Meal out

The shop went surprisingly well. Maybe the quiet morning helped. It wasn't entirely quiet as I took advantage of the time to tidy up the front garden & plant out some coriander. So much for doing nothing, but still it's something I've been going to do for days but just not found the time, or the energy, to do.

When we got back we were surprised by how fresh we still felt. Suddenly eating out had more appeal. We could maybe go somewhere different, rather than the nearest place, good as it is.

But first I showed the Fox some of the new appearances in the garden. The hydrangea is coming into flower, pink this year despite being planted blue. Then I went on to the pinks that seem to be doing particularly well this year. I noticed a frog on the soil nearby. I bent down to point it out to the Fox, when another one jumped out of the pinks. The Fox hasn't seen any yet this year & was getting a bit anxious about them. Seeing two so easily has reassured him that venturing further into the garden he would soon discover the place was hopping all over. Certainly Al, our gardener, regularly complains that mowing the lawn is a dangerous occupation when he's trying to avoid mowing frogs too. There are just so many of them!

So we set off for the meal. We decide we'll try the new Indian or the pub next door which has recently changed management &, with that, resultant improvements in food standards according to reports. Both are on the way into Lancaster. However, we end up in such a long (rush hour) traffic jam just getting round the roundabout onto the Lancaster road, we change our minds & head across country to Ricky's Cantonese restaurant. There we are welcomed like long lost friends & also have a wonderful meal (as usual). We haven't been since the Fox's stroke so we had plenty of news to catch up on. It became a special evening, not just the necessity I expected when I wrote yesterday. 

Once home we watched a little tennis before opening a bottle of New Zealand sauvignon to the background of some Dusty Springfield. Altogether a good evening.

Ever decreasing circles

The warmth didn't last long. By midday yesterday the cardigan came on once more. A chill wind had blown up. Soon all the windows were being closed to try to keep some warmth in. Needless to say the petals have blown off the poppy.

Today we're off food shopping. By the time yesterday's lasagne was made, we both felt pretty shattered once more. I'm not entirely surprised this morning not to be able to find the meat for meatballs today. Last night we did wonder if the time hadn't come to accept eating out. We're just trying to push ourselves too far.

Most people I am sure would be thrilled at the idea of eating out. At times, I am. It's just that, on the whole, I prefer our own home cooked food. I resent eating out from a  feeling of necessity rather than desire, as this will be.

I am somewhat surprised by just how tired I seemed to have been of late. I'm convinced it's the knock-on effect of the Fox's stroke. It's not that he can't do most things just as he did before. He's just really needing to have more rest time. Nonetheless it has put on an extra strain on me. I'm trying to do that little bit more to help. I've long realised my own health ticks along reasonably okay provided I live the quiet life. It doesn't take much to knock me off that balance. That's the main reason I couldn't cope with a job these days, no matter how much I would like to. This stroke has knocked me off that balance. Just worrying is enough to cause extra tension which gets reflected in tenser muscles &, therefore, more painful knees. I don't blame the Fox for my deterioration - the stroke was beyond his control - I'm just stating the facts of the situation & I worry what the future lies ahead. 

Life seems to be a case of ever decreasing circles, whether you like it or not.

Picking up

I've finally got on top of some of that exhaustion, after two 11 hour nights in bed. Maybe it has helped that the sun has arrived bringing the longed for warmth. I actually bared my arms yesterday & remain so today. The heat hasn't stopped me getting on with the ironing today. Yesterday we did contemplate finally getting the garden table & chairs out to dine outside, but by 5 pm it was already turning too cool for us. The table & chairs remain in the garage. Maybe today....

Meanwhile the Fox is going to make us a lasagne for dinner today. He's never made one before.It's a multi-layered one, with not only layers of minced beef bolognese sauce & lasagne, topped off with the usual layer of white sauce & cheese. It  had layers of white sauce inside, as well of layers of ham & boiled eggs. It should be good & I'm looking forward to it.

We've got ourselves in the rather, for us, unusual position of only having two, very small, new, potatoes in the house. So today it's pasta & tomorrow I'm thinking might turn into a curry with rice. We'll be doing the big shop tomorrow so the situation can be remedied then. I always feel insecure without plenty of spuds in the house. They are such basics. That's not to say pasta & rice is a hardship. We regularly enjoy them as alternatives.

