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!

When we were in Dumfries last weekend we randomly ended up looking at a display of historic truncheons (trunchea? 😂) Who knew they were like buses. Literally years without seeing or hearing of one, then …

Oh Lord! Fatigue and brain fog strikes again. I just almost put ibuprofen gel in DDs soup. Note to self: don't keep the ibuprofen gel next to the garlic paste in the fridge.

Hope everyone is well. @AgathaMystery hope you're on the mend my lovely x

It’s strange but lovely having him back. He’s doing his fair share of chores so sharing the mental load and there’s another person here .

@Confusedmeanderingsthe heater would make a fab light

Not sure if anyone watched Saturday Kitchen this morning. But this is the Dirty Martini / G&T cocktail they did. It’s alright the more you drink the better it is. The daffs in the background are going over now but have been lovely and like how they aren’t the usual yellow colour.

@RainbowZebraWarrior I’ll take that mix up and present you with the time a tube of toothpaste had a design very close to Boots’ own thrush cream. Nvn and minty fresh.

Lovely to hear of domestic bliss and cocktails @CrushingOnRubies just as much as I am enjoying truncheon talk!

My dad does keep a 19th century truncheon under the bed. Not sure if it was inherited or an auction lot.

@CrushingOnRubies 🤣🤣🤣

Jesus Christ @Bimblesalong that’s one hell of a mix up!!

@CrushingOnRubies i bet it’s nice/odd to have him back. Takes time to settle back into sharing your space doesn’t it.

@RainbowZebraWarrior I’m okay I think. The absolute blessing has been the glorious weather. I don’t know what I’d have done if I’d had this op in the winter.

My garden is looking fab with very little encouragement. The bulbs I put in last year are coming up and are absolutely NOT the colours I put in. I put in queen of night and pale peach tulips. I’ve got magenta pink and hot orange & red. Absolutely horrific but funny.

The nicest thing has been two totally surprising visits from old friends who were in the area (sort of). It’s been absolutely lovely to see them and I’m over the moon that they made the time to see me/us. It really was the highlight of my year so far. So if you’re thinking about dropping in on an old friend; do.

Also my magpie (which I’ve decided is definitely my friend Helen) has been here each day.

@AgathaMysteryyes exactly! How are you getting on, hope family members are still looking after you and you’re recovering well.

gosh all these mix up of tubes 😂

@AgathaMystery and we were on a romantic mini break at the time 🤣🤣🤣

Shuddering also at brightly coloured tulip accidents - it’s interesting when the colours change a bit in subsequent years too.

I am getting impatient with my dahlia corms. No green yet and they’ve been by the garage window, then brought out on sunny days. I need to get last year’s out of the shed and plant them up too. I keep talking to them but it’s getting me nowhere.

Hello all and hope everyone is doing well.

I'm still wading through treacle. Most annoying.

I've spent the past couple of days in bed watching old 1980's episodes of Brookside. A lot of the scenes were filmed in gardens. My phone kept pinging saying Merlin had heard a new bird. Turns out it was hearing chaffinches etc on the TV from four decades ago.

Earth has just been hit by a mass coronal ejection tonight, so Aurora possibilities are good if you have clear skies where you are. Sadly, it's very cloudy here.

Had a delivery of a new bird bath today, so managed to get it roughly in position at the bottom of the back garden.

4/11 of mine are showing. The rest, not a peep of green

P.S. Please ignore the dreadful state of the fence. It's the only part of the garden that didn't get replaced after srorm Arwen.

Hei everyone! It's been a nice slow morning so far catching up with the thread and a good hot coffee. Still lovely to read about your gardens, antiques and general life.
The aurora has been interesting to read about, when I used to live by the fjord I could see it a lot from the balcony as the clouds would pass quickly, but here in the mountains we get very strong readings on my app, but lots of cloud cover.
From midday today we start our Easter holidays (Påskeferie). 12 is when all businesses and barnehages close, then shops will reopen Saturday for a short time and then back to normal on Tuesday.
It's full on Påske kos! Lots of decorated eggs hanging on trees outside, we will put a little "tree" up with eggs on at home. Well, it's more of a vase with twigs from outside. We have a box called Påske kos, with decorations and yellow candles that we set up. And of course Påske lilje, which is the tiny daffodils.
I think it's our families favourite holiday, you get to "slapp av" (which is one of my favourite phrases, as I feel it describes what you are doing perfectly, it's like a chill out, relax) together for a good amount of days, be outside, cook on the fire, ski, snowboard eat chocolate but generally be in the sunshine. The decorating part is so cosy, but with this holiday there's not the added stress like there can be at Christmas.
The new job is going well, I love it! It's been extended from March 2026 until January 2027 and my target group has moved to social inclusion for all. It's a nice blend of social research with different methodology, lobbying politicians and businesses, applying for grants, projects etc and actually being with people. I feel like Leslie Knope!
On Monday I had my first "event" it was a Påsketreff, so we had cooking on the fire, Easter egg hunt for the kids, a Natursti which is a mix between orienteering but with questions and a prize and general Easter cosiness in the forest. Everything was free, free food, free coffee, I baked cakes. It was veldig koselig. A nice thing was that we had many newly settled refugees attend. All of the newly settled refugees who are having their first Easter not in a reciever centre have had a basket of Easter goodness, with some traditional Norwegian Easter things like a Påske lilje, eggs for the kids and a course some Solo and Kvikklunsj.
After Easter I'll start a new Fellesskap Kafe. I've been working with a local volunteer centre and a the only cafe in the town/village. The cafe is only open on a Saturday. The cafe has agreed to open on Wednesdays for a few hours. It will be coffees, cakes, pastries etc but everything is free! The volunteer centre have agreed to staff it and support making the food. The idea is that it's a meeting place for the community every week, with no barriers for people. Hopefully a good starting point for a routine for people who may be a little socially isolated, a good point to practice the language and chat, build a little network or just get out of the house. I'll be there every week as well. I'm very excited!

