Saturday 2nd July 2022 - New month - new start

 I've decided to leave June behind me and start afresh.

Today I started sewing my picture for the June episode of 'the postcard project'. I have already received Ang's embroidery, here below; 

So neat! She's used the vanishing cross-stitch magic paper to sew perfect vegetables! 

Ang has been following the month-by-month plan for growing vegetables in a raised bed, set out by Huw Richards in the book 'Veg in One Bed'. I thought I meant to follow the plan too, but things very soon went 'off-piste' for me. As usual, I am missing several prime ingredients for success;

• I don't have a raised bed, but a random collection of large and medium patio pots
• I keep forgetting to water things
• I sow seeds and plant things out BEFORE I look at what I am supposed to be doing according to the plan
• I plant the wrong different vegetables in the wrong different places  
• I have been invaded by slugs and snail. (I'm hoping the evil vine weevils have all met their doom thanks to an application of nematodes.) 
• Lots of other reasons

I have had some success; broad beans, lettuces and potatoes. It wasn't blight that was afflicting my potatoes, but slugs and snails. Battle has commenced; my remaining sunflowers are all protected by copper tape or 'slug-wool', and I have pulled up the first of my garlic plants, a little early, to boil up into GARLIC WATER - apparently a sure-fire creepy-crawly deterrent.

You boil up a whole bulb of garlic - I've cut mine up a bit to increase the surface area of garlic - in a litre of water until very soft and squishy.

Then you strain the water, and squish as much garlic through as you can, pour the resultant liquid into a sprayer and set to work, spraying leaves. stalks, everything. The garlic-water was still too warm to use yesterday evening, so I went out slugging with a torch, but couldn't find any! Have I caught them all over the last two nights? Unlikely. Maybe it was too cold for them - certainly was for me.

I shall spray everything today, and see how the garlic scented sunflowers, and ready seasoned lettuces will fair in the coming week.

Recipes; my turn to cook lunch yesterday and today. Yesterday was a version of 'sausage supper' which came out very well - even if I say so myself. But it is a sure-fire success. (My word, I first posted that recipe in February 2012!)

Today I used most of a Wagama kit to make chicken katsu. But (there's always a but when I 'follow' a recipe) I used udon noodles instead of rice, and cooked the chicken in the air-fryer.

Now, if you have an air-fryer, breaded chicken becomes simplicity itself! I've always had a bit of a disaster with home-made breaded goujons of this that and the other, but listen, or rather, read, 

you have one plate with a beaten egg, one plate of breadcrumbs (a couple of tablespoons per person), and a clean plate to put the finished chicken on. Then - magically - you stir a bit of vegetable oil and seasoning into the crumbs, so that they are still crumbs, but slightly coated.

Do the chicken-into-the-egg-into-the-oily-crumbs bit, and dump each one onto the plate as go.

Arrange in one layer in the basket of the air-fryer, zap at around 190 for around 12-14 mins. That was easy!

Also crispy kale - dribble a bit of oil and salt on your kale, stir it in with your fingers so everything (including your fingers!) is coated, and zap at 180 for 4-5 mins. That worked too!

The kit was a bit of a swiz - aren't they always? - but was helpful to give me an idea of taste and consistency. You supply your own veg, chicken, coconut milk.... the kit had a sachet of katsu paste, a sachet of salad dressing and a sachet of breadcrumbs. (Per favore, No comments required about plastic waste, grazie. I've recycled most of it.) 

Dulingo Italian continues well. Mangio pollo su un piatto.So far, so good ...

Ciao

  

Thursday 20th February - Here I am again!

After that last post, I took some time off - on Thursday 13th February I was just about to set off for the usual teaching at a local village school, when suddenly my legs turned to jelly and I "came over all peculiar".

It didn't take me long to decide that marching around with the samba band, followed by a couple of class music lessons, recorder lessons and ukulele club would be a Very Bad Idea.

So, I rang in sick, and went to the Doctor. She kindly explained to me that "resting" meant doing "nothing that requires concentration". She then went through my plans for the rest of the week and half term, vetoed most of them and sent me away to Rest. Ah. So I have taken her advice and have  been resting. Sort of.

I did go up to London on Monday for a routine check-up (with the Doctor's permission). In spite of the remains of the chest infection, my test results all look reasonably good. That's me pronounced ok (once my chest is clear) for the next six months by that clinic. I'm still feeling a bit bruised from a ruthless echo-cardiogram. "Sorry, I get a better picture when I press harder, and sometimes I forget that it is a real person there". Yes. I can vouch for that! She also had a habit of telling me to "breathe in and hold your breath", but not say when I could take another breath.
Or else "breathe out and "hold........................................................" which isn't any better. I survived.

On Tuesday and Wednesday various friends that I have not had a chance to meet up with for months and months came round, for coffee or, lunch.

Today I drove through appalling rain to meet friends for lunch and discuss a Lent project that we will be running together. Over lunch the weather cleared and the sun was blinding me by the time we had reached the coffee stage.

I drove back into Spring - catkins, the size of fluffy golden lamb's, tails brighten the hedgerows and big fat fluffy pussy-willows are out.

Once home, I discovered that the anenomes by the front door have come to the conclusion that it is safe to come out. More daffodils are appearing every day.

Let it rain! I have seen the future, and it is all blue skies and purple and yellow flowers.

Sunday 4th November - Sunday Lunch

A crisis can be a catalyst for good. The crisis situation is still very much there, but along the way, good things happen.

Today I managed a feat which had seemed impossible. I went from this

 to this

in a single morning. There was an urgent need for a proper, sit-down family Sunday lunch, and so I knuckled down and just cleared the decks. There has been a bit of a cheat: the piles of paperwork, unfiled resources, post-it notes etc etc have just been stacked on the bench between the table and the wall, but never mind. The four of us, my father, my husband, my daughter and I, were all able to "sit-at-table" and eat our lunch in a civilised manner.

We had to evict the cat first... she had been curled up on the chair at the end, steadfastly ignoring all the kerfuffle.

 

Normally we eat on our laps in the sitting end of the room, watching television. Shock horror, what a terrible example. Well, maybe, maybe not. We are all grownups now, so we can choose how we live our lives. And at least we are all eating the same food, and the same time, in the same room. That's pretty sociable, in my book.

 

Eating in the hospital is a different affair. Five of the six beds are occupied, by patients with very different needs and abilities. Only two ladies are given plates of food, by catering staff who greet them by name. One tucks in with gusto, the other struggles to manage the spoon and is very slow. I suspect the nursing staff will help her later, but want her to try and become more adept first. One lady is always asleep, one is on fluids only, and my mother is NBM. The contrast, between the isolated mealtimes of the five patients on the ward, and our own, sociable, convivial Sunday lunch is extreme.