This stone lion at Belton House, who features in Picture 1, had human eyes and the result was probably the saddest lion I have ever seen. Such a boring job anyway, regurgitating water into a seldom used water trough.Picture 2 is of the lights in the oak tree outside Brinsley Village Hall and, concentrated in the lower branches as they are, produces an odd effect.
I can only suppose that Health & Safety ruled the higher branches un-useable. We may never know.
Mrs Mulligan's visit was a great success. She thoroughly enjoyed herself and so did we. And can I please scotch the rumour that I am only capable of cooking sausages!
For pudding we had 'bread and butter pudding with custard' but Y cooked that I s'pose.
It was a lovely day weather-wise too. Cold again but bright sun and little wind. We managed the Mrs M collection and delivery runs during daylight - but only just. By 4.30pm it was dark.
The BBC are in a real pickle with the Strictly come Dancing imbroglio. It was far too glib to reassure viewers that their votes on Saturday had not been wasted (because they are to be rolled over and added to the scores in the final - we were told). But those votes were cast for last week's dances and can only distort the voting this coming Saturday !
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Jill ...... You may have a cavalier approach to your comments but, as editor-in-chief, I regret their loss. When the blog has been snapped up by Faber & Faber and we are all rich and famous, those comments will be sadly missed !When you speak of your daughter-in-law having a "silver (real, dipped) tree" I assume that it was the silver which was real, not the tree.
I must wrap my presents tomorrow.
The 'Chiswick Home for the Bewildered' sounds fun. Are there any 'beds'? And are the bewitched and bothered eligible for vacancies too?
bungus ...... I join with you in admiring French disdain for petty rules. It harks back to the revolution.
Hope the Sandra Saga eventually reached a satisfactory conclusion.
I disagree about not checking anagrams. Most crossword puzzlers of my acquaintance automatically spot a problem. With your Obama example I immediately wondered where the 'k' had gone.
anonymousrob ..... Congratulations on this effortless multi-tasking !
Re The X factor. If Alexandra is a singer, I think I caught a few minutes on the telly. She is, as you say, very good indeed.
Not sure about the haiku. I'm assuming the reference to Mrs Mulligan "Might do sausages" is using the word 'do' as druggies 'do'.
If there is to be a McArthur Glen 'meet' you can rely on an invitation.
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It is a Karen day tomorrow. And we ought to find some excuse for getting out from uinder her feet etc. Or she can hoover round us - she won't mind.
Quotation time ....... This one appeals greatly .....
Quotation time ....... This one appeals greatly .....
"Sometimes when you look in his eyes you get the feeling that someone else is driving"
2 comments:
The lights on the tree look a bit like flying angels to me....probably quite unintentional!
No, I meant it was a real fir tree, dipped in silver paint.....But I must not disparage this daughter-in-law - she brought round a home-made Xmas cake for us, a small square one just the right size, all iced, (and proper Royal Icing, not that sickly fondant stuff) - it has silver and mauve glitter on it and has wide silver and purple ribbon round it (obviously these are her favourite colours!). She has also lined that blanket I knitted for me, beautifully, in pale green fabric, and there are tiny pale greeny-gold bows on the right side at the intersections, must have taken her an age.
I watched Nigella earlier, two of her cocktails (or possibly even one) would have me lying on the kitchen floor (but happy). I was put off by the way she kept emphasising sweetness, everything from a lamb tagine to butternut soup, she kept on about the sweetness. And those mince-pies were so uniform, didn't look homemade a bit. And I don't like cranberries in my mincemeat, thank you. Though the orange juice in the pastry was a good idea!
What do you mean, G, 'WHEN we are rich and famous'? speak for yourself!
The London/Newark train was 4 hours late on Sunday night (they all arrived home at 2.30).
Sandra awaited its arrival, first at Retford then at Newark, for over 3 hours.
“Train passengers on the East Coast main line were stranded for up to six hours overnight after power cables came down.
Services … were halted in open countryside … with passengers unable to get off.
Damage to overhead wires at Claypole near Newark left north and southbound trains using the same line of track.
The problems started at about 1830 GMT on Sunday and repair work finished at 0320 GMT on Monday.”
