They do look as though they're enjoying themselves, don't they? I'm not a huge fan of "proper" opera, but that lady had a gorgeous voice! 🙂
Back to the coal-face today, and a heap of Stuff Needing Doing. I expect I'll get through it eventually ...
Another nice day, albeit not quite so sunny, but still warm enough to go sans socks.
My husband had a good appointment with the dentist and a new crown has been ordered. We decided to do the walk this afternoon and the weather was pretty good, certainly no rain. I'm pleased we did go and check the route out, as there were a couple of places where we went slightly wrong, so we now know the right way to go.
Usual Monday of admin, sorting problems etc, then yet another afternoon of marking and I didn’t finish until 7pm. Mr Heavenly got in just before I finished and managed to put a coat of paint on in the hall before tea (which was monkfish with a jersey royal and avocado salad).
It was warm and sunny earlier but there was a sudden downpour this evening.
Mr F's 'overnight' stay lasted until 6pm. He goes back for the actual treatment this afternoon.
I have a day waiting in for various deliveries - groceries, possibly clothes, book or a water feature. As it looks to be rather dull and overcast, I will not miss going into the garden so much.
I too was wondering what sort of coffee hedgehogs liked @Boogie.
It is freezing here, so of course I went out in summer clothes thinking the weather would be as warm as yesterday - it isn't. I'm debating if I can be bothered to change into something warmer before I head out again this afternoon.
Another decent day in West Lothian; although it was a dull start, it's limbering up for a good sunset.
Still very busy in the office, although I might get some respite tomorrow as S and J are both technically Not In.
Supper was a cobblement of linguine with leftover dressed olives and superannuated tomatoes - a sort of pseudo puttanesca, but without the capers or anchovies, as it's never occurred to me to buy them. It was quite good: I don't think I'd buy the ingredients specially, but as a clearout it was perfectly OK.
I did get changed before I went out this afternoon so of course it was sunny and much warmer although there was still a chilly wind so I felt far from over-dressed. My meeting this afternoon was really good and I feel we are begining to get somewhere with this particular project.
Tea was an eclectic mixture of home-made coleslaw, vegan haggis, new potatoes and green beans, and was rather nice.
A choir friend came round this morning to kindly help me with my late husband’s estate accounts as she is a retired accountant. It is complicated as it involves his late mother’s estate as well, for reasons which would take me too long to explain, but she was able to express things differently, and break through my impasse. It was a long session so lunch was very late. She is going to work on presenting the figures, whilst I am working on a written explanation, for those who need to know.
That last sentence links with the topic for my next French group session: what do you find difficult that others find easy, and vice versa? I have an immediate example in figures v words.
Tomorrow I am hoping my son can find time to come and do a bit of gardening before green bin day.
In the evening, after the success of Elijah we start on new music, and on Thursday at church we start on new Evensong music.
Sadly it doesn't work like that. We are both being systematically poisoned - in a good cause of course. But he gets aches, chills, loss of appetite and diarrhoea. I get fatigue, constipation, and spectacular loss of appetite.
Anyway, in more cheerful news, I managed to assemble a new water feature for the garden and get it working. This is the third one - Things I Have Learned from the previous: fancy copper 'plant' - but battery not able to be replaced. Ceramic tumbling pots - unstable and eminently breakable. This one is resin, a column topped with a sphere. Less burbly but hopefully more durable.
Beautiful out, but just so much to do - trim hedge, rake lawn, strim edges, weed, weed, weed.
I’m not familiar with the concept of needing to wash your food down (and I’m an ex-nurse). But if I wanted to have a drink while eating I would get a glass of tap water (or milk if it was an over spicy meal).
My mum, also an ex-nurse (God rest her soul ), would never let us drink with a meal as she'd been taught that it interferes with the digestive process. I just accepted it at the time but it would have really helped me as a child because I was made to finish everything on my plate and if I'd been able to wash it down with water it wouldn't have been such a tough assignment. Having discovered the wonder of being able to drink with a meal I find it hard to eat without drinking. (Washing food down with wine is not, of course, necessary but rather more fun than using water .)
