Funnily enough I've written an article About tidying up myself, not published yet! Kudos to you all milking goats: I've always assumed milk started life in a bottle!
I love this reflection on what home is. For me, home is two places, and one of them is gone - the house was torn down in 2015 - and it’s given me a strange sense of emptiness when I think about it. I’ve also been living “temporarily” in the same place for seven years and that gives you a sense of rootlessness!
Thank you, Alison! That emptiness relating to a former home no longer existing - that's hard. Memories are such a big part of what makes up our idea of home, aren't they?
Tea in bed is my non-negotiable start to the day, Warner - hope you're enjoying your morning cuppa! Funnily enough I've been working on a future post about my long-standing relationship with the stuff. 🤣
YAY to goats! Polly had kids one year - twins, a boy and a girl - they were the most HILARIOUS fun - bounding about all over the place, all four legs on springs. They loved my brother and me - we'd play with them for hours. They just wanted to play and hang out - they didn't need treats or anything, just cuddles and scratches! Joyful!
I love this post. Home is so important to me. While my childhood home did not resemble yours in terms of how it felt to live there, perhaps because of that all of my adult homes have been a labor of love for me, creating comfort and warmth in each and every space I have, both indoor and out. It always feels as if I'm slipping into those slippers you speak of. 💟
Thank you, Sue! How lovely that you've been able to make the places you've lived as an adult into such cosy and comfortable homes - that's wonderful.
I find slippers SO comfy. I've even taken them with me when I've gone round to friends' houses - I don't know if that shows me to be cute, over-sensitive to cold, or just plain bonkers! 🤣
Last year I bought some really comfy albeit expensive slippers. They look a bit like your red ones, but only grey. I don't wear them in the summer as it's too hot, but when the cool weather rolled around this year I felt like I was greeting an old friend putting them back on. Everyone needs a nice pair of slippers. I like the red!!! The grey was safe, but I did manage to get a bright red pair of sandals this summer! 💟
I saved this read for my afternoon coffee in front of the fireplace, and it was perfect! It did, however, make me a bit wistful for HOME home. What a gift to have that.
It sounds like paradise :-) And so true that home is not so much a point on a map but a feeling of familiarity and comfort. Glad you're always able to find that place :-)
Nice story Rebecca! I have to start with the slippers. Mine look pretty bad too but for a different reason. My condo has moisture and mold problems. My right slipper is blown out on the bottom near the toe area. The left is not far behind, just not as bad right now.
I think we all have a "dumping area" where stuff builds up. Our landlord announced the other day he was bringing someone over to look at the place on Monday. Terror ripped through our minds thinking of all the stuff we had to get rid of. Old boxes and other stuff were in a pile in the office. Things we said we'd get to later, and now suddenly needed to be done immediately.
I enjoyed hearing about your childhood. It looks like it was fun with all the animals you had.
I'm intrigued about the mystery in the packing case. It makes me wonder what's in there. There could be money in there!
The home I remember is no longer there. A couple bought it. Sometimes I wonder what happened to it.
Thanks, Matt! Your slippers may be in a state, but I expect they're ever so comfy, aren't they? That's the most important thing!
Gosh, I'd hate being put on the spot like your landlord has done, but despite that, there's a lot to be said by having a sudden deadline to achieve something. Sometimes I need that to get procrastination off the list of choices! Hope you get the things done that you need to without too much hassle. I'm sending strength for your busy Sunday!
There SO won't be any money in that packing case! Although I'm intrigued as to what IS in there. It's more likely to be a load of old kitchen stuff, or some tablecloths or bedclothes, something like that. Nothing valuable - I'm certain of that!
It's sometimes hard to move on from places we've known and loved. Last year I went to see the house my grandparents used to live in, when I happened to be in the area. I rather wish I hadn't. People and places move on, and new lives are made and lived. But those 'what ifs' often remain, don't they?
