Bleurgh and grey here too with damp stuff descending. Yesterday was nippy but sunny although exceeding damp underfoot after the torrential rain on Tuesday morning.
I gave in and put the heating on last night, 2 days before October, because nights are drawing in and my chilly mortal of a daughter was in pain, plus I did the washing and there is nowhere for me to dry it outside and I don't do tumbler driers. No space even if I wanted to.
I am hoping the wasp nest next to one of my caches has given up in disgust and I can sort it out. Because wasps and I don't get on and I'm not going near it until I'm not getting stung.
We have just arrived home from Bristol where the whole family converged on my youngest son for a few days.
Our little Enkelin isn’t two until November but she’s speaking English and Georgian amazingly well.
She says things like ‘Peter rabbit in house, Peter rabbit thinking.’ and ‘Papa sleeping on sofa’. She asks questions too ‘What’s this?’ ‘Where’s Omi?’. Her pronunciation is spot on. She doesn’t have any German yet - just ‘Nein!’, which she uses to good effect!
She knows all her colours and can count to ten in both languages. She never mixes the two up, maybe because they are so different.
When her Mum speaks English she says ‘no, Dayda doesn’t know Papa’s language’ and doesn’t let her. 😂
(Dayda is Mummy in Georgian and Tina and Mike speak German to each other)
Glad you had a good time @Boogie .
It's pretty miserable here too. I'm more or less on the line between where @Heavenlyannie and @Piglet live. A bit further north of one and a lot further south of the other.
My fun treat today is to go into my bank to sort out paying in a premium bond cheque to my mother's account.
It’s cold and wet here.
We’ve had the heating on for two hours very early in the morning 4-6) for a few weeks, but we’ve extended that by half an hour, and will have the heating on for 2 hours in the evening too.
The heating switched itself on for about half hour earlier. The thermostat is 20 degrees day, 15 degrees night.
I conquered the tech barrier earlier so did not need my IT support to return home. I now have an approved sample for my research, which is very scary indeed. I start my research next week; I may need to take a mental health day tomorrow!
The thermostat is in the hall, which is the middle of the house, and it's quite comfortable thank you. More so than me, sitting next a single-glazed bow window.
Dreich here this morning, albeit brighter now. I went into the garden nevertheless and moved a clematis. It's giving a convincing impression of Dead Plant, so I don't know if its new location and a load of compost will do anything. Spring will tell. I also harvested all 5 of the Cutler Grieve which is the one indisputable eating apple of our little orchard.
The rain of wasps has slackened a bit, but I'm still harvesting the little buggers at the rate of 8 or 10 a day. The window panes are sticky with Raid.
No heating on yet chez Piglet, but then you wouldn't expect it, would you? It is cooling a bit in the evenings, but I have plenty of warm clothes that'll go on before the heating does (socks have yet to be applied).
If I'm honest, I've rather enjoyed the leisurely pace of the little numbers on the electricity meter and the rarer trips to the shop to top up my key thingy while the storage heaters haven't figured in the equation!
After a long, busy day which culminated in me buying a raincoat, with a hood, that actually fits, supper was risi e bisi.
I like Nando’s as chicken is one of my favourite things (we had it as a takeaway the other week) but the menu does have little variety if peri peri chicken isn’t your thing.
ETA I think I posted this on the wrong thread but it’s fine here.
I'm not sure that peri-peri anything is my thing - it's very spicy, isn't it?
ION, socks have been applied; it's now October, so they're permissible. At the moment the sun's splitting the trees, but half an hour ago it was chucking it down.
I have picked up Captain Pyjama's cold, so some hot chilli sauce is just the thing. I made tomato, red pepper and chilli SOUP for lunch, but I had rather too light a hand with the chilli. It was pepped up with tabasco and my sinuses are grateful.
I went a bit out of my way yesterday to have a peek at The Arc de Triomphe Wrapped before they unwrap it again. It's quite a fun installation.
