For Free

You know what?  There could be enough sun and wind about today to dry a load of washing. Sameena-next-door has had the same idea. You gotta grab the free stuff while it's being offered.

One of the good things about Paganism is it puts you back in touch with the instincts of the farmer and the hunter gatherer. I'm not a Pagan any more. Not really. But I think my time in the movement has sharpened up my appreciation of the things that can't be got in shops.

There's riches all around. Accept with thanks and try not to waste.

My father in law has apple trees. They produce tons of apples. These apples aren't as pretty as the one's you get in the supermarket,  nor as big either, but they taste OK. We eat them, the rabbits eat them.

Last night I stewed a load of them in port and served them with ice-cream.

Also I'm cutting  them up and bagging them and putting them in the freezer as winter provender.

Only the freezer isn't big enough to hold them all.

When I was a kid we used to store apples in an old air-raid shelter. It was built into the hillside and had a laburnum tree on top. 

In those years after WWII you didn't waste a thing.  All of us lived like misers.

I was thinking about this just now- on a nostagia trip if you like- when it suddenly occured to me I could store the surplus apples in one of the sheds.  Bloody obvious, really.  I reckon if I put down newspaper and laid the apples in rows- not touching- like my mother used to do,  it ought to lengthen their shelf life. The sheds are just as cool and dark as the old shelter was. 

So there's a job for me to get stuck into this afternoon......