Well, I've been away from Blogland for an absolute age! And it seems even longer.

Life has a way of getting in the way, at least that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Today the man and I went "foraging", as I believe that's the latest "thing to do". Actually what we did was pick brambles (blackberries to some people) and scrumped some apples from an apple tree or two on the side of a country road. Since when did that become "de rigeur"? I've done it since I was a child, way before the likes of Kirsty Allsop, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, or (I'm sorry this is going to upset a lot of people!) Frugal Queen. I grew up the 3rd of 4 children of a wonderful set of parents who had a limited income, lived in a rented house in a village in the country and who topped up the food they bought with free bounties from the hedgerows around us. Blackberries were one of the most available free bounties, and was cooked in various ways. My Dad was lucky enough to be a keen gardener and to have enough space to garden a lot. He grew everything from potatoes to salad stuff to raspberries, and we even had an apple tree at the bottom of the garden. When I was a child the apple tree was for climbing, swinging from and jumping off, but for my parents it was a way to eke out our main meal with apple pies. I know this sounds idyllic and people might read this and think we were lucky. Well, we were. We learnt about seasons and nature, about where food comes from and about the value of things. We kept chickens and had fresh eggs and it was a treat to be allowed to collect the eggs from the hen house while they were still warm. I  helped my Dad to plant things and understood exactly where my food came from. I spent time in the garden learning about worms and slugs, greenfly and ladybirds. It sounds idyllic doesn't it? The down side is we lived in a house with no central heating or modern day "wood burners" and had one open fire which it was my job to empty the ashes out and light in the morning when I got up with newspapers and sticks. I remember when Jack Frost came to visit and painted beautiful ice pictures on the window glass - the inside of the window glass that is. But I used to love getting up and looking at the beauty of those patterns after a lovely warm night tucked up under blankets and an eiderdown. As a child life was so simple then, and I appreciated everything I had, and that included the natural world around me. We ate rabbit that Dad caught with a snare, pheasants from the local shoot (Dad used to go beating with the shoot and was paid with pheasants), sausages made from a single pig that we kept in a pigsty at the bottom of the garden and was shot and butchered at home, and very occasionally we would have trout but we knew never to ask Dad where it came from.

So I hear you ask, how old am I? Well actually I'm not in my 80's, nor my 70's, and not even in my 60's. In fact I'm 2 days off being 53 years old so this wasn't actually that long ago. And I hear you ask, why am I reminiscing about these times? Well today we were out walking our dogs in a local country park, along the edge of a river and we came across a father with two children, a boy of about 4 or 5 and a girl of about 6 or 7. The Dad and the little girl were studying something the little boy had in his hand and Dad was obviously instilling excitement about the natural world and all it's wonders. What was it? A simple earthworm. The boy and girl were fascinated and giggling and interested and wanted to know more. And I thought that was absolutely brilliant! Good for you that Dad. I wonder how many other parents would have allowed their child to hold a worm in the palm of their hands without getting all "Health and Safety"!! And if I've upset anyone who is "all Health and Safety" then as far as I am concerned you have my full permission to never read my blog again!!!

And tomorrow I'll post pictures of my foraged fruit - and maybe what I've done with it too. But don't start to file me as a frugal person, because that suggests that this is a new thing. It's not, I've always made jams, chutneys, wine, soups and food from scratch, because that's what I learnt was the right thing to do. And yes I sew, knit, recycle stuff and keep things in as usable form as I am able to do - although crocheting is currently beyond my abilities!!

But again don't think that you now know who I am. Don't pigeon hole me. I own a very expensive, top of the range digital camera with a range of lenses, spent my holiday this year in New York (okay with my wonderful son and equally wonderful daughter in law and her family) and have just ordered a new car (Thanks Mum!) but I know what is important to me and you know what is important to you, so let's just leave it there shall we....

Now this blog is supposed to be about my creative development and learning to make cloth dolls. They will still crop up from time to time, but my creativity refuses to be chained down and pinned into such a small area, so you'll see much more than that, and as it's my blog I'll write about whatever catches my attention whenever it catches my attention.

Until the next time
KJ xxx