Having worked my way through a whole bed, and finally crawled out, taken a leak, and now sitting in the warm kitchen with a cuppa Irish Breakfast tea, I have come to inform you of my renewed admiration for the snow struggle of some: See here.
I had no idea how bad the situation was in some parts! I may have not quite understood Piglettian and others' stuggle. Those images really tell a different story of whole blocks of ice and snow. My apoplexies!
In other news, a wet, stormy few days over 'ere, lows at night around freezing, at daytime low to high one-digits C, more rain, possibly some snow. Ach well. At least the days are getting noticeably longer, which is pleasant.
There's snow on the hills. Not quite down here, though we did have a light dusting very early in the morning, but its gone now. And the sun is out, for a bit!
Leeks with ham and cheese, yum.
My lunch was falafel, houmous and chapatti, followed by a fruit salad which was a colourful mix of red grapes, watermelon, honeydew melon, pineapple, apple and kiwi fruit, toppled with yoghurt. Hubby cooked a lovely cottage pie for tea and I turned some stale chocolate cake into a bread and butter pudding-style dessert. So we are well feasted.
If you ever fancy a visitor for food consider me eager - sounds amazing!
A great French classic entrée for small leeks: poireaux vinaigrette.
Steam the leeks whole until tender. Make a mustard vinaigrette: a couple of teaspoons of mustard with a dessert spoon of vinegar, salt and pepper. Beat in olive oil a little at a time so that it emulsifies. The exact quantity of oil I couldn't tell you - I always judge by the smell. If it still smells of vinegar it will take more oil. Be careful not to overbeat and make it split.
Serve the leeks warm with the vinaigrette poured over the top.
O fie upon the lot of you! All this talk of Luxurious Food, with Lent upon us!
There was indeed CHOCOLATE CAKE to go with coffee after Mass today (well, it is Sunday), but I austerely refrained, and went for a slice of FRUIT CAKE instead.
One of my 5-a-day, of course, and to help with my Medication.
We nearly had to get dug out one day earlier this year - as both our outside doors have storm doors that open outwards, when we got about a foot-plus of snow one day (with extra from drifting), we couldn't open either of them. Fortunately they're glazed, and the lower windows are openable, so we opened it, cut out the fly-screen and were able to climb out and clear the snow away.
It's still jolly cold here: it was -22° when I got up, and has now reached the giddy heights of -10°, but if the forecasters are right, we should be warming up quite a bit next week - with rain next weekend, which should see off at least some of the snow.
I know I'm usually a lover of cool weather, but this winter's been so long and so frigid, spring can't come soon enough!
ION, I've had some raisins soaking in Pimm's for about a week, and tomorrow I'm going to introduce them to some other ingredients for the production of CAKE. Surely (as BF suggested) CAKE with fruit in it is suitably Lenten?
I spent 40 minutes waiting for a bus this morning (the app kept promising it would be along in 10) in the cold.
By the time I was having lunch with a friend it was sleeting. Horizontally.
By the time I was coming home (via another quarter of an hour at the bus stop) my gloved hands were unfortunately not numb enough to obscure the pain.
Dinner - parma-wrapped monkfish with roast tomatoes and potato rösti since you ask - will be the peg on which to hang a bottle of wine and a large gin.
That sounds like an eminently sensible way of combatting any incipient frostbite.
We went to a chain-restaurant called Swiss Chalet for lunch, and I had rotisserie-roasted beef with garlic prawns and rice, which was actually much nicer than it sounds. I also fought off the frostbite with a couple of glasses of Canadian merlot, which was very nice indeed.
Swiss Chalet isn't haute cuisine by any stretch, but it's all right once in a while.
Well, after a good start to the year I’m quite glad this weekend is over. Friday I overloaded my bike with jams & pickles so it teetered when I stopped at a junction & I went with it. Saturday I woke with a mini-migraine so was fragile all day. Today, when I began the drive to church my car complained rather noisily (expensively,I suspect) about the pot hole I’d driven it into a few days ago. I shelved my trip to church but still had to go to the Big City to usher in the afternoon, so went by train which was seriously delayed because of the wind, and when I got to the theatre discovered they didn’t really need me.
So tomorrow I’ll be investigating a bike that fits me (I think the frame on mine is slightly too big) and seeing when my lovely garage can look at the car. Then I’ll go back to bed with the quilt over my head.
Monkfish and rosti sounds like my idea of a meal, I love fish.
Mr Heavenly made tea for us. He made Bloody Mary soup (courtesy of our veg box), it was a mix of tomatoes, celery and chilli, finished with grated horseradish and lime - no vodka. It was pleasantly warming. Then we had Moroccan spiced chicken, couscous and green salad.
