Today I was having a quiet bimbly day at home. John was going to ENAD Footie with John Read and Rob Veasey and taking Elena's footie mad son Rabia with them.
I was eventually going to get round to finishing off making my spicy lemon pickle having boiled the lemons a couple of days ago.
Sadly my man-sized liquidizer has gone to the big old kitchen graveyard in the sky and I am limited to how much I can mush in my blitzer. As it happens two of dads lemons and some sugar and spice fills my preserve jar perfectly. This now has to stand for 24 hours before it is ready to eat. I have used this in all sorts of recipes to spice them up - there is just enough piquancy from the combination to add the right amount of zing and it is cracking with a bit of tasty cheese. It is so easy to make - I am hopeful that one year our lime tree will provide us with sufficient limes for me to make lime pickle.
While John was down in Polis I took the opportunity to do a little gardening. I am not sure that we have had the worst of the winter weather and some of the plants have started to shoot out left right and centre. The work to rectify and finish the pool project will not start for several weeks and so there are areas where we will get workers treading about so there is little point me doing much there as we are likely to get big boots stomping about!
It is a mystery to me where some of the plants in the garden come from. By the jasmine which grows up a post by the decking I have come across a cyclamen which has produced one leaf - now as far as I was concerned cyclamen grow from corms and you need to plant a corm - I have never planted the corm of a cyclamen here in the garden in fact previously I planted a couple elsewhere and they flourished for a while, died back in the summer, produced teeny tiny leaves the following winter and then disappeared without trace. There is also evidence of an Arum Lily growing in one of the big pots that has only ever housed an osteospurmum. We do have an Arum Lily but it is in a pot right the other side of the garden. There also appears to be a couple of Cerinthe Major growing in the front garden and I clearly planted the one which Elaine have me last year in a trough in the back garden and if it has self seeded then I would have expected to have seen evidence of it growing the in the original trough!!
I tidied up the area around the shower just off of the guest bedroom. All the indigenous bulbs under the olive tree have put on their winter greenery and this all then dies back completely before any flowers appear. The sea daffodils have scattered their seeds all over the place - they look like black plastic pyramids. The narcissi continue to flower - weeks earlier than they did last year.
Under the oleander I encountered one of those massive pupae things that Rob Veasey likes to keep in his Rover biscuit tin and watch develop. This seems to be completely the wrong time of year for this to be about but it appeared to still be alive so I popped it back where it came from - it has two chances.
This evening the temperature dropped dramatically and it became exceptionally cold. The skies were clear and the sun went down like a ball of flame.
The football match was a bit of a disaster with a last minute fluke goal by the opposition but I think the boys still enjoyed themselves!! Rob's team Charlton got a right old thumping but today SUFC managed a 90 minute winner.
We were off to John and Susan's tonight for a curry. Susan is a great cook and we always have a good night. For once neither John nor I were driving which is quite a rare occurrence - Rob was driving tonight - and we pull his leg mercilessly because he says that he was a slave to his watch during all his working life and now that he is in retirement he refuses to be tied to time - in fact he would really rather like to go without a watch - this as you will know is diametrically opposite to John who takes being punctual to a whole new level!!!
This is the first time I have really seen John and Susan since they returned from their Christmas in the UK and holiday in New York. I am pleased to report Millie is now back to normal and none the worse for having John and I look after her.
Here is the cream of the ENAD massive looking like the three wise monkeys in deep deep discussion about the beautiful game whilst Susan, Diana and I discussed much more interesting things like shoes and hair!!!
For Rob this was an opportunity to get to know John and Susan's lovely little dog Zak who is a complete cutie. John and Susan were also looking after Jan and Steve's elderly Springer Spaniel who had only arrived yesterday and had settled herself in taking up most of one of the sofas. Actually throughout the course of the evening we wouldn't have know she was there!! Apparently she is a real home-dog and gives Susan a right old quizzical stare when she is taken for a walk and then bounds back in at the earliest opportunity to adopt a horizontal position somewhere comfy!
We had a right old laugh last night. We arrived about 6.00pm and before we knew it it was nearly midnight - well past Susan's normal bedtime but our company must have been ok as she showed no sign of flagging.
We had some lovely Indian starters to begin and then Susan had made a pork curry, a vegetable curry and chicken passander with a nice fragrant rice and topped it all off with some fondant puddings.
We were never short of conversation and Rob had us in stitches with his malapropism involving the word falsetto - I cannot begin to tell you what he said instead - let's just say it was on the tip of his tongue and that is all I am going to say on the subject as anyone of a more genteel disposition would have been mega shocked!!!
Anyway between us all we set the world to rights - covered a million topics - came to few conclusions and vowed to do it all again sometime soon! We will probably try and schedule something in for a couple of weeks time.
