The Wrigglers of Wormery Hall

Wiggly, Wriggly Babies!

 

McGonks are wee, furry eco-warriors and they love nothing more than to forage for their own food, go beach-combing, search in forests, woods, coves and caves and make use of anything they find. In the land of Frugaldom, the McGonks have a massive estate filled with friends of all shapes and sizes, each with their own little community where nothing ever goes to waste.

The Wrigglers of Wormery Hall were Beag's favourite neighbours, he loved going to visit them, taking them table scraps, shredded papers and even the occasional teabag! It's been a few months since the Wriggler family moved into the lands beyond Thrift Cottage and there was some initial concerns for their safety. Hens, ducks, hedgehogs, badgers, blackbirds and even frogs and foxes love nothing more than a slurpy, tasty worm snack!

Wormery Hall managed to keep the Wriggler family safe without much of a problem. I guess it helps that the worms go into a kind of sleepy hibernation mode when it gets too cold, so the McGonks hadn't seen much of them since the beginning of 2013 and not a sound has been heard. It's now April and it's still minus 5 DegC in the mornings. The ponds are just thawing and there's still so much snow lying that tidying up the garden has been left to the ducks. But it must be warming up, as we met our first lizard this evening, who seemed to be out for a stroll but wih only half of his tail. Curious creatures!

This past week has been sunny and it is beginning to feel rather springlike, especially seeing the lambs playing in the fields. Wormery Hall was stirring into life and calling us to visit!

Carefully, we opened up the door and the McGonks peered inside. Then a squeal of delight! Their wiggly, wriggly friends were giggly! Not only that, hey were all safe and well, busying themselves at work and preparing stock for summer distribution. What. may you ask, might a worm be able to do? Well, the Wrigglers of Wormery Hall have their own little factory where they recycle all those lovely household scraps into 'worm juice'!

But what do you think was the biggest - or you may even say smallest - surprise of all?

Can you see the little red rectangle at the top of the first photo?

This is it enlarged to show you what we could see during today's visit to Wormery Hall: worm babies!

There are hundreds and hundreds of tiny, white baby worms, all eagerly learning how to help make the magic worm juice!

How exciting is that? The McGonks were eccstatic!

McGonks' Christmas Clootie Dumpling

Traditional Scottish Clootie Dumpling

It's Christmas Eve here in Scotland and that means one thing for McGonks - the making of the Christmas clootie dumpling!

 

What is a 'clootie dumpling', you may well ask. Well, a 'cloot' is a cloth and the dumpling is the cakey goodness that gets boiled inside it to make pudding to have as part of the Christmas dinner. It's a really easy recipe and you can mix and match anything you like into the basic 'goo'. We use raisins or sultanas, but you might choose to include chopped nuts, glace cherries, dried mixed fruit or even grated vegetables, seeds or grains. Our 'secret' family recipe can be found here.

 

We sent one of the junior McGonks to fetch the cloot this morning and that was when panic struck the tiny, furry inhabitants of Thrift Cottage - they couldn't find the pudding cloth!

 

"Fear not," declared the wise, red King Ruaidhri, "we'll make a new one!"

 

With that, he began giving instructions to little 'Rory', while the other McGonks scurried around Thrift Cottage looking for suitable materials.

 

We still aren't sure if this will work, but we're trying using a freebie pillowslip that had never been used. It's more of a pillow protector than an actual cotton pillow cover, so it remains to be seen if it will hold the Christmas dumpling together for long enough to cook it! We cut our circle the exact same way we do the Tam o'Shanters, only on a much larger scale! Then we'd to rinse it and scald it in boiling water to ensure it was clean. So far, so good - it didn't disintegrate in the boiling water! (McGonks were banished from the area during the use of scalding water.)

Flour, suet, sugar, spices, raisins, syrup and treacle - these all need to be weighed and then mixed together with some milk to turn it into pudding goo! Ruaidhri junior had great fun bouncing about the bowls, jars and tins, making sure all the right ingredients got added in the right combination and in the right quantities. He was most helpful, only falling into the pudding bowl once - thankfully before the ingredients went into it!

 

Once it was ready to mix with the milk, things go a little bit too sticky and messy for 'Rory' junior, so he was asked to stand back and observe from a safer distance.

 

The pudding got stirred and mixed, stirred and mixed, adding the milk little by little so it didn't turn into a soggy, muddy looking mess. Once it looked good - not too gloopy, not too doughy, the cloot got rung out so it was nice and damp, laid inside a big bowl and then a sprinkling of flour added, which clung to the damp cloth like frost around a freezing glen.

 

The pudding mix was then poured, scraping every last morsel into the 'cloot', then it got tied firmly, with enough space for the goo to slowly turn into a big dumpling. You have to be firm and strict with dumplings! They must be tied in tightly, lest thye attempt to escape or, worse still, break free!

