2010年08月の記事一覧 | Jeremy and Junko in Stratford - 楽天ブログ

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2010年08月の記事

全31件 (31件中 1-31件目)

1

More garden tidying

Junko has washed some of the pots and I have emptied one of the wheelie bins of its water, so that will soon be dry and instead of being a water storage facility it is now a dry goods storage area. Useful these bins are, very useful. We’ve got five large ones and one small one. The greenhouse is looking very spruce now.I read the other day that the man who was given the task of making Japan Airlines modern and efficient is seventy seven years old! Wouldn’t you have thought this kind of reconstruction would the kind of thing that a forty year old person would be put in charge of? Amazing.I looked at the weather forecast this morning, and with all this talk about Christmas, I fully expected it to say that we would be having snow this weekend. We had a couple of glasses of summer cider with our dinner yesterday evening. Very nice. Not too sweet. This cider is 5% alcohol. Problem is, the bottles are too small!Quiz 255If you find that your hotel room, office or bedroom is extremely small, you can describe it by saying:a) it’s a tipb) it’s so small I could spitc) I’ll be damned if I do and damned if I don’td) there isn’t enough room to swing a catYesterday’s was d)

2010年08月31日

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Mint

I’m not sure of the reason, but this morning my coffee tasted of mint. First of all I thought that we had opened a new packed of a differently flavoured coffee, but no. Then I thought Junko had put sugar into the cup. Once again Junko said that she hadn’t. And finally I thought that there might be something on the rim of the cup where I was drinking from. But again no. I gave Junko my coffee to taste and she said she couldn’t taste a hint of mint. What’s going on? I could definitely taste something minty. Perhaps my taste buds have gone haywire! That would be odd, nice if I was always tasting mint, but not so good if it was always cabbage!My sister and I have really got into the Christmas spirit, we talked yesterday evening about what we are going to do for our family Christmas dinner.Seiko has fallen over and hurt her back.We had dinner out on the patio this evening. It’s the first time we’ve been able to do so for some time, because of all the rain we have been having, and I guess that it could be the last. Just for the record we had avegetarian sausage each, along with potatoes, courgettes, spring onions, a carrot from the garden (as the courgettes were) and a fried egg. An odd mixture, but it was kind of eating things up!I still haven’t had an answer about whether I should bring our strawberry plants into the greenhouse to over winter there. What should I do?Quiz 254You ‘hit the sack’ because you …………a) are training to be a boxerb) have been made redundantc) are angryd) are tiredYesterday’s was c)

2010年08月30日

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Christmas crackers

My goodness me, it’s still August and already some of the major stores in town have decked themselves up ready for the Christmas rush! Incredible. Christmas is still nearly four months away. By the time it comes these same stores will be gearing up for next summer, with beach balls, deck chairs and bikinis set out amongst coral reefs and palm trees. It’s all utterly insane isn’t it, or perhaps it’s me that is insane?We started to clear up the greenhouse today. The cucumbers have gone. Well, I’ve pulled them down and they are now in a plastic bag at the bottom of the garden waiting to go to the dump. Sadly they were not a great success at all this year. A few fruit, but they were pretty nasty tasting things. In truth, a waste of time. Two tomato plants have already gone, they had blossom end rot, so I cut them down a few weeks ago. That just leaves three, one of which is rather poor. The other two are OK, just. I took the shade sail down and stored it for next year. The next thing we have to do is to clean all the pots, buckets and trays and then stack them away in a dry place. Ah, it’s all go! These Brussels sprouts should be ready by Christmas, and maybe we can have them for our Christmas dinner. We’ll all be singing carols soon! Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells. Where’s all the snow?Quiz 253“Spare the rod, spoil the ……….”a) soupb) paintingc) childd) effectYesterday’s was b)

2010年08月29日

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Seiko is not happy

Seiko isn’t happy. And the reason is that Monty, the dog, is very smelly. I can imagine it’s pretty disgusting. So she has gone to bed and closed the door. She has been there for two days, so far. Oh my God!I spent the morning making a curry sauce. Cutting up four kilos of strong onions is quite a mouthwatering experience. And peeling two hundred grams of garlic is a very fiddly and time consuming thing. But at least doing the ginger wasn’t too bad, it was the most tender ginger I think I have ever had the pleasure of preparing. No fibres in it at all.Then it was an hour to cook the onions, garlic and ginger. Half an hour for it to cool down, fifteen minutes to liquidize the mix and four cans of chopped tomatoes and then another forty five minutes to actually cook everything along with the spices etc. Of course there is about half an hour to clear up the mess afterwards, too. But it’s worth it in the end.And here is what I produced, ready for the freezer.Quiz 252How many years of bad luck do you get if you break a mirror?a) 5b) 7c) 11d) 13Yesterday’s was b)

