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!

Oh gosh this is absolutely amazing and so well deserved. I am so bloody chuffed for you!

Great idea about the artwork. I have added this.

I love date and walnut, but not coffee. It gets passed by the same as the coffee creams in a box of chocs.

Love the lion. Here's me and my mate Peter at Tynemouth Priory

Great idea! How about buy a photo frame for £1 and create a piece of art to put in it. Your seaglass collection might work well for that! Or buy a ball of wool for a pound and knit something? Buy fruit for a fruit salad (market might be better for that?). Buy a board game and play it or find a book of card games and learn some new ones.

Congratulations! You definitely are an artist now!

Going to our local arts cinema to see the odyssey tonight. Just tucking into roast beef with a greek salad, the remainder of the mozzarella and tomato salad and some roasted baby potatoes. The beef was ouch expensive, fortunately it's rather lovely! Need to leave space for popcorn , can't go to the cinema without popcorn!

Ooh. Let me know what you think. The Odyssey is on our list. DD loves Tom Holland. We are also waiting for Spiderman to quieten down a bit.

All brilliant ideas and added to the list, thanks!

That’s amazing @Confusedmeanderings! So pleased for you. Can we see some of your work? What a talented bunch you all are!

Love the £5 idea-I’m pinching it!

We might attempt the odyssey later-although I’m wondering if the DSS’s might enjoy it in which case we might wait until the weekend when we have them back.

it’s going to be 34 degrees on the farm today. Now I like a bit of sun, probably more than the next man, but this is getting ridiculous. And I am heartily sick of standing in the poly tunnels where it is about 45 degrees, watering everything for hours on end. We need some rain desperately, and there is maybe a tiny shower in the forecast for the next ten days.

As it is August I’m on a three week ish clean eating drive (I do this every August usually for the whole month, but as we are away the last week it will be three weeks this time). I use it as a nice reset after too much rose and nice food for the beginning of the summer and so I can go into lovely Autumn feeling grand. No booze or carbs, lots of protein and veg. I feel sluggish and fat at the minute so it’s timely, (if a touch dull). If I’ve any energy this evening I might chance a lake swim.

Hope your first day back at work is kind to you @martha79

Have a lovely Monday all

34 again?@piscofrisco good grief! It's raining here with a top temp of 19. I've been staggered at the difference this year and wonder if more folk might move further north as this pattern of hot summers continues. Our weather here is more in line with Scotland.

I also feel fat, sluggish and rather sick actually, so my healthy eating regime also starts today. I have just been adding clotted cream, cakes, and wine to my shopping list willy willy. Along eith making cookies and scones. I'm going for salads and soups going forward now that the tomatoes have arrived. Back on porridge for breakfast instead of the doorstop sourdough toast smothered in lurpak! Had a wee chuck out from the fridge and pantry last night, too.

Have a good Monday all and good luck with your first day back @martha79

Urgh 34C! It's meant to get back up to 27 here today - I won't be going out except to retrieve a few deliveries from downstairs.

The healthy eating push sounds good to me too. I have had quite a few salads but otherwise mainly toast and snacks recently. But my new microwave has just arrived and Ocado delivery is coming at lunch time.

Have logged in to work, seen I have 300 emails and going "lalala not listening" currently 😅 Hope you all have a good day.

It was visually stunning! The stories are clearly a bit bonkers but it's very good. It's nearly three hours which concerned me as I don't like really long films but it didn't feel like a nearly three hour film

Managed to bag a few bargains for Autumn on vinted yesterday (grey merino cardigan, navy wool mix cropped jacket, indigo barrel jeans all BNWT). I am so ready for Autumn! Just want to feel rain and be able to wear the clothes I bought for a normal summer (rather than a succession of blistering heatwaves!)

Picking up my new glasses today, hopefully I got the answers to all the "better with, or better without" questions right so I can actually see through them 😂.

Making this for dinner tonight but with leftover beef from yesterday rather than lamb (which is terrifyingly expensive rather than merely frighteningly expensive like yesterday's beef!):

Punchy Crunchy Lamb Salad | Lamb Recipes | Jamie Oliver https://share.google/9Buv40Lhufo9Lr8eI

Thanks. I have just looked this morning and not only did I notice that it's still rammed (almost all seats booked for today) I also noticed for the first time, the almost 3 hour length. I think I'll have to leave it till it comes out on telly as at least I can pause halfway for a break.

We really enjoyed The Odyssey but it is long, I made sure I had a strategic 40 winks beforehand so I wouldn't fall asleep (I can fall asleep in the loudest, most action-packed. most interesting films, it's sitting still in the dark that does it). I'd like to see it again to get some of the detail I think I missed.

Our choir was performing at a local festival at the weekend which was great fun, saw lots of good bands and generally enjoyed myself but ended up shattered and with sore feet. So planning a quieter week. Picked more blackberries and watered the allotment last night.

Festival sounds lovely @ElegantDresses as does picking more blackberries. I just nick my Dad's!

Does anyone remember as kids, the October half term being called Blackberry Week? Yet here we now are picking them in July and August

Anyway, it's all very well me being smug here with the rain watering the garden. I jumped out of bed and thought "come on then, let's get the bedding in the wash... Oh!" I think we have probably taken for granted being able to get the washing hung out any day in recent months. At least I got all the blankets aired yesterday.

We have rain forecast most of this week 🤷‍♀️ so I'll probably end up draping stuff over Mum and Dad's aga, which of course they will love me for!

Interesting article about Blackberry Week

https://jeffollerton.co.uk/2014/08/24/blackberry-week/

Festival sounds great @ElegantDresses

Also not a fan of long films in the cinema, I need to fidget.

October half term was tattie week in Scotland - it was also generally accepted that some kids would be off school to help with lambing in the spring whenever required!

I would love to go to Festival if Quilts @LatteLady but I’m usually on holiday when it happens - sounds like a great day out but v dangerous to start looking at fabric when you have had a g&t!

I'd have liked to go to the festival of quilts with DMIL, she was a superb seamstress and quilt maker, and lived near the NEC, but sadly is no longer with us. Very much missed.

The festival I went to was a small-ish one that's been going for years and has a folk slant to it, it was all very pleasant and chilled and all the better for getting in free as we were singing.

I will read that article later @RainbowZebraWarrior

@martha79 October half term here on the north east Yorkshire coast was always known as tatie picking week. Most of the children in this farming area would be taken off school to help harvesting the potatoes whether or not it was an official half term. Every pair of hands were needed before machinery took over the hard work.

Morning all.

Well the big, fluffy, hooded dressing gown is out here. The candle lamps are both on and there are autumn leaves bathing in glycerine. It's dark, cold and raining with thunderstorms later. I might as well just embrace the early Autumn! Yesterday I picked fir cones from the woods and sprayed them with white spray paint outside.

Getting good use out of the candle stash at least.

Yikes! It was 33 yesterday here and really warm overnight. I was sat in the garden in a thin cotton nightie at 6.30 this morning to catch some fresh air.

I long for the dressing gown. It’s currently 28 degrees on the farm, but so humid that it’s like walking through Treacle. It’s energy sapping.

It’s a year since my Dad died today. I thought we had lost all recordings of him in our house fire but my sister sent me one she had of him this morning. It was so nice but so sad to hear his voice. I loved him very much.