This little corner of Steven's sunken Victorian Garden always makes me think of that classic if depressing book of childhood. The Secret Garden. I read it perhaps twice and then decided against a third, mainly because I didn't like the people.As against The Coral Island which I probably read 40 times because I liked Ralph, Peterkin and Jack. Even the grisly bits didn't spoil it for me. They simply wouldn't consider it for publication these days.
One further development from yesterday is that Hannah and her friend Anna have each decided to set up their own blog.
Spoke to David and told him about our new mobiles. He said he has trouble sending photographs - so it isn't just us, and Andy. I think it is a case for Karen on Tuesday morning. David is OK but Helen is not too well and both the girls seem to be suffering bugs. It always seem to be when they all get back to School. The garages now have a roof, and one big door which is better than two smaller ones in space-creation terms
Picture 2 shows, I think, a hover fly. Its propensity to hover enabled me to photograph it before it left.I know it isn't a wood wasp because they have a long sting-thing at the rear end - even though they don't sting you.
Our Rest Day has been uneventful. Y did a load of washing and ironing and then went on 'garage clearance' and 'garden cutting back' while I cooked the sausages from the Farmers' Market with onion sauce, carrots, courgettes, potato done with the ricer, and runner beans from Lisa. They were really lovely, not a trace of 'stringy', and so fresh and full of flavour. The onion sauce was successful and popular as always. The we had stewed damsons and custard. Our allotment man up the road had saved us some damsons and he wanted 60p a 1lb (actually each bag was a pound and a half). I said I would like three bags, so he reduced them to 50p a bag, and threw in 2 more bagsfull ! And oooh ! the flavour ! well worth having a ramekin each to spit the stones into. I exaggerate - it is permissible to transfer them by via your desert spoon !
Quote of the Day :-
"The human mind treats a new idea the same way the body treats a strange protein; it rejects it."
Early night planned. Lots of reading to catch up on though. See you tomorrow.
n.b. for new 'blog readers'. Anything in orange will be a live-link and just needs a left click. Likewise with the pictures. If you click one, you get a screen filler version.
Early night planned. Lots of reading to catch up on though. See you tomorrow.n.b. for new 'blog readers'. Anything in orange will be a live-link and just needs a left click. Likewise with the pictures. If you click one, you get a screen filler version.
I am trying to remember if I've ever had damsons. Certainly not in recent times, I don't know anyone who has a damson tree and I've not seen them in shops. I remember being somewhere (Yugoslavia comes to mind) and drinking damson wine. Are they quite sharp, bitter even? Or I am I getting mixed up with sloes? Friends living on the south coast pick wild sloes every year to make sloe gin.
ReplyDeleteVictoria Plums (of which I am very partial) came and went here, in about two weeks. I expect it is too late for them to do a second round?
I used to like 'Coral island ' too - it was a school library book but I had it for at least a year. I liked it much better than 'Lord of the Flies' I preferred 'The Little Princess' to 'The Secret Garden' but I don't expect you read that?