Living

Gardening

The recent spell of warm sunny weather has got me gardening for the first time this year. Roses front and back are all pruned, as are both the grape vines, and the clematis, which are already producing buds, have been cut down. I've also got rid of the winter weeds at the back and so am ready to put down the pelleted bird shit I use as a background fertiliser. I get it from the local agricultural cooperative because it is cheaper there than elsewhere but it comes in 40kg sacks, which I am not able to hump around. I therefore leave it in the boot of the car from where I take out bucketfuls (or should that be buckets full?) at a time as needed. The result is an agricultural aroma in my car that would certainly defeat any of the sir fresheners on sale. Ah well, I don't mind and anybody else just has to accept it.

While I was pottering out front my artist neighbour Florence came by with heavy-duty gloves and a saw in her hand. She was off to explore the river banks in search of tree roots. The river in spate pulls up the odd bush or small tree and Florence collects the roots, which she prunes or manipulates to form interesting shapes and she she then places them around her house and garden.

How We Lived

Friend Steve's sister, Marianne, emailed some derivations of colloquial sayings to him which he forwarded to me. It reminded me that I have a dictionary of slang and colloquialisms that I haven't looked at for a while. Anyway, here are a few historical ones that interested me.

The saying “piss poor” apparently derives from the practice of impoverished families all pissing in one pot which, when full, could be sold to the local tannery for tanning leather. Recycling before its time. Of course, if you were really poor you “didn't have a pot to piss in”.

The state of floors was another gauge of poverty. If you were “dirt poor” it was your house had only an earthen floor. Better-off families had stone or tiled floors which, incidentally, became slippery when wet, so straw (called thresh) was put down for a better grip. A plank would be placed at the door to stop the thresh getting out of the door when moved by walking, which gave us the word threshold.

Bread also was an indicator of status. The lowest got the burnt crust at the bottom of a loaf, the next in status got the middle and the toffs got the “upper crust”.

Finally, the family tin bath was filled just once with hot water for all the family to use. Men went first, then women, children and babies last of all. By this time the water would be quite murky and nothing that went below the surface (e.g. a baby) would be visible. Hence the stricture not to throw the baby out with the bath water.

I really must get down to reading my dictionary again.