The Cybergarden - Midwinter Edition

[shodatin]

Hope this is Post No. 1001 equivalent, having just used up the thousandth space and feel I shouldn't ask Madmouse to organise the next one again.

Have just looked into summerhouse to check fire is burning gently, tray of [brew} organised by upward to turn into one's favourite hot drink of the moment is standing ready for visitors, along with a few pounds of chocolates from huge box sent by DSis. (Before DB eats any more today)

It's usually tianc, upward and hob who remember to be hospitable and also remember to send good wishes to previous visitors, including said madmouse and mouselet, kizzie and family, NanaNina, Butterpie and another name which eludes me just now, but am hoping you'll find your way to this new part of the Cybergarden
and continue visiting in the New Year, along with hob's time-travelling cat Her Felinity and her welcome associate ndt (next-door's-tom), who visit us quite often, bringing gifts of when they remember, instead of the usual dead rodents which they know are unwelcome in the cybergarden.

Have just had lovely large lunch, plus Skype visit from rest of relatives, so will have a little potter round RL garden, hoping all is well and welcoming now in cybergarden's summerhouse.

Mmm, thank you for scone, shodatin - I consider myself very lucky to have had any at all when beagle around. And late night soup too, thank you hob. Yummy!

You've both said exactly what I want to about how fantastic it is that folk can stay in touch through new technology. Though I really shouldn't be surprised, given how we're all talking here! I still blink with amazement that Upward can stay in touch wherever she goes.

It will be so satisfying when your painting is all done, hob. Fresh and clean for the future.

Sorry you're still dormousing more than you'd like, shodatin. Roll on spring and sunshine, and days worth staying awake for...

Hope Upward has had a good day today.

I missed some soup! Hope there's enough left for small mug-ful as nightcap, which reminds me of treats past.
Many thanks hobfor thinking of it, and Nilgiri for reminding me we've got it (and everyone else for leaving enough). Better keep that higher than beagle can reach, because mine got used to having soup for dinner when I left him with French neighbour. Her own dog (big Alsatian) was fed mainly scraps and bones, cooked up in a pressure- cooker daily with a couple of handfuls of rice, so of course beagle decided he liked it too. Am not sharing soup with hound - we don';t have suitable dishes anyway. (Will now stop rambling)
Time to say goodnight now, as I'd like to be up earlyish tomorrow. Hope all sleep well - leave soup mugs and bowls for fairies who will be in later to tidy...

Morning all, another sunny morning and hope all slept well. s and espressos all round, back later.

Not surprisd your hound liked that soup ,*shodatin - sounds better than tinned dogfood & brings back memories , I often feel guilty that in original country , our dog had mainly leftovers ( not just veggie ) , & taking her for a walk was unherd of , probably due to therisk of rabies ... she can't have felt fit .
My DF got her as puppy to try to replicate his own experience of choldhood companion , & she really was my best friend & made me realise that spiritually -sophisticated people do not come only in human form .-can't think of right words !

Hope you get your reasonably early start , shodatin

Thank you fairies for extra help last night and Nilgiri for careful attention to "small , chewed twists of foil "

< pins cybergarden medal on shodatin's lapel for trying to persuade friends to get online >

I must leave my ramble on advantages of having had years of adulthood before internet arrived , for now

< sets up pot for British delicacy of tinned tomato soup , hoping shodatin will remember favourite types of homemade that I can look up >

Sorry just missed you, shodatin , and thank you for espresso < sips happily >

Glad that you too had dog to grow up with hob - one does learn respect for other life-forms, particularly the ones that can love, apart from all the running games the dogs enjoy joining in. When I was growing up, tinned dog food was considered expensive and second-best, so ours had both, plus cheap meat or tripe boiled up sometimes, and it's where I learned to pop leftovers in bag in freezer part of refrigerator, until enough for a dog-meal, which was always a favourite and we thought helped with weight problem, cutting down on snacks - since the day when Mother found animal uninterested in food, and asked "How many people fed the dog today"?,
well, most of us had given him something, apart from his share of jelly-babies, mints, apple and ice-creams etc.
Am sure dogs adapt to what's available, and no reason to feel guilty, considering large number of children who are still not properly fed.

Decided not enough energy for planned expedition today, so will mess about at home instead.

Favourite home-made soup is leek and potato, hob, served hot and in lumps, not chilled vichys (how many esses in that word I wonder) oisse, which I actually have every evening.

