Vernal Equinox

I didn't take my usual photos at the Winter Solstice.  We weren't here for the actual solstice and I didn't think to take them before we went or after we came back in mid-January.

The whole of the end of 2012 seemed to vanish in an ongoing gloom of bad weather. The autumn was cold and short.  Early winter was also cool and damp.  Then from mid-January we have had ongoing snow and ice and freezing conditions.  We didn't get our usual autumn things done.  We haven't done our usual winter things and it is beginning to look as though our spring activities are going to be severely curtailed.  The onions which we planted in early autumn failed to develop.  The garlic almost all vanished.  And although I have started my spring seed sowing, the seeds are in seed trays in the lounge room by the radiator. There is no way you could put them even into the greenhouse.

The pundits are suggesting that we should revise what we are planning to grow in the way of vegetables this year.  I shall carry on with my usual plans for now.  It won't matter if things are a few weeks late starting.  And you never know - the non-appearance of spring might presage a warm, sunny summer. After all - the bright, warm, sunny early springs of the past two or three years have tired themselves out before summer properly started and we have had cool, cloudy summer seasons.  Maybe the sun is saving its energies up for July and August ??

Anyway.  In the absence of Winter Solstice photographs - here are some from the Vernal Exquinox :

Exasperation

I was reading one of the news websites on Monday and looking at some of the photos of the snow that has covered Britain.  One was captioned with something along the lines that Britons were exasperated with the ongoing wintry weather.  I paused to ponder this.

To my mind, exasperation is something that carries an implication that whatever is bedevilling you is something that can be altered, if not by you then by people around you.  So you might be exasperated with a recalcitrant toddler or by a habitually late work colleague.  I might be exasperated by the mice in the kitchen, or by Marlo curled up on the bed when I want to change the bedding. The Builder might be exasperated by me making him eat vegetarian food during Holy Week (although I don't think he is).  But all of these things are subject to action which can change the exasperating thing or action.  The Builder could sneak out and have a bacon sandwich while I am at work, for example.  Or I could pick Marlo up and move him, while I change the sheets.

But there is nothing you can do about the weather, and exasperation seemed a funny word to use to me.

Until I woke up and looked out the window first thing yesterday morning and found that it was snowing.  Again!

Exasperated was an excellent description of the sigh which escaped me as I gazed upon the snowy vista outside our bedroom window.

It hasn't really stopped snowing since mid-January. I acknowledge that the snow hasn't been continuous since then but it has been pretty much continual.  And it goes on and on and on.

I woke up on Saturday morning to find that not only was it snowing fit to burst but that also the roads were under several centimetres of snow.  I suppose I could have walked up to Grassmoor to my 09:00 hair appointment, as I did last time, but I really couldn't be bothered trudging up there through falling snow and a rather exciting wind.  So I cancelled it.  And we stayed inside all day.  I did go out to feed the birds and to measure the snow.  15cm in some places in the garden.  Not as deep as it was when Lindsey was here in 2010 - but that was in December and this is March. If nothing else, the ground should be warming up enough so that spring snow (which is not particularly unusual) shouldn't be settling quite so enthusiastically.

We did get to the shops on Sunday, but otherwise stayed inside for the rest of the day.  Left lots of time for kitchen cleaning and mouse counter-insurgency.

I came to work on Monday through snow and wind and ice.

I came in on the train yesterday, lest my Japanese class be cancelled because of snow.  Fortunately it wasn't, and The Builder drove in to collect me.

And still it snows.  Not heavily, it's true.  But snow is snow is snow.  And in my view we have had more than enough of it!

Exasperation very accurately describes my state of mind, despite the fact that there is absolutely nothing whatever that I can do about it.

The forecast is for ongoing wintry weather for the next fortnight.  The forecasters are not willing to speculate beyond that.

I am beginning to think we should sack the Weather Dogs.  Except they don't seem minded to go :-S

Bloody Mice

Ok, Ok.  I KNOW the kitchen needed properly clearing out.  I was aware that the cupboards needed cleaning and that the doors and drawer facings needed scrubbing.  I am fully cognisant that the tiles need scrubbing.  Sigh!  All these things are on my spreadsheet to do during the week I have off over Easter (alongside the Cooking spreadsheet - there are many meals to cook, plan and prepare for as well as cleaning to be done).

