This fascinating compilation of accumulated wisdom includes traditional sayings and superstitions to explain whether, and why, they still work today. With advice on the practical necessities of cooking, gardening, housekeeping and health, as well as proverbial wisdom concerning good behaviour for children, adults and life in general. AUTHOR: Ruth Binney has been studying the countryside and nature for over 50 years. She holds a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and has been involved in countless publications during her career as an editor. She is the also a bestselling author having published numerous books on the gardening, countryside, country sayings and customs. Ruth lives in Yeovil, Somerset. 100 b/w illustrations

From the 1880s to the end of World War I, the fashionable resort of Bar Harbor attracted thousands of summer visitors with the money and leisure to pursue "the simple life on a grand scale," as A. Atwater Kent put it. They came to rusticate, dance, sail, picnic, flirt--and they did it all with style. Many relaxed at Bar Harbor's lavish hotels, while others built even more lavish and fanciful "cottages" for their own summer retreats. That dazzling era is just a memory now. The Depression and World War II undermined the summer colony, and the Great Fire of 1947 dealt the final blow. Those summer homes and hotels that survived the blaze generally succumbed to changing times, and only a handful stand today. Eighty-six vanished summer palaces are pictured in Lost Bar Harbor. Many never before published photographs from the Bar Harbor Historical Society are supplemented by lively text describing the estates and their colorful inhabitants. It is the most comprehensive collection of early Bar Harbor photographs ever assembled, providing an unparalleled glimpse of one of the world's great resort communities.