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!

I have to spend this evening in a packed hall stewarding a viking night. The speakers will be really interesting so I hope they keep me awake.

I remembered that I had grapes to use up and halloumi in the fridge so I have made this for dinner. I forgot how delicious it is:

Wild Rice, Roasted Grape and Halloumi Salad https://share.google/qVqo5QO0N1CZ0ZDdJ

Lovely flowers @LillianGish& @martha79

DP isn’t properly home till August but it was lovely seeing him yesterday and he’s home this weekend. Planning on making the most of this weather and go a date night and things. Also feels like it’s the home stretch and it won’t be long till he’s properly home.

just got home from a swim in the sea. Beach was really busy and not a wetsuit in sight which doesn’t happen often.

I’ve discovered an unexpected Nigelesque benefit to the extreme heat which is that my a Trudon wax cameos are effortlessly perfuming the bedroom without the aid of any sort of candle lamp to warm them.

Nice recipe @petitpasta, I've saved it.

Hello @GreenCaterpillarOnALeaf - welcome!

I'm not seeing a Nige and Snoop Dogg collaboration @RainbowZebraWarrior 🤣

It's 30C in my kitchen so I've only been in there to get things out of the fridge. Glad I made a big tub of Greek salad type stuff on Monday.

Right, lunch is booked at The Goring on Friday... might be a waste if it is as hot as it is over in South London today, but I will do my best and they do have a lovely private garden for pre-lunch drinks.

In the good news column, my school govs meeting has been moved online tomorrow, because going from Blackheath to Whitechapel is not something I was looking forward to!

I have watered the garden this morning and done a quick run round this evening and spotted a lovely iris busting a gut in the patio ponds... which reminds me, Jim, my next door neighbour, who must be in his early 70s knocked on my door last night, because he had picked up the wrong keys... so yes, that was me holding the ladder as he flung himself over the fence... and yes, he did get back in and over in one piece! And I will not share with you the number of times I have had to climb through the kitchen window because the door slammed shut....

I have a similar thing going on in my conservatory. Some lovely bits of Trudon cameos and a leftover inch or so of candles doing their thing.

Thankfully we have a lovely sea breeze going on here this evening. Sending much love to those who are still battling the heat.

To reiterate my tips: put a few singular wet wipes in the freezer. They are great for wiping faces, arms etc. Lots of ice cubes and ice packs. We put ice packs inside our pillows (often inside a sock to mitigate soggy pillows)

Do Not follow any advice to freeze hot water bottles. It will compromise the rubber and it may split when you come to use it again in winter time for it's intended use.

Stay safe, all x

I think a Snoop Dog Nigel collaboration is the sort of thing the BBC would organise for children in need / comic relief. Yet to think of how they would come together… they’ve had more bonkers ideas over the years

Left the kitchen window open, awoke this morning to find a dead mouse in the middle of the floor courtesy of the cats next door. Fortunately it is black bin day, today…

Oh gosh, the perils of this hot weather know no bounds eh?

Happy Rufolpg day, all. Today is exactly 6 months until Christmas! I was going to be making my halfway Christmas dinner today, but think I shall leave it until it's a bit cooler!

As is typical for me, I am hunting for out-of-season Christmas bargains. The itch just becomes too much to resist at this time of year for some reason. I am currently contemplating a Trudon Napoleon candle. The only thing that is putting me off is that he is unscented.

Anyway, best of luck today, all. Especially those in the weather warnings zones again.

Oh, happy half-Christmas!

Eek @LatteLady, not the best present. I had a moth flapping at me when I opened the fridge this morning, I'm hoping it had been sitting on the door rather than being inside it.

Had a nice early morning walk to post a parcel. The lavender in my front garden is looking glorious, and this bee was having a lovely time.

I've got an all-day team 'away day' on Zoom today, I can't think of many things less Nigel!

Gorgeous bee photo @martha79 Hope your Zoom 'away day' went ok. How's are you feeling lately? No doubt this hot weather isn't helping with LC symptoms.

Hope everyone else is ok. I see the June temp record got broken again. There has been a lot of talk in the past few days of the summer of 1976. That was a strange one for me. I was five, and in bed with measles for six weeks with the curtains closed. My Mum spent pretty much the whole summer in the garden getting a lovely sun tan (in between seeing to me) I don't remember an awful lot, other than my Mum asking friends and family to send me postcards. I also remember a neighbour dropping off a Mars bar for me as a treat, and it just sat melting for weeks on end on my bedside table as I had no appetite.

