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!

Posting you a chip @Bimblesalong :) I love the idea of a tinned tomato hunt!

Great Easter decorations @LillianGish - it looks like you've had a friendly bunny invasion.

I hope you don't have any flying trampolines @RainbowZebraWarrior

Very quiet day for me - still in my dressing gown (unfortunately spotted by my neighbours as I snuck out to secure the garden chairs ahead of it getting windy later). The first of the tulips in my garden are showing - I planted some bulbs a couple of years ago and can't quite remember where they all are.

Oh gosh, yellow tulips are the best! Weirdly, my long standing ones in the garden have been out for around a week. The earliest ever was 23rd March, so they haven't been long behind that this year. I fear they are going to be decimated with storm Dave approaching, however. DD and I have been out and moved the heavy swing seat away from the front of the conservatory windows, and wedged it between two trees at the bottom of the garden. It may be prudent to leave it there (future proofing for any further storms, and also from a sun-direction perspective)

I have bright tulips arriving with Waitrose as my weekly 'little treat' in around an hour, then it will be time to batten down the hatches and hibernate for the evening.

Stay safe, all. Especially if you are in the Amber zone, like us.

We made it to Devon yesterday, so glad to have a week off. I've applied for 6 jobs and definitely have one interview and the recruiter sounded very positive about another job. I really think I want to leave where I am, just can't get excited about any of the new roles there.

Hope everyone stays safe in Storm Dave. We're right on a hill overlooking the beach and it's wild here, even though we're not in a weather warning.

Love a jolly yellow tulip! Good on you for yur dressing gown day @martha79it will do you no harm at all.
blowing a gale here too. We have been to the races at Huntingdon which was quite fun, but so windy and chilly. DD1 won £47 so she was well pleased.
all sounds very promising @petitpasta-enjoy your holiday. I love a good storm so I’m quite jealous of your coastal weather
Lovely Easter decs @Liliangish
Thankyou re dd RZW-she is like a different person-if anything it’s me that needs to get over my state of hyper vigilance which is a hangover from when she was ill. She is flying and I need to stop being anxious over every little thing with her. I hope you hang on to your trampoline!

I've got deep pink tulips as my Waitrose treat. I don't have any in the garden, the beds are swamped with other things at this time of year (primroses, pulmonaria, Spanish bluebells, daffodils and alliums) so not enough space. I am planning to go and see the ones at RHS Wisley in a couple of weeks though.

@martha79 I'm in my garden in my dressing gown most mornings, we are fairly secluded at the back so ok there but the front is very open with lots of passers by so I try and avoid going out there.

Gawd this is awful tonight. There's no way of sleeping through this storm. Worst I can remember since the red warning we had with Arwen. Just hoping we make it through the night unscathed and without any more flying debris from next door (no trampoline here Pisco; it's next door's that I am hoping not to inherit)

I have a storm Dave thread on the weather board if anyone else is unable to sleep this evening. There's also a flight radar thread.

Roll on 5am....

Hello, hope things are ok this morning @RainbowZebraWarrior. It was pretty noisy here between the house rattling and unidentified things blowing around outside.

I know April weather is varied but we're forecast 1C tonight and 20C on Wednesday!

Great news on all the job applications @petitpasta - that sounds really hopeful.

Lovely tulips @ExquisiteDresses. Friends brought me some lovely multicoloured M&S bunches the other day - shame I can't actually have them inside as one of the cats will try to eat them.

My cats have never tried to eat cut flowers (I still won't have lilies in the house just in case though). I tend to have them on the kitchem counter and since we switched from wooden cupboards and counters to gloss cupboards and quartz worktops the cats either can't or won't jump up on them, unexpected result! I suspect they don't like the feel of the quartz with their claws.

I hope everyone has survived Storm Dave with home, garden etc intact. It was windy here but not really stormy (Hampshire). Also wishing everyone a Happy Easter Sunday however you mark the day (or not).

The wind was outrageous here in the end too RZW though not as bad as for you. I finally got to sleep at about 3, only to be woken up by DSS2 being sick. So a weary Happy Easter from me to you all this morning and a hope that everyone’s homes and hearths survived unscathed!
my poor colleague at work was camping out last night for lambing and ended up huddled in the barn with the still pregnant ewes!

How are you today @RainbowZebraWarrior ? It was crazy here in Warwickshire last night and we are not in the warning zone. I’ve woken with a head full of the marvellous Henry V production at the RSC yesterday - such a comment on leadership, very fo our times.

@petitpasta glad to hear about the shortlisting. Fingers crossed for you. My ds2 is working his first job outside of working for himself. We went yesterday to the hotel he works in for an evening meal, lovely to see him happy and productive.

Have a lovely day, all, however you’re spending it.

Morning all, and Happy Easter.

Meant to say that I love the Easter decorations @LillianGish

Also thank you to all regarding comments on DD. What a transformation indeed. Like you, @piscofrisco I don't think you can ever switch your brain off and relax when youve gone through years of anxiety with a troubled child. Your mind is constantly thinking something could just kick it all off again. Hopefully not though. Onwards and ever upwards for our DDs.

I was just saying on the storm Dave thread @martha79 that we had 2 consecutive Easter holidays in the 80s; the first one our tent was covered in snow (camping in Scotland!) and the second year we were all sunbathing on decckchairs in 23 degrees. April is mad indeed!

We appear to have survived unscathed! I had a look on the wildlife can first, then went out and surveyed the back, front and side of the house and can see nothing obvious other than a couple of large ceramic pots containing lavender have tipped over. My poor best pal has ridge tiles off and her neighbours fence is down. I fear for her allotment greenhouse. She's just replaced it as it was wrecked a year ago and it's so exposed I wonder if it was worth her while. Hoping my Dads allotment is ok.

