Living in the past

I live in a modern world filled with computers and fast cars and constant change. I appreciate modern medicine and technology and the huge choice that is available, I wouldn't be without any of that which makes life better for all of us. Without technology you wouldn't be reading this blog now!

However my heart and home belongs somewhere in the mid 1930s, where tea is made in a Beryl ware teapot served with homemade scones and jam.  Where every wooden tray has a cotton or lace doily on it, and there are always flowers on the table. A room where Al Bowlly is singing softly on the wireless, and mantel clock is ticking steadily.  Where the dresser has coronation cups with the King and Queen on them and and sofa has home made patchwork cushions and an antimacassar on the back. 

Where there is a larder stuffed with home made chutney and jam and marmalade and where the christmas pudding sits waiting on a shelf.  Where old jars are filled with rice, currants and sago, with pulses and lentils and flour.

A place where books are in every room, books old and new nestle side by side and the telephone rings with a bright 'bring-bring!'.  A place where candles are lit, the seasons are marked and the house is filled with things that bring back memories of trips taken or of people we love.

“Home, the spot of earth supremely blest. A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest”

Robert Montgomery

Nostalgia and mince pies

When I was talking to a work colleague recently I mentioned that I was planning to make my mince meat the following weekend.  The reaction I got was almost the attitude of why bother when you can buy it easily enough.  

I'm used to people thinking that cooking from scratch or making anything is too much effort.  Each year I make my own mincemeat, Christmas pudding and Christmas cake and I love doing it. 

It is part of the seasonal way we like to live our lives.  In January we often make marmalade out of traditional Seville oranges, in summer I often make jam out of raspberries we grow in the garden, and in autumn we forage for berries and nuts and make things out of them.  Part of it is loving growing things, cooking things and being creative, part of it is a form of nostalgia - a love of the past and the way things were done in the past. 

 

Part of the reason I got into blogging was that there is a lovely online community (or lots of communities actually) where others are making things from scratch, loving reading and living in the past.  Blogs are generally gentle, entertaining and wonderful places where likeminded people can congregate.  I started reading Fading Grace's blog some years ago, and whilst Sophie has moved on to different projects I guess, she was very influential on me at the time and I miss her blogs.   I've found a wonderful world of people who love many of the same things as me.  Some of the current blogs and pages I'm loving are:

http://historyusherette.blogspot.co.uk/    Sarah Miller Walters fab blog on old films
http://prettynostalgic.co.uk/    A great project by Nicole who has published magazines, books and runs a society called the Nostalgianeers

Luckily I'm of an age where I don't really care whether everyone shares my interests - but I do think a lot of people do miss out by just living a very limited modern life where they miss out on very creative and interesting things because they are afraid to admit they enjoy it.