally put the socks in the machine and they felted badly. As I am prone to washing accidents then I am safer with a 55% wool that I can machine wash.