I got some very strange looks on the train to work this morning and it's all Gervase Phinn's fault! Mr C picked up a copy of his latest book for me last weekend when he found it in a 3 for 2 offer and it is quite simply one of the most fantastic things I've ever read! I'm still reading The Heart of the Dales but I just couldn't wait to share it's hilarious brilliance with others. Gervase Phinn is a Yorkshire Dales school inspector, and despite what some may consider as a dreary sounding job, he has so many fantastic tales to tell. This is the fifth of his books about life as a school inspector ... read more
First steps towards self-sufficiency
It's now over a year since I started to put much more thought into my life and how it wasn't at all green at the time. I also started to be somewhat concerned about the lack of skills that I had when it came to doing the things that so many of my grandparents generation, living through the war years, would have taken for granted to aid their survival and help the war effort. At the time I was quite a useless cook, only really did cross-stitch as any form of sewing and was generally quite useless at many practical things. I therefore started to teach myself (with the aid of many, many books ... read more
Friendship and childhood memories
After work tonight I met up with three friends at a bar next to the Thames. This was three women that I used to work with at former employer. I see two of them quite regularly, the third only every so often. This was the first time in three years that all four of us had managed to get together. It was fantastic! Catching up with and making time for people is so important. No one is going to write on our gravestone about how many hours we spent at work, or our dedication to our job, yet sometimes taking time out from work to do things like this can be more difficult than it should. One thing ... read more
10 Minute Tortellini
I planned something quick and easy for dinner tonight as I knew I would be late home after Knitting Group and Mr C was at a work function in central London. 10 minute tortellini is a very quick recipe from another of the BBC Good Food books, 101 Meals for Two. The ingredients list is incredibly simple: a pack of spinach and ricotta tortellini, cherry tomatoes, parmesan cheese and parsley. The simple addition of the tomatoes to the basic pasta makes such a difference and they are incredibly intense explosions of flavour in the dish. The fact the that whole recipe takes only 10 minutes from ... read more
Knitting in the Royal Festival Hall
After work this evening I went along to my knitting group, which tonight was holding its gathering in the cafe / bar area at the Royal Festival Hall, in London's Southbank Centre. There's something about knitting with others every so often that I quite enjoy. Having people to talk to about your, and their, latest projects is always nice. It's also a good opportunity to share some knitting gossip about where's got sales on, and which good courses people have done recently. Having people to help people like me who are relatively new to the hobby is of course always useful! Whilst I enjoy the ... read more
Debs at war
I've mentioned a few time my interest in how Britain was through the Second World War, especially in terms of the women who remained here and kept the country running while the majority of men were serving in the forces overseas. After reading Nella Last's War someone suggested that I also try reading this book. Debs at War by Anne de Courcy tells the story of the women who were destined to become debutantes before the war but whose lives took very different paths after war was declared. The book is based on a series of interviews with women who were greatly affected by the war in the fact ... read more
Earthworks Summer Fair
Today was the Earthworks Summer Fair here in St Albans. Earthworks is a local charity that offers trainees, often with learning difficulties or mental health problems, work experience and training in horticultural and land-based skills. They have a site in St Albans where they manage it on environmental principles and they use it to grow fruit and vegatables that they then sell at the monthly St Albans Farmers' Market. Mr C and I were helping out on the WWA stand and took a nice walk down the Alban Way to get there this morning. Unfortunately the weather hasn't been kind to us today and ... read more
Lunch in the sunshine
This weekend sees the end of the two week long St Albans Food and Drink Festival. There have been a variety of events around the city over the two weeks, but today was the first real chance for Mr C and I to see what was going on. Today there were a series of outdoor events and luckily the weather stayed dry for them. An al fresco food court was set up along side a stage celebrating World Music Day (which I thought was in June?) and some of the city's restaurants were serving up "outdoor takes" on their usual menus. When Mr C and I arrived, just after 12 noon, many of the chefs were still ... read more
Chocolate brownies
As you may have noticed by now I am rather partial to chocolate. I particular enjoy cooking and baking with it and another of my favourite recipes containing it is for Chocolate Brownies and came from my mother in law, S. The ingredients for this are quite simple: 4oz margarine, 8oz sugar, 2 eggs, 3oz plain flour, 2 - 3 tablespoons cocoa, 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder and (the bit that makes them slightly different) 2 handfuls of sultanas. You start by melting the margarine in a pan. Once this is done, mix in the sugar off the heat. Then add the cocoa (my favourite part) and beat in the ... read more
Eye for a bargain!
This lunchtime I popped out from work to go to the Post Office to post a parcel. As usual at lunchtime there were queues stretching around and past all the shelves that hold all the standard stationery that Post Offices sell: the boring stationery with plain envelopes, brown paper and parcel tape. Just as I was leaving another shelf full of goodies caught my eye and I found that this Post Office was a step above the others as it was selling books! I was delighted to find that they had a whole section of cookery books, all at very cheap prices! The first book I picked up was James Martin's ... read more