Fringe Festivities

Yesterday was the day of the Family Celebration of Stella and Tony's Diamond wedding anniversary, held in Mount Martha.  It was also the day after Tabitha's birthday.  Those of us based in the UK were, sadly, unable to make it to Mount Martha for the family do there, so we decided to have a Fringe Festival at our place, both to celebrate the wedding anniversary and to celebrate Tabitha's birthday.

I did manage to helicopter my way into the Mount Martha celebrations, courtesy of the wonder of modern technology that is FaceTime (other video conferencing technologies are available!).  At 5:30 am, Tupton time, it was bright and sunny, the birds were singing and I was sitting in my bed with a mug of tea and an iPad, joining in the festivities on the other side of the world.  I was not, as rumour had it, naked.  I was fully and properly clad - in my pyjamas.  Not unreasonable, I thought, at 5:30 am!

Then at half twelve, not only did the heavens open but Tabitha, Gareth, Cally, Freyja and Simon rocked up to our place.  I was properly dressed by that time.  In fact, I was properly dressed for the second time, having changed from my tracksuit into something more appropriate for a festivity shortly before they arrived.  We had individual lamb pies for the omnivores and red lentil and vegetable pies for the vegevores. With that we had mashed potatoes and a huge bowl of mixed salad. After we had an apple and blackberry crumble that Gareth and Cally had prepared for us, and a birthday cake that I had made.  We toasted Stella and Tony, then we toasted Tabitha (That's a lot of toast - fortunately I had extra butter lying around :-P  ).

We did not have rice pudding ;-(  We were supposed to.  I had prepared it.  All three of my slow cooker recipe books said you can make rice pudding in your slow cooker.  They all had more or less the same recipe.  I followed it exactly.  And the rice was almost as hard at the end of the 7-8 hours slow cooking as it had been when I put it in.  So I put the "rice pudding" in the oven with Gareth and Cally's fruit crumble.  The crumble baked deliciously.  The rice pudding turned into a gluggy mess which this morning was set so solidly that The Builder pretty much had to hack it out of the baking dish I had transferred it into.  We couldn't even give it to the chickens.  It had to go in the garden and food waste bin ;-(  I won't do that again.  In future, all rice puddings will be made by traditional means!

Apart from that, though, it was a lovely afternoon.  Though I think Cally may have had just a tiny tad too much sugar, what with a helping of crumble and custard, followed by some birthday cake and raspberries.  She was ever so slightly hyperactive in the afternoon. :-D

Happy birthday, Taffa

I think Cally enjoyed her slice of birthday cake

On the Buses

For some years now my colleague Julia and I have been travelling back and forth between Chesterfield Railway Station and Sheffield, commuting to and from work.  Mostly we travel together. The monthly ticket for these journeys comes to £106 each.

Recently, Julia was moved to look into how much it would cost if we abandoned the train and took the limited stop express bus.  For her it would cost around £50 a month.  That ticket wouldn't do for me - I live outside of the inner Chesterfield bus area.  For me a ticket would cost £71.  A saving, as I'm sure you can work out, of £35 a month.  And with my Gold (that's GOLD) ticket, I get unlimited travel on that particular bus company in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire.  Not only that, but my ticket also includes trams run by that particular company.

We decided to give it a go.

I have to admit that it takes longer.  But we are not usually in any hurry and it's quite a pleasant journey.  Nice views.  Calm journeys.  Free WiFi, should WiFi be required (you pay £5 for WiFi on the train).  What's not to like?

And it's much more interesting.  Because it's a limited stop service, it's not absolutely necessary for the drivers to take exactly the same route every day.  There are minor variations that can be taken. You can't do that with a train!  And on Thursday morning, when the main road into Sheffield was blocked by an accident that had only recently happened, our dexterous driver turned the bus round on a five cent piece, and we went By Another Way. If the railway line is blocked, you have to sit there until it is unblocked. Yesterday, on the way into work, the driver decided that the usual route in Sheffield City Centre was too crowded and went by another way entirely.  It's quite fun, never entirely knowing which way the bus will go.

I think I will stick with the bus for the time being.  The buses (so far) have been much more reliable than the trains.  And £35 is not an insignificant amount to save each month!

I didn't have occasion to travel on any buses over the weekend.  We went to Bishops' House on Saturday afternoon and had a lovely time with lots of visitors - including Tabitha, Gareth and Cally who dropped in to say hello.  It was very sunny on Saturday but quite spectacularly windy.  It wasn't quite as sunny and warm on Sunday, but it was much less windy.  I got outside for a while and began weeding the patio.  The Builder moved loads of soil from the front corner of the driveway round the back.  He's planning to level out that corner and to concrete it over, thus widening the useful bit of the drive.  Then we had a restorative glass or two of something, sat in the sunshine on the (half-weeded) patio.  It was all very pleasant.

