Picture test

Some pictures, apropos of nothing, just to test the layout functions.  Which means I need a sight more text than this.  What can I treat you to...

"In his best-known work, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Adams explained the supreme utility of the towel in intergalactic travel:

“…it has great practical value – you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head 

to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you – daft as a bush, but very, very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.”

Adams’ artistic sensibility is both specific and elusive. He can go from distraught to delighted in the space of a modifier. He combines Gary Larson’s irony, Bill Watterson’s wistful idealism, Oscar Wilde’s keen social observation, and Dorothy Parker’s mischievousness. But set in space. In short, he is a genre all to himself."

Excerpt from bookriot.com

Frankly you can never fault a bit of Hitchhikers to keep you amused and educate.  :-)  Ok - I'm just a tad of a geek about Douglas Adams...  :-)

Cheese - the 'dairy crack' danger in our homes... ;-p

Cheese is addictive!!!  Who knew??!  Well apparently quite a lot of people, just not me. 
Coincidentally I had been wondering yesterday why I had felt so dissatisfied after finishing my lunch and had been noticing this rather more often than normal recently.  I had put it down to the general sitting around I've been forced into for the last few weeks meaning I'm more bored and therefore wanting to eat more - always a danger with me. 

Later for my dinner I made a very simple dish of bulgar wheat; flavoured with a veggie stock cube in the soaking water with a handful of peas, sweetcorn and broad beans added then a generous portion of grated mature cheddar cheese stirred through.  Other than a grinding of black pepper that was it yet it was soooo much more satisfying to me.  I had figured it was the flavour and to a lesser extent, the fats from the cheese as it's not exactly the most inspiring looking of meals right? 

Well apparently dairy has trace amounts of morphine in, plus the casein protein when digested releases casomorphins which also have opiate effects!  Blimey!!  So in fact - you can be 'addicted to cheese', or as that article calls it 'dairy crack' - fantastic phrase. 

I feel I may be verging on a dairy crack addiction myself.  A quick scoot in the fridge has produced this lot; that's 17 different types of cheese.  That's normal right?

I just stumbled across this information this morning whilst bimbling around on the t'internet and once again, am in equal measures awed, impressed, humbled and slightly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of random factoids and ways to waste your time that are available.  Although I'm also thankful for it given my enforced house bound state recently. 

[Although it's truly silly this still made me smile; then I must admit, full on giggle out loud.]

Right - guess I better think up something to use up some of that cheese huh?

Older, certainly no wiser though!

I've just turned another birthday older.  [36 - shhh!!]  Mixed feelings - really still don't feel like 'an adult' whatever that means.  Still enjoy celebrating my birthday with my friends; and this coming weekend I shall see my family too.  Not massively taken by the 36 thing - no longer in my mid thirties then!  Hey ho.  Anyway, due to my work I had to spend the morning until 2.15pm sitting in our accommodation blocks booking new students in and repeating the same info over and over again.  Truly joyous when it's sunny and lovely outside!!  [I'm well aware that sounds whingey but having done over 7 years in retail I've done my time working weekends and when the only weekend day of the entire year I have to work is my birthday...well frankly that's just insulting really.]  After this however we took a wee bike ride down to The Double Locks, a picturesque pub on the canal about 3ish miles down river from us.  We had a few bevvies, more people came, some left and soon enough it was time to head back up river to the second designated meeting spot of The Prospect on the quay.  Which is the point it went a little bit pear shaped for me.  I totally admit that this was entirely my own fault as well.  I will also at this juncture warn you that if you are a nervous disposition, or dislike the sight of blood scroll no further, or avert your eyes from the pictures.  This picture here i (it's ok it's safe!) is your last line if you like, with my injury-appropriate mug and sunny (and messy) back garden this morning it's your barrier between here and what lies beneath.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

Being newly aged [in my head the difference between 35 and 36 is fairly vast due to the aforementioned perceived leave taking of my mid-thirties] I guess maybe I was having a mini crisis moment, or possibly (and more likely if I'm honest) it was my natural 'why not try that' compulsion coupled with a couple of pints that led me to think as we left the 'Locks that it would be a good idea to pedal until I was going as fast as poss on the flat then pull a massive skid on the gravel. I think there was a certain amount of 'I never did this as a kid so why not do it now' going on as well.  What I missed out on by not doing it as a kid however is the small but vital piece of information that you don't suddenly jam both brakes on, oh no - just the back one as The Chap later informed me.  Oops!!  Bike and I came to an abrupt halt and fell over in as undignified way as possible with me ending up on the floor intimately entwined with said bike and covered in gravel dust and pine tree needles.  Hey ho - get up and dust yourself down, no worries.  As I turned to that chap I said to him 'That's gonna bruise' simultaneously patting my leg where the handlebars had clipped it a beauty.  Er - thinks I, that's wet - bring hand to level with face - my fingers are red.  Hmmmm....  that wasn't really the plan!!  Quick investigation reveals (remember my warning - I'm gonna make these pics small though) that I appear to have smacked into the handle bar with such force I've  ripped a big gash in my leg.  Which now has the underlying subcutaneous layer of fat coming out of it.  (Sorry - I really did warn you though.)  Also it's bleeding somewhat. 