I’ve been reading up on “hygge” today - that Danish concept that best translates into cozy, comforting warmth. But this might be the most hygge thing I’ve read today. Just lovely. 💜
Thanks so much, Bryn - I love that this fits into the 'hygge' category!
I love difficult-to-translate terms for abstract concepts in other languages. 'Gemütlichkeit' (from the adjective 'gemütlich') is the German equivalent, but like 'hygge' it's kind of MORE than cosiness. I'd use 'ungemütlich' to describe any social situation in which I felt out of place, or awkward (for me that's pretty much ANY social situation, actually....)! 🤣
Oh goats ... I wish we had learned your trick for taking the funk out of goat’s milk, but I suspect my dad engineered a way to make it ever funkier. I recoil to this day at the thought of drinking goat’s milk. Maybe it was the fact that our goats just stunk so bad, especially the perpetually horny billy goat that tried to ram me every time I went into the pasture. That was a sweet story.
It was a cooling system Dad had devised using I think buckets and some kind of circulating system of mains cold water. The fact that we only had nanny goats would have helped, too. Plus a whole load of viewing through rose-tinted spectacles on my part, probably - it was over 40 years ago, after all! 🤣
It’s nice to wear those rose-colored glasses, isn’t it? (You know the John Conlee song? One of my old favs.) But man, my glasses are the opposite for our goats: it’s like our male goat, named Biquette, was my nemesis. He stunk and was mean and was unrelentingly horny, so that if he wasn’t trying to ram me he was trying to mount me. I’d go into the pasture with a broom stick so I could fight him off. Ugh! But I wonder why my folks didn’t know about that cooling system? Perhaps it’s because they were just two hippies playing at being farmers. Was your dad from a farming family? Meaning, did he know what he was doing?
LOL - I have such bad visions of that randy billy goat, Tom! My au pair family in Germany had an ancient tortoise which would try to hump my feet on a regular basis. Talk about a shoe fetish...!
No farming background, but my folks have always been outdoorsy. I don't think either of them had animals when they were growing up.
There was a TV programme over here called 'The Good Life', which was a sitcom about a couple trying to be self-sufficient. Less so now, when sustainable living is such a thing, but at the time (late 70s, early 80s) that programme was a depiction of something so 'other' that people found its very subject matter hilarious. For a while at school and in the community we were known as 'the homespun family', and 'you're living the 'Good Life', aren't you? Ha ha ha ha ha ha', that kind of thing. Other children at school would bring food in packets in their school lunchboxes, whereas we'd have homemade granary rolls baked by my dad filled with goats' cheese and homemade bright yellow spiced cucumber pickle, followed by homemade yoghurt. Nowadays nobody would look twice, but gosh, when you're 'competing' with a dining table full of crisps, KitKats and peanut butter sandwiches made with white bread FROM A SHOP we felt as if we were aliens! 😊
(Mum, if you're reading this - I LOVED those packed lunches. Really I did. And I love you so much.)
Tom, where did the name 'Biquette' come from? What does it mean?
Ha ha, this is why we like each other: we had the same parents! My parents wouldn’t let us eat sugar for many years, and if we ever got chocolate chip cookies they were made with carob chips, FFS. One Christmas, when my brother and I were jonesing for GI Joes, they got us Sunshine Family dolls, which were basically this hippie family that listened to John Denver (who my mother swore she shared a foul with). This is all on your Substack, right? Because I’m pretty sure my mom’s not reading this! Anyway, my folks told me biquette was French for goat, but when I look it up it translates to young female goat ... definitely not the MO for our goat!
Oh wow, the 'Sunshine Family' dolls - I've just Googled them! 🤣 And carob chips... how jolly wholesome. Looking at the Sunshine Family I suspect they were carob junkies too, do you think? Until I was 11 we would be allowed to choose a packet of sweets each - like a square tube that would contain 8 or 10 individually-wrapped chewy sweets like Starburst (or, Opal Fruits, as they were called back then) to be eaten after Sunday lunch - a once-a-week treat. Dad would collect us from Sunday school and we'd go home via the newsagent to buy the newspaper and choose our sweets. Happy days!