Outside in the garden, in the grow bags where the potatoes grew last year & the purple sprouting broccoli sprouted during the winter, a lone mauve/pink poppy bravely flowers. Its petals look so delicate, as though a puff a wind will just blow them away. No doubt that is what will in fact happen some time but for now I'm loving this unexpected unplanted flower. The Fox had hoped to do some more veg growing this year but, with the stroke, he's just not been able to & now it's too late for this year. Maybe next.

Tired

Waves of exhaustion keep sweeping over us. I feel a little guilty at not making the effort to go to church today. It is dry for once, but I'm just feeling so tired. I know the afternoon will be spent doing household chores, changing beds etc. To tire myself yet more by going out seems silly. Instead I take my Bible out & read a bit.

I'm not quite sure why we're so tired. I suspect it comes down to the fact that we seem to have had appointments regularly since our trip to Stoke, not giving us much time to really recuperate from that trip.

Our latest appointment is for the scan with regards to the Fox's hearing. We thought it was going to be fairly quick. According to the three page letter telling us of the time & venue (one line of the letter), he can expect to be there for at least an hour and a half, somewhat longer than we anticipated. What's more he will need to undress. It seems a bit much for a simple hearing scan!

At least we've got a couple of weeks with no definite appointments (so far!). Maybe that will give us a chance to recover a bit, to regain a bit of energy. Hope so.

Back to the garden

A heatwave is being predicted. All I can say, is that so far we've just had rain. It does seem warmer. I've managed to cast off one woolly, but the second is definitely staying on for a while yet. Still I'm telling myself it will do the garden good.

When Al, our gardener, came earlier this week, I asked him whether it would be possible to divide one of the astilbes & transfer some of it into the bog garden. The hydrangea does keep flowering every year, but it also dies right down to the ground. I can't see there's any hope of it becoming the 6ft shrub it was advertised as, & for which I left plenty of expansion room.

Al did as I asked. He didn't enjoy digging the hole in the bog. The soil(?) just dragged at the spade, almost sucking it down. The whole ground around vibrated & he felt himself slowly sinking in. And that was after very little rain this month! I did ask him if he thought I should water in the plant. He didn't think it would be necessary. The ground was just so wet. 

Every day since it has rained part of the day. The astilbe has perked itself up. It looks very happy in its new home. And we have the delight of its pink flowers to gladden our eyes. Great. And at no extra cost, too.

Silence falls

Wednesday morning turned into a very strange morning. Having done my bit of food preparation (just par-boiling some potatoes to saute later on), I settled down to the ironing. Or so I thought I was going to do. I got the board & chair out, sorted the washing into piles according to temperature of iron, filled the iron with water, put the plug in & prepared to switch on. All this had been done with the radio on for a bit of company. Suddenly all went silent. I tried switching the iron on but no light appeared. I had a go at putting the kettle on, no light.

My next instinct was to check the fuse box. I could only see one switch that was downward pointing. I tried to flip the switch to get a very loud alarming noise. I hastily put the switch back to where it was. 

So, no electricity. So what should I do with my morning? Ironing was off for the immediate. I went into the lounge & started some embroidery - I'm in the midst of embroidering a tablecloth. Between every stitch I looked over to the radio but no light appeared.

After a while it struck me just how silent the world was. So many household sounds you never notice except by the absence. Without electricity the fridge no longer hummed. The ventilator no longer whirled. No radio sounds. Nothing even came through the walls of our semi from next door. All was silent. 

It suddenly occurred to me I could go on the laptop & write a blog on the theme of silence. After all the laptop has a battery. I got it out & was just about to switch on when it dawned upon me I couldn't go on line. The tower for wireless connection is powered by electricity. I packed the laptop away again.

Once more I was back to silence. Midday arrived. I was just trying to decide whether it was wise to open up the freezer to get some chorizo, prawns & peas out to thaw for the evening meal, when the Fox turned up. He immediately went to the fuse box, threw the same switch I had tired, no rude noise, just power. What a relief! 

