Within the space of half an hour I heard three pieces of sad news. First, a message from one of our church choir members, who husband has just died of cancer ( it was expected), then arriving at choral society, our churchwarden, who is one of the altos, informed me that our lovely vicar is retiring after Easter( she is only 60 but will have an NHS pension). Then thirdly one of my soprano friends has just had the result of tests and told us that has an incurable rare form of cancer.
Apart from all that it was an excellent rehearsal.
AIUI, gravestones outside, in the church grounds, were not really common until later centuries.
Our extant cemeteries are both around long ruined mediaeval chapels. The oldest gravestones are just modest chunks of undressed rock so dating them would be a bit of a challenge.
Sorry that you had three pieces of sad news in quick succession @puzzler.
I'm a big fan of cemeteries. I really enjoy walking through them looking at the gravestones. Our one here has a very long central path that really looks as though it goes off into infinity. At this time of year the edges of the path are crammed full of spring flowers. Snowdrops at the moment, but it'll soon be the crocuses turn and then the daffodils.
I have a slightly different than usual Thursday as I have a hair appointment at 12.00 and a dentist's appointment at three, so usual activities for the day have been cancelled. I also have a council meeting I'm chairing this evening so I've been trying to get my thoughts together on the very long agenda for that. Most will be straightforward, but there is one which will be a bit tricky, which co-incidentally involves the management of the cemetery.
Our church graveyard is beautiful just now with its spring bulbs, whilst the town cemetery has interesting trees.
Early days of course, but I am now wondering if TPTB will want to somehow merge the benefice where I worship which has five churches, population around 2700, with the one where I live, population around 11000, which has just the one church, as both clergy are retiring shortly. An unmanageable task of course. Whatever happens it will be a time of changes. I am so sorry that our vicar is leaving after only six years. Unfortunately I cannot say the same of my parish church vicar.
There may be a case for linking your benefice with the larger parish @Puzzler, but you are indeed facing a period of change. I don't know if the old patronage system still works, but, if you have an influential patron, you may get at least part of a priest IYSWIM!
The old Saxon system of a central church (or minster) running several outlying churches appears to be returning...
ION, yet another grey and chilly day in Arkland the Dull. At least we're being spared Storm and Tempest, but it would be nice to see the Big Yellow Face again.
LAMB HOTPOT for lunch, but I now find that I have no Mint Sauce to put on it chiz chiz chiz...
Just put a Caribbean curry in the oven - lamb, ginger, garlic, onion, turmeric, cumin, coriander and perhaps a teensy bit more Scotch Bonnet than called for.
Sorry to hear you've not had a good day, @Puzzler - prayers ascending for your friends, and for TPTB to be wisely guided in their deliberations about replacing your vicar.
My wife adamantly refuses to put Mint Sauce on lamb (or anything, actually).
I'm right with Mrs BT on that; imho lamb goes much better with rosemary and garlic than mint sauce.
I had a fairly productive day, culminating in my last dictated file being finished just before 5 o'clock, hence happy piglet.
I then had a duck breast for supper with potatoes and veggies - even happier piglet.
I have, however, discovered that I don't seem to have half the music for Saturday's Scottish Voices jaunt to Dundee; I've sung most of the music often enough that I wouldn't be worrying, but it looks like I'm going to have a faff getting stuff from Dropbox and having to print it at work because my printer's buggered ...
I have a much-loved SiL who can cook, but is frightened by inactitude. So I can't communicate my recipes since they tend to have quantities like 'pinch', 'dash', 'slurp', 'enough'.
Today's excitement was a visit to the chiropodist/podiatrist to get my toenails cut. Conversation there is more interesting than at home - today it was on the PotUS and his puppet master.
Mr RoS's conversational topic today was on the miserable letters he picked at his scrabble group, and the youth who came into the library in a balaclava which he refused to remove so the librarian called the police. That could have been interesting, but Mr RoS was only concerned that it distracted the scrabble players, so could offer no more details.
