SuziB's Clan

I wouldn't mind at all pulling up buckets of water from deep wells as long as it is clean, clear and refreshing; when I went to Switzerland with my dad years ago we went for a walk and passed farms where the water troughs for horses was being fed by the waters from the very nearby mountains and my uncle said that lots of people who passed by hiking would dring from the spigots that fed the throughs and you didn't have to worry about the water being polluted. Gods I wish I could live in a mountain village..my dad told me that the villages on the higher parts of the mountains had screened in enclosures for drying meat because there were no bug and the screens were there simply to keep critters out and prevent pollen and stuff from getting on the meats.
Anyways I hope you have a good trip; you have someone to take care of your kitties? Should bring them back a souvenir or something :)

No..my cats don't get on the computer but they do like to sit on my lap while I am at the computer especially Spot as she likes to lay across my arm and rest her head on the edge of the desk. You'd think it would be uncomfortable but then again cats are a bit weird.

Baked pears are really lovely and I hope I can get a few but these area more wild variety I think but still good.
When I was a kid my parents and I would visit a family friend and she had a 'wild' apple tree and the apples were just lovely; she also had a patch of this fruit called a 'ground cherry' and the pies she made from them were just awesome. Her well water, at that time, was always so clear and crisp and perfect for drinking but that was at a time when there weren't so many farms around and the well was deep enough so the water was pure but nowdays..I am not sure how safe the well water is anymore. Have to dig really deep as to avoid pollution from all the run-off.

Vinegar and water..I will try that, I'd like to be able to get some pears so we shall see :)

My cats do the same thing with the closet door in my room, they hate it when it is closed but the clincher is that I can open it then they look at me then walk off as if to say that is how it should have been all along! it is funny to watch them lay on their side or back as they try to get that door open and occasionally they do succeed but often they fiddle with it then meow at me to open it.

Many years ago when me and my parents lived in this split-level house, my dad was sleeping in the downstairs bedroom and got woken up to this awful sound and discovered that our cat, Tiger, was playing with the door stopper on the wall; one of those spring type things and I told my dad I had kind taught the cat how it worked so the cat decided to try it out. Dad was not too amused but not upset.

Tiger was a smart kitty so he caught on really quick :)

heh..cats sure are funny creatures. I made the mistake of putting my hats on top of the lamp on the table in the living room and got woken up to a loud thunking sound (like a crash but not totally) and came into the living room to find the lamp on the floor (it was carpeted) and the hats on the floor too.

See..around the periphery of the living room wall is a ledge so Spot (gee, who else could it be?) apparently thought the hats were attractive toys and tried to get them off and ended up knocking everything down.
Fortunately the bulb is a LED and the lamp itself is fairly sturdy so no harm was done but now I refrain from putting anything on the lamp so Spot won't be tempted to 'investigate'.

The land lady's pear tree is starting to grow small little pear 'nubs' so hopefully I can snag a few before teh insects devour them!

That is odd that you can't see the images. I wonder if the site is blocked for some people. Your cousin from Subeta couldn't see them either yet others could. Weird and you shouldn't have to register as my photos are visible to everyone.
Weird.

Anyway I am waiting for my next set of mangoes to ripen, I bought a bag of peaches but didn't do a good job picking out a good bag as some were bruised so I had to carve off the bruised parts of three peaches then ate them as they were small but really good too!

Spot, as usual, had to investigate what I was eating but when I showed it to her she was less than impressed. Didn't even try a single bite! :)

Well you know the cats are really supervising to make sure everything meets their standards. :)

Oh..I have URL where I submitted photos of the hats I crocheted so if you wanna see them someday the url is:
https://witchesway.ning.com/social-circle/creative-pagans/knitting/hats-i-crocheted

The latest one which is the lavender one was my latest and it turned out ok I suppose. Color changing is a challenge so I simply fastened off the ends on the lavender part then added the maroon stripe then after a few rounds I fastened that off and continued with the lavender. It is a tiny bit more work but it works for me.