2010年08月28日

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Tea for breakfast

Well, you know that we usually have a very large cup of coffee for our breakfast. This was also the plan this morning. The table was set with its mats, plates, knives, coasters for the coffee cups and a basket for toast. The guacamole was made, the bread was toasted, the full cream milk for the coffee had been heated and the percolator had stopped bubbling. All was set. Alas, when the coffee was poured from the percolator, it was just hot water. Junko had forgotten to put the coffee grounds in! So we put that hot water into a teapot and made tea. It makes a change anyway, and it reminded me of the time when we went on a picnic to North Stradbroke island. We took the car on the ferry and had a really nice journey over there. We had packed teabags, coffee sachets and flasks of hot water for our lunchtime drinks, but this time we had just forgotten completely to fill the flasks.We are saving avocado pips for Seiko as she has decided that she is going to start an avocado plantation on her allotment. Do avocados grow in this country? I should think it’s too cold in the winter, isn’t it?This is the biggest of our pumpkins. It’s all tangled up in the cherry tree.Quiz 251If it’s ‘raining cats and dogs’ there could be ………….a) a fightb) a floodc) a droughtd) problems next yearYesterday’s was b)

2010年08月27日

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Old fashioned beer

How much nicer is beer from a bottle! And how much nicer are these old fashioned beers with a bit of flavour, rather than the alcoholic water they call lager.Who could resist a drink of this? And this is an old fashioned opener to open it with.This morning we bought four kilos of onions, two hundred grams of garlic, two hundred grams of ginger and four cans of chopped tomatoes. The main ingredients for part one of a curry sauce.We have just had a few short, sharp showers today, nothing much, which makes a change.Quiz 250If somebody comes from a rich and privileged family they are said to “have been born with ………. “a) a gold medal around their neckb) a silver spoon in their mouthc) diamond rings on their fingersd) money to burnYesterday’s was d)

2010年08月26日

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Ice

I defrosted and cleaned out mother’s fridge today. It took me ages because there was a huge volume of ice around the freezer compartment. A good job done, but tough on the knees as I had to kneel down with a hairdryer for a goodly length of time. But, as I said, a good job done. Mother was very pleased, too.Toshie hasn’t mentioned her finger today, so I assume it has completely recovered.We went to the bootsale today, late, but it was the first we had been to for quite some time. Junko bought a plant, that’s all.I found this pair of earphones in our front garden the other day. They are marked ‘City sightseeing’, which is clearly the company they belong to. City Sightseeing owns a lot of topless red sightseeing buses, one of which passes our house every fifteen minutes during the summer, carrying a small quota of passengers. One of them must have flung them off the upper deck in disgust at the commentary! Or perhaps they just got tangled up in the tree that is right in front of the garden. If this latter scenario is the case, it’s lucky we didn’t find the ears that they were once attached to! Quiz 249Which is the odd word out?a) edamb) parmesanc) cheddard) rubergeldYesterday’s was b)

2010年08月25日

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Little pip

Some avocados have huge pips, they are almost as big as the fruit itself, and when you cut the fruit to make it into guacamole you feel really cheated. However, others have smaller pips, and this morning I cut open the avo with the smallest pip I have ever seen. Absolutely tiny. So the day started well, I feel that I am in positive mode already! It’s not much bigger than a pea, is it?One of the tomatoes on the plant I showed a picture of the other day is beginning to ripen. This morning I saw a distinct tinge of orange on one of the fruit. Let’s hope, after all this time, that they taste good.Toshie’s finger is a bit better. Bill has been in Wales for nearly two weeks. Wales is usually rainy, but these past two weeks have been VERY wet. And windy. And they are camping with three grandchildren. That’s great! Mud sandwiches are the order of the day, I am sure.Steve and Eric had a bit of an argument yesterday. That’s a pity as they both such nice men. It’s been brewing for a while, though.I am thinking of putting the trough of strawberries in the greenhouse for the winter. Do you think it’s a good idea?Quiz 248If something is ‘a walk in the park’, ………….a) it’s relaxingb) it’s easyc) it’s probably happening at the weekendd) don’t forget to take you iPodYesterday’s was b)

2010年08月24日

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Am I mean?