We've been away for a couple of days and it's hard coming back to all that needs to be done. Mr Nen has just mown the lawn and tomorrow I'll be catching up on the mountain of laundry and trying to make an impression on the piles of boxes.
Sending hugs to @Firenze and Mr F. I'm sorry things are so grim.
Hugs winging their way to Chez Firenze from over here too.
Another bonny day, another good sunset; I hope we haven't had all the summer we're going to get!
I made the first Russian Ukrainian* salad of the season this evening, and it's rather good.
* I think it was BT who pointed out when I first posted about making it that it's really a Ukrainian dish, and I was happy to rename it. Perhaps it should be called Salad Zelenskyy, in honour of (probably) the world's most attractive head of state ...
Hugs for the Firenzes from here too.
We were leading a walk for the Ramblers today, which went well. The weather was very sunny but the east wind was a bit blowy to put it mildly in places. Lunch was at a local stately home where we enjoyed a mooch round the shops and bought a potato ricer as you do. What with a planning meeting this evening, I am more than reading for bed.
@Firenze and Mr F, hugs from the blasted east too. Having seen my mum go through two extended courses of chemo, I have an inkling what it's like. Just as you start to feel vaguely human, here you go again. It is poison, if in a good cause.
From her experience, sweet things may be more palatable, and at least a means of keeping up some energy. Not a long-term stratagem, but it might be helpful in the immediate term.
A long day here, started at 9.30am and ended at 9pm (marking, evening tutorial, etc). I’m now relaxing with a glass of wine. Mr Heavenly has just got in, having been out on the razzle with some ex-colleagues.
@Firenze and Mr F, hugs from the blasted east too. Having seen my mum go through two extended courses of chemo, I have an inkling what it's like. Just as you start to feel vaguely human, here you go again. It is poison, if in a good cause.
From her experience, sweet things may be more palatable, and at least a means of keeping up some energy. Not a long-term stratagem, but it might be helpful in the immediate term.
Tastes definitely turn sweet and bland. We live on smoothies, biscuits and cake.
Lovely here, sunny and warm. Yoga class this morning and then I spent the afternoon doing admin and preparing for some more marking. My next batch is on community health projects.
Tea was a moussaka, done in layers with crème fraiche and feta on top. I’m now having glass of organic lambrusco, which is far nicer than its 1980s ancestors.
Lovely day here too. This morning was lip reading followed by bookshop shift. It'll be my last one for a while as I've got a busy year doing other stuff coming up so have decided to step back. This evening we went for a walk in the town to the north as my husband was thinking of taking his photography group there to photograph the wildflower meadows. Apart from cowslips there weren't a lot of flowers but the walk was very pleasant anyway.
We had left over bits and pieces for tea and then had a glass of red wine while watching Masterchef.
The outing to the sea with the blind association was a success but exhausting. We are back home now. The SNCF didn't help us in this endeavour by going on strike. Only the regional trains were affected but we had to get a taxi to Montpellier to pick up the TGV. The fact that tomorrow, the day after the strike, is a public holiday, is of course pure coincidence
Another very warm day in Arkland the Dry, though at least the evil Mordor-blast has abated somewhat...
The Dragon is on starvation rations - three lumps of Coal every couple of hours - but I think I shall have to let him estivate soon.
Tess Coe has been visited, and supplies laid in for the Ban Caulie Day weekend - there is a popular folk music/dance festival in Our Town, and traffic is likely to be horrendous. Mind you, thanks to our Labour-controlled council, ALL bus travel is FREE for three days (Sat/Sun/Mon), so hopefully people will take advantage of this.
I’m just back from my u3a French group where the topic was what we find difficult ( or more difficult than most others) and what we find easy. It was fascinating. Those of us who had done French degrees had naturally a lot of competences in common, but the differences in what we each found difficult were interesting.
