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!

Hugs too to @martha79 My memory is crap and typing on a little phone, I forget what I had planned to say!

I spent a wet afternoon in the museum last year @Bimblesalong it was amazing, the only thing for me was that i haven't got a great head for heights and struggled to walk around the atrium.

i am also going to Mentin this year-in June, whilst DH is at the annual advertising conference in Cannes. I am going for a bit then going off on my own and leaving him to it. I look forward to your report back @LillianGish. We are going to the Jardin on Saturday all being well, and the YSL museum .
your Scottish trip sounds brilliant @Bimblesalong
i hope we are all tucked up indoors. The wind! It’s just blown our front door wide open. I have packed whilst watching Cheltenham (and I won £16 on the 4.20!), now doing DSS’s sparks reading for him (I have hit quite invested in the book). The DSS’s gave me a lovely candle for Mother’s Day as I won’t see them-it’s a Home Counties candle co one. They got me the Hertfordshire flavour one as they know I’m homesick for there. Beautiful packaging and it smells lovely-though I wi set how they decided what each county should smell like? The Derbyshire one is Bakewell Tart inspired I think, Herts is Bluebell woods.

oh I like them @piscofrisco - Ive just had a look at all the counties I feel an affinity for. No Fife as yet but I have requested it! We live in Cheshire, cotton (good); I'm from Surrey, lavender (not sure about that), I'm half-Cornish (salt, obvs). Edinburgh ought to smell of the brewery really, but I'll take wood smoke. Etc. I think they will make good gifts! Annoying pop-ups on the website though.
I'm sitting on my hands here listening to DH swear as he tries to replace the mop head. I am not going to take over, maybe that will teach him not to mop the patio with it. No I have NO IDEA what he was thinking.

Gosh, you lot really are jet setters. I've never even heard of Mentin before. Makes me feel a bit thick and totally out of touch travel-wise.

@piscofrisco I also do DDs Sparks reader homework. I've read some great books! I'm currently reading one about some escapees from a concentration camp.

It's wild weather here on the Staffs / Derbyshire border, positively blowing a hoolie.

I've spoken at a conference today and then did a boot camp. I pulled a 65kg sled which is a new thing for me. I'm enjoying weights a lot.

I can really feel the days getting longer and my magnolia is bursting into bud. This is a photo from yesterday...when it wasn't wild and wet!

Those candles sound lovely @piscofrisco - laughing at myself though as I'm objecting to them putting the whole of Yorkshire together, and I'm not even a native. Also missing a trick not having a nice Dundee marmalade one! I do really fancy the Lake District one though.

@SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense the brewery is definitely the smell I associate with Edinburgh (well, that or whatever 1990s student nightclubs smelled of 🤣) but it always makes me quite queasy.

Talking of 90s smells, I picked up a very cheap perfume oil that's an amazingly good match for Body Shop Ananya, which I used to love. I've been wafting that around all week.

That is impressive weight pulling @petitpasta!

Foul weather here too, I have been to my yoga class tonight and normally walk as it’s only 10 mins but didn’t think twice about driving tonight.

I like the sound of the candles too, they are hit and miss with my counties though.

Argyll and the Isles - Scotch Whisky, no thanks, can’t stand the stuff
Yorkshire - Rose, lovely and very appropriate
Hampshire - Rosewood and velvet moss, wouldn’t want to buy without trying
Gloucestershire - meadows and hedgerows, sounds nice.
The Cotswolds - fresh linen, nice
Bedfordshire - honey and nectar fruits, could be sickly

@martha79 I was a student in Edinburgh in the 90s! In fact I had a flatmate called Martha who I often think about and wonder where she is now 🤔 although if you were born in 1979 you are a bit younger than me. (Not a stalker I promise). What did you study and wasn’t it the best town to be a student in? And I loved the citrus club and that smelt primarily of damp and also of dry ice with an undertone of patchouli. Happy days.