It’s a bright day and the sun’s rays are flooding into the room. Why would anyone want the lights on? Again, no one is in the room, but the TV is on, for a few minutes I can understand it, but when a person goes out for the whole day? I can’t understand why turning off unneeded electrical or other appliances is regarded as the height of stinginess. As winter is approaching, Junko and I have started to tidy up the back of the garden, where we keep all the bits and pieces that we don’t quite know what to do with. We spent the whole of yesterday afternoon gainfully occupied in this way and have really made a difference. Junko is going to wash all the pots, seed trays, buckets and the like tomorrow, and then they well be stored away for the duration. We also screwed some long wooden planks to the fence, to keep them dry and safe over the winter (I shall use them as cladding for the vegetable garden next spring, there is no sense in doing the job now as the winter will only start the rotting process), and covered them and the ladder with some kind of waterproof felt. A good job, even if it will be a bit of struggle to remove the ladder. At least when I do get the ladder out it won’t be wet and covered with leaves.Oh my god, hasn’t it rained!! Junko went out to get some sausages (always a risky move) and was nearly washed away!! For weeks we never had a drop, now we hardly have a dry day, and yesterday was just horrendous. It tipped it down all afternoon.Toshie’s finger has a large bandage on it now. Very large. Surely it’s not that bad? I was once bitten in the mouth by a wasp. Now that WAS nasty. If you ask nicely I will tell you how it happened.Quiz 247‘My sister and I get on like a house on fire, …………..’a) we are always arguingb) we enjoy each other’s companyc) we are a pair of arsonistsd) I ring her up about once a yearYesterday’s was b)

2010年08月23日

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Olaf and the underpants

It’s a bizarre story really. Olaf had a pair of large dark green underpants. And then he didn’t have them any more. They had just disappeared. He said that he had searched everywhere in his room for them, and in the washing area too, but to no avail. As the days went by and there was still no sign of them he became ever more irritated. Firstly I had taken them. “Are you sure you haven’t got my underpants?” said Olaf.“I’m sure,” I replied.“Have you checked?”“Yes,” I said, firmly.“Well,” said Olaf, “I’d just like to make sure, can I check them?”Honestly, why should I allow a perfect stranger to check the contents of my underpant drawer? I said as much.A now irate Olaf said he thought I must be hiding something otherwise I would have allowed access to the said underpant drawer. “You are not rummaging through my underpant drawer, and that is that,” I insisted. “I’m going out, now,” I concluded. I took my keys and headed for the front door. When I was just opening the door Olaf accosted me once more and said, “Sure! You have got something to hide, that’s why you are running away.” “I’ve had enough of this,” I thought. “Bugger off,” I said and slammed the door in his face. Then Junko was accused of throwing them away in the rubbish. Finally, Merlyn, who lives ten miles away in Bidford was said to have walked off with them. Astonishing. Merlyn hasn’t been in this house for almost ten years, and what would he want with them anyway?! Why should a pair of lost underpants cause such an emotional response? I suspect the truth is that Olaf has left them somewhere where he shouldn’t have been, and now feels dreadfully guilty! Toshie was stung on the finger by a wasp this morning. It was her own fault really, she had dipped her finger into a jar of jam, to taste it. I mean, no self respecting wasp could resist an invitation like that, could it?Today’s weather has been good. Apart from a short, sharp shower at lunchtime, which soaked Junko on her way back from the shops, it’s been warm and sunny. Very windy, though.Quiz 246If something is ‘a piece of cake’, it’sa) very sweetb) easyc) not worth bothering aboutd) something to look forward toYesterday’s was d)

2010年08月22日

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Boiler trouble

As I said the other day, the boiler, which heats our hot water, just stopped working. The boiler man came yesterday and sorted it out. We have this boiler insured so any call out or spare part is free. Just as well. The insurance is expensive, but worth it. My stress levels rise dramatically even just thinking about the darn thing, even though I know it can be easily sorted out. I’d definitely blow some kind of blood pressure fuse if I had to think how to get it sorted out if it weren’t insured. Nightmare. Anyway, I don’t have that scenario, I just call a number and they come out and fix it within the next twenty four hours. What a relief it is when the chap comes and then leaves with it all fixed (at least they have never failed to sort it out yet!). How do people who aren’t insured against boiler misery manage?Ah, ratatouille, does it every time for me. Even just the tomatoes and courgette has the same effect!There are no blackbirds in the garden at all.Since it started raining just over a week ago we have had seventy five millimeters of rain. That’s a lot. What a pity we didn’t have it earlier in the year, though.Quiz 245Which is the odd word out?a) nilb) noughtc) zerod) swmboe) lovef) nothingg) noneh) zilchYesterday’s was b)