I found I was a clone of another person who, like me, does not see or take on board any images, graphs or charts in a text, unless we make a deliberate effort. We deal in words. Another is dyslexic, another dyspraxic, another colour-blind. I have clinodactyly, curved little fingers, which made touch typing, playing piano, violin and guitar difficult, but doesn’t stop me being good at filling in forms.
I don’t know what to make of this weather. It is like winter in my front room, summer in the back. I took layers off to go out this afternoon.
Fish tonight as it is Friday.
Our lovely, new (to us) red car is a lot less green than it was an hour ago: we have a sycamore that dumps leaves, seeds and sap on it, but it has been taken to the car wash and Mrs S is hoovering it, so it should look half decent soon. Don’t get me wrong, I like trees, but this one is a mess.
No idea about dinner, but it’s only 5pm.
After what seems like ages, I finally left the office with Everything Done; I may start campaigning for the bosses to go to conferences every Thursday!
It's a long weekend, so of course the weather's going to break and it'll probably tip with rain (it started to spit a bit just as I was coming home). I hope the last couple of weeks weren't the only summer we're going to get, but they were rather lovely.
I did some marking and then celebrated the bank holiday weekend by taking most of the afternoon off and making crème caramel.
Tea was an asparagus, cannellini bean and pickled radish salad, with a supplement of turkey and avocado which needed using up.
Mr Nen has developed A Knee Problem - has actually had it since last November but didn't do much about it due to house move busy-ness - and had a physio appointment in Fairly Nearby Town this morning. I went with him and had a very nice mooch around the shops there, a wide selection of them: I won't have to go any further afield when it comes to Christmas shopping. I made some Pleasing Purchases and then Mr Nen and I met up after his (helpful) physio appointment for Coffee and Cake. A bit more shopping, then home for lunch.
This afternoon we went to Nearby Town and ordered and paid a deposit for new sofas for our lounge which was a very nice thing to do. Then back, online for an hour with friends, then spaghetti bolognese with WINE.
After all this excitement I will need to take it easy for the rest of the weekend. Mr Nen, Doom Merchant par excellence, informs me that The Weather Is On The Change and Tomorrow's Going To Be The Last Decent Day For Some Time, so I'll be getting what I can done in the garden before the end of life as we know it.
I managed to get to my U3A philosophy group for the first time in ages. We were discussing eugenics and racism and very interesting it was too. I seem to have agreed to lead a session next month on whether religion is a force for good or not. This afternoon was warm enough to go out in a short-sleeved t-shirt and sandals for a hair appointment and we had both our lunch and dinner outside as well.
I've a fairly quiet weekend though I'm off to a service at the minster church in the next town to the north tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to catching up with myself the rest of the weekend, after two holidays and being ill there are lots of things I need to sort out that I haven't.
Apart from church at 9.15am tomorrow, I have no fixed points in my weekend, though quite a long To Do At Home list as I am going away on Monday till Friday. Coincidentally my family are all away at the same time. The following weekend I have no fixed points, but about eight potential external events I want to fit in somehow.
I got up early and have been for a nice long walk by the brook. Hobson’s brook used to carry the water supply from nearby Nine Wells spring to Hobson’s conduit in the Cambridge. It is named after a wealthy seventeenth century stable owner, from whom we get the phrase Hobson’s choice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hobson_(postal_carrier)
Mr Heavenly has just painted the hall ceiling and is about to start on the walls. So I better get a cup of tea while I can.
Last but one day of the school holidays. We took Captain Pyjamas for his annual trip to Europe's largest funfair. We were originally planning to go tomorrow but thunderstorms are forecast. Bumper cars were bumped, plastic ducks caught and churros eaten. Stuffed tomatoes for dinner.
Spent the morning and part of the afternoon in the garden, as planned. The previous owners of the house put quite a lot into the garden and the lawn is a nice shape which I'm determined to keep neat. I did get that done. Weeding was pointless as the earth stood hard as iron and the weeds just broke off. It'll be easier after rain.
