The swifts are also back in our neck of the woods. From the 25th floor, you get an excellent view of them swooping about.
We also have some hawks these days, which is quite scenic. The Mairie got them in to wage war on the local pigeon population, and apparently they have also helpfully picked off a couple of rats from the garden.
Our local hospital has two large towers - the clock tower, and the water tower. Both were are plagued by dozens of pigeons, but the management arrange for someone with a sparrowhawk (or another raptor) to come along every couple of weeks...
The pigeons are not exactly decimated by the raptor, but the loss of one or two of their mates puts them well and truly off.
Sparrowhawks hunting pigeons are hilarious. One managed to bring down a fairly large specimen in my parents' garden and then appeared to realise it had not a cat in hell's chance of actually taking off with this plump carcass probably 2-3 times its own weight so resorted to stopping on the ground for lunch, stuffing itself then leaving the rest for the foxes.
I met a peregrine for hire working Canary Wharf a few times, even have some photos somewhere. Before some wise guy decides to read ambiguities into that comment, the peregrine was on the fist of its handler, and I have photos of both of them, chatted to the handler.
The app to identify bird song is available in the UK. I don't know what it's called, but my husband is just back from visiting his mum. They sat in her large garden with my brother in law and he used the app. They have green finches apparently.
We walked to the local farmer's market today and I bought some chard and new potatoes on a whim. I've now made a curry with them from the Hugh Fearnley Whitingstall Veg Everyday book for tea tonight. Husband's contribution will be a dahl and a tomato sambal. We also bought some rather nice bread and tapenade which made for a yummy lunch. There are croissants for tomorrow's breakfast too.
I'd say a zebra finch sounds more like a goldfinch than a green finch.
Talking about raucous calls, walking across the local rec (recreation ground) earlier, there was a veritable flock of starlings working their way over the pitches, this time of year they're after leather jackets. It's the first time for ages that I've seen so many together, rather than the usual handful.
Herring gulls, starlings and sparrows are constant visitors, and are among the reasons all my veg plants are grown under netting.
We had a visit from a sparrowhawk earlier this year, and at about the same time last year. We also get pigeons and the occasional magpie in the horse-chestnut tree in the garden over the back fence - and, to my delight, a blackbird who sings from the topmost branch of a skinny Christmas tree in another garden behind us.
His song in the morning and evening really lifts my spirits.
I am missing the number of birds we used to have in my 'old' garden, and the cuckoo who used to call most years from across the fields from the direction of the next village.
Most bird noise around here at the moment emanates from the local Mallard Ducks, who are all vociferous whether flying, swimming, or paddling about on shore.
There are three - Jemima (Puddleduck), Charlie (Drake), and Francis (Drake). The two drakes are constantly trying to force themselves amorously on Jemima, but she steadfastly refuses (with much quacking and thrashing about) to be raped.
The other day, I saw her standing on the back of Charlie (or Francis), trying to force his head under the water as he desperately tried to swim away...a passing Swan was gazing at them, possibly in bewilderment...
The weather in Hereford today could have been described as sunny intervals with scattered showers, some heavy. It was, thankfully, fine and sunny when we had lunch, but about 3/4 hour later, the heavens opened and it was tamping* down, I half expected to hear a clap of thunder, it was so heavy. Then it cleared and was sunny!
(*tamping - WEnglish for throwing it down)
As a change from the usual Saturday alternation of beef and lamb we had venison, with a sauce of port, orange juice and red currant jelly. And since we had a bottle of port on the go, we preceded it with a port cocktail - equal parts port and dry vermouth with a dash of lemon juice.
All washed down with a South African Pinot Noir and followed with a Metaxa - so an international evening.
Tea here was peppered fresh tuna chunks fried with wild garlic in butter and cream and served with gnocchi, followed by a glass or two of Chenin blanc while we plated family games online.
At about 7.30 here we had a huge downpour.
Tea here was peppered fresh tuna chunks fried with wild garlic in butter and cream and served with gnocchi, followed by a glass or two of Chenin blanc while we plated family games online.
That does sound delicious, do everyone else's suppers!
