Thursday, May 31, 2007
Flails ahoy!
The council flail has made a right mess of the hedges between the church and Nonsuch High School on the way to the baker. Not been done for a while, so the flail has been used to both trim and take out substantial branches. I suppose we have to put up with the things in the country where the cost of miles of hedging by hand would be prohibitive and where, if done regularly and neatly the results can look OK, but it is a pity that in the garden suburbs we can't afford to do a bit better - given all the things that governments and councils do see fit to spend their money on.
According to the DT, the last puffers' bastion is falling. The Chinese authorities have decided to ban puffing at their upcoming Olympics, a few drunken brawls on the subject notwithstanding. There will soon be no where for us to go. Or maybe the Middle East and the Balkans will hold out for a bit yet?
But there will still, let us hope, be sausages. Over the last couple of days we have done 12 of the best from a butcher in Crewkerne - sausages and various forms of processed pork appearing to account for most of his business - which would suggest that Crewkerne is still something of a DSS joint despite having cleaned up its act over the last few years. The sausages were good - with the unusal properties of neither sticking to the frying pan (this being far and away the best if not the most reliable way of cooking sausages) nor shrinking. Perhaps I put in enough lard to give them a bit of bouyancy, thus keeping them off the floor. 8 with mash and cabbage for tea; 4 in sandwiches for lunch. Must try the sausages from the Cheam butcher. I don't think he bothers much with sausages so it will be interesting to see what he does do.
He does do cheap bacon peices. About a pound of the stuff for 99p yesterday. A bit salty but quite reasonable if irregular meat lumps with very little fat - quite good enough for yesterday's lentil soup - and much better than the equivalent stuff from Sainsbury which can be a bit grotty at close quarters.
Interesting book pricing at a small book sale in Lyme Regis. There were several books prices in hundreds, quite a lot in tens (mostly badly overpriced) and plenty of junk. I settled for a 'Wind in the Willows' (with proper Mr Pooh pictures) for 30p - the best value in the sale. A fairly ancient 'House at Pooh Corner' was £3 and a bit battered so I passed that up. Can't see that it was worth the sellers' while. The Rotary Club up the road on trestles under a beach shelter was much better value. 30p for paper and 40p for hard - and the stock included some respectables. For example, the standard biography of George Elliot, slightly battered, my copy of which cost me £10. Mr Rotary was also the proud possessor of a large heap of Fowlery - that is to say foreign language (Thai included), mostly signed, mint condition copies of the works of the recently deceased John Fowles. We couldn't think of anything better to do with them than give them to a local language school.
According to the DT, the last puffers' bastion is falling. The Chinese authorities have decided to ban puffing at their upcoming Olympics, a few drunken brawls on the subject notwithstanding. There will soon be no where for us to go. Or maybe the Middle East and the Balkans will hold out for a bit yet?
But there will still, let us hope, be sausages. Over the last couple of days we have done 12 of the best from a butcher in Crewkerne - sausages and various forms of processed pork appearing to account for most of his business - which would suggest that Crewkerne is still something of a DSS joint despite having cleaned up its act over the last few years. The sausages were good - with the unusal properties of neither sticking to the frying pan (this being far and away the best if not the most reliable way of cooking sausages) nor shrinking. Perhaps I put in enough lard to give them a bit of bouyancy, thus keeping them off the floor. 8 with mash and cabbage for tea; 4 in sandwiches for lunch. Must try the sausages from the Cheam butcher. I don't think he bothers much with sausages so it will be interesting to see what he does do.
He does do cheap bacon peices. About a pound of the stuff for 99p yesterday. A bit salty but quite reasonable if irregular meat lumps with very little fat - quite good enough for yesterday's lentil soup - and much better than the equivalent stuff from Sainsbury which can be a bit grotty at close quarters.
Interesting book pricing at a small book sale in Lyme Regis. There were several books prices in hundreds, quite a lot in tens (mostly badly overpriced) and plenty of junk. I settled for a 'Wind in the Willows' (with proper Mr Pooh pictures) for 30p - the best value in the sale. A fairly ancient 'House at Pooh Corner' was £3 and a bit battered so I passed that up. Can't see that it was worth the sellers' while. The Rotary Club up the road on trestles under a beach shelter was much better value. 30p for paper and 40p for hard - and the stock included some respectables. For example, the standard biography of George Elliot, slightly battered, my copy of which cost me £10. Mr Rotary was also the proud possessor of a large heap of Fowlery - that is to say foreign language (Thai included), mostly signed, mint condition copies of the works of the recently deceased John Fowles. We couldn't think of anything better to do with them than give them to a local language school.
# posted by Jim @ 3:01 AM 
