Changing tastes

Salmon today. I’m looking forward to having some nice simple salmon, probably en papillotte. We’re having some spicy patatas bravas with tomato sauce with the salmon. I’m also thinking of finishing off a tin of sweetcorn to complete the meal.

It struck me yesterday as I opened the tin of sweetcorn how much our tastes have changed. I used to regularly, most weeks, serve sweetcorn but these days it’s not often, maybe a tin a year. We’ve gone off them, finding them too sweet & rather tough skinned.

It’s strange because only last week I had a similar thought as I opened a tin of butter beans. Just the words “butter beans” conjures up in my mind the large tough unpleasant beans we had so often in school dinners. A while back we used to have a friend (now dead) who enthused about butter beans but I could never understand it. This time we thoroughly enjoyed them, even putting some cold, but cooked, in a salad for a bit of variation. It just goes to show how tastes change.

Food is on my mind at the moment, partly because we did the food shop yesterday, partly because I’ve just peeled the potatoes for this evening & partly because we picked the apples from our tree yesterday. This year is the first year we’ve had a good crop since the tree was planted in the garden makeover in 2014. I’m not quite sure whether that is to do with the immaturity of the tree before, the amount of compost the gardener put around it this spring or just the weather this year. We seem to have had a year of alternating rain & sun, just right for all the plants to flourish even if we humans didn’t relish it. 

We’ve even had so many apples we’ve passed some on to our neighbour. Braeburns are his favourite apples & that is what we’re growing. It seems a small thing to do when he helped so much when the Fox was ill earlier this year. He’s even volunteered to take me into chemo if the Fox is unable to some time. I don’t expect I will need to call on his assistance but it’s nice to know the offer is there.

The work begins

Some 5 to 10 years ago our neighbours moved into the other half of our semi. They’d moved here as his father was in his eighties/nineties & had started to have several falls. He needed a little family help & support. They envisioned the father would soon die & they would inherit the father’s bungalow, which they would then move to from here as they preferred it. They only bought this property as it was so close to the father’s.

The father continues to live. Our neighbours pop round every day to check on him. The father now has dementia too so some professional care is also being given. He’s now well in his nineties.

Earlier this summer, our neighbour told me they’d come to the conclusion now that they preferred it here. It is a quiet street with good neighbours. The houses are of a nice size for two people. Basic shops are within easy walking distance. So are bus stops if they had to give up driving as they themselves grow older. They’ve had friends come to stay, all of whom had admired their present house. All in all they’d come to the conclusion this would be their home for the rest of their life.

Little did I expect the flurry of activity there has been since. Having decided to stay they have decided to do up the property to better suit them. So the first was new doors & windows. Now there is further noise. I suspect it a new kitchen even though the previous owner had put a new kitchen in. Suffice to say there has been lots of sawing, hammering & drilling, a skip full of rubbish, a vehicle with “Electrical Services” written on it, copper pipes going inside. It may be a case of rewiring. I dare say we’ll find out when we have chance to speak to them.

From our point of view it is unfortunate so much noise is occurring now, when we are both feeling so tired & stressed anyhow. We were hoping for a couple of quiet weeks before the chemo begins. I’ve even tried to find a hotel for a few days away but everywhere seems to be booked as far as wheelchair accessible rooms.  I can see we’ll just have to put up with the disruption.

Rain again

We’re back to rain again. We seem to have had so much of late. More often than not it comes on alternating days. This rain is much heavier than usual, causing much localised flooding.

On Friday we’d arranged to meet up with friends at the golf club. It rained for a large portion of the morning.

We set off. We turned the corner in our street to be confronted by a lake across the road. We nervously edged our way through, hoping it wasn’t going to be too deep. We made it & sighed with relief.

We set off along the prom, passing several large puddles along the way. Soon we noticed all the floodgates had been closed. A high tide must be due & it certainly looked high enough already. Then we came across a section when we couldn’t help noticing pedestrians were walking along the wall. The pavement had disappeared under the water. In the midst was a blue submarine. Well actually it was a blue car parked by the submerged pavement & itself partially submerged. We carefully edged across to the other side of the road to pass by.

Today looks like it’s going to be a similar story. On top of which it’s cold enough for us to have put the heating on for the winter ahead. So far I’m not regretting it even though we don’t usually feel the need until nearer November. It looks like we’re set for a long hard winter ahead.