Tea today was homemade beef bhuna, with leftover rice refried with egg and the yellow courgette which wasn’t eaten by above mentioned rodents.
I made four more face masks this afternoon for us to take on holiday,; I can now make a face mask in 20 minutes (I used to have a sewing business so am very experienced with a sewing machine). The style is a fabric version of a surgical mask as I found the fitted ones a bit suffocating. There is a ditsy floral one for me, two chambray ones and a lime green one for younger son who only wears green.
Yesterday, I received a sombre reminder from DVLA that my provisional driving licence, renewed in 2017 after I'd been free from seizures for over a year, expires at the end of September!
I assume you mean medically time limited rather than provisional, unless you really have someone supervising you as a learner driver every time you go out.
Made pepper and lime soup for lunch, and a mega moussaka with mutton mince and lentils for dinner. That means lunch tomorrow can be the leftovers.
I ate total junk today - macaroni cheese ready meal with garlic bread and some left over veggies. We did, however, this evening get a delivery of beef from the croft not 100 yards from our door. We're thinking burgers and Lorne sausage tomorrow. Shame they have to send the cows to Mull for slaughter; the last slaughterman (or rather woman) grandmothered in before the regulations tightened up passed a few years back.
I was in church in the early evening, puzzling out how best to re-arrange the pews, while my wife had a Zoom Welsh class. Time ticked on ... so (for the first time since March) I stopped at the chippie on the way home. The fish was fantastic but the portions were huge, alas!
My courgettes are not quite at glut quantities yet, but we are now eating them 3 or 4 times a week. Today was a particular favourite, Courgette and Rice Filo Pie.
Unfortunately buying Filo Pastry means a visit to the big supermarket in the next town, as no-one here seems to stock it. I bought two packs last week, and froze one. so I can make one pie a week and only venture out to the supermarket on a monthly basis.
Dill is another ingredient in the pie, and in several other favourite recipes, which can't be bought round here, and I am struggling to grow it this year. Snails have demolished one group of plants, and the weather hasn't been kind to the pots of seedlings that were to replace them. I bought the last three dill plants from the garden centre yesterday, but have yet to find a safe place to plant them.
I do have dried dill weed, but it's not the same taste.
Today was a particular favourite, Courgette and Rice Filo Pie.
I've wondered about trying that too, as I get courgettes in my veg box. How many does it serve and do you think it could be frozen once cooked? Living alone means I look at these things, think how nice it might be, and then realise that it just moves the "I have too much" to a different point... However nice something is, by the time I'm on the third or fourth day of eating it, I've had enough, so things that can be frozen are good...
One of our lovely neighbours had a pile of garden rubbish and thought it would be anti-social to burn it while people were using their clothes lines to dry clothes, so he got up at first light this morning to have a bonfire.
The NE Loon woke up with a start at 4.45am, realising he could smell smoke. He looked out of his window, saw that it was coming from three doors along, woke up the Quinie to be on stand-by for phoning the Fire Brigade if neccessary, and ran along to the neighbours.
Neighbour was so surprised to see the NE Loon running up in his PJs at 4.50am, that his first comment was in Gaelic, adding to the general surreality of two neighbours suddenly finding themselves having to make polite, smiley conversation about it being fine weather for a bonfire at 4.55am.
The smell of smoke then woke me up, but by that time the excitement was over.
I love filo parcels, might try courgette and rice ones. I can’t see why you couldn’t make and freeze a pie, though parcels might be easier to pack into a freezer.
A fresh delivery of local beef sounds wonderful. We’re in arable country so fewer opportunities, though we have shared whole lamb and pig with our neighbours, bought from their friend’s organic farm.
He's a lovely neighbour, and I can see why he thought 4.30am was a good time to light a bonfire, but I wonder if we were the only family to have ended up wide awake at 5am, thinking Eeek!! Smoke!! Fire!! Where is it???
I like the image of the North East Loon in his PJs thinking he was running to the rescue. It'll probably end up in one of his books.
We only have a small patio garden, but I do have a few edibles on the go. The last couple of evenings we've had a compote made from our plums which was yummy. I also have about seven tiny green tomatoes at present so that is promising, also a fair amount of basil. Something has decimated the chillies though.