So I was really not best pleased on Saturday morning to open my cutlery drawer (a drawer which is opened about a million times a day, so hasn't been sitting undisturbed for a Miss Haversham length of time) and to find unmistakable evidence of the presence of a mouse.  Huge big sigh.

Fortunately I was not now doing anything particularly pressing over the weekend, so devoted myself to turning out, cleaning, sorting, washing or otherwise fumigating the contents, generally organising the cupboards in the kitchen.

It also meant that The Builder and I finally got around to removing the sliding shelves in the cupboard under the kitchen bench, which have never worked properly and which prevented us reaching to the back of the cupboard.  This also left us with some rather nice chrome baskets for organising things into. And The Builder has started scrubbing the cupboard doors and the drawer facings, so they too should be beautiful and dust- and grime-free soon.

So now we have beautifully organised, ordered and shiny cupboards, with dust, grunge and mouse evidence all removed.  And that's another big job I can cross off my Easter List of Things to Do.

But no.  There remains evidence that a rather large mouse family is in permanent residence in the walls and cupboards and drawers (although not in the "outside" part of the kitchen - there is no evidence at all that mice are roaming at large on top of the benches or on the floor, or anywhere that the humans or the feline habitually go).  Mouse eradication procedures are under way.  And the cupboards and drawers are back on my spreadsheet. Although this time it shouldn't be quite such a huge project.  Just a nice clean and a disinfection.  Oh - and another washing of any of the contents that had been put back.

Everything should be beautifully sparkly, germ-free and tidy for the Easter feasting!!

(Unless, of course, you are a mouse)

Spring Cleaning, Birthdays and Plagues

Easter is rapidly approaching (not that I am counting down the days to the Easter feasting, or anything) and it is, by anyone's reckoning, now spring.  I have the week off after Easter and have been planning a Grand Spring Clean and de-clutter of the whole house.  I was busy making a proper plan and everything.

Then The Builder came back from inspecting the seed potatoes.  We can't possibly plant them with the way the weather is at the moment (it was SNOWING!!! this morning when I got up; only briefly, true, but really proper snow), so we put them down in the empty potato drawers in the cellar but it can be a touch warm for potatoes down there, hence the inspection.  It wasn't warmth that was the problem.  It was a mouse!!!  At least, we assume it was a mouse that had been chewing the insides out of the seed potatoes. It definitely wasn't me. And it might explain why Marlo has been showing an unusual interest in what might be happening behind the washing machine in the kitchen.

So.  We rescued the unchewed potatoes and I decided that, rather than waiting for the Easter holidays, perhaps I should clean out the cellar now and move any mice I might happen across while I was down there.  I don't think the cellar has been cleaned in any normal definition of the word for years.  I don't remember doing it. And given the amount of soil I brought up and deposited in the garden it really hadn't been done for years.  Looks all bright and shiny now.  And mouse free, as far as I can tell.  There weren't any mice down there when I was there - but if I were a mouse I would have definitely hidden from someone wielding a broom and a wash cloth!

So the clearing, cleaning and de-cluttering has started.  I have started turning out the landing cupboard now. The Builder and Marlo are making sure that they move regularly so I don't decide that they are gathering dust and surplus to requirements :-D

It was Cally's birthday last week.  She turned two. I'm not sure that she fully understood the import of turning two, or even what a birthday is.  But she and her parents went swimming at Ponds Forge in celebration of the event and then dropped into the Adsetts Centre to say hello to me.  I gave her a chocolate crackle (chocolate seems and appropriate birthday present to me, when you are two years old :-) )  Mind you, buying one chocolate crackle for a two year old proved to be much more complicated than I had anticipated - the till was programmed only to sell two chocolate crackles.  I didn't want two ;-(  I only wanted one. It wasn't even as if they were partnered up and bound in holy plastic wrapping.  No, they were sat, unwrapped, individually in a basket.  But if I wanted one then I absolutely had to buy two.  So I did.  And left the second one with the perfectly pleasant till assistant who could have been in absolutely no doubt that I wasn't entirely delighted about this!

