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Here is the recipe for the sauce:

GOOSEBERRY SAUCE

1/2 lb. green gooseberries

4 tablespoonfuls of water

1 oz. sugar

1 oz. melted butter

pinch of nutmeg

Stem gooseberries and cook with water and sugar. Mash to a pulp, add a pinch of nutmeg. Beat in melted butter and serve.

The Master Book of Poultry and Game, p 239, Henry Smith, Date Unknown, Spring Books, London, England.

My Mother is here until early January, and may well be signing the loan of the Heavenly Hovel over to us, which is incredibly exciting. Hopefully, it will go without a hiccough. We may have a problem getting finance, for although we have been discharged of our bankruptcy a couple of years ago, these things, like good plaster, tend to stick.

On a lighter note, Mum is not to happy with my paragraphing, stating that she thinks they are too long and therefore boring. If you believe that I need to adjust anything in my Articles, please let me know. I am always open to suggestion. I'm afraid I am not the sort of person who re-writes and re-writes, rather I just dash it down, correcting spelling and punctuation as I go. I know it's unprofessional, but I'm afraid I don't have time to do it any other way. If there is enough of an outcry about some aspect that needs changing, e-mail me please. I am chronically human, at times unfortunately.

One of the things that has tickled my Mother's fancy is Porgy being desperate for a scratch. She actually has just come in prior to going to bed to remind me to include the tale, as I was just about to do so, it was good timing on her part, and a joy on mine to be able to read out to her what I had just written.

Mum and I were over by the pig sties, watching Brian do some baling, and Porgy was getting more and more upset by the fact that he was being ignored. So I told Mum that he wanted to have a good scratch, picked up a goose catching pole and started rubbing. Well, the response was wonderful! From a snorting wildebeest with delusions of revolution, I had, at the end of a piece of wood, the most serene of porcine happiness! I, distracted by Brian, stopped. Porgy didn't think this quite fair. Here I was, a perfectly useful back scratcher, not doing my job. He started snorting again.

So I thought, "Better to keep him quiet, the spoiled thing." and rubbed again. Instant bliss. This scenario kept playing itself in repetition, until Mum thought it time to go inside because of the rapid cooling of the weather. Mum was extremely amused by the pig's intelligence in working out what was needed to get what he wanted.

I love Summer programming - all those old RKO and Rank pictures, even the Balck and Whites. We've just had Fred Astaire dancing his tootsies off in Follow the Fleet and as I write New Faces of 1937 has started. Cool.

I have been reading an old (1981) copy of Carla Emery's An Encyclopedia of Country Living - Old Fashioned Recipe Book, which is pretty fascinating reading. Hopefully, Nita has included a link, and the great news is, that not only is she alive and well, but also publishing the latest edition of the same book.

It is one of the most useful books you can imagine, Carla obviously living virtually everything about which she writes.

I checked with my husband about the fairly comprehensive article on clearing sales (auctions), and he said it was amazing! The passages on Cast-Iron Cookware alone would make this volume a welcome addition to any family/hoemsteading library.

Carla writes on moving to the country, water needs, food preservation, livestock, home industries, and an extremely useful section on Definitions and Measures, including On Using Very Old Recipes, Dictionary of Antique Cookbook Words, and a backword (the opposite of a foreword).

To give you an example, on page 7, Carla writes: "PRODUCTIVITY OF THE LAND. If you're not a farmer there are many different ways you can tell whether land is fertile or not. Pay attention to the vegetation you see... like how high is the sagebrush? If the sagebrush were only up to his boot tops my dad didn't think it was worth plowing, but if it was up to the horse's belly he thought more than likely we could make that land produce. How deep is the grass, how lush are the trees? Have the berry bushes borne fruit? The person who is selling maybe hasn't really taken as good care of the land as you intend to. So you are going to be able to increase the production. Soil testings are available from commercial organizations or county agents or you can use a kit of your own. They will tell you in technical terminology that land's productivity."

I'm sorry to hear about the United States' suspected case of Mad Cow disease breaking out. I hope and pray that it is not so. I found it amazing to see the collateral damage in stock and bonds, particularly in that of fast food outlets.

Aussie English:

ARTIST

There are various kinds of artists - pictorial, literary, musical, etc. - but the most common kind are 'bull artists'. These are great exaggerators of stories, teller of tall tales and of wildly improbable things. They are held in rather high esteem, because they provide something for ordinary citizens to talk about, or to laugh about.

ARVO

Afternoon.

'See ya this arvo.'-

'Wotta ya doin' this arvo?' -

'Reckoned he was gunna deliver 'em last week, an' he doesn't turn up till yesterdy-bloody-arvo.'

From - Aussie English - an Explanation of the Australian Idiom, by John O'Grady. Ure Smith, Sydney, 1965.

Paddock

The ripples of your stalks

float above the Earth

As each wind blows fresh,

it takes, it gives.

Each noble head bows

like a court before its monarch

And the perfume of the country

moves on, gathering a more and more

complex note

Until all of the land sings this powerful note

and I breathe deeply, revelling in its freedom.