Yesterday, I received a sombre reminder from DVLA that my provisional driving licence, renewed in 2017 after I'd been free from seizures for over a year, expires at the end of September!
I assume you mean medically time limited rather than provisional, unless you really have someone supervising you as a learner driver every time you go out.
Yes, medically time limited - they're only valid for 3 years.
Hm... all this makes me wonder if here, in Continental WesShire, there is actually a general ban on using bonfires for disposal of garden waste. They are really few and far between now, and not only if there is a dry spell. - Perhaps people are composting more or shredding stuff like branches and twigs, for re-use in the garden?
I think they have an at least fortnightly 'greenery' bin collection here, and even weekly in autumn, what with all the leaves. - Interesting!
However, I tell you one thing: in summer, the insane passion of a multitude of locals to indulge in BBQs, mostly gas-fired, does sometimes make the evening air thick with this weird olfactory mix of gas, sizzling sausages of all kinds, shapes and sizes and other! - I'm not a vegetarian, but please, keep yer stinking outside sizzlers to yourselves. Fish is healthier anyway, but I think they haven't discovered that here yet...
However, I tell you one thing: in summer, the insane passion of a multitude of locals to indulge in BBQs, mostly gas-fired, does sometimes make the evening air thick with this weird olfactory mix of gas, sizzling sausages of all kinds, shapes and sizes and other! - I'm not a vegetarian, but please, keep yer stinking outside sizzlers to yourselves.
back when I was a teen, I lived in Germany as my dad (meteorologist) was seconded to an RAF base there. The Forces TV channel had German lessons presented by "Corinna Schabel" and her parrot (not sure if it was deliberate, seeing as Schnabel means beak).
She would regularly over emphasis certain phrases, one of which was "Oh, wie shade" - oh, what a shame.
Her pronunciation of this and the other stock phrases has stuck with me and my family, and gets used at regular intervals, in the middle of our otherwise English conversations
My new floater (Mr Blobby) is nothing to worry about - just a sign of ageing ( ), with the vitreous jelly pulling at the retina. Chances of a detached or torn retina are fairly remote, it seems.
FatherInCharge said he'd offered up prayers, and also asked for the intercession of St Lucy, all of which has clearly been Efficacious.
I'll have a glass of BIER/BEER, I think! Prost/Cheers!
Oddly, I was up and about at 4.30 - and noticed a roseate glow in the sky ...
It's called "morning" ...
Not that there's much "roseate glow" left - it's more a sort of greyish white. I'd better go and amble before it turns to whitish grey, presaging rain.
Not quite sure what I'm going to rustle up for supper - the chicken cacciatore was OK, but there isn't really enough for another meal for both of us (and anyway, S. wasn't all that impressed - she thought it tasted OK but thought the chicken was a bit tough).
eta: cross-post with BF - glad to hear Mr. Blobby isn't likely to be anything more than a nuisance.
My new floater (Mr Blobby) is nothing to worry about - just a sign of ageing ( ), with the vitreous jelly pulling at the retina. Chances of a detached or torn retina are fairly remote, it seems.
This is "Posterior vitreous detachment" - I have it and it has caused me some (needless) worry, especially one evening about 5 years when a small, but very black, dot appeared in the vision of one eye. The process (at age 66) is now complete and I probably see better now, with fewer floaters, than I did a year or two ago.
How many does it serve and do you think it could be frozen once cooked?
I have not tried freezing it, but Heavenlyannie seems to think it possible.
I make mine in a 7"dia by 1.5" deep Le Creuset gratin dish, which it fills nicely. That feeds two of us for two meals each with substantial salads; once hot for dinner and once cold for lunch. Alternatively if feeling particularly hungry, we just halve it, and have a small salad garnish.
The mix is quite sloppy when uncooked, so 'parcels' would probably be best made in small dishes.
I discovered at lunch today that, served cold, it enjoys the company of a pickled walnut
My new floater (Mr Blobby) is nothing to worry about - just a sign of ageing ( ), with the vitreous jelly pulling at the retina. Chances of a detached or torn retina are fairly remote, it seems.