Nightmare about the car, Daisy. I hope you can find the time to recuperate. (Our car is going to get a new tyre tomorrow as last week it was punctured by a bolt).
Thanks for the r&r and GIN wishes - I think the latter is most likely as it’s a busy week ahead. The car goes noisily to the garage later this morning, appointment to be made with doc to see why knee hurts after the bike incident. Then off to the allotment to make the most of this glorious sunshine - admin can wait until tomorrow’s rain!
I’ve done my weekly admin and planning, then had a walk in the glorious sunshine. I’m now having a tea break before phoning a fellow tutor to agree a tutorial plan for next week. Then it’s back to the marking pit after lunch.
(Lunch is New Covent Garden classic chicken soup).
There are some things better than freshly made veg biryani made by Visiting Aunties, but not many (and one of then if reheated biryani). Last night we ate it with a dish of turkey cooked with red peppers and olive achar (pickle). Today will be with some sort of tomato-based stew. It smells lovely. I'll attempt to waft the scent to you all over the internet.
Well, the car stopped screeching the minute I'd driven out of my road, and the garage confirmed all is OK. Why do machines do this?!? So in celebration of not having to spend lots on the car I visited a cycle shop in the Big City and tried one of these which was a tad too large so not actually improving on my current bike where I had to be on tip toes to touch the ground, and one of these which has a strange cycling position because the crank is forward rather than fairly close to the saddle, a bit like riding a Harley (an "easy rider" bike?) or a western horse saddle. And I am now the nervous/proud/surprised owner of the latter which will be delivered later this afternoon - I am toying with names of my new steed, possibly Trigger, Silver or Duke. I'll see what fits, meanwhile I'm practising "yee ha".
That looks like a sensible sort of steed for getting around Heavenlyannieville! Happy biking/triking to you and to Daisydaisy!
Chicken, tomatoes and baked potatoes have been consumed for lunch, and butter, cream cheese and eggs are coming to room temperature for the production of CAKE.
D's been roped into leading a paper-bag choir, the idea being that individually they couldn't carry a tune in a paper bag, but collectively they can sing, and their first meeting is tonight.
He's not at all sure about the idea, but I suppose we'll see. I'm not sure whether to go or not - as singing is the only thing I'm any good at, I don't suppose I qualify ...
It looks like a lovely day, and according to Environment Canada, it's +5°, which is positively tropical!
If it'll just stay that way long enough to get rid of the sn*w ...
I would love one like that, but living in a first floor flat with a stair, hall and cupboards all abundantly cluttered...
(Also Edinburgh is a far cry from Cambridge when it comes to being bikeable. Or even trikeable.)
My son lives in a block of five flats and each has separate bike storage units. But it is Germany, where cyclists are much better catered for. If I lived there I’ll have a trike just like @Heavenlyannie ‘s. As it is it’s not safe round here at all. Mr Boogs cycles a lot - often 100km a day - but never in this country. All his training is done at the gym!
Lovely trike @Heavenlyannie. I’d never find anywhere to store a trike at home so am thankful I can do 2 wheels. The new one just about fits in my bike shed, but I’ve had to put the old one in the garage while I decide what to do with that one. I’m hoping I can pedal Trigger/Silver/Duke up the part of the final uphill stretch of my journey home from town - I don’t expect it to do what feels to me the near vertical very final bit which happens to be outside a friend’s house so I suspect she thinks I push my bike all the way up the hill!
Super day today - sunny and windy, so I got two loads of washing through the machine and dried them both outdoors.
I also got a good dose of vitamin D in the time I spent pegging them on the clothesline and taking them in again.
I have a tricycle because my anxiety issues due to my bipolar disorder meant I never learnt to ride a bike. But it’s very handy too. Cambridge is also a great place to be a cyclist, very flat, lots of dedicated cycle paths and everyone cycles. Having a tricycle isn’t even odd here, I often see other people on them and lots of the parents have very flashy European child carrying bikes.
The cargo/freight bikes that I saw in Amsterdam are beginning to appear in the Big City now - the place I bought my German bike from is about to launch zero emission delivery with 2 well known parcel companies. They also have a few styles of cargo bikes to hire/buy, as well as an ice cream bike. I loved the bikes that I saw in Amsterdam full of children being pushed along.
The cargo/freight bikes that I saw in Amsterdam are beginning to appear in the Big City now - the place I bought my German bike from is about to launch zero emission delivery with 2 well known parcel companies. They also have a few styles of cargo bikes to hire/buy, as well as an ice cream bike. I loved the bikes that I saw in Amsterdam full of children being pushed along.