I had bought some red snapper for our Sunday meal.  I love snapper (although I prefer the silver snapper you get in the Antipodes) and you don't see it very often around Chesterfield or Sheffield.  I baked it and we had it with chips.  It was extremely delicious.  But while it came gutted, it did not come scaled.  Red snapper has a prodigious quantity of scales!  I am still finding them scattered around the kitchen, even though I did clean up after myself!!!  I'm sure that the cat thinks we have a secret stash of fish hidden somewhere that we are keeping from him :-D

A Diamond Jubilee

(Photo thanks to my sister Lindsey)

A very happy 60th wedding anniversary to my parents, Stella and Tony.

This is them at lunch at Ten Minutes By Tractor on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Australia with my sister Lindsey and brother in law Ian today.

Summer

So.  June 1st dawned  ...... actually, June the 1st dawned bright and sunny and even fairly warm for the first day of summer*

It was at lunchtime that the big black clouds rolled in.

By the time Julia and I left to catch our bus home, it was raining with intent.

It wasn't too bad in Chesterfield.  Just a bit damp.  But it was very windy.

Shortly after I got home, it got very, very dark and the wind really picked up.

By mid-evening it was blowing a gale and I was wondering if the (very well established) trees in the field at the back, along our fence, would manage to stay standing (they did).

And it rainedandrainedandrainedandRAINED.

Fortunately, the cat stayed indoors :-P

I'm not sure that the Weather Dogs are entirely convinced by the idea of summer starting on the first of June.

It was showery yesterday and not as warm as you might hope.  Fortunately, however, it was pleasantly sunny at 6:15 when I left work and walked up the hill to Broomhill for my Japanese class. Usually I have the car, but The Builder had a meeting to go to which started at 1pm.  He would have had to leave home at around 12 to get there by public transport, and not until just after 12:30 if he took the car. The second option seemed to allow for a spot of lunch before he left!  So I came to work on the bus and then walked to Broomhill after work, and he came in the car to collect me when the class finished.

I was walking up Division Street on my way to the class, passing across from the Green Room.  This is a pub which Gaz sometimes works in.  I was just musing on this, when a small bundle of enthusiasm bounced out of the Green Room, across the road - and threw itself at me.  It was Freyja!  I think we were both surprised to see each other :-D  She was part of a group of people who were organising a film showing in the pub for the evening.  I was just passing by.

* Other starting dates are available.  The UK government has it starting on the day of the summer solstice. The Weather Dogs start it when they feel like starting it.

A mostly soggy weekend

It wasn't too bad on Saturday, I suppose. We had sunny spells and it was quite warm.  I wandered up the road and had my hair cut. We trundled into Clay Cross. We got a few useful things done around the house and garden. We pottered up to the allotment. The day passed pleasantly and quietly.

It began to rain in the evening.  It began to rain quite hard overnight. I woke up at around about 4 am, wondering if there happened to be an intruder creeping up the stairs.  But no - it was the rain pelting down on the porch roof.  I was just drifting back to sleep when I definitely heard something coming up the stairs.  But I figured it wasn't an intruder.  An intruder would be unlikely to be wearing a cat bell.  I was just thinking this when a cat jumped up on the bed.  A wet cat.  A very soggy cat.  A very soggy cat with cold and muddy paws!!  Fortunately I had a small towel lurking close by and could dry him off.  But the bed sheet and my pyjama leg were covered in muddy paw prints.

I wasn't going to worry about that at that time of the day.  But I am very glad that I hadn't acted on the brief impulse I had had on Saturday morning to change the bed shee and pyjamas then instead of  my usual Sunday morning :-D

It rained with vigour throughout the morning and into the afternoon.  I repaired to the kitchen and made Transylvanian style meatballs for Monday's dinner and to feed the freezer.  I made a lamb and butternut squash curry for the freezer and for Tuesday.  I made a chicken and mushroom pot pie for Sunday lunch.  And I made a "rhubarb in the hole" pudding to go after.  (I'm not really sure what to call it - it was more or less a sweet Yorkshire pudding batter which I poured into a not hot baking dish which was lined with rhubarb and caster sugar.  Whatever you would call it, it was very tasty)

The weather cleared up a bit later in the afternoon and we got down to the greenhouse and planted out a few of the seedlings that were beginning to look a bit straggly.  The Builder in his guise as Under Gardener is hoping to plant the rest out on the allotment later today (if it doesn't rain!!).  We seem to have a very large number of zucchini/courgette seedlings.  If they all survive I may be looking for recipes to deal with a massive glut of zucchinis later in the summer!