Oh I could not agree more regarding MM.
I am in no way a prude or anti LGBT at all but I can't stand her. How she is edging towards National Treasure status is beyond me.

I studied music, second half of the 90s. How about you?

You're so right, it was a great time, and everywhere did smell of dry ice! I'm definitely not your flatmate (Martha is one of my cats 😄), but I also loved the Citrus club, although my absolute favourite was the Jaffacake. Top spot for damp was the Vaults, under some pub near the bridges, the walls were always soaking - it cannot have been healthy in there.

My brain seemed to think it was out clubbing last night, very busy and not conducive to sleeping. All I have to do today though is a bit of music teaching this morning and getting myself to the doctor's this afternoon.

Chemistry, graduated 1997 🥰
DD2 had a place there for next year (chemical engineering) - I’m not sure how she is going to feel about me reliving my youth when I visit her!
Bad sleep here too. The cat was chasing something at 4am and I didn’t really go back to sleep. I’m going for a walk with a friend this morning, then need to do some work, then out to watch a friend’s choir tonight. Hope he sings something a bit stirring to keep me awake!

Ooh, I’m a chemistry graduate too, Older and not Edinburgh though.

All the best people, @ExquisiteDresses !

@SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense I've talked to old uni friends about doing one of the afternoon clubbing events in Edinburgh sometime - would be quite funny as I remember us looking at the over-25s clubs and thinking how old that seemed 😂

Spent most of my morning in bed feeling dreadful, but I've now been to the docs - a friend gave me a lift up there, and we had a good chat and then a little wander at the city farm as she'd never been. They now have piglets to add the the baby goats. And there were rehearsals going on for an outdoor performance that's happening there tomorrow. All rather nice.

Back to bed for a bit now.

Blustery winds here all yesterday and last night.

My main project was indeed shut down Wednesday, and the excellent operating space that we could have done so much good with, is sadly about to be no more for anyone.

It was all surrounded by high drama and upset people, that my lot had to be safely navigated through. Ended up having to drive a couple of vulnerable folk out of there, and all very exhausting. Less vulnerable people failed to listen and left things behind in panic, and I now have to decide if I have to help them recover them or not. The blustery real storm following the man made one, felt very appropriate.

So now left with a couple of difficult tiny shared spaces only where only a few can meet at a time and many restrictions, including allowed (reluctantly by some) to do small scale things, but not officially advertise that we're there doing them.

Difficult, but it does however allow us to try and keep making, documenting and supporting, while trying to see if we might manage to find and relocate somewhere, at least, so a case of being grateful for small mercies.
Managed to put together a small emergency workshop somewhere in one of them yesterday, to reassure everyone that we will somehow keep going. (fingers crossed)

@RainbowZebraWarrior I've always known weather changes affect my levels of ability and disability in different ways. Fascinating to read a simple possible physical explanation for low pressure effects. It's given me an idea to try that might just make some differences. Thank you.
Mentin isn't somewhere I've heard of before either, along with huge numbers of places. Personally I was never 'in touch' in the first place, and appreciate how this thread allows me to naturally pick up all sorts of information and knowledge that I'd normally not be in any loop for.

@DameProfessorIDareSay It's lovely to hear your library houses a seed library.

@piscofrisco Love reading the words: "packing for Marrakesh."

@martha79 Sorry you're suffering. 💐 I had forgotten about the smell of Body Shop Ananya, thank you for the reminder, and lovely piglet pics.

@ExquisiteDresses your description of 'worthy book clubs' is exactly what scares me about trying to engage with them.

@LillianGish Happy birthday to your DD and hope you enjoy making and eating cake and the connections of it from child to young woman between you.

@SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense "smelt primarily of damp and also of dry ice with an undertone of patchouli" That sounds like a one of a range of future memory recall candles.

