A bit more about myself.I am approaching the big 80 in a month. I wish I wasn't! My days are full & interesting.Since 1957 when I contracted polio and my 2 children Christine then 5 & her brother Charles almost 3, I have had to cope with a lot of disability. My right side was the worst affected unfortunately giving me almost no use of my right hand & a bad limp.

I was born in England,the middle child of three. My sister died when she was 3 and my brother when he was19. I lived mostly on the outskirts of London. That was until the outbreak of World War 2. My brother & I were sent to live with my grandmother in Sussex by the sea.That didn't last long as France became occupied by the Germans only a few miles across the sea from us which meant we had to move again. My brothers school was evacuated to Wales & as my parents wanted us to be near each other, I was billeted on a farm near to the school. That was such a lucky experience for me as I am so fond of animals. What could be better than farm life & of course an ample supply of farm food in spite of food rationing.

I learnt to milk the cows, herd & dip the sheep,feed the pigs & even sow the seed by hand for the coming season & many other farm tasks. Horse riding was my greatest love. There was a cart horse on the farm but being near to my brothers school I was allowed to ride their horses.

Of course I had to go to school! I started off in the village school that was only one room divided by a curtain. I was later sent to a convent about 10 miles away as a weekly boarder. I never liked school except for sport, gym & art.My father gave me opportunity to take craft lessons at the school on Saturday mornings. I loved those mornings doing pewter,poker and leather work.My art lessons were great too. I spent a lot of time drawing & painting. I was not taught how to sew as one would expect in a convent. We all had to knit for the armed forces making balaclavas, scarves & socks. The scarves were easy,and had to be a certain length.We cheated by pulling them to the right length when the nuns were not looking.

I started nursing back home just before the end of the war.I was just 16. I was put on night duty which didn't please my parents. I was too young they said. I then started to work on a local farm but did not have much to do with the animals. My father decided to buy a farm in Buckinghamshire where I could keep my horse. He wanted pigs & I had to look after them. There's a long story about that. The care of the pigs was short lived.At 17 and a half I took up nursing again, training for the next 3 years.The happiest years of my life.

At 22 I had met & married my South African husband who was employed by South African Airways. I arrived in S A with my six week old daughter during a wet November to a lot of red mud every where. Where was this beautiful country I had longed to come to?!

At nearly 28 & with the 2 children I contracted the dreaded polio bug. The children had had their vaccines but there was nothing for the grown- ups until 3 months later. Too late for me. After four months in hospital having very intensive physio I was allowed home. I simply had to do something with my hands but had to learn to be left handed first. Then I had to use them.My school years of arts & crafts were re- kindled. I took art lessons & tried canvas work mostly doing Florentine embroidery because of the long stitches. We had Labrador dogs, rabbits budgies, and Guinea pigs to satisfy my love of animals. I kept a beautiful garden helped by a one handed gardener.Together we tied up the tomato plants, each with our one hand.He was a wizard compost maker strapping his hand to the fork with a length of inner tubing.

Retirement and a move to Cape Town came about. My daughter was married and living there as was my son. We joined the local church and it was there that I met the dearest lady who taught me a great deal about canvas work. She was so kind and patient with me. Always encouraging and praising my feeble efforts until I do what I do today.Some examples on Skinnylaminx web site. Another kind teacher taught me even more of a modern type of canvas embroidery. She has written a book called The Liberated Canvas.

Another move to a lovely retirement complex with a bigish house and a large garage where my husband built model gliders. I bought a computer and nearly threw it out of the window! My 5 grand children came to the rescue and gave me lots of advice. Now I can't live without the darn thing! Sadly my husband Edward passed away nearly five years ago. I still miss him so much. We were able to fly overseas for free and had long holidays in South Africa motoring all over the country and beyond.He cared for me for 47 years of polio and 54 years of marriage.He was a wonderfully kind man.

As a conerned ecologist and recycler I bought a bucket of worms,fixed up a black box to put them into it and so started my worm farming escapade in the garage. They consume all of my fresh kitchen waste and other peoples too. Supply me with the best liquid fertilizer in the world and occasionally a bucket of their wonderful compost. I have five bins of my own. My one helper/carer Christina has two on the go.She works alternate weeks and fertilizes her veg garden in the township with the vermitea she takes home every week.The other helper/carer Gale has one bin,has no garden but just wanted to have her own farm. Gale even talks to the worms!
We share the profits from the sale of worms taking it in turns to have the sale. I keep one of my bins in a drawer in my offce to prove that there is no odour from the worms! I even have a crop of maggots in a buckt that will multiply in a few months. When I have more than enough I will feed the wild birds with them. My other animals are two speyed/neutered cats abandoned when their other carer died. They are wild,live outside but come for their pellets every evening and are a picture of health.

That's all from me for now.

Beryl

pondoki worms

I'm quite elderly & enjoy writing especially about my hobbies & most of all my compost worms.I have been growing them for more than a year now & keep most of them in small 25ltr converted black plasic containers. They are fed on kitchen vegetable & fruit waste that I store weekly in the fridge as I only feed them once a week. In return they produce vermitea that is a wonderful fertilizer when diluted. I eventually harvest after quite a few months, their castings that is an even beter fertilizer. If I have a response to this blog with questions asked I will gladly give more details. At the moment I have many worms for sale.