Loved that story of your friend and her parents. A Scottish...

Loved that story of your friend and her parents. A Scottish friend of mine who has now lived in Australia for many, many years and now with grandchildren of secondary school ages told me that her parents needed to be super frugal. Her father and a friend found an abandoned spinning wheel. They used to pick wool stuck on fences or on bushes and they'd card and spin it, for wives to knit jumpers for their children. Rough and undyed but she remembered they were warm. I love the fact that Beatrix Potter left much of her estate on death to the care and breeding of the Herdwick sheep, and she's the reason they are still alive and thriving today.
If Patons still sold Herdwick, they,'d be perfect for slippers, gloves and seriously protective from the cold jackets.

An aside. My brother I had not seen for some 14 years but now communicating quite regularly. When we met up, I was very surprised as he had lost his paunch shape altogether and quite slim. He had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes decades ago. I was curious. Admitted weekend drinking with a son doesn't happen now and as he's aged, he simply eats much less. Very casually added, diabetes gone.... I have never spoken about this to him since.
It seems he takes walks regularly, something he once considered to be pointless as never sporty nor interested in exercise....

ps Harris Tweed from their sheep? How lovely....