A TYPICAL Friday morning for the O'Shanes would see Jim calling his donkey, Jacob, who would come walking up to the gate as soon as he heard his name called, allowing Jim to put his halter on and lead him into the wooden stable where he knew there would be a small feed of crushed oats waiting for him.

While the donkey was eating Jim would give his coat a brush, then he would leave Jacob tethered while he went into the house to the breakfast his sister Madge would have prepared.

After the meal they would both get ready in their "going to village clothes".

While his sister put whatever she was taking into a large square basket, Jim would go out to put on Jacob's harness, taking particular care to fix the two little bells on top of the donkey's bridle.

Jim would then take Jacob out and yoke him into the little donkey cart.

When Madge was safely seated with her basket at her feet, Jim would lead Jacob over the wooden bridge, hand the leather reins to Madge while he climbed onto the seat beside her then, after taking over the reins, off they would go.

Often they would call on friends on their way, just for a few minutes chat and to rest their donkey a while.

In the basket Madge may have a little home-made butter and a few eggs to give to someone unwell and, in summer, there could be a bunch of Jim's sweet peas.

He always said he was not much of a chap for growing flowers, but he did like sweet peas.

As it happened he was quite an expert at growing them, the stems were always strong

with many brightly-coloured flowers on them.

He said he had not any secrets, but he always worked some fishmeal into the soil before he sowed them.

In season, they would often take some soft fruits to give away.

At times Jim would say, "If thou loads any more into this basket, I'm going to hev to put some wheels on it."

Sometimes they might refer to the basket as the " wisket," another old dialect word again having origin in Old Norse.

Jim probably noticed the wisket was heavier when it had a bottle or two of nettle beer in it.

One particular hot day, a bottle of nettle beer must have got a good shaking up on the way to the village, for the cork blew off with quite a bang.

Jim said that was the only time he ever remembered the old donkey breaking into a gallop.

That reminds me, a reader asked if nettle beer was the same as herb beer.

The answer is no, they are entirely different.

An old country recipe for herb beer is an follows:

Take a small bunch of mixed herbs such as parsley, thyme, mint and sage etc, 1oz of hops, 2 gallons (16 pints) water, 2lb sugar and oz of yeast.

Put the herbs and hops in water and boil for an hour.

Straining into the sugar and stir well until dissolved.

Allow mixture to cool then add yeast.

Let the liquid stand for 12 hours before bottling.

Makes 16 pints.

When at last they reached the store cum post office, after tying Jacob to a handy pillar, Jim would go in to draw the pensions while Madge gave her list of requirements to the shopkeeper, who duly loaded them into her large basket.

If the shop was not too busy they would have a bit of a "crack" before stowing the basket and themselves into the cart and heading for Bluebell Cottage which, of course, was home.

Jacob needed no encouraging for he looked forward to the freedom of his paddock.

Once home and unloaded and Jacob grazing contentedly, they would have a handy meal of oatcake and cheese with perhaps some fruit pie to follow and, of course, plenty of hot tea.

Just enough to keep them going until supper time.

Thought for the day: For sale pair of shoes size 8.

Very good condition, particularly the brown one.