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Year Round Nigel Slater discussion thread - Part 4

626 replies

RainbowZebraWarrior · 11/04/2026 18:58

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 has been running for a few years, and the contributors 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, grab a drink and relax.

A very hearty welcome to friends new and old!

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RainbowZebraWarrior · 10/05/2026 20:57

Sorry to hear you are feeling out of sorts @martha79 Long Covid is a pig in that respect. You have my sympathies as I had a fibro and EDS flare up yesterday where my skin hurt to touch. It's so frustrating.

Job well done there @Celiathebanshee The Nigel bookshelf looks amazing. I'm sure he would thoroughly approve.

Today marks two years since the best Aurora we have pretty much ever seen in the UK and I have described it in detail in my forthcoming podcast episode. I know this also marks a significant day for you @Bimblesalong so I am sending you my love x

I've booked my solo seat for the Mando and Grogu film. After watching the trailers, I couldn't wait, so I have booked for the morning it comes out. DD cannot do busy cinemas, but I need to see it ASAP so will happily go again later with her. It comes out two days after my birthday so this is my biggest birthday treat to myself. Love a solo cinema trip!

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Bimblesalong · 10/05/2026 23:17

❤️

Year Round Nigel Slater discussion thread - Part 4
piscofrisco · 11/05/2026 09:50

A Dashador! I can’t even begin to imagine it!
Lovely book case @Celiathebansheesk nice to have a bit or order returned. Our house feels chaotic at the minute with stuff everywhere. We badly need a declutter.
I hope you are feeling better this morning @martha79sending you lots of love
Those pictures are wonderful @CrushingOnRubies
Ripple Dog looks a cheerful sort of fellow @RipplePleaseI love a jolly Dog.
Im still yet to see a decent aurora @RainbowZebraWarrioreven when we went to Finland there wasn’t much of one.

A chilly and drizzly morning here. Just dropped the Doggle at the vets for his procedure. He hated it and tried to break out of the vets room :(
Ive taken the day off today so I can be around to fetch him later.
going to have a cup of tea then walk the other two, and then do a bit of cleaning possibly whilst I wait for them to ring. Might make some soup as well as it really is a soup sort of day.
have a lovely Monday all

RipplePlease · 11/05/2026 10:41

@martha79 and @RainbowZebraWarrior sorry to hear you’re both not feeling well. One of my best friends was recently diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and has yet to find the right medication to help. She cut our sugar and alcohol for a week which she said made a difference but quite difficult to maintain.

@piscofrisco
RippleDog is definitely a jolly dog. He was feeling especially jolly on his walk this morning after GROSSNESS WARNING!!! he ate his best friend’s poo. He has always done this and the vet said that it’s impossible to stop. I used to retch but am now strangely immune to it. Intercepting when I see another dog crouch down can help avert the shit smuggling but I have to always have my wits about me!
We’ve got the mobile vet coming this afternoon. Every year he gets one or two ear infections. I know which meds work for him but the vet can’t give me a prescription as it’s an antibiotic.

martha79 · 11/05/2026 10:55

I googled the daschador, it's a chunky little thing!

Good luck to doggle today @piscofrisco, I hope it all goes smoothly.

Thanks for the kind thoughts and sorry you've had a flare too @RainbowZebraWarrior. Feeling the aftermath this morning where I'm just exhausted, out of all proportion to how much I actually did yesterday.

@RipplePlease thoughts are with your friend, it's so hard figuring out what works (I have Long COVID which was the tipping point on top of a lifetime of hypermobility and associated stuff that's never really been properly diagnosed/ dealt with, and possibly some perimenopause nonsense too). Eating well does help and I've not had any alcohol for almost a year now as it was making me feel awful.