Today me thanks yesterday me for loading the dishwasher with honey jars to sterlise this morning. I also thank myself for cooking the lamb and beef ahead. The garlic-jacket-roast potatoes, however, will have to be made again - perhaps a larger batch - as DD and I gorged on them last night.

Off out to market in an hour. At least the sun is shining and it has now returned to standard blustery conditions out there.

My waitrose 'bright tulips' are mauve. Not my favourite colour at all, but for free I shouldn't complain.

Maybe I need to make the worktops more shiny @ExquisiteDresses 🤣 One of my cats doesn't bother too much with flowers, the other one likes to taste them all.

Glad you didn't have too much damage @RainbowZebraWarrior and I hope the allotment is ok. Just the bins lying down and a couple of broken buddleia branches in my garden, and the trees across the road look quite dishevelled.

Good to hear you enjoyed the theatre @Bimblesalong

Seem to have had every sort of weather since I got up this morning - half an hour ago it was dark and heavy rain, now it's sunny. Here's the more sensible of the cats enjoying a bit of sun.

Happy easter everyone.
Some lovely photos of tulips, I just love spring flowers. Anything yellow always cheers me up!
Very windy here in Wiltshire yesterday. Took DD for a picnic lunch to a local playing field. It was deserted, very exposed, and I felt like a right idiot sat there eating our sandwiches wrapped up in winter woollies in what felt like gale force wind! Had to go to a cafe for hot chocolate to warm up so not all bad 😀
A bit grey here this morning but looks more civilised than yesterday. Have a good day everyone x

Happy Easter everyone. Hope nobody’s had too much damage from the storm. Couple of power cuts here but lamb is now cooking nicely in the oven and I’m currently being untrue to Nigel with Stanley Tucci (what i ate in a year).

Loving the tulip pictures. Such happy flowers :).

It's bright and breezy here in Devon. Currently drinking a cup of coffee with this view. No plans for today except books and chocolate. Duck for dinner this evening. At some point will walk down to the beach.

Is it Bigbury bay @petitpasta?

Not Bigbury. It's Putsborough looking across to Woolacombe. Absolutely beautiful beach.

It looks gorgeous. When we were driving back home along the seafront from the market today, we had a snow / hail shower. It quickly moved out to sea thankfully and I spent a happy 20 minutes on a sunny beach.

I got some Easter money from my folks, so treated myself to a chonky freeform new ring from my favourite silversmith and a lovely driftwood and glass tealight holder.

Wind is wild again here now and I keep hitting lucky in missing the rain showers. Easter dinner has been delivered to my folks so I can relax a bit now.

Like @martha79 we are due a low of 1 degree tonight, so the stove will be going on soon. DD has also begged me to finally move on from the WC winter candles and has selected a pintail sea salt alternative.

I keep looking at that Stanley Tucci book on Audible. Think I might have to go for it. It is VNA (Very Nigel Adjacent) after all. I dont think Nigel would blame you for the temporary deflection.

That's the kind of thing I usually do! DD sat in the car and listened to music on her phone today whilst I had a trawl of the beach. There were holidaymakers there at 11am this morning, determined to make the most of their break, and so had socks off, feet in the sand and kids playing with buckets and spades. It was 5 degrees. Got to admire that!

Pleased you enjoyed the Henry V production @Bimblesalong and good to hear that DS2 is happy in his work.

Lovely 'other cat' @martha79 (sorry, I don't know if that's Martha or not, I think I've only seen pics of the the one before) They are both gorgeous, anyway. Mr D thankfully doesn't eat flowers, but is partial to sitting on the kitchen benches as he likes to watch me work. Some folk would be horrified by this, no doubt. My ex (DD's Dad) thinks it's disgusting. This makes me care even less 😆

It's gone really sunny again. Heating on, heating off, coat or no coat? Running in and out to retrieve washing from the line, rescuing blown over pots. Yep, it's April alright. Someone was saying on the Storm Dave thread that it had blown all the blossom from their fruit trees. Mine is thankfully still intact.

My tulips, however are looking unbelievably sad. Some are in tatters. These ones look like they have just given up. Again, like the crocuses (crocus? crocusi?) I need to move them to a more sheltered spot.

@RainbowZebraWarrior what stunning buys! I love both of them. It's my birthday this week and I am looking forward to choosing something lovely for myself.

Our beach walk was bracing. It looks like the rest of the week might be much calmer and sunnier than we thought which will be most welcome.

Tomorrow I plan to finesse an application for the most lovely job which I am very excited about and plan some new menus for the rest of the month. I want to try more bean recipes, I don't think I eat enough beans and pulses.

Lovely purchases @RainbowZebraWarrior! That cat is Lily - she is the older, grumpier, and more nervous one as she had a rough early life. But these days her favourite activity is lying either on my chest or right next to me on the pillow, doing deafening purrs!

Gorgeous purchases @RainbowZebraWarrior love that ring!
what lovely beach pictures too, have a great holiday @petitpasta .

We are wending our way home after a super trip to mum’s. DS2 enjoyed his tinned tomato finds and had created a super egg hunt of his own for us, which started with us having to solve a riddle or an anagram. I cannot believe how much fuel has gone up even in the last few days. Any planned trips by car for the rest of the week are off the table in favour of public transport. This rules out a couple of trips we had hoped to do 🙄

Happy Easter everyone.

went for a lovely walk this afternoon (well hilly hike) on the coast path. Hard going at times but awarded with these views. And I experienced an unfamiliar sensation of being warm when sat for a picnic in a thin jumper and tshirt. Overall rather pleasant