Hope you feel better soon @la vie en rouge .
We went to our local big town to look at curtains and book someone to measure. It's going to be expensive, but as we got loads of things very cheaply when we bought this house it seems worth it. For once husband and I didn't entirely agree, but we've some swatches coming and hopefully we're both be happy with what we chose. Trouble is I now want new curtains in our bedroom, as they are deadly dull.
By the time we'd done that and traipsed round looking for some things for my husband, I was both very hungry and very thirsty. Fortunately the local art gallery cafe was very good, and remembering it was a couple of family birthdays soon on out we managed to get a couple of nice cards as well in the shop on the way out.
Hope you feel better soon, La Vie - if it's anything like the cold I'm (hopefully) just coming out of, then you and Captain Pyjamas have my sympathy.
It's suddenly become rather autumnal here; I wore the new coat today, and although it has a bit of weight to it, I didn't feel uncomfortably warm, and nor did I regret wearing socks. Oh well - it really was a rather nice summer while it lasted ...
I almost contemplated turning on the heating, but as the storage heaters wouldn't kick in until the middle of the night, I think I'll make do with a cardigan.
Available online. In my over-spilling cupboards, which is why I keep begging my offspring to stop buying ingredients I don't have recipes for, I have Bonito flakes and various seaweeds, plus possibly even dashi powder, which arrived in a parcel from somewhere. Although that last one may have been used up making miso soup. And I possibly need a Japanese recipe book to learn to cook these things. (She can't physically cook, not enough strength in her hands to chop anything nor wrists to pick up the pans.)
Her latest trick is recipe boxes from Riverford. Some of which are good news: I now make Nasi Goreng to their recipe regularly, although my last attempt was a bit hot, because I whacked in all the padron peppers I had lying around and this year virtually all the padron peppers we've had have been hot.
This last box tasted amazing, but my idea and their idea of cooked lentils are two different things, as the offspring can't eat them until they are cooked into a soft puree. It was a baked lentil mix with tamarind coated sweet potatoes baked on top, sort of an Indian shepherd's pie.
Hope you feel better soon, La Vie - if it's anything like the cold I'm (hopefully) just coming out of, then you and Captain Pyjamas have my sympathy.
It's suddenly become rather autumnal here; I wore the new coat today, and although it has a bit of weight to it, I didn't feel uncomfortably warm, and nor did I regret wearing socks. Oh well - it really was a rather nice summer while it lasted ...
I almost contemplated turning on the heating, but as the storage heaters wouldn't kick in until the middle of the night, I think I'll make do with a cardigan.
No heating yet here, but I’ve broken out the boots and my summer stuff is safely packed away under the bed. Autumn is here! Coats are a bit of a worry, as I’ve put on weight steadily over the past couple of years and several of my old favourites are somewhat tight round the middle. So I’ve been getting by with my outsize dog walking coat. (the coat is outsize, not the dog) and now the days are getting chillier, I’ll rake out my navy woollen coatigan; one adjustable fastening and plenty of room for layering underneath.
I'm thinking it's time to give a final wash to all my lightweight trousers and put them away for the winter.
----
There's dough doing its thing in the bread machine, so I'll have to get up shortly to get it on its way.
A trip to Tessie's or Sainz Breeze might be on the cards - I need one or two essentials like bog roll and WINE.
I have awoken with what appears to be the family cold- we keep passing it around amongst ourselves- but also to the news that Beaky daughter number two (there are four of them) is awaiting an ambulance as she cannot move due to excruciating pain in her hip.
I'm thinking with Piglet about summer trousers. I've already done the lightweight ones with pretty patterns on, and have the linens and similar still in use, just. I'm going to have to sort the socks out. I never stored the winter trousers away, and they are clogging the airing cupboard.
