Does it fit on the hook outside the shopping trolley?
We're making like a folk festival this weekend as there are a couple being streamed. Having been lulled into a false belief that Zoom concerts were fixed by Live to Your Living Room and the Oxford Folk Weekend, I'm being reminded that there cam be problems in this format. Hosts who mute everyone, including the artist, are a major hazard. Fortunately a couple of the artists were media savvy enough to fix that one, but not all.
Now I look at it, there's a flap with a velcro fastening that might fit over the handle of the trolley, or I could use the cord that ties the bag closed. I don't think it would be too tall, but it might get in the way all the same.
The other option Piglet is if your supermarket has those scan and pack things - or you can download the app - at least from Saint Breeze. I hate them - as I am wary of forgetting to scan something and putting it gaily in my shopping basket and then taking it home ??
Fun wander in the lesser known bit of forest, so usually quieter, which is needed for a bank holiday weekend. One moorhen on the pond there had 16 chicks, adorable bundles of fluff at this stage (and try counting 16 chicks - it took a few goes).
Hello, Son of Boogie! <waves trotter in a vaguely upward direction>
It really is a glorious day here: 19° and sunny. I had a little amble to the corner shop to get a bottle of BEER to drink with the curry that's now doing its thing in the slow-cooker and came back along the banks of the loch, and it was just stunning.
Now, having woken earlier than I needed to, am contemplating a snoozette while the curry cooks.
After a very misty-moisty start, it's now a glorious evening in Embra.
I managed to escape from the office a wee bit early, which meant I got an earlier bus, and an earlier train (which I'm on at the moment): I should be home before half past five, which'll be nice.
Further curry for supper, which only needs getting up in the slow-cooker, so a bit of lazing beforehand.
Last of May finally delivering. I’ve been in the garden since this morning. I’ve weeded the path and patio, cut the grass, scattered bits of grapefruit to discourage slugs, taken a nap in the summerhouse and am currently sitting in the shade of the beech - except for my feet which are uncomfortably hot in the sun, despite it being 5 o’clock.
Glorious day here in the middle of England. I managed to get out for a decent length of a walk before most people were emerging for the Bank Holiday and have been along some favourite walking routes not seen more than very occasionally since March 2020, definitely not since last October.
Legs very achy now in a very good way!! Mind also happier for the day out - but I did bail out once it started getting uncomfortably busy.
I will go out into the garden for a bit of weeding when it has cooled down unless my pyromanic across the alleyway neighbours are out again. Since their former favourite fly-tipping area has been sealed off, (there were disused garages at the back of my garden which were demolished in the autumn after years of complaints about the fly-tipping and 5 years of promises this would happen) they are now burning what they used to fly-tip.
Weird day weather wise - bright sunshine in the valleys, low cloud over Abergavenny, sunshine over Raglan , low cloud over Ross, then cold sunshine over Newent which became hot sunshine later on. We went to the International Hawking Centre and had a lovely day.
Alas, I spent the morning doing admin for end of module assignments rather than in the sun. But this afternoon we had a pleasant tea in some relatives’ garden.
We got out early enough to get a good walk in before the hordes got out too. I failed to deliver the gubbins for a challenge for Guides to one girl for last Wednesday - I had said that sick kid meant I couldn't get out to hand-deliver for three of the further flung girls early on Tuesday, and the other two had made other arrangement, plus that girl's attendance isn't wonderful ... so typically, having not attended for three works, she arrived for that session. Anyway, today's chore was delivering that envelope, and seeing the girl and apologising. Then we looped back a different route, so 10 miles in all - yellow hammers, cuckoo, skylarks and all. But no swifts . All on tracks across land that's just exchanged ownership to a land holding company based in the British Virgin Islands, was part of an estate owned by one of Elizabeth 1's courtiers.
We had a lovely couple of days away staying with Nenlet1 and son in law, getting our second Covid jabs, going for walks with them, drinking wine, eating nice food (which hadn't been cooked by me, a real treat!) and staying over for a night for the first time in months and months. Yesterday evening we were out having a pub meal with some friends we've known since university and we sat in the pub garden long after everyone (including all the pub staff) had gone, catching up on news and talking about our faith journeys.
Today is glorious weather again and I'm having lunch out with friends. The plan this morning is to get at least some of the lawns cut. Having adhered to No Mow May it will indeed be like mowing the meadow.
Weird day weather wise - bright sunshine in the valleys, low cloud over Abergavenny, sunshine over Raglan , low cloud over Ross, then cold sunshine over Newent which became hot sunshine later on. We went to the International Hawking Centre and had a lovely day.
