Year Round Nigel Slater discussion thread - Part 4

[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 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!

Oh @martha79 you are having such a tough time. I too echo @LillianGish 's wise advice.

@piscofrisco I would love a camper van! I'm having serious thoughts about car camping at the moment. We have just replaced my car that DP wrote off a couple of months ago. The new one has a whopping great big boot. With seats down there's acres of space. Which is actually why we chose it, we wanted something with plenty of room to ferry stock to antique fairs. Anyway, I reckon there would be plenty of room to sleep in it!

Morning all.

I am in my usual June routine of up at 4am every day. Yesterday it was because I'd smelled damp in one of my kitchen cupboards and it was bothering me. Found the culprit. Stick blender had some water sitting in it after washing it a week ago. Yuck.

Today is honey jars sterilising, so the dishwasher has been on since 5am. We have a stall at our Together Festival at the end of the month, and also a get together at one of our farms, so it's a busy old time. Thankfully Dad is feeling lots better, so is back to 'Beeing' as he calls it. 12 steroids a day has made him hyper!

Those ID Buzz things are popping up all over the place lately. The local dog walker has one and I was like "does dog walking really pay that much?" I suppose leasing makes it somewhat affordable. Mad prices, still, though. I've always wanted a camper van, but a vintage one. Having said that, I used to own a 1971 Beetle and it was a massive money pit!

Beautiful foxy @Bimblesalong and also gorgrous roses. They look similar to my New Dawn. Which reminds me, they need some sort of trelliis arrangement fixing in place as they are growing like billio!

@Confusedmeanderings I used to sleep in the back of our old Ford Cortina estate as a kid when we went camping. With the seats down, it was like a big double bed. Happy days!

@CrushingOnRubies sorry to hear the county show was cancelled. I always feel for the folk who have baked dozens of goodies when that happens. Ours was during the heatwave, but I didn't go this year. It's just another thing that DD doesn't want to shlep to.

I'm pleased to hear you've had lots of offers of help @martha79 Still a stressful time, though.

I can hear my noisy starlings rearranging their nest in the eaves. Obviously going for brood # 2! Mr Darcy is not happy that Birdies are in His House!! It's even worse than when they are in His Garden.

Right. Best get DD up. Market time.

Also @Bimblesalong well done on motivating DH. Was that six and a half pairs of shoes? 😆 Eeh gosh, reminds me of my Dad's boot and wellie collection (he has multiple pairs that sit all about the dining room floor and he changes his boots at least three times a day!) I am bad for my collecting, but I try and keep it tidy. Dad is a lost cause (I dread clearing their house when it comes) and I spend half my life begging DD to clear a tiny space, here and there. She's not slept in her own room for over two years. I have spent all that time asking repeatedly is she could just clear the crap off her (barely used) cabin bed so I can get rid and buy her a sofabed instead. Such fun.

one of the best things about this campsite is that we take the dogs town to do their evening ablutions on a beach and this is the sunset.

@RainbowZebraWarrior yes we felt sorry for all the traders and all the farmers who had been getting their prized sheep looking their best for days.

@Bimblesalongyes have had some wine in the wind.

Gosh that looks so beautiful!

Haven't been to a beach today and I hate it. I just can't usually make it work on a Sunday due to squeezing in too many other things. Dogs are banned on my beach and a lot of others here until October. It's a major bone of contention among residents and visitors every year.

Macaroni cheese 'crumble' anyone? I had a rock hard 5 day old cheese scone, so got DD to bash it up into crumble crumbs with a rolling pin and we sprinkled it on the top of the mac in cheese sauce with extra mozarella, cheddar and pecorino. DD added cayenne and paprika and it's come out cheese-scone-tastic!

@RainbowZebraWarriorthe macaroni cheese bake looks delicious. Dogs on beaches is a bone of contention around here too. Although the council recently made it so dogs are banned for July and August on many beaches. We move this area of Cornwall as there’s 5 big beaches in walking of where we are which allow dogs all year round.

That looks tasty @RainbowZebraWarrior

Loving the beach pictures and campervan plans.

Feel a bit better today having actually slept. Looked at some houses online this morning, and now property sites are infiltrating all my ads, e.g. on here, which is annoying when I want to try to set aside blocks of time for it (like job hunting, I have a tendency to go into full-time problem-solving mode and try to do it 24/7).

Got a friend popping round for a cuppa later who says they may have some house ideas but not sure if that's a concrete thing or more general suggestions. Other than that, I'm not doing very much at all.

Oh, good news today that the person I did the proofreading/ editing suggestions for last month has passed their qualification - it's something you just submit to the exam board when ready and it's either pass or fail so I'm really pleased both for then and my judgement (always a little nerve-wracking when you say "I think this is good to go subject to some suggested tweaks")!

@martha79glad that you are feeling more positive about things. And that is good news about your friend.

Another wet and windy walk today around the peninsula we are on. The brown house next to the w white house is where Rick Stein grew up. Or at least spent his summer holidays