Thursday, April 15, 2010

Clean flues and special mince

Yesterday the boys and I were mostly just at home - I still have a lot of 'at home' stuff (settling in stuff, sewing curtains and things) I want to get done during the holidays, so was glad for the time to do just that. Today we visited Cynthia and Olive, two sisters in our congregation, who were in the middle of pickling but happily obliged us to take a tea break long enough to accommodate our pastoral visit. I was looking forward to getting to know the pair a bit better and was not disappointed. Pity no photo! We left at 11.30, just in time for the chimney sweep. My sister-in-law commented that this event sounded very Victorian, but even so I was surprised that the sweep came complete with brushes, sheets and sooty face. He told us stories of sweeping over the last five centuries which involved children being made to go up the 8x8" flues, and getting asphyxiated and dying up there...they would tie rope around the children's legs to pull them down if they died! Those children wouldn't live past the age of 21 back then because of the damage to their lungs. What a sad tale.
In the afternoon I went grocery shopping - still highly enjoyable, and I came home feeling so blessed of the Lord for the specials they had on! It happened to be a "Thrifty Thursday" where they have heaps of things on special. Mince meat (Gen, would that be 'ground beef'?) was going at $4.95 per kilo. I was very good though and (mostly) only bought things that were actually on my list.

1 comment:

Genevieve said...

Yes, right! "Ground beef" it is if you are using one of your American cookbooks. Very good price compared to the U.S. as well. Thats about 1/2 the cost of what it is here right now.