It definitely does feel like a soup day. I have to confess in a deeply NVN way I have my eye on the Burger King Star Wars specials - they've got some loaded fries with a pickle-flavoured ketchup and a mint chocolate ice cream thingy. Err, what was I saying about eating well. Balance though...!

piscofrisco · 11/05/2026 13:18

Our Dashchund does that too @RipplePlease. Little grimmer.
pickle flavour ketchup you say @martha79? I could easily go for that.
Ive just had my Mother on the phone asking me ‘do I want her to bring a cooked chicken to Cornwall with her so we have something to eat’ and getting put out when I said ‘one, it’s not til the end of July so we don’t need to think about it now, and two, there’s no need, there are shops and a decent kitchen in the house and we will get a shop delivered there, so it makes no sense to lug a Cooked chicken half way across the nation’ what followed was twenty minutes of ‘ well it always used to work when I did it when we went on holiday….’ Yes. Because we used to go camping in the middle of nowhere and it was the 80’s when there was no supermarket delivery to be had…. For the life of me I don’t know why DH invited her to come with us. I love her but it will be a nightmare. I dare not tell her that we have booked to go to Paul Ainsworths restaurant for our anniversary whilst there. It will be an hour of ‘well why would you spend the money on eating out when we can cook here’. I’m irritated already and it’s only May!

RainbowZebraWarrior · 11/05/2026 14:10

Hope doggy's op goes well @piscofrisco and Oh Lordy regarding your Mum and her cooked chicken bless her! I am also assuming it will make dinner, leftovers the next day, Chicken salad the day after, then a risotto and bones for chicken soup too (aka the mythical MN chicken 😉 )

I am freezing and I am so sick of it now. There is rain forecast every day here for the next 10 days. I had a few brief spells of sun this morning down the beach, but mostly it was grey skies and a wild wind. Haven't been able to warm up since getting home three hours ago. Back out now for school run. The new gilet is getting good use - on top of the thermals and hoodie!

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piscofrisco · 11/05/2026 15:08

Oh yes it will feed all 6 of us for the whole week 😂

RainbowZebraWarrior · 11/05/2026 15:35

"Mummy! Can I go shopping with your lovely shopping basket?"

"Oh. Look, Mummy I AM the shopping"

Year Round Nigel Slater discussion thread - Part 4
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RainbowZebraWarrior · 11/05/2026 16:40

How are you feeling now @martha79 ? I think the weather is definitely having a part to play in exaccerbating our health issues. It's so frustrating and annoying when the seemingly disproportionate exhaustion happens. I think I have said this before, but I wonder if you do actually have H(ypermobile)EDS and MCAS like me. My Hypermobility caused issues for years, but the Falling off a Cliff moment happened to coincide with Perimenopause around age 49 (and also at the same time that Covid made it's first appearance) There are definitely links and similarities.

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martha79 · 11/05/2026 16:49

Sorry @piscofrisco but "lugging a cooked chicken halfway across the nation" did make me laugh, it's like the set-up for a comedy film!

What other shopping could you possibly need @RainbowZebraWarrior?

I'm still very tired, although slightly better for giving into the salty food cravings and a lunchtime nap. I do think I've got some form of hypermobility syndrome, but only realised in recent years that I've got other symptoms of that aside from just 'bendy joints'. And I've always had some of the MCAS/ POTS type stuff going on to some extent (but lots of that put down to 'anxiety' of course). I think the biggest issue is that the Long COVID has taken away lots of the usual coping mechanisms, like being able to exercise/ keep strong to help my joints, but once it settles down a bit (hopefully) I'm thinking I'll talk to my lovely GP about some of the rest of it.

Talking of the salty food - the pickle ketchup was quite nice but they forgot to put the nice crispy onion bits on my fries, so they just looked like chips in green stuff. Please, Nigel, do not choose this moment to visit the thread...

Year Round Nigel Slater discussion thread - Part 4
LillianGish · 11/05/2026 18:54

Please, Nigel, do not choose this moment to visit the thread...😂😂😂

Bimblesalong · 11/05/2026 20:37

Excellent!

piscofrisco · 11/05/2026 21:33

Maybe we need him to. To bring us back in line! 😂
Doggle is home. Absolutely spangulated on painkillers. He is very immobile and having to be carried everywhere. The next 6 weeks are not going to be fun. I tried to put him in his crate for the night but he started bashing it with his head and trying to get out, so he is tucked up in bed with me and keeps bashing me with his plastic vets cone! Tomorrow I will try and rig up something over the utility room door so he can be confined in there as it’s very small, without having to be locked on his cage. Otherwise I dont know how we will manage. But that’s tomorrow’s problem.

