Monday, March 26, 2007
Parsnips (cont)
We have now been instructed in the mysteries of giant parsnip soup - all very easy really. Peel and chunk then boil parsnip for a while. Add a carrot if so minded. Puree. Add a bit of milk and cream and serve with bread. Not the sort of soup you are going to eat by the litre but surprisingly good. So parsnip glut problem can now be declared closed.
Spent half a day in Salisbury, the main item on the agenda being the cathedral. I had forgotten what a splendid place it is. Amongst other things, it solved the problem of how to plant a large object on the ground rather well. Rather taken with the way that local worthies in times past were able to colonise tracts of floor with large slate gravestones, around 3 foot by 7. At least two families had managed about six in a row. Not so sure that I want to be buried under a busy path. In some places burying under a busy path is what you do with executed criminals. Maybe being in consecrated ground makes all the differance.
Managed to find a proper baker - run by two ladies who said that the shop had been there more than seventy years. Bread quite good but hard to see how they made any sort of a living at it, in a quietish off centre street with a Tesco between them and the centre. One can only suppose that they own the premises and don't eat too much.
Passed two CIU places which looked fairly healthy. Unable to check out the interior as on driving duties.
Then off to Old Sarum to picnic off said bread. Very cold and windy and we were reduced to picnic inside the car where we finished off the Garrett Lane cabanos. Inspection of the packet suggested that they were gluten free and FIL tried one without ill effect. Even went as far as saying that he quite liked it. We were told that lack of a decent water supply was one the things that drove the town down the hill to where it is now but for my money cold and wind must have been another factor.
Spent a happy more than two hours - supported by the regulation maltesers - in front of the French lieutenant's woman in an ancient but handsome cinema in Lyme Regis. Ridiculous plot with a rather clumsy framing story, but all very pretty and one could play spot the set. It seems that the locals had great fun during the shooting although some missed out on being extras on account of being beard free at the relevant moment. And author of the book promoted himself to local worthiness on the strength of it. The whole business being an excellent subject for beer fuelled discussions for years to follow.
Spent half a day in Salisbury, the main item on the agenda being the cathedral. I had forgotten what a splendid place it is. Amongst other things, it solved the problem of how to plant a large object on the ground rather well. Rather taken with the way that local worthies in times past were able to colonise tracts of floor with large slate gravestones, around 3 foot by 7. At least two families had managed about six in a row. Not so sure that I want to be buried under a busy path. In some places burying under a busy path is what you do with executed criminals. Maybe being in consecrated ground makes all the differance.
Managed to find a proper baker - run by two ladies who said that the shop had been there more than seventy years. Bread quite good but hard to see how they made any sort of a living at it, in a quietish off centre street with a Tesco between them and the centre. One can only suppose that they own the premises and don't eat too much.
Passed two CIU places which looked fairly healthy. Unable to check out the interior as on driving duties.
Then off to Old Sarum to picnic off said bread. Very cold and windy and we were reduced to picnic inside the car where we finished off the Garrett Lane cabanos. Inspection of the packet suggested that they were gluten free and FIL tried one without ill effect. Even went as far as saying that he quite liked it. We were told that lack of a decent water supply was one the things that drove the town down the hill to where it is now but for my money cold and wind must have been another factor.
Spent a happy more than two hours - supported by the regulation maltesers - in front of the French lieutenant's woman in an ancient but handsome cinema in Lyme Regis. Ridiculous plot with a rather clumsy framing story, but all very pretty and one could play spot the set. It seems that the locals had great fun during the shooting although some missed out on being extras on account of being beard free at the relevant moment. And author of the book promoted himself to local worthiness on the strength of it. The whole business being an excellent subject for beer fuelled discussions for years to follow.
# posted by Jim @ 5:14 AM 
