Fashion, horticultural & culinary

Yesterday I heard some of “Gardeners’ Question Time”  BBC Radio 4 while I changing the bed. One of the questions caught my ear. It concerned fashion in plants, which were going out & which coming in. I thought of our garden & that of my mother’s in the 1950-60s & the differences.

Ours has the old-fashioned favourites of delphiniums & lupins, both now making a comeback. Hers had gladioli, now well out of fashion. She also had loads of tulips in season. We have none.

They reckoned that part of the reason for the change in horticultural fashions lies in the fact that some plants became so all-pervasive that people get bored with them or want something different to distinguish their garden. I suspect there is an element of truth in that. Old favourites are now returning to fashion as they are beautiful plants & now once more unusual.

The same seems to be the case with food. As I said yesterday, we’re having Corned Beef Hamburgers for dinner tonight – they’re waiting in the fridge ready to go in the oven this evening. During the Second World War & immediately post war, in the years of rationing, corned beef, pressed tongue, luncheon meat were all pervasive. For that matter tinned pilchards was another favourite. These days you rarely see them, yet they can be delicious. We love our corned beef. I know it’s rather fatty & salty, but it’s not as though we have it every day. I think it’s time it made a comeback in our diet, along with those tinned pilchards.

Back to normal

Life is slowly getting back to normal. We did contemplate going away for a few days to recover from the recent invasion. However, we’ve concluded we’re just too tired, too exhausted after the upheaval. Instead we’re crawling back into our rut with relief. As we grow older, & more rickety, it seems harder to cope with such disruption to our normal routine.

It was simply wonderful yesterday to get back to normal cooking. I’m really looking forward to making some Corned Beef Hamburgers tomorrow. We’d resorted to opening a tin on Wednesday as it was impossible to get into the freezer for one of our pre-prepared meals & equally the kitchen was occupied during the day so it was impossible to prepare anything fresh from scratch. Instead the Fox made up a Hampton Pie – a sort of cottage pie with corned beef in the base rather than minced beef – during the night before then put it into the fridge until the evening. The hamburgers will use up the leftover corned beef.

We’re still finding things that have been moved & not put back into place. For that matter we’re still finding keys. We’ve gained 11 window keys! All the same, for heaven’s sake! Then there’s 5 back door keys & 5 front door ones! There’s even 5 for the laundry room even though that is going be changed soon.

Next week I’m going to get back onto the hospital. Yet again I’ve not received an appointment for my pancreatitis review. It was supposed to be after 9 months. It is now 10 months since I last saw them. It’s not that I’m unduly concerned about my health. I feel fine. I’ve even indulged in a little alcohol with no adverse effect. But from what I can gather, one of the effects of having a flare-up of pancreatitis is scarring on the pancreas which can become cancerous. If that’s to happen I’d sooner know sooner rather than later, when something maybe be able to be done to eradicate any tumour or at least slow down its growth.

The Fox, too, is off to see the medics this week. Just before the workmen came he had some x-rays done on his second hip. It’s probably arthritis. He gets the result on Friday. Hopefully he will then be sent on a course of physiotherapy as he was with the other hip. It does seem to have eased that one, so here’s hoping something similar can help in this case too.

It's done

Finally the work is complete. They ended on Thursday. They will have to come back again as one door was hung wrongly. Or rather the factory made a door designed to be hung to open inwards whilst we had wanted a door that opened outwards. It is for the laundry room which is a very small room. If our airer is opened fully with drying washing on it, it is almost impossible to get in with a door that opens inwards. However, the company were good about it & agreed that the change should be made & immediately put in an order for the appropriate door to be made. It should arrive with them a week on Monday so it will then just be a case of fitting it into their schedule.

At least that won’t involve someone invading the main part of our home. Even the noise shouldn’t be too great as there are solid walls between us & the laundry room. Meanwhile the new, inward-going door is in place.

To celebrate we thought we’d go off out yesterday. We had been intending to go over to the smokehouse earlier in the week to buy some smoked chicken but not got there. Now we did.

Afterwards we went to the nearby garden centre intending to buy some more pots & plants. First we stopped for a drink in the café. By the time we’d finished it had turned to rain. We didn’t fancy strolling around in the rain so we looked around the inside shop. By then the rain had stopped. We looked at the various pots but couldn’t come to any decision – just too tired. It could wait. We just bought some horticultural wire to stretch across the fencing for some clematis to climb along.

We had decided to eat out. It was still too early to eat so we decided to head homeward. The traffic in Lancaster was as horrific as ever. (I’m just hoping the motorway bypass that’s being built at the moment will indeed ease the traffic in Lancaster when it’s open.)

By the time we’d got through Lancaster it was 5ish so we headed to Ricky’s, our favourite Chinese restaurant. We were not disappointed. By the time we’d got in they were re-arranging the table for us to make it easy with my wheelchair. They’d been confused at first as it was the first time they’d seen our new car. We haven’t been all year. To be honest we have been a couple of times but they were closed. Apparently they’ve decided to close regularly on Mondays unless it’s a bank holiday in which case they’re having Tuesday off. They’ve also been having some renovations done to the property. It was nice to be so warmly greeted.

After our splendid meal we finally headed home & completed our celebrations with a bottle of prosecco & some music, & plenty of chat.

It’s wonderful to have our home to ourselves once more.

Surprises

The windows are yielding all sorts of surprises. 

On Monday, one of the men removed one of the old kitchen window frames to discover an ants' nest. Hundreds came pouring out as they rushed to rescue the eggs that had been dislodged. We hastily doused the area with ant-killer before the new frame was inserted. Fortunately they did not run into the kitchen, just outwards or down the cavity wall.

Yesterday's surprise came when another workman started to take out the lounge window frame. As he undid a screw suddenly a fountain of water poured out, soaking him & the ground around.

The second unexpected event was not so amusing as one man managed to cut open his hand & had to be rushed off to the hospital to check he hadn't cut through anything serious. Fortunately he did not. He's back at work today with one had bandaged & gloved.

So today's surprise? While starting on the study window, they discovered the frame had been packed with old newspapers. One 4 page sheet they managed to get out intact. It is the Sunday Times dated October 22 1972. I knew the windows looked old but I hadn't realised they were that old! Or maybe I did. They reminded me a bit of windows my parents installed around 1970, though my parents only had secondary windows added.

It's quite fascinating seeing ads for holidays to exotic holidays in Majorca for just £24! It's a long time since holidays were that cheap.

I wonder what surprises will appear next.