Luckily one of our party is a trained nurse so she got the pub's first aid kit and stuck me back together with plasters and bandaged me up with strict instructions to get it sticky stripped back together properly in the morning.   Another friend took my bike back up the river path and we got a cab and all was ok.  Met further friends at The Prospect and took it easy until the fatal moment another friend (who shall remain nameless) forgot my injury and launched herself onto my lap.  Seconds after which I thought to myself - I can feel blood dripping down my leg now.  Quietly let The Chap know and skeddaddled into the ladies to check it out.  Yep - blood now dripped off me onto the floor all over the place; somewhat less clever than earlier.  The Chap had at this juncture unbeknownst to me dispatched another friend after me who in turn got the second qualified nurse in our party to come and have a look.  Long story short (though tbh this won't really cut the entire post by much at all) against my wishes (and without my knowledge) an ambulance was called and I was bundled off to A&E in it.  Tsk - pesky friends eh??!  [I don't mean that - they were great!!]

The ambulance peeps were fab, and suitably impressed at the amount of damge done considering my jeans hadn't even ripped.  They patched me up and got me safely delivered to the hospital where the staff there inspected me, cleaned me, left us sitting for so long I had to wrap myself in a blanket and stumble bare foot across the ward to use the toilet and could also take a pic much to the Chap's disapproval, then eventually got me seen by a doctor who injected the entire area inside and out with local anaesthetic and sewed me up.  Firstly 2 internal stitches then 8 external ones.  Which I found fascinating though the chap less so I feel - he kept telling me not to look away anyway!

So - I've now been signed off from work for the week and I can hardly stumble about the place (stairs are particularly troublesome).  I've been for the dressing to be changed yesterday and will be going again later today, then again on Thursday then in theory all being well to get the stitches removed on Saturday.  For now though I'm just entertaining myself by checking what colour my gargantuan bruised and swollen leg has got to so far. 

Moral of the story - it's the BACK brake only when you want to pull an impressive skid.  Must remember that for next year...

Edit: Went for the wound to be rederessed and this is what it now looks like.  Hmmm - did it good and proper didn't I?  'Proper job' as they say this end of the country!!!

PS - I will make this the last pic (probably) of this I share and try and return to more interesting, useful, informative and hopefully recipe / frugal/ upcycling based posts soon.  :-)

Camera, oh camera. Where for art thou my camera?

Another random post with some old pics here – still waiting to sort my camera out / remember where in the many piles of stuff in my house I left the old card reader so here’s another odd one I took – though judging by the quality (or rather – lack thereof) it was on my phone.  Which is old and rather poor on the picture taking front!  Anyway – it seemed to me that my Wotsits had been procreating in the bag and this was the resultant offspring when this little tiddler turned up!  Awwww…

On the same Totnes market trip where I spotted last post’s Marmite rat was this 'cup tree' outside an old fashioned café. 

This is from the Food Festival I attended a couple of weeks ago – of which more later.  This is a great sentiment though eh?  J

I do like the ‘Keep Calm’ images although they’re hitting overkill now with versions for everything.  It’s a poignant reminder of times less fortunate though as it was designed for us in the event of an invasion during WW2.  More info here and here.

Feeling a wee bit bereft

My camera has decided to go on the sick!!  I'm lost without having it handy to take my daily snaps.  This was my birthday present from the Chap back in September so no waaaaay should it be failing yet.  It's a Nikon - a brand I've been with for years so I'm disappointed this one should have given up so soon.  Anyway - here it is from my birthday.

Due to the lack of camera I dug an older one out of retirement for the weekend - then realised yesterday I couldn't find the card reader to download that format card!  Doh!  *facepalm*  So I will instead share some random images / memories from the year gone by.
This is a house I see every weekday on my way to work - they have brightened it up with a little spray painting which I for one like though I guess it's not to everyone's taste.  Forgive me if I have posted this one before - I honestly can't remember!

This beautiful lavender bird was a gift from the fabulous couple over at the Cottage Smallholder blog - check the tab at the top for '=Gifts=' and you too can be the proud owner of one of their lovely hand made products.
He brightens up the cupboard in my kitchen where I see him daily.