Dinner tonight was liver & onions with cabbage and potch (roughly mashed carrot & swede with butter, grated nutmeg & black pepper).
Mr RoS also had mashed potato, I didn't.
I had a day out with schoolfriends yesterday. We went to the textile exhibition at Aberdeen Art Gallery in the morning and Murder on the Orient Express at His Majesty's Theatre in the afternoon.
The textiles were interesting; after the Second World War some famous artists designed ladies' silk headscarves and other fabrics as a affordable route into culture and art after the years of austerity. There were headscarf designs by Matisse, Picasso and Francis Bacon amongst others. A very interesting exhibition.
The exhibition does indeed sound interesting. The play is coming here in a few weeks time but I wsn't planning on going!
I wonder if anyone in the audience didn't already know the ending of MOTOE? I think the stage version rather assumed that everyone did, which would be a reasonable assumption. At any rate the main successes of the play seemed to me to be the stage setting, which was incredibly good, and the costumes. I think the plot was indicated in broad brush fashion, because everyone knew it anyway.
I once saw a production of The Prisoner of Zenda. I could have sworn they had a full-scale train on board. They didn't, it was just indicated with a few lights.
We spent a lovely morning with some friends on a tour of a park in the city to the west of us. It included a 'secret' walled garden which was fascinating.
The friend that took was was running late so dropped us off in town. As it was near the showrooms we're buying our new kitchen from we popped in as we hadn't heard as to when the work would be starting. Discovered the reason why was that the person we'd been dealing with had been sacked. We found them to be absolutely fine, but apparently other customers had complained. However we did get a rough idea of the start date which is good, though I feel very sorry for the guy that's lost his job.
I used to have a shower every Wednesday, whether I needed it or not...
ION, a lovely bright blue day in Arkland the Favoured, my earnest prayers to The Big Yellow Face having proved efficacious.
I intended to have a Nothing Doing Day, but have actually been unusually busy in tidying more cupboards, laundering my favourite Shirt (it is pale blue, with white stripes, and is almost the only Shirt I have which isn't the colour of Mud, Grass, or River...), and sitting in the wheelhouse enjoying the rays of the BYF, whilst (of course) quaffing BEER.
My Legs are tired and achy now, but that's par for the course. I have some Petit Pains from Tess Coe, which I pop into the oven for 10 minutes to bake, and some nice Roast Beef, Corned Beef, and Edam CHEESE with which to fill them. Also some crunchy RADISHES, which (for some reason) I always think of as very cheerful Vegetables...
The Bright Yellow Face appeared temporarily here about 2 hours or so ago but I was too busy marking essays to enjoy it.
I finished marking at 5.30, just in time to inform Mr Heavenly that the 2 ‘steaks’ he was about to fry for dinner were actually shank cuts for slow cooking. Dinner plans have now been adjusted by a few hours.
I am having a pre-dinner fino.
A fourth piece of bad news this week. My son has been “let go” by his firm. He has done nothing wrong, it is the jiggery pokery of the business world. Negotiations re bonuses are ongoing. The bonus for me is that he has more time available for a while, so I got him to rehang some curtains for me. I might even get my rockery finished in a couple of weeks.
The hazards of living with a person with a visual impairment... they wake up, look at the clock, go "oh crap, 6:45, I'm running late" then hurtle about getting ready, including waking the rest of the household at (so they think) at 7:20. Until the other half (after a sleep-deprived, exhausting week of Beethoven) blearily asks, "Are you sure you're running late? Because my clock says it's only 6:35." Yep, he'd got up at 5:45. Happy Valentine's, my love.
The beef shank was lovely, cooked in red wine with mushrooms, onions and a little tomato purée, and served with roasted carrots and a side of citrusy onion and leaf salad. I’m now having some medoc, which tastes quite peppery after the citrus.
Not great. We were heading out to our favourite pub, followed by favourite pizza place. But Mr F got acute vertigo attack a couple of hundred yards from home. Fortunately the chap in the house on whose garden wall he sank down turned out to help him home. Cheese omelette and fries instead.
