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!

Haven't found time to post since I joined! A nice new cafe has opened near my house which is very good news as I'm WFH a lot at the moment. Nice mix of hubbub and calm as a background to my concentration today, and they had some lovely teas and pastries.

@RainbowZebraWarrior I don't know if this is me having misunderstood something, but just to say I clicked your link to see the northern lights over Shetland last week and it asked me to pay a penny to see the live feed which I did - and amazing it was too. But since then I've been charged £14.99 and the £0.01 was supposedly a one-day free trial to something called myskillssphere.co which is a random marketing website. Perhaps I clicked the wrong option somehow but I didn't want anyone else to have the same happen to them! I've cancelled it now, I hope!

Oh no, @Writerscompanion I've never paid anything to watch any of the webcams so I'm so sorry to hear of this. I won't link to them again as I'd hate for anyone to get caught up in some sort of subscription.

No significant Aurora activity tonight. There's too much cloud cover over most of the UK and the solar wind is mainly North anyway.

I forgot to look in my parents garden for signs of grape hyacinths due to rushing and then having to do a big supermarket mystery shop.

@EarlierDistraction those bracelets are gorgeous and the type of thing that I'd get properly carried away with. I love bracelets and wear a few Fahro ones. DD has just made me this rainbow loom band bracelet. (apologies for my unsightly veins, it's an EDS thing)

Crikey @piscofrisco that sounds tiring. Being Autistic I can only deal with one voice or one person's needs at a time. It's a good job I only had the one child. Hope you get some peace and down time at some point. Great to hear that your residential will be at Warwick. I initially read that as 'as a cattle enthusiast' rather than castle. (It's been a long day).

Just shoved some fozen veg in a foil tray with a shop bought cheese sauce and half a -kilo bag of grated cheese. It'll have to do for tonight.

Gorgeous colours @RainbowZebraWarrior . My DD stopped using loom bands many years ago (probably 7 or 8) but they still seem to turn up randomly from time to time.

Lovely bracelets @RainbowZebraWarrior

Brilliant to hear your course is in Warwick, @piscofrisco - you’re on my childhood home turf. Ds1 is on a work course there for the next two consecutive Mondays and will stay with mum nearby.

Try to visit Kenilworth castle too if you have time, beautiful place and not as showbiz as Warwick. There is also Baddesley Clinton which isn’t a castle but has priest holes that might be interesting en route if you’re going Northish back. (Sorry, riding the night time steroid wave so my memory is kaput!).

Im sleeping like a baby - ie in short chunks at odd hours. 🙄 Last load of steroids to work through. Hoping to be up for some of the lovely sunshine forecast this weekend. I have some meadow flower seeds to sow in the coming days and now the helpful line in my arm is out (after 5 months!!) I can build up the strength again.

Lovely bracelets @RainbowZebraWarrior, I am so looking forward to the stage with my daughter where we can make things together. At the moment she just insists I help with scribbling with her crayons.

No worries at all, I will look forward to the Shetland updates through your screenshots and descriptions instead!

We're off to Tate Britain today to meet a friend's new baby and play with the kinetic sand...hopefully even look at some art.

Good morning and a Happy International Women's Day to you all. Hope everyone is well and enjoys this beautiful Saturday. May the sun shine wherever you are.

I am just about to get up and have a cup of tea with just the sound of the birds. I may also browse this website. I've been coveting many things from there for a while, particularly their suffragette jewellery.

https://www.museumselection.co.uk/search/?term=suffragette&utm_source=adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MS25-EM19&S2REF=164077

And a Happy International Women's Day to you all too.
DH asked me which women had inspired me in my life. I said the women who first taught me how to be a care assistant. One of my first managers. The woman who set up the care farm that I now work on. And currently the lovely ladies here who have bought me so many different perspectives on life, and who have variously had so many live experiences we can all learn from. It's a pleasure to virtually know you all.
Sun shining here too. Trying to ignore dss2 who has woken in a foul temper and dd1 who had gone to work in a huff and enjoy my morning. About to take dd2 to work where I will also treat myself to a solo breakfast before going home and trying to jolly up the dss's and dh. All the kids, apart from dd2 to be fair, are quite hard work at the minute. Lots of gritting of teeth being done for me just now. But this too shall pass I'm sure.