This sums up about all you need to know about me and my feelings on Marmite.  Personally I'm very deffo a 'hater'!  Love this creative take though.  Saw this at the regular Friday Totnes market.

Finally I'll leave you with a smile from my family get together on my birthday - this was at the rather great 'Railway' in Honiton.  Very good food indeed!

Unforseen empty afternoon

Do you remember a couple of posts back I mentioned that the curators of 'The Perfect Nude' exhibiton were giving a talk today?  Well I just popped on the Phoenix's website to check the start time and it's been cancelled 'due to unforeseen circumstances'.  Damn - I was looking forward to that.  I guess someone's ill - hopefully not badly.  I was really anticipating the insights they'd give.  Oh well.  I'll have to think of something else to do with an overcast afternoon on my own now.  (The Chap's working.)

A little creativity perhaps...

Or I could pop out for a jacket spud for lunch...

(Did you just fall off your chair?)  Or I could go foraging for some more wild garlic...

Hmmm - so long as it doesn't hail / monsoon /gale force winds on me that is.  It's been a blustery week!

Spring tis springing by!!

Normal service will be resumed shortly!!  Sorry for the massive lapse in posts - busy busy!!  Here's a teaser few pics for you though - I'll be back with a proper decent length post very very soon, or quite soon, or soon-ish at least...  :-p

A little tantaliser as to what I've been up to.  :-)

Days worth a mention

Happy days!!  My little blog was a whole 2 years old on the 25th and I forgot - oops!  Knowing my own propensity for starting projects and not finishing them (or getting all the equipment together then never getting any further - my house is fair littered with various bits of kit for projects that consumed me with interest just long enough to outlay my hard earned pennies on the necessary items then the wave of interest retreated leaving said items beached high and dry on the dust-gathering shelf marked 'to be returned to') I'm a weeny bit pleased with myself that this at least I have kept up.  I find it a handy place to bung recipes so I can come back to them and hopefully I have entertained and possibly even educated a little over the last 2 years.  The blogging world has certainly taught me a lot both in terms of recipes found to frugal tips to simple inspiration from other's beautiful images or words.  Although to be fair blogs are possibly also quite responsible for a fair few of my non-starter projects from the cider making (demi-john, hydrometer plus associated tube, campden tablets, sterilising stuff, bungs and airlocks) to the home sewn skirt (pattern cut from brown paper, material, ebay saved search for 'fold over elastic' [you try finding the stuff in uk haberdasheries], half working grandmothers Singer in the back bedroom) to proper jam making (jam pan, thermometer, muslin).  [I am a martyr to the compulsive need to follow all links posted.]  Hey ho - at least all this stuff can be gone back to, it's just taking up a bunch of space in the meantime.  One of my nebulous new years resolutions was to finish various half started projects so perhaps by the end of this year I will have made use of some of the clutter.
The second day to mention is today!  It's a leap year so we have an extra day - the 29th February - for the first time since 2008 in order to balance us out to the solar year.  The solar year is actually more like 365.25 days long rather than the 365 days we (well Julius Caesar in fact) adapted so every 4 years an extra day makes up the difference(The Julian calendar).  The fact that this isn't quite exact but is in fact out by 11 minutes and however many seconds means that 3 times in each 400 years the leap year doesn't occur (that's the Gregorian calendar now).  Got all that??!  Apparently it's tradition that women can propose to men instead of the other way round on a leap day [like they can't on any other day?  Pffft] but fret not - I don't think the Chap and  are quite at that point yet!  ;-)
Finally there's tomorrow - as of the morrow I will have officially been employed by my current firm for 5 years.  5 whole years!  Damn.  I have to say it - much as I'm grateful for a job in these uncertain times and still more it's a reasonable job in the dry and warm - I'm so so so bored of it now.  However - we will focus on the positives and in honour of that and the fact that tomorrow is Saint David's day (patron saint of Wales - though I don't have any Welsh in me) I may make a batch of welsh related goodies tonight to bring in for my colleagues in the morning.  Nom.  Happy days my friends.

Palindrome (& pancake) day

It's a palindrome day.  A palindrome is something that reads the same backwards as forwards which is true of the date today - 21.02.2012.  [Warning - there's probably rather more information that you want there.]  It's also pancake day - here's some I had for lunch with maple syrup on - yum!  Oddly they hadn't got the most traditional / common choice of lemon juice and sugar available.

I shall make the Chap and I pancakes for tea tonight and have been thinking of the idea of incorporating ingredients into the batter a la the Full Brekkie Pancake experiment.  (Something I must return to incidentally.)  I'm thinking grated cheese included in the batter with a filling of spinach, mushrooms and tomatoes.  Or perhaps the spinach could be in the batter too along with the cheese?  I shall have to experiment and see what turns out...  Enjoy - whatever way you do them!