I hope Mr Darcy is still unaware of mousetrap, such a cute one. We have had a temporary indoors visit from a dunnock , which slammed into one of the windows. It was really stunned and needed keeping warm for a little while whilst it came round. Fortunately, it brightened up and is now back to itself in the garden.

I have run out of spoons after our busy and art-filled few days. I’ve done the minimum required in my office and am spending most of the day dozing. Fortunately, our greengrocers will deliver a mixed box of fruit and veg, as well as sourdough, so along with the milkman I’ve had no need to go out to stock the fridge. An easy veggie curry tonight, I think. @martha79 im glad you made it out for a little. You’re all right, this weather is exhausting on top of everything else.

Ha! @ExquisiteDresses , I know exactly what you mean. I did not cope well in Glasgow’s modern art museum, which has scary drops , stairs with holes through them with views right down and a lift with glass walls. At one point I was going around the connecting areas flattened onto the back of the wall. Why is that?!

Do you have plans for places to visit @piscofrisco ? It’s such a beautiful area and so much to see/ absorb.

Enjoying the student talk. Gosh, the days of nightclub smells and experiences. I played in a folk band when younger and was reflecting on the nights draped over my double bass in smoky clubs and pubs. It was alien then to think of a smoking ban but I’m so glad that’s now the rule.

@EphemeraleEudemonia Im so sorry to hear that the project is shutting down and all the strife/ loss with it. It sounds like absolutely essential work and also very full on for the resilience and emotions. I like what you say about picking stuff up - we learn an awful lot from you too.

my next read is to google the “Great Oxidation Event” which I learned about on a poster in the earth science part of the museum. It’s apparently when there was a surge of oxygen so there was more than the rocks could absorb, leaving extra oxygen for life.

"smelt primarily of damp and also of dry ice with an undertone of patchouli" That sounds like a one of a range of future memory recall candles. This has made me laugh so much @EphemeraleEudemonia - come on @RainbowZebraWarrior, it’s over to you 😂 Absolutely chucking it down all day here for DD’s birthday - I met her for a slightly damp lunch near where she is doing her internship. She chose a very un-Parisian American pancake/brunch type place! We’ll be cutting into the chocolate and coconut cake later (DS said it looks like it has been sprinkled with Parmesan!) On a more serious note, I’m so sorry to hear about your eviction @EphemeraleEudemonia - it sounds very brutal and dispiriting. I can only hope that something good will eventually emerge from it - something you can’t see yet, but awaits you in the future. You sound like an amazingly resilient person - sending all good wishes for the next phase.

Oh crikey @EphemeraleEudemonia that all sounds so awfully upsetting and sad. Sending hugs your way. How bitterly disappointing.

Yes, Mr D is still blissfully unaware of mousey, thankfully @Bimblesalong but I caught my neighbours (un neutered, virtually feral Tom) cat sniffing around yesterday where mousey likes to roam) Hope my little one is OK and I'll be looking for him later as it gets nearer to sunset. There was no signs last night in the atrocious rain and wind. Pleased your little Dunnock survived his collision.

I'm well impressed with your strength training @petitpasta and also love your Magnolia. I need to check if the small trees I bought last year are showing any signs of life. Fingers crossed.

Happy birthday to your DD @LillianGish Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Mopping the patio with a floor mop sounds like something my ex husband would have done @SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense A very intelligent man, and Director level in the Civil Service but I did question his common sense a lot with things around the home and garden.

What darling piglets @martha79 They look like Gloucester old spots? hope you're feeling a little better after a bit of rest.

We've had a tiring week here. I think both DD and I have had some sort of low level virus. We are both a bit wiped out and I have those tell tale spots on my tonsils that I am hoping doesn't turn into full blown tonsillitis. I will bombard my system with propolis in the form of lozenges. Thankfully I managed to get the chicken curry in the slow cooker earlier that I promised myself.