@RainbowZebraWarrior I've been browsing a sort of Anne Boleyn pendant thing for ages which is in a similar vein, but I can't justify the spend. Maybe for my next big birthday.

What a lovely reflection and celebration of women @piscofrisco enjoy your solo breakfast, and yes, hopefully this too shall pass. I've only coped this week by browsing property in the Hebrides and fantasising about my retirement there. (a decades long desire, my plan was originally for next May when I get my private pension, but DD will only be 14)

<wistful sigh>

Happy IWD all!

It’s an utterly glorious day here and I’m going to force myself into the garden (I just can’t seem to want to do it) to sweep and tidy and make it look nice again. DH has been sawing wood out there and it’s only a wee courtyard so you can imagine the state of it. I’ve got tête a tête daffs to plant in the front garden too so that’s cheering.

I can’t wait for summer to plant all my beautiful trailing plants - our bedroom looks over it and it brings me pure joy.

I’m going to a silent vigil for Afghan women later (we do one each month). Last month we were called nazis so hoping for no heckling today. My brother and his GF are also coming to stay and we have a christening to go to. Busy!

Also - I purchased some (lots) of habitat tomato leaf stuff with a sainsbury voucher I found. I will use it today and report back.

Happy International Women's Day everyone

Pretty chill weekend here. Hopefully weather dries up for trip to the beach later.

Need a new candle so will be spending time sniffing various scents today

I long to go to the Hebrides. On my own preferably. Or with the dogs. It's been on my list forever. One of these days I might just pack up the car and get myself to the ferry. It's seems closer by the day with these mardy kids killing my vibes on the daily .
I've been to Homesense and bought myself some sea salt scented candles to cheer myself up.

Thank you @RainbowZebraWarrior and @Bimblesalong

I felt well enough to sit outside in the sunny corner of the garden this morning with my cup of tea. DD came with me and we did some chalk drawings on the side of the garage.

I look forward to the tomato leaf scent reviews - I love that smell.

Hello all. I've been a busy bee today (and the bees have been busy!) Done loads of washing which was a pleasure to hang out on the line and made a big batch of Propolis Balm.

As suspected, after a massive infestation of giant willow aphid last summer, my willow tree has died. I usually cut some nice lengths of pussy willow at this time of year, so I'll be nicking some of my parents instead.

Just checked the Aurora forecast. The solar wind has good speed currently with good periods of southerly direction and there is good interplanetary magnetic strength. If it keeps up, then there is a good chance of a decent Aurora display in Scotland and Northern England. The moon is just over half full so this may reduce some visibility, but fingers crossed! It's currently very misty at Shetland and I've just heard the foghorn go off over the fields here, so I hope that doesn't put the kibosh on things.

Photo from my parents garden at about 5pm. You can see the mist in the distance.

Went for this candle which is magnolia and cardamom

Smells lovely and only £3.50 in Sainsbury's

I know fancy candles are Nigel's go to. But I can't resist a bargain. And it does smell nice and not intrusive

@RainbowZebraWarrior I think you are probably safe to still post the webcam links - I've also never seen any requests for payment. @Writerscompanion I wonder if you accidentally clicked on an ad, or even a 'prove you're human' check box that diverted you to the marketing site? I've noticed some really sophisticated scam adverts recently, it's so annoying.

Happy IWD to you all, and sending to all who need them whether to wish you good health or good spirits.

Bit of a damp squib so far Aurora wise. Typical when it gets hyped up. If it all kicks off at 1am then that's just a pair of tough titties as I've stayed up long enough.

Night, all.