I ascertained from Mr Nen, resident Doom Lord, that this afternoon's rain event will warrant the building of an ark but as we don't have enough wood I decided to trust to God's providence and did some baking instead. Quality control will be necessary later. The rain arrived before Mr Nen's weather app predicted so the washing on the line got damp. Not for the first time I vowed never to trust his weather app again. As it turns out the rain is currently soft and refreshing, I can almost hear the garden singing in gratitude.
Stir fry for tea because Saturday. WINE will also be consumed. No idea what we'll be doing about church in the morning - services at the little local church only happen twice a month and tomorrow isn't one of the times.
Sweet refreshing rain here too, with a delicious scent of petrichor. No need of an ark yet, though as we’re off exploring for a few days in a week’s time, we’re expecting the worst.
Stir fry for tea here too.
If there was any rain here (and the app on my mobile was predicting at least a little), I managed to miss it.
After choir practice and a little amble round the Artisans' Market, I came home and dozed off (I'd woken stupidly early and was feeling a bit sleepy). Then a spot of brunch, and a mosey down to Tessie's - well, you have to when there's a bank holiday coming up, don't you? It felt as if it was thinking about raining as I was coming back, but didn't actually come to anything.
Mr Heavenly has managed to paint the hall walls, skirting, radiator and door frames. He will repeat it again tomorrow.
Because Mr Heavenly was busy decorating I took on today’s cooking. We had puff pastry that needed using up so lunch was cheese and wild garlic swirls, accompanied by carrot and apple smoothies. Tea was green Thai fish and spinach curry with sticky rice, followed by the crème caramel I made yesterday.
There is carrot smoothie left over and I have tried to convince Mr Heavenly we should make a cocktail such as carrot martini with it but he is not enthused.
We’ve had a lovely warm sunny day but dark clouds are gathering overhead and there will soon be a downpour.
Not for the first time, @Heavenlyannie , do I wish I were near enough to invite myself over to sample the Heavenly cuisine. Cheese and wild garlic swirls sound amazing.
Wine, stir fry, dessert and home baking duly consumed I am now heading for bed and book.
I fancy cheese and wild garlic swirls too.
We have the first rain in about a month, which will make the plants in our garden much happier, and me happier as well as I won't need to drag the hosepipe all the way to the end of it for a while.
I was at a service organised by the local Polish scouts in memory of the Katyn massacre this morning at the Minster to the north of here this morning. I was well impressed by the scouts ability to switch between English and Polish depending on who they were speaking to. This afternoon we went into town in search of wild garlic pesto from the jam and pickles stall on the market. He's promised some for next week. We also did some gardening, including planting out some of the herbs that have been in the greenhouse for a while.
This evenings tea was a tricolore salad. Back in the day we would have used mozzarella, but since trying to be more vegan we have been stumped as to what to use as a cheese substitute. The vegan 'nozzarella' we had last time we tried was vile, today's was more or less acceptable, but not a patch on the real thing.
Own recipe: get a sheet of puff pastry, spread with a spoonful of yoghurt, top with cheese and chopped wild garlic. I then rolled from the short edge as I wanted chunky pastries. Put in fridge for half hour to firm up and then slice into rounds. Brush tops with egg. Put in an oven around 190 degrees for about half an hour. Give them room to spread on the tray.
I’ve also made them as thinner crispy pastries to take to a party, just use the cheese on the puff and roll these on the long edge firmly and cut to about half inch. Previously I have used other ingredients like tapenade on butter free puff for a party for a vegan relative.
Comments
Back to the coal-face today, and a heap of Stuff Needing Doing. I expect I'll get through it eventually ...
Another nice day, albeit not quite so sunny, but still warm enough to go sans socks.
Fishcakes and veggies for supper.
Usual Monday of admin, sorting problems etc, then yet another afternoon of marking and I didn’t finish until 7pm. Mr Heavenly got in just before I finished and managed to put a coat of paint on in the hall before tea (which was monkfish with a jersey royal and avocado salad).
It was warm and sunny earlier but there was a sudden downpour this evening.
I have a day waiting in for various deliveries - groceries, possibly clothes, book or a water feature. As it looks to be rather dull and overcast, I will not miss going into the garden so much.
