The Drive Out To The Seaside From Our Cottage in Norfolk

Hi Dear Folk,

Well they say that Thursday was the coldest Thanksgiving Holiday in this area for one hundred years.  I had a fun morning going out on a breakfast date with my Boy.  Just Starbucks where I got my fav a chai latte and Rob got a peppermint latte I think and a breakfast sandwich which he said was good, I got a blueberry scone.  But you know when the child grows up and is a young man how precious that time is with them.  We just sat and laughed and chatted and caught up on things.  This pics are over on my Instagram.

Friday I did venture out, but just to Joanne Fabrics to look for some lining material for a crochet bag I'm making and I'm pretty happy with what I found, it's very gregarious.  I also popped up to Clothes Mentor and found a lovely grey Italian flannel skirt, originally from Talbots, which I could never make for the price I paid and a cute pair of earrings.  When I was a teenager I used to make so many of my clothes, and it was cheaper to make them then, but not really anymore, not if you shop thrift shops and I feel I am recycling.

A few pics of the roads we travelled while driving out to the coast in Norfolk.

Christine

31st August 2018 Holkham Beach, Norfolk

Hi Dear Folk,

Just popped in to post a few photos form Holkham Beach in Norfolk.  It was a beautiful day as we walked the beach.  But couldn't help but wish I had been there a month earlier and caught the heat wave, it must have been glorious sunbathing on this beach and swimming.  This is Friday morning, our last day in Norfolk, just had to see this beach.

Must move on with these holiday photos or I will never get to Norway and Holland and it will a new year with new adventures.

Have a great weekend.

Christine

Dog Cottage, Little Barningham, Norfolk Inside Pictures on lilbitbrit007 Instagram

Hi Dear Folk,

It seems that I did not take any interior photos of Dog Cottage with my camera, so here are the photos on my Instagram of the interior taken with my phone.

My Instagram is lilbitbrit007, is also on the side bar section of my blog.

If you missed my photos on Instagram of the interior of Dog Cottage here they are.

Goodies and kitchen photos

Stairs and bedrooms

More kitchen and bathroom photos

Sitting room and dining room photos

Outside Dog Cottage

Have a wonderful Monday, it's just the beginning.

Christine

The Cleaners Who Are They?

Hi Dear Folk,

Photo taken at Longwood Gardens.

I enjoy Blogging and the little circle rated "G" that I run around in on the Internet. All the creative and interesting folk that I view and share a world with.  But as we all know there is a terrible dark side on the Internet. So who are The Cleaners?  And it's not the little old ladies who come out in the early hours of the morning with their curlers in, hair tied up in a scarfs, saggy stockings and wielding mops with dirty buckets of water.  I say that because I worked with a group of such ladies up in Paisley back in the seventies, when I needed a part time job and all I could get was cleaning a big old department store early in the morning, they did a commendable job, and I couldn't have worked with a more sharing kinder group of women.  I think the image has changed since then.

The cleaners are people hired by big media platforms to troll through all the really bad things that are out there, I don't think I have to state what they are, it runs the gamut.  These people located in the Philippians have to go through a quota of 25,000 images per day, either deleting them or ignoring them.  These are the cleaners, cleaning up the Internet.

Obviously viewing such things day in and day out effects them.  Also they are making huge decisions in just eight seconds of time.  Ignore or delete.  As one said it could effect a person's life or incite a war. A huge responsibility.  Over a period of time it does take it's toll on them and many just have to give the job up.

When you think about it, even cleaning the Internet is given to a third world country to clean the mess up.

Is this all too deep for a Sunday evening?

Christine

Meltdown, Netflix Movies, the African Doctor and Scent.

Hi Dear Folk,

Hope your day is good.

Above photo taken at Longwood Gardens.

Today is the day after the snow storm and I think we got more than they said, but it's gradually melting away.

I feel I am being harassed by spam phone calls, my phone rings more at home than it ever did at work, about every fifteen minutes for at least twelve hours of the day.  I heard there was meant to be a new law in PA to address this, I do hope so, because it's causing stress.

Another thing causing stress is the very thing that's meant to help us, is sorting out what health care plan we will get for next year and what we can afford, great stress there.  I said to my friend just sorting this out is causing me to have stress related physical symptoms.

On a lighter note a couple of movies I watched on Netflix this week and would recommend are "The African Doctor" a French movie, so you have to be alright reading the text, which for me stifles my creativity, because I can't crochet and read subtitles, but you don't mind on a good film.

It's set in the early seventies about a doctor and his family from Zaire, who settle in a little out of the way French village in Picardy I think, where they have never seen a black person, or culture, or music.  It's based on true events and is a light, endearing fun movie.  Especially when the visiting family who live in Belgium, come over Christmas and start to sing Silent Night in the church.

I also like it because he drives the exact same car I had, my first car a white Citroen with red cloth seats, mine was in much better condition.  That car was so comfortable and had wonderful suspension.  So you have to watch the movie just to see my old car, it's a classic.

The other movie I watched on Netflix is "Scent" a documentary style movie.  About what is in the products we use, from cleaners to expensive perfumes, anywhere it says fragrance.  What is covered on the list of ingredients under the word "Fragrance?"  This covers a cocktail of chemicals which companies do not have to disclose.  The very fact that over 1,000 of these chemicals are banned from use in the EEC and only 10 are banned from use in the USA, should raise course for concern.  What are the long term residual effects of just a little bit?

Now must settle down to some writing, I'm feeling antsy, do you get like that?  Just can't settle down to what you should get done.  Have a great weekend.