This is "Posterior vitreous detachment" - I have it and it has caused me some (needless) worry, especially one evening about 5 years when a small, but very black, dot appeared in the vision of one eye. The process (at age 66) is now complete and I probably see better now, with fewer floaters, than I did a year or two ago.
Yes, PVD - the optometrist explained it to me, but I couldn't quite remember what the P stood for!
Today, our church based men's "walk to pub group" reconvened in a rather different format. Seventeen of us set off in three groups (6 people max), each time separated by 30 minutes and following England's current Covid regulations / guidelines. Our usual custom is a pub lunch, but on this occasion it was sandwiches in a field with views over the Somerset countryside Most of us had a bottle or can of a preferred beverage in our rucksack. Car sharing is out, so we had the problem of finding space to park 17 cars at the start. One of our members acted as parking supervisor, so all cars were safely packed in, without the later starters blocking those who would leave first. Great to be out in the countryside with good friends again. We hardly saw any other walkers on the footpaths, and for a few hours the pandemic seemed a whole world away
We have made it to foie gras land. Captain Pyjamas was surprisingly well behaved on the train, but it's a long, tiring day, especially now that it involves wearing a face mask for six hours (compulsory on the train and in the station). Captain P missed his nap and fell asleep in the pushchair while we were in the supermarket. I understand how he felt, but it might be my own fault for staying up to watch the fireworks last night when I knew I had to be out of the house at 7:30 in the morning
Little Miss Feet is finally making the transition to her own room but is finding waking up in the middle of the night alone hard to adjust to. Fortunately we had the foresight to buy bunk beds so I'm on the bottom bunk tonight.
I was fascinated by the history concerning the area of southern France where my sister lives - partly because the English didn't get that far!
One of my favourite Places Of Interest is the Palace of the Kings of Majorca, in Perpignan...who knew (a) that Majorca was once an independent country, and (b) that it had two capitals (the other being Palma)?
Our vicar is probably rather sore - he has ridden from John O’Groats to Lands End today on his motorcycle to raise money for a parish in Rwanda that our parish is twinned with. I have been checking his reports on Facebook all day, and he set off at 2.30am and arrived able 6.30!
Hurrah, managed to book tickets for a National Trust garden next week (weather forecast is promising!), and also received back my refund from a well-known airline (no, not R but E) which means that our cancelled holiday (from which we should be returning this morning) has not cost us a penny.
It's another grey sort of day here; it rained earlier but now doesn't seem to be doing much. I might try and get an amble in before my brother and s-i-l arrive with the groceries. At least now that things are beginning to get back to a semblance of normality, we don't feel so guilty about having them come in for a cup of tea and a natter - it's been the highlight of our week for a while now! I suppose it was a bit naughty letting them in a few weeks ago, but we did try to keep to 2m apart.
My bread machine arrived today!!! <happy dance>
Now I need to rack my brains and try and remember the proportions in the recipe for French sticks, which I haven't made since I left Canada.
Have a lovely time in foie gras land @la vie en rouge, and enjoy the bread machine @Piglet.
It's been surprisingly hot here in South West London. I've been out a few times including an abortive trip to have a drink in a local pub. We hadn't booked and all the nice tables had been taken. The 'new normal' is going to take some getting used to.
Alas, the days of just going out spontaneously to a pub, or restaurant, or Place of Interest, are over - for the time being, at least. Maybe next year...
Just to remark that fresh is best. Dinner was pasta with pesto made with fresh basil and garlic, topped with prawns in a light sauce of fresh tomatoes.
All washed down with a Pinot Grigio from Berganze.
Having had a dismal germination failure with leek seeds this year I ordered, in April, four dozen winter hardy leek plugs. estimated despatch date was July 6th.
On July 9th I got an apologetic email to say that, for various CV19-related reasons, the despatch date had been rescheduled for July 27th, so I rescheduled my gardening plans, and allocated sometime next w/e for preparing the bed they are to go in.
Arriving back from a shopping trip this morning I was somewhat taken aback to find a box of leek seedling outside the front door - on what was one of the hottest days of the year!
Mr RoS had to be diverted from car maintenance to clearing a raised bed of rogue raspberry canes, while I performed minor first aid on the travel-weary seedlings.
