I'm typing on Dilly's laptop as I'm babysitting this evening, and I realise that I don't know how to drag the window across or make it bigger with one of those little pads, so this is all a bit annoyingly small for me. Oh, hang on, I'm experimenting.
Right, got it. That's better.
The price list is up on our website now, if you're interested. The link is on the sidebar. It was an interesting sale, we've never had so many items reach into the thousands of pounds before. It had a lowering effect on the last lot, which we'd thought would make more than the lower estimate, but there were only a few unsold pieces of Lowestoft, and overall it did extremely well. It could well be that some people thought that their money would be as safe in antiques as anywhere else. We already have nearly the whole of the next sale in April sorted with some fine pieces of china. If you think this is all desperately trivial when people are worrying about their mortgage, so it is, but so are many other things, such as astonishingly wealthy, though no doubt vastly worthy and compassionate, young men having a motorbike jolly across Africa and wanting people to give money to cheer them on. I'd rather have the link with my home town 250 years ago and the items those forgotten artisans, craftsmen and artists were responsible for.
So, I'm looking after Pugsley. He's never gone to bed without his sister before and we were in some doubt if he'd settle. Squiffany said her goodbyes to him lovingly this evening, getting on her knees to hug and reassure him - you can see how they are used to being spoken to by their parents! He was fine after they'd gone, choosing various games and jigsaw puzzles from the cupboard and saying "Well done, Pugsley, good boy" with satisfaction after finishing a particularly complicated puzzle. He blotted his copybook rather when I'd put him in his pyjamas and gone to warm his bedtime milk, by doing an unmentionable activity in his nappy - not five minutes after sitting briefly on the potty and assuring me there was nothing to come. They use reusable nappies mostly, but a disposable is more comfortable and absorbant for the night, and my frugal soul was dismayed at the waste of a new nappy; furthermore it was the last, so he's in one of his usual ones after all. His father was out of nappies day and night soon after reaching the age of 2, so let's hope Pugsley emulates him soon.
Afterwards, I read him 4 bedtime stories (usually they have 3 but he wanted Fox in Socks and who could resist?), tucked him up in bed and I haven't heard another sound in the past hour and a half.
You do appreciate, I'm sure, that I write as I would speak; that is, mostly nonsense. If I refer to a bottle instead of a bunch of flowers, just be glad that you only have to interpret me. Just imagine how confusing it is actually to be me. You may spare a compassionate thought for my family, but on the other hand they have the joy of my constant and enlivening presence, so they are most awfully lucky, by and large.
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23 comments:
Your dog has a laptop? What a family!
Most awfully lucky, indeed!+D
In a way, I can see what you mean about putting your money in antiques. But then, what if you dropped it? Doesn't bear thinking about really.
Oooh, Fox in Socks....no, I couldn't resist that one either.
No expense spared for darling Dilly. Well, that's not quite true, it isn't a Mac.
I tell 'em how lucky they are at regular intervals so's they don't forget, LZM.
Well, a friend of ours had a bit of an accident a few years ago when he was playing ball with his dog in his living room and a piece got knocked over, but that sort of thing doesn't happen often. Anyway, a slightly distressed piece of Lowestoft china still holds a fair bit of value as most of it got damaged years ago.
It was Al's favourite book when he was a little boy, Caitlin, he learned to read with it. We can still recite it by heart.
It isn't a Mac? Nothing but the best for Dilly, eh? Clearly a woman with very good taste.
I have a very used Edward VIII coronation china cup. The dealer suggested I buy the undamaged one for a bit more. I told him that it was to enjoy and if it got further chips it would just add character. It looks sweet with a bouquet of the first flowers of spring. The pristine one would have been kept in a glass cabinet and never used.
Interesting that it has been decided that the old washable nappies are greener - in spite of all the boiling, and hanging out - which i always do - is also green. Nice to be green by accident.
If you soak them in Miltons, they don't even need boiling. In fact, from my memory of long-past days, since they are already bleached clean, they only need a rinse cycle in the washing machine.
