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!

I do not want any of you to think my house is tidy! Or rather, I’d love it if you all imagined it was but I don’t want to mislead you 🤣 Maureen does often get stuck on shoelaces (three teens here, trainers live in the middle of the floor. DH isn’t much better) and cat toys. But overall she is a good addition to the household, we just have to go and locate her in the morning

Love those rings - and not for the first time on these treads, I'm realising how much I need a seaglass ring.

Went for a walk along part of the Fife coast at the weekend - it's a lovely spot for seaglass and I have come home with pockets full. I'm sure I have said before, I tend to have it is jars and bowls in the bathroom but really should do something more creative.

It's such a beautiful day today. DH is working away overnight and I actually really enjoyed getting up this morning. By that I meant hat I'm normally up before him and creep around in the dark,getting ready and leaving the house without disturbing him. This morning, however, I put some music on as soon as I got up and opened the window to air out the bedroom while I was getting ready. The birdsong this morning was magnificent and the quality of light as I left the house was lovely - a golden tinge to everything and, with the freshness of the air, it felt like a perfect spring morning. Rather than bury my head in a book, or my emails, as usual, I sat back on the bus and enjoyed the sunrise as we moved towards Edinburgh.

I'm currently reading a book where the Candian protagonist, living in Scotland, laments that everyone seems shocked when she complains about the cold because she should be used to much colder temperatures. She explains that while Canadian winters are much colder, it's a dry cold which (I'm paraphrasing here but the exact language is lovely) shocks and burns your skin, but doesn't get into your body and your bones the way the damp Scottish cold does. She also notes that, for a country which deals with this kind of cold regularly, we are shockingly bad at preparing for it - we have a cultural expectation that it shouldn't be cold, and therefore we wear normal clothes and are angered by the cold, while looking down on gore-tex and other types of clothing and footwear which would make it all more bearable. There's a lot of truth in that.

Sunny here, too. What a difference it makes. I can hear so many different birds and I saw the blue tits finally get their turn on the feeders just as I was making a cup of tea.

I love that wreath decoration @Seasidebubbles I have a lot of 'non jewellery' bits which I have put to one side for possible Christmas crafting. My problem is that I spend a lot of time perusing gift shops and craft markets. Every time i see something pretty I think "I could make that!" so I end up with a never ending crafting to do list.

This was my most recent example. Tiny candles with a tiny holder in a box not that much bigger than a match box. Spotted them last night in my local gift shop for £7.99. I have air drying clay and i have beeswax and wicks. I reckon I could make them for about 50p! (Let's see if I actually find the time before the week is out)

@RainbowZebraWarriori have the same issue - don’t buy things like because I think I can make them myself but the reality is that while I probably could, I won’t make the time and should just buy the thing!
Lucky you in fife, @PricklyBob! My husband is a fife native and we love visiting MIL and walking on the glorious coast. He was up this weekend (seeing his mum and going to the rugby) and walked from Crail to Elie in the sunshine while I stayed home to ferry DD about etc, mostly watching the rain

I'm just perusing the bits we picked up yesterday at the charity shop. DD was clutching a cat book for 50p and muttering that the books were buy one get one free. I told her I couldn't see anything I wanted, then she wandered over with this, so I thought Good Find! It has such a personal inscription inside, I find it hard to understand why anyone would have given it away. It also has this bookmark inside, which I rather like.

Those rings are beautiful @RainbowZebraWarrior lovely job done on setting the sea glass.

I hosted our book group last night and realised it’s the first time I’ve had such a large group of friends in my house in a couple of years. A real milestone for me. We had read Rory Stewart’s the places in between, which had made quite an impression.

What’s the book @PricklyBob ? Sounds a good un. I lived in Canada (Montreal) for a few months as a teenager whilst dad worked part of his sabbatical year at McGill. We were there in the depths of winter and I recall waist-deep snow. I wrote to my teacher at home and described the cold (sometimes -30°) in similar terms, as it was dry and bright. We didn’t have the technical clothing we had today but were well layered by mum and gran’s knitting.

What a good book find @RainbowZebraWarrior. I like the tiny candles too - reminds me I need to look for some decent tealights for the oil burner. There's a local candle maker here who as far as I can work out lives a couple of streets away, I should check out his website again.

@PricklyBob Fife is so lovely. How very true about the Scottish/ British cold too!

I meant to say @SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense that Maureen is an excellent name for the hoover. I feel like I have to wait for mine to arrive to name it 😆

We've had primroses out since December, just the odd one but more coming out now, they have gradually colonised our garden over the last 10 years or so and are all around the edges of the lawn, so pretty.

Ooh I've missed some posts this morning due to taking so long to type my own.

That sounds like a good milestone @Bimblesalong I've just been looking at the February deals on Audible, and Rory Stewart's book The Marches is on offer at £3.99. Also, Alison Steadman's autobiography which I mentioned last week. I've snaffled Cider with Rosie read by the lovely Laurie Lee himself as I haven't actually read it since it was the first book we covered in GCSE English!

All quiet here - apart from Darcy purring - as DD still asleep. She has her B12 shot later today so has been really tired the past week or so.

I'm another who loves the Fife coastline and I am currently looking at holiday cottages in the area for May half term since DD changed her mind about Paris this year.

Popped out into the garden at lunchtime...

