Super visit to Long Eaton for coffee (specially made in David's big Espresso pot) - I know tiny mugs are the thing but I like a large one. So, after round one, he promptly made another pot.I thought the fish tank would be an attractive picture, without flash, so I balanced my little Casio on a work surface.
Helen and the girls have been making jewellery and very attractive it is too. My photo was a failure though, so you will have to imagine lovely
interwoven neck-pieces and bangles with lots of sparklies.The Rhododendron at the side of the patio door is very pretty and laden with blossom. Couldn't do it justice though in the 16mph NE wind and a dull overcast sky.
When Helen went into the conservatory the other day, there on the decking staring back at her, was a large grey rat. Their cat does its best but there's no doubt rats and mice are becoming more prevalent. We all may eventually need to keep cats. Old fashioned vermin control methods are often the best.
When we got home I set up the laptop for Y but thereafter she wrote some complicated NT minutes and now needs my assistance much less. She says that she learnt so much more through having the confidence to tackle it by 'trial and error' and 'keep clicking buttons' methods. Due to her history she is a much faster and more competent keyboard person than me anyway. My P.A. role may well diminish !
Reg's Mo has fallen and broken her arm, needing x-rays and casts and things and they keep having to visit different clinics and hospitals mainly due to a Bank Holiday service. It isn't all downside though because this morning she was seen before her appointment time and was out 10 minutes later. Fortunately it isn't her painting arm !
Comments.....Bungus ...... Y and I both enjoyed the Johnny Cash film very much too. But we had paid actually folding money to see it in the Cinema.
I remember your Austin Princess well.
Maybe you had already tracked down a link to the Royal Academy of Arts Exhibition of Vilhelm Hammershøi. If not there it is again. This painting is so firmly a product of the Dutch Interior shcool started by the "The Arnolfini Wedding" by Jan van Eyck in 1434.
The lighting is so typical of the genre !Whatever. It has given me an excuse to publish one of my favourite paintings. In fact, one of the greatest paintings of all time in art-historical terms. We had to learn all about the symbolism, and the reason for the dog in the foreground, and all that jazz. But you just have to look closely in the mirror in the centre of the wall at the back.
And if any camera club judge dares say anything about 'the rule of thirds' I shall go to the garage and collect my 'sheep castrating tool' from a shelf.
The painting is in the National Gallery and aren't we lucky to have it.
Jill ...... Roast forerib (we used to call it chine I think) is a family favourite and I cook it at least twice a year. Sirloin is perhaps second but I've never succeed with topside so I don't even try anymore.
Your Roast Chicken sounds good ! especially with the well matured accompaniments. Every so often I try to do a freezer tidyup meal. And the lower layers never cease to amze me. I think "I don't remember buying these greyhound chops !"...... Everybody buys frozen sweetcorn but does anyone ever cook it ?
No - we didn't watch the Eurovision Song Contest. I'm pleased to say, from the reports.
AnonymousRob ...... So pleased you have sorted your Dongle because we miss your comments when you are not online - -----
"Your dongle is ace.
Long may it serve you well in
both blog and google"
I know the photo-portait of JFK from the rear, that you refer to. My first thought was that it might have been Jane Brown, but a casual google failed.Long may it serve you well in
both blog and google"
I don't think I need to know any more about Bungus's great tits.
Bungus is right to say that my 'pension feeding view of work is the only possible approach' is inaccurate because there are others. Of course there are - but in your circumstances the approach is legitimate and acceptable to you, which is what matters.
I'm keeping out of the football talk. Just hope Chelsea fan Andy (son in law) doesn't read your comment or he will be queuing up to borrow the sheep-castraters.
Quotation time ......
"Men live in a fantasy world. I know this because I am one, and I actually receive my mail there"
The Dilbert creator in person.
.
Are rats and mice becoming more prevalent?
ReplyDeleteMy personal observations tell me otherwise. I know there is a rat within a few yards of everyone (in skyscrapers?) but hasn’t that always been the case?
Location has a bearing. When we were at Wellow, the rats used to come up from the fields in their dozens or even hundreds every winter. Here I have seen one on one occasion in the last year and some years a go we found a dead one. We do have a colony of mice though, who delight us (they live in the garage and visiting cats tend to keep their numbers within reason).