This made me smile so much, Rebecca. What a cozy, comforting read. Home really is in the little details, isn’t it? I just wish you had gotten Annie and Polly back!!
Also, your note about the horse your Swedish au pair gave you transported me--I think you’re talking about a dala horse. My mom’s family is Scandinavian and we used to put them up as Christmas decor. For some reason they popped into my head the other day and I made a mental note to buy one for my apartment. So funny to see them mentioned here so soon after!
Thank you so much, Samantha! And yes, we were sad for ages that we didn't get the goats back! Still, after that we ramped up on the sheep front, and I discovered a passion for keeping ducks, and the carousel of life on a smallholding continued.
I've just Googled 'dala horse' and YES, that's EXACTLY what mine was!!! Wow - I'm really glad to have looked - thank you for telling me about them. And I'd say you definitely need one for your apartment! Mine was red, and my brother had a blue one, each with our names painted across the front. I don't remember our au pair, but she was called Berit, and she was apparently really lovely. She still sends a 'God Jul' Christmas card to our parents every year.
Funnily enough I've written an article About tidying up myself, not published yet! Kudos to you all milking goats: I've always assumed milk started life in a bottle!
Just like bangers are born shrink-wrapped and ready for the barbecue, Terry! 🤣
Wot, you mean they aren't??!
🤣
I thought this was so beautiful--I think you really nailed the definition of “Home.” Loved the description of your room, too.
Oh, that's really kind, T.B.D. - thank you so much. I enjoyed taking myself back in time to write this post!
I could tell--that’s why I thought it was so good !
I love this reflection on what home is. For me, home is two places, and one of them is gone - the house was torn down in 2015 - and it’s given me a strange sense of emptiness when I think about it. I’ve also been living “temporarily” in the same place for seven years and that gives you a sense of rootlessness!
Thank you, Alison! That emptiness relating to a former home no longer existing - that's hard. Memories are such a big part of what makes up our idea of home, aren't they?
What a gorgeous, cozy read! Perfect for this Saturday morning. Thanks!
Thanks, Jillian! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! 😊
6:52 -- I'm drinking a cup of Barry's Irish Breakfast tea in bed as I write this, how did you know?
Tea in bed is my non-negotiable start to the day, Warner - hope you're enjoying your morning cuppa! Funnily enough I've been working on a future post about my long-standing relationship with the stuff. 🤣
Ah, you've done it again. There is such warmth and life in your writing.
My aunt and late uncle used to raise goats, they were a great souce of pride for them.
Oh Mark, you're so kind. Thank you.
YAY to goats! Polly had kids one year - twins, a boy and a girl - they were the most HILARIOUS fun - bounding about all over the place, all four legs on springs. They loved my brother and me - we'd play with them for hours. They just wanted to play and hang out - they didn't need treats or anything, just cuddles and scratches! Joyful!
I love this post. Home is so important to me. While my childhood home did not resemble yours in terms of how it felt to live there, perhaps because of that all of my adult homes have been a labor of love for me, creating comfort and warmth in each and every space I have, both indoor and out. It always feels as if I'm slipping into those slippers you speak of. 💟
Thank you, Sue! How lovely that you've been able to make the places you've lived as an adult into such cosy and comfortable homes - that's wonderful.
I find slippers SO comfy. I've even taken them with me when I've gone round to friends' houses - I don't know if that shows me to be cute, over-sensitive to cold, or just plain bonkers! 🤣
Last year I bought some really comfy albeit expensive slippers. They look a bit like your red ones, but only grey. I don't wear them in the summer as it's too hot, but when the cool weather rolled around this year I felt like I was greeting an old friend putting them back on. Everyone needs a nice pair of slippers. I like the red!!! The grey was safe, but I did manage to get a bright red pair of sandals this summer! 💟
Every girl needs a pair of something red for her feet! And the comfier the better! 😃
I saved this read for my afternoon coffee in front of the fireplace, and it was perfect! It did, however, make me a bit wistful for HOME home. What a gift to have that.
