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!

Popping back in to share Ds’s vvn ricotta and lemon zest stuffed courgette flowers. Absolutely lovely.

@Celiathebanshee The robins hatching video has been making me smile every time I watch it, and @MichaelmasDaisiesAndAutumSunset good news about your queen and her work
@martha79 Happy for you that you've found yourself a nice place to live and hopefully nice neighbors., and good luck de-cluttering for the move. It's massively overdue here too. Glad to hear your Dad's ok @ElegantDresses Well done on the wins @LatteLady and while the ones here tend to be more perfunctory than elegant, it's nice hearing about quilts.
@petitpasta Gloveress is a word I've only come across as an occupation on old records. Sounds like a difficult situation with MIL, good luck with being the better woman.
@piscofrisco Good to see you back, and nice that it was a good welcome at the farm.
@RainbowZebraWarrior great news about the hips! Sorry to hear about Dad's skin graft.
I have to admit I'm rather with @LillianGish about your parents and the possible dynamic. I think at the very least Mum is reaching out to not be feeling trapped on her own at home with situations and Dad seeking to be somewhere other than feeling trapped at home... It's very hard, but DD's the one with the least experiences and reserves to manage the effects of it all... I know from painful experience you can so easily become spread too thin, and end up living around everyone else's needs but then ime your own, eventually blow up in everyone's faces... so as everyone else has said 'put your own oxygen mask on first.' Well done on breakfast and tackling Mum.
@Bimblesalong Excellent ! Very impressive!

@Bimblesalong my great grandpa was a tailor and he used to make us all a new winter coat every year. I so wish my mum had kept them as they were wonderful. I used to get to pick the lining colour. I suspect the coats were made from offcuts and the lining was cheap enough to allow us to pick our own colour. My favourite was a double breasted grey wool coat with a velvet collar and I picked a fuchsia pink lining.

That’s wonderful @petitpasta As a young newly wed I used to make winter coats for dh and myself each year.

I’ve signed up for an online embroidery course for a self gift for my birthday in the autumn. It involves beading and other lovely techniques. I’m looking forward to it! Apparently there’s a WhatsApp group for our tutor to give feedback through the week 😬

Morning all and happy Saturday!

What a great feeling it is to have nothing to do. Having said that, I decided at 6am that I absolutely had to scrub the loo with white vinegar and salt (!!?) Anyway, back in bed with a cuppa now and DD is still asleep. Mr D does love Saturday mornings with us all snuggled up a bit longer.

My parents dynamic is very simple. He does as he pleases. Always has done, and pays no attention to time. I grant you, part of that is definitely 'staying out of Her Way as she gets on his nerves. My mother is a chronic 'worrier' and drinks way too much wine. It's that simple. I left DD for all of 30 minutes. I've said I won't do it again, but in all honesty, from a resilience point of view, I do need to prepare her for me being needed urgently as sometimes adults are as all manner of small emergencies spring up throughout ones life. She's almost 15 and only leaves my side to go to school. She is with me and me alone at all other times. It's a worry. I think we will work on some independence over the hols.

Anyway, I found this interesting lighning stone the other day, and yesterday this interesting bottle neck which I have just slipped onto a chain as it's rather tactile in a fidget jewellery sort of way

Happy Saturday all.

Edited as missed a bit

Glad that you are taking of care of yourself @RainbowZebraWarriorenjoy your cuppa in bed. DP is back home and also having a tea in bed. He makes the best tea

early planning stages of trip. So suggestions welcome. But the current idea is driving around France, Belgium , Germany, Switzerland & Italy. For 4 weeks next summer. Staying in air b&bs & hotels.

lots if love to you @RainbowZebraWarrior. Being the sandwich generation is bloody hard :(

Could you fit Slovenia in do you think @crushingonrubies?We loved driving through it-it’s very Beautiful and untouristy.

off to a festival today where the farm has a stand which I need to man for two hours. I say a stand-it’s a tractor and some hay bales with a big chalk board and a lucky dip and such . Woken up very hungover and don’t feel like it at all!

@piscofriscoSlovenia is definitely an option. DP really wants to go to Ljubljana

Ooh I remember this from last year (how time flies!)

