Monday, February 12, 2007
Visiting
To Devon for the weekend which was wet. The newly acquired FIL boiler seems to be doing its stuff. Its controller fiddly in a differant way to ours. Maybe one day someone will design an affordable usable user interface to these things. Perhaps when our homes are all controlled by the yet to be announced 'Home Manager' from Microsoft - which will no doubt be as irritating as Word, always doing things when you don't want it to. A useful by-product is the hot water tank which has now been planted in the allotment to do service as a water butt. It seems that when there is a hosepipe ban - the existing one may well continue despite the rain - it is OK to run a hose from the stand pipe to a conveniently placed tub and to water one's plants from the tub with a watering can, thus saving the trek to and from the stand pipe. Perhaps the rule also says that the conveniently placed tub has to be stationary. One is not allowed a bowser which one can wheel around the allotment.
Also planted some of what AE calls mole plants. She had a few of them in her garden and wanted them removed as they breed. She thinks they are called mole plants because moles will not come up under them. We have them in our garden, as does next door, and we think they are a brand of helibore. Good breeders here too. That being as it may, three of the ones pulled up from AE's garden which have been lying on the compost heap for a week have now been replanted. One of them had basal shoots so it might still go. We also have moles in the allotment paths so maybe we will be able to test the mole theory too.
We will have to see whether the teazle patch survives the arrival of the new tub.
We revisted the large secondhand bookshop in Ashburton; pleased to find that it was still there albeit with new owners. Shrink section still up and running and caught me for £4. This was followed by a stroll up Haytor. Fine place but very wet and windy - glad to tooled up with sking gear left over from our coach trip to the South of France a couple of years ago. Also refound the granite railway. The term being interesting because the railway is both made of granite and for granite so the ambiguous qualification is entirely appropriate. One branch of the railway runs into a disused quarry which would make a splendid picnic place in the summer there being a bit of a lake and trees inside - the catch probably being that lots of other people will think so too!
And coincidentally top rib, having had same for the first time after many years last week, was on the menu in Dorset - in stew rather than roast form. It certainly stewed very well to firm well textured lumps - around the size of three sugar cubes. The cow in question was a grow-your-own Aberdeen Angus Cross. Which suggests a whole new game for foodies. Instead of running on about the spiffing rasberry tinted sunflower bouquet of one's cinquieme cru burgundy, one could go on about whether the cow in question had quite enough silage in its diet. Whether a cross or a parallel breed does better on greensand. Great fun.
Bread in Dorset well up to standard. From a baker in Bridport I think, via the local Post Office. And the nannies are thinking of shutting the Post Office. Shock horror.
Also planted some of what AE calls mole plants. She had a few of them in her garden and wanted them removed as they breed. She thinks they are called mole plants because moles will not come up under them. We have them in our garden, as does next door, and we think they are a brand of helibore. Good breeders here too. That being as it may, three of the ones pulled up from AE's garden which have been lying on the compost heap for a week have now been replanted. One of them had basal shoots so it might still go. We also have moles in the allotment paths so maybe we will be able to test the mole theory too.
We will have to see whether the teazle patch survives the arrival of the new tub.
We revisted the large secondhand bookshop in Ashburton; pleased to find that it was still there albeit with new owners. Shrink section still up and running and caught me for £4. This was followed by a stroll up Haytor. Fine place but very wet and windy - glad to tooled up with sking gear left over from our coach trip to the South of France a couple of years ago. Also refound the granite railway. The term being interesting because the railway is both made of granite and for granite so the ambiguous qualification is entirely appropriate. One branch of the railway runs into a disused quarry which would make a splendid picnic place in the summer there being a bit of a lake and trees inside - the catch probably being that lots of other people will think so too!
And coincidentally top rib, having had same for the first time after many years last week, was on the menu in Dorset - in stew rather than roast form. It certainly stewed very well to firm well textured lumps - around the size of three sugar cubes. The cow in question was a grow-your-own Aberdeen Angus Cross. Which suggests a whole new game for foodies. Instead of running on about the spiffing rasberry tinted sunflower bouquet of one's cinquieme cru burgundy, one could go on about whether the cow in question had quite enough silage in its diet. Whether a cross or a parallel breed does better on greensand. Great fun.
Bread in Dorset well up to standard. From a baker in Bridport I think, via the local Post Office. And the nannies are thinking of shutting the Post Office. Shock horror.
# posted by Jim @ 9:07 AM 
