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Hints and Things - Nursery SectionJune describes herself as "a plump, grey, wrinkly living in South East England who until my retirement in 2004 worked full time and I run a web site called Hints and Things." June felt that once a certain amount of knowledge has been acquired on any subject it is easy to forget what it is like to be a complete novice and places to find this type of advice seemed few and far between. Here she tells us the history of her site and what it has to offer. "I set up Hints and Things in 2000 purely as a hobby and one of the main reasons I decided to develop this site, was the lack of basic information available on any given subject.The sort of wisdom that used to be passed down from generation to generation but I feared was being lost in today’s fast living society. This applies to everything from gardening, woodwork, cookery, computers etc. This was highlighted when my daughter, having just left home,asked me what "simmering" meant - a term an experienced cook takes for granted and very few cookbooks explain. This reflects more on my mothering skills than from your daughter’s lack of intelligence as she is a very accomplished lady having two First degrees and is now a UK pharmacist. I then experienced the same thing when speaking to a computer software help desk, having just upgraded from DOS to Windows - "Click on File" the young man said - Do what? Where? Even knitting patterns give you the explanation of the various abbreviations used but don’t explain how these are carried out e.g. p.s.s.o. = pass slipped stitch over - but how? This was where the germ of an idea began, however, once I got started there were more and more things I wanted to include and I have, therefore, somewhat diversified from my original idea. The ethos of the site remains, however, that is to provide clear, concise, practical, easy to assimilate information and advice suitable for everyone irrespective of age or gender." The site is set out in a house floor plan which allows for all the various information, advice, hints and tips to be found more easily. The Nursery houses childcare and parenting advice such as -
There is also a search facility which helps if it is unclear where to look. "I had not anticipated its success as it receives nearly 500,000 visitors per month and has been featured on local/national radio, press, magazine: I also did some slots on This Morning TV with Fern and Phil (I am Web Granny). I was even more surprised by the number of messages received from people requesting help with various problems ranging from “how do I get rid of head lice?”, “why won’t my car start?”, “how to clean headstones” to “how do you get rid of skunk smells? I don’t profess to know all the answers but I always do my very best to find solutions to any given problem and I respond to every message received personally and as quickly as possible. This is usually within 24 hours. I think it is this aspect which has proved so successful as, these days it is very difficult to get anyone to listen to our problems and virtually impossible to get any help. This is the side of the site I enjoy the most as I have always loved researching information, originally via books but now the internet provides a personal reference library without having to go out of the front door - this suits me perfectly. One of the nicest messages I received was from a student who said it was like having an online Granny - so I suppose must be doing something right!" Visit www.hintsandthings.com |