Very OT: Question for the Brits amoungst us

And easier to form than other cheaper (in those days) metals.

Mary

:-)

As a beekeeper I loved seeing melilot, it was an excellent source of nectar but sadly it's not common these days.

Mary

Oh that is too bad. Is the UK suffering from the decline in bees that we here are?

Oh yes, those crenellations on Ripley are very Gothic revival, aren't they, like the modern part of Skipton Castle. A made-for-TV version of "Dracula" was filmed there during our stay (Rob't Powell & Carrie Fisher) and it was so funny to see the final product; the castle wasn't Transylvanian enough for them so they put, on top of the battlements, those cone-shaped tower-tops you see in mitteleuropa (like Balmoral, another fantasy).

I'm rtying to remember whether we saw Kirkstall; we saw Fountains, Bolton, Jervaulx, Rievaulx ...like the ruined castles, after a while they all start to blur!

We kept thinking we had plenty of time to visit Castle Howard but finally found ourselves racing there the last Saturday before we moved home -- to find that a lot of the collected objets d'art had been borrowed ... for an exhibit in Washington DC!

I find them handy for storing wool.

Higs, Katherine

I checked with more elaborate sources ,,,,,Melila comes from the Arameic into the Hebrew and it means ANY Ear of Corn , wheat Head of any kind of grain that is ready to be cut when you `molel` it between your finger MOLEL meang rolling it bewtween your fingers ,,it does also mean Tufts at ends of cushions and clothes etc,,,, Deuteronomy 23, line 26, mirjam

I'm sure they are. My stash is so big that I use70lb honey containers - they're air (and moth) tight.

Mary

If you found that fantastic you should have gone to Castell Coch in Wales. It really is like a Disney creation - especially when the towers are seen from a distance, rising from the dense woodland. It's very beautiful though and built in the C20th, not pretending to be anything other than it is, a flight of imagination :-) It has been used for filming too but wasn't intended for that, just for living in, with every luxury. I wouldn't mind living there.

Balmoral is a modern building but the towers are peculiarly Scottish features and have been part of Scottish architecture for centuries, it's nothing to do with Transylvania. Scottish towers are different. Even some modern houses have them. It's like having a national flag in the garden.

That's tourist talk :-)

I've never been there, it's far too modern. As I say, we prefer ruins.

Mary

There are some reports of losses but mostly it's journalistic hyperbole. My beekeeping friends in USA haven't had more losses than is normal in the spring either. There might be pockets of something new, I don't know.

During my beekeeping career there were always scare stories which, if they had a basis in fact, were always managed satisfactorily.

Mary

Mel is one of the oldest words used by humanity - older than Aramaic - it was known in Sanskrit. It and its derivatives are universal and always associated with sweetness.

It might have come to mean other things in later languages, such as Aramaic or Hebrew but the root is still there.

Mary

I didn`t say it was anything sweet it was ripe,ready to be picked ,,,,anyway the Melila came into arameic from Ugaritic not from sanskrit . mirjam

Sanskrit was the language from which all others sprang.

Well, all other Indo-European language, that is. And Ugaritic was a Semitic language so it would have come from Proto-Semitic, not Proto-Indo-European.

Then they are a similar thing. The trouble is that I need more. And I have no space to put them. Sigh!

Higs, Katherine

And you have a basement!

My buckets are behind sitting room chairs, in the spare bedroom, in the caravan, in the loft ... One day I'll 'rationalise' ... if I last that long :-)

Mary

Alas, my basement is full of Keith's things. My stuff is in the living room, the spare bedroom, ALL the closets. It is threatening to take over. I am bringing two large bags back to Montreal with me, to give to people, and that will not even make a dent in what I've got. Sigh!

HIgs, Katherine

Not about doing dishes, but your last line reminded me of my parents... they went through hard times (lack of work, money, and food) during and even after the war when my Dad had retired from the Navy. So even after things got better and they both had steady jobs, and right up to their dying day(s)... everytime they went for groceries, they overstocked the cupboards with canned and dried foods. I asked once if they were planning on feeding a couple of troops and my Mom said "When you have lived without for a while, you tend to make sure that never happens again." Although I'm sure we haven't been in quite the same position as they had gone through, we have had hard times... so I remember what my Mom said, and I too tend to do the same thing *when* we can afford to stock the cupboards.

A wise lady.

We've been through hard times in the past, mostly by having too many children in too short a time, but that's not why I stock the pantry with basics. I never want to be without anything to choose from to make a meal. And enough flour of different types takes a lot of space.

Well, I tell myself that's the reason but it's far more prosaic. Neither of us likes shopping so we only go every month or six weeks and stock up :-)

Mary