It rained most of the day. The sun broke through for around 3 minutes and this was it so I fird off a quick three frames as the basis for the above Panorama. My fairly recent Serif programme is much better than its predecessor. Easy to use and quick.We shopped during the morning and I made a crispy-beef chinese stir-fry for lunch which Y proclaimed one of my best ever. Not a trace of oiliness and I chucked in allsorts, including water chestnuts which we both love. Hint of sesame, good dollop of oyster sauce and to complete the surf an' turf theme I added 4 monster prawns. Y added a dash of soya but I didn't think it needed it.
Lucky Jill and Ro house-sitting in remote New Forest with ponies, donkeys and an Aga. Sounds like Idyllia, a place name derived from idyllic. With all these Latin scholars about care must be exercised in the coining of new words though. I'm most impressed Madeline with your 'O' level. At my grammar school one only did Latin as an additional 6th form subject if you were destined for Oxbridge. My shame was failing 'O' level French and having to retake it in the November. I struggled through after extra coaching. Back to Jill and her Dad's runner-beans. My Dad went to no trouble at all and had this theory, which I have followed, that if a crop is being grown for its seed/seed-pods, the plant is best not over coddled/fed because otherwise you finish up with healthy foliage and few beans. The basic idea being that the plant thinks oh dear! we are having a rough time here, best produce lots of offspring.
Success with them has, as he says, constantly elluded Bungus and re: the onion story. He once tried growing them from onion-sets and come harvest-time he assures me, they were smaller than when planted. Before leaving 'commentsville' I would be quite at home in Madeline's area with no TV but I would miss broadband hellishly, and DAB radio. I seem to remember she is a heavy-metal and similar music fan but that would drive me barmy. And re skim-reading. Woody Allen once announced he had skim-read 'War and Peace' and that it was about Russia.
Picture 2 is Annie Leibovitz's recent portrait of the Queen and, in my opinion, it is incredibly good. I'm so pleased that she was chosen to take it because she isn't really a conventional portrait photographer. Her work always impresses me greatly and in this case she hits the spot. As you would expect, I love the diagonals and the way she has captured Elizabeth 2 looking out onto a dull March day is remarkable. The photograph has been published in my AmPhot forums so I guess, duly attributed, it's OK to use it on this 'strictly not for profit' publication. Google, through a system called Adsense, offer me money to carry advertising on the blog but I haven't the slightest inclination to do so. The non-commercial aspect appeals to me.I realise I'm flitting, but Jill mentioned Daphne du Maurier and Frenchman's Creek is being serialised on OneWord. One of my favourite radio stations but DAB or internet only unfortunately. What a super story though - it still works!
The Zanussi dishwasher has failed, and only 7 years old The smiley is Y coping and I am off-stage left, wiping.
5 comments:
Your garden looks lovely.....tell Y she can come and do mine any time...
I thought that was a terrific photo of the Queen - think it is the only one I have ever seen where she looks like her mother. Or is it just the setting and the dress?
Our Zanussi dishwasher failed after five years, but the washing machine lasted twelve years. And I use a handheld mixer for doing spongecaske with etc. that is 41 years old this summer.....
I hope your estate agent is to be provided with a panorama as it certainly makes the RadioG estate look impressive.
For tea today I cooked a delicious Indian fish and tomato recipe which I would not call a curry. I also deep-fried some small pieces of the fish in a spiced chickpea flour batter (fish pakoras, I suppose, or gramscampi). I used Pangassius; a freshwater catfish (also known as ‘Irridescent Shark’) which apparently is easily farmed in a disease free way that sets it on course to become the only available edible fish in 20 years time. The fillets are completely skinless and although it is bone-free it tastes nothing like Elsa the lioness.
I think it is true that all plants make every effort to survive if left to their own devices. Moving them around sometimes encourages them although I believe it doesn’t work with peonies (but as they only flower for one day a year I see that as no great loss).
I like the Woody Allen tale. I understand the bible is all about god?
The photo of our queen is better than any other portrait I have seen of her. And yes, Jill, she does, unusually, look very like her mother, who was better at smiling (perhaps she had more to smile about, having picked a winner).
We were once told to never expect a dishwasher to last more than ten years and I would say seven is pretty good. About 20 years ago I did buy a second hand semi industrial food mixer (like a Kenwood Chef but bigger and stronger) for thirty bob at the Newark Wharf auction. I got it home, plugged it in and it didn’t work. Changing the fuse did the trick and it still obliges when called upon. ي
PS
I am surprise, RadioG, that you sat 'O' Levels. I would have thought it would still have been School Cert, where one took 9 subjects, and anything less than 5 Passes (including English) meant failure (and I think it was 5 Credits for Matric). I only failed Latin, although I needed the help of the gods for a Pass in Chemistry.
Nearly 40 years later I joined the Sixth Form of the local comp to take 'O' Levels in Rural Studies and Theatre Studies, and 'A' Level Engliah a few years after that.
I have always preferred study to real work.
Your garden, as always, is beautiful. It certainly puts ours to shame! I've seen that portrait of the Queen elsewhere and it's wonderful. I agree with Jill that she (the Queen) looks very much like her mother. I saw a photo of the Queen recently in a newspaper and was struck then by how much she resembles her mother.
Don't be too impressed by my Latin 'O' level. I had an excellent teacher. She had a habit of throwing a stick of chalk at anyone who appeared not to be paying attention, so we all did eventually! She also made what is sometimes seen as a boring subject very interesting. It's fascinating to be able to see the Latin roots of some words, not only in English but also in French.
I enjoyed languages at school and all of my 'O' levels are language-based, apart from History. I learnt German as well as French and the former has come in very useful since I started to listen to Rammstein's music. This isn't music you would like RG and I've learnt some very rude words from it that my German teacher would definitely disapprove of most strongly!
Bungus, those school mottos sound tedious in the extreme - "Always the same" and "Work conquers all", no doubt they put them in Latin to make them sound more arcane and esoteric! My school motto was "Honour Before Honours", something that some government members and their hangers-on would do well to practise!
Thank you so much for your kind comment! I really enjoyed reading your blog :) I will definitely be visiting again!
-Julzika
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