The Year Round Nigel Slater discussion thread part 6

[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

N.B. The Christmas Chronicles thread proper will start in late October, ready for the book beginning on 1st November (seems a long way off, but will be here before we know it!)

Probably wouldn’t take quite as long if he didn’t write it with a quill!

We have that lovely lego collection on a shelf in our lounge 😍

😆😆😆

Indeed. He teased last winter that [implying he was busy] "this book won't write itself" and I am impatient.

I want CC Volume 2

Tbf, I'm happy to wait until 2027 for that, as it must take an age to write a book so amazing, never mind a follow up.

Are kippers what’s in a kedgeree? If so I like them

a quill! :)

oh-happy belated first day @petitpastakeeping it all crossed for you that you like it .

yay for the bed @martha79! And may you rest well in it Tonight :)

So glad we have an exam free year -we have a year 8, a year 10 and DD2 second year uni, (so she will have exams but not the kind where I have to tie her down to make her study).

What I thought was some sort of hayfever this morning, mildly drippy nose has somehow managed to mutate into a full on head cold and a banging headache to match 12 hours later. So that’s me every two weeks until April then. How is it possible?! Dh has booked me a flu jab (though last time I had one of those it knocked me
out for a week so I’m wary). I’ve knecked some
night nurse (literally as I’ve lost the measuring cup so just had a good swig of it and hoped for the best), so hoping to sleep like a
log if nothing else. I was FINE this morning 🤬

No way! We had many famous customers and a lot of publicity over the years (including TV shows) but my God it was hard work. I loved every minute of working there, though. It was a crazy ride, and I used to joke with the owner that we should have had a documentary called "Life of Riley's" The stuff that went on behind closed doors would make for an episode of Rivals!

Pleased the new job has started well.

It never ever occurred to me that he might do a CC volume 2!
or maybe he could do a sort of similar thing but a spring one, culminating at Easter. We should float this idea with him.

@RainbowZebraWarrior

Now we need a Riley’s Rivals regular instalment to help raise the temperature during these cooler evenings!

🤣🤣🤣

piscofrisco; Smoked haddock, usually.

For all the lovers of blue glass ....

Good luck with the new job @petitpasta, and I love the idea of an Easter Chronicles or indeed CC2. Please let it happen 🙏.

Popped into the big new M&S shed (not a fan of the out of town shopping warehouses) and no sign of Christmas...yet...

Grey with the threat of rain here, I suppose dd2 conjured this by buying festival tickets for this weekend 😃. Hope she's packing her wellies.

At work and waiting for my laptop to load multiple updates so I thought I'd post some photos of my blue windowsill and my lego succulents

Ah yes @sueelleker. In that case I don’t think I’ve ever had a kipper. Are they very boney?

Lovely blue glass. I bought some blue glasses from Waitrose in 2017 after my divorce-my first house purchase of my own. They are very thick and still going strong now. I only got four and I wish I’d got six.

woken full of snot and achey. I strongly think I contracted whatever this is in Tivat airport which delivered us the worst airport experience I’ve ever had. The place is tiny, no air con and not designed for the number of flights it operates. There were 10 staff at most in the airport trying to process at least 1500 people, no queuing system and people were actually fighting as a result, no air con, nowhere to sit, no info and everyone just trapped in one tiny departure area. One person fainted it was so hot. Two filthy toilets and a tiny shop that had run out of everything, no water. Something to be aware of if ever any of you are ever going to Montenegro as it seems from social media that that’s normal for that airport.
The people next to me had terrible colds and coughs so that’s almost certainly what I have. Quite fascinating really, the process of infection. I’ve had some Lemsip and such and will get up shortly and try to do some cleaning as the house is a hovel.

DD2 has got a job in Bristol -dom care work-chip off the old block as that was one of my first jobs too- and has her training today, tomorrow and Friday. I am most interested in what is delivered and to see if it’s evolved any since I stopped managing domiciliary care services and moved to Mental health 10 years ago. I hope she will enjoy it-it can be the best job in the world if you can get past the less pleasant bits. It’s certainly humbling anyway.

Grey and humid here.
A happy Wednesday to all

We've got a big new M&S shed too @leporello dangerously for my credit card it is a very short walk away from work.