Anyway. Cally enjoyed her swim and her chocolate crackle.  I think she was quite pleased about having roast chicken for dinner.  And Freyja went for dinner too, so that was also nice.  Then at the weekend, Cally went to her friend Dylan's third birthday party on Saturday and on Sunday she and Dylan and various other little children went to the Play Arena for an afternoon of merriment.  It should have been an afternoon of merriment and chocolate cake but the Play Arena, although it was perfectly happy for me to bake a cake and take it to the children, were deeply regretful that we would not be able either to cut it or to eat it for insurance reasons.  So that was, effectively, a No then.  Still, the children didn't know that there was going to be cake and all had a lovely time anyway.  And then Cally and her parents came to Pizza Hut in town, where also The Builder and I had gone, along with various other grown ups.  And we all had pizza in celebration.  Cally likes pizza!

She likes trains as well.  There were lots of train related presents.  She was especially taken with the Raa Raa the noisy lion train and characters that Stella and Tony had sent for her birthday.  Playing with that kept her amused for the whole time that we were in Pizza Hut.

Speaking of Stella. she was released from the hospital after a couple of blood transfusions - and then almost as quickly recaptured and taken back - although to a hospital in Mornington rather than in Frankston.  And there she remains, having had several more blood transfusions, almost two days of fasting and various different -oscopies while they try to find out precisely why she is losing haemoglobin quite so spectacularly.  For lunch today they fed her a tiny camera!!  I don't know what the results of all the -oscopies were, nor what the pretty pictures taken by the tiny camera revealed.  But she was very relieved to be taken off her enforced fast and given soup, sandwiches and ice cream for dinner.  Although I have to say that soup, sandwiches and ice cream do not sound like iron-rich food to me.  Steak, spinach and dried apricots, yes.  Soup, sandwiches and ice cream (though tasty and delicious), not so much.  I suppose it depends on what was in the soup and sandwiches!

In the meantime, Cally has been stricken with chicken pox.  She, I believe, continues to smile, bounce and bound. Were it not for the spots, you wouldn't know she had become plague ridden.  But if she has chicken pox now, then she must have been plague-ridden on Sunday and possibly even last Thursday.  Goodness knows how many people are going to come down with poxes now!!

Lakeland

Back in June 2010 (I don't suppose you remember this!) I was having a merry baking and roasting weekend when my food processor imploded.

I had got a bit tired of buying food processors which lasted a couple of years until their warranties had expired, whereupon their motors imploded. So I decide not to replace it until I could afford to buy a more expensive processor, with a more sturdy motor and a five year warranty.  In the meantime I took to making things with my trusty wooden spoon and elbow power.

It is, however, a tad difficult to blend things with a trusty wooden spoon and elbow power, so at some point I decided to buy a Lakeland blender which was on special.  And a bit later I bought a Sainsbury's hand mixer for about £5 - which is still going,although it obviously isn't very sturdy and needs careful handling but does when the spoon and elbow aren't quite enough.  The Lakeland blender, however, has been going great guns.  Until Saturday afternoon when I made made my apply katsu sauce, put it in the blender and was in the process of putting it through a sieve when I heard a strange cracking noise behind me.  I turned around - and the blender jug had mysteriously developed several deep cracks towards its bottom.

This was not entirely convenient.  So I emailed Lakeland to ask if they had any replacement jugs. I didn't want to buy an entire blender, partly because the motor of the current one appears still to be in fine fettle.  But mainly because the blender and hand mixer were always intended to be temporary measures until I got around to buying a proper food processor.  And you never know - that time might be approaching.  Maybe.  One day :-D

A quick glance at the Lakeland website had shown that the blender I had was no longer on offer.  A new and different blender was in the catalogue. So I wasn't altogether hopeful.  But no harm in asking.

And at about 8pm on Saturday evening my phone rang. It was (I think) Emma from Lakeland Customer Service, apologising for ringing on a Saturday evening (I didn't mind) and telling me that the blender I had had been discontinued at the end of 2010 and they only had a handful of jugs left.  I could have one for £10, including postage, if I still wanted one.  Which I did. And now a new jug is wending its way to me. More blending will be possible from the end of the week.

Lakeland has a reputation for excellent customer service.  And in my view it is a reputation that is well deserved.  But Emma (if that indeed was her name; I fear I forgot it in the excitement of getting my new jug) absolutely cemented it.  I am a very happy Kitchen Elf.