CrushingOnRubies · 11/05/2026 22:53

@piscofriscoa trip to Cornwall I see!! Let me know if I can be of any help in suggesting shops to buy chickens, plan VN/NVN days out etc. are you bringing your dog, if so happy to help with dog and family have the best holiday.

Glad that your dog is home safe and sound. Please keep us updated on how he’s getting on in his recovery.

piscofrisco · 12/05/2026 07:16

Ah Thankyou @CrushingOnRubiesI may well ask for advice nearer the time, that would be grand. We usually go to Porthcothan or around there, and we went on our mini honeymoon to Port Isaac (in January which was magical as there was no one else there), but this time against my better judgment we are staying in Padstow. I fear it will be murderously busy and I apologise in advance for adding to the tourist crush. So far I plan to take the DSS’s to surf school in the mornings then long dog walks so as to get a break from my mother and her cool box full of breakfast things that she will no doubt have lugged all the way from Derbyshire 😂 (sorry I know Im being mean and she means well but the nagging is something else).

Doggle passed a quiet night (probably on account of all his painkillers) and is lying next to me now (with the other two as well who are trying to lick his ears and cuddle him a bit). I am off again today with him and tomorrow, and hopefully he will be feeling a touch better by Thursday as I need to go back to work.
Chilly here and our boiler has yet again depressurised itself and will not be re pressurised despite my best efforts, so I will have to call the landlady again as we are freezing and there is no hot water. I may have to go and buy some logs for the wood burner downstairs (which we have never used and I’m not fully sure will work, though we were told it was usable when we moved in) so at least the dog can be warm whilst he is poorly.
DH ate all my soup when he got in late from work last night. Not happy as I was planning on it for lunch. That said he had been out since 05.30 and not back until 9 last night so fair enough really. I’ve got things for a big Mumsnet salad that I can eat with one hand so I dont have to put the dog down too long. It’s like having a (large and unwieldy ) newborn again, lest he tries to walk around on his leg. He isn’t to have weight on it until Thursday at all.
A lovely Tuesday to all

CrushingOnRubies · 12/05/2026 07:26

@piscofriscosorry to hear about your heating woes. Hope your dog keeps you nice warm. How frustrating about the soup.

oh I love that part of the world.Can’t wait for the annual family camp out there next month. .My dog Ivey is named after Mother Ivey which is just up the road from Porthcothan. Word on the street is that they have rebuilt the pub overlooking Porthcothan. Staying in Padstow is brave but it is a good place to base yourself.
Have a lovely Tuesday too

leporello · 12/05/2026 07:27

Sorry to hear about health woes, human and canine, sending all the good thoughts your way.
It's my silver wedding anniversary today, which will consist of a 9 hour work day, a 2 hour commute and a parish council committee meeting - romantic!

piscofrisco · 12/05/2026 08:16

Ivey is a lovely name for a dog!
congratulations @leporelloand enjoy your Romantical day :)

EasterlyDirection · 12/05/2026 14:04

I am so far behind on the thread.....

We had a much needed week away, then a really hectic week last week with two more day trips out plus visiting parents, catching up at home and of course work.

@RainbowZebraWarrior re veggie parmesan, we get one down here called Twineham Grange but probably not available apart from mail order in other parts of the country, Just put on the Trevor Nelson to listen to. I don't listen to R2 normally but found it on Sounds. I used to collect marbles as a child and have two large kilner jars of them now, but don't do anything other than look at them.

Chilli recipe - this is by far my favourite but takes a while https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/tex-mex_beef_chilli_56840

@Snooks1971 I went to see TDWP2 last week as well and really enjoyed it, good escapist stuff. I'm not sure about the Magic Faraway Tree either it was too much of a childhood favourite, although I am a Sion Farnaby fan.

@Celiathebanshee we have a tuxedo cat who likes to sit on laps and watch TV too. I went to see Operation Mincemeat on tour a few weeks ago but unfortunately it was a hectic week and I didn't know the story or read the synopsis beforehand (I have to do that with unfamiliar shows as they move too fast for me otherwise), the auditorium was very warm and I found myself losing concentration in the first half so didn't fully pick up on the main plot device. Quick read on my phone to catch up sorted me out for the second half but now I want to see it again, it will be near here again in a few weeks and I am tempted.

