Sunday, October 01, 2006

Misty Morning - Roast Beef

Up at sunrise or 'before sparrow-fart' as we used to say crudely when on 'mornings' (6am to 2pm) and this was my view over the footie-field. Just couldn't resist another misty-morning shot. Hannah was up at 7am but she told me that she always gets up at that time so I didn't feel she had had a bad night. We all enjoyed yesterday evening. Played cards (eights) watched TV, some awful programme called The X Factor, which was so crass I can't bring myself to describe it. But by far the best was a website called Mr Picassohead which Stumbleupon sent me. Click here if you want it . A blank canvas on which to build up weird faces and very child-friendly. And the faces are email-able.

A busy day as you would expect but the roast forerib was much appreciated and therefore worth the effort. Our butcher hangs his beef for at least four weeks, so it was well purple when it went in the oven. Didn't we once call the cut 'chine' or have I imagined that? Whatever it was called it was full of flavour and tender. And the yorkshires worked a treat. I always worry about the yorkshires. Y says I shouldn't because they are always great - but I fear that, if I didn't worry about them, they would be as flat as a pancake. Virtually the same mixture, after all. Anyway, enough about food or Tracy will be shouting 'boring'. She looked tired and we think she is working too hard. Ho Hum.

This is Moorgreen Reservoir again (taken Thursday) and is included because of the added detail and clarity of the Nikon. Particularly on the far hill-side where the road rises before dipping down again into Hucknall. I'm very pleased with it even though there is such a lot for me to learn. Now I've lost PaintShop Pro on the old Packard Bell I plan to have Photoshop Elements 4 for a birthday present. Eastwood Photographic Society are running a one-day School on the programme this coming Sunday and I intend to attend.

Spoke to David this morning and he sounded perky even though he reports intermittent sharp pains in his collar-bone area but I guess it is just 'knitting'. Be a relief when he gets the all-clear though. They had just spotted a Great Tit in the garden and i.d'd it from the wall-chart. "Bigger than a blue tit and smarter" - bang on!

On the subject of words and although Jill is away, my pet hate at the moment is weather-forecasters who describe 'pulses' of rain. The thing which throbs in your wrist is known to me, as are the things you grow, cook and eat. Can anyone help explain?

We've just tidied up, hoovered, and emptied the dishwasher for the 3rd time and I'm done for.

Byeeee........

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

One of my favourite poems not only uses your ‘first light’ dysphemism but also employs the ‘f’’ (for ‘frequent’) word frequently (rather more than every other word, I think, in one classic sequence). Without it, the poem - called 'Jonesey's War' and based on an incident in the Desert Rats v Afrika Korps conflict but rather more concerned with the class conflict - would not work at all. I cannot recall the name of the poet.

I have never heard of ‘Eights’ but we used to play ‘Sevens’ in the army (at a later time but in the same theatre as the conflict referred to above). Perhaps surprisingly, it was a non-gambling game.

‘It takes all sorts’, as I more-or-less said in French yesterday, so no surprise then that I quite like ‘The X Factor’ although, unfortunately, I missed the first few weeks of the present series as it clashed with the not entirely dissimilar ‘How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria’ (a search for a female lead for the forthcoming London stage production of ‘The Sound of Music’, a film which I am somewhat arrogantly and quite unreasonably proud to have never seen).

Anonymous said...

Got me!
The blog postscripts or extras serve to keep me on my toes, I suppose.

I think ‘chine’ (of beef) is a regional variation of ‘rib’. It is all part of the butchers’ plot to confuse the customer.
According to my Longman’s Dictionary:
chine n. (a cut of meat including the whole or part of) the backbone.
chine vt. To separate the backbone from the ribs of (a joint of meat).
But, in Lincoln, ‘Stuffed Chine’ is a renowned pork joint. All the butchers in that city sell it as a cold cut, by which I mean they did so 35 years ago.

David may like to know that, apart from size, the Great Tit has a black head as opposed to the RAF Blue of the Blue Tit’s. The Coal Tit (quite common), Willow Tit and Marsh Tit also have black heads but are smaller than the Great Tit.

I have never heard anyone refer to a ‘pulse of rain’ but it seems a good and useful descriptive term to me. Longman again:
pulse n … 4a a short lived variation of a quantity ...