A mixed day for weather, generally wet and windy but not too cold, and just a tempter of sun.Picture 1 is our winter-flowering Jasmine, always a reliable performer and the flash of yellow is so cheering in these dark and dismal November days. We have it in three places in the garden having brought it with us and Y has passed spadefuls on to family and friends where appropriate and it always seem to 'take'. Y follows her normal careful husbandry methods - i.e. dig up a spadeful irrespective of the time of year, stick it in a plastic bucket, transport , dig a hole deep enough and water the plant into its new home. Away it goes.
Picture 2 is some fungus from bungus and I'm not sure from his garden or whether he has been walking in the woodlands again. Ralph would have ensured the latter - none of this 'risk of infection' malarchy - he would have had him out there by now.
The photograph is hard to identify (thanks for the 50p piece btw) but the height from the ground is hard to estimate. These keen (20yr old?) wildlife photographers lie on the ground to get the 'best shot' but I'm sure that Bungus, as well as myself would find a polite reason to reject the advice. My wildlife reference books aren't too helpful and suggest, hesitatingly, 'pluteus cervinus'. Sounds more like a sexually transmitted disease amongst plutocrats than a fungus ! By the way, the best source of wildlife pictures, or nearly anything else for that matter, is Alamy (please click here) who have nearly 14 million royalty-free images available for free !
Picture 3 is my 'toad in the hole' lunch. I was pursuing my 'use fridge left-overs' policy and I had 2 links of sausage, some eggs, and a leek available. The chopped leek in with the sausage seemed unconventional but the result was good - and I would cook it again.I had my normal Sunday morning chat to David and it was good to learn about their activities and hear the happy, busy chatter of Sky and Brooke in the background.
Exchanged texts with Y, Margaret Mulligan rang and Janice came for her tote-money. She said a really nice thing when she learnt that we had decided to take the house off the market and settle down for a couple of years. She said, "I'm sorry for your sakes, but it is nice for the village that you aren't going".
I've had a super, more-or-less pain free day, spent catching up with yesterday's papers and magazines and making a start on today's plus a nap. Catch up with 'listen again' on the radio but I've managed the latter while doing the former. You can't really do that with the telly can you ? If anyone doesn't understand the bbc's 'listen again' service please click here and all will be revealed.
I made a discovery about my new Nokia mobile this morning. The way I normally hold the phone places my forefinger directly onto the Carl Zeiss lens on the rear. Hence, badly smudged piccies. So now I try to hold it differently and give it a wipe regularly.
Tomorrow Y and Jill have a date for a meet up. I don't know the details but I bet tens they won't be slumming it whatever - and I can't envisage them having a picnic in Regents Park either. Y has the Casio so we might be lucky and get a snap or two.
Comments ..................
jill ........ just picking up on Bungus's comment. It would be good to see some of Carrie's glass-work and, with her permission of course, publish an example on the blog. Knitting, photography, art. glass-work, tatting, haiku-writing et al. We do try to cater for different interests. And we haven't heard from 4 ticks for a while. I hope I haven't upset her.
There was quite a big article on knitting in one of the Telegraph supplements and its rise in popularity. No doubt you saw it.
bungus ....... Fancy you resorting to google to rumble my little Chaucerian 'look alike' bit of prose. "Tha canna gerraway wi' owt these days". I suppose I'm flattered to have fooled you just enough to merit closer scrutiny.
I think I remember, dimly, you writing a short story in the manner of Lawrence's "Odour of Chrysanthemums" which was quite convincing.
Please click here for the full text of the Lawrence. If anyone hasn't read it, it is one of the great works of 20th century English Literature. In my opinion (shared by many) his short stories, poetry, essays, and nature-writing outstrip the novels - turgid things that they are.
Re the Brand/Ross matter. I think Fay Weldon has recently said that today, 'shock' is being confused with 'humour'. From what little I've seen of both of them, I seem to be offended by their mere presence and demeanour - they don't need to say anything.
Well - so early in the evening and the blog done ! ..... Might watch a bit of telly or return to the magazines, make a pot of tea, visit mi' forums, make a sandwich .... it's all 'go' innit?
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Sleep tight - Catch you tomorrow
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Sleep tight - Catch you tomorrow
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Your early blog put me out - I clicked on ready to comment on the last one......could really fancy that sausage toad though, am not sure about the leeks.
ReplyDeleteI tried Strictly this weekend, got through it by 'muting' Bruce...I reached the same decision as you, just two series earlier....I think it is time John Sargent went too.
Yes, I saw the article in the Tel, thank you, there was also one in The Times.....and there was a very good review of the new Dervla Murphy book on her travels in Cuba in the Travel section of Saturday's paper.
