My Blog List

Monday 22 September 2008

Not Much Knitting News

A few days ago, I saw this out of the upstairs window. It was obviously a funeral heading for the village church at the east end of the green. I have heard of funeral walking before but this was the first time I've ever seen it. The man in the top hat and umbrella (yes, dear reader, it was raining as usual in Staindrop) was leading the funeral cortege. All the rest of the traffic just banked up behind it. It took about twenty minutes to get the flow of traffic back to normal. As you can see too, the house across the road is a Raby Estate house and has the familiar blue door.


There is no knitting to show off at this stage but the nights are drawing in and Paul O'Grady is back on telly. I love old queens and particularly, witty ones. There is nothing like him in Australia. That might make some of you want to emigrate straight away! So after shopping I got on to cooking. Using my trusty old aga I did my own version of Ready Steady Cook.


I had made a trifle yesterday, bottom right. I made a large fish pie (fish in cheese sauce with mash and Red Leicester cheese on top, bottom left, then a ragu (spag bol sauce) shown middle right and then a zucchini (courgette) potato frittata, shown top of bench at left and then left some dried fruit soaking in Earl Grey tea to make a fat-free-fruit-loaf tomorrow.

I still have a long list of household tasks which have been neglected but I'm a happy bunny because it all looks so good.

Because the weather has been warm and rain free for a few days the hay is drying and getting rolled into bales and is making it's way up the Dales to farms who will need it for the winter feed for their stock. Tractors and trailers loaded with bales of hay are all moving west at the moment.

I was out on a ramble on Friday and we had to go through a farmyard full of cows, calves and other bovines. (I'm never really sure if they are BULLS or not so I just squeeze myself into a small group so that I'm surrounded by a soft protective layer of human flesh). But the ground was still a quagmire. The harvest has been poor and much has been ruined because they couldn't get it in because the ground was so boggy. The bovines reacted to us by doing the same as the ones in M's Welsh holiday.

I'm off to the High School Centenary Reunion this weekend. A small school was started on the same site as the one that now exists, a hundred years ago. I have not been back to St Michael's Catholic Grammar School for Girls in North Finchley since I left 42 years ago. Next weekend the three sisters will all roll up to the centenary celebrations together! So will lots of their friends and siblings. I shall take some photos.

On my return there will be some knitting and a bookfair to get ready for.

Cheers Gillian

4 comments:

Beverley said...

Hi Gillian
I think I will invite myself to tea! That all looks and sounds so yummy!

While reading your blog I realised that I really do enjoy Autumn. We are heading into spring/summer with the temps going up. At the moment we have the strong norwesterlies that we get in Oct/Nov. Not much fun. Summer can be too hot as it was last year so I think when the weather turns and the leaves are golden and thoughts turn again to woolly jerseys. Those lovely crisp, clear autumn days... hmm yes my favourite.

Knit on >^..^<

Heide said...

What a delightful peek into your refrigerator. The food all looks so delicious, unlike the hurried meals I throw together for my family. We're enjoying an easy transition between the seasons here. Hopefully the pumpkins will all be ready by Halloween.

joco said...

Hiya, is your email address operational?

Sue said...

Wow your cooking skills have been put to good use again I see. I cant wait to see your school reunion photos too, how exciting.