This is Sky and Brooke's Fish Tank, they went to buy some more fish I think, when they left here on Sunday.I hope they won't mind but I have taken out a glary spot where the flash was reflected on the glass, and added two more fish, thinking there was an empty looking space. Looks good though and acquariums are supposed to be peaceful and good for the soul. For the spectators that is, not for the residents ! The children told me that a fish vanished overnight and one of the bigger ones was prime suspect.
It's a rough old "shebunkin eat shebunkin" world unfortunately.
Picture 2 is just an ordinary old crocus study. The stigmas, of course, are used to prepare saffron - so I guess Bungus will be out collecting enough to dry and use, while he is grinding his spices and milling his flour etc..
I'm firmly in the Delia camp re this. As obviously are AnonymousRob, Manxislander and presumably Jill. Provided the product isn't chockful of additives and malicious chemicals I see nothing wrong in providing work for people grating cheese, and dicing onions, gutting and freezing fish on trawlers etc.. Her book apparently is going like 'hot cakes' and is already in Amazon's best-seller list, on advance sales alone. It isn't officially published till 15th Feb. As you have Jill, I have already ordered mine, from the Mail TV supplement at £12.99p (inc. p&p) and eagerly await arrival. Manxislander is first off the blocks having cooked the Creole Prawns and pronounced them delicious. Click >>here<< to read the Telegraph on the matter. Your fish-cakes sound more-ish Jill by the way.
Bit daft for 70s+ but this morning we moved 2 sofas around, that is from one room to another, not within the same room, and, as you would expect, the doorways presented a problem. But we did it. Big sense of achievement all round. Although I am now suffering from 'fatankle syndrome', but it will go away. This afternoon our carpet cleaning man Paul came and did 3 carpets very expertly and cheaply. He has been before, and also did TJ's. It is a pity Jill that you don't live up here - there would be no problem getting you a gardener. You will just have to let your garden revert to nature and claim it as a positive decision.
Comments proper..... Bungus.. Thank you for the praise for the Ikea site picture. It won't be like that for long. And I will convey your comments, along with Mannanans, to Hannah re her Headstocks. My guess is that AnonymousRob is correct that the subject of the Observer piece must have been Mrs. Beeton.
How typical of the aggrieved husband to "take it out on his wife when they got home" when the 'smackworthy' behaviour was her first husband's. As Rob says, that must be Wellow for you. He would certainly have got a smack in Canning Circus or Hyson Green, paricularly at The Polish Club.
I gather from Y and Lisa that 'twitchers' prefer the title 'birders'. Rhett Butler's words from 'Gone with the Wind' spring to mind. The ones that begin "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a substitute your own word here...what they call themselves.
AnonymousRob......I suppose that you could have had both pot de chambre and darkroom, so long as you didn't get confused and use the wrong one for 'fixer' or 'toner' but even then you might have discovered a new print technique called the 'urinotype' and all would have copied it !
Quotation spot.....
" As I grow older , I regret to say that a detestable habit of thinking seems to be getting a hold of me"
Busy busy day tomorrow. National Trust Committee meeting in the morning, followed by a committe lunch at The Hardwick Inn. Don't know in advance who is attending the meeting so I might be inspired or furious by this time tomorrow.......
...... On Wednesday WoW are going down Nottingham to have a look at the Nottingham Eye and Y is coming with us. I think we all fancy a ride, and I shall pack my compact in case SLRs are banned. But Y already grabbed an excellent shot on her mobile, so she can always grab another. If you open the above link there are further links on that page, to videos from the Eye looking in the different directions. Sleep tight all......
I was interested to see the pictures of the Nottingham Eye not least becuase I need a few snaps of the refurbed Square. I, along with Denis Morley and Roy Guy, have an exhibition of Slab Square photographs in the Heritage Gallery of the Angel Row library starting on 3rd March for the rest of the month.
ReplyDeleteI meant to give you a couple of 'guitar heroes' yesterday but forgot. As well as Django I'd include Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. However, the sound of the saxophone appeals to me much more than the guitar.
Jill - any chance of a food parcel of your delicious-sounding fishcakes, or will they be too delicate? Maybe we can prevail upon you for the recipe?
I like the shot of the crocus. I didn't know they were the source of saffron. How mind expanding this blog is. Speaking of which, I'm sure you can easily get smack in Hyson Green though I've never been there for any.
