Retail Therapy ... Of A Modest Nature

Sonata:
 By this weekend I'd recovered sufficiently to have a Nice Day Out .... Smitonius' idea .... and , as always , she was quite right .
I always enjoy a trip to Groningen and yesterday , with the sun blazing , it was particularly lively . The cafè on the corner of the market square , where you'd only sit if you had all the time in the world and no desire to eat anything till tomorrow , had a terrace full of comatose clients and no visible staff but did have a very nice black upright piano outside , which a young man was playing Thirties show tunes on . Very tempting , but I decided to save time and  chose a cafè a bit further along , which served coffee so strong it gave me palpitations . Perfect ! I had a lot to do .
So off to  Cook&Co for a handy gadget to add to YD's ever-growing collection of toys for her kitchen and yet another cookery book ... they might console her for being even more ancient than she was last week . The Italian deli for Lomo Adobado and vinegar . A browse through the C.D.s in a little shop that specialises in harder to find recordings .
 Then on to little places with lovely soaps , French stationery , pretty scarves or vintage china  . Past a tiny place where you can order a bespoke table or bookshelves , whose owner sat playing the clarinet . Cyclists wove in and out , a child bounced past on a Skippy Ball ( they must be in again . That's the second I''ve seen this week ) . People strolled along with ice creams or bags of cherries from the market .
Then suddenly the sky went black , it poured weirdly warm rain and I discovered I'd brought the umbrella that only opens half way up so nipped into the second-hand bookshop that stocks English paperbacks for a Euro and found six , including Armistead Maupin's Babycakes .
And finally the North African shop for the best dried apricots ever and lots of herby olives . All in all , great fun and not at all an extravagant day out .
 No , the real , rather disastrous,  loss of control was a few days earlier ... My unbending resolve to disembarrass myself of clutter and Not Buy Any More collapsed in the face of a snail . Meet Stanley ...

He did  only cost a Euro ....

It's Probably Too Early To Claim A Miracle Cure But ...

 

Sonata: I've been getting more and more weary , lately  . By last week , I thought if it got any worse , I'd be clinging onto the furniture to get round the flat and having to climb a flight of stairs was enough to put me off going to the library .

Today , while I'm not running the four-minute mile or auditioning for the Cambuur cheerleaders , I do look a lot less like Dracula's latest victim . Almost perky , in fact . I've started taking iron tablets and feel as though I've risen from the dead .

It's just a pity that I still can't do high kicks .... Next week , perhaps .

 

 

 

Oma's Erupting Spiced Apple Cake

Sonata:

 You're not to laugh , it's not funny .

 Note to self : When recipe  makes a startling amount of cake batter , don't just pour it all into the loaf tin as instructed , till you think it's going to overflow . Use your common sense and  stop . You won't regret it .
 And no , you're not going to see a luscious slice of Oma's Actually Rather Nice Spiced Apple Cake sitting on a pretty plate . Having been sniggered at , it's gone all shy .

Nearly as shy as me , when the house painters swooped early this morning to do next door's windows . 

Not Totally Predictable , No .

Sonata:
  Friko , in her latest post , talks about the predictability ... or otherwise ... of  life  and , unlike others ,  feels that day-to-day control lies within one's grasp . I'd like to think it's true  I suppose it depends on whether you're  a glass half full or glass half empty person , certainly once you reach your sixties .

*But much as I'd  love to live a life of wild spontaneity , treats and new experiences , I don't . The occasional Day Out to somewhere unfamiliar apart , days tend to follow one another , rather like a procession of cowled monks .
 Still , it doesn't have to be dull .  There's always one's fellow man to provide entertainment , even on routine trips to the supermarket ... Yesterday  a couple ahead of me were rushing about with their trolley stacked  with an odd assortiment of groceries . "How about a magazine ? ", he asked  , sounding slightly desperate,  handing her one about cars .
 "No ! I've  explained this already  ! I said I only want blue and white things " .
 " Look , they've got blue Durex . Will that do ? "
"Perfect!... now a gift token and we can give it to him when we get there ".
 I think they were putting together a care package for their son who'd moved out and was a new flat-sharer . I went off trying to imagine previous generations of parents tossing condoms in among the instant mash and tins of soup , let alone colour co-ordinate it .

