Sgt Pepper

At present I’m working on a jigsaw of the cover of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. As I’ve been doing it I’ve been trying to recognise the characters in the background. Some I can, others I can’t.

The obvious ones are Bob Dylan, WC Fields, Oscar Wilde, Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, Laurel & Hardy. I’m trying to decide which busty blonde bombshell it is. I suspect it’s Diana Dors. And are those Marlene Dietrich & Tony Curtis? Some faces were no doubt famous at the time but are now long forgotten.

It seems a long time ago since the album & this image were created in 1967. I was still at secondary school. The glammed-up military style clothes the Beatles are wearing were very much in in those days. It was the time when colour arrived in fashion for both men & women. We were finally coming out of the brown & beige post war years. As I say, a long time ago.

Life seems to have turned darker since then. The vivid colours gone as unemployment demanded a more sober attitude to life. The opportunity to just celebrate life & be full of hope, to know a feeling than anything could be done, could happen. Maybe this just is reflection of my own growing older, but I don’t see that innocent enthusiasm among the young these days. No, maybe it is just that I’m getting old & feeling my years.

Honking

Of late, as we wait for dinner to complete cooking, our attention has been drawn outside by a lot of honking. We hastily rush to the back door to look out. Wave after wave of geese fly northwest. The Vs stretch as far as the eye can see.

Some days we’ve just heard the honking as the sky has been so thickly cloud covered but there’s no mistaking the sound.

Last night the sky was covered by a different sort of stripe. This time it was the cloud itself. You don’t normally see such definite cloud stripes, quite parallel to one another.

I suppose all this is just another sign of the changing season. More daffs are opening daily. The white hellebores have opened up. Odd hints of pink appear in gardens – camellias.

Spring is always my favourite season. It always seems so full of life & of hope. The world changes almost daily as plants awaken after their winter snooze. The birds turn their attention to nest-making for their hoped-for families to come. A time of such activity & burgeoning.

In need of inspiration

I’ve got a dilemma. I’m once more on to using up from the freezer. The next item on my list is 625g venison loin. My problem is that that I’ve plenty of recipes that use loin steaks but they use smaller amounts & this is one single block of frozen meat. I could roast it as a joint but I don’t really fancy locating the fat to coat it & to thread lardons through it. I haven’t even got a larding needle with which to thread the fat strips through the meat. I’ve got plenty of recipes using stewing venison but loin is a prime cut & I suspect, as with beef, it will not soften well if stewed. It may well toughen up. What to do? I’m thinking of having a look on-line to see if I can come up with some solutions. Otherwise I think I’m going to just have to try to saw through the solid block of meat & make it into two more manageable meals.

Meanwhile today we’re having braised lamb shanks. That meat at least should be just dropping off the bone by this evening.

I also had a pop round to the walled garden. The time has come to check if some of the ties around the trees there need loosening off. They did indeed. In the process I found the primulas were coming into flower. The most advance ones were the yellow cowslip ones. They are a welcome bit of cheer round there. We only transplanted them there last year so it’s good to see they’re settled in & thriving.