2010年08月21日

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Boots shock

Junko has got a nice pair of Bally boots. For years they have been black. But today I saw her putting them on before she went out shopping, and I noticed that they were brown! That’s amazing. What funny eyes I have got! Walking back from mother’s house yesterday evening I got absolutely soaked in a torrential downpour. It was a lovely day when I set off, but as I crossed the old tramway bridge the heavens opened. There was absolutely nowhere to shelter except under a large tree in Bancroft Gardens. I hurried there, as did about a hundred other people who had been enjoying a lazy Saturday afternoon in the park down by the river. I was luckier than most because I was wearing my big hat, but that didn’t stop my trousers and shoes from getting horribly wet. Good for the runner beans, though.A deer has got into my sister’s garden and eaten all the tops off the beetroot.The strawberry plants that Seiko gave to Junko and doing well.Our greenhouse tomatoes haven’t done very well this year, but the ones that in the garden are huge. The problem with them is, though, that they are still green, as you can see.Quiz 244“A bad workman …………… his tools.”a) never cleansb) always blamesc) usually forgetsd) often breaksYesterday’s was c)

2010年08月20日

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Pink milk

I went to get some milk from the pound shop today, in the full knowledge that they don’t have the purple stuff and so I wouldn’t buy it by mistake. But I found that they had bottles with PINK caps. So now there are ones with green caps, as well as ones with blue, red and purple as well as these new pink ones. Amazing. I wonder what colour will be next? I expect we will all soon be issued with an instruction booklet to enable us to understand (or not) what we are buying. Of course it’s all pretty meaningless if you are colour blind!The boiler stopped working last night. No hot water. Luckily we are in some home care agreement which means that an engineer comes out fairly quickly and sorts it out. I called immediately the problem arose, and hopefully something can be done about it tomorrow.We took mother round to see Danielle’s new house. We had a celebratory cup of tea, smoked salmon sandwich and cake while we were there. Mother was very tired when she got home.This is the nigari flavoured waste water. Quiz 243”A bird in the …….. is worth two in the bush.”a) basketb) bucketc) handd) treee) nestYesterday’s was d)

2010年08月19日

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Purple milk

Well, it was a bit of a disaster, really. We had taken mother over to my sister’s house, to be with my brother and law and their daughter for my mother’s birthday. We had a nice little lunch and then left after a cup of tea and a slice of cake. I dropped Junko off at home and then took mother to her house. On my way home I was instructed to get a packet of Cumberland sausages and two bottles of milk, full and semi skimmed. The semi has got a green top and the full has got a blue top. Easy. I picked all that I needed up from Morrisons and headed home. I duly delivered the bag of shopping to Junko who instantly said, ‘What’s this milk?’ ‘Isn’t that what you wanted?’ I replied. Junko then went into a long explanation of the difference between blue and purple. Purple milk, which has only just been introduced on the market, has less fat than blue milk, but more than green and much more than red. ( All of them have less than gold, by the way.) So I had got the wrong sort. Oh dear. It’s one of those occasions when I realise that my being colour blind matters! We shall just have to make do. Now I look at the two different caps in the clear light of day rather than under supermarket fluorescent tubes, I can see the difference in their colour, but only just.More rain. And more rain. Too late, thoughWe are getting near the end of the tofu process. Here the curds are in the mould.Quiz 242“Don’t put all your …………. in one basket.”a) shoppingb) dirty washingc) moneyd) eggse) lettucef) clothesYesterday’s was a)

2010年08月18日

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A vision of the future

We were looking for a present for my mother’s birthday, a cardboard clip-together CD box. We couldn’t find a nice one anywhere in Stratford. I looked on the internet, too, but couldn’t see what I wanted there, either. But I did see a link to a huge shop in Coventry which had some in stock. The shop was IKEA. It’s Swedish and very popular because it’s cheap. It sells mainly homewares, kitchen stuff, furniture, betting and the like. Anyway, we decided to go. The drive there was easy, but Coventry is a concrete city with a confusing ring road, but eventually we found the place. It was huge. And horrible. Goods on pallets, concrete floors, open ceilings with all the tubes, pipes and wiring on view. White walls. No displays, no assistants, just a big bag to put all your purchases in. We found the boxes we wanted (well they weren’t really what we were looking for, the photo showed them in a very good light, but as we had gone all that way I thought we might was well buy them. They were cheap. Cheaply made and cheap to buy, but actually total rubbish. But shopping in IKEA was real experience. Supermarkets are moving this same way, too. It looks as if all the feeling is going out of our lives, all that matter is how cheap something is. What a future!Junko has grown some basil, and now she is thinking of making some pesto out of if, to go with the home made pasta that we did a while ago. Should be good.What is it with the rain? For months we have had hardly a drop, but in the last few days we have had masses. It’s such a pity, it’s when we didn’t need it really, too late for the growing season. And I suspect that now the farmers will curse it because they can’t harvest their crops as they are wet.And here we are, taking the curds out of the pan.Quiz 241If something is ‘spot on’, it’s ………..a) exactly rightb) dirtyc) easily seend) in a very good positionYesterday’s was b)