Christine

30th August 2018 An Evening Walk Around Little Barningham, Norfolk

Hi Dear Folk,

Today is our first snow.  Mr. B. and I are home watching Jurassic Park, eating Florentine soup, cherry pie with butter brickle ice cream and popcorn.  Can't quite take all that action so decided to do a little blogging as well.

An evening walk around Little Barningham, Norfolk  in a most special light, evening light.  Wild hops growing in the hedgerow.

The abundance of an English hedgerow, wild blackberries.

Country village lanes and houses, cottages and bungalows.

Neighbors being friendly and sharing their produce.

Walking up to the village church.

World War One memorial.

A flint wall of the church, I just love these walls and to see them up close.

I would say some barn conversions.

This person has been most creative with these little fence post toppers.

Every, even the smallest of villages had and has a village hall.

Back up the lane.

An abandoned Land Rover.

Walking home to Dog Cottage.

Our view across the fields.

Our last evening there was beautiful.

Christine

30th August 2018 Drive From Village to Entrance of Holkham Hall

Hi Dear Folk,

Just want to say thank you to everyone who comments on my blog I do enjoy reading them.

How is your day?  Here it is raining again.  I must get going, one thing I need to do is figure out some window treatment for my bedroom windows.  Not sure if I want curtains or maybe blinds I know something will present itself.  Should have got to this before now, and then you get into that feeling guilty mode for not having addressed it before now, then I think does it really matter?  Thing is I took one curtain down and washed it, then it didn't look so good after that so at the moment one curtain is up and the other down.  Mr. B. says there's a tree there and no one can see in.  Still it needs addressing, so I guess it does matter.

Can you imagine over the last three hundred years who has passed along this road.  Horses and carriages, Kings and Queens and now us.

This is the drive from Holkham Village up to the gates to the estate.  All this including the houses is owned by the estate.

Old flint walls.

Chrsitine

Bread and Butter Pickles Refrigerator No Canning

Hi Dear Folk,

Here is the recipe I referred to on my Instagram.

Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles

Ingredients:

• 5½ cups (about 1½ pounds) thinly sliced (about ¼-inch) pickling cucumbers
• 1½ tablespoons kosher salt
• 1 cup thinly sliced sweet onion
• 1 cup (198 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 cup (240 ml) white vinegar or red wine vinegar (use what you have)
• ½ cup (120 ml) apple cider vinegar can add a little balsamic if like
• ¼ cup (50 grams) light brown sugar
• 1½ teaspoons mustard seeds
• ½ teaspoon celery seeds or coriander seeds or pickling spices (use what you have)
• 1/8 teaspoon ground turmeric or cumin or tandoori spice or any combination (use what you have)

Method:

• Combine cucumbers and salt in large shallow dish, cover and chill 1 1/2 hours.  Rinse under cold water in a colander.  Drain well and return to dish, toss with onions.
• Combine all the other ingredients in a saucepan, bring to simmering heat until sugar is dissolved.
• Pour the mixture over the cucumbers and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour.  Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.  Store in airtight container up to one month in the refrigerator.

Hope you like these, I love them.  Don't be afraid to experiment with the spices.  A nice easy recipe to use up a few left over cucumbers.

Christine

My World Today and Healthcare Government Subsidies Cut

Hi Dear Folk,

Above photo taken at Longwood Gardens.

When it gets to about four PM, dinner is in the oven and I'm sitting in the Simla room, with the stove on, Tuppy basking in heat and doing a little crochet, watching Acorn TV or listening to a Podcast, then it sets in how good retirement is.  At four PM I still would be at the office with another three hours to go before I'd be home and this time of year all in the dark.

Mr. B. cleaned the Virginia creeper off the garage roof and cleaned out all the gutters.  I stood and held the ladder and cleared up the debris.  My goodness so much to clean up out there when the leaves fall.  I dusted the studio room now needs vacuuming but at least I'll be able to sit in there without a guilty conscience.  Made dinner, chicken, carrots sweet potatoes, with onion cooked with a little olive oil and baked in the oven.  Sprinkled with cheese at the end.  Was good.

Also made bread and butter pickles today, with some left over cucumbers I had that I didn't want to go to waste.  This is the type you can just keep in the fridge for a month.

I phoned about the health insurance for next year.  We've been on Obama since I left work and it was not too expensive, now for the coming year because the government subsidies have been cut back will now cost $550 for the same plan, so needless to say we'll have to cut down to an even lesser plan.

Now get this, because I'm 65 and can go on medicare next year, part way through the year, but Mr. B. is three years younger, and will have to stay on it, the health insurance that we are looking at for next year would actually more than double when I come off it, and yet they will be insuring one less person, now go figure that?  There is no figuring the health care system in the USA.

Yes I know we no longer will be penalized for not having healthcare, heaven forbid you should actually be ill, and not have health insurance, it's expensive enough when you do, but were we told subsidies would be cut so much?  Or did I miss that one?

Sunday we were invited out to a late lunch and watched Victoria and Abdul, a very good movie with Judy Dench playing the queen.

Christine

30th August 2018 For King and Country from Holkham Hall WWI

Hi Dear Folk,

It seemed appropriate to post this on 11-11-2018 a hundred years today WWI ended, Armistice Day. Have you been following along on the Letters From the Front at the top of my blog?  Captain J. D. Hills, and the Berryman family letters?

The last train, called Holkham Hall ran on 28th August 1952.  Lady Ann daughter of the 5th Earl of Leicester was there to meet the train.  If you can enlarge the pictures you can read what was said.

Some of the men who went off to war.  The letter was from a young man expecting his job back in the laundry, it seems that it had been promised to him, but was not forth coming after he came back from the war.  He's asking if he can't have that position could he have a position working in the gardens.  I'm sure that was a plight of many young men who came back.

Christine