And now here we are and it's Monday again.  A shiny new week to play with.  I wonder what excitements it has in store for us (apart from Transylvanian meatballs for dinner tonight :-D)

A Long Weekend - mostly in Salisbury

We headed down to Salisbury on Sunday at lunchtime, after a fairly quiet Saturday spent at home.

Most people who were intending to travel this weekend went to wherever they were going on Friday evening or Saturday morning, so the roads were fairly quiet on Sunday afternoon and we had quite a good run down.  On arrival we went almost immediately into the restaurant at the Old Mill for a late afternoon Sunday lunch.  After very nearly inhaling a plateful of roast beef with all the usual accompaniments, I finished off with this:

It was every bit as delicious as it looked!

We went for a stroll across the meadows on Monday morning after breakfast, then headed out to The Builder's brother and sister in law's place. I have met their little dog Daisy before, but I have never met their tortoises.  They have three.  And a couple of stone ones for good measure!

And then we went to pick Gwen up.  She has finally, finally, FINALLY got council funding to stay in the care home where she has been "temporarily" living since she came out of hospital before Christmas.  While she has been there she has been positively thriving.  She gets fed three times a day, with supplementary cups of tea and biscuits throughout the day.  There are games to play and people to play with. She is very well looked after.  So of course she is thriving.  The council social workers, in their wisdom, seemed to think that this meant she could go back to her solitary small flat where there is no one to talk to and nothing much to do and no one about to make sure that she eats and drinks regularly.  We all disagreed with that, of course - and Marie (The Builder's sister) and Jenny (the sister in law with the tortoises) have fought like tigers to secure funding for her to stay in the care home.  And now they are doing a mighty job of clearing out Gwen's unit so that it can be handed back when the rent runs out in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime, we got the fun job of taking her out to lunch and then taking her for a drive out around the local villages and country lanes. She enjoyed her (small) plate of fish and chips and seemed to enjoy her drive around.  I definitely enjoyed my (not small) plate of steak and chips.  The Builder enjoyed his ham and chips.  Chips all round :-D

I had yesterday off so we didn't have to throw ourselves into the Bank Holiday motorway traffic. Instead we stayed another night in the Old Mill and came home after breakfast yesterday.  All in all, it was a lovely couple of days.

I love the colours at this time of year.  All the different shades of green, and the reds and browns of other trees

Click on the river to get to the photo album for the weekend

Weekend Report

We pottered out to Marsh Green quite early on Saturday morning. They have recently installed a new fish counter. I've seen photos on Facebook and I was keen to have a look.  Alas, they haven't been overwhelmed by fishy sales and had decided not to get any in this week.  I'm told they will be getting some for next weekend but that wasn't particularly helpful for the seafood platter I had in mind for Sunday.

But never mind.  We picked up a few bits and pieces and ambled off into town.  I wanted to go to the coach station to ask about bus tickets.  The Builder wanted to go to M&S to exchange a gift token he was in possession of for a new pair of trousers.  And while we were there we strolled around the market and the market hall.  There's a fish counter in the market hall.  I got my fish from there.  We'll go back out to Marsh Green on Saturday and have a look at the fish selection.

I needed to have some documents certified and had arranged with our friend Ginger Rich to come and do the certifying in exchange for lunch on Sunday.  And we had tempura salmon and tempura prawns; breaded hake and breaded calamari; griddled scallops and a bowl of small prawns.  With all that we had chips and salad, followed by a lemon slice (a new recipe which was astonishingly sweet when it was finished.  I will make it again but with vastly less sugar!!) with frozen lemon yoghurt and blueberries.  It was all very delicious.  Although I think that Rich hadn't quite believed me when I said I had an Everest of certifying for him to do :-D

Half of our seafood platter - we've had one helping from it already

Otherwise it was a pleasantly quiet weekend. Nothing too strenuous. Nothing too exciting.  Food and wine and good company.

Right.  I'm off out for lunch.  Today I am lunching with my colleague Bea and my former colleague Roger.  Roger and his wife have just come back from a visit to Australia and he is planning to tell Bea and me all about it.  We're heading to the Blue Moon Cafe. Coincidentally appropriate - unbeknownst to us when we arranged this, today is the start of National Vegetarian Week.

Sunday photos

Click on Cally to reach the Sunday photos

Victory in Europe commemorations

It was the 70th anniversary of the end of the WWII in Europe over the weekend and there were lots of memorial events, celebrations and commemorations around the UK.

Tabitha, Gareth and Cally came for the weekend.

The two events were not, as far as I am aware, connected!

They came to our place on Saturday afternoon after going out to visit the alpaca farm near Ringinglow.  We also saw alpacas on Saturday. We quite often see alpacas.  There is a flock/herd/collective-noun-of-your-choice of them in a paddock near the Chesterfield railway station, which we drove past on Saturday on our way to the supermarket. We did not go to Ringinglow.