Are those the same as the grocery delivery bikes in the UK that used to endanger traffic and sometimes have spectacular overturning accidents in the early fifties? I remember my mother losing a dozen eggs that way when the delivery boy didn't quite make it to our house.
Today's meeting of our U3A Poetry group has been cancelled
Four people cried off with legitimate excuses, and it seemed a bit pointless to hold it with just two of us, especially as the other would have to battle her way through Storm Gareth on the bus to get here (and buses have been known to blow over along the coast road).
Hey Ho! It will still be Lent when we meet next, so we can still read our Lenten poems. Those hours of research will not be completely wasted.
Are those the same as the grocery delivery bikes in the UK that used to endanger traffic and sometimes have spectacular overturning accidents in the early fifties? I remember my mother losing a dozen eggs that way when the delivery boy didn't quite make it to our house.
These new delivery bikes are much more stable, with a longer wheel base and (luxury!) gears and, I suspect, a lower centre of gravity. I think the grocers “boy” would be very happy with one.
I’ve been to Cambridge and cyclists - or, as I think of them, Mad Buggers on Wheels - swoop down at you from all directions.
But from the point of view of the cyclist - all those flamin' pedestrians in the way. We used to give ourselves extra points for getting the tourists.
I cycle down a steep hill to go to a school where I am an exam invigilator, and the most frequent target is students (potentially mine) stepping out into the road suddenly. Strong words have been said in the heat of the moment more than once.
I see several of that Dutch style carrier with children every morning. We have lots of Europeans round here, especially academics and doctors.
I’m supposed to be marking today but next door have the builders in and they are drilling. So it looks like a day off for me.
I'm the World's Most Reluctant Shopper, so maybe I should take a puppy along, too!
ION, a double whammy session of osteopathy/acupuncture followed by Pilates (I can still hear the Torturers larfing amongst themselves...) has meant that I'm now feeling rather tired and achy.
However, those sovereign restoratives, PIZZA and WHISKY, are helping me to peel myself off the ceiling.
I did warn Father NewPriest that I would probably skip tonight's Mass + Lent Study Group, so he promised to pray for me to receive relief from pain, and a good sleep. Wasn't that nice?
... We used to give ourselves extra points for getting the tourists ...
How many points would you get for the Director of Music at King's, who was quite badly injured last year when a "mad bugger on wheels" failed to miss him?
I totally understand why you'd use a bike in Cambridge, but as a very occasional visitor I find them a wee bit intimidating!
There's definitely some thawing going on: it's currently 3°, you can feel the heat from the sun and occasionally something goes "thwump" when another dollop of ice falls off the roof. As the château faces North, the deck and garden still resemble the Alps, but there's hope.
To be really intimidated by bikes, you need to go to Amsterdam (or any other city in The Netherlands, or Belgium!) - and you'd need to look out for the trams as well....
Still, they all (trams and bikes) have nice Bells and/or Gongs, so what's not to like?
Another windy, even stormy day here, with everything: sun, rain, snow, sleet. Gaah! We've had these for a few days now. There was even a brief thunderstorm on Monday. If only the weather could make up its mind!
Nighttime below 0C, daytime low single-digit C. But again, the days are getting looonger. Which is niiiiice!
The wind is howling away here.
I’ve spent the morning writing a review of my practice/goals for my appraisal on a Friday. I then wrote a tutorial on family policy.
What I should be doing now is marking some rather urgent essays. But I need absolute quiet for this and the builders are still around (now in both neighbouring houses). So I will have a break and start marking when they leave.
Just had chicken hearts cooked in cream for lunch and now I’m browsing some politics websites...
Having fasted involuntarily all day (a passing Tummy Bug, I think, but I tend to get them quite badly, IYSWIM), some sustenance is called for.
Hmm. The Episcopal-Ark galley cupboards need replenishing - a trip to the shop is planned for tomorrow - so it's a toss-up between Tomato SOUP (with Marmite added!) or Baked-Beans-On-Two-Toast (which latter sounds much posher in French - Haricots à la sauce tomate, sur deux tranches de pain grille, I think!).
Actually we always refers to baked beans as “les beans” to specify that we mean the English product, not any kind of similar French culinary preparation.
In our house the above delicacy is described as des tartines grillées avec des beans. A tartine is a rather delightful French word for a slice of bread.
I, alas, have run out of Marmite. Assuming they manage to make it across the border (but that’s a subject for the Brexit anxiety thread) my parents have promised to replenish the supply when they come. In the meantime, I am sadly Marmiteless.
Actually we always refers to baked beans as “les beans” to specify that we mean the English product, not any kind of similar French culinary preparation.