I wonder what times you're talking about? We were at Abergavenny around 4pm, having been to White Castle, and it was fairly sunny then. We drove on via Talybont and Torpantau and it clouded over a bit. Back to sunshine at Merthyr. Dinner was fish and chips in the garden.
Spring lasted a total of a week, and now it looks like summer has arrived. I personally don't like wearing shorts, so I shall call it summer dress weather.
This morning we went to water the garden early and then for some groceries. I have realised that Captain Pyjamas has rather a shortage of summer clothing, and have started to rectify the situation. He's very pleased with his new baseball cap, which is funny, because last year keeping a hat on his head was close to Mission Impossible.
It's a glorious 20° in Embra, feeling like 23°, and tbh I'll be quite happy if it cools down a little by the time I'm heading home - that's getting close to the upper limit of the porcine comfort zone!
I've taken a cooked chicken thigh out of the freezer for supper, and I'll drop in to M&S on the way home to get some salads to go with it - it's too warm to think about cooking (especially if it involves the oven)!
It’s 24 degrees here and feels it. I had a sausage roll and a cup of tea for lunch in the garden and then started to do some light weeding but soon discovered that I am still intolerant of heat with my long covid (pulse 140!).
I did a little work this morning and considered doing my exam marking but we are waiting for a workman to arrive to fit a Smart meter and I hate waiting around for things to happen and then being interrupted when I am concentrating so I’ll do that tomorrow instead.
@Piglet - Ninas in crossword speak are called that as there was a cartoonist, Al Hirschfield, who used to include the name of his daughter, Nina, in every cartoon he drew. I thought they were the words spelled out across the gappier areas, like this Philistine crossword (link to 15 squared), when the top and bottom lines were a Nina. (And yes, I quite often solve the Guardian crossword, yesterday's quiptic was super quick, today's Tramp not so much.)
We had lunch (baba ghanoush, pitta breads and salad) in our new garden. We can't quite believe it's ours. It's so big with a proper view over fields to the train line. A big contrast to a small backyard (nice though it was) on a busy road.
This morning we mooched round town, picked up some more keys from the estate agents and went to Homebase to look at paint ideas for the spare room. Husband is now trying to sort out TV aerial, while I get up the energy to go back across the bridge into town for the things we forgot!
24 degrees in Cardiff too, we went into the city and visited the Museum for a really good exhibition about Richard Burton the actor - quite moving too, and it was free. It was really good to see the city centre buzzing with people, though there are an awful lot of empty shops now.
Mr F and I managed a major outing by our standards - all the way down S Clerk St the length of the Everything shop, then bus back to the Polish deli, then down to the farm shop for veggies, then a cappuccino in an actual cafe.
Now facing a choice - into the garden? Stay in and watch the French Open? Fall asleep? Clean the kitchen and bathroom? Decisions, decisions.
I then went on to invent a fairly successful dinner of Asian style pork meatball stir fry. I won't post the recipe upstairs as it's full of my favourite measures such as 'some' or 'a skoosh' or 'enough'.
My wife couldn't be bothered to cook and neither of us felt hungry, so we had a "scratch" meal in the garden of leftovers: some cold chicken, a bit of salad, a small French stick not eaten at lunchtime, the end of a bottle of white wine; also (bought today) strawberries with (leftover) clotted cream ... it was just the thing!
Last night I made my younger son's favourite of macaroni cheese which we ate in the garden and then chatted over beer/cola.
Today I need to do exam marking. The man did not appear yesterday afternoon to fit the new meter and we have no idea when he will arrive...
The CAKE is made - chocolate with fresh cream filling. Our friends are arriving at mid day for lunch. What used to be small get togethers are special occasions these days!
Last night I made my younger son's favourite of macaroni cheese which we ate in the garden.
My wife used to have an old-fashioned domestic science textbook which included an excellent recipe for macaroni cheese. We used it quite often when we lived in West Africa and supplies were short. Now we tend to buy it ready-made, either from Lidl or Waitrose (slightly better but twice the price!)
I enjoy a good mac & cheese now and again; there's a nice recipe in the old Delia Smith books that adds bacon, mushrooms, onion and tomatoes and is finished off in the oven. I used to do it for pot-luck suppers in Canada, but I don't think I've made it since I came back home. Now I'm thinking of it, I might give it a go at the weekend (it's rather too much of a faff to do after work).
In other news, I take full responsibility for the plummet in Embra temperatures. I painted my toenails yesterday and this morning donned open-toed sandals and cropped trousers, so of course it's no longer "taps aff" weather, although the sun has just come out.