Are you watching 'Little Dorrit'? I am watching it, but not entirely convinced that this was a good choice. I don't know the story, cannot work out what the chap who sounds as if he has wandered in from 'Allo, Allo'is doing in it....
I will see what I can find of Carrie's work - some of it is not fit for family blog, it is very political (and sometimes rude). I will also send you a picture of my finished 'mystery blanket' (which is not political or rude), this was done without knowing what the finished blanket was going to look like, the theme, or indeed anything about it. You signed up, paid your money, and got sent all the materials needed for five squares each month, with all the instructions etc. There was an internet group set up for discussion!
Looking forward to meeting Y tomorrow......
Sorry I've not looked in for a while. Welcome Home.
ReplyDeleteWhat with all the furniture moving, (we've moved into the back room again), cleaning, cooking, laundry, shopping, hospital visit to cardiology for an echocardiagram, evening classes & art group sessions + preparation for both, book keeping for the group, move studio into new space at backyard conservatory, new designs for Christmas cards, trying not to get near himself as he has the nasty effects from having a flu jab, (no sympathy for self inflicted conditions),and I thought I should be keeping up with my own blog posts as people are beginning to comment.
Don't get newspapers here so don't see any articles or such.
Looking forward to Saturday, havent decided yet what to add to the dessert menu tiramisu is top of the list of course.
"Time for bed", said Zebedee.
Night All...
Sandra’s tranaplanting technique is much the same as Yvonne’s – and if something doesn’t do well in one spot, move it to another. That doesn’t work with peonies, though, which need decades to become established and then only flower for five minutes a year – what a waste of time.
ReplyDeleteExaggerate? Me? Never in a thousand years.
I didn’t try to identify the fungus. I am sure as can be that it is inedible. I caught it while vainly seeking bluestalks with Emma in Wellow Woods. It was a dreary wet day and absolutely lovely. And I did think of Ralph; he loved it there.
The cap sat directly on top of the leaves – so, short stemmed.
I have given in and looked in the ‘book’.
This proved inconclusive but leads me to discount Pluteus which usually grows on rotting trunks etc. Most likely seems to be one of the Clitocybe family (equally anatomical sounding), which tend to be short stemmed and grow in circles or drifts in woodland.
A quick glance at Alamy suggests that it is images only which is inadequate for fungus identification. You need to smell ‘em and feel ‘em; and even examine the spores under a microscope to be sure, to be sure.
Because of my upbringing, I have never been a toad-in-the hole fan. I prefer my sausage and pud to be separate entities on the one plate. But it does look good.
Surprised to hear that the lens on your mobile is so exposed. I’d call that a design fault.
Congrats on the Chaucer. Were I not so inclined to such deceits myself I doubt if I would have suspected.
I perhaps would have been less likely to be so nearly caught out had I not recalled Bevis in Shakespeare’s Henry VI Pt 2 (Act III, Sc 4)
“Testy morsels of savour full,
As chyps yclept recall I well”
My Lawrence-alike, which was part published in the Lawrence Centenary edition of Staple Magazine, was called ‘Essence of Geraniums’ .
I have also done parodies of Dickens (‘Great Expectorations’) and Hemingway (’Over the Trees and into the River’) which I enjoyed writing and rewriting and enjoy re-reading. Is that called ‘self-satisfaction’?
Apart from ‘Chatterley’, which I first read and enjoyed in expurgated form as a teenager, I, like you, found the novels (‘The Rainbow’, ‘Sons & Lovers’} which I read for ‘A’ Level English in the late 80s, to be very hard going. I’m not au fait with his poems, apart from ‘The Snake’ but the only short story I recall, I suppose a novella, ‘The Fox’, I did find gripping.
I followed your link and read ‘Odour of Chrysanthemums’ (I think for the first time). I reckon the first part, until we enter the house, reads like a parody in itself – all the long sentences and loads of adverbs and adjectives. I was almost chortling.
But once the dialogue and dialect click in it becomes something else. Can folk from other parts of the country possibly appreciate it properly, I wonder?
Re the Brand/Ross matter, I have seen, and heard, several opinions.
So, on balance, I would say that I found what was said extremely offensive although, as has been pointed out, it has been blown up out of all proportion considering the two complaints first received and (quoting a letter from Louise Fearnley of Brighton, in ‘Metro’) “If your granddaughter was a burlesque dancer in a group called The Satanic Sluts, would the news … be that shocking?” and (from Deedee of London also in ‘Metro’) “Brand and Ross are a pair of kids and were hired by the BBC for this very reason. Who left them in charge? I blame the parents.”