@leporello nightmare with the laptop, we've had moments like that with student DCs, it's better now with cloud storage than it was a few years ago with just the hard drive but I still worry about it, when my DS was doing his dissertation last year he did the emailing it back and forth thing too. I periodically check both my DCs laptops for windows updates, anything dodgy looking and have made DS save the entirety of his university work (he graduated last year) onto an external hard drive. Happy anniversary!

Lovely to hear about Flora day @CrushingOnRubies

Love your photos of all the purples @EphemeraleEudemonia my garden is all about the purple in late spring, the bees love it.

@petitpasta the reading nook looks lovely, I so enjoyed reading on my recent holiday, I have fallen into the habit of listening to audio books while doing other things but it is so calming to sit down and actually read.

Has anyone read "Why Doing Nothing Can Change Your Life" by Dr Joseph Jebelli? A friend recommended it, and it was interesting, it would be easy to say there was nothing I didn't already know about strategies such as getting out in nature, but it was an interesting read and definitely made me want to stop marching around with my airpods in and start being a bit more mindful of my surroundings etc.

However I have started listening to some of the sitting on a bench podcast series soon to feature our very own RZW and they are lovely.

Hairy Bikers' Tex-Mex beef chilli recipe

Hairy Bikers' Tex-Mex beef chilli recipe

This Tex-Mex beef chilli from the Hairy Bikers is the ultimate in comfort food, with a rich sauce flavoured with coffee and stout.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/tex-mex_beef_chilli_56840

RainbowZebraWarrior · 12/05/2026 16:15

Hairy bikers is a great shout @EasterlyDirection

Those chips look... interesting @martha79 sort of like someone has just dribbled some pea juice on them.

Had an amazing sea glass pick at the beach this morning. Sad to hear myself away but i had my annual review and bloods at 10am. Me and the Carrion Crow are great pals now. He flies over to me as I approach the beach from the car park and we have a wee 'chat' each day.

Found this amazing piece of coloured glass which was likley a marble at one point. Also a marble, and a piece that looks like it was a cut class / crystal item at some point many moons ago!

Hope doggie sleeps well again tonight @piscofrisco and i dont blame you getting irritated at your Mum. Nowt worse than nagging, and especially when you have other stuff on your mind. I am lucky that - thus far - I am able to be frank with my own mother and just say "Mother, you're being batshit. Stop it!" (She is equally honest with me!)

Year Round Nigel Slater discussion thread - Part 4
Year Round Nigel Slater discussion thread - Part 4
Year Round Nigel Slater discussion thread - Part 4
Year Round Nigel Slater discussion thread - Part 4
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RainbowZebraWarrior · 12/05/2026 16:40

Oh, I also meant to say @EasterlyDirection that I read 'Why doing nothing can change your life' about a year ago, and can honestly say it has. I've always been a nature lover and a big believer in having some quality down time anyway. I have now, however, made a more conscious effort in actually building in time to do nothing / listen to the birds / be in nature / take time to breathe. My life is so much better as a result.

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martha79 · 12/05/2026 16:44

I'm now imagining Nigel joining us going "now, come on ladies, we can do better than green chips..."

Hope doggle is resting well @piscofrisco

Congrats on the anniversary @leporello

@EasterlyDirection I have got that book and have read some of it. I'm getting a little better at applying bits - going out in the garden and standing there with no phone, just watching and listening.

I've been really tired again today, but I've had a series of rather inspiring and energising meetings. Plus an offer of getting involved in a new interesting little music project, so feeling quite positive. Went for a quick walk and almost got blown away - the new trees the council have planted nearby look like they might snap in half. So am in for the evening now I think, let's see if I can concoct something a little more Nigelly for tea.

RainbowZebraWarrior · 12/05/2026 16:54

I'm now imagining Nigel joining us going "now, come on ladies, we can do better than green chips..."

😆😆😆

The new music project sounds good @martha79 Hope it does prove to be inspiring and energising.

Happy anniversary @leporello Hope you manage to carve out a little bit of time in your crazy day for a toast and some R&R.

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piscofrisco · 12/05/2026 17:14

what lovely and unusual glass @rzw!
I hope your project comes to fruition @martha79
Doggle is resting well, but only on me. Which means I am also resting. I don’t hate it. We have watched lots of TV and eaten all the NVN snacks.