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 found you again! I really need to start place marking these threads properly, having said that work has been stupidly busy so I wouldn't have had much to contribute.

I sang Mozart's Requiem on Saturday @Bimblesalongbut not the one you saw. It was incredible and I'm still on a high, hearing it in my head all day and night. I want to do the whole thing again.

Welcome back! Wow, that sounds amazing and I haven't had that feeling you describe since I jumped out of a plane 20 years ago.

That’s awesome @leporello I would love to sing that - particularly in a cathedral with orchestra and organ going!

The cake is good! Rose essence and real banana have been a good combo. My latest passion is poaching a pan of fruit every few days. Currently pears, plums and blackberries with star anise and cardamom.

I like the idea of the cloches @RainbowZebraWarrior I need to move mine - they’re still shivering next to the house and we are due weather in the next couple of days.

Loving all the seed sowing and planting going on. I spent yesterday at work viciously hoeing and turning over a neglected and nettle filled raised bed in the allotment garden which I intend to grow flowers in for a cut flower subscription service we are starting in summer. It was very pleasant being out in the hazy sunshine and my Co farmer was quite amenable, though he did more sun bathing than digging to be fair.
Woken this morning feeling decidedly rubbish. Ear ache and temperature, AGAIN. Trying to decide if it’s bad enough to not go to work, though we are a touch short staffed at the minute so I would feel terrible letting them down.
DD2 departs this morning for a few days walking in Wales and then a week at her (posh) friends parents holiday home in the Lake District before she comes back for Easter weekend. She also found out that she has been selected for a month long paid for trip to Taiwan in summer (some scheme she applied for at uni) learning Mandarin. What a life that girl has. I’m very proud of her-3 years ago she was so so unwell mentally -I didnt think she would ever truly recover. Incredible turn around. (Im also slightly wondering how she is going to fund the rest of her life next year as she really needed a summer job to set herself up for year 2 but we will cross that bridge when we come to it I suppose and for now I don’t want to rain on her parade).
A lovely Tuesday to all

Happy Tuesday everyone.

Re chard, I planted a row of Rainbow plants on the allotment many years ago, the red ones have self seeded every year since with varying degrees of vigorousness, two years ago the seedlings died young because I moved them and it was too dry, but I got a healthy crop in another spot last year. I am a big fan of letting things self seed and planting other things round them where I can.

@SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense my DCs have had their 20th and 22nd birthdays already this year and we have struggled to think what to do as well, both had tickets for outings (DS on a tour of the D Day tunnels in Portsmouth as he likes modern history and I am taking DD to see Paddington the Musical later in the year). Plus some things like tee shirts, sweets etc. Neither really follows fashion, both dislike shopping and only do it when they have to for essentials, neither wear jewellery beyond the odd friendship bracelet or leather thong with beads on it, they use rucksacks from Sports Direct, they each have one pair of trainers that they live in, so we often resort to tickets to events.

Thank you @ExquisiteDresses I just ordered her some replacement pads for her headphones because hers are falling to bits, so that's something! I often go the tickets route too only with three girls I usually want to take them all to things so that works better for Christmas ... however, I could have a look and see if anything is on near where she is at uni and maybe get her something to take a friend to down there. Good idea

Ah yes, my DD gets through those soft bits on her airpods too, she uses them all the time. We get two free cinema tickets a month and I sometimes give them to DD to go with a friend so she gets little bonus presents like that sometimes too. Or a cinema giftcard is useful too, there is a Vue near her uni.

@SheherazadesSeasonalNonsenseDD2 turns 19 this year and she has requested an air fryer 🤷🏽‍♀️

I bought her a rice cooker for Christmas 🤣

My DD isn't allowed anything like that in her halls due to fire risk (old building) but I imagine they'll be getting things like air fryers for their house next year

Need to catchup properly. Pain and fatigue are making my concentration levels worse than ever.

Anyway, I can't remember who was talking about crocosmia recently, but I know I mentioned that it reminded me of my Nanna's garden, and someone said they were after the dark orange variety. Well, I was about to buy online, but I thought I'd check Lidl out first. Bingo! Crocosmia Lucifer; 15 bulbs for £2.49 so I got 2 packs. They were around £15 for 20 via the usual online gardening retailers.