Friday I sorted the emergency living room heat, an oil-filled plug in radiator which has a thermostat, on a plug in timer, so it didn't feel too cold. I now have to sort the hall storage elsewhere so I can call in the gas man to service the warm air heating and get it going again.
I have awoken with what appears to be the family cold- we keep passing it around amongst ourselves- but also to the news that Beaky daughter number two (there are four of them) is awaiting an ambulance as she cannot move due to excruciating pain in her hip.
We are just back from an outing to the pet show at the Parc de Vincennes. The animal-loving Captain Pyjamas got to see more cats and dogs and bunny rabbits than you can shake a stick at. Just when it looked like the expotition couldn't get any better, we went to the cafeteria and ate CHIPS. We brought home a happy if tired little boy.
Happy birthday to Mr F and please can I come for dinner?
Daughter is thankfully back home now though fairly spaced out on morphine.
The family cold is still making its presence felt but I have managed to clean the house as Beaky daughter number 3 is due to come to stay as her flat needs fumigating for cloth moths today!
Very Autumnal here today: grey, wet and windy!
Another beautiful autumn Saturday, but we should get some rain as well here early next week. Autumn school break has started, and sorely needed and well-deserved it is too, according to myself and my colleagues!
I've already got some ideas for the next few months, until the end of the term, and am getting in touch with others in order to plan better. I am also trying to incorporate things from the Certificate in Advanced Studies in Digital Learning which I'm doing.
Today, it's ironing, cleaning, tidying, and watching videos while ironing, like again The Professionals DVDs - I'm still in the pre-Ford cars seasons!* -, and also the great two series by Griff Rhys Jones about his Pembrokeshire Farm.
*ETA: Cowley in a Princess car, and Doyle and Bodie, and Cowley in a TR7 are sights to behold. One wonders how they ever caught any miscreants!
Damp and miserable here. Husband and I had a very nice mooch round town this morning. It included me buying a skirt and jumper I'd been lusting after, the buying of various veg in the market and a long conversation in a curtain shop. We really only went in as we've decided that as well as curtains for the lounge, that doesn't have any at the moment, we want to replace the very dull curtains in our bedroom. We were well impressed with their range and their service so they are are quoting for the lounge as well, even though we've already got someone from well known department store coming round. Whatever happens it'll be an improvement. This house is great in that we really don't need to any major work, but it is so neutral and we need a bit more colour.
Husband has now gone off to London for a party. The weather there is forecast to be even wetter than here, so rather him than me.
It fluctuated between wet and not wet here today; after brunch and a few chapters of a book I felt inexplicably sleepy, and dozed off for a while.
When I woke, I decided the weather was too variable for a trip to Tessie's, and instead pootled along to the corner shop to get some red WINE, as I'd planned to have a steak for supper. Alas, the shop was shut because the till wasn't working, so my pootle was in vain.
I abandoned the steak idea (it'll do tomorrow) and grazed on bread, CHEESE and grapes instead.
I've also typed a draft order of service for David's memorial in Orkney, and having been remarkably un-teary for quite some time, inexplicably found my eyes leaking as I typed the title of the organ voluntary - La Mourisque by Susato (it was a sort of signature tune of David's). Strange the things that'll trigger you, eh?
Ooh you've got grapes none to be had here, along with onions, peppers, tomatoes... well most fruit and veg really. They've stopped the Saturday delivery at our co-op and even the deliveries that are coming are missing a lot of fresh and frozen food. The shelves are looking worse than when we go without a ferry for a week in stormy weather.
Made a passable stab at the Tournedos (given I was seeing off my half of a bottle of Ayala champers at the time) - though the Madeira sauce was not quite as exciting as I'd hoped. Nevertheless, it was good. And the bottle of Nuits St Georges was delish - also happy memories of the night we stopped there and had v nice dinner on the village square.
@Piglet I was watching the Dunhill golf at St Andrews and Carnoustie from this side of the world, and it seemed that it was pretty miserable. One commentator on the Old Course said it was down to 2 or 3 degC at mid-afternoon.