I just can't understand why I couldn't do the same when I'd tried earlier. I'm telling myself maybe at the time I'd tried there was indeed a power cut. There does seem to be some sort of roadworks around the corner & everywhere had seemed more than usually quiet. Maybe that had caused the trip switch to trip. I'd just tried too early when indeed there was no power. But if that was the case, how had it had the power to make that alarming noise? It's all a mystery to me. I'm just glad to be back to normal again, with everything working once more.

Different

The pasta is hanging on the towel rail to dry. When we were having the new bathroom done, & were on the hunt for a towel rail, the shop assistant seemed to think I was nuts when I suggested the towel rail needed to be long enough to hang all the tagliatelle on to dry. (We ended up with a double rail to be sure.) Clearly this is not a usual use of a towel rail.

Equally when the joiner came to put the finishing touches to the airing cupboard door, he had difficulty in understanding the strands of something dangling on the towel rail were for eating. I'm not sure if he's the sort of person to be so adventurous as to eat pasta but clearly it came out of packets or tins if he did.

Personally I find something quite therapeutic about making pasta. All that kneading gets rid of any pent-up aggression - not that I'm feeling any today. There's something quite calming as the dough stretches this way & that. Then there's time for a bit of a sit down while the dough rests a bit - very welcome to my knees. After that there's the rolling, cutting & hanging.

This afternoon the Fox is going to do a bolognese sauce from scratch. The minced beef mixture will plop away for a couple of hours, hopefully tenderising in the process. 

PD is a bit put out that we're not going to the Pub today. We went yesterday &, at the moment, I don't think the Fox is up to two days in a row driving the 8 mile or so return trip. Unfortunately we won't be able to get over again this week. Wednesday is grandchildren day for PD. Thursday is Farmers' Market. (I'm hoping to get the salt marsh lamb I was unable to buy last time as that stall was absent.) Friday sees me at the doc's. I've settled for the substitute doctor. To see my own GP would have meant another wait of 3-4 weeks & I've already waited that long for this appointment. So much for building up a relationship with your GP!

Headaches

It doesn't take long to feel you're home again, home with all the problems of being home. A trip to the hospital is sure to do it. We went along to the Queen Vic in Morecambe yesterday. We were surprised to be seen almost immediately & were almost as immediately out again. The Fox is to have a scan & that has to be done in Lancaster. We wait once more. The one positive thing is that it does mean the Fox gets his ears de-waxed which does help a bit. (They no longer syringe ears at our surgery, regarding it as a potentially dangerous invasive procedure.)

My equanimity was spoilt by today's post, a letter from the surgery cancelling my appointment next week with my GP & giving me one instead with a different doctor. It's not an urgent appointment. I'm deliberately trying to build up a relationship with my new GP - I will need his support when my benefits next come up for renewal - so was specifically wanting to see him. I shall have to try to get things changed, come Monday.

Meanwhile we are not the only ones having headaches. Poor Mrs Blackbird seems to be having them too. She's made her home in the hedge just behind the greenhouse. Unfortunately she doesn't seem to have worked out what glass looks like. She regularly has a splashabout in the pool that appears whenever it rains, blocking the way to the greenhouse & compost bin. Whenever I turn the corner of the laundry room to see if the pool has dried up, up flies Mrs Blackbird straight into the glass of the greenhouse. She makes an almighty whack. Now, today, I only have to stand inside, glancing out of the kitchen window her way, & she's flying into the glass of the kitchen window. Her head must be getting really sore. I beginning to wonder if she isn't a bit concussed from the number of times she's whacked into glass of late. Every time I fear she will do herself serious injury, break a bone, or even her neck. I hope she learns soon to avoid hitting glass in this way.

Interesting times

We seem to be having a stream of interesting food of late. As I've already said, we ate well on our trip away. Ever since then good eating has continued. 

Sunday, the day of our travel home, of necessity had to be something easy, something from the freezer. We took out a mass-produced chicken pie. For once it was full of chicken pieces, not the usual hunt around for anything that resembled meat. The pastry, too, was light.