Even a steroid night hasn’t yielded the merry dancers, we are just a bit too low on the auroral circle. I’d like to see them again. That spectacular aurora night last May was the day all this nonsense kicked off for me with the screening that saved me. I’d like closure on the other side!

in the morning I will wander down the garden to see how my little white bulbs are faring. The bees were starting to come out yesterday, it was good to see them but I hope they’re tucked up for the little cold snap due next week.

@noodlezoodle entirely possible! I'm glad if I'm wrong. All I remembered is it said 0.01 to access the livestream and then in my junk emails I've got the message that it's a 1 day trial.

Good morning all. Awfully misty here which has led me to enjoy a bit of a lazy morning so far. Once it burns off, I'm going round the gardens with a list as my gardener is back tomorrow. (Aka neighbours son) I have a lutyens bench under a tree in the front that is deperate to be sanded and treated. I've also treated myself to some burgen and ball gardening gloves.

I've also updated my shopping lists and preferences as I'm trying to buy as much British and EU goods as possible. We have our own eggs and a lot of home grown fruit and veg, so subsequently a lot of pickles and chutneys, but I'd love to do more in that vein.

Loving the look and sound of all the candles. I've had a word with myself after last weeks candle count. It's the dopamine hit I'm going for via the acquisition, but it gets out of hand and tips into hoarding. deletes F&M basket and Ebay watchlist

Hope everyone is well and has a lovely Sunday.

An excerpt from today's entry in Kitchen Diaries:

Dinner out tonight, so just a quick snack for lunch. The perfect salad sandwich is all about the vitality of the ingredients: the uber-freshness of the watercress, the jelly-soft tomatoes, the crunch of the ice-cold cucumber and the heat of the radishes against the soft, white and impeccably fresh bread. If you are not obsessively fussy about every detail of this sandwich, it won't hit the spot.

I'm really not sure about 'jelly-soft tomatoes'

My absolute favorite salad sandwich is loads of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and boiled egg sliced with my 1970s egg slicer. It then has to be slathered in salad cream with plenty of white pepper.

We are definitely kindred spirits on this thread @RainbowZebraWarrior I also have a lutyens bench which needs sanding and oiling.

It’s a lovely day here. Im in the sun with hat and sunnies, resting and reading whilst dh potters (hoping for him to do some directed gardening!). I’m hoping over the usual pattern that this extreme fatigue will start to lift Tues / Weds.

White flowers are out and the garlic has sprouted well.

I have the music from Phantom Thread on my earbuds - I love quirky films and this was a real favourite.

@RainbowZebraWarrior i like an old-fashioned salad sandwich but agree that tomatoes should not be that soft, and it doesn’t feel very March to me. Talk to me about them in June. (Also, tomato and mayonnaise on granary is my absolute favourite). I’m just having mushrooms on toast for my lunch - new bakers at the farmers market this weekend and I am very happy with their sourdough. Also 2/3 of the price of the previous baker that used to come to our farmers market so that’s a win.
I’m taking a break from barrowing a builder’s bag of mulch from the front of the drive to the raised veg beds at the back of the garden. I reckon I’ve done half yesterday and today but now my arms and legs are tired so I’ve slowed right down. I just popped next door for a bowl of frogspawn because they have loads and we have lazy frogs in our pond. And here is a nice picture of a daffodil admiring itself (or looking for frogspawn)

Well the legend of Narcissus did have him admiring his reflection in a pool!

A beautiful day here on the south coast, 16C this afternoon and wonderful sunshine.

We have spent the day in the garden, very restorative, and it all looks much tidier now and I feel on top of things. I had an encounter with a rather large Boris (probably a Borisette in fact) in my potting shed, but we agreed I would leave the shed and give her ten minutes to hide herself somewhere, an outcome agreeable to both of us. My arachnaphobia is very inconvenient when I have to dig about for things in the shed.

By 3.30pm it was time to sit on the bench in the sun with a cold glass of wine and admire the results of our endeavours. The plant man was at the market for the first time this year yesterday and I'm glad I took the opportunity to buy these beauties to cheer up the rather dull hanging baskets (the hellebores have just stopped flowering). I have been admiring them nodding in the breeze.