The Way of the Wombat

One of the paper-white narcissi in my garden was blown over and snapped its stem, so now I have it in the house in a small vase;




I don't suppose it'll last long as it has been in bloom for a good week outdoors already, but just for now it gives me pleasure.

Remember the picture of the really rough sea I posted a few days ago? And a couple of you said I should send it to the BBC for the weather pictures feature?

Well I just got an e-mail that says;

Many thanks for sending in this photo.

You now view it on the BBC Weather website: http://bbc.in/1bt141d

And there it is, in a slide show of some really wonderful pictures!

I haven't posted for a few days - here's a quick résumé of the week!

Hmm - shoulder still a bit painful if I forget and either try to reach around behind me, pick anything heavy up, or type much; so the next chapter of The Valinor Trail is mainly handwritten on bits of paper.

D-d and I have been deep in discussion about having a few days together in London in August - S2C would as soon not bother. So - I am meeting her in London after I've been to Coventry for the writerconuk get-together on the 9th - 11th August - I'll go down by train and she'll fly over to meet me. Much trawling of hotel websites, which is part of the fun of the whole thing, and we have a good deal at a hotel in south Kensington, in the museum quarter, with a few nice extras thrown in, like free tickets to Kensington Palace, which neither of us have visited before.

Yesterday our new minister at church had her induction service - it was lovely - but I was too busy helping with the catering to take pictures. Also yesterday was The Parish Walk - which is not, as the name might suggest, a pleasant ramble around a country village - but a gruelling long-distance walk the route of which takes the participant to every parish church on the island - a total of 85+miles. Most people set themselves a personal goal of which church they will reach - only a few actually aim for the full distance.

Now whilst, as a non-Anglican church, we are not one of the parish churches on the route, it did affect our service as some of the congregation were walking, or supporting a family member - so my sister took part in the service, but couldn't stay for refreshments as she then had to get to Peel (the 32 mile mark) which is the point Slightly Goth Niece was hoping to reach. Which she did, in a time of 8 hours 56 minutes. (Mind you, the mother of three of the church children got there over an hour ahead of her, and one of the other mums made it to Jurby - the 45 mile mark!)

D-d? She took part in the long-boat races last week** - and helped run a feeding station with workmates for the Parish! Mind you she is organising a team for the Isle of Man Relay for Life so she is certainly not joining me in a sedentary lifestyle - good lass.

**Her team is not in that bit on YouTube - but it gives you the idea.

And here are a couple of pictures, just because I have to cross a wee bridge over this little river and waterfall to get to the house of one of my patients - and it makes me smile.

Music first - I really enjoyed Eurovision, one of the best in years. I felt sorry for the Irish lad, I thought his song was rather good - and he did have some interesting drummers/dancers... I liked the winner, didn't really 'get' Azerbaijan, who came second, but having spoken to both D-d and a couple of teenagers at church, who all rather liked it, it clearly had something going for it! I liked the young doctor from Malta and the lad in the hat from Hungary.

Iceland was represented by one of the Rohirrim;



And Éowyn represented Norway.

They both did better than Bonnie Tyler - but then they both had much better songs, to be honest.

D-d had a Eurovision party as usual and, as usual, they dressed as some of the competitors. She was The Romanian guy I have so got to see the pictures!

Anyway - to the landscapes - I drove up the Sulby valley on Friday and stopped to take some pictures. I had hoped to take a picture of the bluebells, which usually carpet one area. This is what it usually looks like, I took this a few years ago -



But there was no sign of them. Either they are very, very, late, or the bulbs have not survived this hard winter.


It is still rather bleak up there - the hard winter has left its mark, but some of the usual residents look well...( Read more... )

Actually, going back to Eurovision - there were a lot of Thranduilesque eyebrows this year - Lee Pace seems to have started a fashion trend!

Friday was our 27th wedding anniversary - how time flies when you are having fun.

As S2C was off work we went out for a meal to his favourite local Indian restaurant - I had Mannoor Kozhi Masala - which is a South Indian thick chicken curry with cashews. There is a picture of it ( under here... )

After that embarrassingly empty fridge on Saturday morning, I went to Tescos - and we finally have blossom on the trees and new leaves beginning to unfurl. ( here is a picture taken in the supermarket carpark... )


For our wedding anniversary D-d bought us a milk jug to match our teapot, and the cups, saucers, plates etc. that we treated ourselves to on our Silver Wedding - as both she and her dad agreed that if you have a nice tea-pot you really need the matching milk jug.

So this afternoon I made us all a proper Sunday Tea - with sandwiches, fruit loaf, freshly baked scones and a Victoria sandwich. ( There's a picture under this cut... )

At Sunday School we have been considering what an imperfect family Abraham's was - and how God loved them anyway; today we were looking at the story of Jacob's Ladder. Which is something that really does lend itself to a re-creation ( with gingerbread men.... )

As I stood in Sunday School looking out the window something caught my eye - the primroses are in bloom, and some of them are growing in a rather odd place ( Look.... )

A few pictures to illustrate the week.

Actually the first one is from last Sunday. It was the church AGM - and like most such, it is necessary, but not a lot of people want to be bothered attending. So we have the bribe of a free lunch... home made soup, with bread, and dessert - under the cut is a picture of the pudding as it was very pretty.

( Meringue... )

On Tuesday I was on my way to do a couple of home visits down south, and stopped in Castletown to eat my sandwich lunch.