For some reason (possibly the lateness of my brunch), I wasn't hungry enough last night to bother with proper supper, so the steak's been postponed to tonight. I did however have a nice little feast of bread, CHEESE, chutney, grapes and nuts, washed down with a glass of WINE, which was just about right.
A little amble along to the corner shop to get the eggs I forgot to get yesterday will need to happen before breakfast can be sorted, then some breadmaking - I think I'll make some breadsticks and mushroom pâté to have for next week's lunches.
The wild garlic came with the veg box delivery; I like it so much I’ve planted some in the garden. But virtually anything sounds/tastes good cooked in butter and cream!
Restaurants and cafes are going to be able to reopen their terraces on Wednesday and guess what? It's going to rain all week.
The Sunday Meal™ at Rouge heights is a Bresse chicken (a very tasty long-legged variety from near Lyon) cooked in cream with tarragon from our garden, and morel mushrooms. There will be CHEESE because we are French and consider that a meal without cheese is like a day without sunshine* and prize-winning eclairs from the bakery around the corner. A white Madiran will accompany.
The season for wild garlic is already finished here. We might plant some in the garden for next year. I don't digest normal garlic well so we always buy wild when it's available.
I know it as "An apple pie without some cheese is like a kiss without a squeeze." It's years since I had apple pie and confess to preferring custard with it.
I lived with a Yorkshire Gal and a Lassie from Lancashire (see what I did there?) when I was at university and they introduced me to the joys of a slice of cheese with a slice of fruit cake.
I like fruit cake with cheese, and gingerbread too. But I like cheese ... accompaniments are optional. I just don't have cheese around much as my daughter gets ill if she eats it, and also gets cross if I eat any in front of her. We have recently discovered that cheese that is aged older than 24 months tends to reduce the lactic acid content and she can eat small quantities of that occasionally, which makes me happy as I reckon cheese strength levels only start at 4 and above, and mature cheeses are often a 6.
I'm another one who had wild garlic in my veggie box until a few weeks ago and I too thought the season was over. This week we had asparagus, and I adapted a suggestion for roast asparagus on buttered toast with grated hard boiled egg, capers and parsley as dressing for lunch yesterday - rice and quinoa mix instead of toast, grilled asparagus, carrot top pesto instead of parsley and olive oil instead of butter. Definitely worth repeating.
Lunch here was bread, cheese, houmous and charcuterie; standard Sunday lunch here. Followed by brioche for dessert.
Cheese is one of my favourite things and I like fruit cake and cheese.
If you order a slice of the Earl Grey Fruitcake in Barter Books in Alnwick, they ask you if you'd like cheese with it.... (My answer was no, because it was early on the morning of my departure home, and the cake was a carry out. But I tried it with cheese when I got home, and it was most excellent.)
Lunch here was lightly toasted ciabatta topped with slices of brie and torn-up wild garlic leaves, flashed under the grill for 30 seconds, accompanied by some locally made cider. The churchyard has a long bank at one side covered by two types of wild garlic and we're encouraged by the Wardens to help ourselves. 😋
And the lodger spent £1.50 yesterday on 15 punnets of figs languishing, unloved, in the Reduced for Clearance section; as he said, they needed a good home 😄
That lunch sounds heavenly, @TheOrganist - although I'll pass on the figs. Having said that, I've got a jar of fig chutney that came with a goodie-box at Christmas, and it's really nice.
Mrs Feet and I have made a passable lamb rogan josh based on a Hairy Bikers recipe, suitably adapted to our tastes and spice cupboards (yes, our herbs and spices spread across two cupboards). I have also conducted a Cleaning in the bathroom.
Personally, I prefer the idea of a peroxide bomb.... You (may) get simultaneous sterilisation as a bonus....
In the days when I had a damp car footwell, I so wanted to try this. I part-exchanged it instead....
Having been at the hard gardening the greater part of the day, dinner will be a low-effort pan-fried sea pass and ready-made potatoes dauphinois, with whatever Mr F has put in the fridge.
Managed to clear a new part of the veg patch today and sowed daikon, mooli, carrots and onions (Mr Heavenly likes Japanese food so we are experimenting with the root veg).