Another vote for Slovenia from me. Wonderful country. Fun fact: It is actually 80% National Park. Love Lake Bled in both summer and winter.

See my European geography isn’t great. Didn’t realise that’s where Lake Bled is.

its cool enough to wear protective gloves and hack back brambles in the garden. Very satisfying very warm still hot very scratched

Great beach finds @RainbowZebraWarrior . I especially like the bottle neck as pendant.

I have a find of my own today. We have been re-evaluating our stock for the antiques business. Too much china and glass and not enough cheap stuff was the conclusion, so we've done a couple of buying sorties. I managed to pick up one of those indicator boxes for the servants quarters to show when someone was ringing for the butler and where they were. I love it! The wiring seems ok so I'm threatening to put it up in the house and use it to ring for DH when I want a cup of tea!

Oh I’d love one of those maid calling contraptions like the start of the opening credits for Downton Abbey.

So, once I got clothes on this morning, I popped into town, quick visit to M&S for snackage, sadly this will be one of my last visits as they close at the end of July which will rip the guts out of the shopping centre.

I also was siren called into TK Maxx which had a few St Eval candles, two have come home with me but another one smelt of Vim and took me back to Friday afternoons when my mother did deep sink cleaning in the 1960s!

I might also have picked up half a dozen yards of useful cotton, whilst Gen informed me her new Makower range arrives next week. I am off to Birmingham at the end of the month to the Quilt Show so am saving my pennies for that. I checked my piggy bank to see what I had saved for the trip and it is looking healthy…

My hair is being cut at 4:15pm… which I hope means sweaty fringe will be a thing of the past. And I am now on the look out for a nice glass jug for Pimms… so all in all a bitty Saturday but I am enjoying every moment of it!

Salad Nicoise for dinner tonight courtesy of M&S and maybe the Farmers’ Market at Blackheath tomorrow as cheese supplies look low!

Hello all, from you have I been absent in the Spring Summer. V preoccupied with new job (which I am loving) and then packing to come back to England to look after my own octogenarian Dad while my sister is on holiday. He is an absolute bugger and doesn't do a great job of taking care of himself in the heat, but he has surprised me by drinking quite a bit of water/juice/0% Brewdog which is new!

Sorry to all who have been through the mill, it really sounds like many of us have had a lot on their plate.

I was in London for work on Thursday and only realised on the train platform that all the people wearing sequins must be on the way to Harry Styles!

I am another person that mosquitoes love to bite and I really recommend this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beurer-Accelerate-Medicines-Chemicals-Certified/dp/B089GRH43R?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1
Not only does it remove the itch but I am slightly allergic and get huge welts, and it removes those as well. It feels as though it's burning you when you use it but it isn't. No idea how it works, I presume witchcraft.

Now I'm all caught up I will be more present, I've missed you all and your brilliant photos, adventures and support for each other.

LatteLady I saw some St Eval tealights at a garden centre yesterday, and was quite tempted by the Geranium ones. However, I must check whether they're safe to burn around dogs; you have to be careful with essential oils.

Good to hear from you @noodlezoodle and glad you're enjoying the new job!

I love hearing about your antique acquisitions @Confusedmeanderings and that sounds particularly fascinating.

That food looked amazing last night @Bimblesalong My courgettes are being a right pain at the moment as the flowers keep dropping off before any fruits set. I blame the NE costal wind. Perhaps I should move them to a more sheltered spot.

I've just seen on social media that Steph McGovern took Simon Rimmer to my old fish restaurant on the beach. He was up here visiting her as she lives here. I quite miss seeing all the celebs visit the 'Viral Fish Shack' that Jay Rayner called his favourite place in the world.

Hope the hair cut went well @LatteLady

We have just vegged out all day and I watched Avengers End Game with DD so I am allowed caught up and ready for the new film coming out at Christmas.

St Eval have a sale on atm. I had a look, but there wasn't much that caught my eye.

I have also done a bit of silver jewellery polishing whilst watching telly, including this silver and enamel ring I bought in Cyprus in the late 90's. Been looking for it for ages and I am very happy with the way it's come up.