'Urinotype', RG, is an interesting concept. I must delve into the chemical properties of the raw ingredient, though I do hope you're not taking the ****
Rob
Having missed my hospital appointment we left after a jump start (the fully charged battery had completely discharged overnight!) to get to the garage who supplied the car about 11.00. They replaced the battery with no qualms and also the wipers which Alan thought defective. We then went to Lidl and the Bargain Shop at Sutton. Within half an hour Sandra had become a Lidlite and led me into spending £40 plus £20 at the Bargain Shop (where Sandra was delighted to be asked at the checkout if she was over 18). It was lucky Alan chose to go with us as, by the time we had finished, I would have been struggling to drive home and Sandra prefers not to drive more than a couple of miles. We arrived home at about 3.00 and I had half a tin of excellent Bargain Shop Pea & Ham soup (Heinz, 20p a tin). I am now somewhat revived.
ReplyDeleteI think saffron comes from a particular variety of crocus (the sort that was grown a Saffron Walden and , I believe, in the meadows at Nottingham when they were the water meadows). Otherwise …
I may have misread or misinterpreted Delia from what I read.
Nevertheless I am not altogether happy with it and regard it simply as a way of cashing in at the expense of her devoted followers (successfully in the case of 3 of our 4, it seem).
I favour Marigold Bouillon; and dried ciabatta crumbs sound OK but no self respecting chef (including, I suspect, Delia) has ever before recommended grated Parmesan. Quite rightly. And, although I find them just acceptable, Sandra, a daily eater of sweet peppers finds the ones bottled in oil totally repulsive.
I’d like the Prawn Creole recipe though.
Mrs Beeton it was (who died too young to have cooked anything)..
I think G is right about the garden Jill. Do it for the wildlife.
It takes two to tango, as they say.
Wellow in the 70s was a delightfully decadent village (but relatively drug free, AnonRob); difficult for the newcomer because it took up to ten years to discover who was related to whom (almost everybody to everybody, in or out of marriage). Christmas always started on about Dec 3rd when Stan Johnson started singing his little dittioes in the Durham Ox. From then on there was a party every night at a different house (for the in-crowd aged from 25 to 70, including the licensee of the Ox) until New Year’s Day. They all went on until at least 3.00 am. It was a swinging village and had been for 30 years or more. I’m glad I didn’t miss that decade.
Taking 'smack' at its original meaning, I never felt threatened in Mansfield but one night in Bury-St-Edmunds was enough for me to get an incisor kicked through my lip. It was stag party for a friend who was marrying a vicar’s daughter the next day. We were not your conventional yobs (only 2 of us were Grammar Bugs, the rest Public School; whom I know behave as badly as anyone, but tend to confine it). One of our party, John, whose offices RG once picketed, was compelled to move when a car drew into the lay by outside the chip shop. He put his chip paper on the bonnet of the car which had pulled up touching him. All hell broke loose. The four occupants of the car burst from it and attacked John. I walked in arms spread wide, hoping to placate but, the next thing I knew, I was bleeding on the floor.
The next day at the wedding, John, an usher, had a splendid black eye and I was drinking chamopagne from the bottle with a straw.
All part of life’s rich and varied pattern.
The thing is that ‘birders’ are not ‘twitchers’ (they have quite different codes of behaviour) any more than police car drivers are highwaymen. Rhett Butler didn’t give a damn but he got the emphasis wrong – ‘I don’t GIVE a damn’ rather than ‘I don’t give a DAMN’. But I did not think that you, RG, would be inclined to upset people so easily.
Sandra is determined to ride The Eye and I am equally determined not to. It doesn’t look safe to me apart from being too high.
To AnonRob:
I was taught on a course in cellar management at John Smith’s Brewery that friction causes the beer temperature to rise by approximately one degree F on its way up the pipe from the cellar, ie, from 52/53 to 53/54.
I certainly agree that cold beer lacks the proper flavour.
So it IS your fault that Pershore flooded. I’ll tell James the Fish and he’ll come and get you.
As I see it, most ready made sauces are full of nasty things and those which are not are generally extremely expensive. Better back to basics.
Transposed to America, ‘The Honeywood File’ may have been the basis of a film well worth watching, ‘Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House’ starring Cary Grant and the beautiful Myrna Loy.