Today was our Mansfield National Trust Xmas outing and our chosen venue was Belton House in Lincolnshire. The house name is a live link. We had a our usual great time and lots of laughs with our chums. The weather wasn't brilliant but, after all, it is December not July.Unfortunately our Chairman - Peter and his wife Joan - couldn't make it. Joan is still recovering from her operation and Peter has 'shingles' and is in consequence, generally under the weather. We all missed him and with Wendy mssing too we couldn't play our noisy 'first to see Belton House etc... gets sixpence' game. As you see our National Trust trips have serious academic content.......
During the morning journey, thanks to my mobile, I managed my customary call to David and they are all OK.
As the light was fairly grim I went armed (photographically) with my mobile phone and not the Nikon but, as you can see, it gave a good account of itself.
Picture 2 is The Orangery. Architecturally it is in the top ten of my favourite buildings list. Dating from the early 19th Century it isn't old, comparatively speaking but beautiful neveretheless. There are three reasons for the sepia - 1. The scene was almost devoid of colour due to the dullness of the day. 2. It suits the period, and 3. I know Jill will enjoy it.
Y and I both decided on a turkey dinner. It was fine. Freshly cooked and carved. The only problem was the brussels which were on the raw side of al dente. We also had tea/coffee plus throughout the day. Nice time in the book shop but came away empty-handed.
The return journey didn't take long and we were home before 6pm.
Picture 3 is, as requested, Y's tree. Sometime's Y claims to want to follow TJ and other young people's lean, and sparsely decorated look.But, to please me mostly, she always finishes up doing one which looks traditionally Y. We only have a tiny artificial tree these days which lives in the loft collapsed into pieces.
When it is erected though, I like lots and lots of lights, baubles, tinsel and lametta. It is, in my opinion, a little meagre in the lametta department this year. I have been given permission to purchase more and may well do so.
Comments
bungus ...... I'm with Sandra in not liking the big-room curtains drawn in the evening. As you know, passing friends look in and we exchange waves. And we are anti net-curtains too.
But you are right to be concerned about 'buglers'. They might 'break-in' to a rendition of 'the last post'.
p.s. for xword addicts. 'Presbyterians' is an anagram of 'Britney Spears'. How appropriate is that ?
You are right about my new 'netbook'. It's lightness and compact size are pleasant. Particularly as the keys are full size and operate with a very satisfying clunk rather than rattle. As you know I have an irritating tendency to take a laptop to all sorts of strange places. This tendency is, unfortunately, now being nurtured.
Re 'snoek' . I prefer the taste (from memory) to pollack which I have only tried once and thoroughly disliked its ' lack of taste' and unpalatable texture. However, if I was hungry enough ..............
Every household should have a lay figure !
Jill ...... I really don't know what to say about your ephemeral blog-comments. They are very important contributions and much enjoyed by me and my readers. Perhaps you really ought to use the nungus method of creating a 'word document' and saving it. Then copy/past into the blog. If I am talking double dutch, please e-mail me and we will go through the method a bit at a time.
Another method would be to e-mail the 'comment' to yourself. You could then use the copy/paste method to get it into the blog.
Please click for views about 'Strictly'. I don't think we have heard the last of the phone-in shenanigins ! Personally I smell a rat. And I'm so sorry because we both really love the show.
Present wrapping...... Y does most of it, and enjoys it (I think). I haven't actaully started my few yet.
Quotation time .......
"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office"
Aesop
Tomorrow we are going over to Wollaton to bring Mrs. Mulligan over for lunch and then deliver her home again preferably before dark but I don't feel strongly about it. Mrs Mulligan was an early 'Karen' when we were both working. She is now 80 but still in great form. We always have a laugh and we are looking forward to her visit. I might do 'sausages' .......
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"Sleep tight - catch you tomorrow"
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5 comments:
I am not too bothered about my comments disappearing - it doesn't happen very often, that was only the second or third time? I do know what you mean, about cut and pasting it, if it happens more often, that is what I'll do.
Of course I love the sepia photo, it suits the subject so well. And a great contrast between that one and Y's tree, now that would be as nothing in sepia....I think Xmas trees ought to be covered with baubles, lights, tinsel, everything you can put on it. I don't go along with these 'themed' ones - one year Daughter-in-Law had a silver (real, dipped) tree with only mauve baubles on and little golden ribbon bows on the end of the branches. All very pretty, but it looked as if it should be in the foyer of a big corporation, not a family Xmas tree. I enlarged the photo, and there does indeed seem to be room for some more lametta!
We haven't been out today, except to fetch papers. I enjoyed 'Wallender' tonight, sorry there are no more of them to come.
I wrap up all the presents, and there seems to be such a lot of them - a couple of years ago I counted and I wrapped up 52 presents (some people had two or three, I don't give presents to 52 different people.) At the moment I am doing about four a day, I think that will get me there!
DIARY
It seems that the French are having the same pub problem as us. Their village bar/café’s are shutting shop at an alarming rate too (the ones in bigger towns/cities are not so badly affected) “because people prefer to drink AND SMOKE at home.” But apparently some of the proprietors (perhaps unsurprisingly) are choosing to break the law by allowing people to smoke. Power to their arms, say I. If there is one thing I like about the French it is their attitude to rules.
It is nearly midnight and Sandra is collecting Step-Fanny, Jessica and Robin off the train on their return from London.
They were supposed to arrive at Retford (which Robin decided quite rightly would be easier for Sandra than Newark) at cowboy time (ten-ta-ren).
ButS had a late call to say that they had got on the train but had to disembark again because of a problem at Newark station. Then she got another call to say they were on the train again and would arrive at Retford at 10.30. But when she got to Retford another call let her know that they had been obliged to change at Peterborough and would have to change again at Grantham. So S is still waiting.