We had home made pizza for dinner.

And we watched most of the BBC V in E anniversary concert on television.

We had a pleasant, sunny and leisurely day on Sunday.  Cally rode her bike up and down the garden paths. We played swing tennis on the lawn. We visited the allotment. We had a snacky lunch outside on the patio.  The Builder and Marlo watched the Grand Prix on the telly.  Tabitha, Gareth, Cally and I went up to the Village Hall where they were having a V in E anniversary street party.  It was free for Grown Ups and £1 for children.  And Cally had a great time. She played Pass the Parcel and had a balloon dog made and played with juggling things. All the children were given a commemorative mug and a flag. There had been sandwiches and cups of tea earlier, which we didn't have because we had had a snacky lunch at home.  The bar was open (you had to pay for alcohol, but the sandwiches and tea were free) so Tabitha had a pint of lager and I had a glass of wine.  It was an excellent way of spending an hour or so.  There was supposed to be a fly past of a Dakota plane, which we didn't see. I assumed that we had somehow missed it - although how you miss something as big as a Dakota plane was something of a mystery.  I found out later that the plane had been delayed by a couple of hours. By the time it  eventually flew over Tupton we were back at home tucking into roast lamb and Jersey Royal new potatoes and loads of vegetables, completely oblivious to its passing!

We don't very often go to village events. I think we should go to more. The ones that we have been to have been great fun.  The village parade and carnival is on  July 18th.  I think we should all go!

I have a photographic record of yesterday but somehow I seem to have left my camera at home.  I'll put the photos onto my Google photo album this evening and post a link on here and on Facebook.

Freyja, Simon and some friends did the Sheffield Round Walk on Saturday. They seem to have enjoyed it.  I enjoyed not walking 20+ km on Saturday :-D

May Day Long Weekend

Last weekend was a long weekend hereabouts and, as you might expect, Saturday dawned cold, grey, damp and gloomy.  I think it might almost be a law of nature that the weather is dreadful over the long weekends!

Tabitha, Gareth, Cally and various friends headed to Northumbria for a weekend of camping - and sheltering in various castles and other indoor places.

Freyja went to London.

The Builder and I pottered about at home on Saturday morning and then took ourselves to Bishops' House for the afternoon.  We had thought about going to the Peddler night market, but with Tabitha, Gareth, Cally and Freyja all away and the late afternoon being wet and cold and miserable, we decided not to bother.  Street food isn't all that enticing in the rain. Unless it is tropical rain!  So we went and picked up the supermarket shopping and went home and ate crumbed chicken and chips with a Japanese curry sauce instead.

We woke to rain and wind and decided gloom on Sunday. We spoke to Stella and Tony in the morning, then did some gentle tidying.  The Builder recommenced the painting of the house project - the kitchen isn't finished yet. I baked a gooseberry and plum cake.  I pondered whether I could put some of the yoghurt we had bought on Saturday into my ice cream maker - and then thought that of course I could do that.  How it would turn out was the question rather than if I could churn it into soft serve ice cream.  So I put a tub of lemon curd and a tub of vanilla yoghurt into my ice cream maker and let it churn - and it was delicious with the gooseberry and plum cake!!  We had slow roasted lamb shoulder with all the usual side dishes first, though.

Monday, much to our surprise, turned out to be absolutely glorious.  So we turned our attention to the fish pond.  One of my "on-this-day" apps had alerted me to the fact that it was 4 years this weekend since we had last cleaned out the fish pond.  Clearly it was time to do it again.  So we did, closely supervised by Junior and Effie, the little children next door, who watched us through their fence.

Emptying the fish pond of water weed and water

Here it is, almost empty. There was an astonishing amount of mud in the bottom

We've re-stepped the blocks so ducks and cats can get out on the "deep" side

Waiting impatiently to get out of the little pool at the back

The dam has overflowed. Out they come

It took most of the morning to empty, clean out and then re-fill both the little pond at the back and then the main pond. The fish weren't very happy about being held in the little pond. Some of the more adventurous ones were clearly working out how to escape!  We counted 33 fish, including 8 tiny, black, baby ones.  Not as many as when we did it 4 years ago, but quite enough, I think. Then The Builder went off for a few supplies and I made a chicken, leek and asparagus pie for lunch, using asparagus from our garden.  So far the asparagus crop is doing very nicely.

It was such a beautiful (and unexpectedly sunny) afternoon that The Builder put the umbrellas up over the picnic tables and we decamped outside for an hour or so.

It didn't half rain overnight though.  I didn't sleep very well last night, and I'm sure that a lot of that was down to the noise the rain was making.