That’s so funny you should mention Vim @LatteLady-our bath is filthy at the minute and I can’t find anything to clean it and found myself wishing for some vim! Does it still exist I wonder?

I would also like a maid ringing contraption. Dd1 used to have a Little bell she would ring in the night when she was little and needed something. It very quickly got retired due to over use!

The festival was fun but so very hot! Saw lots of old friends and we made £299 on the raffle. Day two today (though I’m not going) so hoping for similar and then we can buy something nice for the co farmers (or else take them on a trip-they want to go to Jimmys farm because it has Bears, which we do not!)

As for us a nice slow Sunday here. Lie in, and I’m hoping to persuade DH to go out for a pub lunch. Then I MUST repot about 6 houseplants that have outgrown their pots. I have had new pots and soil for 4 months but have been putting it off, so today is the day!

@RainbowZebraWarriori am going to be in Seahouses (or near it) on Tuesday. Is that near you?!

I’ve just googled Vim and all that came up is some sort of software program, which will not clean my bath.

Ah Vim. It was taken off the shelves years ago in the UK. Gawd knows what was in it. I sometimes use the lemon cream cleaner Cif. It's quite a gritty cream.

I also fill my bath with water and add Milton then let it sit for a few hours. I have a bath chair (electronic) which gets manky and it cleans it beautifully. For the taps and shower I use that foamy spray stuff in a big can. I did a bit of a scrub around the grotty bits yesterday with salt and white vinegar using an old washing up brush.

I'm around 45 miles south of Seahouses @piscofrisco Used to spend every weekend up there as a kid as my Dad owned a power boat and would go out diving the wrecks around Beadnell and the Farne Islands.

Lovely quite morning so far. Out soon to go to the market. Homework and more chill time this afternoon. Chicken already cooked for later. (I am back on Chicken and rice every day to settle my system down) I am also wearing my 'Bionic suit' today which I don't usually do in summer. It has the added bonus of making me look quite svelte and compressing the old varicose veins. (Think wet suit two sizes too small)

Anyway, happy Sunday to all.

Oh. Just found vim on Amazon!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vim-Classic-Scouring-Powder-500G/dp/B00LC3NG6E/ref=asc_df_B00LC3NG6E?mcid=b182092cb1423492b0c4ecbc0522055d&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=697187398230&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=951255416651957927&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9180859&hvtargid=pla-890779806644&psc=1&hvocijid=951255416651957927-B00LC3NG6E-&hvexpln=0&gad_source=1

Amazing! I am ordering!

Speaking of bathroom related stuff, i have seen this dupe liquid soap in Lidl loadsbod times, but decided to finally buy some this week. DD is well impressed with it as she loves anything traditional Lavender or Rose wise. Shes also over the moon that France won last night, although has her vintage Italy shirt on today. I'm wearing my 1990 England 2nd strip. Keep the faith and all that..

De-lurking after reading @petitpasta’s post mentioning her great granny was a gloveress working for Dents. I’d heard of a glover but not a gloveress until a few days before her post, when reading Kate Strasdin’s book Dressing the Queen (Two hundred years of Makers and Monarchy). The chapter about glove making describes the preparation of the leather, cutting and sewing, and specifically mentions Dents and the gloveresses who worked for them. The book has some fascinating information about the talented people who have worked on the luxury clothes, jewellery and footwear for royalty and those who could afford it - and the workers who often weren’t paid very much for their hours of beautiful and time-consuming work.

Thanks to everyone who posts on this special thread, and mostly to @RainbowZebraWarrior for keeping it going despite having to work through her own health and family issues.

Just wondering, does anyone else have a glove and mitten box... I love a good glove, especially if it is brightly coloured! Currently my box holds the regular black, navy and brown, but also red, mustard, olive green, bright blue and cream. I fear the M&S sale might be the reason for this... I used to have a pair of Schiaperelli pink gloves, but not sure where they have ended up.

Dead headed a gazillion roses this morning, need to cut the grass at the back but I think that can wait until early evening. Have cleaned out the washing machine, too and am currently putting through a couple of washes to blow about this afternoon.

So for a few hours an Audible book and some sewing...