Skip to main content

Farming the Past

I'm a lover of all things Victorian, so when Maria recommended a BBC series called Victorian Farm some years ago I jumped right on watching it. That's how I fell in love with the trio of Ruth Goodman, Peter Ginns and Alex Langlands, a historian and two archaeologists who chose to live as Victorian farmers for a full calendar year on a Victorian-era farm. They must grow crops, rear livestock and attend to all the necessities of life without electricity, running water or indoor plumbing.

It's absolutely fascinating to see three modern and very knowledgeable people manage living in conditions that take life backward 150 years, but they do a grand job of it.

That wonderful viewing experience prompted me to watch Edwardian Farm, which reunites the trio to live as farmers did in the Edwardian age at the turn of the last century. I can't imagine spending a year of life doing such hard work, but they seem to enjoy the challenges. In this series you see innovations and technology gradually taking over rural life, but it's still very much a day-to-day struggle.

Finally the three reunite again for the series Wartime Farm, which show what farmers had to cope with when England entered WWII. Government taking control of farms, trying to meet the ordered increased productions, rationing, the blitz, and even covert military operations make it even harder to survive, much less thrive. It's a wonderful glimpse of a side of the great war that few often see.

All of these series are currently available on Tubi, where you can watch them for free. I'm slowly working my way through each series every night so I can revisit my three favorite UK farmers. Highly recommended.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Goodwill Gamble #2 Arrives

My second Goodwill gamble arrived; this is one I paid ten bucks for last month. Just inside the lid was a big roll of plastic mesh that I think is for latchhook work. In the auction listing it looked like fabric to me, so that was unexpected. Someone at the seller's end was nice enough to put a note on this pinned fabric. I'll put on my gloves before I take it out to inspect it. The embroidered green fabric turned out to be 1-1/2 yards of sequinned and three-dimensional designer fabric. I'll guess this cost somewhere between $20.00 to $30.00 a yard, and it's in pristine condition. But here's a shot of everything in the lot, which is mostly crafty odds and ends with a small amount of cotton fabrics, a large amount of synethetic fabrics, and some other surprises. The original owner of these was probably a Catholic school teacher; these beads, crosses and medallions are the kind of rosary kits for kids to make at Sunday school or Bible camp (and s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Love Means This

Invested in a couple of hand-dyed bundles from one of my favorite fabric artists. This one said "Make me into something for Valentine's Day." So I went for a quilted and embellished tote. I kept thinking about what love means to me as I worked on it. Here's the finished tote. Although I was tempted to embellish with beads and pins, I got sick and only felt well enough to do a little stitching every night. As I worked I thought about how often love seems disappointing to us, especially when it fails to live up to our expectations. But now that I've experienced love in many forms, I can say that it's made me a better person than I might have been without it. Love is a precious thing, and should be appreciated in all its forms. I am very grateful for the love of my guy, my child and my friends who have stuck with me all these years. That's you two, in case you're wondering. :) Also finally found something to do with a ve...
1 comment
Read more

Fabscrap for 2023

In December I made two orders from Fabscrap. The first arrived with this giant spool of variegated taupe yarn; it's more than enough to make a nice big wrap or a lap blanket. I also added two pounds of mendable sample garment tops in this particular order. I made a mistake and clicked on large for the size, and then later read that they were out of stock. I expected they would backorder my order, but instead they made some delightful substitutions. This pretty pink top doesn't need any mending or alteration. This is a dress, I believe, and it looks to be in perfect condition, too. A white eyelet blouse, also in new condition. Keep in mind that all these garments are $8.00 a pound, which works out to $4.00 each for this order. That's cheaper than Goodwill. I even got a coat. That neon green faux fur on the cuffs definitely has to go, but I love the coat. This is a yard pack of neutral naturals. The linen alone (on the right) is worth about $25....
Post a Comment
Read more