Sorry you were too weary for an outing ,shodatin, & hope you've enjoyed doing some hobby work or just watching something good on TV

at jelly babies & icecreams for canines -

Totally agree tinned food inferior & yes , I too was thinkin of ill -nourished humaans whilst writing that . Family dog always very cheerful so I hope she didn't suffer after all - thank you for bringing back such brilliant memories

Ah , the chilled soups of France . ..a m pitifully ill -educated regarding gastronomy , though my Dad tried to teach me , & my DM also , who took some fancy cookery classes whilst living in Paris ( not a finishing school set up - a working woman )

Mmmm yes , I recall potato & leek is your fave < stirs large pot & sets out bowls & crusty bread >
< borrows small children & football to occupy beagle in cybergarden >

OH how lovely hob! Only one thing better than home-made soup, and that's having some made by someone else! You were so lucky having parents interested in food, and must have absorbed lots of knowledge and experience without actually writing it down and taking tests. Do you ever think how different your life could have been if your DM had stayed in France? There is actually a French attitude to food, I'm sure, and have never met male or female uninterested in food. I used to be interested, long time ago...
Remembering when we had a winter in Spain, DH was unwell but we had to use return tickets from airport which was a day's bus-ride away (no spare cash) and he'd been in bed previous week and refusing to have a doctor. I fed him on chopped oranges sprinkled with local brandy - vit.C plus anaesthetic - then two days on well-known brand of tinned tomato soup, and managed to get him home (where he ate huge English Breakfast and declared himself recovered, thanks to the soup, which he planned to write to the manufacturers about, being convinced it had saved his life. There was too much to see to at home, and letter never got written
(and my faith was in the oranges).
Didn't mean to ramble about another tale from the past

Waving goodnight

Haha! Marvellous story about DH's miracle cure from tomato soup, shodatin! DP and he would have got on well, although for DP the addition of beans increases the potency of the medicine.

Am of your gastronomic education, hob. It used to be my ambition to eat my way around the world when I retired. A year in France to start, then a meander across Europe. At least a year in Japan; India was definitely on the list but would take dedication, a few months at least in each region.

Must look back in thread for that posh potato recipe, too, as haven't tried that yet.

Upward's meal ideas always make me drool too.

Ooh, just missed you!

Oh no , missed you all - and I thougt I'd posted this evening So sorry , still rushing about hopelessly cleaning.
Oh that brandy orange cure would have sorted me out too shodatin - & it's not the past realyly -as a fFriend I know says , "all time is one" ( a thought both comforting & upsetting )

That's just it , I didn't absorb any of clever parents' knowledge , partly due to meemory glitches & having as given up meat 7 alcohol & partly as have chip on my shoulder about food snobbery[... Seems a shame to miss as out on ways to make healathier food really exciting , though , & I I love hearing food talk from all of you . You always sound incredibly adventurous compared to me.
Nilgiri , *shodatin's sesame potatoes are drizzled with sesame oil & she uses it layered with other veggies etc - gorgeous for leftovers

< another big fan of the powers of beans >
< hot choc & fresh pot of soup for stargazers as I for one need to do more cleaning >
Peaceful night , all

shodatin " am sure there is a French attitude to food" - as with so many areas of life s

Yes , have often wondered how things would have been if had stayed in France - e would love to live there , but am so grateful for the lovely people I've met in this very odd country , & I feel life here has been far less pressurised in all areas of life
. I've often wondered whether you & Nilgiri agonised over staying in the UK or simply pleased with the direction in which destiny unfolded < too "deep" as well as nosy >.

< books time machine for group trip - Nilgiri's glorious gastronomic journey > ( & please recommend favourite dishes sometime )
House looking absolutely hopeless so had best get back to it s and espressos all round
Apologies if am quieter today , and hope we all have a nice leisure activity ... -especially wishing for distractions for upward

< already looking forward to strengthening tomato soup >

Sorry had to move quickly last night, this tiredness is a pest, but am in total agreement about beans. I once made Boston Baked Beans (in US) which took ages and was not much better than tinned variety, being rather sweet for me, and same with home-made tomato soup (made with homegrown tomatoes) - over-rated IMHO.

Nilgiri, one thing to add with sesame potatoes, top layer (or potatoes only done like roasties) are finished with sesame seeds, more flavour roasted, of course, and can't risk omitting last ingredient.
Hob, I'll have to stay home and keep cybergarden open when the time machine sets off on Nilgiri's gastronomical tour, as no longer interested in food and it does send me to sleep, so I'd miss most of it altogether, but it's a brilliant idea, and you'll have to watch out for stowaway beagle as travelling for food would be really tempting (and everyone else would get so much less).