I wonder if they would let me set up a franchise in Melbourne?  I think Melbourne definitely needs a branch of Lakeland!

Food. Tonkatsu

In the February edition of the BBC Good food magazine there was a recipe for Tonkatsu which also had a recipe for an apple based katsu sauce. I like tonkatsu (breaded pork fillet, somewhat similar to Weiner schnitzel but with pork rather than veal) a lot. I have had it with proper katsu sauce, and with ponzu sauce, but mostly I have had it with curry sauce, which is how I tend to make it (with Japanesecurry paste I buy at the Oriental supermarket).  The homemade sauce didn't look too complicated, so I decided to have a go, halving the quantities so I was making sauce for two rather than four.  You'll find the recipe here (the only variations I used at this stage were to use mild rather than medium curry powder and fresh ginger instead of powdered, simply because that is what I had - and we had it with oven chips not rice and peas and pak choi, becaue I felt like it!)

It was all very tasty, but the sauce was definitely on the too sweet side for me.  I added extra soya sauce, curry powder and sesame oil before I served it.

I decided to have another go.  I didn't have any pork left, so used a chicken fillet  instead (I like chicken katsu even more than I like pork katsu!!!). This time I used a Bramley apple instead of Braeburn eating apples, I halved the amount of honey and doubled the amount of ginger, and I added extra soya sauce.  Once again we had oven chips not rice, and this time we had baby brussels sprouts, peas and broad beans on the side.  It was much less sweet and the extra ginger gave it a bit of extra bite. It was even nicer than the first time; I don't like savoury food that is too sweet.  I also don't like chilli in quantity so the addition of the extra ginger was all to the good. Kick, but not heat!

I've kept the recipe, with my amendments.  I shall definitely make it again. It's not time consuming or difficult to make.  But I might give it a whirl with Japanese curry paste instead of the mild Indian style curry powder and see how that goes.

Hydes are tumbling, one by one

Fortunately not (yet) too dramatically, but it's been a week or two full of health related incident.

So Tony has a recurrence of his ocular shingles. I think I told you about this earlier in the week. Very unpleasant but happily not yet as deeply unpleasant as the first occurrence (and long may it remain that way, although not being there at all would be even better).

In the meantime, I had noticed that ever since I had that eye infection at the start of the Grand World Tour, my eyes have been a tiny tad grumpy. My left eye (which was the one that had been very upset at the beginning of December) was particularly unhappy and had got to the point where my vision was a bit blurred sometimes and my eye ached sometimes.  When I became aware that it was also filled with loads of floating things which were making it hard to see and that now there were flashing lights to the port side, I decided I really ought to do something about it.

So I made an appointment to see the GP!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't been to the surgery in Clay Cross since they built the new, super duper snazzy one. I can't say I had ever been to the old one as a patient. I had only been there accompanying other people.  And it was OK, I suppose, but it was definitely showing its age.  The new one is lovely. I said as much to the ten year old doctor who showed me into his surgery (OK; he wasn't ten.  He was probably in his very early thirties, but he seemed fairly squeaky new).  He agreed that it was lovely.  And then said that he didn't think he had ever seen me before.  Looked at my notes and said "Well - no.  I won't have seen you before.  You don't visit us very often, do you!"

The very significant advantage to not visiting your GP very often is that they are inclined, in my experience, to take you seriously when you do.  He couldn't see anything wrong with my eyes but decided to refer it to the Eye Clinic at Chesterfield Royal Hospital. 15 hours later he rang me up to say I had an appointment at the Eye Clinic on the morning after he rang me. The very next day, in fact :-S.

Now this was not a little disconcerting.  Under normal circumstances you have to wait for weeks for non-urgent NHS hospital appointments.  To get one for less than 48 hours after the initial visit to the surgery either indicates something catastrophic is wrong - or that someone has cancelled and you have been extremely lucky.  Not wishing to push my luck I cleared my diary for the following day (a pity really; it was the busiest day I had this week!)

They were very thorough. The nice eye doctor looked long and hard at my left eye.  It may never forgive her. Certainly it didn't forgive me for a long time. It really really didn't like being pushed and prodded and being numbed and having its pupil dilated or any of the things they did to it (they did some of the things to my right eye too, but not the pushing and prodding and stuff.  It was just as well I had cleared my diary for the whole day, though. I really couldn't see very well for the rest of the day.