We are getting a new M&S food hall at the end of the year. Will be ruinous I fear. I tried their bakery soda bread at the weekend. Oh my it's good!

Ours has got a fridge full of recycled garlic bread - the unsold baguettes etc are converted into garlic bread for the next day, it is very tasty. I think Nigel would approve.

Oh that’s a good idea re the garlic bread. I wonder if ours does it… We have an M and S food hall only. Thank god it doesn’t have clothes because when I lived near a big extra one with clothes, food, home and beauty hall, it was ruinous.

Yes ours is just food but it is ENORMOUS. The cheese counter is to die for.

waves back to @Bimblesalong

love your Lego succulents @ElegantDress

after being back at work for one day, woke up with a stinking migraine so phoned in sick and spent all morning in bed. Feel better now if a little wiped out.

Loving all the blue glass. My DD would take your hand off for that set @Confusedmeanderings I also have a windowsill of old apothecary bottles @ElegantDress

We also have that set of lego succulents.

Hope you're feeling properly better soon @CrushingOnRubies

We have the freezer full of garlic bread at our M&S too, but as it's made with stale bread, I find it too hard for me. Everyone else I know loves it.

It all went Pete Tong for DS going back to school today. It seemed every tiny thing conspired against us. School were brilliant through. The bottom line is that DD chooses to be in the mainstream part of the school as she's very academic, but really can't cope with much of it, so she too has a migraine. Anyway, onwards and upwards!

We went for our usual walk in the woods, albeit a bit later in the day than usual. I didn't bring a punnet with me so had to improvise when picking blackberries.

Somehow I managed a trip to the beach in between to-ing and fro-ing to school, and also went to see Tony at the cinema. Very much up my street. Especially in view of what I was saying last night about working as a fish chef. The beach welcomed me with her familiar comforting embrace, and the sea offered up all of her secrets to me in the form of many pieces of pirate glass. I feel like she is an old and trusted friend to me, albeit one that should also be respected and feared in a healthy way.

Beautiful blue glass!

I hope the lurgy clears off quickly @piscofrisco

And I hope things get easier for DD as the term goes on @RainbowZebraWarrior

I've had a very lazy day, was pretty achy after the bed-building yesterday. And it's been very grey and rainy. Had meatballs and butter beans in a tomato sauce with rice this evening, felt quite autumnal.

Perked up a bit this evening and had a go at my sashiko coasters kit that arrived yesterday - struggled a bit with the light/ my eyesight when it came to sewing them up with blue thread on blue fabric, but the actual embroidery bit was fun.

Oh they look very neat @martha79!

I hope tomorrow is better for DD @RainbowZebraWarrior

Rosehips are awesome round here this year and I need to get to them this week!

Back to school and choir here today, which meant back to leaving the house at 7.20 am. Everyone happy to go back and middle child had very nice reception at school (she was very worried about going into "upper" school and having to move classrooms. The school only has about 100 children so I don't think she'll struggle, but she does like an over-think). I'm going to miss them. Feel like the summer passed me by a bit. But I feel like I am getting a grip on areas of my life that have been out of control for a really long time, so I guess I just have to roll with it.

Today is also the first day of me wearing "autumn uniform" (collared/mandarin collar shirt under sweater and jeans. I love clothes but having "uniforms" makes it so much easier to function day to day). We're going to empty the paddling pool (it's absolutely huge. Just been running down the chlorine etc in it) today/tomorrow. I'm hoping the garden will be happy! Just working out best way to get it distributed over the biggest area possible.

I batch baked three banana loaves and three pumpkin loaves yesterday evening for school snacks. They all turned out well, which was nice (mostly I only get about 40-60% of my baking out edible!). Also, started to walk the dog in the twilight, which is great for the bats. My dad asked me what species they are and I haven't the first clue how to tell!

All feels a bit empty today, but hey ho, I'm sure it will improve. Going to bathe my mind in the pointlessly complex pool of pension tax legislation which will at least distract from, if not fill, the gap.

@MichaelmasDaisiesAndAutumSunset you can buy a little attachment for phones which detects and identifies bat species.