Dinner here was a beef lasagne cooked by Mr Heavenly.
We have done very badly getting out the last couple of days, with the wet stuff descending rather more regularly than is conducive to enjoying a walk, and the ground underfoot being more than a little wet and very skiddy for the offspring with dodgy joints.
Supper here was a Riverford recipe box for vegetarian Nasi Goreng - lots of spicy vegetables on rice with a fried egg on top, then sprinkled with more spicy stuff (chopped coriander, spring onions, toasted peanuts and sriracha).
Fun today. I was getting the car ready for an expotition when a neighbour pointed out a flat tyre. He offered to help, and had gear better than mine, but could not get the nuts undone. (Turned out they had little plastic caps on them.) Had to get Skoda support, aka AA out to do it. A nail, probably repairable. Right in the middle of the tread. It was my best tyre, according to the guy who video'd the underside while it was being serviced on Friday!
So today was all to pieces, and tomorrow will be down at the tyre people. Curses.
Unless it turns out we were being prevented from some evil event that would have hit us on the journey - but we will never know that.
And the lodger spent £1.50 yesterday on 15 punnets of figs languishing, unloved, in the Reduced for Clearance section; as he said, they needed a good home 😄
Presumably if he wasn't your regular lodger, he is now?
Hah!
Second thought on possible divine intervention on tyre front - we were being put into position to offer someone help. But that didn't happen yesterday. Today's visit to the tyre people may reveal that.
Otherwise, curses stand.
And the lodger spent £1.50 yesterday on 15 punnets of figs languishing, unloved, in the Reduced for Clearance section; as he said, they needed a good home 😄
Presumably if he wasn't your regular lodger, he is now?
He arrived during the flooding in February 2020 so he could finish his doctoral thesis in peace and quiet (and dry) and has been with us ever since. A Godson of my other half, his parents are in the middle of a messy divorce, the parental home is full of builders repairing flood damage and he's now got a job nearer to here than there.
At the moment, it's just a Grey Day in Embra, but according to Accu Weather, it's going to start raining at almost the exact moment when I finish work. O joy!
And because of roadworks, I'm going to have to go to a different bus stop; this morning the bus sailed merrily past the end of the road where it usually stops ...
Memo to self: get off the bus one stop early tomorrow
I’m off to my physio terrorist this afternoon. I’m looking forward to it, last week I felt so much better. They did heat treatment followed by massage followed by electrical therapy. Really good.
It chucked down here yesterday and overnight, but we've managed to get a walk in this morning. We started togged up in wellies and waterproofs, but the weather ameliorated so much that there were moments when it was positively sunny. I carried the coat home but the wellies were essential to cope with the largish puddles evidencing the precipitation over the last 48 hours.
Comments
You got in first! I was going to say that rooks are the ones who wear shorts...
We also have some hawks these days, which is quite scenic. The Mairie got them in to wage war on the local pigeon population, and apparently they have also helpfully picked off a couple of rats from the garden.
The pigeons are not exactly decimated by the raptor, but the loss of one or two of their mates puts them well and truly off.
We walked to the local farmer's market today and I bought some chard and new potatoes on a whim. I've now made a curry with them from the Hugh Fearnley Whitingstall Veg Everyday book for tea tonight. Husband's contribution will be a dahl and a tomato sambal. We also bought some rather nice bread and tapenade which made for a yummy lunch. There are croissants for tomorrow's breakfast too.
Talking about raucous calls, walking across the local rec (recreation ground) earlier, there was a veritable flock of starlings working their way over the pitches, this time of year they're after leather jackets. It's the first time for ages that I've seen so many together, rather than the usual handful.
The one I have is called BirdNET
You record a sample then submit it for identification
We had a visit from a sparrowhawk earlier this year, and at about the same time last year. We also get pigeons and the occasional magpie in the horse-chestnut tree in the garden over the back fence - and, to my delight, a blackbird who sings from the topmost branch of a skinny Christmas tree in another garden behind us.
His song in the morning and evening really lifts my spirits.
I am missing the number of birds we used to have in my 'old' garden, and the cuckoo who used to call most years from across the fields from the direction of the next village.