Planting had to wait until this evening, when the sun was off that part of the garden, and the seedlings were looking perky. Most of them are in now, but there are several surplus seedlings, as there were two in some plugs, and a couple with a third, rather spindly one. I will be looking for a home for them tomorrow morning.
I think I can fit a few in the bed where I am waiting for Florence fennel to make an appearance.
Reading this post has just reminded me that I bought two trays of petunias in Sainsbury’s yesterday, put them outside the back door while I dealt with the shopping, and promptly forgot about them! I hope they haven’t withered in the heat or been eaten by slugs. Will go and check now.
Just back fromm 3 days in hospital ward(s), Problem was suspected heart attack. Final solution was to do nothing except change one mediciine. You dont want to hear my opinion of all these shenanigans. At level of nurses the NHS is fantastic. At level of officialdom the less said the better.
Comments
I made four more face masks this afternoon for us to take on holiday,; I can now make a face mask in 20 minutes (I used to have a sewing business so am very experienced with a sewing machine). The style is a fabric version of a surgical mask as I found the fitted ones a bit suffocating. There is a ditsy floral one for me, two chambray ones and a lime green one for younger son who only wears green.
Made pepper and lime soup for lunch, and a mega moussaka with mutton mince and lentils for dinner. That means lunch tomorrow can be the leftovers.
Unfortunately buying Filo Pastry means a visit to the big supermarket in the next town, as no-one here seems to stock it. I bought two packs last week, and froze one. so I can make one pie a week and only venture out to the supermarket on a monthly basis.
Dill is another ingredient in the pie, and in several other favourite recipes, which can't be bought round here, and I am struggling to grow it this year. Snails have demolished one group of plants, and the weather hasn't been kind to the pots of seedlings that were to replace them. I bought the last three dill plants from the garden centre yesterday, but have yet to find a safe place to plant them.
I do have dried dill weed, but it's not the same taste.
I've wondered about trying that too, as I get courgettes in my veg box. How many does it serve and do you think it could be frozen once cooked? Living alone means I look at these things, think how nice it might be, and then realise that it just moves the "I have too much" to a different point... However nice something is, by the time I'm on the third or fourth day of eating it, I've had enough, so things that can be frozen are good...
The NE Loon woke up with a start at 4.45am, realising he could smell smoke. He looked out of his window, saw that it was coming from three doors along, woke up the Quinie to be on stand-by for phoning the Fire Brigade if neccessary, and ran along to the neighbours.
Neighbour was so surprised to see the NE Loon running up in his PJs at 4.50am, that his first comment was in Gaelic, adding to the general surreality of two neighbours suddenly finding themselves having to make polite, smiley conversation about it being fine weather for a bonfire at 4.55am.
The smell of smoke then woke me up, but by that time the excitement was over.
A fresh delivery of local beef sounds wonderful. We’re in arable country so fewer opportunities, though we have shared whole lamb and pig with our neighbours, bought from their friend’s organic farm.
We only have a small patio garden, but I do have a few edibles on the go. The last couple of evenings we've had a compote made from our plums which was yummy. I also have about seven tiny green tomatoes at present so that is promising, also a fair amount of basil. Something has decimated the chillies though.
Your neighbour seems to have made the 'wrong' decision for the 'right' reason!
Yes, medically time limited - they're only valid for 3 years.
Meanwhile I am considering a fire bowl one of these days to a) dispose of garden debris too woody to compost and b) extend sitting-out time.
I think they have an at least fortnightly 'greenery' bin collection here, and even weekly in autumn, what with all the leaves. - Interesting!
However, I tell you one thing: in summer, the insane passion of a multitude of locals to indulge in BBQs, mostly gas-fired, does sometimes make the evening air thick with this weird olfactory mix of gas, sizzling sausages of all kinds, shapes and sizes and other! - I'm not a vegetarian, but please, keep yer stinking outside sizzlers to yourselves. Fish is healthier anyway, but I think they haven't discovered that here yet...
(It’s raining here in Heidelberg!)
Today we will go to the museum. I love it, you wear headphones for the descriptions and the history is so interesting.
Oh ! Wie schade !
back when I was a teen, I lived in Germany as my dad (meteorologist) was seconded to an RAF base there. The Forces TV channel had German lessons presented by "Corinna Schabel" and her parrot (not sure if it was deliberate, seeing as Schnabel means beak).