In our house the above delicacy is described as des tartines grillées avec des beans. A tartine is a rather delightful French word for a slice of bread.
I, alas, have run out of Marmite. Assuming they manage to make it across the border (but that’s a subject for the Brexit anxiety thread) my parents have promised to replenish the supply when they come. In the meantime, I am sadly Marmiteless.
Thanks for that, LVER! Yer learn summink new every day on 'ere!
Yes, tartine I like, and will add it to my vocabulary. It'll be useful, if I ever get around to moving into a granny (sort-of) annexe at my poor sister's house in France. I'll be the elderly, eccentric, straw-hatted Englishman haunting the local cafes, and bibbing the local wines....
I relied on Google Translate, which is not necessarily a Good Idea, I know....
BUT - your lack of Marmite is a Dreadful Thing, and a subject for Earnest Prayer, that the situation soon be remedied! Can a Pot not be sent to you by some kind soul quickly via the Interweeble?
Comments
I had no idea how bad the situation was in some parts! I may have not quite understood Piglettian and others' stuggle. Those images really tell a different story of whole blocks of ice and snow. My apoplexies!
In other news, a wet, stormy few days over 'ere, lows at night around freezing, at daytime low to high one-digits C, more rain, possibly some snow. Ach well. At least the days are getting noticeably longer, which is pleasant.
A very happy Sunday to all!
If you ever fancy a visitor for food consider me eager - sounds amazing!
I might try this tonight. Sound yum!
There was indeed CHOCOLATE CAKE to go with coffee after Mass today (well, it is Sunday), but I austerely refrained, and went for a slice of FRUIT CAKE instead.
One of my 5-a-day, of course, and to help with my Medication.
It's still jolly cold here: it was -22° when I got up, and has now reached the giddy heights of -10°, but if the forecasters are right, we should be warming up quite a bit next week - with rain next weekend, which should see off at least some of the snow.
I know I'm usually a lover of cool weather, but this winter's been so long and so frigid, spring can't come soon enough!
ION, I've had some raisins soaking in Pimm's for about a week, and tomorrow I'm going to introduce them to some other ingredients for the production of CAKE. Surely (as BF suggested) CAKE with fruit in it is suitably Lenten?
By the time I was having lunch with a friend it was sleeting. Horizontally.
By the time I was coming home (via another quarter of an hour at the bus stop) my gloved hands were unfortunately not numb enough to obscure the pain.
Dinner - parma-wrapped monkfish with roast tomatoes and potato rösti since you ask - will be the peg on which to hang a bottle of wine and a large gin.
We went to a chain-restaurant called Swiss Chalet for lunch, and I had rotisserie-roasted beef with garlic prawns and rice, which was actually much nicer than it sounds. I also fought off the frostbite with a couple of glasses of Canadian merlot, which was very nice indeed.
Swiss Chalet isn't haute cuisine by any stretch, but it's all right once in a while.
So tomorrow I’ll be investigating a bike that fits me (I think the frame on mine is slightly too big) and seeing when my lovely garage can look at the car. Then I’ll go back to bed with the quilt over my head.
Mr Heavenly made tea for us. He made Bloody Mary soup (courtesy of our veg box), it was a mix of tomatoes, celery and chilli, finished with grated horseradish and lime - no vodka. It was pleasantly warming. Then we had Moroccan spiced chicken, couscous and green salad.
Oh Daisy, that sounds horrendous. Defo have some rest & recovery time!
(Lunch is New Covent Garden classic chicken soup).
Well, the car stopped screeching the minute I'd driven out of my road, and the garage confirmed all is OK. Why do machines do this?!? So in celebration of not having to spend lots on the car I visited a cycle shop in the Big City and tried one of these which was a tad too large so not actually improving on my current bike where I had to be on tip toes to touch the ground, and one of these which has a strange cycling position because the crank is forward rather than fairly close to the saddle, a bit like riding a Harley (an "easy rider" bike?) or a western horse saddle. And I am now the nervous/proud/surprised owner of the latter which will be delivered later this afternoon - I am toying with names of my new steed, possibly Trigger, Silver or Duke. I'll see what fits, meanwhile I'm practising "yee ha".
Chicken, tomatoes and baked potatoes have been consumed for lunch, and butter, cream cheese and eggs are coming to room temperature for the production of CAKE.
D's been roped into leading a paper-bag choir, the idea being that individually they couldn't carry a tune in a paper bag, but collectively they can sing, and their first meeting is tonight.
He's not at all sure about the idea, but I suppose we'll see. I'm not sure whether to go or not - as singing is the only thing I'm any good at, I don't suppose I qualify ...