I prefer overcast for gardening as we are south facing, it gets very hot if the sun's out, whatever the temperature - if you see what I mean.
This morning I'm off to the garden centre. Buying the first of the annuals (I have cloches!)
Then coffee with one of my new hedgehog friends, which I'm looking forward to.
I should have said a new friend from the hedgehog sanctuary. 🙂
It is freezing here, so of course I went out in summer clothes thinking the weather would be as warm as yesterday - it isn't. I'm debating if I can be bothered to change into something warmer before I head out again this afternoon.
Still very busy in the office, although I might get some respite tomorrow as S and J are both technically Not In.
Supper was a cobblement of linguine with leftover dressed olives and superannuated tomatoes - a sort of pseudo puttanesca, but without the capers or anchovies, as it's never occurred to me to buy them. It was quite good: I don't think I'd buy the ingredients specially, but as a clearout it was perfectly OK.
Tea was an eclectic mixture of home-made coleslaw, vegan haggis, new potatoes and green beans, and was rather nice.
That last sentence links with the topic for my next French group session: what do you find difficult that others find easy, and vice versa? I have an immediate example in figures v words.
Tomorrow I am hoping my son can find time to come and do a bit of gardening before green bin day.
In the evening, after the success of Elijah we start on new music, and on Thursday at church we start on new Evensong music.
Sadly it doesn't work like that. We are both being systematically poisoned - in a good cause of course. But he gets aches, chills, loss of appetite and diarrhoea. I get fatigue, constipation, and spectacular loss of appetite.
This will go on for months yet.
Beautiful out, but just so much to do - trim hedge, rake lawn, strim edges, weed, weed, weed.
My mum, also an ex-nurse (God rest her soul
We've been away for a couple of days and it's hard coming back to all that needs to be done. Mr Nen has just mown the lawn and tomorrow I'll be catching up on the mountain of laundry and trying to make an impression on the piles of boxes.
Sending hugs to @Firenze and Mr F. I'm sorry things are so grim.
Another bonny day, another good sunset; I hope we haven't had all the summer we're going to get!
I made the first Russian Ukrainian* salad of the season this evening, and it's rather good.
* I think it was BT who pointed out when I first posted about making it that it's really a Ukrainian dish, and I was happy to rename it. Perhaps it should be called Salad Zelenskyy, in honour of (probably) the world's most attractive head of state ...
We were leading a walk for the Ramblers today, which went well. The weather was very sunny but the east wind was a bit blowy to put it mildly in places. Lunch was at a local stately home where we enjoyed a mooch round the shops and bought a potato ricer as you do. What with a planning meeting this evening, I am more than reading for bed.
From her experience, sweet things may be more palatable, and at least a means of keeping up some energy. Not a long-term stratagem, but it might be helpful in the immediate term.
Tastes definitely turn sweet and bland. We live on smoothies, biscuits and cake.
https://flic.kr/p/2samP3q
Tea was a moussaka, done in layers with crème fraiche and feta on top. I’m now having glass of organic lambrusco, which is far nicer than its 1980s ancestors.
We had left over bits and pieces for tea and then had a glass of red wine while watching Masterchef.
The Dragon is on starvation rations - three lumps of Coal every couple of hours - but I think I shall have to let him estivate soon.
Tess Coe has been visited, and supplies laid in for the Ban Caulie Day weekend - there is a popular folk music/dance festival in Our Town, and traffic is likely to be horrendous. Mind you, thanks to our Labour-controlled council, ALL bus travel is FREE for three days (Sat/Sun/Mon), so hopefully people will take advantage of this.
I got ready for the house sitter's preliminary visit this morning, and then she couldn't make it. Frustrating.
This afternoon was spent gardening - much more satisfying.
I found I was a clone of another person who, like me, does not see or take on board any images, graphs or charts in a text, unless we make a deliberate effort. We deal in words. Another is dyslexic, another dyspraxic, another colour-blind. I have clinodactyly, curved little fingers, which made touch typing, playing piano, violin and guitar difficult, but doesn’t stop me being good at filling in forms.
