Hello from Wales

[ellie12022]

Hello everybody

I lay no great claims to being self-sufficientish but I try to avoid too many nasty chemicals, and do a few other small things. I got into this site by looking into different kinds of stoves (an idea for the future)

In the next couple of years, I hope to be able to start growing some herbs/vegetables in the garden - at the moment I have rhubarb, gooseberries and blackberries.(in the flower beds!). I have been giving the rhubarb away, but have been trying to eat the gooseberries this year. Things will be easier with two of us (I'm getting married in the autumn). I have M E so my ideals are tempered by the amount of energy I have.

Anyway, I'm off to join the soap cutting thread!

[Rosendula]

Hi


Keep up the good work.

[ina]

Hiya Ellie, welcome to the Ishers!

Don't give all your rhubarb away - there's so many things you can easily do with it...

I've already made several loads of rhubarb jam (some with ginger, some with banana, some with raspberries), and I'm making rhubarb wine for the first time this year.

[Ratty]

Hi there. Welcome aboard. What part of Wales are you in? We're hoping to move to West Wales in the next couple of years.

And I agree about rhubarb - freeze it if you have too much or make rhubarb cakes & crumbles. Yummy!

[MKG]

Hi Ellie and welcome to ISH

[ellie12022]

Thank you all for your warm welcome

Ratty, I actually live in North Wales, but I have family all over the country! I have been here for 2 years now. I like living in a small place, I spent several years in a big city and I'm glad to be out of it. Do you know which part of Wales you want to move to?

As for rhubarb, I can't stand the stuff so that is why I have been giving it to people who will make use of it - most of it has gone to my future mother in law, who has frozen some, and been making pies with it. (gone to a good cause! )

It looks like there are going to be a lot of blackberries this year, so I will try and do something with them - my mother made jam a couple of years ago and said it was quite easy.

We (fiance & I) have also spotted some wild rosehips down the road, so we plan to be adventurous later on in the year when they are ripe. My fiance knows more about these things than I do, his grandmother was a bit of a 'wise woman', it seems.

[Ratty]

Yummy blackberry jam!

We've been looking at West Wales - Ceredigion/Carmarthenshire. We had our hearts set on a little smallholding but couldn't sell our own house here in time. We'll definitely try again in a couple of years time (when I'm into my final year of Uni as a "mature" student!).

We have friends close to Cardiff who are rebuilding a beautiful little old Welsh cottage so we feel we already have some "roots" in Wales!

[ellie12022]

I have a sister living near Aberystwyth, it's a nice area. She has been swimming in the sea this week

What are you studying?

[JulieSherris]

Hi Ellie,

You're so lucky to have rhubarb! I planted some this year & our new Basset puppy decided that he loves to roll all across the leaves - they are now crushed..... They will probably be great next year - but now we're moving, so the new tenants will benefit!

Ratty - do a little bit of research into moving out to Ireland - some folks say it's expensive, but we've found it's swings & roundabouts! No council tax, no water rates, hubby claims my tax allowance on his wages, you still get tax relief on mortgages out here, you get tax relief on rent paid too & if you move to a mostly rural area, you get land with the house, AND there's hardly any restrictions on keeping livestock, etc - and the pace of life is just SO nice!
(I should get commision from the Irish government, huh?)
Julie.

[ellie12022]

Hi Julie

I hope to visit Ireland one day, I might have some distant relatives over there somewhere.

I have no live animals apart from visiting cats and birds in the garden. A basset puppy sounds lovely.

[red]

welcome

[Ratty]

Ellie - I'm starting at Nottingham Trent Uni on BA Decorative Arts in October, sounds dreadfully twee I know but its actually like Applied Arts - textiles, ceramics, glasswork, etc, basically stuff which isn't fine art (I hate drawing!).

Julie - thanks for the recommendation but my parents really wouldn't cope if we moved their only grandchild across the sea from them! Its "bad enough" that we intend to go to Wales & they will have resettled in East Anglia by then! And West Wales really has caught us with its friendly people, beautiful countryside, close proximity to the sea and the land is way cheaper than anything we can hope to afford in England! We've done our research and just need to wait for the right time & property again now!

[ellie12022]

Ratty, Good luck with the course, I have met some very artistic and creative people since living here in North Wales - my skills are somewhat limited in that respect! And I am sure that a B A in any subject will be hard work (and not twee at all). I know mine was! Funnily enough my sister moved from East Anglia to Aberystwyth (away from Granny) but she manages to go back down to visit and Granny has been up to visit on the bus (and seen it's not as strange as she thought, I think her knowledge of Wales and the Welsh was a bit limited before hand )

Also my sister had to finish her degree before moving up, it's been a bit of a rough ride but it's getting easier (I hope it is, anyway!)

[Andy Hamilton]

Welcome to the site.. I have a confession to make about rhubarb, I get sick of the stuff and swap if for cups of tea with the old boy who has a house backing onto my allotment.

[ellie12022]

Thank you for the welcome Andy, I see I'm not the only one happy to give my rhubarb away! I gave one lot to the neighbour when he cut my grass, and the rest this year has gone to the future mother in law, both worthy causes IMO