Monday was a case of getting something out of the freezer. this time some left-over roast lamb. A shepherd's pie, I thought. The meat felt very dry & hard even when thawed out. I didn't hold out too much hope, especially when it was such a simple recipe. Nonetheless I diced up the meat & fried it up with some chopped onion, before adding some lamb stock & simmering for a bit. I tasted it, thinking a bit of something extra may be needed to give the meat some interest, but no it was tender & very lamby. I left it to cool while I made some mash, suitably enriched with milk, butter (yes, the real stuff!) & seasoning. I then stirred in some grated cheese & covered the meat with the mash. All waited then until the evening & a reheat. It was wonderful. Mash so creamy, lamb so lamby - a classic for good reason & wonderful comfort food. Simple but delicious.

So on Tuesday, the Fox took up the culinary challenge - spicy prawns & chorizo. He's already written about that on his blog so I won't say more. Suffice to say the prawns were so sweet, the spice sufficient to add interest without overpowering the fish. Delicious.

So we come to last night, a trial at a new recipe, a quick lasagne. I was decidedly nervous about making this dish. The odd thing about this recipe is the absence of any pasta. Instead, layers of pitta bread were used. It worked surprisingly well. The juiciness of the minced beef in tomato sauce seeped into the bread so it almost resembled lasagne. The minced beef & tomato was enhanced with some fresh mushrooms. The tomatoeyness was made more subtle with the use, not only of tinned tomatoes & tomato puree, but also some tomato ketchup. Just to add yet more tomato there was a layer of sliced fresh tomato. All the fresh veg added extra interest. Then, of course, there was the cheese - just teaspoonfuls of cream cheese & some grated cheddar. Unusual but good.

So today, the Fox is cooking once more. He's getting out Big Ears, the slow cooker, & having a go at a chicken in white wine. There's some mushrooms in this sauce as well. Should be good. I'm looking forward to it.

Interesting times. Maybe what I'm really saying is that it's good to be home & be back to good home cooking. I expect the more mediocre meals will soon return but, at the moment, we're glorying in the delight of good eating.

Home again

Readers of the Fox's blog will already realise we're safely home. In many ways it was a successful trip. It was lovely to see some of my family again, especially my cousins. 

We had a wonderful meal at Slater's. All four people who had it would recommend the steak & kidney pie as one of the best ever tasted. I had the sea bass so can't swear to the quality of the pie but the portions were certainly enormous, with loads of big chunks of steak & kidney. 

Equally the buffet laid out by my cousin Trudy & family at the evening golden wedding anniversary party was wonderful. The table was weighed down with different meats & salads, most homemade & delicious. As were the desserts. I tried the fabulous strawberry gateau that one guest had made specially for the occasion. He reckoned he was only invited to supply the gateau. It was certainly delicious, light & airy & full of strawberry flavour. It was good, too, to pop round for tea with my cousin Ann & her husband, to see their new home & meet once more their thoroughly lovable dog, Ben.

On the downside, the Fox is now feeling the backlash of the trip. Yesterday we went along to the Pub. It was noticeable he was limping once more. As the afternoon went on he was once more either cradling his left hand or flexing it. He had found the 2 hour car journey hard going, not so much for the driving as for the being confined sat in the same position for so long at a time. Hopefully all this will pass as he has time to take it easier again. I would be worried if he seemed very tense, as though his blood pressure was soaring, but he seems reasonably calm about things so I suspect it will pass of its own accord. He also discovered how much his hearing has deteriorated as he couldn't hear what shop assistants said in relatively quiet shops. He's off to the hospital later this week for his hearing. Maybe he has progressed to the stage when a hearing aid is desirable. We'll soon find out. 


Our conclusion is that holidays are out for the time being. Maybe as the autumn arrives we'll try a few long days out, or another weekend away, not too far away, just to see if he's doing any better. For now it is clearly demanding rather more than he feels he can cope with.


 

Further visitors

We're packed & ready to go. I'm already beginning to think I should re-pack, take different clothes,  add this or that. 

Al, the gardener, came & mowed the lawn yesterday. He seemed to do more chatting than work, but I don't mind that. He's a mate as much as anything else & is concerned as to how the Fox will cope with the trip. He wished us well.