Happy 'V' Day!

With love to all today.  I promise I'll get a decent length post up here soon!!

Ahoy there!

I must apologise for my apparent absence.  Much to my startlement it's already the 10th of the new year!  Been quite busy hiding under umbrellas and trying to not get washed or blown away!!

Work has also been fairly hurly burly with the new intake for January; students from hither and yon have been pitching up at my work!
I've also been putting the slow cooker to good use with a new batch of winter soups that I have yet to write up in full so there's that to look forward to and I think we're due a rugby round up on the Chiefs performance this season thus far.

New Years eve was blimmin close though...

Delightful weather!

In common with most of the rest of the UK we've been getting a bit clobbered by the weather this week.  Admittedly nothing like as bad as further north and Scotland have but we've had a wee bit of rain...

This morning we had a wee bit more...

Anyone want to take the riverside path?

No, I thought not!!

What a week for the weather!

I think we've had it all this week!  Ok - so no snow down here in the South West but Monday it was torrential rain all day long, Tuesday dawned bright and lovely but had resorted to the monsoon affect by the end of the day. 

All this rain brought the river levels right up but did result in some nice rainbows.  Excuse the pic quality as these were on my phone rather than camera.

The sky was amazing yesterday evening though...

The furry faced escapologist

A quick update.  Zeke being the sneaky little catfink he is managed to break out of the house on Thursday night meaning he couldn't have his bits snipped on Friday.  Tsk.  He's now at the vets today instead and I've just called them to check on him.  He's all fine [phew] albeit a little bleary still from being put under.  I'll be picking him up sans danglies later and no doubt spoiling him out of misplaced guilt all evening.  :-)

Autumn sky

Well the temperature fell with a thump in the last 2 days - damnably chilly on the way home last night although not helped by the revolting cold I currently have.  (Thank you very much to The Chap for that one!)  It does make for some spiffing views this time of year though.  I always love it when you see the rays of light coming through the clouds - perfect!  Here's today's pic then.

I'm hoping to have a bit more time for a decent length post soon but hope you're liking the pics meanwhile. 

Taking Zeke off for his snip tomorrow followed by waiting in for the broadband men - I'm hoping that out of the 1-5pm slot I've been given they turn up closer to 1 as I really want to get down the allotment too.  Mind you that also depends on how much like death I feel - better keep taking the vitamin C!

Have a happy weekend all.  :-)

Random pics #3

 

People releasing chinese lanterns on a windy autumn evening.  nice.  :-)

Random pic #2

Walking home on Friday I came across this scene.  People practising their tight-rope walking between 2 trees in the park.  How random!  I hastily snapped this - and yes - I know it's wonky but I wanted to show you all.  The South West is a wonderful place to be!!  :-D

Random pic du jour

There's a major construction project going on opposite the building I work in and they're roofing it with copper.  I love the colour of copper - it's such a shame it doesn't keep it's lovely warm sheen but goes green instead.

I seem to have been waitng for what feels like weeks to get a pic of it with the sun shining off it - hopefully before it goes green and dull!  This will have to do for now.

The unexpected

A letter came in the post yesterday.  I looked the the postmark and felt something rigid inside the envelope and thought - 'oh, it's a cd of photos from my uncle from our weekend in Dorset a couple of weekends back'.  (Yet to be posted.)  I then forgot to open it as it was under the e-on bill and only opened it this morning.  To my surprise out came 2 old photographs, a short letter and a sizeable cheque.  Eh?  I read the letter, then read it again; and then a third time, this time managing to grasp the salient points.  A great-aunt I didn't know had passed away.  This lady was my dad's dad's sister - so my dad's paternal aunt.  She; Joan, and her husband Ken had never had children and had bequeathed her estate to her nieces and nephews - of which my father was one and the lady who sent the letter another.  (She's the 6 year old bridesmaid for them here.) In the event that any pre-deceased her - like my father did - it was to go to any children of theirs.  Thus my 2 big sis's and I all received a cheque in the post.

It feels odd - I never met the lady to the best of my knowledge so it feels strange to have received anything let alone a generous amount from her.  It's going in the savings or an isa; although I may treat us to new Chiefs season tickets.  I need to have a think about it.  This post then is for you - unknown great aunt Joan; in the great unknown.  Sleep tight. xxx

Things you don't see every day

Do you think he's lost?  lol. 

It's the annual clear up of the river overflow system - they drain it then get rid of all the traffic cones, bicycles, signs and wheely bins ready for next years crop.  Looks slightly surreal though huh?