2010年08月17日

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Ghostly voice

It always comes as a shock to me. I am quietly sitting in a darkened room, resting my eyes after their day’s use, when suddenly a blue light shines from the corner. An American voice gently says: “Virus database has been updated”. It gets me every time.Junko was a bit upset this morning. We took mother shopping to Morrisons. Mother has got a disabled badge for the car, as she can no longer walk that well, and this badge enables us to park, if she is in the car, in special parking places, closer to the entrance of the shop than the normal spaces are. Well, we walked slowly with mother holding onto the trolley and I walked round with her while she did her shopping. Junko went off on her own and did some shopping for us, which she took back to the car. When she put it in the car she was roundly abused by a lady who said that she shouldn’t park there as she wasn’t disabled. Oh well. It’s a pity that lady hadn’t seen us making our slow way to the shop with mother. Currently there is a bit of a hiatus in our runner bean production. However there are some little ones developing which should mature nicely soon, especially after yesterday’s rain. It’s not so much that it went into the ground, it wet the leaves and the flowers which is just what they need to develop well, I think.Tofu after the nigari has been added. The curds are gathering.Quiz 240If something is a real ‘humdinger’, then it’s ……….a) not a fakeb) excellentc) a kind of Indian hamburgerd) very noisyYesterday’s was d)

2010年08月16日

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Panic

Bill rang earlier today and announced that he would be over at our place in about half an hour, for coffee and cake. Alarm bells rang. I realized that I had to shave! Oh well at least I had time to spruce myself up.Bill brought Pam’s dog, ‘Polo’, who disgraced himself by peeing over one of Junko’s newly planted bedding plants, which she had only bought yesterday evening! No sign of the any blackbirds at all in the garden. They have all gone to the country for a holiday! (I hope)After all the soya milk has been extracted from the raw beans, this is what is left. Of course you know that it’s ‘okara’. I’m not sure what Junko is going to do with it.The weather really has changed. We had quite a chilly morning this morning, followed by a clear day. But there is a different quality to the air, and the sky is a much deeper blue. We really are heading towards autumn and a pace quicker than I would like.And, surprise, surprise, we have had rain! A lot of it. In about a ten minute spell earlier this evening we had eight millimeters, according to my rain gauge. It really came down heavily and the measure may well be wrong as it was a bit in the shade of the Brussels sprouts, so it could even have been more. Anyway, it was a real deluge. We are back to 100% capacity in our water butts for the first time since late spring, I should think. Quiz 239If something is ‘better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick’, then it’s ……...a) not very painfulb) very painfulc) terribled) not badYesterday’s was a)

2010年08月15日

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Sweaty vegetables

If you don’t want your vegetables to go all miserable and mouldy in a short time, don’t put them in a plastic bag in the fridge. If you must put them in the fridge, put them in a paper bag. In a plastic bag, even if it has got holes in it, the veggies sweat and the moisture collects on the inside of the bag. Once on the surface of the bag this water quickly spreads to the vegetables themselves, and the rest is history.Now the soya milk is cooked. No bubbles. It needs to cook for about fifteen minutes to get to this stage.I read in the paper today that sport accounts for 2.3% of all consumer spending in Britain. I had long suspected that sport was a very large part of our economy, now it is confirmed. It’s quite amazing really, but when you think that a million people each week go to watch a major football match it’s not all that surprising. 1.8% of UK employment is also sport-related.Quiz 238“Penny wise, pound ……… “a) foolishb) expensivec) meand) cleverYesterday’s was d)

2010年08月14日

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Misty morning feeling

Ah, it seems that summer is over. The mornings are becoming misty and there is a slightly damp and autumnal feel to the air before the sun gets up in the sky. It’s been an odd summer, hot early on, cooler recently and of course here in Stratford, despite yesterday’s efforts, almost no rain at all. This is the next tofu photo. Here the milk is cooking. The bubbles have subsided considerably. You have to boil it for about twelve minutes, until the bubbles go completely, stirring constantly.The use of ‘it’ is quite often confusing, even to English people. Many use ‘it’s’ when they should use ‘its’. Today I saw on a food product (Morrisons own brand of some kind of spread, allioli I think) a very unusual version of this mistake: “its’” (the apostrophe after the s). A first, I think.Again it rained a lot at my sister’s house today, they even had thunder and lightning, but we got just a miserable little dribble. Oh well, can’t be helped.Quiz 237“Walls have …….”a) doorsb) windowsc) problemsd) earsYesterday’s was c)