All is well.  It's just old age creeping up upon my eye.  No dramas there, in the end.

Until Thursday, when I was walking into the main building with my colleague Julia. We walked down into the Atrium and headed towards the main stairs - when all of a sudden I was lying on my side :-S  No stumble with an opportunity to right myself. No tripping over something, also with a chance to right myself. My foot hit a wet, puddly patch, shot away and over I went.  It made my knee bleed ;-(  It jarred my back and my ankle and my knee and all sorts.  It was all very disconcerting.  Although I think it disconcerted Julia more!!  I filled in an incident report when I got to the Adsetts Centre - and now I have attracted the attention of all sorts of Elfin Safety people who want to know what happened and why.  Sigh.

And so to today.  Text message from Stella.  It's Tony's birthday celebration, slightly deferred, tomorrow, at the Prince Patrick in Collingwood. And now - she and Tony can't go (although the birthday bash will go ahead without them). She had been for some blood tests earlier today and her haemoglobin levels are down to barely noticeable.  She has to go to the Hospital for a blood transfusion and stay overnight and  no, it can't wait until they get back from Melbourne even if she does eat half of a woolly mammoth while she is away. So that's no good. No partying for them.

And THEN, as if all of that wasn't enough, Matthew reports that young William has broken his arm doing something martially arty (although Lindsey says it was because he was doing handstands in the warm up bit before the class - although I can't quite see why that would break your arm. Are we sure someone didn't Kickbox him?). That's not good either :-S

William.  Image copyright Matthew and Belinda Hyde

I think Freyja has decided that all Hydes, Hyde relations, people closely connected with Hydes and possibly even people who just know a Hyde or two should retire to their beds with cups of tea and cushions until the Hyde danger appears to have passed!!

Freyja. And a weekend

I meant to say and forgot. We got back from Salisbury to find a card in our letter box, addressed to Freyja, from Transport for London. I was a bit surprised.  Even more so when I read it. "We think we might have found something that you have lost. Please contact us ..."

So I rang Freyja to tell her about this. She was equally surprised.  How did they get our address?  And what has she lost?

Then she thought. On her (lost) passport she does have our address as an emergency contact. Perhaps someone has found her passport and for some reason handed it in at an Underground station, or to a bus driver or someone.

Anyway.  She rang them.  "What have you lost?" they asked.  "Well," she said.  "Someone nicked my backpack.  Could be almost anything.  But based on the address you sent your card to, at the very least you've got my passport."  "Good news," replied Transport for London. "We've got your backpack!".  And apart from her laptop, which appears to have decided to continue adventuring without her - she now has back everything that was in her backpack when it got nicked. All she has to do is go to the TfL Lost Property office and hand over £4 (I think it's £4), which is considerably less than what it would cost to replace her passport (which she will need at the end of the year for her GWT). 

So that's all good (apart from the loss of the laptop).

We had a lovely weekend.  We were at Bishops' House on Saturday morning.  We weren't expecting many visitors (Saturday morning, still winter and all that) so took books and electronics and wotnots with us to keep ourselves amused. We were astounded by the end of the morning to have had 30 visitors. They just poured in!  Mind you, it was an extremely beautiful morning. I had hung the washing out before we left and it was dry when we got home later in the afternoon. But even so, Saturday mornings tend to be the quietest shift of the weekend. People take their children to Saturday morning sports activities, they do the shopping, cleaning, washing, ironing, whatever. What they are normally not doing is walking in Meersbrook Park (unlees they are walking their dogs, in which case they still don't come and visit us!). Not sure what had got into everyone on Saturday, but it certainly filled up the morning nicely.  Even Gareth and Cally dropped by to say hello, on their way to the swings at the bottom of the park.

Then we went out to Chatsworth to lay in a few meaty supplies and some vegetables. It was a lovely drive from Sheffield to Chatsworth.  Obviously we don't very often go that way - and it really is beautiful countryside. We should do it more often - although it would not be terribly convenient!!!

