May 31st - Warning - unsuitable for children. Not to be read at bedtime.

I LOVE twitter - it is full of links to all sorts of serendipitous sites. How else would I have uncovered this one? (from a tweet by the QI Elves @quikipedia)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2012/may/30/terrifying-french-childrens-books-in-pictures#/?picture=390846367&index=0

picture  from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struwwelpeter

I am constantly amazed at the kind of things adults thought were suitable for children. It took me many, many years to get over reading Struwwelpeter. My grandmother had a copy - from her childhood? It probably wasn't that old. Perhaps it was her children's copy. "Merry", the stories were not.

The one that frightened me most was "The Story of the Thumb-Sucker", in which a mother warns her son not to suck his thumbs. However, when she goes out of the house he resumes his thumb sucking, until a roving tailor appears and cuts off his thumbs with giant scissors. The story (in German) is here http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Der_Struwwelpeter/Die_Geschichte_vom_Daumenlutscher along with the picture that kept me awake.







I guess it is in the tradition of Hillaire Belloc's "Cautionary Tales for Children", another of my grandmother's books;







http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cautionary_Tales_for_Children




"Not now, Bernard" is more of a cautionary tale for parents. As I recall, the monster eats Bernard on about page one, and his parents never notice.

May 31st - Brilliant - don't waste time reading, just click the link

http://www.drawastickman.com/share

Thursday 31st May - catching up but typing quietly

The problem with working in schools is that as the term progresses, one gets more and more knackered. By the time the half term break arrives, most teachers will be asleep on the sofa by half past eight. Which leaves precious little time for keeping up with the blogging.

I am having to type quietly in order to avoid waking myself up - after all it is nearly 8pm and my time for being awake and functional will be over for the day.

Actually, that's a lie; I am typing quietly because "The Great British Menu" is on TV and if I make too much noise on our ancient keyboard, it will affect everyone else's viewing pleasure.

Anyway, this post properly belongs to Tuesday, when I wanted to share the beautiful, unexpected, and uplifting sight of large drifts of lupins growing wild along the A272 just to the East of Rogate. If you are anywhere in the area, it is worth a detour - a smallish detour, to enjoy the sight.

There is even a handy layby (probably the old road) where you can stop and take in the view across the fields to the South Downs.

Enjoy.

Sunday 27th May - Not again

This is getting ridiculous.

How did the dining-room table get into this state again?

I tidied only last month and now look at it.

May 27th - Sunday - grrr

If goose-grass - cleavers - Robin-run-the-hedge - were a crop that I could harvest and consume, I would be giving thanks for its abundance.

If dandelion seeds could be eaten, drunk, smoked, sold, I would be rich.

But they are not.

So I am neither giving thanks for them, nor am I rich. I'm just having a moan before I take the battle to the flowerbeds AGAIN.

I do this every year. You would have thought they'd get the message that they are not welcome by now.

Sunday 27th May - Alternative to quiche for Post-Modern Christians

If there are a lot of typos in this post, blame the bordeau (Chateau Bel Air). I have managed to catch four so far, and am still in the first couple of sentences.

Years ago, at university, I bought a cagoule, learnt to like quiche, and to enjoy orange squash. This was because I had had a "conversion experience" and become a "real" Christian. It was York University, and David Watson  was mesmerising everyone from St Mike's (St Michael-le-Belfry in the shadow of the Minister). I am everlastingly grateful to his ministry, as, with various ups and downs and periods of "lying fallow", I have stayed a Christian ever since.

However, over the years, I have learnt that it is "okay" to ditch the cagoule, resume drinking wine, and become - let's say - ambivalent - over the merits of quiche.

Today I made frittata for lunch. It is like quiche without the pastry.

We moved the garden bench and collapsing foldable table to the shady end of the garden, under the old apple tree, and ate frittata, consumed olives, and shared (garlic) bread and wine together.

I wonder if frittata was around in Biblical, that is, New Testament, times?

I started with this recipe from the Daily Mail (thanks be to Google)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1196599/Recipe-Oven-baked-frittata.html

HOWEVER; the instructions are for 6, and there were only three of us. And I only had single cream. And she doesn't care for tomatoes. And I didn't have any Gruyere cheese. So I more or less halved everything, substituted some cheddar for the Gruyere, red pepper for tomatoes, and added chives and a slice of ham. I only had double cream, so used less cream and more milk.

Here is my version for three people;

Set the oven to 200 (fan) before you start

Fry one diced courgette and half a diced red pepper in a little olive oil for 5 mins, then set aside to cool.
In a bowl, mix the equivalent of 75ml single cream and 75 ml milk, 1 tbs cornflour, three eggs, some salt and pepper. Whisk until smooth, stir in some grated cheese (a couple of handfuls of strong cheddar that had been lurking in the bottom of the fridge in this case), a slice of ham chopped up, a couple of spoonfuls of chopped fresh chives, and a sprig of parsley that had fallen off the pot plant on the windowsill.
Line a 1lb loaf tin with  baking paper, pour the mix in, and add the fried courgette and pepper.
Bake in the oven for 25 - 30 mins until it looks like the picture of the real thing.

For what we received, we were truly grateful. It was very, very good.

Sitting in the garden, listening to the birds, watching the bees, enjoying the sun and the shade and the breeze.... Paradise regained.