Sorry to hear about your son @puzzler, I hope something more congenial turns up soon.
Sorry about Mr F too @Firenze , but glad there was someone to lend a home getting home.
A visit to the pub and pizza place might be better on a night when it isn't Valentine's Day. In my experience the women tend to be given rather sad looking roses. Embarrassing at the best of times and even more so one year when I was with my son.
We enjoy mashed carrot and swede, but didn't know it had a name. 🙂
I have always know it as Clapshot.
No, no - clapshot is potatoes and turnip/swede in a ratio of 2:1, mashed together with butter and pepper, and served with haggis.
A cold but dry day here, and I must have been working very hard, as I wasn't feeling cold in the office ...
F&C for supper, because Friday. Must have a decently early night, as I'm getting a train at about 9 in the morning for the Scottish Voices jaunt to Dundee. 🎶🎵
We enjoy mashed carrot and swede, but didn't know it had a name. 🙂
I have always know it as Clapshot.
I got the name potch from an elderly Welsh friend, so presumed that it is a Welsh dish (although known to me previously, but with no name).
With the help of G**gle I have discovered that it is indeed Welsh, and there is a recipe for it in the 1939 novel How Green Was My Valley, although that was a dish of pretty well all the root vegetables grown in a UK veg plot - all gently boiled together, whole and in their skins for a couple of hours. Then, possibly skinned, but maybe not, and mashed together with butter, onions, various herbs & reheated in the oven
A long & tedious process so am not surprised that it has been reduced to just 2 veg.
The same Welsh friend had been adopted by a feral tortoiseshell cat that she named Potch, after the dish, because of the mix of colours in its coat.
Friday dinner was fish pie, eaten very early because the grandsons can now cope with real food. I'm babysitting so that #1 son and DiL can go out for a meal. The au pair is out with a chap she met through my lodger, so just me and the little chaps for the evening.
Good to hear the little chaps are thriving. They must be getting to the stage where you can have lots of fun with them.
It’s damp and cold here so we are intending a lazy ish day. We have some shopping to do this morning and intend to go and have a look at a new antiques centre. We were waiting outside it for a lift yesterday and bumped into a neighbour that says it is worth a mooch round.
The grandsons are crawling everywhere - the hard floors have never been so clean. So far their efforts to feed themselves aren't particularly successful but they do manage to feed each other. Just like their father/uncle they are mirror twins - one left-handed, the other right-handed, etc - so telling them apart is relatively easy if you can see them holding something or the top of a head: just lying on the floor, not a hope. They have one clear word at the moment- CAT!
How lovely to hear about the twins. My twin brother and I used to suck each other’s thumbs as babies.
Occasional drizzle here. A very productive day for Mr Heavenly. He put the base coat on two office windows, plumbed in the new washing machine that arrived this morning, and has just put in a new part in the light fitting over the kitchen table (which The Eldest blew up a few months ago by letting the shower overflow). My achievements are considerably fewer, having fed the birds, made lunch and put on several loads of laundry.
Mr Heavenly is now fighting with the programmer to convince it that we want the light to remain the same shade of white every time we switch it on.
Twins sound adorable.
Mrs Twangist, littlest twanglet and myself have traversed the motorway network last night from south west to south east and are visiting my aged parents for the week.
Roast dinner today, chicken casserole tomorrow.
I'm off out in a mo to catch up with some of my very old mates in a pub. It's a bit weird to think that we celebrated various 18th birthdays at this particular establishment and the birthdays we are celebrating these days are much bigger numbers!
A calm and overcast day in Arkland the Peaceful, with the Big Yellow Face veiling Her rays.
Still feeling rather seedy after yesterday's Aches and Pains, I've done very little today, apart from a brief foray to the village Co-Op. I forgot the Mint Sauce again...