The boiler was serviced yesterday. The one good thing about that is that it means he won't be coming next week as he was supposed to be doing, so if we need a quiet week to recover from the trip, it should be possible. All we've got planned for next week is a visit to the hospital about the Fox's hearing. And I suppose the inevitable food shop.

I got distracted yesterday when a visitor came calling, a squirrel. It's quite fascinating watching the wave of movement going through its body as it scampers across the trellis, stopping for a quick look to check it's not missed anything on the bird table.

We have occasionally had a squirrel here before but not often, & only usually in the autumn. They come for the fruit on the trees. Down in the village, especially in the woods near the ancient church of St Peter, there always seem plenty but not so often up here.

Unfortunately it seems to be the grey ones that inhabit here, although they do seem to seem to have quite a bit of rustiness around their faces & rather tufty ears. Some interbreeding perhaps? 

Still they're fun & make me smile. They always seem so full of mischief, ingenuity & athleticism.

Yet again plans go awry

We were going to have a quiet day today. All chores were done yesterday except the packing for out trip. That was planned for today. Now I hear the boiler service engineer is coming this afternoon instead of next week so everything will be disrupted.

I also planned on making a beef roly poly. (There's something comforting in even the sound of a roly poly, isn't there?) We've been having a use-up of minced beef from the freezer. I've not made a roly poly for ages, years I think, so we're really looking forward to it, especially after some rather nondescript burgers last night.

It seems strange not to be thinking of what to cook for tomorrow but tomorrow we're off to Stoke. I don't know if I'll have chance to go on-line before we go, but I'll certainly be back next week & tell you all about it.

Preparations

I couldn't help thinking how London, or should I say South England, the national weather is becoming. I just caught the weather forecast after the 10 pm news on BBC1 last night to be told with great cheer that it was going to be wet. Indeed there was great rejoicing as yesterday, Monday, had been the wettest day in March, April or May this year. I couldn't help thinking he didn't come from round here. Yesterday was the first day I managed to get my washing out on the line to dry for weeks. May was daily rain. Admittedly some times it was just light showers but still it was wet. What is more it was cold & windy. I could not enthuse about the idea of more rain. And yes, he was right. It's raining again today. At least we've managed without central heating for a couple of days. I'm hoping that will be the last time we'll need heating until winter starts to return.

Meanwhile we're preparing for our trip to Stoke. It's hair day today. We're both having a cut this afternoon to smarten ourselves up a bit. 

We're still looking forward to the trip. We remain anxious as to how well the Fox will cope. Will being away from home be too stressful? We shall soon discover. At least this trip is not too far to go. It shouldn't be too physically demanding. Our days are already being organised with social events that don't need much movement, just a few wits. There's plenty of time for lie downs if we can just relax in the strange environment. We'll soon find out.

What a performance!

I've just been sitting by the kitchen door , looking out of the window with bird book & binoculars near at hand, while I listened to the omnibus "Archers" on BBC Radio4.

I couldn't help being struck by how many dunnocks & coal tits we seem to have this summer. They seem to be constantly feeding, either from the feeders or the ground below.

But what really bemused us happened yesterday. It was one of those meals which involves long waits between flurries of activity (a chicken tray bake in fact). During the intervals we looked out of the windows. On our shed roof was this blackbird. Its back was turned to us. It kept making this noise. At first I thought it was a a "chuck-chuck" sound till the Fox commented it was more of a "tut-tut". He was right. Each time the bird made this sound, it flapped its wings close to its body. Its tail feathers fanned out & dipped up & down. This performance kept going for several minutes.

I couldn't quite decide whether the actions were a necessary part in the production of the sound, so unlike the usual mellifluous song the blackbird usually makes. Or whether this was an extra means of attracting the attention of other blackbirds. 

Either way it was delightful to watch. I couldn't help chuckling a bit.

Camouflaged

My cousin Ann has just rung about plans for our trip down to Stoke. It seems on the Friday they're picking us up & we're off to lunch. There will be four cousins there & three husbands. Quite a family turn out.. We're looking forward to it. A little nervously it has to be admitted as we're not sure how the Fox will cope. We're hoping if we build in some rest time all will go well.

