Friday, May 29, 2009
Chicken soup
Last knockings on the recent large chicken yesterday. Boil up bones with some left over cabbage. Leave overnight, heat up again, pound with potato masher and strain. Take off half a pint and blend with some left over (boiled potatoes) and leeks. Add back to the stock. Add four ounces of pearl barley and simmer for 65 minutes. Added what is left of the chicken and gravy. Serve. Did very well for a light dinner accompanied from some white bread of a German variety from the baker in Crouch End which used to be Halls and which used to sell, forty years ago, spiffing white bloomers.
Spent part of this morning listening once again to Schumann's piano quintet, opus 44, first heard a couple of weeks or so ago at the QEH, courtesy of the Takacs Quartet plus Marc-Andre Hamelin. Very good it was too, especially the second and subsequent movements, the first being a little loud for me. An odd coincidence, that in among my eight feet of plastic, there is just one Schumann disc. At the QEH, for once in a while, we sat at the very front, barring the sparse seats for wheel chairs. Interesting to be so close: a greater immediacy, but a greater rawness too, which meant for me that I had to concentrate a bit. You get a more blended sound from further back. Interesting too in that the peice seemed very democratic with everybody getting a go, with the viola - sitting on the far right for once - getting a good go. First part of the concert made up of a Beethoven quartet (18.3) and one and a half Haydn quartets. Slightly too much for one sitting for me, but well worth the outing nonetheless. Would be interested in the Takacs doing the complete Beethoven but not keen on the format of paired concerts. We shall see.
Bit of a femmy time among the book reviews. The NYRB carries a two and one half page review of a four volume history of wimmen by one Marilyn French, totalling some 2,000 pages at around 4 cents a page. I think I shall pass on that one. Rather more interesting looking, credit card did twitch a bit but not fatally, the TLS carries a two and one quarter page review (including two large pictures) called 'Mothers and others' which appears to centre on the facts that humans are unusual in that they cooperate to bring up their young and that young humans are very good at attracting friendly rather than culinary interest from unrelated adults. Plus a striking snippet about the need in the olden days for old ladies to earn their keep if they didn't want to get knocked on the head in a moment of inattention. No room at the inn for people not pulling their weight. All good stuff but decided that it was too much of a diversion from more important matters; not least the rather large pile of half read and reread books. More discipline needed.
Spent part of this morning listening once again to Schumann's piano quintet, opus 44, first heard a couple of weeks or so ago at the QEH, courtesy of the Takacs Quartet plus Marc-Andre Hamelin. Very good it was too, especially the second and subsequent movements, the first being a little loud for me. An odd coincidence, that in among my eight feet of plastic, there is just one Schumann disc. At the QEH, for once in a while, we sat at the very front, barring the sparse seats for wheel chairs. Interesting to be so close: a greater immediacy, but a greater rawness too, which meant for me that I had to concentrate a bit. You get a more blended sound from further back. Interesting too in that the peice seemed very democratic with everybody getting a go, with the viola - sitting on the far right for once - getting a good go. First part of the concert made up of a Beethoven quartet (18.3) and one and a half Haydn quartets. Slightly too much for one sitting for me, but well worth the outing nonetheless. Would be interested in the Takacs doing the complete Beethoven but not keen on the format of paired concerts. We shall see.
Bit of a femmy time among the book reviews. The NYRB carries a two and one half page review of a four volume history of wimmen by one Marilyn French, totalling some 2,000 pages at around 4 cents a page. I think I shall pass on that one. Rather more interesting looking, credit card did twitch a bit but not fatally, the TLS carries a two and one quarter page review (including two large pictures) called 'Mothers and others' which appears to centre on the facts that humans are unusual in that they cooperate to bring up their young and that young humans are very good at attracting friendly rather than culinary interest from unrelated adults. Plus a striking snippet about the need in the olden days for old ladies to earn their keep if they didn't want to get knocked on the head in a moment of inattention. No room at the inn for people not pulling their weight. All good stuff but decided that it was too much of a diversion from more important matters; not least the rather large pile of half read and reread books. More discipline needed.
# posted by Jim @ 6:41 AM 