This is the view across the harbour to the castle -

( More pics... )

Wednesday evening and my sister e-mailed me with the news of my niece's engagement - a nice thing. But it must have distracted me because within ten minutes of getting that news I had managed to break the catch on the back gate when I went to take the bin in, and then snap the handle on one of the kitchen cupboards!

The cupboards have been there for about 15 or 16 years - S2C fitted them himself. So getting a matching handle was not an option. I must admit that a couple of times I have thought that new handles would 'modernise' the whole kitchen, but I never got further than a vague thought. But now it has to be done - because one odd handle would look very odd. So I have been to B&Q and bought 14 new handles... 13 to use, and a spare.

I have taken a picture showing the first new handle in place, replacing the broken one, with the old one on the next cupboard -

( what do you think? )

It was a tiring week at work because I had another nurse with me - and somehow explaining what you are doing, as you do it, is twice as tiring as doing it - even though I do really quite enjoy explaining, too. So,; the last clinic of the week was on Friday, in Ramsey. The other nurse headed back south when we finished, but I was meeting friends for an early evening dinner in Ramsey.

I thought I would sit and read for half an hour before going to meet them - and I managed to fall asleep! Just shows it was a tiring week. I was only about 15 minutes late, thankfully, and had a very nice meal at The Harbour Bistro. Had I been more alert I would have taken a picture of my rum-flavoured creme caramel so that this post would be bookended by puddings - but sadly I forgot...

S2C made it to work last night - he slipped, slid, and staggered down the steep slope of our street to the main road, where there was no sign of any buses - but a taxi was trying, and failing, to go up the next street to ours.

When the driver gave up, and the passenger got out to walk the rest of the way, S2C flagged the taxi and was, therefore, able to get down to town to work.

There were no buses this morning either - however, a colleague who got in by car for 8am finally gave him a lift up to the village about 9am when it was clear that he was stuck down in Douglas. (The bus problem is caused by us all living on steep slopes - the bus routes, naturally, are through the housing estates which soon become impassable!)

So - he got there, and home, and by tonight, we hope, he will be able to take our car down.

The west of the island is cut off from the rest of us, though, as they have had the worst snow - and with the high winds the drifting has been a big problem.

This is the webcam picture of the seafront at Peel - so at sea level, and with the heavy salt spray effect...



Pretty - but chilly. Parts of the west of the island are without electricity - high winds coupled with snow and ice on the powerlines - and may be until Monday. I really don't envy them.

I was looking for something totally different when I found a picture of a town called Ostuni, in Italy.

And lo! It is Minas Tirith.




And here is a quiet snicket within Minas Tirith Ostuni;



How beautiful is that? I can imagine Dawn and her assailants from Return of The Key there.

But I think I'm going to have to write something else set in MT now!

I have a couple of pictures to go with yesterday's recipes. But first - bread pudding vs bread and butter pudding.

In the parlance of most of Britain, these are not the same thing. And it seems as if North Americans call what we know as Bread and Butter Pudding, Bread Pudding. It's another of those food conundrums like biscuits...

The dish made with sliced bread, buttered and layered, usually with some type of fruit addition, then covered with egg custard mixture and baked until the bread crisps and the custard sets, is known to most of us over here as Bread and Butter Pudding. Here is a basic recipe with picture.

Bread pudding is made by taking stale bread, breaking it into chunks, and soaking it in milk, or even water, for a while. Then squeezing out the excess fluid, adding spices, sugar, an egg, and dried fruit, pressing it into a baking tin and baking it. Here is a recipe and picture of Bread Pudding. Bread pudding is eaten in a hunk like cake rather than with a spoon!

As for Wet Nelly - this was made like bread pudding - except left over cake was used and so it needed less soaking, more just damping down. Then, at least at our local bakery when I was a child, this mixture was baked between two layers of shortcrust pastry, and sprinkled with sugar. So - it was recycling old cake into new!

Anyway - pictures of fruitloaf and gingerbread ( Under here... )

The news from America is very sad, and there is little point in saying more than is patently obvious to most people - fewer automatic and semi-automatic weapons so easily at hand would make it harder for this sort of thing to happen.

But how sad I feel for all the families involved, who will never be able to celebrate Christmas (or similar December festival) in pure joy again.

However; today I ran a cake stall at the Church Coffee Morning, with some of the Sunday Schoolers, for Christian Aid - we think we will be able to give 4 goats and 4 hens from the baking takings!

I have been baking and making for both that and to give as gifts. I really should take some pictures - there have been mini fruit loaves, rum truffles, those white chocolate and cranberry cookies I made the dough for the other week - as well as a tray of cupcakes. I do enjoy doing it.

I have a few decorations up now, and spent time this afternoon wrapping three 'pass the parcel' parcels for our service in church tomorrow - each layer will reveal a request for the recipient to come and take a particular role in the Nativity tableau. The service (traditionally led by the Sunday School) is written, all the Bible readers have their parts, my narrator has hers, and I have pep-talked the lads who are saying the prayers... I actually like leading this service - but am always so pleased when it is over!

So - cards to write this evening but all the prep for tomorrow done.

The themes for the Decememe for yesterday and today were Christmas Tree and favourite Christmas song (Actually it said 'Holiday song' - but "Whoa! We're going to Barbados", or similar seems a bit out of season!).

The tree is ( under here )

And now for my favourite Christmas song; actually it is more an Advent song, but I only feel Christmas has started once we have sung this at church, and Aled Jones sings exactly the version we sing;