Monday 25 August 2008

Perigrines in the City


Yesterday we popped down to London for the day.
We met Youngest daughter and then we parked up near St Paul's and wandered over the Millennium bridge towards Tate modern...Just outside the gallery, the RSPB were set up with their telescopes focused on some Falcons.
The peregrines sat hunkered into the wind high up on the huge chimney stack...(Incidentally Peregrine is the word origin for Pilgrim meaning something like wanderer...)
So that was very interesting, but then we had lunch inside which was very tasty and pleasant...
We walked up to the steps of St Paul's and there was a dance group performing a modern movement in celebration of the Olympic handover, very cultural..
We went inside and although we were unable to get under the dome and into the inner sanctum the filigree and artwork up inside the Cupolas really impressed us all...
Back in the car for a quick razz along the embankment and into Trafalgar square stopped at some traffic lights and observed a drunk pissing in a phone box..We were very close to it...
Parked up and wandered along brick lane market...Felt like somewhere in the world, not at all England...A quick drink in Daughters pub, cool and relaxed...The red arrows whooshed overhead everyone glanced at each other a bit scared.
Then whipped up the M forty and home

Sunday 24 August 2008

Fruity Frangipane


We decided to not go camping this weekend because of bank holiday..So instead we went cycling and looking for Blackberries.We found most of them in a hedgerow just out of town ,down a little lane that reminds me a bit of Cornwall.
We had enough for some pie and cycled home, I called in to town for ingredients..
I have been buying Frangipane recently, pre made from Waitrose. So I knew how nice it could be but even though I am sounding a little vainglorious. My atempt was pretty special...
Quartered Conference pears glazed with a little butter and some Caster sugar. Some very dark French Chocolate crumbled benevolently amidst some hand picked lane ripened Warwickshire Blackberries...
A dollop of Creme fresh, everybodys happy

Tuesday 19 August 2008

Happy Factory Fodder


Work is going well at the mo...We have our jolly moments and sometimes we even have raucous laughter. We get on with our jobs though and all in all things are enjoyable as well as productive..
Today I was fantasising about training as a Sushi chef and then opening up a lunch spot near the factory. There is little alternative to a rather bland canteen in the whole area...Sushi/ salad bar bit of a funky atmos, charging six quid a shout...Make a fortune I reckon...

Thursday 14 August 2008

Not whinging about da weather


So we have had a bit of rain...The grass in our back garden is well verdant.It wasn't raining tonight so I gave it a bit of a chop. Next doors cat had left his mark in there so that ended up sprayed all over the place...Still I do like cats so it serves me right to have liquidised cat muck all over my naked fetlocks...
As a contractor working at the car factory I'm not allowed to park near work and have to yomp in from a visitors car park a few fields away...I always give the Rozzer on the gate a cheery Good morning just to demonstrate how unbothered I am about getting soaked every day...
This week I have been fantasising about buying a Scythe and sculpting peoples lawns quietly, leaving some long tufty bits in for the Harvest mice to nest...

Saturday 9 August 2008

Friday nights on the settee


So we are settled back in England...I have got my head around my car factory job, had a heavy cold but soldiered on stoically...The weather was predicted to be poor so we stayed at home this weekend..I cooked some fish for tea then we settled down to watch the Telly...We were drinking Cider from Waitrose and watching,, Gardeners world first. I had forgotten how professional the Beeb were.The presenters are unpretentious, I think that there is an element of anarchism and an unspoken regard for liberty amongst gardeners...
Then we watched The Tudors...Raunchy rock n roll history, again with amazing quality and an eye for detail...The costumes are unbelievably beautiful...A bit of Q.I. then off to bed..
Good old BBC two...

Monday 4 August 2008

moving back to England/ staying positive

I spent most of today inside a car factory and it was very tough...The place is infused with an air of hopeless lethargy.The permanent staff appear to be desperately unhappy and if I was not feeling so sorry for myself I might feel sorry for them as well...
But tomorrow I am going to be ultra chipper and make them have it.
Then at the weekend we are going to go swimming in a very wet river...
On Sunday we went to an old Friends house who has recently returned from Spain...Her and her fella made us Tapas and we had a little wine...It was very nice too...