BLOG COMMENT
The orangery does look a very elegant building. Not sure about the black haycocks though. I say black even thought they are sepia which of course comes from the cuttle fish, a beak of which Charlie the Chinchilla is nibbling on presently.
Pleased to hear that you were served proper turkey.
Some, prefer their Brussels very al dente (David at Durban House does them so). Sandra would rather have them raw than cooked for more than 5 minutes. I don’t want them done in the traditional fashion (ie, on at first light to be ready for lunch at 1.30) but I prefer my teeth not to meet resistance.
I was unable to enlarge the tree photo enough to distinguish between the lametta and the tinsel but I ‘ll take your word for it. The fairy has a look of voodoo. (‘Who do?’, ‘You do.’, ‘I do what?’ …)
Yup; I’m ag’in’ nets too but Sandra likes them in the front bedrooms although she does not believe me when I tell her that, if the light is on, people can see straight through them anyway. I remember that from my days as a semi-professional Peeping Tom.
I’m not worried about the ‘buglers’ because our Last Post is at 4.00 pm, before it properly gets dark.
Sean Lock (the comedian whose name I could not recall who lived in a tower block) says that Barrack Obama is an anagram of Bomb America (“it isn’t really but people don’t test anagrams do they? – unless you’re at the Countdown Xmas Party).
I believe Pollock, a member of the Cod family, is the unspecified fish used in most fish fingers, fishcakes, fish pies and min-fish & chips.
Before I bought my lay figure from Netto I was the nearest thing we had to it.
If you email your comments to yourself, Jill, you will still have to ‘copy (or cut) and paste’ to the blog..
Sandra does all the wrapping (and break-dancing) in our house.
I saw an advert today from some charity offering to wrap presents ‘badly’ for £3.50 a time.
I hope Mrs Mulligan is either like Old Mother Riley or makes soup with curry powder. Do not disappoint me with reality and please do send my love to her daughter Kitty..
was an early 'Karen' when we were both working. She is now 80 but still in great form.
Jill said...
If you cannot be bothered to write comments in Word, why not copy them from the ‘Comments’ panel and paste them into a Word doc? They would then be there if lost.
Sandra watched ‘Strictly…’ and still didn’t really understand what had happened but thought the decision to put all 3 through to the final was probably the right one, if it mattered.
I thought the X Factor result was the right one although I felt a bit sorry for the boyband.
Was it the Spanish contestant that you favoured? Or Lorna who was very good and none of the judges could understand how she went out.
Bookies do not actually DECIDE who is favourite. It is always the one most heavily backed. They have to balance their books and if, for instance, somebody had put huge sums on Eoghan/Owen he would have become favourite.
So many outstanding contenders for ‘Sports Personality of the Year’.
We both voted for Becky Adlington and I think she deserved to have been second rather than the Stevenage lad. But I think if she hadn’t been a local girl I would have gone for the actual winner Hoy.
I couldn't understand Wallander. It might as well have been Silent Witness. I cannot hear properly what they re saying (they might as well be speaking Swedish - 'Ja tusentak; jan oyeoblik'.) and the DVT has gone all whotsit and the subtitles on analogue aren't working properly - 'I t in hat n arl id igh'.
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One o’clock and they are still not home! Snould I go to bed?
Bungus, your poor Sandra, out all hours, going between stations....what did we do before we had mobile phones? Or did the railways work better then? I hope all the weary travellers and Sandra got home safe and sound eventually.
I think you are right about the pollack. We hardly ever have processed fish products, used to have fish fingers sometimes but they don't seem to be what they were (what/who is?), I remember them being full of a proper cut of fish, flakes of it, now it all seems to be minced-up fish.
I'm not very fond of brussel sprouts, can eat them if we are out, but not my veg. of choice. R likes them cooked, as you describe, so I usually buy one of those long stems with te sprouts still attached, they seem to keep better like that.
X Factor, Ruth was the one who had children, think she had been in trouble (?prison) previously. I think her name was Ruth, not the Spanish one anyway. I don't understand the maths behind Strictly either, though I did think it odd only having two contestants in the final, 3 is better.
G, sausages and Mrs.Mulligan - sounds a fun lunch!
X Factor - Ruth was the Spanish one that Simon Cowell fancied; I think it was Rachel with the chequered past and four children. Whatever. For my money, although I didn't have a bet, Alexandra was the best by a long way. I thought Geraldine was a worthy winner as well.
Sports News - whither Mansfield Town? Or should I say, withering Mansfield Town. Doom and gloom indeed. I don't really understand the sacking of Billy McEwan as I can't see they will find anyone/anytwo better. Maybe he'd lost the dressing room, or the plot, or his road map, or something else. We shall never know but we should be told. According to the Nottm Evening Post website Haslam now has no involvement with the Stags. I seem to recall Bungus saying he (Haslam) still owns the ground. If that's right he still has a lot of control it seems to me.
Panthers had a good win last night at home to Belfast after losing there on Friday night. However, they are slipping behind and need to beat league leaders Steelers over the festive period to stay in the race.
Mrs Mulligan
Now 80 but in great form
Might do sausages
Some people just can't help writing in haiku.
Whenever my comments have disappeared into the unknown it's always been because I forgot to put my name on them.
Rennies and Gaviscon sound like towns in France. Lametta sounds like a Mediterranean holiday resort.
Do let me know if there's going to be a MacArthur Glen meet.
Rob
Rob, you are right, it was Rachel. Sorry, I was getting confused....
From Chiswick Home for the Bewildered.....
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