I've had a long but enjoyable day. I got the train at about 9 this morning, and my friend picked me up at Cumbernauld from whence we pootled up to Dundee. The church - St Salvador's Piskie - was impressive and welcoming but absolutely baltic - why didn't I go with my hunch to wear a sweater rather than a linen top and a lightweight jacket?
It seemed to be in a rather run-down part of the city - I really didn't see anything that made me think I'd want to live there.
It was a nice service though (will post details in Eccles), and although the socialising afterwards was in a Wetherspoons ( ) the company was excellent.
And I managed to get dropped off at the station at just the right time to get a train home without having to wait.
Somewhat zonked now though - I think an early night beckons.
A nice lazy day. The morning was very successful in that my husband managed to buy a new pair of walking trousers and some gym shoes in town and we also brought some olive bread from a new deli that has opened. The mooch round the antiques centre was fun, though I'm not sure what I would do with life sized statues of the Blues Brothers.
This afternoon was spent making a start on editing my story for our next writer's group joint project, and this evening we very much enjoyed our Waitrose Valentine's Day meal. I called into the aforementioned shop to pick up a couple of things I'd ordered from John Lewis. Someone was marking down the prices of all the Valentine's Day chocolates that hadn't sold.
Lovely to hear how the twins are getting on @TheOrganist.
Very draughty in the cathedral ( despite copious layers) and wet outside, but we had a good sing and a creditable performance of Haydn’s Nelson Mass after a 2hour rehearsal. Two sung services at church tomorrow.
And did they have a real train? One needs to know.
The stage set was very cleverly done. They had a realistic train carriage, open to show the corridor and a row of closed compartment doors. Then it was swung round 180 on the stage turntable to show the inside of two berths. Then it was swung 180 again and lo! this time it was the dining car! It was impeccably done, looked authentic and I was very impressed!
We've had a lovely couple of days, thoroughly enjoying the NE Man's retirement. We pootled through to my mother's on Friday, stopping for lunch and then stopping again for a browse round a shop. We had a relaxed time with Mum, stayed the night, then my brother and sister-in-law joined us for a convivial lunch, and we drove home in the afternoon, arriving home at 5pm still in daylight.
Comments
Apart from all that it was an excellent rehearsal.
Our extant cemeteries are both around long ruined mediaeval chapels. The oldest gravestones are just modest chunks of undressed rock so dating them would be a bit of a challenge.
I'm a big fan of cemeteries. I really enjoy walking through them looking at the gravestones. Our one here has a very long central path that really looks as though it goes off into infinity. At this time of year the edges of the path are crammed full of spring flowers. Snowdrops at the moment, but it'll soon be the crocuses turn and then the daffodils.
I have a slightly different than usual Thursday as I have a hair appointment at 12.00 and a dentist's appointment at three, so usual activities for the day have been cancelled. I also have a council meeting I'm chairing this evening so I've been trying to get my thoughts together on the very long agenda for that. Most will be straightforward, but there is one which will be a bit tricky, which co-incidentally involves the management of the cemetery.
Early days of course, but I am now wondering if TPTB will want to somehow merge the benefice where I worship which has five churches, population around 2700, with the one where I live, population around 11000, which has just the one church, as both clergy are retiring shortly. An unmanageable task of course. Whatever happens it will be a time of changes. I am so sorry that our vicar is leaving after only six years. Unfortunately I cannot say the same of my parish church vicar.
The old Saxon system of a central church (or minster) running several outlying churches appears to be returning...
ION, yet another grey and chilly day in Arkland the Dull. At least we're being spared Storm and Tempest, but it would be nice to see the Big Yellow Face again.
LAMB HOTPOT for lunch, but I now find that I have no Mint Sauce to put on it chiz chiz chiz...
Is Outrage!!!
I'm right with Mrs BT on that; imho lamb goes much better with rosemary and garlic than mint sauce.
I had a fairly productive day, culminating in my last dictated file being finished just before 5 o'clock, hence happy piglet.
