Year round Nigel Slater discussion thread - Part 3

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Hello, all and welcome to this lovely space for our continued chats.

A bit of background for anyone not familiar with this topic:
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, gardening, appreciation of the weather, and sharing of news and small moments of joy. It's a calm, cosy space for gentle chat and merriment so pull up a chair to the fireplace, grab a drink and relax.

A very hearty welcome to friends new and old!

Many thanks for this lovely space.

Present!

Thank you for the new thread

just got this book out of the library so hi from me!

Here's a link to this winter's CC readalong thread in case anyone lands here and wants to follow.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/christmas/5444762-the-nigel-slater-christmas-chronicles-readalong-2025-part-2?page=1

Many thanks RZW 🍄

Thank you @RainbowZebraWarrior .

I have got my mini Christmas cakes in the oven. Nigel’s recipe with a bit of pumpkin spice mix added.

Thank you RZW!

Sunny and 16 degrees here again today, it does not feel at ALL autumnal, let alone wintery. Thanksgiving next week so will try and take pics of any good holiday displays that I see.

Good Morning.
Thank you for the very thoughtful birthday wishes! What a lovely surprise! And how on earth did you remember?

I've just had the best hour sitting alone with a cup of Yorkshire tea (mum sends me boxes) catching up on the thread. Life has been life this last few weeks, but now I am back on an even footing.

Winter has hit hard and fast! Minus 18 has been the norm the last week, but today is a balmy minus 6! Lots of snow which is wonderful. The warm white winter lights ate starting to appear, we will put ours up today. We have a l9vely weekend planned of winter lights, christmas baking and hygge. It's very much needed. The pictures are from the waterfall opposite my work.

I ventured once into the CC thread, but I am already 3 weeks behind, so will curl up with my wool socks in this koselig corner instead.

@RainbowZebraWarrior your offer of sending me candles is incredible. It's so very generous of you. I would like to return the thought though and send you a little basket of Norwegian beautiful-ness. I was thinking some brunost, some preserved reindeer or moose, but let me know if you have any allergies etc.

I'm going to make some waffles for breakfast and enjoy the snow today.

Oh, I forgot to say, @Bimblesalong your dresser makes me want to visit your house for a cup of tea and a slice of cake.

@IngenTing I remembered your birthday as it is the same day as my DD. I'm absolutely thrilled with the idea of a festive parcel swap. I don't get to do many parcels these days as our family is so small and I love sending and receiving things in the post.

Right, I'm off to go and find a suitable box and start collecting some bits together 😊

If you are ever in the area, @IngenTing , you’d be very welcome. Lovely chilly pictures.

I’m bundled up in bed at my bro’s, having met my chemo target of driving this longer distance on my own. We have plans to go into the local town later for sightseeing and good coffee. Tonight, we are attending a festival at the local church.

DS is on a flight to Brisbane with his gf. Off to hang out with one of Ds’ close school friends for a couple of weeks. I’m looking forward to the stories of the creatures they meet!

Just checking in, thank you @RainbowZebraWarrior , hope you and Dd enjoyed her birthday.

@ExquisiteDresses those look like they're going to be lovely. 😋

@noodlezoodle Is that normal for where you are, or unexpectedly warm?

Belated birthday wishes @IngenTing 🎂& DD🎂 @RainbowZebraWarrior

You will always be twinned birthday's on here @IngenTing I remember smiling at RZW's absolute delight last year at realizing.
Somewhere around the same time you gave us all a present in the form of a Norwegian saying that I thought was a useful attitude and committed to memory.
It translated as "No such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes!" which I've been mindful of ever since.

Glad to hear you are back on an even footing, and that you have the joy of snow alongside it being so cold. I'm also struggling with the fast pace of CC thread, but it's nice to see so much enthusiasm.

Here it's been hovering around -1 to -2 at night, and 3 to 8 daytime.
it's very very unusually only just getting to the point where we're about to go to go and harvest all the last apples still on the trees in an old orchard we go out to. Small ones where left to mature as too small and are now perfect, but frost will take them soon, so assuming no one else has got there first in the last couple of days, we're going to do a second harvest leaving the damaged for the birds.
Still lots of falling leaves, and some pretty trees about.
We also have what has to be the final crop of strawberries in heated polythene greenhouse to deal with, with space pressingly needed for spinach.
Am learning about the pro's and cons of heating and polythene,

Our robin and the chickens are having none of this autumn in November stuff., The robin's eating as full time job, and the 'not my chickens' have stopped laying and aren't impressed with being regularly turned out in a desire for them not to become de facto barn hens.

@Bimblesalong Glad you met your target.Hope the coffee and festival where good. and @Seasidebubbles Good to see you checking in here.

I've pinched this lovely picture to say its the cover pic comes for "Wild Scandinavia" available on BBC" I player, and it's very worth watching, and an excellent balance for dissonance at second harvests and red and yellow leaves on the trees in late November.