2010年08月13日

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Avocado pips

As you may know we often have guacamole for breakfast. These days, with avocados from Peru in season, we consume two or three of these lovely dark green skinned fruits per week. And so we have the stones from each one to deal with. We usually just put them in the garden compost, but we thought that we might save a few stones and see if we can’t encourage Seiko to grow a tree or two. It could be interesting.And so to the tofu. Here is a picture of what happened next. All the milk extracted from the beans went into a large pan to be cooked. It’s a bit of a nightmare to start with, as without careful management the bubbles just swarm out of the pan and go everywhere, and as they have a high protein content they are very sticky. This is a big pan and there isn’t much milk in the bottom of it, so you can see the extent of the bubbliness. In this picture the milk has yet to come to the boil. It bubbles like this for ten minutes or so before it comes to the boil, and then it calms down, but only a bit. While it is coming to the boil you have to stir it constantly to prevent the milk from sticking to the bottom of the pan. That’s a pain. It sticks so much because, again, of the high protein content.We had an hour or so of rain early this morning. Not enough, but better than nothing. My sister, who lives only ten miles away, says that they had almost a whole day of heavy rain yesterday. What is it about Stratford, why do we always miss out?Quiz 236“………….. and stones may break my bones,but names can never hurt me.”a) bricksb) batsc) sticksd) clubsYesterday’s was b)Stop press: We have just had a five minute deluge. The main water butt is now full, and there is even a bit in the others.

2010年08月12日

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Heavy Legs

Lots of people in France suffer from ‘heavy legs’, it’s a kind of mystery illness, which, strangely enough, makes your legs feel heavy. I feel as if I have it today, my legs are just tired, and I feel generally lethargic.Well we have made the tofu. I will show you the photos day by day. First here we have the various bits of equipment needed to liquidize and extract the milk from the beans. A very messy and time consuming process. If I ever do this again I shall do it on the garden table, I think. We used 500 grams of beans, and they had been soaked overnight.Bill and the shaving mania is really getting to me. I shaved before I phoned him yesterday!While I was watering the hanging basket outside the front door mid morning, I thought I heard a group of teenagers walking past the house. But on turning round I saw it was in fact a trailer load of sheep on their way to Stratford market. Amazing.Quiz 235If something ‘isn’t half bad’.a) it’s dreadfulb) it’s excellentc) it’s good in parts and bad in partsd) you should take it back to the shop where you bought itYesterday’s was b)

2010年08月11日

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Net

We have had to put a net over the sprout plants as those lummocking great wood pigeons, which live in the trees at the back of next door’s garden, have started to attack the leaves. Very annoying. At first, when I inspected the damage this morning I thought the leaves had been eaten by caterpillars, but then I saw that some older, tougher leaves had also been eaten, and caterpillars don’t do that unless there are no tender young ones to go for. And then I realized that the pigeons were sitting on the top of the plants and nibbling their way downwards. I hope the net does its job.This is on of the pigeons that eats our sprouts. It was at the bottom of our garden when I took this photo, no doubt eyeing up its breakfast. My camera wasn’t good enough to focus on it, but you get the idea. There would be plenty of people who make such a plump pigeon as this one into a pie for Sunday lunch, especially if it had been eating their vegetables!I am thinking about making tofu again. The soya beans are being soaked tonight.We had a frustrating time at the supermarket this afternoon. The lady in front of us in the ‘automatic’ queue didn’t have enough money on her to pay for her shopping, in fact she had no money at all. She spent about five minutes searching around in her bag for something to pay with and only after going through the contents about half a dozen times, and then spreading the whole lot on the floor, did she call an assistant and something was done about it. What a waste of time.Quiz 234Which is the odd song out?a) Strawberry Fieldsb) Hey Judec) I am the walrusd) A day in the lifeYesterday’s was a)

2010年08月10日

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A bid for freedom

Crawling high on the breakfast room wall early this morning, I spotted a medium-sized vivid green caterpillar. Very odd. That should be on the Brussels sprouts, not in the breakfast room. (the caterpillar was crawling, by the way, not me) I showed it to Junko, she pondered for a while and then said that she had cut up some cabbage yesterday and found a number of similar caterpillars inside. Perhaps this was one? I can see no other explanation. Spiders and other insects get inside, but why would a caterpillar want to do so? Anyway, I got the steps to reach it down and took it out into the garden. It must have crawled ten metres inside the house, up and down walls, through doors and drawers, along skirting boards and in and out of cupboards, I guess. So after such an escape bid I had to give it its freedom, don’t you agree? I hope it doesn’t immediately eat all the sprout plants. It must be hungry after such a long walk!What is it with Parmesan cheese these days? It used to be really hard and tasty, now it’s just tasty. Not so long ago it was almost impossible to cut with a knife, now it pretty well crumbles in your fingers. I feel cheated. I had thought it was just the supermarket stuff that was not so good, but even the highly expensive piece that I bought from the cheese shop yesterday (yes, I had to go back and buy something!) was not as hard as I believe it used to be, even though that piece was three years old.Bit of a toilet problem today, one which needed Stephan’s attention.This mutabbal looks rather better than the last lot that we made. It still should be a bit lighter in colour, though. I’m not sure what is going wrong there.Quiz 233If something somebody says is ‘bunkum’, ………….a) it’s nonsenseb) it’s funnyc) whoever says it is probably your managerd) you are in a restaurantYesterday’s was another d). What is it about d)?