I spent most of the rest of the weekend cooking.  I have chopped up grapefruits ready to make grapefruit marmalade (the peel and juice and water are macerating as we speak :-P ).  I made bread with left over stale milk and slightly out of date natural yoghurt.  I made cinnamon and apricot bread with buttermilk and sour cream (both of these ventures also had flour and yeast, naturally). We had roast beef and Yorkshire puddings for Sunday lunch and a vegetable and bean curd Japanese curry on Saturday. There's baked rhubarb and honey with a rolled oat and cinnamon "crumble". If you like baking (which, fortunately, I do) it was a very relaxing way of spending a Sunday. I really ought to have been out sorting out the garden after the winter (there are tiny signs of spring in the garden) but somehow using up all the leftovers while they were still useable and before they needed throwing away seemed more urgent.  I'll get to the garden later :-S

I was talking to Stella and Tony yesterday morning.  Poor Tony has a recurrence of the ocular shingles which horribly beset him some months ago.  He says the pain is not fun but that so far he doesn't have the awful spasms that really laid him low last time.  We must hope that the spasms stay well away. He seemed quite cheery though - and is making steady progress with his rug. He has now done the bottom border and one full line of squares. Stella also has had ocular excitement. She has had laser treatment on one eye (I don't know why). So they are both at the mercy of various alarms which insist that they put drops in their eyes RIGHTNOWTHISVERYMINUTE.

London

I had to go to London for a meeting yesterday, so I booked myself onto the 9:35 train to London which stopped only at Derby and Leicester and dropped me into St Pancras at 11:35.  This was in exceptionally good time for my meeting in Houndsditch at 1pm, so I walked down Greys Inn Road to Chancery Lane and hopped on a tube there to Liverpool Street Station.

I rather enjoyed the meeting.  Not only was it interesting and informative, but they also gave us a very pleasant lunch - and it finished at 3:15 which left loads of time for me to make my way over to Regents Street for a bit of a play.

Some time ago my colleague Rupert drew my attention to an email subscription he had with the Japan Centre. Not only do they send out weekly emails with tasty recipes and tempting things to buy in their online shop, but there is also a physical shop on Regents Street. So I had decided that I would take the opportunity while I was in London to go and have a look at it.  I was a bit surprised to find that the shop sits in what is effectively a small "Japan Town" (like a small China Town only Japanese :-D ). I didn't go and explore the department store - but I did visit the Japan Centre supermarket for a proper explore around. I didn't buy much but I definitely have it marked as somewhere to go when I am in London and armed with a large shopping bag and a wad of money! In addition to the supermarket they also have a noodle bar and a sushi bar in the shop.  But it wasn't that long since I had had my rather nice lunch - so I ambled off down Regents Street to Hamleys, where I amused myself by starting at the top and making my way slowly down, admiring the toys, the sales staff playing with the toys, the children playing with the toys ... and the rather more than life-sized Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Prince of Wales and Prince Harry gazing over the top balcony in full wedding regalia - made entirely out of Lego!!  I would have taken photos of them but I wasn't sure if you were allowed to (some shops don't like it if you take photos of their stock, or even the insides of their shops!). It wasn't until I got right down to ground level that I saw the posters advertising their "If your photos have the awwwww factor or make us laugh you could be in the running for ... " competition.  I couldn't be bothered going all the way back up to the top of the shop so we are photo-less!

Then I went back to the Japan Centre and went into their next door restaurant and had crumbed chicken fillet with curry and rice, followed by a not very Lenten mochi ice cream ball for dinner.  You know you are likely to get authentic ethnic cuisine when you go into a restaurant and find that the staff and clientele are all, or nearly all, from that place.  I was the only non-Japanese customer until I was leaving, when a Western family came in. And all the waiting staff except one were Japanese.  If you should be pottering around in London and looking for nice Japanese food, you could do worse than eat in Toku.

Then I came home.  On a train that got slower and slower and slower the further north we went.  Apparently one of the two engines had failed and the train really didn't like going uphill!!!

Freyja's train heading south from Sheffield had no such trouble and our trains passed around Leicester.  She had been planning to join me on my Japanese adventure in London but had to defer it till the next time I'm in town.  A friend of hers was in hospital in Sheffield and she had taken advantage of a couple of days not at uni and not at work and gone up to visit her.  So no mochi ball for Freyja (although she had honoured the original arrangement in as much as she too had eaten Japanese for dinner - but in a Sheffield restaurant, not a Regents Street one).