Wednesday November 3rd - Half a glass of wine

Yesterday we indulged in a glass of wine each with our lunch and very good it was too. So Himself thought he would have another half glass to go with the cheese we were having afterwards...

However McCavity the cat chose the wrong moment for a stealthy approach to try and claim his lap... the cats know they are not welcome on laps when we are eating, but maybe the smell of the cheese was too much of a temptation, or maybe she was being stubborn in a geriatric sort of way. Well, the stealth aspect was completely negated by not seeing the half full glass of wine on the side table between her launch point and the lap.

Crash! and shattering glass noises, and startled exclamations, and sad little wail of dismay from the cat...

She picked her way through the wine and glass without mishap and sat on a stool surveying the mess from a place of safety. 

Never mind, we've still a few of those supermarket glasses to smash through before starting on the survivors of the wedding present crystal, all oddments of now discontinued patterns.

Day 3 of Johanna Basford's creativity course was 'completing a symmetrical design' from page something or other in her book.

This is 'snipped' from near the end of her short video; the outlines are all drawn in, and one quadran completed, and the idea is you copy the design into the other three quadrants, first in pencil, and then going over in pen, before colouring it.

I had to start from scratch, not having The Book. This gave me an opportunity to use this drawing thingy to make the concentric circles, and then I sort of made the whole thing up from what I remembered of her ideas. Mine's a lot smaller;

I'm pleased with how it came out; I suppose it took about ten minutes or so, There are impefections of course, but I claim they add character.

It's gone 9pm and I haven't closed the cold frame. The temperature dropped last night and there was a proper frost. Luckily the frame was closed overnight, and when I went to look in on my salvia cuttings there were all a bit sad, not because of the frost, but because a snail has got in there and eaten chunks of the leaves. I have taken measures to defend them from future attacks. 

Thursday 14th January - Wha?

 Wha? Where have the days gone? It was Monday, and now it is Thursday...

I know why I didn't post yesterday. It was because the milk was off... that is the beginning of the story. One mouthful of breakfast cereal and that was that.

Soooo, Himself had the slice of toast that could be slivered off  the heel of the loaf, to fortify himself for dealing with a Waitrose delivery at 7am. And I made some drop scones with the gone-off milk;

2 tablespoons SR flour, and a matchbox sides lump of butter (ordinary matches, not long ones) and the tip of the tablespoon dipped in the sugar, rub together and mix with enough gone-off milk to make a batter the thickness of double cream.

Drop tablespoonfuls onto a hot non-stick frying pan, wait for the top surface to bubble and lose its shine and look settish. Turn over, hopefully the other side is golden brown. Cook for a few minutes, long enough for this side to become golden brown too. I can fit three in the frying pan in one go, four and they start amalgamating into drop scone instead of drop scones.

There was enough for the both of us for a decent start to the day.

Well, the Waitrose order included items for friends who hadn't been able to get to the supermarket, and they brought us some milk. Which meant that we had to evict the bottle of wine and bottle of sherry from the holder in the door. 

So, later that evening Himself finished off the wine - a very full glass, and I finished the sherry- another very full (but slightly smaller than his) glass.

It was a good thing that I had finished typing up and sending the lesson notes for the first two pupils of the evening. I types and sent the third set of notes this morning. Much safer.

And also didn't blog.

If I had, I would have done the Alphabet letters - 

Tuesday J; Jam; Jam on toast, or stuck in a jam?

Wednesday; 'K; I'm 'K; R U 'K?

Thursday; L. No, not that kind of L, no dropped Aitches! Let's be Elegant, Elevated, and Eliminate unpleasantness

Today was weeeeet and dissssssmal alllll day. I looked at the weather and decided to stay in.

Then I stirred myself into action and forced myself out into the drizzle... 780m in total, no oxygen, several pauses to catch my breath. I did a 6 minute walk test; not very accurate in that the route was distinctly uphill, so I was pleased to have done 280m in those circumstances. I don't like taking our oxygen machine out when it is raining because there is not proper way of protecting the control panel.

