The Mistress of the Little House

The Mistress of the Little House, edited by Flora Klickmann, is a 1915 housekeeping guide.

The introduction says:
"This book is not intended to be an exhaustive treatise on household management. It is merely a collection of practical talks on domestic topics for those educated women who cannot afford to keep a properly trained servant, and have to do most of the housework themselves."

It's really interesting, and definitely makes you appreciate all the mod cons we have these days that make things so much easier - and mean servants are thankfully a thing of the past.

Here are a couple of advertisements from the back of the book, showing pre-electric kettle and toaster solutions!

Feed the birds

Winter is the time of year when birds need our help the most, as their natural food sources become more scarce.
Please help them out by putting some food and water out for them.

Robin

If on a frosty morning
the robin redbreast calls
his waistcoat red and burning
like a beggar at your walls

throw breadcrumbs on the grass for him
when the ground is hard and still
for in his breast there is a flame
that winter cannot kill.

By Iain Crichton Smith, taken from My Very First Poetry Book

Words of the Week: Week 11

01/12/14 to 07/12/14

Monday: syllabub - A whipped cream dessert, typically flavoured with white wine or sherry

Tuesday: bemire - Cover or stain with mud: e.g. 'his shoes were bemired from travelling on foot'

Wednesday: émigré - A person who has left their own country in order to settle in another, typically for political reasons: e.g. 'Soviet émigrés and defectors'

Thursday: Pollyanna - An excessively cheerful or optimistic person: e.g. 'what I am saying makes me sound like some ageing Pollyanna who just wants to pretend that all is sweetness and light'

Friday: disconsolate - Very unhappy and unable to be comforted: e.g. 'she left Fritz looking disconsolate'

Saturday: controvert - Deny the truth of (something): e.g. 'subsequent work from the same laboratory controverted these results'

Sunday: sangfroid - Composure or coolness shown in danger or under trying circumstances

Words and definitions from Oxford Dictionaries Online's Word of the Day.

Playing with this week's words!

• She was disconsolate that her outfit was bemired
• Even being bemired couldn't stop her being a Pollyanna
• Despite those determined to controvert her work, she retained her sangfroid

The last full moon of 2014

It's a full moon tonight, the last of 2014!

In honour of the occasion, here's a moon themed poem from My Very First Poetry Book :-)

Humpty Dumpty went to the moon

Humpty Dumpty went to the moon
on a supersonic spoon.
He took some porridge and a tent
but when he landed
the spoon got bent.
Humpty said he didn't care
and for all I know
he's still up there.

By Michael Rosen

The pen is mightier than the sword!

A.k.a. ... Knight vs. Shakespeare!

Sir Winter, by Jean Kenward

Sir Winter

I heard Sir Winter coming.
He crept out of his bed
and rubbed his thin and freezing hands:
I'll soon be up! he said.

'I'll shudder at the keyhole
and rattle at the door,
I'll strip the trees of all their leaves
and strew them on the floor;

'I'll harden every puddle
that Autumn thinks is his -
I'll lay a sparkling quilt of snow
on everything that is!

'I'll bring a load of darkness
as large as any coal,
and drive my husky dogs across
the world, from pole to pole.

'Oho! How you will shiver!'
And then I heard him say:
'But in the middle of it all
'I'll give you
CHRISTMAS DAY!'

By Jean Kenward, taken from My Very First Poetry Book

Words of the Week: Week 10

24/11/14 to 30/11/14

Monday: prepotent - Greater than others in power or influence: e.g. 'Frankly, the prepotent title he goes under isn't enough to lend his argument any legitimacy'

Tuesday: sacerdotal - Relating to priests or the priesthood; priestly

Wednesday: Sprachgefühl - Intuitive feeling for the natural idiom of a language: e.g. 'it’s not genes or culture but Sprachgefühl that sets the French apart from the Finns'

Thursday: peart - Lively; cheerful: e.g. 'the man was right peart in his walking'

Friday: jaunt - A short excursion or journey made for pleasure: e.g. 'her regular jaunts to Europe'

Saturday: boscage - A mass of trees or shrubs: e.g. 'the view from the house is obscured by boscage'

Sunday: astrogation - (In science fiction) navigation in outer space: e.g. 'I need you to run the astrogation computers for the descent'

Words and definitions from Oxford Dictionaries Online's Word of the Day.