Dodged the rain for today’s walk. Took these photos. Very sheltered national trust garden.

What beautiful perfect crocuses @martha79 - mine are all the bog-standard dark purple.
I have had my washing on the line today! A full set of bedding. I'm going to get it in in a mo and drape it around to finish off, but this is a real spring milestone.

They're unusual, aren't they @SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense ? I can't remember if there are more patches of those ones, I can only see one lot at the moment.

Robot hoover is here! I've named him Robert the Robot. He is doing a decent job - I reckon I'll still have to do a 'thorough' hoover once a month or so but he should keep on top of things. The cats are very confused.

Ooh, welcome Robert!
My cats take absolutely zero notice of Maureen, much to everybody’s disappointment - we hoped they would ride around on them like cats on YouTube do

Lovely flower pics!

Wetherspoons Mark 2 was full of screaming kids and dirty plates everywhere. DD also said it smelled of fried chicken and cheap ketchup, so that was a no go. Luckily today I had a back up plan. We went to our usual local Italian restaurant and had the lunchtime special. I now feel like I've overdosed on garlic.

Called by the beach before the sun set and blew the cobwebs away for 5 minutes. Couldn't face any longer though as its bitterly cold.

Also made some dipped taper candles. Going to do some of the mini ones now.

Oh those rings are gorgeous @RainbowZebraWarrior!

We've seen the sun today and it really lifted me. And I noticed that it was light about 7am. However I think we have a snow warning so let's see. I discovered today that I can pay cheques in to my bank on my app. Unfortunately I was in the bank branch when I discovered this...🤣. At least I'll know for next time

@martha79 you're definitely going to have to organise this kind of a caper with the cats.

It's absolutely chucking it down here, has been all day, with some thunder and hail thrown in for good measure which is very unusual. My weather app said it was 5 degrees this morning with a 'feels like' temp of -2 - Norcal is warmer than the south but still, that is not what we're used to in these parts! As we're right by the sea we also have a very damp cold which gets right in your bones.

@noodlezoodle it's going to take a while to reach that stage - they keep running away from it!

@RainbowZebraWarrior what a beautiful blue sky.

Back to grey and cold here today and I'm trying to stop myself from being on the warpath at work, but I am really annoyed about certain things - mainly, people not communicating and having to endlessly chase them for answers/ action. Some of them are quite senior which makes it trickier but I'm really sick of it. And I've eaten all my flapjack. Might need to make more later.

As someone that lived in Canada I can attest to your Canadian characters winter assessment @PricklyBob
I haven’t read anything by Rory Stewart. I will give him a go based on your book club reaction @Bimblesalong.
And a big hello to everyone else
Arrived in Antigua save and sound. But would you believe it-it’s chucking it down!! But it is at least warm rain so an improvement on uk rain to some degree. I went for a lovely sea swim in it and plan more of the same today. Woke up at my usual Uk time so that was 1am here, so a snooze will also be in order later I would imagine. The island is so far quite pretty and very lush and green. DH is conferencing so I have the day to myself. Perfect!
have a lovely Tuesday all

As someone that lived in Canada I can attest to your Canadian characters winter assessment @PricklyBob
I haven’t read anything by Rory Stewart. I will give him a go based on your book club reaction @Bimblesalong.
And a big hello to everyone else
Arrived in Antigua save and sound. But would you believe it-it’s chucking it down!! But it is at least warm rain so an improvement on uk rain to some degree. I went for a lovely sea swim in it and plan more of the same today. Woke up at my usual Uk time so that was 1am here, so a snooze will also be in order later I would imagine. The island is so far quite pretty and very lush and green. DH is conferencing so I have the day to myself. Perfect!
have a lovely Tuesday all

Oh, warm rain sounds wonderful from here @piscofrisco . Have a great time in Antigua.

Windswept Wednesday here, I'm hunkering down with radio 3 and a book about the vices of Georgian London. Pancake party last night, including a beetle drive - blast from the past but lots of fun.

Warm rain sounds lovely @piscofrisco, especially swimming in it.

@leporello Beetle drive - that's definitely a blast from the past, great fun!

It's not actually rained here today so I've managed to wash my coverless duvet and get that outside to dry. Having an afternoon cuppa with a Waitrose lemon & white chocolate hot cross bun - I'm not sure about all this messing around with the traditional bun, but it this one is pretty nice. More lemony than chocolatey so not too sweet.

Oh Antigua, how wonderful. Do enjoy @piscofrisco even the warm rain. I member (what seems like a different life) getting married in the Caribbean and it rained every day at 11am on the dot. We would all pile in the pool and go to the swim up bar for a rum cocktail.

Do we all think Nigel is in Japan? His insta has been very quiet, and it was Valentines Day last year when he posted some gorgeous pics of his trip.

So cold here. We also have a crazy wind and it sounds like the last of my fence panels may be coming down. There's only two that haven't been replaced since storm Arwen.

Anyhoo, the Toon are Five Nowt up in the Champions League 1st leg play off and it's only half time, so I'm happy with that for now.

Busy day making dipped candles again. I've been experimenting with different sizes and also made some clay holders. It's never going to make me millions, but it's such an enjoyable thing to do 😊

@piscofrisco how wonderful. Enjoy every moment.

I love their St Clements buns-orange and lemon. I'm not a fan of white chocolate.