I've also typed a draft order of service for David's memorial in Orkney, and having been remarkably un-teary for quite some time, inexplicably found my eyes leaking as I typed the title of the organ voluntary - La Mourisque by Susato (it was a sort of signature tune of David's). Strange the things that'll trigger you, eh?
Music triggers me faster than anything else!
One of my piano pupils really enjoys a Grade 3-ish arrangement of La Mourisque so I've dug it out to play nice and loudly for today (which is our Patronal festival - a delayed St Michael and All Angels) or for Harvest next week. I googled the tune as I knew I knew it... but had forgotten I'd taught that version!! I really do need to do some cataloguing and cross-referencing of some of my compilation books.
@Piglet I was watching the Dunhill golf at St Andrews and Carnoustie from this side of the world, and it seemed that it was pretty miserable. One commentator on the Old Course said it was down to 2 or 3 degC at mid-afternoon.
But still the most beautiful place in the world….. the chill is off the North Sea. The wind whips round the corners of the mediaeval streets and gives the place a tang. (I may be biased, my hometown.)
(((Piglet))) such things often come out of the blue.
Mr H and Master H the Younger are off to the cinema this afternoon to see Mr Bond and I’m having an afternoon of reading. This evening is a long 3 hour session at church as Master H is on the sound desk and we’ll have to take him in early.
@Japes - David played it at my dad's funeral when the organ in St Magnus had just been done up, and (not to put too fine a point on it) it sounded bloody terrific.
It looks like a reasonably nice day; hope it stays that way long enough for a trip to Tessie's or Sainz Breeze.
The trouble with going to Sainz Breeze on a Sunday is the rarity of buses: the timetables quoted on bus stops and the interweb seem to be just an array of random numbers, bearing very little relation to the times the buses will actually arrive.
St Michael and All the Angels got La Mourisque with all the noise and panache (though, it won't have been with David's level of panache and style - I am a competent liturgically minded organist, who only ever wanted to play for services, and I do ring the changes with voluntaries, but I know my limits and stick to them) I could muster!
I remembered I had a different plan for Harvest, and I now am sticking with it.
Comments
I gave in and put the heating on last night, 2 days before October, because nights are drawing in and my chilly mortal of a daughter was in pain, plus I did the washing and there is nowhere for me to dry it outside and I don't do tumbler driers. No space even if I wanted to.
I am hoping the wasp nest next to one of my caches has given up in disgust and I can sort it out. Because wasps and I don't get on and I'm not going near it until I'm not getting stung.
Our little Enkelin isn’t two until November but she’s speaking English and Georgian amazingly well.
She says things like ‘Peter rabbit in house, Peter rabbit thinking.’ and ‘Papa sleeping on sofa’. She asks questions too ‘What’s this?’ ‘Where’s Omi?’. Her pronunciation is spot on. She doesn’t have any German yet - just ‘Nein!’, which she uses to good effect!
She knows all her colours and can count to ten in both languages. She never mixes the two up, maybe because they are so different.
When her Mum speaks English she says ‘no, Dayda doesn’t know Papa’s language’ and doesn’t let her. 😂
(Dayda is Mummy in Georgian and Tina and Mike speak German to each other)
It's pretty miserable here too. I'm more or less on the line between where @Heavenlyannie and @Piglet live. A bit further north of one and a lot further south of the other.
My fun treat today is to go into my bank to sort out paying in a premium bond cheque to my mother's account.
We’ve had the heating on for two hours very early in the morning 4-6) for a few weeks, but we’ve extended that by half an hour, and will have the heating on for 2 hours in the evening too.
Today I have to do some technical wizardry for my research of which I am incapable. My husband is having to come back at lunchtime to do it for me.
Guess what I forgot to buy at Tess Coe this morning...