 

Now we have ten McGonks sitting patiently waiting for the dumpling to bump, bubble and boil in the big pan of water, but they'll need to be patient. The dumpling won't be ready to unwrap for at least 3 hours! Let's just hope that it doesn't burst out of its thrifty, homemade cloot before that!

 

With some festive luck, we'll be back later to update you on progress and, hopefully, with a photo of the McGonks' first attempts at making their own Christmas clootie dumpling!

 

McGonks

How to... Make a Tam o'Shanter for your McGonk

Scottish Clan McGonk 'How To...' Guides

Now that you have your wee frugal friend, the Scottish McGonk, you'll need a Tam o'Shanter (traditional Scottish hat), so here's the instructions for an easy to make and very frugal version.

MATERIALS

• An offcut of tartan or tweed coloured material
• Pompom
• Scissors
• Needle
• Thread
• Glue

Tartan material always makes the best Tam o'Shanter

Cut a piece of fabric approximately 17cm square

Fold it into a triangle - 3 folds is usually enough

Trim from corner to corner with circular edges, like a slice of pie

Unfold the 'pie piece' and you should have a rough circle

Keep all your trimmings, as these can be used for stuffing

Find a pompom, or else you could make a tiny one from wool

I was lucky enough to have been given this pompom edging, so I have been cutting the pompoms from that to attach onto the tops of the Tam o'Shanters.

Stitch around the edge of the circle of material. Once you have stitched all the way round, draw the thread tight, so it pulls the fabric together like purse-strings drawing a money bag.

Stitch the folds together around the centre on the underside and this will give you the small, circular hat. Tie the thread off firmly and that's it - all that's needed now is the pompom glued or stitched to the top and hey, presto! A mini Tam o'Shanter for your newly made McGonk. You can either stitch it on or, as I do, glue it in place.

You can use any fabric at all for making the McGonk hats. I use a pastel shade or flowery cotton for the lady McGonks as this gives them little mop caps. (Tam o'Shanters are, or were, normally only worn by the men.)

Have fun making your McGonk and please remember to take a photo and share it with us on the Clan McGonk fan page on Facebook. It can be found at www.facebook.com/ClanMcGonk

Now you are all ready to join the fun in 2013, taking McGonks wherever you go and photographing them. Next year, we'll have an exciting set of competitions for McGonk owners as we follow the explouts of our furry, frugal little friends as they branch out and spread around the globe.

If you'd prefer to buy a handmade Scottish McGonk, I will happily make one for you and list it in the new frugal store, along with any others I have available. Check out the Frugal Shop at www.frugalshop.co.uk

Watch out, McGonks about! and they're hopefully coming to a town near you.

Ruaidhri McGonk
The Red King
www.mcgonks.com

How to... Make your own Frugal McGonk in 10 Easy Steps

How to Make a Frugal McGonk

 

Please remember that the McGonks are not toys.

Children should always be supervised when crafting.
 

Some people accuse us Scots of being mean, but we prefer to think of ourselves as frugal. We try to lead a 'waste not, want not' lifestyle here at Thrift Cottage, so every little bit of anything counts in the quest for frugal fun.

 

If you have anything left over that can be made into something else, then it can be rather fun getting crafty and making the most of what you've got.

 

This is the part 1 of 2, showing you in easy to follow steps how to make your very own McGonk using nothing more than bits, bobs, scraps and offcuts.

 

MATERIALS

• Offcut of fleece or furry fabric, approximately 12cm x 24cm
• Small piece of black felt, fabric or cardboard
• Small piece of white felt, fabric or cardboard
• Button for nose
• Oblong piece of firm cardboard for base
• Needle and thread



STEP 1 - Gather your materials together.

STEP 2 - Lay out your fabric then fold it in half, so the fur is inside.

STEP 3 - Stitch along both edges to form the body, leaving the bottom open.

STEP 4 - Turn the fabric inside out, this is the body of your frugal mcgonk.

STEP 5 - Prepare your stuffing - I just shred some old paper but you can use anything available.

STEP 6 - Stuff the body of the frugal mcgonk, leaving about 1cm at the end.

STEP 7 - Stitch around the edge and then draw the thread tight to pull the ends together before stitching this all flat.

STEP 8 - Cut your cardboard base into an oval shape - I include a nick in the middle to make the front edge look like mcgonk's feet.



STEP 9 - Glue the cardboard base onto the bottom of your frugal mcgonk so it stands upright on its own. (I use my hot glue gun for this but any glue should do.

STEP 10 - Cut two ovals about the width of a penny from black card/fabric/felt and two much smaller circles from the white. Glue these onto the mcgonk, along with a button for a nose. You can also use smaller buttons for eyes - this one has beads in the middle of its felt eyes for a good reason.

Hoots, maun, there's a moose, loose, aboot this hoose... and Owl McGonk has spotted it!

 

In the next part, I'll show you a quick and easy way to make your frugal McGonk friend a bonny Tam o'Shanter hat.

 

Until then, 

Frugaldom. :)