I don’t know what to make of this weather. It is like winter in my front room, summer in the back. I took layers off to go out this afternoon.
Fish tonight as it is Friday.
No idea about dinner, but it’s only 5pm.
It's a long weekend, so of course the weather's going to break and it'll probably tip with rain (it started to spit a bit just as I was coming home). I hope the last couple of weeks weren't the only summer we're going to get, but they were rather lovely.
Scampi and chips for supper, because Friday.
Tea was an asparagus, cannellini bean and pickled radish salad, with a supplement of turkey and avocado which needed using up.
This afternoon we went to Nearby Town and ordered and paid a deposit for new sofas for our lounge which was a very nice thing to do. Then back, online for an hour with friends, then spaghetti bolognese with WINE.
After all this excitement I will need to take it easy for the rest of the weekend. Mr Nen, Doom Merchant par excellence, informs me that The Weather Is On The Change and Tomorrow's Going To Be The Last Decent Day For Some Time, so I'll be getting what I can done in the garden before the end of life as we know it.
Crawling off to bed now.
I've a fairly quiet weekend though I'm off to a service at the minster church in the next town to the north tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to catching up with myself the rest of the weekend, after two holidays and being ill there are lots of things I need to sort out that I haven't.
Mr Heavenly has just painted the hall ceiling and is about to start on the walls. So I better get a cup of tea while I can.
I ascertained from Mr Nen, resident Doom Lord, that this afternoon's rain event will warrant the building of an ark but as we don't have enough wood I decided to trust to God's providence and did some baking instead. Quality control will be necessary later. The rain arrived before Mr Nen's weather app predicted so the washing on the line got damp. Not for the first time I vowed never to trust his weather app again. As it turns out the rain is currently soft and refreshing, I can almost hear the garden singing in gratitude.
Stir fry for tea because Saturday. WINE will also be consumed. No idea what we'll be doing about church in the morning - services at the little local church only happen twice a month and tomorrow isn't one of the times.
Stir fry for tea here too.
After choir practice and a little amble round the Artisans' Market, I came home and dozed off (I'd woken stupidly early and was feeling a bit sleepy). Then a spot of brunch, and a mosey down to Tessie's - well, you have to when there's a bank holiday coming up, don't you? It felt as if it was thinking about raining as I was coming back, but didn't actually come to anything.
Supper was using up assorted salads.
Because Mr Heavenly was busy decorating I took on today’s cooking. We had puff pastry that needed using up so lunch was cheese and wild garlic swirls, accompanied by carrot and apple smoothies. Tea was green Thai fish and spinach curry with sticky rice, followed by the crème caramel I made yesterday.
There is carrot smoothie left over and I have tried to convince Mr Heavenly we should make a cocktail such as carrot martini with it but he is not enthused.
We’ve had a lovely warm sunny day but dark clouds are gathering overhead and there will soon be a downpour.
Wine, stir fry, dessert and home baking duly consumed I am now heading for bed and book.
We have the first rain in about a month, which will make the plants in our garden much happier, and me happier as well as I won't need to drag the hosepipe all the way to the end of it for a while.
I was at a service organised by the local Polish scouts in memory of the Katyn massacre this morning at the Minster to the north of here this morning. I was well impressed by the scouts ability to switch between English and Polish depending on who they were speaking to. This afternoon we went into town in search of wild garlic pesto from the jam and pickles stall on the market. He's promised some for next week. We also did some gardening, including planting out some of the herbs that have been in the greenhouse for a while.
This evenings tea was a tricolore salad. Back in the day we would have used mozzarella, but since trying to be more vegan we have been stumped as to what to use as a cheese substitute. The vegan 'nozzarella' we had last time we tried was vile, today's was more or less acceptable, but not a patch on the real thing.
I’ve also made them as thinner crispy pastries to take to a party, just use the cheese on the puff and roll these on the long edge firmly and cut to about half inch. Previously I have used other ingredients like tapenade on butter free puff for a party for a vegan relative.