I did manage an hour down the beach timed with codeine and the high tide just before school pick up. And what a pick-me-up it was. I found some great treasures, including glass bottle stoppers, a codd marble, milk glass and bonfire glass. I also found a gorgeous seaglass bubble (a chunky, blue rounded piece; quite rare to find as most seaglass is usually flattish) I became aware of three ladies picking their way towards me and collecting seaglass as they went. I assumed they were fellow collectors until they walked right uo to me and put handfuls in my zip lock bag saying "we see you here all the time, and thought you would like these" I felt like a kid who had just had their Trick or Treat bucket filled with sweeties at Halloween!

It's funny, but I have noticed that folk have some deep and personal conversations when they are at the beach. I hear snippets every day about health, house sales and ageing parent issues. It always feels a tad intrusive, but then the sound carries on the wind and you just can't help but overhear.

Anyway, a happy Friday to you all and hope everyone has a peaceful and enjoyable evening. Sunset here is finally after 6pm, but it's also forecast to go down to zero tonight, so the stove will be going on (mostly for Mr D) once darkness falls.

Sending restful vibes and more spoons to all that need them for enjoyment over the weekend.

Really sorry to hear about your project @EphemeraleEudemonia and that it was all so stressful.

@Bimblesalong it's amazing we thought nothing of the smoke indoors at that point, but it'd be horrible walking into a smokey room now.

That's a fabulous cake @LillianGish - happy birthday to DD!

Love the fact you are recognised as the sea glass lady @RainbowZebraWarrior. I've definitely had some deep conversations on beaches.

I think the pigs are Oxford Sandy and Blacks (not claiming pig expertise but of the breeds they list having, those are the only multicoloured ones).

martha79; I remember walking past a pub with large glass windows, and you literally couldn't see inside for the smoke.

Morning all. What a beautifully sunny and frosty one it is here. I'd love to get straight out into the garden or down to the beach, but I feel rotten. The sore throat and headache I went to bed with is still there. I have to get up soon anyway as I am due at the heairdresser at 9. Just a quick wash and hair curl so hopefully not too long. DD wants to make more candles today (dry ice, cigarette smoke and stale beer scented?) so we will potter later with that, but I think it will be mostly me giving direction from my perch stool.

It took too long to type my post last night that I missed your post @LillianGish That cake looks flipping delicious. As do the birthday pancakes!

Obligatory beach photograph from yesterday. There are a group of three oystercatchers sitting on the sandbank just under the windmills. They kept me company for an hour with their funny little squeals.

What an image @sueelleker.

Sorry you're feeling rough @RainbowZebraWarrior. Lovely blue sky.

I feel a bit better today even if I was greeted by the aftermath of a cat's dodgy stomach this morning 😕 After that cleaning up, I'm planning a quiet day. Checked the NHS app this morning and my results were all fine - which is good because it means a straightforward referral to the clinic (and also that my heart is working ok, which is reassuring).

Have been researching carpet cleaners (partly related to the above, and having pale carpets) - I've occasionally rented one but I think it seems worth buying one to be able to keep on top of them. If anyone's got any recommendations do let me know.

Also been looking at how to make wax melts as the last lot I bought were mixed - some nice smells and some really artificial and headache-inducing.

Here's the face of innocence who definitely didn't leave a mess on the kitchen floor, honest.

Gorgeous beach scene @RainbowZebraWarrior. I so miss the sea!

Cardio class this morning, now sat on the sofa awaiting DD and DS who are doing something for mothers' day today because DS has a gig tomorrow. I did boot camp last night so I am definitely a bit achy now. Tomorrow is a rest day but we might go for a forest walk nearby.

Sunshine is glorious today. I do hope we get a bright warm spring.

Had an amble with the dogs along the coast path earlier and mostly blue skies here too but boy, it’s chilly when the sun goes behind a cloud.

The rabbits were out in force and had to put the girls on the lead in one field as they were determined to scrabble under a fence to get to them, beastly dogs. They don’t usually bother much, but seemed to have spring in their veins this morning!🐰