Will have to ponder "all time is one", new to me, but glad you're happy to end up here in this "strange" country.
Asking various friends why they stayed in the North, reason is always the same, which surprises me.

Got the wrong word there, sorry hob, this "odd" country - even I think it's odd sometimes, but have to admit am glad to be here rather than with boat in Med after losing DH, as friend is now. It would bother me unless I could move it by myself, particularly getting older or less fit, of course.
Hope hob has managed a break from cleaning today, and enjoyed something frivolous, upward too.

< drools at shodatin*'s magniicent food >- thank you for warning on anticlimax , as always mean to attempt both recipes > Sorry it's a bore for you nowadays , and love the idea of a stoway in our time machne
Ooof, your friend must be in a quandary - ope she finds ways of feeling more secure

Incredibly sorry for being absent all day - frantic cleaning / garden tidying , Dh has absolutely surpassed himself with backbreaking effort & supplies of unwholesome snacks to fuel me

Please shodatin , what is this unity of response from your Northern friends ? bursting to know !

Hope upward & Nilgiri are relaxing & stargazing with us

< drools at shodatin*'s magniicent food >- thank you for warning on anticlimax , as always mean to attempt both recipes > Sorry it's a bore for you nowadays , and love the idea of a stoway in our time machne
Ooof, your friend must be in a quandary - ope she finds ways of feeling more secure

Incredibly sorry for being absent all day - frantic cleaning / garden tidying , Dh has absolutely surpassed himself with backbreaking effort & supplies of unwholesome snacks to fuel me

Please shodatin , what is this unity of response from your Northern friends ? bursting to know !

Hope upward & Nilgiri are relaxing & stargazing with us

Sorry hob, I missed the obvious, as so often. The reason given for staying in the North (probably reason for staying anywhere) is simply that everyone says they like the people. I stopped asking newcomers years ago, as always the same reply.

Sorry you've had to do so much today, and just hope this means you can relax for another year or so. You're so lucky to have a man who will help without being nagged, and I feel lucky to have help too, after listening to old friends who are reluctant to arrange this themselves.

Early start required tomorrow, so will say goodnight now. Sleep well all.

What a busy but I hope frutiful day, hob. Are you pleased with the results? Wish you weren't feeling under so much pressure about it, but at least there results should make it all worthwhile.

Heh, you had me on tenterhooks waiting for the Northern friends' response too, shodatin. I thought it was going to be about God's Own County! DP had a colleague whose parents drove north when 9 months pregnant, just so she'd be eligible to play cricket for Yorkshire if she'd turned out to be a boy... (although doubtless there's a powerful women's team, too).

Thank you for reminders of the trick with sesame spuds. Drooling again at all this yummy food talk... Glad to have company on the gastronomic tour although maybe not the hound - but also someone to tend the garden and have for us when we arrive home over-excited and babbling about our experiences. Favourite dishes... it would be nice to have unaju again.

Upward, I seem to remember you doing what sounded a very nice salmon supper: have you ever tried grilled crispy salmon skin? That's another popular Japanese morsel.

Hmm, hob that's an interesting Q about choosing to live in the UK. I was going to say it wasn't a deliberate choice, but actually it might have been - in the sense that it's home, the place they can't turn me away from, and i sort of just stuck here when I got sick.

And then DP is The Most English Person I Know. He says the US is all very well, but he couldn't contemplate living where there'd be no Radio 4...

Darn, missed you by second, shodatin. Sleep well!

That's what I hoped they all said , shodatin , thank you - how positive .Hope you are able to go on planned errands today

So sorry for last night's missed goodnight , missed due to dormousing & bustling

Sorry also for overly nosey questions , thank you for fascinating and poignant replies

Thinking of you all in cybergarden as always < soppy > - not able to post till tonights due to appointmetnts , visitor etc < feels soppy >

Many thanks to both Nilgiri and hob for fascinating posts, and sympathy for hob who has really too much to do (and needs feet up fairly soon before exhaustion sets in). Sorry I had to go early, but have less time awake these days, and sometimes little notice. Back soon.

Had a lovely time talking art and literature with one friend over hot chocolate this morning, and a few hours discussing almost everything else over small box of baklavas with another friend this p.m., so have had a good day. Paying my (thankfully small) garage bill today, was able to have words with beautiful dog who sits there in a basket these days, and enjoys the varied customer contact, lovely animal.
Noticed an odd light in sky this morning, and not surprised to have a few drops of rain, although actually expecting snow, think it's just too cold now.
Hope everyone else has had a good day so far (and that hob has managed to have small rest between all the cleaning chores.)