* P.S. No , Husband and I aren't  quite like this ... I don't really have whiskers  fortunately .. .but , when Y.D . packed up her things the other day to take them down to Amsterdam ,  I rescued  the contents  of  her doll's house and have put them in our storeroom . Yes , I know , I'm not very good at de-cluttering , but suppose there's ever a granddaughter ?

Hang on , I'll Just Google it ....

A few of the things Googled this week ....
How to open an old Cable Turtle  ( you can't if it's really old and not bendy , I gather ) , which leads me onto How to Cable Stitch Crochet , bypassing the unattractive sounding Cable Gland , which two pages later segues into How to clean a turtle tank ( no , you can't just hand them each a dish mop )

Tashkent ..

How to cook Red Camargue Rice .... again ..... it's my recurring Senior Moment . I can never remember how much water to use .

Victor Mature .

Lotus Eating .

How much cholesterol in liver ( too much if you're on a low cholesterol diet . You'd be safer just eating the bacon ) .

Springing hedgehogs .... don't panic ! Macrocranion Tupaiodon lived thousands of years ago and was  wooly rather than spikey , anyway . There's a very nice  fossil in our local Nature museum , if you're passing .

Junket .

This year''s Top Names For Babies .But somehow I can't see Will and Kate choosing  Atticus , Magnus or Hank if it's a boy , while neither Juno nor Lizzie seem quite right if it's a girl . We'll just have to wait and see .

Encyclopaedia Britannica .
See , hours of fun !

Summer Popped In For A Brief Visit

Sonata :
 The sun shone and the new shorts were worn and declared good ( well , O.K. was actually  the expression used . They'll only be accepted wholeheartedly when worn to a shred )  . We lounged by the river

 and ate an inelegant number of sandwiches and tiny cherry tomatoes . Clouds of Queen Anne's Lace frothed everywhere and distinctly beefy-looking sheep chewed endlessly .

 A stork played peek-a-boo , rising up above the trees every time I'd put the camera away  .Idyllic .
But  Husband declared himself all pic-nicked out after this ... he prefers eating at a table ... so I went out on my own as often as possible while the good weather lasted and packed as much summer as I could into the next few days .
 Back up the bike path with the unlikely name ,

 past the genuine ramshackle country bits

 and the picture-postcard country bits

through yet more Queen Anne's Lace

 and horses in buttercup fields .

Past the odd sudden surprise ,

 little churchyards and the rather grandly named Leeuwarden Wood , planted twenty years ago and finally looking almost woodlike

 And I'm very glad I did . It's raining and early dark again today . Summer 2013 at its best .
 Never mind .There's Cumin Crusted Aubergines and apples with cinnamon baking in the oven and another Anne Perry Victorian whodunnit to read ... Who needs a heatwave ?

We've Taken To The Streets

Sonata:
 I sat in the sun with  no socks on today . Oh , the heady delights of a Dutch summer ! In fact , all Leeuwarden has crept out of their burrows and , blinking , rushed outdoors . On Sunday , I sat toasting on the balcony as a mini marathon pounded past the end of the street .

 Now it's the turn of the Four Evenings Walk , where anyone keen can sign up to walk a  5 , 10 or 15 kilometres route each evening for four days  , with a medal for those who complete the challenge  . Hundreds of children join in each year . In rainbow colours and all chattering nineteen to the dozen , they were like  flights of cockatoos .

 I look forward to their return tomorrow . I do like to see other people keepng fit .
 Mind you , there was a downside of the sudden ending of winter/spring ( indistinguishable this year ) and that was the resurrection of The Shorts . No , not mine ... I last wore shorts fifty-odd years ago ..... but Husband's . I'd hoped to lose them in the move but of course they came along , too  !  So ,  when he appeared this morning in the checked bloomery things again , any vague plans for taking a picnic lunch upstream and breathing hearty country air vanished .
 Instead , we joined the procession of mature couples heading towards C & A gents'  department  . The queue for the changing rooms consisted solely of sheepish men and their steely-eyed wives .By the looks of it , by tomorrow   there won't be a flapping trouser leg to be seen  in Friesland    . And by the time we're  sitting by the river under a tree tomorrow, eating our sandwiches , I hope Husband has forgiven me !.