Ephemera

White Dutch Clover (Fowles)

If you have even a scerrick of Fowles or Lorkin blood in your body, you may devotedly and dearly love gardening… Its in your DNA… So, the next time you are weeding and you come across this blessed little beauty! “White Dutch clover” and you are wringing your hands as to how to ‘get out’ this little weedy critter. I’d just like to tell you that the Fowles settlers in Ferndale planted this with the devoted wish that it would flourish and provide feed for their animals. Their greatest annoyance that the wombats would come and eat it before the animals got a feed! Want to know more? read HERE. I like to just let mine have its head ‘a little’ in my garden now as a reminder of those ancestors who prized it so much.

White Dutch Clover

The Genealogist's Poem
If you could see your ancestors all standing in a row, 
would you be proud of them or not;
or don't you really know?
Some strange discoveries are made in climbing family trees,
but some of them perhaps do not particularly please.
If you could see your ancestors all standing in a row,
there might be some of them perhaps you wouldn't want to know;
But there's another question which requires a different view.
If you could meet your ancestor's would they be proud of you?
- author unknown.

Vesper Cocktail ( Helmrich, Whitehead)

During her working life Neva Whitehead (Helmrich) often worked in cocktail Bar’s and in the 1960’s invented her own cocktail which I’m told was quite popular! It was inspired by a James Bond movie and was called a Vesper.

1 part gin

2 parts vodka

1/2, 1 part dry Vermouth

1/2 1 part lemon cordial

top with lemonade over ice.

The following recipe by Mrs A.G. Kingshott one third prize in a cooking contest!

Third prize is awarded to Mrs. A. G. Kingshott of Watheroo, Midland Railway for this recipe. 20 September 1914 – Sunday Times

Moon Pudding (Kingshott)

Beat to a cream 1 pound of fresh butter; mix with it by degrees an equal quantity of powdered sugar; add to this the yolks of two egs and then the whites. Shake in lightly 1/2 pound of flour well sifted. Then add 1 pound of raisins chopped small a little mace and the rind of a small citron grated. Butter a mould and strew it thickly over with candied orange lemon or citron peel. Put in the pudding and boil for three hours. Serve with custard sauce.

A song (Ballad) about the fine folk from the Lyne of Skene (Hellmrech & Simmers would count).

THE BODIES O’ THE LYNE O’ SKENE.

Lang may he live to crack and joke Wi’ bodies o’ the Lyne o’ Skene. Auld farran, &c. For Craigiedarg, I’ll ne’er forget, Wi’ kindly welcome sets you down— An’ Bervie, Corskie, Waterton Shall mingle in my namely tune. Back Ward, Blue Park, the merchant’s folk, Hae ever kind and cantie been— An’ lang may Marshal’s humour please The bodies o’ the Lyne o’ Skene. Auld farran, &c. There’s tailors, souters, wrights, an’ smiths, Like brithers kind hae been to me, And lealer hearts ye widna fin ‘Atween the banks o’ Don and Dee. The Fornets gran’ I maun bring in ‘Afore my ravel’t rhyme be deen, An cottage bodies warm my heart Like bodies o’ the Lyne o’ Skene. Auld farran, & When frosty fogs bedim the moss, An’ little Robin ‘s nearly dumb— Or storms drive o’er frae Wardis braes, An’ roar like thunder o’er the lum ; The tempests sweep the leafless woods, And bend an’ brak the firs sae green, Yet cosh and cosie here I sit ‘Mang bodies o’ the Lyne o’ Skene. Auld farran, & May health and peace their steps attend, And plenty ever swell their store— And friendship true and love’s warm glow Spring in their heart for evermore; May a’ their hopes wi’ joy be crown’d, May sorrow never dim their e’en— The open-handed, kindly-hearted Bodies o’ the Lyne o’ Skene. Auld farran, & May corn an’ cattle ever thrive, An’ kirns an’ girnals ne’er gae deen, An’ layin’ hens and heavy calves, An’ kebbucks like the harvest meen, An’ taty pits like giants’ graves, An’ kail an’ clover ever green, An’ buckin’ stacks and towerin’ rucks, Be ever in the Lyne o’ Skene. Auld farran, &c.

W. CHISHOLM.- A. KING AND CO., PRINTERS, ABERDEEN.