A very good point, Martina. I will admit that I wouldn't put flowers in a Lowestoft vase (if I had one, which I don't!), but I agree with you.
Cheap and cheerful, her PC, Dand.
It now turns out that cotton nappies are only greener if you put a full load in the washing machine, on a low temperature, and then hang them out on the line - use a tumble drier and they tip over into being less green than disposables.
The disposable nappy makers keep trying desperately to prove that their product is better for the environment, but I don't believe them. Reusable nappies are certainly far cheaper.
By the way, the disposables that Al and Dilly buy for nighttime are unbleached and made of entirely biodegradable materials, as you would expect.
This latest bit of info came from an independent report, the results of which, so The Times said at the weekend, the government tried to suppress.
Don't ask me why I wish to keep abreast of the latest news on nappies.
I read it too, but as ever in these matters, it didn't say exactly what they were testing. There are numerous different types of reusable nappy on the market now and it didn't say if the manufacture of each type had been separately researched for its environmental impact. Then it suggested that they were washed with detergent at 90 degrees and tumble dried - that is, the suggestion was implied by the information that washing at 60 degrees or less and line-drying was needed to make them greener than disposables. I don't know, because it didn't say, whether the long-term problem of too much landfill rubbish was taken into account.
When my babies were small, I soaked their nappies in Milton solution, put them on a rinse wash and line-dried them. Minimal environmental impact, and if the government recommended that there could be little argument. I don't suppose anyone in government deigns to wash his or her own babies' nappies though.
That's what we did too, but I suppose it does depend when your baby is born - line drying may not be possible if it's raining, or below freezing, every day. Also, of course, flat-dwellers may not have access to an outside line.
Yeah, no offence, but have you ever tried to put a nappy on a wriggly baby? At least with disposables you don't have to worry about folding them right, or accidentally stabbing their poor tummy with the safety pin while you wrestle with them.
Plus, with terry nappies, the poo sometimes comes out down the leg. Now that's not ideal.
Woo, this has given me an idea.
Both my children with children have clothes horses on which nappies are regularly draped.
Id, you're a bit out of date. Nappies don't have pins any more, they either have nifty little clips or velcro - and "have I ever"? Well yes. Nappies were pinned in my day and my babies wriggled.
And in my experience, if there is a real poo explosion it can find its way out of anywhere. Zerlina had amazing explosive poo on Saturday and she was wearing a disposable, as the family were on their way to Surrey at the time. She had to be changed entirely - in fact, as they hadn't long started out, they all went back home to leave behind the stinky clothes.
I have too, many times, with pins.
What I want to know, though, is can you make a nappy out of newspaper? And is there a website showing you how?
Had a chuckle at dave's last comment:D
Of course we tried it, but the newsprint came off on the baby's bottom and it disintegrated rather rapidly as soon as it was wet. It wasn't altogether successful. Newspaper has its function in country privies, I understand, but I wouldn't want to risk the efficiency of our splendid septic tank.
Indeed, LZM. Hah hah. So did I. I'm still slightly worried at Id's idea though.
I'm rather disappointed I missed out on all the nappy talk. However, just to let you know (because I know you are wondering) we are strongly discouraged from using any water at all due to our ongoing drought so babies are toilet trained at 3 weeks.
No, not really - but the cloth/disposable debate is tricky here due to the water issues - 'they' can't agree. I don't even have the inside scoop from Tom who is an environmental scientist and works for 'them'.
Can't you rinse nappies in beer? Surely there isn't a shortage of that. No, but I can see that there's a dilemma of a different sort in droughty areas.
Actually, what does surprise me is how long children do wear nappies nowadays. There are an awful lot of 3 year olds still in nappies - I suppose it's because they don't feel wet in disposables and so have no incentive to learn.
Beer seems like a good option, although I can't imagine many Australians willing to sacrifice beer in this way....they like their beer.
I've noticed that too with nappy wearing, don't understand it...I couldn't wait to get mine out of nappies.
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