All ok here. It's around 24 degrees, so manageable, although DD and I both struggle in temperatures so it can still be a bit uncomfortable at times. I feel like I spend half my day making ice cubes!

It was lovely and cool down the beach this morning, and I also had some lovely chats with folk. There was a group of around 30 young women there who were all dressed similarly in long navy blue skirts and they were sort of chanting / singing by the edge of the sea. I have looked up religious festivals and TikTok trends, but am none the wiser. I wondered if it may have been linked to a pagan festival of some sort. Either way, it was very interesting to see and hear.

Thanks @RainbowZebraWarrior. Zoom day was OK - it was run well so not too hard work and lots of breaks. And we were all sitting at home with our various fans, wet towels, ice packs around us. Our fun activity was to grab a few objects from around the house and tell everyone about them, and thus I discovered that one of my (already favourite) colleagues is a huge fan of nice candles/ wax melts/ incense - we spent the remainder of the afternoon having a Teams chat about scents and good candle brands!

The heat is making everything much harder, my temperature regulation is all over the place anyway and I'm feeling quite wobbly/ dizzy and having to lie down a lot. I just had to take a break between unloading the dishwasher and putting the next lot of dishes in. There does seem to be a bit of a breeze so am going to see if it's cool enough to retrieve the washing I hung out this morning, then retreat to my bed.

Who would like to hear something VERY EXCITING?

The DDs bought DH a nesting box for Christmas maybe 3 years ago, one of those nice woven basket ones. He dutifully hung it up in the wisteria and we didn't really think any more about it - we don't have very good form here, with a 20-year-old never-occupied nesting box on the shed and a same era never-used bat box on the back of the house. Anyway, I spotted it when I was taking the peelings to the compost yesterday and just on a whim, I don't know why, wondered if anything might be using it, so I stuck my hand in for a feel (see above about not expecting anything!) and realised it was half-full of grass. So I went and got a chair to stand on so I could peer in and there is at least a couple of tiny gaping beaks!
We have a cheap as chips camera trap from when something was digging under the shed and I wanted to know what (rats, as it turned out) - it was also called into service when we had the mouse in my daughter's bedroom on the last thread. Resolution not good, focus off, but look, robins!
(I've put it back out at a different angle to try for something a bit sharoer, will report back)

I started Xmas today! Nice to have something to look forward to

How exciting @Celiathebanshee

That must have been a long summer @RainbowZebraWarrior I remember a camping holiday in 1976 and the ground having lots of cracks in it, water tankers and my great aunt diverting bath water onto the lawn.

I think our night temperature is going to be 23, feels like 30 tonight. I'm sat in just my knickers. Have tried cold foot bath and have now put painful ankles/feet up.

Night temperature is 34 here! Unimaginably hot. I’ve sprayed myself with Evian and am sitting by the fan. I know this is the Nigel Slater CC extension thread, but I seriously doubt Nigel himself is thinking about Christmas yet. It’s not even on my radar in June. The man himself is all about his glorious garden at this time of year - sweet peas, climbing roses, hydrangeas, pelargoniums or bowls of gooseberries (you never see those here!). Also I saw he’d liked an Insta post by Edmund de Waal who is making a film about Nissim de Camondo’s house in Paris (still closed for refurbishment @Bimblesalong) which I shall look forward to. DS and I went to see Backrooms yesterday for some air conditioned relief - could not be less Nigel, but I was fascinated to learn from DS that backrooms and liminal spaces are a thing so I have been down a bit of a rabbit hole today googling.

Evening all. I’m in the garden with a gin after a flamenco performance by Andalusians who were struggling with the heat. It was magnificent.

loving the photos and nature.

@LillianGish I thought of you when I saw Edmund deWaal’s post. I intend to revisit the Musee Camondo with dh in the winter. I’m looking forward to the video.

we are deep in the midst of DH’s filming of a programme he’s been working on for a while - finally commissioned by the people he wanted to work with. Last night he locked his keys in his car with half his kit in it. Fortunately. Our hero ds1 has a good mate whose business is rescuing people with lost keys - he came out at 10pm and sorted it or dh would have been in a spot of bother. At the same time, our presenter was very delayed out of Euston. I wonder if Nigel has such issues with filming?

my brother is due to call in tomorrow on his way to a LARP. He has new plate mail armour on (his character is a paladin). I think we’ll just put it in the sun and fry eggs on it!

stay as cool as you can, all!

Bizarrely, I think most people who work in food - certainly chefs and food writers - are thinking about Christmas in June / July. Usually because they are beginning to plan ahead with writing Christmas pieces or filming Christmas specials.

