The Year Round Nigel Slater Discussion thread

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Hello, all.

The Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles readalong usually takes place here between November and February each year (the Christmas Chronicles being a book written by Nigel Slater full of winter recipes and anecdotes) It's been running for a few years, and the contributors have collectively decided it would be nice to have it running all year round.

So here it is. It is a place to appreciate all things Nigel-esque. Think seasonal food and recipes, enjoyment of nature, sharing of news and small moments of joy. It's a calm, cosy space for gentle chat and merriment so pull up a chair, grab a cuppa and relax.

A very hearty welcome to friends new and old!

On the final strait Bimbles-sending you all the love for the last push.
Well done to dd @RainbowZebraWarrior she is doing amazingly.
And I hope everyone else enjoys DP's cake day. I had run out of very non Nigel golden syrup which made mine a hit of a damp squib. Can't chew anyway as seek to have something the size of a tombstone in my mouth (new bridge) which is going to take some getting used to. I've always had a gap where the bridge is so it feels very weird.
Other than that little to report except clear cold mornings that feel like mid winter quickly turning in to summer by 10.30 and what a joy to be working outside in them. We have lambs and piglets on the farm now and more on the way plus the 750 apple trees in the orchard are starting to show small signs of life. I can't wait for them all to be in blossom at once.
Concentrating on those things rather than the wider world affairs and things going awry with Pil and parents health alike is a great boon.

@Bimblesalong thinking of you and hope all goes as planned.
A lovely sunny day here, DD wants me to go shopping with her this morning and then this evening Church for Ash Wednesday and the traditional ashing - which I’m sure is not something Nigel will be doing.

Hi all. Sending love and best wishes to those who need them.

DH made the pancakes last night which was very nice. I had non Nigel golden syrup, because I love the stuff, Flora had some of our honey on her little pancake, and DH had alternate honey and Bon Maman chocolate spread. We are so gourmet!
Another sunny day here. Impatiently waiting for things to grow and for fields to dry out. Some heavy work to do out there, but it needs to dry some more first. Horses all have a pedicure booked this afternoon, so once I finish work it will be getting them in and cleaning them off so my lovely farrier doesn't have muddy legs to deal with! Other than that, I just want to hole up with wine and comfort food! Been a bit of trying time and some unpleasantness going on, but soldiering on is required. Have a good day all

Hello all. I need to read back properly as the last couple of days have been difficult. We waited in the Reception at school yesterday for an hour for someone to take DD to her class and she ended up having a massive panic attack so we left. Today, to her credit, she has done her first full day and made four new 'besties' Massive Achievement. Imagine how gutted I was when I received a message tonight to say that she had detention tomorrow night for her 'behaviour'. I've just received a reply - to an out of hours email from me - from the school SENCo saying they don't know what happened here and the detention has now been deleted. FFS. My poor heart.

Yesterday was the first day this year where I didn't record a moment of joy in my diary. Today, I include these lovely posts from Nigel's Instagram among my MOJ. I love the honey and cheese on toast and was particularly surprised and chuckled at Hello Kitty train ❤️

Hope your treatment went well today @Bimblesalong

Oh, and it's national pie week. I need to take full advantage of this as shrove Tuesday somewhat passed me by.

Your DD is starting to make friends and has done a whole day. From what you've said in your posts you must take that as a massive positive. And baby steps this is going to take some time to adjust and settle in. Well done to you and your daughter for this week you're doing amazing.

Well done, @Bimblesalong, all done! Onwards and upwards. And amazing well done to DD, @RainbowZebraWarrior , a friend is a great thing and now she has four. Fabulous.
I too love golden syrup (on crumpets, particularly, or drop scones) but I am a strictly lemon and sugar girl for pancakes.
I've ordered a builders' bag of mulch for the veg beds, now my ankle is officially 99% there, so of course sods law I've had a full week of work and can't get it barrowed out of the way. It's on the drive and we have to manoeuvre the car past it. My dahlias arrived from Sarah Raven today too - so I apologise if it rains this weekend, that will be my fault because I plan to get Out There.
It was art day again (where has that week gone) - more 'dynamic brushstrokes' but a change of teacher. He had us using 3" brushes like you might use on a wall! I could feel my comfort zone expanding as we worked.
750 apple trees @piscofrisco ! I have 10 trained as espaliers against my back fence - I whipped out last week to prune them (better late than never) and managed half so really must go and do the rest sometime soon. Unfortunately I realised that the fence they are trained against is on its last legs and will need replacing, which is going to be tricky and we didn't really consider when we put the trees in. I'm not thinking about that for now.