I had to include this photograph taken as Rob and Diana dropped John and I off. Admittedly John is stood on the kerb and Rob is not but apart from that there is no other camera trickery involved. The little and large show lives on!!!
Thank you very much John and Susan for a lovely evening and thank you Rob and Diana for being drives tonight.
I was eventually going to get round to finishing off making my spicy lemon pickle having boiled the lemons a couple of days ago.Sadly my man-sized liquidizer has gone to the big old kitchen graveyard in the sky and I am limited to how much I can mush in my blitzer. As it happens two of dads lemons and some sugar and spice fills my preserve jar perfectly. This now has to stand for 24 hours before it is ready to eat. I have used this in all sorts of recipes to spice them up - there is just enough piquancy from the combination to add the right amount of zing and it is cracking with a bit of tasty cheese. It is so easy to make - I am hopeful that one year our lime tree will provide us with sufficient limes for me to make lime pickle.
While John was down in Polis I took the opportunity to do a little gardening. I am not sure that we have had the worst of the winter weather and some of the plants have started to shoot out left right and centre. The work to rectify and finish the pool project will not start for several weeks and so there are areas where we will get workers treading about so there is little point me doing much there as we are likely to get big boots stomping about!
It is a mystery to me where some of the plants in the garden come from. By the jasmine which grows up a post by the decking I have come across a cyclamen which has produced one leaf - now as far as I was concerned cyclamen grow from corms and you need to plant a corm - I have never planted the corm of a cyclamen here in the garden in fact previously I planted a couple elsewhere and they flourished for a while, died back in the summer, produced teeny tiny leaves the following winter and then disappeared without trace. There is also evidence of an Arum Lily growing in one of the big pots that has only ever housed an osteospurmum. We do have an Arum Lily but it is in a pot right the other side of the garden. There also appears to be a couple of Cerinthe Major growing in the front garden and I clearly planted the one which Elaine have me last year in a trough in the back garden and if it has self seeded then I would have expected to have seen evidence of it growing the in the original trough!!
I tidied up the area around the shower just off of the guest bedroom. All the indigenous bulbs under the olive tree have put on their winter greenery and this all then dies back completely before any flowers appear. The sea daffodils have scattered their seeds all over the place - they look like black plastic pyramids. The narcissi continue to flower - weeks earlier than they did last year.
Under the oleander I encountered one of those massive pupae things that Rob Veasey likes to keep in his Rover biscuit tin and watch develop. This seems to be completely the wrong time of year for this to be about but it appeared to still be alive so I popped it back where it came from - it has two chances.
This evening the temperature dropped dramatically and it became exceptionally cold. The skies were clear and the sun went down like a ball of flame.The football match was a bit of a disaster with a last minute fluke goal by the opposition but I think the boys still enjoyed themselves!! Rob's team Charlton got a right old thumping but today SUFC managed a 90 minute winner.
We were off to John and Susan's tonight for a curry. Susan is a great cook and we always have a good night. For once neither John nor I were driving which is quite a rare occurrence - Rob was driving tonight - and we pull his leg mercilessly because he says that he was a slave to his watch during all his working life and now that he is in retirement he refuses to be tied to time - in fact he would really rather like to go without a watch - this as you will know is diametrically opposite to John who takes being punctual to a whole new level!!!
This is the first time I have really seen John and Susan since they returned from their Christmas in the UK and holiday in New York. I am pleased to report Millie is now back to normal and none the worse for having John and I look after her.
Here is the cream of the ENAD massive looking like the three wise monkeys in deep deep discussion about the beautiful game whilst Susan, Diana and I discussed much more interesting things like shoes and hair!!!
For Rob this was an opportunity to get to know John and Susan's lovely little dog Zak who is a complete cutie. John and Susan were also looking after Jan and Steve's elderly Springer Spaniel who had only arrived yesterday and had settled herself in taking up most of one of the sofas. Actually throughout the course of the evening we wouldn't have know she was there!! Apparently she is a real home-dog and gives Susan a right old quizzical stare when she is taken for a walk and then bounds back in at the earliest opportunity to adopt a horizontal position somewhere comfy!We had a right old laugh last night. We arrived about 6.00pm and before we knew it it was nearly midnight - well past Susan's normal bedtime but our company must have been ok as she showed no sign of flagging.
We had some lovely Indian starters to begin and then Susan had made a pork curry, a vegetable curry and chicken passander with a nice fragrant rice and topped it all off with some fondant puddings.
Anyway between us all we set the world to rights - covered a million topics - came to few conclusions and vowed to do it all again sometime soon! We will probably try and schedule something in for a couple of weeks time.
I had to include this photograph taken as Rob and Diana dropped John and I off. Admittedly John is stood on the kerb and Rob is not but apart from that there is no other camera trickery involved. The little and large show lives on!!!
Thank you very much John and Susan for a lovely evening and thank you Rob and Diana for being drives tonight.
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