I bought dd an air fryer for Christmas one year. She dropped it on to the glass hob in her flat the other week so that's a couple of hundred pounds worth of bill for me. If only the hob had smashed the air fryer instead...

Oooh, I could pop into Lidl on the way home from work, I drive past two branches. I do like crocosmia.

Does anybody have any top tips on the hunting of rodents? DCat has stashed one under DD2's bookcase. Her bedroom has enough detritus and crap lying about that a mouse can probably live there happily forever - fortunately she's away, so I picked everything off the floor, sourced a couple of humane traps ... still waiting, since Thursday. I know it is in there because I've got frustrated a few times and let the cat in to see what happens (what happens is she stares fixedly under the book case for several hours, occasionally trying to get her paws under or running from one edge to the other). DD2 comes home on Tuesday and I really can't just accept that DMouse now lives in her room, it needs to be gone by then. But it seems to have no interest in the traps (I've baited them with, variously, peanut butter, chocolate, some sort of paste from B&Q that claims to be irresistible to rodents) and I'm a bit stuck for ideas.

My Dad recently had this problem and had success 2 nights in a row (2 separate mice) with cheese and apple.

Ok will give that a go thank you @RainbowZebraWarrior Cheese feels so cliched that I assumed it was a myth!

When we lived in the country, I found one eating a Christmas marron glace. It may just have been a very sophisticated mouse though!

Good luck with the mouse @SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense

Oh my goodness I've had such a long day - first day of work conference which in theory I was having an "easier" time of working from home but I have been overwhelmed by notifications from every angle and so many windows open on the laptop. It's been a NVN day of food mostly snacking on crisps, a hot cross bun and honestly not sure what else. But just had a nice chicken noodle ready meal and am lying on my bed. One more day of this silliness to go.

My compost delivery arrived today so looking forward to doing some more planting soon. I also need to tidy up after today being ridiculously windy - at least one old terracotta pot has blown over and smashed.

DH once tried to hit a mouse in our kitchen with a rolling pin. He succeeded only in bashing a big chip out of the work top. And later realised that he would actually have hated it if he had hit it, and so would I!
sounds a busy day @martha79glsd you are half way through.
The Wind! It’s blowing a gale here

My sister was walking in the dark once, when something ran across the pavement in front of her. She automatically kicked out, and found she'd kicked and killed a rat!

Crikey. That's Ninja quality reflexes! 😆

Morning all.
Hope everyone survived the windy night last night (if you had it-it was quite incredible here and we have lost some roof tiles which the land lady will be delighted about).
Still feeling rough so a quiet day planned for me today, though a shop is urgently needed as we have nothing much to eat in the house apart from beige freezer food and I feel I need some veg (but also someone to go and buy it and prepare it for me).
Have a lovely Wednesday all.

Morning all, it is frisky here and last night dh went out and laid the bins down as they were threatening to blow onto the cars.

gah on the mouse @SheherazadesSeasonalNonsense We had one once but our mouser cat sorted it out I miss her! Amazing rat killing reflexes, maybe you could host @sueelleker ’s sister for the weekend.

@RainbowZebraWarrior I’m sorry things are tougher at present. The weather doesn’t help.

My mum is currently in Llandudno with a load of other ladies. I went over yesterday to take her out for lunch and we had a lovely couple of hours in Conwy before the appalling weather kicked in. She was reminiscing about a holiday she and dad had in Llandudno in their youth pre-wedding (separate rooms!). A lovely couple of hours. I’m having to watch the fuel prices carefully to see if we can get down to Warwickshire for Easter - they’ve shot up again overnight. Must do a compare with the train.

@piscofrisco take it steady. Hopefully the freezer dept can help - I like a frozen soffrito to start off a risotto.

I had one of the best weeks of my life in Llandudno on a school trip, aged 11. Such fond memories of it!

Yes, I can only recommend a cat for the mouse situation. But not when they burst into your bedroom at 5.40 a.m. with one in their jaws, all triumphant, as happened this morning .
Best of luck with the last day of work madness @martha79 . I'm excited today as off to the Royal Opera House tonight - my first time, seats look good too. Have a wonderful day of the best possible health, everyone.