Rubbish day on Lord of Grindr here but sending love to all and a big of piglet action too

Helps to add the pigs

Bit tired but wanted to send grateful appreciation to you lovely lot of Nigelistas in my phone. Got to work through the side effects but hopefully the worst of the treatments will soon be over. My picc line is out. Yay. Makes washing much easier and I’ll be able to swim again too.

love all round (@rainbow, the school really needs to get the act together with the 1:1 as this is what’s having a big impact on dd’s stress / readiness to learn).

@piscofrisco Grindr? I wondered for a moment there!

Morning lovelies…. Pls can we have a deep dive on St Evan green vine scented candle. It is amazing. I’m obsessed. Found a voucher at home for a posh shop that sells them here so am plotting a return to get some. Do they do a diffuser in it that I just cannot find? Also what has the best throw pls - candle or tea lights??

Anyone else appalled about the bin fire that is the current state of affairs and is instead channelling energy into scented candles?!

A beautiful sunny morning to everyone, and completely agree with @AgathaMystery, I'm not watching the news at the moment for my own sanity..
I'm just living in a little bubble of St Eval scents. Just bought wild gorse which is subtle but a really lovely fragrance. Green Vine will be my next buy. 🕯️

Is that a Hotel Chocolat box?

Morning, all. Bright and sunny here. Dropped DD at school for first proper start time over an hour ago (gosh that's earlier than we are used to, but luckily I'm a morning person) and her new best mate was waiting for her.

Having a cuppa and avoiding the news. Yes, I agree it's a depressing and endlessly unbelievable bin fire @AgathaMystery I'm afraid I'm not too au fait with St Eval apart from their Christmas scents so no help there apart from saying that I gave up buying tealights a while ago in general. Not enough throw at all for me.

Nigel is doing Beans on toast again in one of the Kitchen Diaries today. Home made this time. I've not had much chance to read a lot lately so need to catch up.

@RainbowZebraWarrior glad she has a positive start today. I wonder if her 1:1 might be doing some work on navigating tricky parts of friendship. Don’t want to sticky finger too much but we ran social skills programmes hand in hand with SALT and had some personalised social stories on hand to help with getting things back on track when there were hiccups. This was primary so we weren’t navigating the complexity of a bigger setting and adolescence.

love the idea of homemade beans on toast.

@sueelleker youre right. Lovely gift from my bestie.

@AgathaMystery as many others, I’m avoiding the news and focussing on sunshine and candles. is the green vine one anything like the tomato candle? I had a tomato one in my Christmas advent calendar.

must think of a few for spring - currently between a WC winter, which is great for cosy nights and WC spring which is lovely and floral. St Eval Gorse is a good suggestion. We have a st Eval display in a garden centre off-shoot locally. Once I’m able to drive I shall pop out there and choose a couple. I’ve driven twice since Sept and am looking forward to being well enough to have my independence again.

@Bimblesalong There has been absolutely no 1:1 / involvement as her key worker has been off sick all week. This is why we waited in reception for an hour on Tuesday morning because nobody else was available (senco and guidance lead were both in meetings) so this has all been our own doing. DD told me about a 'kind girl' in her class on Monday so I emailed the senco on Tuesday after we had to leave at 10am and said "Right. This is what has gone wrong, this is what is now going to happen. You are going to buddy her up with 'kind girl' and you are also going to provide me with the names of two other specialist staff members that she can access whilst her key worker is absent" I have literally had to bullet point 'you will do this, and you will absolutely not do that' We've only ended up having success by calling the shots and taking charge. It's unfortunate about sick leave and meetings impacting DD and whilst that couldn't be helped in a way, I couldn't watch any longer as I was seeing DD regressing and feeling abandoned. Again. The three other pals she has made are also in the same friendship group with 'kind girl' and they have welcomed her and all had lunch together. The senco originally wanted to buddy DD with an extremely loud new girl two years older than her who had been expelled from another school. I had to say "NO. You WILL not be doing that!" (to DD who is a shy, rule following, anxious Autistic girl with situational mutism) I could - and have - cried with frustration at people not seeing who my child is, and yet again feeling like I was screaming into the ether, but we will get there. By God, we will get there.