@IngenTing that all sounds great. Love the sound of the Easter event and the variety for you.
The cafe sounds like "Chatty Wednesdays" in the cafe in Flea Bag. 😁
(Phoebe Waller-Bridge's TV comedy for anyone that missed it)

Wow @IngenTing that all sounds brilliant! You were up very early mind.

No movement here yet on dahlias @Bimblesalong and @SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense but I know they take 5 weeks from replanting the tubers. I only planted mine just shy of 3 weeks ago, so I'm reckoning by late April / first week of May I should see some shoots. We are always a week or two later here anyway.

P.S. thanks for the reminder. It made me check my outstanding items on my SR order. I have a pack of Verbena Rigida seedlings coming soon which I'd forgotten about and almost ordered again! BTW, there's 30% off for Easter currently with EASTER30, plus your £5 off your next order flyer if you got one in your last order.

That sounds brilliant @IngenTing Can you please tell your cold wind that we’ve had enough of it for now though?

I actually uncovered a couple of my dahlias today to check that I hadn’t overwatered them and to see if there was any green. All fine and no growth. I wonder if this peatless compost is not giving them what they need - or probably that it’s just too cold.

@IngenTingPåskeferie sounds wonderful I love learning about your Norwegian traditions. So glad that your new job is going well. And the new cafe sounds like a great idea

Must admit Bimbles that all the peat free Compost is utter pants. I used to get a brilliant Compost for years from our allotment shop. Quite a few of my seeds have failed this year, too. I'll be rethinking my seed planting in future as it's a bit of a waste of time and money. I know dahlias like a tomato type feed when they are flowering, but I was thinking of giving them a bit of blood, fish and bone like I do my roses to start them off. I should probably leave well alone.

I’ve bought the Sarah raven dahlia feed this year. I plan to use it when I pot the dahlias on - if they ever make a move! Must put last year’s stored dahlias into pots soon and leave them to it.

Evening, all. We found a little bit of energy today and sorted a few bits out in the lounge. DD built a new bookcase and I sorter through some of my vinyl. I found this which was the second single I ever bought with my own money (Summer Loving from Grease being the first, earlier in 1978)

I've moved the record player and DD wants to go to our little local vinyl shop to find some Jazz records to play.

Hope everyone is well. It's raining here, but I'm keeping fingers crossed for a break in the clouds. The solar wind is excellent tonight. Such a shame it couldn't have been the case when we had clear skies for 11 days in a row recently. There was nowt to see here last night, but the show on The Shetland Cliff Cam 3 was spectacular.

I keep getting alerts - apart from the fact that it’s still daylight and thick cloud cover it’s all fine 🙄

Weather better than expected here. So got out in the garden and pruned a thyme bush which not only survived winter but has thrived. Tried not only cut back the dead bits but still cut some living bits as collateral damage. I have dehydrated the living bits to be used at a later date and the kitchen smells lovely.

unfortunately Sw England isn’t great for Aurora sightings but love hearing about your attempts to spot it.

We got a glimpse of the autura in Hampshire just after 10

That's fab @EarlierDistraction and good timing to have spotted it. The solar wind swung really far south for a time last night, - just when you had clear skies - then just after 10pm, it swung North again. There were some lovely pics coming in from Cornwall. We had cloudy skies here so only got the briefest glimpse through the occasional gaps. Better luck tonight hopefully.

Yes, it only lasted a few minutes even though it didn’t cloud over, I was lucky with timing. It was very faint, nothing at all by naked eye and that was a 10s exposure. Will be out again tonight, although we have a lot of light pollution from streetlights they are all to the south and west of the house so the view northwards is relatively dark.