On her way to Retford, Sandra received a message that the train had been further delayed so she decided to call in somewhere for a coffee. At ten-thirtyish three of the four pubs she passed were closed (she missed the turn-in for the other) - permanently?. And at Retford station, the drinks’ machines were not working and the toilets were locked (although the porter on duty did allow her the use of staff facilities).
For breakfast today (Monday) I had some truly excellent black pudding from Netto. I grilled it and put it between two slices of Tiger bread lathered with apple chutney. Yummy!
So enjoyable the, for my tea, I had some more, fried, (it was a day past use-by) with a jacket spud + chopped fried onion and fried apple. Very good.
And Stephanie brought back each of us a crab leg from Harrods (each about 2 feet long, so you wouldn’t want him climbing over you in the middle of the night). I had mine for supper with with a bit of mayo and a roll & butter. Very succulent and tasty; a real treat.
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We have two trees this year. A real 7 foot one is in the dining area, decorated in traditional fashion, while the other, in the living room, is a twiggy one which Sandra bought several years ago from a shop where it wasn’t for sale (it was part of the window display). That has just tiny white lights with a gismo that lets them flash or go on and off in various combinations.
What a strange looking Belton lion that is (if it is).
I suspect the Brinsley tree lights do not go higher is because the ladder wasn’t long enough. They should’ve called the brigade.
Ah, Mrs Mulligan, to be sure, to be sure. I cannot get the picture from my mind. Does she do a little dance, hoping on one foot?
But b&b pudding WITH CUSTARD! The custard is a part of it, not an addition.
Yet another of your occasionally peculiar eating habits. If I was dictator you would be reconditioned or gulagized or whatever it is that Communists do to citizens who stray from the Party Line.
I am sure that I would be just as upset as you are at the ‘Strictly…’ shenanigans if I only thought that it mattered. Unlike ‘The X Factor’, it does not allow/prevent anyone from going on to a glittering and highly paid professional career. It’s a bit of fun.
I think you missed the anagram point. It is only the weird minority (crossword solvers) who bother checking amiagarms.
Oh, and Sean Lock is a comedian; it was a joke.
I presume Letterman was referring to George W?
Jill (1):
Train report above.
I think Birds Eye and perhaps one or two others still make good fish fingers.
I agree that Brussels on the stem are better. But once or twice a year is plenty for me (like broad beans).
I am not fond of cabbage either. My view is that calabrese can be eaten almost without noticing but purple sprouting, brussel tops and turnip tops are delicious.
Ah, your Ruth was the feisty * one, a ‘street fighter’ whom I gathered was not altogether well liked by her fellow contestants. I thought her a very good entertainer but a less talented singer than several of the others.
[ * my dictionary says ‘feisty’ is derived from dialect word ‘feist’, a mongrel dog, in turn somehow derived from obsolete word ‘fist’ meaning ‘to break wind’].
Jill (2):
Isn’t it a treat to have daughters / daughters-in (or out)-law who are into arty crafty things?
We are lucky to have two, Steph and Emma, in their very different ways.
Sandra’s oldest survving sister once gave us a butternut soup which was far TOO sweet. Unlike some people (inc RG, I believe) I like sweet accompaniments to savoury food (eg, apple or cranberry sauce, although freferably retaining a hint of the fruit’s sourness) but, like you, I think sweetness can be overdone. Everybody seems to be doing orange pastry which I agree sounds good.
How pleased I am to be associated , even at a distance, with someone so RICH & FAMOUS.
I must tell you in detail sometime how I am related to Clint Eastwood and the Duke of Kent.
Or perhaps not!
anonymousrob:
There was no doubt that Ruth had outstanding attributes greatly appreciated by Simon Cowell.
Sad Stags it is. I suppose they will save on McEwan’s wages. They might as well have kept Paul Holland who certainly had a considerable attachment to the club.
Haslam does still own the ground but has no involvement in the running of the club. I suppose that he has control in the sense that he could sell or apply to redevelop the land.
writing in haiku
Can become habit forming.
Best avoided?
Anusol sounds like a sunny favella.
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