Proper Rest Day - Sunny afternoon

It was Helen's birthday yesterday and I rang her quite early because I know they are usually up. But I got the answerphone and felt, guiltily, that I must have woken them. But Helen rang later in the morning and reassured me. The girls and Helen and David had all been together in the big bed opening cards and presents. Lovely.

Neither of the pictures today are mine. They are both from Jill's knitting Blog 'Yarnstorm' in which there are regularly some cracking images. I think the author's name is Jane and I came to that conclusion from a picture therein of a birthday cake. It doesn't seem to be a Blogger.com Blog because I couldn't find an easy access to the author's profile. Maybe it's there somewhere. Next time I look I will search more thoroughly.

Picture 1 is of a Maple in her garden, with back light from the Sun and it makes for a lovely picture.

Picture 2 is of some new fabrics for a quilt in progress. And again, as she has arranged them, they make a striking image.

Before leaving Jill queries, I want to deal with the multi-vegetable point. The tomatoes, courgettes, and steak were grilled. We are lucky with our grill because it is an eye-level job and the door opens down to a flat surface. I stuck them all under the grill at the same time and the steaks were done first so I just took them off and popped them on a plate on the flat door - which keeps things warm enough. Another invaluable utensil is a large stainless steel Prestige steamer. I know from experience that the potatoes and carrots would take half an hour and after 15minutes I dropped the brussells in. But that also, if things yield to a skewer, it can be turned down to 1, which keeps things hot without continuing to cook them. The only oventop use was the mushrooms, which I sizzle in butter first, then put in the saucepan say half a pint of water and they simmer for 10 minutes. Then I turn the gas off and only light it again when I make the gravy. Granules - unashamedly! Plates - 1min 30sec in microwave gets them nicely warm but handleable.

But the real key is that I don't do multi-tasking. If I'm in the kitchen, that is all I do. As Bungus memorably said "One thing at a time, preferably less !". Y points out that ladies Do do multi-tasking and while cooking would strip the beds, fill the washing machine, nip round and post letters, water the houseplants et al. What inferior creatures we men are?

Before leaving the Hopi woman, she did tell me something interesting. My right ear canal is narrower than the left, which no doubt explains why the right is always the first one to silt up.

Neither of us slept well. Must have been all the excitement - ha ha! We were awake at 3am and I heard Y go into the kitchen. She had made tea - but a teabag in a mug - no pot-full. I was quite disappointed. We both still arose at more or less the normal time though, because it is a Karen day. I watched the David Starkey recording in his Monarchy series, and thought it v.good. He seems to annoy many people but he knows his stuff, states his views clearly. And, as I've previously commented we are both suckers for a 'lecture with pictures'.

I have been 'computer-messing' because 2 programmes came with the Nikon and although some of it replicates programmes I aready have, I really want to see if there is aything therein about processing RAW files. Won't bore you etc........


p.s. This morning I left a 'comment' on my own Blog, to check out the 'word verification' problem. The thing seemed to work OK, but 2 points - 1. You have got to make sure that there is a 'dot' in one of the little grey circles - and 2. I noticed that, having entered the 'comment' and the 'word verification' a small yellowish box opens at the top, warning you that although the comment has been saved, it might be some time before it actually appears in the blog, or words to that effect. So, patience is a virtue etc...........

Lets hope we have a better night.....................