The trick is, for me, is to just stick to one way of stitching for each project, so for the next hat, when I do increases I will either start each round (where I do increases) with an increase right away or do a single stitch in however many spaces the pattern says then do the increase and it is easier to keep track. Of course stitch markers are a life saver.

When I was a kid my dad had some neat stuff from Switzerland such as this big tube of a medicinal mud/clay and I think he said it was form a hot springs in the Swiss mountains and one time I sprained my knee and the ice was not really helping so he heated up the mud/clay stuff, put it on my knee then wrapped it up and the next day it was as if nothing had happened.
Some may say it was mere coincidence but the joint felt better in one night than it would have if it was just left with just ice and a bandage.

Same thing when I got stung on my ankle by a yellow jacket and it swelled up quick so dad coated the area with the heated mud, wrapped it and hours later he removed the bandage and the mud had dried, removing the remnants of the stinger and the swelling was totally gone! I really miss that stuff.

When I had a sore throat he made a mixture of honey, fresh lemon juice and a bit of cinnamon and had me take a tablespoon every few hours, the relief wasn't immediate but it certainly helped reduce the severity and duration of my cold.

He had a can of activated charcoal tablets and when I had acid indigestion or some tummy upset he had me chew a few of them and while it did not taste the greatest it certainly helped with my tummy and now I have the capsules on hand and they are a lifesaver when it comes to upsets caused by questionable foods or something. Works FAR better than pepto bismol or stuff like that.

Yeah..apple cider is more 'pure' as it has nothing added and it has not had the apple bits filtered out. I like apple cider myself much better; actually my stomach tolerates it much better too!

I had dandelion root tea and it is really bitter but it is also medicinal too. I should try to harvest some of the dandelions in the yard as they haven't been sprayed so the roots would be good to dry and I hear the fresh greens are really good too.

My dad told me a story about how he and his brother (he grew up in Switzerland) had been out roaming around and went home and decided to have some tea. His mom was quite adept at medicinal teas so she had a collection of them and my dad and his brother decided to pick a tea and make a pot of it and apparently it was really bitter but they figured it must be good for something so they drank it. The next morning their mom found out and said that they were supposed to mix it with something and not drink it straight! HA!

We can learn a lot just by watching what sort of plants animals, especially farm animals, gravitate to when they are ill and we can learn quite a lot.

I realize it sounds weird and old fashioned but science is just now beginning to learn what our grandparents, great grandparents and so forth knew for generations!

Hmm..I never thought to do that with apple juice. Whenever I can get some I might try that.

The tea I mentioned is said to be good for flushing out the liver and all, some people scoff at the idea of using medicinal mixtures to flush out the kidneys and liver but this sort of thing is being practiced by a great many people.

My dad told me his parents and grandparents did the same thing of drinking particular herbal teas during the winter to flush out accumulated toxins and also in the spring once the body becomes more active. I mean, yeah, we have kidneys and a liver and such that filter our body fluids but sometimes the body needs a bit of assistance to help get things moved out.

I guess I like some of the old 'folk' remedies and even have a book on that. With our modern way of living and eating I feel it is even more important to utilize the herbs nature has given us.
Even farmers have observed their animals seeking out certain herbs to eat when they were ill.

Sponge cake with anise stars on top? Wow...I wish you could teleport some of that to me because that sounds heavenly! I like anise anyways, when my dad and I made anise sticks (a type of cookie) I'd always add more anise than was called for in the recipe because we both liked anise. So lovely.

I have a big container of anise seed and a small coffee grinder to grind them a little before adding to recipes too and the kitchen is filled with the scent of anise.

As for my hat it will be a turtle green with a tan band just over the brim. Getting the measurements right for the head is tricky as the first hat was way too big for me and this one looks like it will fit ok. Maybe i will try to crochet a small bunch of berries or a small flower to stitch onto it but not sure yet.