The production of a 'collage' appealed and I thought this one could be called "Tour of the borders". Mostly common flowers, but top-left is some clovery leafed stuff which we've never known the name of, and the ladybird, right-hand column 2 down deserved having her picture taken. Devouring green fly as she was.
Rest Day today and quite lovely weather. 21C and a gentle easterly breeze. It is getting chilly and misty in the mornings though, with quite heavy dews - not to mention it being much darker. It won't be long to all our Scorpio birthdays and the clocks going on. Oh dear.
It was basically a Y chef day today and we had a lovely meat pie and plenty of veg, including some baby courgettes, which are an indulgence and we've decided at long last that we prefer sugar-snap peas to mangetout. Being flexible, I had made an apple pie/flan (just a pie without a lid on is what I mean) with the Bramley apples from Bob. No water, some sugar, ground cinnamon, stopped boiling before mushy, transferred to pastry-case, semi caramelised the sugar syrup and poured it over, sprinkled very lightly with dark muscavado and high oven for 10 minutes till pastry started to brown, as did the sugar. Lovely ! I was going to take a photo but we had eaten half of it before I remembered.
John rang yesterday evening and everything seems fine with everybody. Laura in Rome, Philip's firm have offered him a flat in lieu of a pay-rise and Alannah is getting on with her A-levels. John needed lots of reassuring about my blood-levels and health in general. But what can I say?
I think I'll make us a pot of tea ..............................
5 comments:
For comment on ladybirds and greenfly, and their rarity, please see my reply to yesterday’s blog.
I think it has turned distinctly cool and yes, the nights are drawing in.
I don’t know whether I mentioned ‘belt-‘osses’ but I got in touch with Jeff Owen on Radio Nottingham about it and someone rang in to say they remembered playing it in the playground of Mansfield’s King Edward’s Infants and Juniors in the 1930s. Sandra also heard someone else saying that it was a term used in reference to pit ponies. I phoned Peter Alvey, who was born in Pleasley (I don’t know which side of the county line) and both he and his wife (originally from Langwith) remembered it too. Apparently Peter also has a friend with whom he does the Bob Hope / Bing Crosby walk (where you cross your legs together) from ‘The Road to Morocco’. How nice to know there are also other people who refuse to grow up.
I cannot resist being pedantic and pointing out that Sugar Snaps are, in fact, MangetTout. Are they the ones which have swollen seeds as opposed to the flat ones?
I’m also a bit of a fusspot about Bramleys and believe that spices such as cinnamon and cloves are best avoided until the apples have lost most of their flavour (about March). But it takes all sorts. Have you ever tried sliced Bramleys as Nottingham Pudding, ie a Drop Pudding (dropped in Yorkshire Pudding) eaten with sugar and milk? Not my favourite. But I love them in a suet dumpling (ie, like steak and kidney pud but with apples) also eaten with sugar and milk. Cream or custard is sacrilegious and completely spoils the dish.
I think I'll wait until we go back to English, all this dialect stuff, 'belt-'osses' and 'drop pudding' indeed (is that like apple fritters?).
No, ah'm sorry me duck, drop puddin' is like toad in't 'ole but wi' fruit instaed o' sossidges.
So you don't have gravy with it?
Gravy, no. Sugar and milk (not cream or custard).
Post a Comment