I'm not sure if my suspicion yesterday of it being a wood-pigeon chick(s) in the hedge was right. Later in the morning, on the fence just behind the hedge, I noticed a male blackbird feeding a very young chick. It must have been the babe's first outing. It still had tufts on its head, around the eyes. Its mouth was the most noticeable thing. It seemed disproportionately big, & very white edged, not at all the shape of the adult bird's mouth. As for the chick's plumage, that was a very mottled spotted brown. It almost disappeared into the twiggery of the, at that point, dead bit of hedging. 


Later in the afternoon, that same bird had got as far as the trellis, now hiding in the branches of the evergreen tree at the end. Still hardly noticeable due to its colouring, still requiring the ministrations of dad for food.


Watching "Springwatch" (BBC2) it had never occurred to me how the spotted nature of so many chicks is a defensive strategy. As they first leave the nest, they just disappear into the twiggery of hedges, trees & shrubs. They can sit there still while the parent bird flies off to seek more food. Quite safe, just melting into the background. They only become noticeable as they start moving, excited by the return of the parent. Then they become big gaping mouths demanding to be filled.


I see the RSPB is doing a Nature Watch this week. I think I can safely say I will be seeing at least one blackbird family in that time

Something lurking in the hedge

I scrape the new potatoes this morning to a great deal of cheeping.  I progress to par-boiling the potatoes & putting the meat loaf together ready to bake this evening. As I sit waiting for the potatoes to complete cooking I become aware that the cheeping seems to be coming from the hedge behind the greenhouse. I then notice, despite the windless day, the hedge keeps having little eruptions of movement. When I go to the compost bin near the greenhouse I do contemplate having a look into the hedge but my very presence going by, brings instant silence & stillness. I decide against it. From the position the movement & sound emanates from, I suspect the wood-pigeons now have young. Congratulations to them!

Alas the same can not be said to poor Lisa Allen. Not a single course of hers got through to the People's Banquet. I have to admit though, from the shortlist the judges had made, they did make the same options I would have made. The dessert is the only course I may have differed. For me the popcorn barrow was too bitty &, on the whole, not the flavours that appeal to me. I would have gone for the meringues with the raspberries. Still, I can see the barrows were fun &  that was what the banquet is supposed to be all about.

I gather we're all supposed to be partaking of the Big Lunch for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee next year. I can't see us being very bothered by it. Lunch is not a meal that greatly appeals to us. We don't usually eat it. And if we do, the most we want is a couple of sandwiches, a bowl of soup or a jacket potato. I don't expect the rest of the street could be bothered either. They didn't for the Royal Wedding earlier this year so I don't expect they will for this occasion either. We're certainly not going to propose it.

Wafting through the night

As some of you will have noticed the Fox has been overcome by the urge to write his blog again. Two no less in as many days. Yesterday I was busy ironing so didn't go on-line. I was told he'd written something. About the love doves, I was told when I pressed him. Oh well, that had been one of the subjects I had intended to write about. The other was the Pub conversation about "Great British Menu" (BBC2) & the support there for Lisa. I see the Fox has now pipped me to that.

So instead the theme of this blog will be my night's sleep. 

Yesterday afternoon we got into Lancaster & while there, among other things, we bought the ingredients for a beef stew to be cooked in the new slow cooker, the first experimental dish done this way. As the stew had to cook for around 10 hours the Fox decided to cook it last night, while I was in bed.

Every time I woke up during the night, tantalising smells wafted through. (It's just as well the Fox had closed all the intervening doors. I hate to think what it would have been like otherwise.) And my stomach rumbled. Even when I got up this morning, the cooker may have been switched off, but the aromas still hung around. Indeed I just felt the pot & it's still warm.

It smells delicious. I'm just hoping it will taste as great as it smells. It certainly has had my tummy rumbling today. Breakfast was a necessity to quieten the rumbles a bit.

We've just got to make a couple of jackets potatoes to accompany the re-warmed up stew this evening. There's loads of vegetables in the stew so we shouldn't need anything more. The Fox is contemplating adding a couple of dumplings to add a little extra interest - good winter food for June! Mind you I'm not sure if that isn't just what you need. We've still got the heating on for part of the time!