I reckon they are the latest in a long line of boundary-pushing comedic writers and performers, of varying merit, ranging from Boccaccio and Chaucer, via Lawrence (although he had no sense of humour), Max Miller, Philip Roth and Lenny Bruce to Bernard Manning, Chris Evans and Chubby Brown.
I know that Jonathan Ross’s Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 2 is being sorely missed. I have never been a regular listener but have always enjoyed the bits I have caught when passing through the kitchen.
But I grew up in the anarchic atmosphere.of an Art College and each one of us is enttitled to a personal conditioned opinion.
Jill:
'Little Dorrit' is just too difficult to follow; not least because of the erratic BBC scheduling. I have given up. Such a pity when the cast is so good.
I was particularly annoyed yesterday. I had been looking forward to watching Jo Brand’s programme about Vera Brittain, so appropriate to Remembrance Sunday. I switched on an hour or two early to find it well over half finished. Not even Ceefax had got it right! And what replaced it? Little bloody Dorrit, that’s what.
Personally I would very much welcome the political and rude examples of Carrie’s work. If unsuitable for the blog, please email.
Like the sound of the blanket too. Perhaps a political and rude one next year?
4 TICKS:
The Yorkshire chef at an Italian owned pub/hotel we used to stay at in NW Norfolk made a marvellous tiramisu (and many other great dishes) and I have never since had one to match it.
Could you let us have a recipe please as the ones I have seen online vary so much.
Wow!! I'm missing out on the world.
ReplyDeleteEchocardiogram - I didn't even realise cardi's had echos (echos, echos , echos). Nor did I realise that Jonathan Woss bwoadcast his wadio show fwom Bungus's kitchen.
But this I do know:
Verily I say
Ye olde chyppe cobbe
Best food in the world
Rob
Bungus, sorry you missed the Jo Brand prog, it was very good. We had been watching Andrew Marr earlier, and he told you the times had changed. The BBC web-site didn't know either.....
ReplyDeleteI met Y today - cofee for her and tea for me, then it was beef soup and a cob ( no chips). The soup was good, I would have been pleased with it if I had made it. It was a soup sort of day, it has never stopped raining, I was slightly late owing to 'leaves on the line' - how unusual! - and coming home the Underground bit I use was not running owing to flooding.
Hearing all about the sausage fest on Saturday, hope you can make it, Bungus.
Bungus...
ReplyDeleteLike you I prefer my toad out of the hole. I tried but never did make a really good one so I gave it up. You know you can't beat the accompanying Mash with Onion Gravy & Mushy Peas version.
Recipe..
Tiramisu (Serves 10. it says. Hmmm)
25 Amaretti biscuits, crushed. I use the Sponge Fingers 'cos I don't like Ameretti Biscuits.
100ml (3 1/2Fl.oz)Coffee Liqueur
4 Tbsps. Strong Black Coffee
450g (1lb) Mascarpone Cheese
4 Eggs separated
50g (1 3/4oz)Caster Sugar
100g (3 1/2oz)Dark Chocolate (I use Black Magic)finely grated
25g (1oz)Cocoa Powder
Divide the crushed biscuits into 4 piles. Use one pile to sprinkle into the base of one large or 10 individual serving dishes.
Mix together the Coffee Liqueur, Brandy & Coffee, then drizzle 1/4 of this mixture over the biscuits in the dish/es.
Place the Mascarpone Cheese, Egg Yolks & Caster Sugar in a bowl & beat together thoroughly.
In a clean, GREASE FREE large bowl, whisk the Egg Whites until they form soft peaks, then fold them into the Mascarpone mixture.
Spoon 1/4 of this mixture over the soaked crumbs in each dish.
Continue layering the remaining Biscuits, Liqueur & Mascarpone mixture, finishing with a layer of Mascarpone.
Sprinkle the grated Chocolate over the top surface then dredge the Cocoa Powder over all.
Chill overnight in fridge (or our garage) to give the flavours time to mingle.
LIKE MOST DESSERTS OF THIS TYPE IT'S ALWAYS BETTER THE NEXT DAY.
ALTERNATIVELY - If you look inside the Sponge Fingers packet bought from Sainsbury's, you may find a simpler, acceptable recipe printed there. If you don't, let me know & I'll look it out for you.
Gotta go now, Byeeee
ps.
ReplyDeleteSORRY, BUNGUS I OMITTED TO LIST THE BRANDY IN THE INGREDIENTS.
ADD 4 TBSPS BRANDY TO LIST ABOVE THE STRONG BLACK COFFEE.