She would regularly over emphasis certain phrases, one of which was "Oh, wie shade" - oh, what a shame.
Her pronunciation of this and the other stock phrases has stuck with me and my family, and gets used at regular intervals, in the middle of our otherwise English conversations
My new floater (Mr Blobby) is nothing to worry about - just a sign of ageing (
FatherInCharge said he'd offered up prayers, and also asked for the intercession of St Lucy, all of which has clearly been Efficacious.
I'll have a glass of BIER/BEER, I think! Prost/Cheers!
Not that there's much "roseate glow" left - it's more a sort of greyish white. I'd better go and amble before it turns to whitish grey, presaging rain.
Not quite sure what I'm going to rustle up for supper - the chicken cacciatore was OK, but there isn't really enough for another meal for both of us (and anyway, S. wasn't all that impressed - she thought it tasted OK but thought the chicken was a bit tough).
eta: cross-post with BF - glad to hear Mr. Blobby isn't likely to be anything more than a nuisance.
(BTW, I read chicken cacciatore as chicken caricature...which is what we'll probably get from Trump, if Johnson gets his trade deal...)
I make mine in a 7"dia by 1.5" deep Le Creuset gratin dish, which it fills nicely. That feeds two of us for two meals each with substantial salads; once hot for dinner and once cold for lunch. Alternatively if feeling particularly hungry, we just halve it, and have a small salad garnish.
The mix is quite sloppy when uncooked, so 'parcels' would probably be best made in small dishes.
I discovered at lunch today that, served cold, it enjoys the company of a pickled walnut
Yes, PVD - the optometrist explained it to me, but I couldn't quite remember what the P stood for!
And as for rodents on the courgettes.....No words.
@Jengie Jon i think you are right. Tbh I think other person wasn’t thinking, they didn’t apologise or anything. I didn’t make a fuss.
This makes me a ridiculously happy piglet.
By 04:30, it's already light..... (there are days when I have to be in work at 04:30)
One of my favourite Places Of Interest is the Palace of the Kings of Majorca, in Perpignan...who knew (a) that Majorca was once an independent country, and (b) that it had two capitals (the other being Palma)?
I’m glad he made it safely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG62zay3kck
Which is exactly what I’ve just done - now I am waiting my turn. The queue is on chairs outside, very pleasant. I’m next in.
I hope I didn’t say ‘just shave it all off!’ 🤣
My bread machine arrived today!!! <happy dance>
Now I need to rack my brains and try and remember the proportions in the recipe for French sticks, which I haven't made since I left Canada.
Ooh, exciting. What make/model is it? I must admit I've not strayed outside the recipe booklet that came with mine (a Panasonic).
Today's doorstep excitements were a load of groceries, and a clematis I ordered a month ago.
And to continue to have something to look forward to, I've ordered a fire bowl. Not an easy item to find - there's clearly been a run on them.
Caught up on massive wash, collapsing tomatoes and scattered washing up.
Birds are all frolicking about the roof and tree tops, there is a woodpecker somewhere nearby.....
It's been surprisingly hot here in South West London. I've been out a few times including an abortive trip to have a drink in a local pub. We hadn't booked and all the nice tables had been taken. The 'new normal' is going to take some getting used to.
All washed down with a Pinot Grigio from Berganze.
On July 9th I got an apologetic email to say that, for various CV19-related reasons, the despatch date had been rescheduled for July 27th, so I rescheduled my gardening plans, and allocated sometime next w/e for preparing the bed they are to go in.
Arriving back from a shopping trip this morning I was somewhat taken aback to find a box of leek seedling outside the front door - on what was one of the hottest days of the year!
Mr RoS had to be diverted from car maintenance to clearing a raised bed of rogue raspberry canes, while I performed minor first aid on the travel-weary seedlings.
Planting had to wait until this evening, when the sun was off that part of the garden, and the seedlings were looking perky. Most of them are in now, but there are several surplus seedlings, as there were two in some plugs, and a couple with a third, rather spindly one. I will be looking for a home for them tomorrow morning.
I think I can fit a few in the bed where I am waiting for Florence fennel to make an appearance.