I then had a duck breast for supper with potatoes and veggies - even happier piglet.
I have, however, discovered that I don't seem to have half the music for Saturday's Scottish Voices jaunt to Dundee; I've sung most of the music often enough that I wouldn't be worrying, but it looks like I'm going to have a faff getting stuff from Dropbox and having to print it at work because my printer's buggered ...
I think the correct term is 'a glug'.
I have a much-loved SiL who can cook, but is frightened by inactitude. So I can't communicate my recipes since they tend to have quantities like 'pinch', 'dash', 'slurp', 'enough'.
Mr RoS's conversational topic today was on the miserable letters he picked at his scrabble group, and the youth who came into the library in a balaclava which he refused to remove so the librarian called the police. That could have been interesting, but Mr RoS was only concerned that it distracted the scrabble players, so could offer no more details.
Dinner tonight was liver & onions with cabbage and potch (roughly mashed carrot & swede with butter, grated nutmeg & black pepper).
Mr RoS also had mashed potato, I didn't.
The textiles were interesting; after the Second World War some famous artists designed ladies' silk headscarves and other fabrics as a affordable route into culture and art after the years of austerity. There were headscarf designs by Matisse, Picasso and Francis Bacon amongst others. A very interesting exhibition.
The play was good, but not as good as the novel.
I wonder if anyone in the audience didn't already know the ending of MOTOE? I think the stage version rather assumed that everyone did, which would be a reasonable assumption. At any rate the main successes of the play seemed to me to be the stage setting, which was incredibly good, and the costumes. I think the plot was indicated in broad brush fashion, because everyone knew it anyway.
We spent a lovely morning with some friends on a tour of a park in the city to the west of us. It included a 'secret' walled garden which was fascinating.
The friend that took was was running late so dropped us off in town. As it was near the showrooms we're buying our new kitchen from we popped in as we hadn't heard as to when the work would be starting. Discovered the reason why was that the person we'd been dealing with had been sacked. We found them to be absolutely fine, but apparently other customers had complained. However we did get a rough idea of the start date which is good, though I feel very sorry for the guy that's lost his job.
ION, a lovely bright blue day in Arkland the Favoured, my earnest prayers to The Big Yellow Face having proved efficacious.
I intended to have a Nothing Doing Day, but have actually been unusually busy in tidying more cupboards, laundering my favourite Shirt (it is pale blue, with white stripes, and is almost the only Shirt I have which isn't the colour of Mud, Grass, or River...), and sitting in the wheelhouse enjoying the rays of the BYF, whilst (of course) quaffing BEER.
My Legs are tired and achy now, but that's par for the course. I have some Petit Pains from Tess Coe, which I pop into the oven for 10 minutes to bake, and some nice Roast Beef, Corned Beef, and Edam CHEESE with which to fill them. Also some crunchy RADISHES, which (for some reason) I always think of as very cheerful Vegetables...
I finished marking at 5.30, just in time to inform Mr Heavenly that the 2 ‘steaks’ he was about to fry for dinner were actually shank cuts for slow cooking. Dinner plans have now been adjusted by a few hours.
I am having a pre-dinner fino.
Or, now that I'm a Southerner - Chicken casserole for dinner, delicious!
The hazards of living with a person with a visual impairment... they wake up, look at the clock, go "oh crap, 6:45, I'm running late" then hurtle about getting ready, including waking the rest of the household at (so they think) at 7:20. Until the other half (after a sleep-deprived, exhausting week of Beethoven) blearily asks, "Are you sure you're running late? Because my clock says it's only 6:35." Yep, he'd got up at 5:45. Happy Valentine's, my love.
At least we have CHAMPAGNE.
The beef shank was lovely, cooked in red wine with mushrooms, onions and a little tomato purée, and served with roasted carrots and a side of citrusy onion and leaf salad. I’m now having some medoc, which tastes quite peppery after the citrus.
Sorry about Mr F too @Firenze , but glad there was someone to lend a home getting home.
