Saturday, March 28, 2009

Saturday rest-day - John's birthday - N wind at 10mph

.
I'm hovering between 'synchronicity' and 'serendipity' in connection with the bullfinch picture.

It's some months since we had a visit and then, the day after missing Peter and Joan's, here we are. A bullfinch. Whether or not when appearing at Peter's he had been told "Get you over to Brinsley straight away!" and, being a God-fearing bullfinch .......

Nice record-shot though. Not a NEMPF winner due to the surrounding crud and, the background isn't sufficiently blurred. But I like to have some idea of the surroundings - good or bad.

My eldest son John is 50 today. WoWee - getting old or what? And he has only days to go before retirement. He is putting his birthday money towards a canoe - and there just happens to be a canoe-selling day today at Home Pierrepont. It's called a Paddlefest From the link it looks like a fun day. But crikey ! I just wish it was warmer for them. A 10mph N wind and it feels vicious here - I shudder to think what it's like at West Bridgford. A paddlefest ! Did I start something with the Sausage-fest ?

Picture 2 is Y's 'posh' book from Cromford.

A quick peek reveals she's reached page 68 and is just starting about Sophocles and Antigone. Although thoroughly enjoying some serious reading again, as she says, "Not a Saturday afternoon book."

For lunch I grilled fresh salmon fillets again with some steamed veg. and new potatoes. The variety was Exquisa and what Boulestin described as 'of the waxy type'. It isn't a bad idea to cook more than you need because, from the fridge, a quick tasty meal can be rustled up toute suite. For pudding Y did sliced banana and greek yoghurt. Sharp and delicious.

Before we leave pictures, here is our minuscule parsley patch which I have successfully over-wintered. Not enough to make parsley sauce for ten I suppose, but handy for the odd garnish. Such a pretty fresh colour I always think. And one can understand the old Derbyshire euphemisim "Having a poke around in the Parsley-Patch".


My responses to your previous comments

Jill .
.... There has been a splurge of £3.50 carveries in this area. But I guess in London you would expect to pay more. They vary quite dramatically. The best is probably Chatsworth - but not at £3.50. The Farm Shop is first rate and not exorbitantly expensive. At least it wasn't when answerable to the Dowager Duchess. We haven't been since the new Duke took over.

I hope your steamed cod-loins were a success. Cod usually is. It's the right time of year for inshore catches. The M&S sandwich fillers sound good, probably too good for me, trying to make 'obesity-clinic' gestures.

Bob ..... You are right to ask 'does anyone under 50 eat broken biscuits?' I used to enjoy buying a bag-full of assorted broken biscuits at the Grocers. 6p a 1lb seems to ring a bell. And that's a lot of biscuits.

Rather like shoe-cleaning with polish and brushes. I don't think anyone under 50 has even heard of it being done !

Glad you managed to change your 'desktop'. The random slide-show you describe is called a 'screen saver'. It should vanish as soon as you touch the keyboard or move the mouse. It's a hang-over from CRT days when an unchanged image would 'burn' itself onto the screen. It doesn't happen anymore but people have grown to enjoy the random slide-show or whatever other screen-saver they decide upon.

Fish pies always seem to be fattening. I've got a favourite recipe too. Not Delia surprisingly enough. Blackberry & Apple pie is a bit out-of-season isn't it? Consider your carbon footprint my boy. Apples certainly OK, and I suppose the blackberries could be from the freezer.

..................................

Quotation time .......

"Weather forecast for tonight: dark. Continued dark overnight, with widely scattered light by morning"

Here is today's cartoon from The Multiple Sclerosis Squiffy Website



"Sleep tight - but Daylight Saving means - remember to put your clocks ON one hour with effect from 1am"


The old adage is 'Spring forward, Fall back"

.


4 comments:

bob said...

Wish I had a bullfinch.
I grow blackcurrants just for them but do they appear… ?

Oh how I wish I could be out on the water in a canoe in the middle of winter.

Haven’t tried Exquisa.
Happy with Charlotte which I now think surpass Jerseys.

Parsley patch.
No wonder the term ‘Derby Rams’ was coined.

I stopped shoe cleaning following a vow taken 3 days into National Service when I was ordered to black polish my brown suede shoes (excused boots).
For another 30 years or more I only wore polished leather shoes with a dinner jacket (a few times a year); otherwise suede.

Is fish pie more fattening than a carvery?
Freezer blackberries, yes.

Cartoon pedantry again:
it should be ‘off’ not ‘of’ and Arabs are circumcised too.
That kills the joke for ME.

Re clock adjustment.
That and 'Roy G Biv'.
And yesterday I heard another possibly memorable mnemonic:
‘Many Very Elderly Men Just Snooze Under News Papers”.

B-in-Law Baz today runs risk of neighbourly confrontation by removing ivy from border.

SPORTS REPORT
Jensen Button, hey! Who’d have thunk it?

Unknown said...

Bob: Haven't you anything better to do than, yet again, criticise the English in cartoons? In any case, everyone else who's seen it says that 'of' is correct ..........

Jill said...

I used to be able to cope with the book that Y is reading, not any more, I should be dozing off after a few pages....

Lovely bullfinch, like Bungus I wish we had one. Was Mrs.Bullfinch around, not nearly so colourful, but beautifully subtle greys and taupes....

I had a pot of flat-leafed parsely all last summer, but it has not survived the winter. Prawn sauce worked well with the steamed cod. Did you have any sauce with your salmon, I would have wanted something, asssume you can't have it swimming in butter?

I'l settle for Charlotte potatoes too, Bob.

I had blackberries, big juicy sweet ones, from Mexico via Waitrose (on special offer too). If I don't buy them, does that mean the poor old peasant with his sombrero and his mule don't eat?

Carveries - local one is £6.99 with 'cubed' joints, leathery roast pots. and a truly dreadful patterned carpet, only been there once. Have heard tell of a good one in Teddington, £12.99, all organic.

Can't work out Bob's mnemonic.....

Helen C. said...

Nice bullfinch - can you send it round to my garden now please, we never get anything that pretty!

Bob - if you change 'of' to 'off' it will read 'cut off the ends off...' which is definitely ungrammatical.

I don't think Chatsworth Farm shop has become more expensive though it has greatly expanded in size but one of the first things the new Duke did was to start charging for Calton Lees car park which used to be free. They then had to put lots of little wooden bollards along the road to prevent people parking for free on the verges. As it happens, Julian and I are off to Chatsworth tomorrow for a little walk and a little shopping!