Yesterday I was shopping in Lidl and came across these lovely white spring onions. There was about six boxes of them. They glowed with freshness .
They reminded me of a photograph in an old book of mine, Dorothy Hartley - The Countryman's England, published 1935 and full of fascinating photos of old England between the two wars of course. Ellen had said how she had imagined England and I can see how the 'pretty' picture of farming, cottages and people, of this country must still be held in people's hearts. Well we all know what happened to those cottages, nice chunk of expensive property now, though they still might have roses round the door. But Helen Allingham in the Victorian era would probably have turned in her grave as she wandered around painting bucolic scenes of cottage gardens.
So here is a few of the photos, slightly washed out. That is not the fault of my camera but of pictures taken years ago.
The old photos are great, with the hop vine workers extra special.
ReplyDeleteI have never seen it done it that way, but hops are still grown tall in Essex.
DeleteI just imagined how cold many of those farm workers would be, especially finding potatoes from their clamp in that first photo!
ReplyDeleteIt looks a miserable job planting potatoes and then getting the new potatoes out of the clamp Sue.
DeleteThose jobs certainly don't look easy, Thelma! So "Merry Olde England" wasn't so "merry" after all! ;)
ReplyDeleteNo it wasn't Ellen but probably explains all the tavern houses through Britain. When they went to the pub to get warm Ellen.
Deletelove the pictures but gosh, doesn't it all look back breaking!!
ReplyDeleteMost of them look thin and poor with very old clothes but it was definitely manual labour for very little reward A/F.
DeleteWell, I have patched/falling apart clothes for rough gardening. I guess it was the same for them - you wouldn't wear your best clothes to work in the fields.
DeleteThe shallots look fresh and delicious. I love the old photos.
ReplyDeleteThey looked so fresh and white in the shop. Now you could not wash any vegetable in our streams and rivers because of the pollution.
DeleteThose spring onions do look good. The only trouble is, you know when you've eaten them as you can taste them for hours afterwards!
ReplyDeleteYes but I loved the idea of how things used to be, when you only ate seasonally and a ham and salad, which included radishes and spring onions.
DeleteI've seen what you call bee skips, but I never really gave it a great deal of thought. I just went off and had quite a nice read about them. You and Jabblog have taught this old dog something new today!
ReplyDeleteWell there we are Debby we all spark each other off and our minds race away. ;)
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