Love your flowers by the way, and your insight is very helpful (I've tucked away some nuggets in my back pocket in case needed) x

Here's Mr Darcy who can just about be bothered to bid you all a lazy hello.

You’re a good mum RZW. Truly. Imagine the world if everyone had a you in their corner. X

Bloody well done RBZ. Again, fwiw, my team had a key/ lead worker for each child with EHCP but we used a combination of key workers working with each throughout the week for exactly the reason of sick leave. Also reduces overreliance on one person and builds social flexibility. Especially required on transition!!! It’s a key time to get things right and build resilience. The young person would have a visual timetable of who their key worker(s) would be throughout the day, change or not. I understand this can be different at Ks3 due to subject specialisms but frankly my professional jaw is on the ground that this has happened at the transition period whilst she is still so vulnerable and at risk of refusal if the support laid out in that legal document isn’t put in place. The promises made at the review are not being kept.

Im going to stare at Mr Darcy and my roses.

Thanks @AgathaMystery and @Bimblesalong it really means a lot as at times I think - briefly - is this me? The problem I have bimbles, is that there is no EHCP yet. We are just in the process of the EHCNA. (Around week 20) this was due to previous school not supporting so me having to apply direct to LA myself. At least her current school has said they will support this and have certainly seen evidence of her struggles (that they have perhaps unwittingly caused due to her previous school telling them there was nowt-a-matter)

Anyway, onwards and upwards. The sun is shining and I've just been to the allotment to see Dad and Belle-a-Boo which felt rather carefree.

On the candle front, I seem to be unable to let go of winter fragrances. My Mum got some festive spice ones from Next as Christmas gifts and gave them to me. I now cannot stop stalking them on ebay and vinted! I'm also curious about Fortnum's spiced tea candle which comes in a beautiful jar with gold mistletoe on it. I do like the sound of Fig Tree and Wild Rhubarb though by St Eval.

Speaking of Vinted, it's dangerous now I've got a moment to myself again. Just bought two scented Diptique notebooks and a Levi's t shirt from someone for £9.

Picture of a happy Belle-a-Boo and some of our girls flying in the sunshine bringing the pollen home

Just checking in. Been thinking of you @Bimblesalong, what a milestone.

@RainbowZebraWarrior Your dd is so lucky to have you. I wish our systems were different but it is so often the case that children get the help their families fight for. So glad she has found some kindred spirits and hope things keep on getting better.

Well done @RainbowZebraWarrior for fighting for your daughter. These ongoing battles can be horrendous and really impact stress levels, but it sounds like she's really making headway, especially with the friendship group.

And congratulations @Bimblesalong on your final treatment. I hope you don't feel too bad and you can enjoy the beautiful weather.

I've just been on a lovely dog walk. The sun really does make me feel happy and I photographed some beautiful bark on an old tree. I'm not sure what tree it is, but I thought the colours were lovely.

Haha a mix of tiredness and exhaustion made my last post unintelligible and possibly a bit dodgy. The piglets were not on Grindr!
Great news @Bimblesalong so pleased for you.
And well done RZW. You are doing so well by your girl there.
Off to check out the green vine candle @AgathaMystery that sounds so up my street!

Two pieces of news:

1. was offered the job I interviewed for yesterday. I accepted it.
2. Habitat do a St Evan tomato leaf dupe that I will purchase tomorrow and report back on

Fantastic news on the job @AgathaMystery well done. I have just got back from Sainsburys and tend to give the candle aisle a wide berth as it can be a bit overpowering but am tempted by tomato leaf. I don't use candles much because of the cats and because I don't tend to stay in one room for very long time to supervise but I do like one occasionally.

Sympathy re EHCP @RainbowZebraWarrior I had to do it myself too and it is probably worse now with budget constraints everywhere. We are out the other end of that particular stage now but I still remember the awfulness of how long and complex a process it was.

Congratulations on the new job @AgathaMystery

Probably incredibly outing but our work does secret buddy which is like secret Santa but treats throughout the year. Nothing extravagant and probably the average mumsnetters idea of hell. But it builds a sense of community and a nice thing to do. Anyway these narcissisi / têtê a têtês are my latest gift and have really cheered me up