I only encountered macaroni cheese at school where it tended towards solid cakes of tasteless stodge, although I used to make a version of pasta in cheese sauce laced with broccoli and cauliflower when hiding vegetables for a toddler, the hiding not always successfully. I have tried making a GF and dairy free version, but my attempts with dairy free milk and gluten free pasta were not worth repeating, ever. Particularly not the version with a GF & dairy free "cheese" sauce mix, which was beyond disgusting. The GF pasta isn't too bad, so long as it's cooked and eaten in one session, but its texture isn't quite the same and changes from too much bite into mush instantly. And if I cook double, the way I would with ordinary pasta, with the plan of using the leftovers as salad for lunch, this stuff dries back out into hard and unpleasant.
Fun walk this morning, slightly different route through a couple of fields of beans just coming into flower, with skylarks galore and, a bit further on, a pair of buzzards circling overhead when I was watching a warbler obliviously and obviously singing its heart out on a bare tree and a jay changing its mind in mid-flight - all in glorious sunshine, although its clouding over now.
While Captain Pyjamas was at nursery this morning, I went to the garden and thinned out my radishes. Consequently I have just eaten my first edible meal made with something I grew myself in my garden (apart from herbs) . I made a radish shoot salad with the ones that didn't make the cut and added some marinaded tuna.
After a hot sunny morning, it's clouding over now. I think we'll get a storm later.
Mmm, macaroni cheese. Mr Nen isn't a fan of it, though, so I only have it if I'm eating on my own or Nenlet2 is at home - neither of which has happened for a long time.
We cut the lawns yesterday and they're looking really good. We're just back from a coffee together in town. I've got a real live Slimming World session later, the first one for months, and as our scales have been out of action for weeks I think I might be in for a bit of a shock.
A fine yellow Wednesday* here, with a light easterly breeze flowing in through the portholes of the Ark - very comfortable!
BEER is being drunk for lunch, though I suppose some solid foodstuff should be consumed as well. Sardines on TOAST, I think...
*Days have colours - Monday is Green, Tuesday is bright Blue, Wednesday is Yellow, Thursday is a darkish Red (think claret, as in WINE), Friday is Brown (think CHOCOLATE), Saturday is Silver-Grey, and Sunday is Gold.
Having made a reasonably swift escape from the office (despite some eejit phoning just after four o'clock), I got to Waverley in good time for the 17:08.
Which, after several minutes sitting at the platform, was cancelled just after the next train (which was at the adjacent platform) had closed its doors.
So much for getting home early: the next one after that was another 20 minutes later.
At least I don't have to cook when I get home, as I've got ready-cooked salmon and some salads in the fridge. I'll be more than ready for a glass of WINE by then ...
I’ve never thought of days having colours!
Musical notes and keys do - mostly in the background, though once my husband was playing a Yes album in the car and I had to turn it off as it was so bright green it was unbearable.
The duck legs are in the oven, the polenta is cooling, MrF is managing the Red.
I've not done much today - taken in a grocery delivery (which was mainly fluids - fizzy water, small beers, bottle of Fiero, washing-up liquid). Ordered expensive underwear (probably, in unit cost per wear day, not that expensive). Did a mini potter round the garden.
Right, just booked an AirBnB in Auld Reeking for September. We will keep an eye on @Piglet 's toes to judge the state of the weather! I've been there on work trips before but never (just) as a tourist; it will be Mrs Minute's first visit to the city.
Comments
We're making like a folk festival this weekend as there are a couple being streamed. Having been lulled into a false belief that Zoom concerts were fixed by Live to Your Living Room and the Oxford Folk Weekend, I'm being reminded that there cam be problems in this format. Hosts who mute everyone, including the artist, are a major hazard. Fortunately a couple of the artists were media savvy enough to fix that one, but not all.
Weird misty morning here. It may burn off - though it did that yesterday, only to remistify.
Subdued dinner with friends last night: also totally impossible to get a taxi home. Saturday night, rising demand, but far fewer drivers.
Acrylic paint! You could make it really jazzy!
Today my friend is coming for lunch - bacon butties, of course. 🙂
I'll investigate next time I'm shopping.
Asda trolleys are marginally shorter and I have to kind of hold my shopping trolley up as I'm wandering round!
I so rarely go to a Tessie Cohen I am not as familiar with their trolleys.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3UwFHsTVGKpg5wA66
That’s a photo taken today on take-off by an enthusiast. ✈️
It really is a glorious day here: 19° and sunny. I had a little amble to the corner shop to get a bottle of BEER to drink with the curry that's now doing its thing in the slow-cooker and came back along the banks of the loch, and it was just stunning.
Now, having woken earlier than I needed to, am contemplating a snoozette while the curry cooks.