A visit to the pub and pizza place might be better on a night when it isn't Valentine's Day. In my experience the women tend to be given rather sad looking roses. Embarrassing at the best of times and even more so one year when I was with my son.
Sorry to hear about your son too, Puzzler - hope he can find something else.
No, no - clapshot is potatoes and turnip/swede in a ratio of 2:1, mashed together with butter and pepper, and served with haggis.
A cold but dry day here, and I must have been working very hard, as I wasn't feeling cold in the office ...
F&C for supper, because Friday. Must have a decently early night, as I'm getting a train at about 9 in the morning for the Scottish Voices jaunt to Dundee. 🎶🎵
I too am off to a singing day tomorrow, but not too far away.
I got the name potch from an elderly Welsh friend, so presumed that it is a Welsh dish (although known to me previously, but with no name).
With the help of G**gle I have discovered that it is indeed Welsh, and there is a recipe for it in the 1939 novel How Green Was My Valley, although that was a dish of pretty well all the root vegetables grown in a UK veg plot - all gently boiled together, whole and in their skins for a couple of hours. Then, possibly skinned, but maybe not, and mashed together with butter, onions, various herbs & reheated in the oven
A long & tedious process so am not surprised that it has been reduced to just 2 veg.
The same Welsh friend had been adopted by a feral tortoiseshell cat that she named Potch, after the dish, because of the mix of colours in its coat.
It’s damp and cold here so we are intending a lazy ish day. We have some shopping to do this morning and intend to go and have a look at a new antiques centre. We were waiting outside it for a lift yesterday and bumped into a neighbour that says it is worth a mooch round.
Occasional drizzle here. A very productive day for Mr Heavenly. He put the base coat on two office windows, plumbed in the new washing machine that arrived this morning, and has just put in a new part in the light fitting over the kitchen table (which The Eldest blew up a few months ago by letting the shower overflow). My achievements are considerably fewer, having fed the birds, made lunch and put on several loads of laundry.
Mr Heavenly is now fighting with the programmer to convince it that we want the light to remain the same shade of white every time we switch it on.
Mrs Twangist, littlest twanglet and myself have traversed the motorway network last night from south west to south east and are visiting my aged parents for the week.
Roast dinner today, chicken casserole tomorrow.
I'm off out in a mo to catch up with some of my very old mates in a pub. It's a bit weird to think that we celebrated various 18th birthdays at this particular establishment and the birthdays we are celebrating these days are much bigger numbers!
Still feeling rather seedy after yesterday's Aches and Pains, I've done very little today, apart from a brief foray to the village Co-Op. I forgot the Mint Sauce again...
It seemed to be in a rather run-down part of the city - I really didn't see anything that made me think I'd want to live there.
It was a nice service though (will post details in Eccles), and although the socialising afterwards was in a Wetherspoons (
And I managed to get dropped off at the station at just the right time to get a train home without having to wait.
Somewhat zonked now though - I think an early night beckons.
This afternoon was spent making a start on editing my story for our next writer's group joint project, and this evening we very much enjoyed our Waitrose Valentine's Day meal. I called into the aforementioned shop to pick up a couple of things I'd ordered from John Lewis. Someone was marking down the prices of all the Valentine's Day chocolates that hadn't sold.
Lovely to hear how the twins are getting on @TheOrganist.
The stage set was very cleverly done. They had a realistic train carriage, open to show the corridor and a row of closed compartment doors. Then it was swung round 180 on the stage turntable to show the inside of two berths. Then it was swung 180 again and lo! this time it was the dining car! It was impeccably done, looked authentic and I was very impressed!
We've had a lovely couple of days, thoroughly enjoying the NE Man's retirement. We pootled through to my mother's on Friday, stopping for lunch and then stopping again for a browse round a shop. We had a relaxed time with Mum, stayed the night, then my brother and sister-in-law joined us for a convivial lunch, and we drove home in the afternoon, arriving home at 5pm still in daylight.