Anyway, going out was a good decision. I chatted with a neighbour who is a Pilates instructor. He says I should learn 'thoracic breathing'. He says everyone should learn thoracic breathing, and he used to teach it at a @Pilates for seniors' course he used to run. He says that there's too much diaphragm breathing going on and not enough thoracic breathing. I shall investigate.

Right. I have reached the end of tonight's glass of intoxicating liquor. Time to stop typing while I can still type. Today's piano pupil's notes will have to wait until tomorrow!   

   

Thursday 1st June - Saturday in Kircudbright

I've just come back - on Tuesday evening - from a long weekend reunion with some friends. We used to live within an hour or so of each other, but then one moved to Cornwall, one to Suffolk, and one to Scotland. Get-togethers where we ALL came together in one place became harder to manage, as you can imagine.

Sadly, one of the group died almost exactly a year ago, and our reunion was partly to share memories, as well as catch up on what we had been doing.

We have had a GREAT time - at least I hope I can say that for all of us! I had been watching the weather forecast - blistering hot on the Friday that we were travelling up, and then cold, wet and rainy for the next few days until the Tuesday of our return journey. The reality was not a bit like that...

Saturday started with a walk along the shore of the River Dee, in warm balmy sunshine. A stop for sandwiches part way round was interrupted by the incoming tide which threatened to surround the rocks we were sitting on, and cut off our retreat to the slipway we came down. No matter, we relocated in good time, and the only one who got wet was the dog.

 
  We carried on munching as the sun shone on the fields across the water. It was a most perfect place.

Kircudbright is an artist's town, rather like Newlyn in Cornwall. This weekend past was their "Spring Fling", so we spent the rest of the day dodging hot sweaty marathon runners and prowling round the artist's studios.

This is probably my most favourite image, by Claire Cameron-Smith, from my most favourite studio of the day:

http://www.cameronsmithdesigns.co.uk/home

I hope they don't mind me copying it from their website. I would have bought the print, but made do with buying a card, which I shall be using for a "bread-and-butter" letter - "thank you" letter to our host. These are the traditional "Belties"; Belted Galloway Cattle found in the area. A piece of furniture made by Ian Cameron-Smith would have been a lovely souvenir too; have a look at their website; but too expensive, (and too impractical to bring home on the train).

So, that, apart from food and wine in the evening, was Saturday. I recommend the Fechan Red, well chilled.

Saturday January 2nd - The Tipping Point; Good Mood/Bad Mood

Neither.

I am in a Terrible Mood at the moment. I don't usually inflict myself on the populace at large when I am like this, but every so often, I have to give in to a Rant of Awesome Proportion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_volcanic_eruptions

Oh, it's all so tedious. I'm not going to go into details about all the stuff that has lifted the lid.

It's just that over the past few weeks I have spent SO MUCH TIME trying to accommodate everyone's needs (including my own) that I am now....

oh, it's all too tiring.

I have some cheese, some Chateauneuf du Pape,

A Châteauneuf-du-Pape with the embossed bottle of the papal regalia and insignia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teauneuf-du-Pape_AOC

some more cheese, some more Chateauneuf du Pape.

A view of the village of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, from the southeast
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teauneuf-du-Pape

Now that looks a nice place to visit sometime. Sunny, too

I will watch the Hogfather DVD until my eyes close, and then I will go to bed. I've just read the plot so I can fill in the bits I miss. And I can always learn some quotes just in case.

According to my father, good wine doesn't give you hangovers. (Bilious, the "Oh God" of Hangovers will make his appearance in the Hogfather film later on).

I hope he's right, as I am down to play "I am a New Creation" tomorrow at church, which is a bit of a beast to play at anytime, and not a suitable thing to try and bring off if one is not in the pink of health. Plus I will be running the activity (that I'm not going to bother to explain) that was the final straw in tipping me over the edge this evening.

Well, the wine and the rant has done its work, and I can feel a merrier mood coming on.

I visited my mother this morning, and there's not much to say. We showed her Christmassy and other pictures of friends and family on her tv, and handed over the Daily Mail and a newsy email which were both much appreciated. She doesn't like the food at the moment; I offered to bring in something, but she said "no, best not mix the two systems, and that way I will know who is responsible for poisoning me". With a smile.

Hope I've cheered you up? I'm MUCH better now, thank you.