2010年08月09日

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Soup

We had home made chicken soup with home made ramen for dinner this evening. And the veggies was marrow, which Junko bought at the local market. Excellent.My sister goes to ‘Fit Ball’ on a Thursday evening. The class bounces up and down on large red rubber balls. She says she enjoys it! It reminds me of the ‘Happy Hitters’ on Sutton’s beach. ‘Have a hit and stay fit’ that’s their motto. Ah yes, the Happy Hitters play beach tennis. I took mother to the supermarket this morning for her weekly shop. While I was idling around waiting for her to finish, I checked the ready-made guacamole. I was astonished to see that most brands of guacamole contained only 55% avocado. Our guacamole is 95% avocado, 3% yoghurt, 1% garlic and 1% salt and lemon juice. Well these are approximate amounts, of course. How can something be a named product when there is so little of the active ingredient involved?I am beginning to worry about sending Bill an email. Should I shave before typing?We had a drop of rain last night, just a drop, nothing really worth mentioning.Slicing runner beans.A great rock track from 1976, Boston ‘More than a feeling’. Search for it on YouTube. Great clothes and hair, both head and facial. Did people really look like that? Yes!Quiz 232“There’s many a true word spoken in ……….. “a) a managers’ meetingb) jestc) Parliamentd) the classroomYesterday’s was d) Aren’t there a lot of d) answers these days?

2010年08月08日

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Shock!

Seiko is going to make wine from her pumpkins!There is a cheese shop in Stratford, it sells pretty well only cheese. I went in there the other day, just to have a look. It was fantastic, all those hundreds of different kinds of cheese. I’d have loved a piece of each one!I took mother to the doctor yesterday afternoon. She is reasonable, that’s all. The runner beans are doing all right, not brilliantly, though. It was too hot for them a few weeks ago, and now it is too dry. They get watered every day, but it’s not like having rain, even though the water we use to water them is rainwater. The butts you can see at the end of the garden are both empty, sadly. We have more supplies, but they are running out fast. At least the beans are easy to pick at the moment as they are hanging down. I didn’t see a single blackbird in the garden yesterday, the parents and both chicks must have gone off to the countryside. The parents will be back I expect, but I wonder if the young ones will?Quiz 231“See you later alligator.”“In a while ……….. “a) bananab) elephantc) moused) crocodileYesterday’s was d)

2010年08月07日

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Potatoes

Those potatoes I couldn’t remember the name of were called ‘Carlingford’. I looked for them in Tesco but couldn’t find them, neither could I find any ‘Nicola’, which are definitely the best, a nice flavour and a good, juicy texture.I think Seiko has got a reasonable crop of potatoes on her allotment, apart from the ones I ran over, that is. I wonder if she eats them? More than likely she makes them into wine!I must not forget that I have to take mother to the doctor at three o’clock tomorrow.There was rain forecast for most days last week, but we never got any. At my sister’s house, which is only a few miles away, they had a torrential downpour, but poor old Stratford got none. Is it a punishment for past ill deeds?The young blackbirds are still enjoying the cherries. This one had just finished his or her (I suspect her) lunch when I took this photo this afternoon.Quiz 230If you are ‘behind the eight ball’, …..a) you have already dealt with sevenb) it’s been a heavy nightc) please don’t touch anythingd) you are in a difficult positionYesterday’s was d)

2010年08月06日

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More curry

I made chana aloo again yesterday, this time using amchoor instead of lemon juice, and not forgetting the asafetida either. Very nice. The potatoes in it were good, too. I did know what variety they were, but I can’t remember now. I wrote it down in the diary, but currently can’t find it. We went to Seiko’s allotment this morning. It’s really amazing how much work she has put into it, and how well it has done, considering how terribly hard and stony the soil is. She gave us some bags of cow muck for Junko’s garden. While I was collecting them I had to reverse the car round a corner. I couldn’t see where I was going, and I ran over some of her potato plants. Sorry about that, but actually it was lucky the ground was so dry otherwise I could well have got stuck in the mud there. We’ve brought the muck into the garden and put it in a heap. It is already reasonably well rotted and by next spring it should be good to spread about a bit. The birds will enjoy pecking around in it, I am sure, and they will probably peck it all over the path, but that’s OK, I am happy they are in our garden.This is the cow muck we got, and there is almost as much again in another part of the garden.Junko gave Seiko a couple of those bitter cucumbers that we have grown, and amazingly she said that she liked them!Quiz 229“Oops a ……..”a) bananab) foxglovec) potatod) daisyYesterday’s was d)

