The Year Round Nigel Slater Discussion Thread - Part 5

[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 on Mumsnet 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!

Placemarking and waving hello. Thanks @RainbowZebraWarrior

Waving right back at you Bimbles!

Hellooo all

Ooh hello again! I always see the start of the new thread and then never manage to keep up!

Logging in again, still lurking but keeping up with this thread and all the lovely Nigellistas who contribute. Big thank you to @RainbowZebraWarrior for keeping it going.

Hello Nigelistas! I didn't get the cathedral jobs but there were some weird red flags in the staff session sonic am relieved TBH. I have a very good job offer as it is. It's £7k more than I earn now and there's a bonus scheme I can use to top my pension up.

I will be formally made redundant tomorrow and I am going to ask for garden leave so I can be very Nigel for a few weeks and waft around gardening, painting and baking.

I've treated myself to some rather nice pyjamas and a new dressing gown as I was still wearing the old one even though it's 5 sizes too big.

Now off to check the end of the old thread and see what I missed!

That's great news, well done @petitpasta!

Truly excellent news @petitpasta. I so hope they say yes to your gardening leave as you surelh deserve some lovey time off before your new thing starts. It would be like a paid exam summer where you have nothing to worry about after a period of high stress, but you know you have something to go on to when it’s over. Absolutely perfect!

and a good morning to everyone else. I had a lovey day yesterday of doing absolutely nothing at all. DD’s were both hung over and so Sadie’s in bed for much of the day and DH was out at at a football tournament for the boys so I loafed about reading my books and watched a 3 hours of a really good documentary about the wars of the roses. No regrets.

Grey and rainy here this morning. At least we won’t have to do much watering at work. Have a happy Monday one and all

Thanks for new thread @RainbowZebraWarrior
Congratulations on the new job @petitpasta
Still on our holiday in Wales. A rather wet day at the beach yesterday with dd4 insisting 'it's not raining!' when we were all clearly soaked. She had a lot of fun though and today looking a bit brighter so more seaside, chips and icecream for us today. Have a good day everyone x

Thank you for the new thread @RainbowZebraWarrior
Tiring weekend here. We drove up to Liverpool early yesterday morning to pick up DS2 from Uni and drove back home very early this morning.
We stayed at a Travel Lodge last night which is usually ok but the air in the hotel room was so stuffy that I barely slept.
Just had a catch up 2 hour nap!
Lovely to have DS2 home. Cooking a roast now and I’d made a chocolate cake in honour of his return, a relatively new tradition Chez Ripple.
Watching the tennis now…another great match. This French Open has been one of the best!

Thank you for the new thread @RainbowZebraWarrior and for all the lovely sea glass photos on the last one.

@martha79 I'm sorry about your housing situation but glad you have made a positive start to househunting.

@SaraCrewe06 we've got a DC coming home from uni this week too but fairly local so DH will pick he up after work.

Congrats @petitpasta on the new job. Hope you enjoy the summer. I remember we said that this might end up being a great thing (when you first heard about the redundancy)

Similarly, I am keeping my fingers crossed that your situation ends up being a positive out of a negative @martha79

Hello to everyone else. It was freezing here this morning, but I took a punt on getting the train to Seaham again and now the sun is blazing. Sadly, I am only 10 minutes from pulling back into Newcastle Central Station. Gosh I wish I could stay longer.

Here's today's prized find for anyone who hasn't seen it on the old thread.

@RainbowZebraWarrior
That sea glass is stunning. Your hobby reminds me of the Anne Tyler book of the same name, Seaglass. Have you read it?

Just got back from the weekly shop and am watching Queen’s. No action yet due to the rain, unfortunately.
Might have to get stuck into DS2’s mountain of washing…

Strangely, I keep coming across a book called Sea Glass by Anita Shreve but haven't read it. Is that the one? I think they are similar authors.

I came to find the old thread and found this one, so place marking.
Thank you for the new thread @RainbowZebraWarrior
What a beautiful find, and a nice size.

Congratulations on the new job @petitpasta hope you get your leave.

Things haven't gone too well here, but am back up and running.
The photo isn't today (On off rain all day) but the moment caught my eye. so I thought better late than never.
Off to try (and yet again) to try and catch up...

@RainbowZebraWarrior
Sorry, yes it’s Anita Shreve and yes, I agree, they are very much similar writers.

What an amazing photo @EphemeraleEudemonia. I'm glad to hear you are back up and running.

Fairly steady day at work here. Put a "quick catch up" meeting in the diary with one of my favourite colleagues and accidentally chatted for an hour and a half 😂

Got a house viewing tomorrow evening. Trying to be patient and not put in loads of enquiries at once, to save my energy levels.

Hello 👋 thanks for the new thread @RainbowZebraWarrior

Am stuck in bed currently, but the silver lining is I have finally entirely caught up!

@RainbowZebraWarrior Late congratulations to DD. Wonderful to hear. (Different path, but have the T shirt) Very well done to both of you. Sorry to hear about your Dad. A lot to go through. I don't know if his Op went ahead today, but if so hope he's coped well enough.

@martha79 Also sorry to hear about the housing situation, but fingers crossed for something good to come come up. Glad you liked the photo.

@LilianGish A belated Happy Birthday! 🎉

Thanks my lovely, especially for remembering about my Dad. No, unfortunately his op didn't go ahead today, rescheduled for 22nd June.

Hope you're ok and not stuck in bed for too long x

Thank you to @EphemeraleEudemonia for tagging me as I have now seamlessly segued into the new thread and realised there was some catching up to do! Waves to @Seasidebubbles. congratulations on the job @petitpasta. Good to hear you are making a gentle start to house hunting @martha79 and thanks to @RainbowZebraWarrior for keeping everything ticking along. Adding a night time shot from our walk home from Montmartre last night - i don’t think it’s clear in the dark, but there was a huge froth of star jasmine cascading down the wall and the smell was incredible. Some enchanted evening.

What amazing photos from @RainbowZebraWarrior to finish our last thread, a real treat.
Welcome back to the world @leporello and ouch at your experience. I do hope you’ll be able to eat ice cream again!
@martha79 everything crossed for you here. It is a ghastly thing to go through and I hope something of beauty is there for you at the end.
WOW @EphemeraleEudemonia that photo is quite something!

@petitpasta congratulations!
@LillianGish I can smell that from here. Mmmm. So looking forward to my trip to Nice in the summer - in my memory it smells of jasmine and roses (although I wonder if the jasmine will still be blooming later in the year).

@RainbowZebraWarrior fabulous photos on the old thread.

@EphemeraleEudemonia good to hear from you, that is one spectacular photo. Love your night time one too @LillianGish so atmospheric.

@petitpasta congratulations on the job offer!

Just wanted to say remember last week I was saying about having problems cutting up my mini fruit cakes for my dad (nursing home) and them all crumbling. I got one out of the freezer on Saturday, unwrapped it and cut it with a super sharp knife while it was still frozen and voila no crumbs

As well as being a member of the One Boob Club, I'm also a fellow member of the No Gall Bladder Club! Commiserations @leporello and I hope you recover quickly.

Well, I seem to be in v good company in my gallbladderlessness, so that's a comfort 😀. Still taking things slowly but contemplating going back to work tomorrow for half days only - will depend on today's progress being as rapid as yesterday's though.

Will be following the progress of your Welsh holiday @Markknopflersheadband, as we're off to Wales at the end of the month.

Hope you get a good long stint at the beach today @RainbowZebraWarrior.