I’m off to plant some seeds, cornflowers and verbena. 🌱🙂
Well, I suppose we invented it ...
I managed to escape from the office a wee bit early, which meant I got an earlier bus, and an earlier train (which I'm on at the moment): I should be home before half past five, which'll be nice.
Further curry for supper, which only needs getting up in the slow-cooker, so a bit of lazing beforehand.
Legs very achy now in a very good way!! Mind also happier for the day out - but I did bail out once it started getting uncomfortably busy.
I will go out into the garden for a bit of weeding when it has cooled down unless my pyromanic across the alleyway neighbours are out again. Since their former favourite fly-tipping area has been sealed off, (there were disused garages at the back of my garden which were demolished in the autumn after years of complaints about the fly-tipping and 5 years of promises this would happen) they are now burning what they used to fly-tip.
Today is glorious weather again and I'm having lunch out with friends. The plan this morning is to get at least some of the lawns cut. Having adhered to No Mow May it will indeed be like mowing the meadow.
Later I will be baking a chocolate CAKE ready for lunch in the garden with friends tomorrow.
This morning we went to water the garden early and then for some groceries. I have realised that Captain Pyjamas has rather a shortage of summer clothing, and have started to rectify the situation. He's very pleased with his new baseball cap, which is funny, because last year keeping a hat on his head was close to Mission Impossible.
I've taken a cooked chicken thigh out of the freezer for supper, and I'll drop in to M&S on the way home to get some salads to go with it - it's too warm to think about cooking (especially if it involves the oven)!
I did a little work this morning and considered doing my exam marking but we are waiting for a workman to arrive to fit a Smart meter and I hate waiting around for things to happen and then being interrupted when I am concentrating so I’ll do that tomorrow instead.
This morning we mooched round town, picked up some more keys from the estate agents and went to Homebase to look at paint ideas for the spare room. Husband is now trying to sort out TV aerial, while I get up the energy to go back across the bridge into town for the things we forgot!
Now facing a choice - into the garden? Stay in and watch the French Open? Fall asleep? Clean the kitchen and bathroom? Decisions, decisions.
I then went on to invent a fairly successful dinner of Asian style pork meatball stir fry. I won't post the recipe upstairs as it's full of my favourite measures such as 'some' or 'a skoosh' or 'enough'.
Sorry - cross-post
I know roughly how much a skoosh is, but I'm indebted to you for showing me how to spell it!
Today I need to do exam marking. The man did not appear yesterday afternoon to fit the new meter and we have no idea when he will arrive...
In other news, I take full responsibility for the plummet in Embra temperatures. I painted my toenails yesterday and this morning donned open-toed sandals and cropped trousers, so of course it's no longer "taps aff" weather, although the sun has just come out.
Sorry about that.
Fun walk this morning, slightly different route through a couple of fields of beans just coming into flower, with skylarks galore and, a bit further on, a pair of buzzards circling overhead when I was watching a warbler obliviously and obviously singing its heart out on a bare tree and a jay changing its mind in mid-flight - all in glorious sunshine, although its clouding over now.
After a hot sunny morning, it's clouding over now. I think we'll get a storm later.
We cut the lawns yesterday and they're looking really good. We're just back from a coffee together in town. I've got a real live Slimming World session later, the first one for months, and as our scales have been out of action for weeks I think I might be in for a bit of a shock.
BEER is being drunk for lunch, though I suppose some solid foodstuff should be consumed as well. Sardines on TOAST, I think...
*Days have colours - Monday is Green, Tuesday is bright Blue, Wednesday is Yellow, Thursday is a darkish Red (think claret, as in WINE), Friday is Brown (think CHOCOLATE), Saturday is Silver-Grey, and Sunday is Gold.
Milk - although other synesthesiacs might disagree...
Having made a reasonably swift escape from the office (despite some eejit phoning just after four o'clock), I got to Waverley in good time for the 17:08.
Which, after several minutes sitting at the platform, was cancelled just after the next train (which was at the adjacent platform) had closed its doors.
So much for getting home early: the next one after that was another 20 minutes later.
At least I don't have to cook when I get home, as I've got ready-cooked salmon and some salads in the fridge. I'll be more than ready for a glass of WINE by then ...
Musical notes and keys do - mostly in the background, though once my husband was playing a Yes album in the car and I had to turn it off as it was so bright green it was unbearable.
I've not done much today - taken in a grocery delivery (which was mainly fluids - fizzy water, small beers, bottle of Fiero, washing-up liquid). Ordered expensive underwear (probably, in unit cost per wear day, not that expensive). Did a mini potter round the garden.