Friday, May 18, 2007

Rolling Derbyshire - Wet, Warm and Windy

61F, 24mph SW wind and stormy. We collected Joan and drove up the motorway and arrived at Kenneth's bang on time for lunch. He only moved into his bungalow 18mnths ago and has done wonders. It had been owned by old-minded old people and needed a complete renovation, including the garden which he hasn't quite finished yet. But from when we last saw it, a transformation has taken place. The light was atrocious and as soon as I saw a little sun I nipped out to take this photograph for my blog (do you think I ought to get out more?). His back-garden looks out over rolling Derbsyhire Hills towards Hardstoft. He is quite close to Pilsley and Chatsworth. He had done a lovely lunch. Mushroom soup and hot rolls, meat and potato pie, all home made, and veg. Followed by Rhubarb Crumble and Custard and then cheese. OK so he didn't actually make the cheese but he did everything else.

I had a mull over the 'recipe page idea' in the middle of the night but an easy way of doing it didn't present itself. Blogs are not quite web-sites and do have restrictions. A 'list' facility would be not too bad but it would appear on the left under all my labels, and post-titles, which would make it unwieldy. 'Links' in the 'comments' box are straightforward but that would entail getting a URL for the recipe by having it 'hosted' in Walagata or similar, which would be a faff. Madeline is ace with this sort of thing and she might have a brainwave. Or anyone else for that matter. when I've got an hour I'll go on the blogger.group forum and ask. I've already trawled the FAQs without success. Probably best is to post the recipe in a 'comment' as normal and then, in the following day's blog-post I'll give it a title and draw everyone's attention to it.

Picture 2 is a left-over from Stamford and I have given it the title "How am I supposed to know I'm not a duck?"

Great stuff about the Ice Houses from everyone. I can well understand Jill why the children wanted to know why the box containing Cromwell's head couldn't be opened. I could never understand about Joanna Southcot's box which needed lots of Anglican bishops to assemble before it could be opened.

Last night my precious DAB radio went wrong again. Losing the signal, switching itself off etc. So, this morning I thought I would give it the full WD40 treatment. I sprayed all the switches and button-sockets and where the power goes in. Then left it for 10 minutes, wiped off all the excess WD40, and switched on. Result - it now works perfectly !!

My neck is still bad and painful so, knowing I was going to have to drive, I bought a foam neck-brace from Boots. And it is helping lots and lots. It supports my head and takes the weight off my neck muscles. I can move my head from side-to-side quite freely and I just hope I don't have to wear it too long. What with sticks and now neck-brace, I look as if I was the inspiration for the Beatles' "Here come old flat-top, he come groovin' up slowly".

Y's finished the crossword. But I've got reading. And, of course, radio - now it works !

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The view is splendid but I’m afraid I find the colour very artificial. It reminds me of a Palmer painting and a Disney film; the one with the ‘Zipadee-Doo-Da’ song (‘My, Oh My, What a Wonderful Day’).

The locked boxes remind me once again of the Alexander Calder sculpture, in bronze or steel, which, when completed, was placed in a steel box and the steel lid welded on.
I’d like to have done that (except that no one would have noticed!). What confidence!

I hope you didn’t use up all your WD40?
Probably not or you would have mentioned the emergency dash to an appropriate shop for replenishment.

I don’t recognise the Beatle lyric but, without wishing to mock the afflicted, your description conjures an unavoidable image of a cross between Frankenstein’s Monster and The Mummy (both played with panache by Doris Karloff, of course) with perhaps just a hint of Harry Lime. A potent cocktail indeed.