Be Prepared For Anything or What's in the Cupboards! Part 1

 Every year about this time I used to write a piece  for the Suffolk Smallholders Society Newsletter all about Preparing for Winter in the country. It was aimed at new members of the SSS who had moved to the Suffolk countryside - and there were always some every year.

Twice in our married life we were without electric for a week - once was this time 37 years ago, In Bacton, over night on the 15/16th October 1987, the night of the hurricane, I remember it well as I was 8½ months pregnant and son remembers opening his birthday presents by torchlight  on the 17th. Our next door neighbour had electric back before us and the electricity company didn't realise we were still off for another 3 days. With no TV and no phone line we had no idea how widespread the devastation was until much later.  Colin was a supervisor for County Council road maintenance and went out with the men working long hours clearing trees and I hardly saw him all week. Luckily we had propane gas cooker and gas fire.

The second time was sometime in the early 2000's at the smallholding in Knodishall, again caused by strong winds  and again we had bottled LPG  cooker and a wood stove and  old multi fuel Rayburn for heat. 

Since those events I've always kept candles and matches, plus torch and radio with batteries to run them in the house. And now with only electric for cooking I have a camping stove and gas cylinders ready too, plus the wood burner of course.

And Food............

There was a time early on at the smallholding that shopping choices were very small - before supermarkets moved into Saxmundham it was just the Co-op and you could guarantee that something I'd run out of at home would be exactly where the empty space was on the Co-op shelves.  So I got used to keeping a big stock in my lovely big pantry.

No big pantry now but lots of cupboards in the kitchen and plenty of room to keep a good amount of spare things for one person.

Everyone likes a look in other peoples cupboards but in 11 years I've never shared mine on the blog before . 

I never want to be without toast so flour of all sorts is one thing that I keep plenty of in stock, more than anything else - ever since Ukraine was invaded and we were told there would be a flour shortage, there hasn't been but the price has certainly gone up.

Top shelf new bread flour  two each of quality Allinson's and cheaper Aldi - I mix them for a good but slightly cheaper loaf.  Also up there is a part bag of cooking salt that was huge from Approved Foods about 10 years ago and has moved house  four times!

Next shelf has plain flour that's in use, granary and wholemeal, new yeast and new cornflour at the back, baking powder in the jar. Malt extract for malt bread, standing on a piece of kitchen roll to catch any sticky dribbles

Bottom shelf bread flour that's in use plus self raising in the tin that came from a boot sale. Behind is cornflour in the jar and storage jars of brown and demerara sugar.

In the pull out unit are two more plain and self raising plus a new granary

No flour shortage here!

More cupboard photos another day.

Back Soon

Sue

On This Day in 1834

 ............the artist JWM Turner sketched the fire that was burning down the houses of Parliament.

Along with thousands of others standing on the south shore of the Thames he watched and sketched and later painted two different paintings.

The Houses of Parliament website tells the story of the fire............

The Great Fire of 1834

In 1834, the Exchequer was faced with the problem of disposing two cart-loads of wooden tally sticks. These were remnants of an obsolete accounting system that had not been used since 1826. When asked to burn them, the Clerk of Works thought that the two underfloor stoves in the basement of the House of Lords would be a safe and proper place to do so.

Parliament on fire in 1834

On 16 October, a couple of workmen arrived in the morning to carry out his instructions. During the afternoon, a party of visitors to the House of Lords, conducted by the deputy housekeeper Mrs Wright, became puzzled by the heat of the floor, and by the smoke seeping through it. But the workmen insisted on finishing their job. The furnaces were put out by 5pm, and Mrs Wright, no longer worried, locked up the premises.

Fire!

At 6pm, Mrs Wright heard the terrified wife of a doorkeeper screaming that the House of Lords was on fire. In no time, the flames had spread to the rest of the Palace. It was a great sight for the crowds on the streets (who were kept back by soldiers) and a great opportunity for artists such as J.M.W. Turner who painted several canvases depicting it.

Both Houses of Parliament were destroyed along with most of the other buildings on the site. Westminster Hall was saved largely due to heroic fire fighting efforts, and a change in the direction of the wind during the night. The only other parts of the Palace to survive were the Jewel Tower, the Undercroft Chapel, the Cloisters and Chapter House of St Stephen's and Westminster Hall.

I've got a couple of books full of "what happened on this day in the past" so I might use more when I'm short of ideas.

Back Soon

Sue