When I was a chef, we would often take summer road trips to seek out new suppliers for the winter season. We would also be chatting in the kitchen about our ideas for Christmas and New Year. (We used to hold a big NYE party on the beach with a DJ and oysters at midnight)

It certainly helped take our mind off the heat a bit!

Right. Full steam ahead for me today. I have so much labelling and packing to do, then delivering honey to our shop early in the morming before heading to our festival. Fingers crossed it is busy with folk spending as I hate having to bring stuff home! Hoping for a sell out 🤞

Oh, and ROBINS!!!

Happy Friday all

Glad you have all survived the worst of the heat (though @LillianGishmight have a little longer to wait for bearable temps but I love that it's making Parisians find their chatty side). Work is back open today, last day of my super busy season, I can almost touch the time to spend on enjoyable things... I live in the amber zone but workplace is red - had it been the other way round I might not have got my 'extreme heat leave'.

Oh, and we had a brilliant thunderstorm last night. Anyone else here love a good storm?

We are in the middle of one now, as are, I suspect a good few others looking at the lightning map

Yes, woke up to some spectacular rain! I'm not sure it's cooled things down much though and we're meant to be getting our highest temperatures later today. I have one music lesson to teach this morning, then probably not doing very much.

I'm not really thinking about Christmas, but I have been re-listening to Michael Mosley's 'Cold Therapy' series in an attempt to feel colder!

Very exciting about the baby robins @Celiathebanshee

I also heard rain in the night but it doesn’t feel much cooler here.

I have lightning maps open more than flight radar at present!
The gig that ds2 attended in London went well. He messaged me to tell me the venue was air conditioned and that they were handing out water. I hope he doesn’t have a great deal of hassle with the trains back. We worry about our kids anyway but being t1 diabetic in a heatwave event like this is no joke!
My brother is dropping in for lunch today. It will be VN (probably more to the Ottolenghi side of N). I’m making a couple of cool lentil salads and have a range of local cheeses for us to eat with a sourdough.

Wish me luck! I am going into my beehive today/tomorrow to see if I have any eggs. If not the search for an unexpectedly needed mated queen in June(!) commences.

We have not had much luck recently. Weekend before last I walked through a wild bees' nest by mistake and got stung twice on the face. Ended up in hospital on IV antibiotics and steroids. Last weekend my old dog (17) got ill. I thought it was the usual dietary indiscretion but took him to the vet for hydration. They tested him for parvo and it came back positive. No one could believe it because of age, vaccination status and he wasn't ill enough. But he went into isolation. Every time there was a shift change we got a new vet phoning to say they were doing another parvo test. He had 5 in total, 1 positive, 1 border line and 3 negative, so they decided he didn't have it. However, on Sunday I'd made up my mind that we had to bite the bullet and have him put down. Went into see him and he just wasn't ready at all. He was feisty and obnoxious and unwilling to cooperate and totally himself. He came home on Monday night but he is very flat, and while I am giving him a little time to perk up, if he doesn't we will be back to that last decision.

He has had an epic life - he is sub-5 kilos of miniature wire-haired dachshund and he has done all sorts. Fought battles with hedgehogs (he lost), helped catch a deer (an injured deer, not just killing mindlessly), been a national tracking champion, been snuck into the cinema (by my then teenaged sister), got lost on a holiday in Scotland and had roast chicken with the police before we managed to track him down, bested countless rats, mice and other small furries (not with permission) and outlived four of his best friends, despite being older than all but one of them, and done basically exactly what he has wanted all the time. I'm not sad for him, if he is ready, fair play, but I am very, very sad for me.

We had a somewhat pathetic two rumbles of thunder and a single intense downpour lasting less than 3 minutes overnight. Pah!

Glad the gig went well. I'd never even thought about insulin pumps and temperatures. My PA in my last job was T1 diabetic, mind you I never expected her to travel with me. It used to amuse me when my senior leadership colleagues all rocked up with their PAs in tow. My PA was amazing and far more use to me back at home sorting my work life out! I will miss her a lot.

DS's band had a gig on Wednesday evening, opening for a tour of an all female metal band from the US who played at Coachella. DS said it was 42C in the venue - and he was drumming in that!

I have found a pair of 100% cotton shorts pyjamas i forgot I had bought with my nectar points. They are the coolest things I own at the moment so they will be the outfit of the day today!

I need to do a few admin jobs and the rest of the day will be spent lazing on the sofa like a victorian lady with an attack of the vapours. I do not do heat very well at all!