2010年08月05日

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Rain

Ah, I suspect by the title that you think it has rained. Well, it hasn’t. And it’s beginning to get rather serious for the garden, and possibly for the rest of things, too. I have never known the soil so dry. Please, can we have a downpour, or better still a couple of days of solid drizzle.Our cucumber plants are cropping reasonably well, but the fruit is horrible. What a disappointment. They don’t look very nice, either, do they?Seiko came and brought a small daikon for Junko to chew on. Junko has a bad tooth, you see. A very brief and noisy visit, as Seiko’s visits always are. She has to get back to clean up Monty’s toilet. (Monty is a dog, by the way)Both young blackbirds were messing around in the leaves in the vegetable garden, under the beans and sprouts. I deliberately don’t remove all the ground leaf litter because things enjoy rooting around in it. Similarly with the cherries. There are a few left on the tree and these two young blackbirds really enjoy pecking them off and then playing with them when they are on the ground. They are making a mess of the path, but it’s nice to see them enjoying themselves. They are both quite tame, I hope they know how dangerous the neighbourhood cats are!Quiz 228If somebody ‘won’t have a bar of it’, they ………a) are tone deafb) are teetotalc) never listen to the radiod) won’t do something at allYesterday’s was d)

2010年08月04日

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Kitchen visitor

I walked into the kitchen this morning, and there was a baby blackbird (the larger one of the two) in the middle of the floor, attacking a ripe cherry which it had picked from the tree in the garden. I don’t know who was more surprised, me or the bird. I hoped it would fly back out the door, but as soon as it regained its composure it flew to the window and went to the toilet! I thought I could open the window, but this initially frightened it and it flew round the kitchen, only to land on my shoulder. I opened the window and it hopped out. I was pleased it didn’t panic and hurt itself. Immediately after the incident it was happily hopping around the patio. So no ill effects for either of us, and the toilet mess was very small. Runner bean tenpura.I learned today that my grandfather had been on a jury at a murder trial many, many years ago. The person on trial was found guilty and subsequently hanged. It, apparently, affected my grandfather greatly, being a part of sentencing a man to death. I have always been against the death penalty, but I had never thought about how the jury would feel about it before. We are getting quite a few beans off our runner beans at the moment, and one courgette plant is producing quite well, too. The other one was a complete dead loss so we threw it away some time ago. One is enough for us, though.Quiz 227Which is the odd word out?a) cricketb) golfc) soccerd) athleticsYesterday’s was b)

2010年08月03日

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Skinning an aubergine

This is the aubergine we used for the mutabbal I showed the picture of yesterday. Japanese aubergines are smaller and softer than this, and they might well make wonderful mutabbal.The average British person eats 10 kilos of cheese per year. This is half of what the French, Germans, Greeks and Italians eat.You can tell when some decision has been an utter disaster, no one ever forgets it. Such a case was the decision of Dr Beeching to close huge numbers of railway stations and remove five thousand miles of railway track from the British railway network. People thought it was a big mistake when it was done in 1963, everyone thinks it is an even bigger mistake now. How could this monster of a man be so shortsighted? This incredibly stupid act can never be reversed, it’s such an absolute tragedy.This is the useless coffee mill, do you remember it?Quiz 226“Too many ………… spoil the broth.”a) onionsb) cooksc) tastingsd) chefsYesterday’s was d)

2010年08月02日

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Mutabbal

Well, we made some mutabbal the other day. This is a Palestinian dish made from aubergines and tahini, with a bit of salt, olive oil, lemon juice, a spoonful of yoghurt and a couple of cloves of garlic. You skin the aubergines by heating them under a grill and then peeling them, then you cook them a bit more if they aren’t cooked enough. Next you blend them pretty fine. Then add the tahini, yoghurt, lemon, crushed garlic and salt to taste. Serve on a plate like in the picture, drizzled with olive oil. It should be garnished better than this, but we didn’t have any black olives or Lebanese parsley. That tomato was horrible, it was a bought one and the only thing it had in common with a proper tomato was that it was some kind of red. I don’t think we mashed the aubergine quite enough as the paste should be a bit softer and smoother than what we produced. But the taste was pretty good.We are considering buying an electric coffee mill as the hand one which we use is just too difficult to manage. It looks nice, but with it’s poor functioning it’s just a kitchen ornament really. So many kitchen items are so.Quiz 225“All work and no …………. makes Jack a dull boy.”a) holidaysb) breakfastc) payd) playYesterday’s was a)

2010年08月01日

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