Still, I've stocked up with other Comfort Food that likes a nice hot oven, as SOUP (Broccoli & Stilton
Not all at the same meal, I hasten to add.
It was discovered today that they forgot to turn it off afterwards. Oh well ...
I conquered the tech barrier earlier so did not need my IT support to return home. I now have an approved sample for my research, which is very scary indeed. I start my research next week; I may need to take a mental health day tomorrow!
Dreich here this morning, albeit brighter now. I went into the garden nevertheless and moved a clematis. It's giving a convincing impression of Dead Plant, so I don't know if its new location and a load of compost will do anything. Spring will tell. I also harvested all 5 of the Cutler Grieve which is the one indisputable eating apple of our little orchard.
The rain of wasps has slackened a bit, but I'm still harvesting the little buggers at the rate of 8 or 10 a day. The window panes are sticky with Raid.
If I'm honest, I've rather enjoyed the leisurely pace of the little numbers on the electricity meter and the rarer trips to the shop to top up my key thingy while the storage heaters haven't figured in the equation!
After a long, busy day which culminated in me buying a raincoat, with a hood, that actually fits, supper was risi e bisi.
ETA I think I posted this on the wrong thread
ION, socks have been applied; it's now October, so they're permissible. At the moment the sun's splitting the trees, but half an hour ago it was chucking it down.
At least the weather isn't boring ...
Sunshine/Showers/Wind/Tempest here, too, over the past ten minutes...
They do a range, from hot to hardly noticeable/lemon & herb.
I pine for the fresh peri-peri sauce we had in Portugal. I would eat that on anything.
I went a bit out of my way yesterday to have a peek at The Arc de Triomphe Wrapped before they unwrap it again. It's quite a fun installation.
We went to our local big town to look at curtains and book someone to measure. It's going to be expensive, but as we got loads of things very cheaply when we bought this house it seems worth it. For once husband and I didn't entirely agree, but we've some swatches coming and hopefully we're both be happy with what we chose. Trouble is I now want new curtains in our bedroom, as they are deadly dull.
By the time we'd done that and traipsed round looking for some things for my husband, I was both very hungry and very thirsty. Fortunately the local art gallery cafe was very good, and remembering it was a couple of family birthdays soon on out we managed to get a couple of nice cards as well in the shop on the way out.
It's suddenly become rather autumnal here; I wore the new coat today, and although it has a bit of weight to it, I didn't feel uncomfortably warm, and nor did I regret wearing socks. Oh well - it really was a rather nice summer while it lasted ...
I almost contemplated turning on the heating, but as the storage heaters wouldn't kick in until the middle of the night, I think I'll make do with a cardigan.
The recipes are not undoable, but I need to get some basic ingredients like dashi powder and Bonito flakes.
Her latest trick is recipe boxes from Riverford. Some of which are good news: I now make Nasi Goreng to their recipe regularly, although my last attempt was a bit hot, because I whacked in all the padron peppers I had lying around and this year virtually all the padron peppers we've had have been hot.
This last box tasted amazing, but my idea and their idea of cooked lentils are two different things, as the offspring can't eat them until they are cooked into a soft puree. It was a baked lentil mix with tamarind coated sweet potatoes baked on top, sort of an Indian shepherd's pie.
Tomorrow is core European with Tournedos Rossini, a champagne and a stotting red (it being Mr F's birthday).
No heating yet here, but I’ve broken out the boots and my summer stuff is safely packed away under the bed. Autumn is here! Coats are a bit of a worry, as I’ve put on weight steadily over the past couple of years and several of my old favourites are somewhat tight round the middle. So I’ve been getting by with my outsize dog walking coat. (the coat is outsize, not the dog) and now the days are getting chillier, I’ll rake out my navy woollen coatigan; one adjustable fastening and plenty of room for layering underneath.
----
There's dough doing its thing in the bread machine, so I'll have to get up shortly to get it on its way.