Thank you, Holly! Yes, I'm really lucky with the sense of home that I've grown up with, and that I still have. Very grateful. 😊
It sounds like paradise :-) And so true that home is not so much a point on a map but a feeling of familiarity and comfort. Glad you're always able to find that place :-)
I'm so lucky to have it, Jacquie! Thank you. 😊
Nice story Rebecca! I have to start with the slippers. Mine look pretty bad too but for a different reason. My condo has moisture and mold problems. My right slipper is blown out on the bottom near the toe area. The left is not far behind, just not as bad right now.
I think we all have a "dumping area" where stuff builds up. Our landlord announced the other day he was bringing someone over to look at the place on Monday. Terror ripped through our minds thinking of all the stuff we had to get rid of. Old boxes and other stuff were in a pile in the office. Things we said we'd get to later, and now suddenly needed to be done immediately.
I enjoyed hearing about your childhood. It looks like it was fun with all the animals you had.
I'm intrigued about the mystery in the packing case. It makes me wonder what's in there. There could be money in there!
The home I remember is no longer there. A couple bought it. Sometimes I wonder what happened to it.
Thanks, Matt! Your slippers may be in a state, but I expect they're ever so comfy, aren't they? That's the most important thing!
Gosh, I'd hate being put on the spot like your landlord has done, but despite that, there's a lot to be said by having a sudden deadline to achieve something. Sometimes I need that to get procrastination off the list of choices! Hope you get the things done that you need to without too much hassle. I'm sending strength for your busy Sunday!
There SO won't be any money in that packing case! Although I'm intrigued as to what IS in there. It's more likely to be a load of old kitchen stuff, or some tablecloths or bedclothes, something like that. Nothing valuable - I'm certain of that!
It's sometimes hard to move on from places we've known and loved. Last year I went to see the house my grandparents used to live in, when I happened to be in the area. I rather wish I hadn't. People and places move on, and new lives are made and lived. But those 'what ifs' often remain, don't they?
I’ve been reading up on “hygge” today - that Danish concept that best translates into cozy, comforting warmth. But this might be the most hygge thing I’ve read today. Just lovely. 💜
Thanks so much, Bryn - I love that this fits into the 'hygge' category!
I love difficult-to-translate terms for abstract concepts in other languages. 'Gemütlichkeit' (from the adjective 'gemütlich') is the German equivalent, but like 'hygge' it's kind of MORE than cosiness. I'd use 'ungemütlich' to describe any social situation in which I felt out of place, or awkward (for me that's pretty much ANY social situation, actually....)! 🤣
Enid Blytons, indeed! 💯
I must have read every single one of her books, Amie! More than once, too! 😃
Oh goats ... I wish we had learned your trick for taking the funk out of goat’s milk, but I suspect my dad engineered a way to make it ever funkier. I recoil to this day at the thought of drinking goat’s milk. Maybe it was the fact that our goats just stunk so bad, especially the perpetually horny billy goat that tried to ram me every time I went into the pasture. That was a sweet story.
It was a cooling system Dad had devised using I think buckets and some kind of circulating system of mains cold water. The fact that we only had nanny goats would have helped, too. Plus a whole load of viewing through rose-tinted spectacles on my part, probably - it was over 40 years ago, after all! 🤣
It’s nice to wear those rose-colored glasses, isn’t it? (You know the John Conlee song? One of my old favs.) But man, my glasses are the opposite for our goats: it’s like our male goat, named Biquette, was my nemesis. He stunk and was mean and was unrelentingly horny, so that if he wasn’t trying to ram me he was trying to mount me. I’d go into the pasture with a broom stick so I could fight him off. Ugh! But I wonder why my folks didn’t know about that cooling system? Perhaps it’s because they were just two hippies playing at being farmers. Was your dad from a farming family? Meaning, did he know what he was doing?
