The Wind Bleweth ...

 

Yesterday I was woken by an express train , roaring past the bed . Well , not really ... you'd have read about it in the papers , if one had  ... but that's just what the wind sounded like , rushing down to the river .
I managed to get to the almost deserted market and back , but left the rest of the shopping for today .
Today it's worse .

Which makes me wonder what sort of sort of supper ... gourmet or otherwise ... I can conjure up from one and a half kilos of apples , five potatoes , a kilo of sweet peppers , a small bag of caraway seeds and a tin of sardines....

 

  

                                            ( I must stop playing with my food .    x 100 )

P.S. Thank goodness for freezers !

It'll Only Last A Week ...

 

My resolve to be smarter and busier and  do more , of course . 
I used to but now I've settled on the sofa and have become almost L-shaped . So , while I'm reading a lot which is good , I'm becoming stiff and creaky and boring, which isn't . A bit of gentle exercise seems called for ... and , today being pleasantly windfree , a brief  bike ride  seemed an excellent start to my new regime .
It had an unexpected bonus in the shape of a  not quite brief enough conversation with a couple who seemed to be convinced that summer was a matter of weeks away ,
" It's Global Warming , you know . We're going to move to a fifth floor flat . And then we can have a little boat for shopping ." Tied up to their balcony/jetty , perhaps . They were quite serious . The characters in the last two books I've read , Keith Donohue's  The Stolen Child and  Ransom Riggs'  Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children , seemed quite rational in comparison . ( I heartily recommend both books  , by the way ... well worth becoming L-shaped for . ) 

Anyway the sunset was in itself worth the ride .

 I hope we all have a splendid year and that 2015 is kind to us all . And that no gaiters are involved .

Eleven Shopping Lists Later ....

It's here !

With or without your crocheted beard and whatever colour your tree is , I hope your Christmas  is PERFECT !!!

The One Thing You Can't Be Without This Year

Among all the usual seasonal activities ; nearly forgetting to order the turkey , buying enough gift wrap to wallpaper St Peter's , buying yet more foil , lightbulbs and batteries , writing cards to relatives so distant that I can't remember what their children are called , hunting for globe artichokes that are smaller than footballs ... there now seems to be another  :

crocheting a Santa's beard for yourself or for a loved one ... preferably out of non-itchy wool .
( Sorry for the graininess of the photo . Our local free paper seems to be having an economy drive and is saving on ink )

Are You Dreaming Of A Pink Christmas ?

No , neither am I .
But , according to the local garden center , various supermarkets and generous amounts of junk mail , that's what we're going to get , Bing Crosby notwithstanding .
Pink tinsel ,
      cup cakes ,
            poinsettias ,
                    paper napkins and
                            three foot high glittery squirrels .

 !!! Girl Power !!!
By which I don't mean feminism . ... no , I mean the Margaret Thatcher grip and iron control of the average seven year-old girl on her extended family.
 

Still , if your life is nor run by a small "princess " and you prefer a jokier Christmas tree , I've seen glittery tortoises in sailor hats , cows on skis and a bulldog in a feather boa ... oh sorry , he's pink .

 

Though you may , like this hairdresser in Groningen , have a more austere approach altogether .

 

 

 

A Varied Diet

A few years ago , somebody or other recommended eating 40 different foods a week and I remember trying , and discovering that it was perfectly possible but a bit of a nuisance , really . Dozens of boxes of grains , seeds , cereals , nuts and pulses filled the cupboards and made me feel oddly guilty . And did a handful of capers and some chopped parsley really count as two separate items ?
Every now and then I'm prompted to try it again , so  when I saw Quaker's Multi Grain on the supermarket shelf  it seemed worth widening my porridge-bound breakfast horizons . Oats , rye and barley !

If you've not yet tried it  ..... in a word , DON'T.
If you really must have a go , ignore the cooking instructions entirely . Instead , unless you're smaller than a Borrower , mix  two  sachets of the stuff with extra water and bring to the boil , stirring ... you're aiming for the consistency of runny honey ... cook for 4-5 minutes , only letting it thicken/solidify at the end . Eat with lots of cream . Or , better still , throw it away and keep the cream for something nice .
I'll go back to making porridge my grandmother's way , soaking the oats overnight in water and then cooking slowly with a pinch of salt . A ham on rye sandwich for lunch and chicken soup with pot barley for supper will provide me with all three grains digestibly .

But I inadvertently discovered an instant answer to the 40 A Week quest when I grabbed a tuna and tomato sandwich at a station buffet on Tuesday . It tasted unremarkable if rather mayonnaise-y  . BUT , when I read the list of contents I was astonished to see that it had 53 ingredients ! To be fair , 4 were water and 5 were E numbers but even so ... one of these a week and I could give up the whole attempt to include amaranth and goji berries in normal meals .

Anyway , if I'm in need of a change , our local supermarket has just started stocking chocolate covered grasshoppers ...

 

though the reviews are mixed .

Sometimes Matchy-Matchy Can Be Recommended

I know that  'matchy-matchy'  is fashion death these days and one doesn't see many twin-sets any more , with or without pearls , but I have to say that having matching eyes again is rather nice . The second cataract has been removed and depth perception has been restored . Bliss !

No more gingerly tapping round with one's foot before going down unfamiliar , badly lit stairs  .... though now I absentmindedly grope for my specs instead , till I remember that I don't have any  at the moment . Once I've had a checkup I'll get some new ones , less strong and less like jam jar bottoms .

But of course , looking decidedly co-ordinated hasn't always been a no-no  . Whole families went in for it ! From Hebden Bridge ( left ) to Belgium ( right ) it was considered very smart .

                                                   .......................................................

I caught the last half-hour of Gilles Porte's Autoportraits on TV5 Monde this week . So I've found a bit for you on YouTube , in case you haven't seen it . It's quite long ... every time you think it's finished , they show a bit more ... but it'll give you time for another cup of coffee ... and the children's faces are wonderful . Such concentration !