....well that's what it feels like at the moment but the end is in sight. When MIL passed away I took on the duty of Christmas Pickle monitor for the family, it was ordained to be because her MIL had passed me her recipes some years before. Recorded in her spidery writing on blue Basidon Bond paper, some in Welsh, some in English - most are in both, all mixed up so it makes for good fun at the weighing out stages especially for the picallilli of which I have no option but to make gallons!
We had never had pickles at home when I was growing up, my mother had an aversion to vinegar and as far as she was concerned pickled anything was simple the work of the devil, especially onions. I remember watching Christine and Maureen Jones at a Sunday School party eating all the pickled onions and wondering what they tasted like - I was far too scared to try one myself.
So I was to be re educated when we went into deep Mid Wales to visit Nanna at Christmas time. It was a ritual, we all had to go for tea one Sunday just before Christmas. It was quite a crowd that squeezed in around the table for cold meat and pickles. I gazed in wonder at the jars that kept coming out of the old Welsh dresser, every colour imaginable. There was the deep purple of the beetroot (sliced or chutney) the gold picallilli, the bronzed onions (with cauliflower and teeny tomatoes) green tomato chutney, runner bean chutney, gherkins, eggs with chillies, the jars just kept on coming each labelled with that spidery writing and dated meticulously and had been filed in date order in the dresser. It was amazing - and then the taste! I couldn't believe my eyes as the little ones were tucking into great heaps of the picallilli as if they were eating ice cream - my two hung back a bit until one of their cousins gave them a taste - and they were away.
We still talk about Nanna's Christmas teas that finished with a huge bowl of sago pudding steaming in the middle of the table. Now if I had put that on the table at home the boys would have turned their noses up but there in that little cottage in Wales with the twinkling of red candles and the firelight from the open grate they loved it. Everybody loved it. When we wrapped up and headed out to travel home each family had a box with a variety of pickles to take home for Christmas. Magical memories.
Not so magical when the house stinks of vinegar from October to Christmas and every jar has to be washed, labelled and topped off with a gingham hat. I enjoy it but just wish I had a little more time to enjoy it more. NOT enjoying it tonight because the dratted cranberry jelly has failed to set and two jars are supposed to be on their way tomorrow - groan.
Meanwhile we had to brave the route to Aberystwyth again yesterday to retrieve the jnr shepherd from uni for the holidays. It was snowing in the South on Friday and I went straight into panic mode as the thought of going across the A44, the mountains, the moorland to the coast with snow but checking the forecasts for this end, and that end, we were going to be just fine. They lied. A text message from Aber went along the lines of 'it may be a good idea to come sooner rather than later...we've just built a snowman' It was indeed a white knuckle ride across the high road - I was driving the truck thank goodness.
He had a little surprise for us!
'Stunned' was perhaps the understatement of the year.
But hey ho - it could have been worse - it could have been piercings of bits, it could have been tatooing of other bits - but this will grow out - well it will wont it????
Can anybody knit this boy a hat with spikes incorporated? His ears are cold - What a shame .....
21 comments:
Cracking hairdo! Very 1977!
Eeek! I would love to have seen your face. What he needs are some nice fluffy ear muffs! Ask Santa...
Promise me he didn't use the old punk trick of gettind the spikes to stay up by using superglue!!What wold his nana say if she saw him now!! Now whilst on the subject of pickles do you have a recipe for mint jelly please!!
I can just see him as a litttle clay figure with orange spikey hair!!
Been through all the wild and wacky things a boy can throw at his mother...can assure you they are mostly temporary and engineered to wind us up. Aside from that - love the sculptural effect and can even from here feel the cold on the ears.
Good luck with the pickles.
I loved your pickle story and I file mine in date order too, although am nothing on the scale of your MIL who was clearly a queen amongst pickle makers.
I think I quite like the spikes, as a passing fancy. Older son spent a few years peroxide blonde. It passes, his good heart does not.
Try the kiddie stores - they have all sorts of fleece hats here.....jester hats with bells, dinorsaur hats, so I'm sure there's one with spikes. He'd better not get too close to the pickling kettle though, as the vinegar fumes might melt whatever super-hold is keeping those spikes up.
We went through the magic hair styles with our son at that age and I have to say, it beats tattoos and piercings! Just remember, maybe one day he will loose the hair completely.
Happy Christmas.
Oh wow. I wish I'd been a fly on the wall just to see your face. Make sure you keep the photos to remind him when he is older and wiser. Just fab.
Hope you have a great Christmas with the family.
See you soon....maybe :-) [the trousers are still gathering dust on my rail]
A x
Laff out flippin loud !!!!!and pick myself up off the floor !!
I was wondering about the hat poor boy what a time for such a dramatic hair do, i do love it though and that photo with the sunset behind him ! priceless one to definatly save to show the grandchildren xxx All the best and i'll see you in the new year.
I'm trying to stay shut until feb!!
That will be a photo to keep for posterity.
...but what does it look like when they get up in the morning, I always find myself wondering (never having got sufficiently close to a practicing punk to find out). I'm thinking a kind of balaclava-type hat with a row of holes in the back, perhaps?
Amm very impressed with your pickle-making, gingham hats n'all. I love the idea of preserving, potting and pickling, but somehow never seem to get quite organised enough to actually do it.
They all do it to us, better to get it over and done with, tell him its a stunning tribute to the 70's and it reminds you greatly of your ex boyfriends, then watch his face for the horror !!!!
Cricky! SBS, that's so typical for you! Out of the most funniest situation you know how to create a brilliant stunning art photo which even gives to the whole such a beauty! What a fabulous Christmas surprise for you! (I won't show it to my son ;-)...)
Happy Christmas, SBS!
Oh lordy!
Don't tell me I may have this to come too...
I knew the punk thing was coming back but that is ridiculous. It serves him right if ears are cold!
I adored your pickles story. It was so lovely to see you earlier. I've just picked my jewel coloured jars out of the bag and been planning what I might eat with which. You are a very clever lady and I shall think of you whenever I see the little gingham lidded jars in the cupboards.
Thank you so much.
Here's to a Happy Christmas and 2010 my friend
Much love
D
xx
Well,that takes me back; the pickles to my gran and the spiky hair to punk. Just when I thought everything was settling down over at yours.
Fabulous surprise for Mum and Dad !! I don't suppose you even noticed the three kitbags of washing he hoiked into the boot .
He needs a modified bobble hat with a pom-pom on each spike really , in Welsh Dragon red ....or the new blue .
For someone who can make all those pickles and drive over the mountains in this snow , it would be a doddle.
Cannot believe you did that journey - I get scared doing it in the summer! Love the new Hair do but must be jolly uncomfy at night...Have a great Christmas!
I wonder how he sleeps? Not enough pickled onions. I mean - obviously!
Ah well, the young! Younger daughter came home with a nose stud at the age of 16! The surprising thing is that parents actually live through this sort of treatment will few ill effects noticeable.
He will probably treasure that photo when he goes bald in middle age! LOL! Hope you have a restful few days as I see, from catching up on your blog, that the recent months have been somewhat hectic and traumatic!
Love the photos! Hope you had a great Christmas and all the best for 2010! J.
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