"it's very very unusually only just getting to the point where we're about to go to go and harvest all the last apples still on the trees in an old orchard we go out to. Small ones where left to mature as too small and are now perfect, but frost will take them soon, so assuming no one else has got there first in the last couple of days, we're going to do a second harvest leaving the damaged for the birds."

We picked many in October, but left quite a lot on my parents trees. I was really surprised at how big those little ones are now that we left on the branches. The window cleaner has enjoyed picking a dozen each week to take home for his wife to make apple pie with as we already have too many (I don't know why, but I feel that sounds a bit Dickensian, reading it back)

My father had the bright idea of bringing a couple of crates of apples into the house to store in the 'back room' as he calls it. I'm actually surprised that he was surprised to come downstairs early yesterday morming to find a mouse sitting in the middle of the crate nibbling on an apple. He reckons they 'always come indoors in winter' and whilst this may be partly true - as they live next to farmland - I'm not going to be the one to break this to my Mother!

😂 I love the idea of this mouse nibbling on an apple before it goes into hibernation.

dog and I were going to see Santa paws today. But didn’t in the end. So went to the range to get a broom.

dp might be away but his dm still has the capability to wind me up. She wants to swap Christmas trees. Took the mumsnet advice of no is a full sentence and said no. Ours is much nicer and cost more I think. And also fear it might be the start of a slippery slope

my parents are staying over night this week. So spare bedroom is being used for the first time. So sprucing up to avoid to much judging from my parents

Ah the joys of families. You hang on to that Christmas tree @CrushingOnRubies !

I’ve been keeeping an eye on the family tracker thingy and ds1 has just popped up in the countryside just outside Brisbane. He’s there for a fortnight, staying with a school friend, lucky chap. I don’t like the idea of 24 hours on a plane, but exploring new countryside appeals to me (don’t mention the spiders!).

I found Sarah Raven’s Christmas book in a charity shop last week so took an hour this afternoon in front of the log burner with a glass of wine to look at it. Sadly, because I’ve always quite liked her (although we will overlook the fiasco of her garden company these days), it is pretty useless. I also treated myself to Skye McAlpine’s one - brand new! - which is much nicer. I think SR might have lost the plot if she genuinely sprays runner beans silver and scatters them on horizontal surfaces / strings them into garlands. And some of her recipes are really unappealing.
@Bimblesalong , I used to work with a chap who had spent 6 months in Brisbane. It was when he told me about the huntsman spider the size of his fist that lived in his shower ‘but I liked it because it ate the cockroaches’ that I decided Australia was not for me 😂

I’ve finally finished taking up my dahlias, @SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense and the majority of them have gall or some other fungal disease. Some never got going. I’m going to have to start afresh with new tubers next year - including washing and sanitising the pots they go into.

yep, that comment about the huntsman was echoed by my son’s friend!

@EphemeraleEudemonia, that's pretty normal, I'm in San Francisco. In normal times, our winter is a few rainy months and it rarely gets below 10ish degrees. It's only when I'm visiting family in England that I get to see 'frosty breath' and I miss it!

Lovely puffin picture, they are my absolute favourite.

Cracking up at @RainbowZebraWarrior's mouse buffet, and equally tickled by
@SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense's silver runner beans. That does sound somewhat.... erm, let's be kind and say eccentric.

I’m not lifting mine. They can stay in the wet frozen ground and think about what they’ve done 😂

I've been pining for the Skye McAlpine book ever since I saw it included in a Fortnum & Mason hamper! I've been patiently waiting for it to either come down in price, or pop up on Vinted for a quid (probably never going to happen)

@Bimblesalong oh the tales I could tell about my time in Aus. I did a lot of backpacking, and on one memorable loo stop, I went to an outside privvy, only to find four huntsman's on the ceiling. My Dad also spent a lot of time in Aus (retired at 54 and went backpacking) He borrowed my best mates backpack and ended up spending 5 hours in customs at Brisbane Airport as the sniffer dogs smelled drugs. He rang me after it was all over and said "Owt you want to tell me?" It was only then that I remembered my friend used to enjoy an occasional joint whilst hiking in the Lakes. Hope your DS enjoys his time there. Aus is amazing and I bet he comes back wanting to return.

@CrushingOnRubies No is definitely a full sentence and one I like to use a lot. That sounds like a difficult situation, so absolutely stand your ground my lovely.

Ha! @SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense mine were in pots and do not last if I don’t lift them.

@RainbowZebraWarrior I think ds will
enjoy seeing the wildlife. His gf, on the other hand, is mortally afeared of spiders. Interesting times …

Thank you @RainbowZebraWarrior&@Bimblesalong spent years dreaming of owning this tree and ages curating the decorations. I will continue putting my foot down everytime it’s mentioned

No well I’m not expecting them to reappear. But they’ve been so bad this year I can’t find the enthusiasm to pamper them