Sandra, too is a very fast and accurate typist (Millers’ Business College) but now lets untrained Stephanie do most of it at the workshop (to free her to do more urgent work).
So you may still have an occasional role to play.
Your ‘one of the greatest paintings of all time’ does nothing for me whatsoever. I think it typically Dutch, ie, stolid, stilted and lifeless; the only merit is in the skill of the brushwork and the interesting bits of detail (I could not see what is in the mirror).
Roast forerib is very good if rather difficult to carve. Sirloin has a very good flavour but is often too fatty for me.
I was in Tesco on Sunday and on the reduced counter was a joint of:
Fresh British beef; Topside/Top Rump joint with added basting fat; ideal for roasting.
Produced by John Vinston (a Tesco farmer) on his north Devon coastal farm and fed on grass, silage, and home grown barley.
Sandra rubbed it with curry powder (you don’t taste it but it really improves the gravy) and roasted it perfectly to a crusty outside, pink but not ‘bloody’ within. It was delicious; tender and as nice as any beef I have ever tasted.
It has made me think again about supermarket beef.
By the way, it had first been reduced from £7.48 a kilo to £6. It weighed 0.71 kg wich made it £4.26. But it had been finally reduced to 80p (yes, eighty pence, £1.12 a kg). A real bargain buy.
I like the quote.
Mention has been made of someone painting people from the back. I shall resubmit my favourite photo which may have already been published. It is entitled ‘I’ll Join the Legion’ (I took it at a VE anniversary garden party at Radcliffe-on-Trent British Legion).
I agree with Jill about the Song Contest (I didn’t watch it) and am pleased Wogan has thrown in the towel.
Rob:
I sent a poem of mine to Radio Nottm last week and Frances Finn read it out (too quickly). I must point out that although certain aspects of Sandra led to it, it is NOT about her!
"NO NEST
Can I compare thee to a summer’s day?
More like a rainy night in May
Or Jan; there really ought to be a ban
On face so gloomy , long and wan.
No milk, no wheat, no smile to crack
Your face, which looks so like the back
Of a Stagecoach omnibus.
Can there be no hope for us?
And yet, look on the bright side, dear,
There are times when you want me here
Or there; at a committee meeting,
Or on a course. Ah yes, my sweeting,
Then you can be nice to me
And serve that rare delicious tea."
I cannot go along with your sweeping ‘no one from the top down shows any respect for anyone’. 90%of the pupils at our local Comp (in an area of deprivation) are extremely courteous and helpful; although, like the vast majority of people, they do discard their rubbish (ie, mainly food wrappings) anywhere.
I think Mourinho might have done better at Chelsea – he made some good substitutions.
The Chelsea I loved, for their entertaining style of play, was that of Vialli and Ranieri.
I don’t think it was Charlie Buchan:
“Len Shackleton, the legendary clown prince of English football, entitled one chapter of his autobiography "What your average club director knows about football."
He then left the next page totally blank.
Tommy Docherty came from much the same school of thought.
A chairman of his once vowed he was right behind him as manager. Doc replied that he would prefer his directors in front of him...where he could see them.”
Haiku:
Marmalade has three syllables.
That’s not so strange;
So does tea-pot-lid.
Rob:
ReplyDeleteThat 'rare delicious tea' is Darjeeling. But Assam is good if you like an extra hit.
It may have been a typo but, in the interest of accuracy, the long serving Observer photographer is Jsne Bown, not Brown.
ReplyDeleteI have, eventually, come up with a haiku for the Great Tit chicks:
ReplyDeleteNature has its way
Survival of the fittest
In the Great Tits' nest
I'm happy to accept it was Len Shackleton and not Charlie Buchan. I think Cloughie felt the same way; probably most football folk do. I bet there's a few at Mansfield that take the same view.
My 'sweeping statement' was meant to refer to the 'world' of association football only. It seems to me respect counts for little in the professional game.
If I remember correctly, Chelsea were off the pace in the Premier League and struggling in the Champions League when Mourinho left. Maybe he would have turned it around but Avram Grant did and I don't think he deserved the sack for that. My suspicion is the sacking was not for football reasons. Consequently my personal view is that Chelsea's senior management do not deserve success though I'm sure they will get it.
Bungus, I enjoyed your poem but, from various comments over the past few weeks, I'm beginning to suspect you don't like women. Please tell me I'm wrong.
Rob