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!

That was an absolute cracker wasn't it @RainbowZebraWarrior

Watching in France. That was the maddest game of football I have ever seen!

It was completely bonkers and amazing all rolled into one eh? I guess the pressure was off and the manager and team were able to experiment with different players and enjoying themselves. I Aam so proud, and DD was over the moon to see France get their goals (especially Mbappe) and Jude get the last say as she loves him. It leaves the players on a high and in such a positive frame of mind ready for them coming back together for the Euro 28 qualifiers.

My Mum will get gutted that she went to bed early when she wakes up to see she missed a Ten Goal Thriller!

I have woken up inspired this morning as DD has always said she would never be able to enter a stadium to watch a match. I started going to St James' Park when I was 11, and despite being Autistic, I just loved everything about it. I was pondering the stadium tour this morning for DD (not on a match day) and lo and behind, they do Autism friendly tours and there are two coming up in the holidays. Fingers crossed she might go for this as I think she will love it.

Happy Sunday, all. I will be wearing my England shirt with pride today. Off to our usual Tynemouth market and also a new 'alternative' market in Shields.

Oh that would be brilliant for her @RainbowZebraWarrior . Similarly to how I described doing travel training for DS, I have had to do football match training. DH took him to his first game aged about 8, his chosen team were away to one of our local ones and DH managed to get tickets in the away end through a family member. DS’s team tonked the home team and they went home buzzing. However he has never seen them again because he finds the thought of watching them lose too much (and it’s hard getting tickets, Premier League team) and we live a very long way away. We did a stadium tour that was fantastic a few yearas ago. But he started coming to see my Championship team with me a couple of years after that first game, we started with tickets in the quietest parts of the ground and the understanding that we could leave at any time which we did sometimes and have gradually built up from there. Now he loves going in the loudest noisiest part of the ground and went without me (but with my friends, who had a spare ticket) for the first time this year. He has also been to a Wembley final with me and a couple of away games.

Caught the second half of last night’s match. What a thriller!! Went to the neighbours for a pizza & Pimms evening.

Well that was a kerfuffle - Argos sent my bed in a lorry and it couldn't fit up the street (cars parked on both sides) 🤣 So had to reschedule it in a van, and due to how busy they are and road closures next weekend, it's now coming a week on Monday. Just as well it's not urgent!

Did however get some kitchen stuff moved over and unpacked. It'll probably never be quite so tidy again so please enjoy (featuring NVN giant bag of tortilla chips)...

It has been lovely catching up with everyone's adventures. Had to go up to Manchester for work last week and boy, oh boy did the smell of burning hit you when you got out of Manchester Piccadilly. Had Friday off to cook for the annual strawberry tea for the quilt group and then decided it was too hot to cook so got up at 5:30am to do it on Saturday morning. I did savoury, so quiches, a fig and walnut savoury tart, which was better than I hoped. a throw everything at it job, with chestnut mushrooms from Oddbox, red onions, and tomatoes from the garden. And I returned to my Cricket Tea Heritage, with Smoked Salmon & Cream Cheese, Ham & Mustard, Beef & Horseradish, Cucumber and Cream Cheese and Dill with a cheese platter... just un case. And the cakes were made by one of our American members... who had us all loosening buttons and wishing our waists were elasticated!

It was a lovely afternoon, about a dozen of us, eating, drinking and showing projects in one of the nicest gardens I have been in, in ages. The garden was so shady, with silver birch trees, Scots Pine, a Monkey Puzzler and a Beech... the sun did not get through too much, and the light was dappled, just the right spot for our picnic. Sadly, Mavis whose binding I sewed earlier was not able to come as she is currently skirting around pneumonia, which was rather worrying as she is such a good egg.

View for this afternoon’s picnic. Which was at the local National Trust place so walked the dog around afterwards. Tourist season is definitely in full swing

Oh God.. my Strangers on a bench podcast episode has finally gone live. I haven't listened to it yet as I have only just got up, but I note that its called "Seeing stars in seaglass" and the piece of music that has been composed for me is called Rainbow of the Night (which will be referring to the aurora) Apparently it is a choral piece as Tom promised me it would be.