LOL - I have such bad visions of that randy billy goat, Tom! My au pair family in Germany had an ancient tortoise which would try to hump my feet on a regular basis. Talk about a shoe fetish...!
No farming background, but my folks have always been outdoorsy. I don't think either of them had animals when they were growing up.
There was a TV programme over here called 'The Good Life', which was a sitcom about a couple trying to be self-sufficient. Less so now, when sustainable living is such a thing, but at the time (late 70s, early 80s) that programme was a depiction of something so 'other' that people found its very subject matter hilarious. For a while at school and in the community we were known as 'the homespun family', and 'you're living the 'Good Life', aren't you? Ha ha ha ha ha ha', that kind of thing. Other children at school would bring food in packets in their school lunchboxes, whereas we'd have homemade granary rolls baked by my dad filled with goats' cheese and homemade bright yellow spiced cucumber pickle, followed by homemade yoghurt. Nowadays nobody would look twice, but gosh, when you're 'competing' with a dining table full of crisps, KitKats and peanut butter sandwiches made with white bread FROM A SHOP we felt as if we were aliens! 😊
(Mum, if you're reading this - I LOVED those packed lunches. Really I did. And I love you so much.)
Tom, where did the name 'Biquette' come from? What does it mean?
Ha ha, this is why we like each other: we had the same parents! My parents wouldn’t let us eat sugar for many years, and if we ever got chocolate chip cookies they were made with carob chips, FFS. One Christmas, when my brother and I were jonesing for GI Joes, they got us Sunshine Family dolls, which were basically this hippie family that listened to John Denver (who my mother swore she shared a foul with). This is all on your Substack, right? Because I’m pretty sure my mom’s not reading this! Anyway, my folks told me biquette was French for goat, but when I look it up it translates to young female goat ... definitely not the MO for our goat!
Oh wow, the 'Sunshine Family' dolls - I've just Googled them! 🤣 And carob chips... how jolly wholesome. Looking at the Sunshine Family I suspect they were carob junkies too, do you think? Until I was 11 we would be allowed to choose a packet of sweets each - like a square tube that would contain 8 or 10 individually-wrapped chewy sweets like Starburst (or, Opal Fruits, as they were called back then) to be eaten after Sunday lunch - a once-a-week treat. Dad would collect us from Sunday school and we'd go home via the newsagent to buy the newspaper and choose our sweets. Happy days!
This was just so lovely to read. ❤️
Cayly, that's so kind, thank you. I'm so pleased you enjoyed it! 😊
No one has mentioned it yet, but is there a plan for unpacking the box in the garage?
Nope! 🤣
This made me smile so much, Rebecca. What a cozy, comforting read. Home really is in the little details, isn’t it? I just wish you had gotten Annie and Polly back!!
Also, your note about the horse your Swedish au pair gave you transported me--I think you’re talking about a dala horse. My mom’s family is Scandinavian and we used to put them up as Christmas decor. For some reason they popped into my head the other day and I made a mental note to buy one for my apartment. So funny to see them mentioned here so soon after!
Thank you so much, Samantha! And yes, we were sad for ages that we didn't get the goats back! Still, after that we ramped up on the sheep front, and I discovered a passion for keeping ducks, and the carousel of life on a smallholding continued.
I've just Googled 'dala horse' and YES, that's EXACTLY what mine was!!! Wow - I'm really glad to have looked - thank you for telling me about them. And I'd say you definitely need one for your apartment! Mine was red, and my brother had a blue one, each with our names painted across the front. I don't remember our au pair, but she was called Berit, and she was apparently really lovely. She still sends a 'God Jul' Christmas card to our parents every year.