A while back, my sister bought me a small
potted fig tree; it was her last gift to me before she moved to Australia. It stayed in that pot for a couple of years
and never did much, but still looked healthy.
I decided it probably was root bound so I planted it, in the front
garden. It still didn’t do much and I realised
that the spot was probably too dry, but I had no free sunny moist spots, so it
stayed. It just existed, no fruit
despite me chucking lot of water at it. It came
with me when I moved here, and I planted it against the shed a really damp spot. It started grow and produce some fruit, not
much only about a dozen a year. Early last year I had to have the shed replaced
as it was full of rot. The builders were
going to build the new shed on the concrete base of the old shed. They asked me if I would mind if they chopped
it down as it made the job more difficult, to strengthen their argument they
showed me the stem which had a scar of some previous damage. I agreed and they dug it out. That was that I thought, but no….
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| See, nearly high as the shed! |
Last September I noticed some fig leaves amongst the mint
that I had planted there. Obviously,
some roots had been left in the ground.
Since then I have watched it grow and now in the space of 6 months it is
twice the size of what it was after 6 years!
It has heaps of figs on it for me to enjoy early winter!
I can’t help but think that is a lesson to us. The above story almost mirrors my life. I had wonderful role models with my mother
and grandmothers and even my dad. In
their different ways my grandmothers epitomised thrift.
My maternal grandmother, was a career woman, but loved
vegetable gardening. Her whole back
garden was given over to fruit trees, green house and chicken run, (my
grandfather reluctantly was allowed a shed for him to fiddle about in) till the
day she had a stroke and had to go into care at the age of 85. As kids we had to play in the front garden,
no room out the back. I loved to help
her weed and be allowed to pick peas etc. for dinner.
My paternal grandmother was a farmer’s wife, but they had
retired and moved into town by the time I came along. She took in a couple of boarders usually
young country girls starting their first job. Granddad’s job was the garden and
hers was the house. She was heavily
involved with the Women’s Institute, and took part in all their home economic
competitions and demonstrations. She was
always cooking, sewing, knitting etc. I
used to love to help her cook.
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| My mother on her wedding day with both my grandmothers. |
My parents were not well off, and we always had
vegetable gardens fruit trees and hens to supplement the table. As kids we had to help, with the garden and
housework. My father was keen on
preserves and I loved to help with them, he used to sell the surplus at the
local corner store. I saw my Mum making
our clothes and mending, nothing was thrown out. Although I remember her trying to throw out
one of Dad’s jumpers that was very holey, but he would always retrieve it
saying it still had wear in it. Our
holidays were at our aunties or grandparents.
Family holidays were a tent near a river or beach and we lived off the
fish Dad caught, nothing better than having shellfish or fish cooked on an open
fire.
So that was me in the pot! As a young married I carried on the tradition
of thrift, as I was still at university and my husband was just starting out. I bottled fruit and made my clothes; I think
I even made Garth a bomber jacket!
However, the rot set in when I got my degree and we moved to Britain,
after touring Europe in a camper van for 6 months we knuckled own and got on
with our careers. We both worked long
hours and even longer as we climbed up the ladder. Food, became ready made, not rubbish, as Garth
was type 1 diabetic, so food had to be healthy.
We ate out a lot at restaurants with friends, as dinner parties took up
too much time to prepare. We had
holidays in South of France in the summer and Austria, Switzerland and Germany
in the winter. We weren’t totally
spendthrift, we still managed to save and invest our money, but only because we
weren’t materialistic, we had a modest home and I was not into having the latest
furniture and mod cons. We were your
typical 2 income, no children family.
Looking back, I think as a person I existed, I wasn’t unhappy; I was
just coasting along following the life Garth wanted. When I returned to New Zealand, I was a bit
happier as now I had family around but something was still missing.
Since I retired 15 months ago, I have found myself
again I have time to garden, do home crafts and to
stop and smell the roses. I feel that
this is the time for me. I am
flourishing like that fig tree. The
roots were there for me to take up all my new activities with ease, so thank
you family for giving me the start you did.
If the roots
are strong, even if troubles and wrong directions are taken, there comes a time
that a turn can be made and a transition into a better way can be made
easily.
My heart cries out to the many youngsters these days
that haven’t had the basics taught them.
I have friends who bemoan the fact that their children have no idea of
how to manage their time and money, or even have the desire to work! I am afraid I am naughty and usually ask them
did they do everything for their said daughter or son, and when they admit they
did wait on them I say, there you go!
The saddest thing happened last week. I decided to off load some of surplus plums
onto the bus driver, Hannah, but she declined saying someone had given her a
big bag, so she called out to the other passengers if anybody wanted them,
there were several young Mums that screwed up their faces and said no. One did however say yes and asked what she
could do with them. I said stew them,
she looked blank and then said in a little voice how do you do that? Several of
the older people rolled their eyes, but, I carefully told her how and she wrote
it down on the back of her hand. When I
got off the bus, Jill a friend who had been sitting at the back, said to me,
several of the other young Mums were asking the girl who said yes, to pass on
the instructions. I saw the same girl on
Tuesday, she said she had stewed them, but put too much sugar in, but would
know better next time and then she asked if she could do the same for
apples? I said yes and suggested to her that her Mum
could help her to learn more about cooking, her reply was, “Nah, Mum doesn’t cook!” I suggested Utube , but she said she can’t
afford the internet nor a fancy cell phone.
I suggested that library has free internet access on their computers,
you know what she said, “Okay, I will do that I haven’t been in a library since
I left school.” Again how sad is that! These youngsters need the basics not the
fancy cooking programs we see on TV. It
makes cooking look too hard and expensive for them.
Wow! I have
gone on haven’t I! I was also going to
post about my budget and menu plans but will leave that for the end of the
week!
A tip: to make things a bit easier for when it is
too wet to sloash down to the veg patch or you don’t have enough space for a
full grown garden, plant a bucket or tub with a mix of lettuces and herbs near
the back door, really handy for nipping out and picking a few leaves before
serving. This tub has several types of
lettuce, coriander, Italian parsley, sage and rocket.