I'm scared to listen.

Oh ny goodness, my song is beautiful. And Tom doesn't even know that by calling the song Rainbow of the Night, that it actually links with my name, too. I have to thank him for this. Amazing. I've patiently waited since the end of April to hear what would be composed and it was well worth the wait. It also feels a little bit sea shanty / folk song like which also links with my North East coast roots.

That looks amazing. I agree about tourist season being in full swing. It was rammed down here at the weekend and I'll be avoiding my local NT properties now until September. DD and I are going to sit down today and make a list of places we can walk that won't be crazy busy. Trying to think of quiet woods etc.

That sounds lovely @LatteLady and the fig and walnut tart sounds amazing.

Your kitchen looks fab! (Giant bag of tortilla chips included) Bit of s sod about the bed though. Lucky you aren't desperate for it as you say.

Reminds me of a time when I was policing an Iron Maiden concert. All big events were held at our ice rink at the time which is surrounded by residential streets. People had parked like idiots on each side, and a house fire broke out at the end of a long cul-de-sac. The fire appliance couldn't get down the street. I radioed my Inspector and he said just to tell the fire crew to go for it. So they drove down the road and took every wing mirror off every car. Of course, the owners of said cars were all irate when they came out of the gig, and I just told them to take it up with my inspector.

How lovely to hear your voice Rainbow.

"Delightful indeed" ❤️

Oh I’m going to go and have a listen now! This is very exciting!

Well done that DD @RainbowZebraWarriorshe has come so far!
Kitchen looks grand @martha79
strawberry teas and pimms and pizza nights all sound very lovely!
we are back from our trip and how we loved it! I missed sleeping in the van last night. DH trying to work out how we can finance a van of our own and this from the man who hates camping. They are very spendy so it’s a pipe dream but defo something for if we ever get to retire.

Got back at 2pm then had to drive to Heathrow last night to get DD2 who is back from Taiwan. A 6 hour round trip and we got back at about midnight. Glad my working days are swapped this week and I have today off instead of Wednesday. She is back to Bristol today to do an exam tomorrow. I intend to unpack from the weekend, do the big shop, tidy up a bit then go for a long old walk this afternoon.

Have a lovely Monday all :)

Haha. Thank you ❤️

I sound very Sarah Millican at times!

Oh my goodness, I just skipped to the song at the end and I'm sobbing 🥰 Back to the beginning for a proper listen now.

I've been up since 5am - got a waste collection booked for today and had to get all the stuff outside by 7am. Then someone coming to quote for some work for my landlord who came at 8.15am. Back in bed now and planning an easy rest of the day.

I've just messaged Tom to say how privileged I feel that this beautiful song is 'mine' I thought I would feel rather weird about it all and a bit exposed, but actually it feels like an amazing thing to share.

You've done a grand job to get where you are at right now, so hope you manage to have a restful day.

Hope you enjoy it and enjoy your day off my lovely. That's been a whole lot of running about / driving. Pleased you enjoyed your campervan experience though. There's nowt quite like camping. I need to try and get DD on board with some sort of outdoor adventure.

If anyone wants to just listen to the song, here it is on YouTube

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pt6c_OTvEh4

The whole thing was wonderful, what an amazing, gloriously wide-ranging conversation.

I feel like there's still so much to do. But also feeling like there's a bit more room to move and get the rest of it packed up now. Didn't feel well at all last night but I seem to have fended it off with an early night, and I've nothing else I have to do today except a counselling appointment.

Lovely song Rainbow, so peaceful.

And so a new era begins…I won’t comment on the politics as I feel it might be NVN to do so (though suffice to say I welcome his comments on social care). I will just say that I like the look of his wife. She looks formidable and I liked her dress. And behind any good man is a greater woman usually in my view. Hopefully he will do what he says he will and bring some good things for the nation, as god knows we need ‘em.

I read an article about Andy's wife (who is not called Mrs B) and she did indeed sound like a very steady, capable and competent person. My main political concern at the moment is SEND reform and all things associated with that. Closely followed by social care. We'll see.