There are three - Jemima (Puddleduck), Charlie (Drake), and Francis (Drake). The two drakes are constantly trying to force themselves amorously on Jemima, but she steadfastly refuses (with much quacking and thrashing about) to be raped.
The other day, I saw her standing on the back of Charlie (or Francis), trying to force his head under the water as he desperately tried to swim away...a passing Swan was gazing at them, possibly in bewilderment...
(*tamping - WEnglish for throwing it down)
All washed down with a South African Pinot Noir and followed with a Metaxa - so an international evening.
At about 7.30 here we had a huge downpour.
That sounds amazing.
For some reason (possibly the lateness of my brunch), I wasn't hungry enough last night to bother with proper supper, so the steak's been postponed to tonight. I did however have a nice little feast of bread, CHEESE, chutney, grapes and nuts, washed down with a glass of WINE, which was just about right.
A little amble along to the corner shop to get the eggs I forgot to get yesterday will need to happen before breakfast can be sorted, then some breadmaking - I think I'll make some breadsticks and mushroom pâté to have for next week's lunches.
☀️
We've had the Nen Family FaceTime and are shortly heading out to coffee in a garden, hoping the sunshine holds.
The Sunday Meal™ at Rouge heights is a Bresse chicken (a very tasty long-legged variety from near Lyon) cooked in cream with tarragon from our garden, and morel mushrooms. There will be CHEESE because we are French and consider that a meal without cheese is like a day without sunshine* and prize-winning eclairs from the bakery around the corner. A white Madiran will accompany.
The season for wild garlic is already finished here. We might plant some in the garden for next year. I don't digest normal garlic well so we always buy wild when it's available.
*Seriously, this is an actual French expression
I lived with a Yorkshire Gal and a Lassie from Lancashire (see what I did there?) when I was at university and they introduced me to the joys of a slice of cheese with a slice of fruit cake.
I'm another one who had wild garlic in my veggie box until a few weeks ago and I too thought the season was over. This week we had asparagus, and I adapted a suggestion for roast asparagus on buttered toast with grated hard boiled egg, capers and parsley as dressing for lunch yesterday - rice and quinoa mix instead of toast, grilled asparagus, carrot top pesto instead of parsley and olive oil instead of butter. Definitely worth repeating.
Cheese is one of my favourite things and I like fruit cake and cheese.
I love cheese!
Breadsticks are baking as I type, and steak is marinating for supper. Snoozage has been had.
And the lodger spent £1.50 yesterday on 15 punnets of figs languishing, unloved, in the Reduced for Clearance section; as he said, they needed a good home 😄
Nah, that would be easier and quicker. I did consider dynamite as a quick solution but I'm all out of nitroglycerine.
In the days when I had a damp car footwell, I so wanted to try this. I part-exchanged it instead....
Managed to clear a new part of the veg patch today and sowed daikon, mooli, carrots and onions (Mr Heavenly likes Japanese food so we are experimenting with the root veg).
Dinner here was a beef lasagne cooked by Mr Heavenly.
Supper here was a Riverford recipe box for vegetarian Nasi Goreng - lots of spicy vegetables on rice with a fried egg on top, then sprinkled with more spicy stuff (chopped coriander, spring onions, toasted peanuts and sriracha).
So today was all to pieces, and tomorrow will be down at the tyre people. Curses.
Unless it turns out we were being prevented from some evil event that would have hit us on the journey - but we will never know that.
Presumably if he wasn't your regular lodger, he is now?
Second thought on possible divine intervention on tyre front - we were being put into position to offer someone help. But that didn't happen yesterday. Today's visit to the tyre people may reveal that.
Otherwise, curses stand.
He arrived during the flooding in February 2020 so he could finish his doctoral thesis in peace and quiet (and dry) and has been with us ever since. A Godson of my other half, his parents are in the middle of a messy divorce, the parental home is full of builders repairing flood damage and he's now got a job nearer to here than there.
And because of roadworks, I'm going to have to go to a different bus stop; this morning the bus sailed merrily past the end of the road where it usually stops ...
Memo to self: get off the bus one stop early tomorrow