A trip to Tessie's or Sainz Breeze might be on the cards - I need one or two essentials like bog roll and WINE.
Methinks our Saturday plans will need to change!
Friday I sorted the emergency living room heat, an oil-filled plug in radiator which has a thermostat, on a plug in timer, so it didn't feel too cold. I now have to sort the hall storage elsewhere so I can call in the gas man to service the warm air heating and get it going again.
(I don't have enough clothes to need to put summer or winter clothes away, legacy of the forced decluttering a few years ago).
I have been for a walk and intend to have a lazy day today.
Have a good day.
I have opened a new packet of yeast and the bread it has made is huge and cakey! Less yeast for the next one.
Today is a rainy rainy day. I’m envious of my friend, whose dog we are looking after, she’s in Ibiza and sending photos of glorious sunny walks.
Oh goodness - I hope she’s OK. ❤️🩹
Many happy returns, Mr. F! 🙂
We are just back from an outing to the pet show at the Parc de Vincennes. The animal-loving Captain Pyjamas got to see more cats and dogs and bunny rabbits than you can shake a stick at. Just when it looked like the expotition couldn't get any better, we went to the cafeteria and ate CHIPS. We brought home a happy if tired little boy.
Happy birthday to Mr F and please can I come for dinner?
The family cold is still making its presence felt but I have managed to clean the house as Beaky daughter number 3 is due to come to stay as her flat needs fumigating for cloth moths today!
Very Autumnal here today: grey, wet and windy!
I've already got some ideas for the next few months, until the end of the term, and am getting in touch with others in order to plan better. I am also trying to incorporate things from the Certificate in Advanced Studies in Digital Learning which I'm doing.
Today, it's ironing, cleaning, tidying, and watching videos while ironing, like again The Professionals DVDs - I'm still in the pre-Ford cars seasons!* -, and also the great two series by Griff Rhys Jones about his Pembrokeshire Farm.
*ETA: Cowley in a Princess car, and Doyle and Bodie, and Cowley in a TR7 are sights to behold. One wonders how they ever caught any miscreants!
Husband has now gone off to London for a party. The weather there is forecast to be even wetter than here, so rather him than me.
When I woke, I decided the weather was too variable for a trip to Tessie's, and instead pootled along to the corner shop to get some red WINE, as I'd planned to have a steak for supper. Alas, the shop was shut because the till wasn't working, so my pootle was in vain.
I abandoned the steak idea (it'll do tomorrow) and grazed on bread, CHEESE and grapes instead.
I've also typed a draft order of service for David's memorial in Orkney, and having been remarkably un-teary for quite some time, inexplicably found my eyes leaking as I typed the title of the organ voluntary - La Mourisque by Susato (it was a sort of signature tune of David's). Strange the things that'll trigger you, eh?
Music triggers me faster than anything else!
One of my piano pupils really enjoys a Grade 3-ish arrangement of La Mourisque so I've dug it out to play nice and loudly for today (which is our Patronal festival - a delayed St Michael and All Angels) or for Harvest next week. I googled the tune as I knew I knew it... but had forgotten I'd taught that version!! I really do need to do some cataloguing and cross-referencing of some of my compilation books.
But still the most beautiful place in the world….. the chill is off the North Sea. The wind whips round the corners of the mediaeval streets and gives the place a tang. (I may be biased, my hometown.)
Mr H and Master H the Younger are off to the cinema this afternoon to see Mr Bond and I’m having an afternoon of reading. This evening is a long 3 hour session at church as Master H is on the sound desk and we’ll have to take him in early.
It looks like a reasonably nice day; hope it stays that way long enough for a trip to Tessie's or Sainz Breeze.
The trouble with going to Sainz Breeze on a Sunday is the rarity of buses: the timetables quoted on bus stops and the interweb seem to be just an array of random numbers, bearing very little relation to the times the buses will actually arrive.
I remembered I had a different plan for Harvest, and I now am sticking with it.