misc

The past few days have seen me in grumpy mode; must be the weather!
Broadcasters have as the saying goes 'got my goat'.
How and why?
There was a news story from the area where I was brought up. The railway line crosses the valley on a majestic-looking viaduct.
In my youth I went over it by steam train. Later, after Mr. Marples had been an 'Ena Sharples' and closed the local stations my journey was by bus and I saw how impressive the viaduct looked.
(Ernest Marples was minister of Transport when the Beeching act closed railways).
Move on to another century, and it's in need of repair. The irritation came for me that several broadcasters couldn't pronounce the name 'Whalley' properly.
Okay, I know in Manchester they have an area called Whalley Range pronounced wally, and onother called Whaley Bridge, pronounced wail-ee.
But the one in Lancashire is pronounced wall-ee.

Earlier today on the radio, presenters did an item about rude/obscene language written on t-shirts worn by youngsters in Newquay.
The town becomes a 'hell-hole' this time of year as it's invaded by post exam students. Teenagers age 16+ going totally alcohol-fuelled dolally in sun, sea and surf...
To some, Newquay is the SW 'answer' to Blackpool; but to me it's a downmarket Blackpool, all slease.

Another summer of anti-social behaviour beckons in Newquay...

Pirate fm news (local radio)
"Lewd t-shirts are being banned too in the latest bid to clean up the resort."

The Independent...
"Newquay has tried to shed its image as the binge-drinking capital after two teenagers died as a result of drunken nights out two years ago. Around 20 drunk and incapable under-age holidaymakers were sent home last year and 1,000 cans and bottles of alcohol confiscated.

as Dylan Thomas once said...

"The sun declared war on the butter, and the butter ran".
And OH is out doing gardening! Experience might come with age; not not commonsense!
24C indoors, goodness knows what it is outside...but out I went to crop raspberries, not my fave to pick but nice to eat.

how different

today is from yesterday...
Yesterday I was volunteered by OH to go with neighbour H to help him buy ready-made, lined curtains and new curtain track. H is nearing 70 and as they'd say in the old days 'a confirmed batchelor'. This makes conversation difficult at the best of times. So trying to explain the ins and outs of curtains and window dressing didn't go down well. Eventually he agreed 72" drop and possibly 66" wide...
The only time I got anything approaching a conversation from him was when we saw Starlings in the car park. He then volunteered that sparrows were nesting under the eaves in his house. So, over an hour later I finally got him the buy some curtains.
On our travels I found out the hard way that he's a slow, methodical driver. He's had his secondhand car for 3 years and almost done 3000 miles! From time to time I had to ask hilm where he was going and even to tell him several times to change lanes so we could reach where we needed to go!

By contrast today MJM went shopping and what a laugh we had, taking the mickey out of each other and generally enjoying a good chat. We had sandwiches, coffee, tea and chocolate in the supermarket café. Browsing up and down the aisles of the various shops, stopping frequently to describe items to M so she could decide on what to purchase... Deciding whether to treat ourselves and what to buy.

wordless Wednesday

Apols to Sayre

since the Blogger 'outage' I've become an intermittent blogger. That and the increasing pressures on my time thro' OU studies. 3 hours 'wasted' today attempting to do an online exercise that uses a programme from last century, a most temperamental programme to put it mildly.
Eventually, in a vain attempt to save my sanity and make some progress, I resorted to inputting random answers so I could access the 'feedback'.

I've hit the wtf time in my present course, 3 assignments submitted out of 6, so 3 more to do. Awaiting the result for assignment 3, but not hopeful as it turned into a 'publish and be damned' exercise. One where having reached the end of my tether, I hit send...regardless of what I think of my efforts.

and tomorrow is

father's day...

how does your garden grow?

Fun Monday cookery

Sayre asks
What is your favorite cook-out food and/or recipe? OR What special dish are you known for at gatherings of family or friends?
First of all I needed to find out what a 'cook-out' might be! Then I realised it might be connected with what over here is known as a BBQ. Hm...haven't been near a BBQ for many a year. But...I do have a series of cookbooks from Australian Women's Weekly.
They are a 'mine' of useful inspirational recipes.
Better still, they can now be found online

Layered garden salad

1/2 lettuce
250g (2 cups) frozen peas
2 hard boiled eggs
250g mushrooms
125g tasty cheese
250ml (1 cup) mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 teaspoons French mustard
1 tablespoon lemon juice
6 shallots, sliced
1 tomato
4 rashers bacon
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Place coarsely shredded lettuce in salad bowl. 

Sprinkle uncooked frozen peas over lettuce

Sieve eggs, combine with finely sliced mushrooms spread over peas and top with grated cheese. 

Combine mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard, lemon juice and shallots, pour over cheese. 

Cover, refrigerate several hours or overnight. Chop bacon finely, fry in pan until crisp, drain. Top with tomato wedges, bacon and parsley just before serving.

unavailable

error messages telling the Blogger is inaccessable again!
At least I've had fewer distractions for a day or two.
Our 'Summer' weather is more like Autumn; cool temps with heavy persistent rain. In these conditions it's good to have a microfibre towel for the dogs.

The hedgehog has put in an appearance several times lately; the big problem is to prevent younger dog from finding it and marching round with a prickly ball in his mouth. 

wordless Wednesday

changeable that's us

Yesterday Fun Monday's topic was about prolonged sunny Summers...
That's something which occurs rarely over the UK.

The Met Office charts help understand our mixed weather patterns.
without going into details...Low pressure in 'in charge' of our weather just now. Low pressure weather systems have winds circulating and they bring scattered showers.
There's a lovely area of high pressure just off Greenland; if it were to travel our way and deplace the showers we'd have some fine weather. Better still would be if the Azores high grew and came north; then we'd have Summer weather!

Fun Monday

The lovely Sayre has taken up the challenge of providing topics for June. She asks about coping with the heat!
Guess across the 'pond' the weather is a lot different...
Yes, here in England we had a couple of days of 'flaming June' weather...then as is often the case it changed.

It's true what they say about our changeable weather! Yes, we can appear to have all the seasons in one day; or in a week. We've gone from 70F to 61F in a few days; from glorious cloudless skies thro' overcast to sunny spells. Temperatures yo-yo from day to day.
Just occasionally, our fine weather 'sticks and stays' and then the good old pessimism begins again. Newspapers headline with stories about the weather. Guess that's what's good about here, we rarely get extremes.

To find out what others have to say, please visit Sayre smiles

toms are coming on

wordless Wednesday