It looks like a lovely day, and according to Environment Canada, it's +5°, which is positively tropical!
If it'll just stay that way long enough to get rid of the sn*w ...
I would love one like that, but living in a first floor flat with a stair, hall and cupboards all abundantly cluttered...
(Also Edinburgh is a far cry from Cambridge when it comes to being bikeable. Or even trikeable.)
My son lives in a block of five flats and each has separate bike storage units. But it is Germany, where cyclists are much better catered for. If I lived there I’ll have a trike just like @Heavenlyannie ‘s. As it is it’s not safe round here at all. Mr Boogs cycles a lot - often 100km a day - but never in this country. All his training is done at the gym!
I also got a good dose of vitamin D in the time I spent pegging them on the clothesline and taking them in again.
Are those the same as the grocery delivery bikes in the UK that used to endanger traffic and sometimes have spectacular overturning accidents in the early fifties? I remember my mother losing a dozen eggs that way when the delivery boy didn't quite make it to our house.
Four people cried off with legitimate excuses, and it seemed a bit pointless to hold it with just two of us, especially as the other would have to battle her way through Storm Gareth on the bus to get here (and buses have been known to blow over along the coast road).
Hey Ho! It will still be Lent when we meet next, so we can still read our Lenten poems. Those hours of research will not be completely wasted.
I cycle down a steep hill to go to a school where I am an exam invigilator, and the most frequent target is students (potentially mine) stepping out into the road suddenly. Strong words have been said in the heat of the moment more than once.
I’m supposed to be marking today but next door have the builders in and they are drilling. So it looks like a day off for me.
We are in the midst of lots of house decorating/new blinds/carpets/curtains etc. Now to choose the lights.
I don’t last long in such places but it’s good shopping practice for the puppy.
ION, a double whammy session of osteopathy/acupuncture followed by Pilates (I can still hear the Torturers larfing amongst themselves...) has meant that I'm now feeling rather tired and achy.
However, those sovereign restoratives, PIZZA and WHISKY, are helping me to peel myself off the ceiling.
I did warn Father NewPriest that I would probably skip tonight's Mass + Lent Study Group, so he promised to pray for me to receive relief from pain, and a good sleep. Wasn't that nice?
I totally understand why you'd use a bike in Cambridge, but as a very occasional visitor I find them a wee bit intimidating!
There's definitely some thawing going on: it's currently 3°, you can feel the heat from the sun and occasionally something goes "thwump" when another dollop of ice falls off the roof. As the château faces North, the deck and garden still resemble the Alps, but there's hope.
Still, they all (trams and bikes) have nice Bells and/or Gongs, so what's not to like?
Nighttime below 0C, daytime low single-digit C. But again, the days are getting looonger. Which is niiiiice!
Hiding in the bedroom today as Mr RoS is glued to the BBC news channel.
I’ve been trying to avoid it all day, but I was in the car with Mr Boogs after lunch. So I had to listen to it.
🙄🙄
I’ve spent the morning writing a review of my practice/goals for my appraisal on a Friday. I then wrote a tutorial on family policy.
What I should be doing now is marking some rather urgent essays. But I need absolute quiet for this and the builders are still around (now in both neighbouring houses). So I will have a break and start marking when they leave.
Just had chicken hearts cooked in cream for lunch and now I’m browsing some politics websites...
Hmm. The Episcopal-Ark galley cupboards need replenishing - a trip to the shop is planned for tomorrow - so it's a toss-up between Tomato SOUP (with Marmite added!) or Baked-Beans-On-Two-Toast (which latter sounds much posher in French - Haricots à la sauce tomate, sur deux tranches de pain grille, I think!).
Decisions, decisions.....
In our house the above delicacy is described as des tartines grillées avec des beans. A tartine is a rather delightful French word for a slice of bread.
I, alas, have run out of Marmite. Assuming they manage to make it across the border (but that’s a subject for the Brexit anxiety thread) my parents have promised to replenish the supply when they come. In the meantime, I am sadly Marmiteless.
Thanks for that, LVER! Yer learn summink new every day on 'ere!
Yes, tartine I like, and will add it to my vocabulary. It'll be useful, if I ever get around to moving into a granny (sort-of) annexe at my poor sister's house in France. I'll be the elderly, eccentric, straw-hatted Englishman haunting the local cafes, and bibbing the local wines....
I relied on Google Translate, which is not necessarily a Good Idea, I know....
BUT - your lack of Marmite is a Dreadful Thing, and a subject for Earnest Prayer, that the situation soon be remedied! Can a Pot not be sent to you by some kind soul quickly via the Interweeble?