Waxwing

Waxwing
"To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour."

From "Auguries of Innocence"

by William Blake

Thursday 20 May 2021

Recent Reading, Baking and Garden

 


Recent Reading

As you can see I am racing through the Fairacre Books - comfort reading still taking place! Sadly, Kindle don't always show the pretty covers.








Although written by the same author this not a Fair acre book but a one off about a newly qualified teacher who moves from a farm to take up her first post in a town. Again it is light and enjoyable charming reading.






Not the best crime/mystery series I find - but easy reading and enjoyable.





This non fiction Shire book on Church Curiosities is brilliant. It covers so many of the unusual artefacts found in churches from virgin garlands, to sanctuary knockers to dragon-slaying swords and dozens more. Stories, legends and folklore behind these objects are included and there are lots of examples and photos.  Just wish I had the "proper book"!!!






I was thrilled to find there is a new Nikki Galena book out in the Fen series which was not too expensive on Kindle. These books have lost none of their magic.





I have found Caroline Graham to be an excellent writer and author. The way she builds suspense and fear in this book is just incredible. I was hooked from the first page!  Sadly, I suspect I am now up to date with all her books.





I did try and read a book by Dorothy L Sayers but to be honest I gave up after a few chapters as it just was not holding my attention! It is unusual for me not to persevere a bit longer with a new author - perhaps I will try it again one day.


Baking

If I am honest I had done little baking or even cooking before marriage.  I am ashamed to say I did little at my parents and Home Economics as it was then called was dropped after the third year at grammar school so I could continue with Latin!  The first cookbook I bought was the Dairy Book of Home Cooking from the milkman which proved to be a useful book and was used for years along with Delia Smith recipes and many others.  These days I rely on old favourites and new recipes from Mary Berry books and BBC Good Food website.  B bought me last year for either birthday or Christmas a 50th Anniversary edition of the Dairy Book of Home Cooking and the other day I decided to make again one of the first biscuit recipes I tried over 40 years ago - Macaroons and they were as good as I remembered!





Thankfully D and E can cook and bake. Both have been making and decorating cakes since they were little and both did Food Technology (or whatever it is called these days!) for GCSE. D regular cooks us meals and E is always baking.


Garden

The strawberries are doing well!





In the pots are planted carrots, parsnips, beetroot and lettuce - the net is to deter squirrels and cats!





Red/pink azaleas and bluebells and forget me nots are flowering in the bed in the middle of the second lawn.


















Cowslips have self seeded and spread throughout the wild flower "meadow". There are at least 70 new plants!!!








Wood anemone are still flowering as are Grape Hyacinths and



Periwinkles.




Red camellia and




another azalea by the pond. Sadly, we seem to have lost the one with the orange flowers.





Perennial wallflower






The last few photos were taken by my son over the last few months with the Canon SX50 bridge camera.

Fox on his daily walk.




Old fashioned pop corn maker that D bought for E for Christmas




Another jigsaw completed  this one is a historic county map of Warwickshire.




Mallard at Shustoke Reservoir







Rainbow and Hawthorn in flower.









With garden nests the 8 Blue Tit chicks are now down to 5 again this year there seems to be a shortage of caterpillars.  I am not sure about the Blackbird nest in the Holly but adults are feeding young tirelessly in another nest in the clematis on the patio house wall.


Looking for houses for sale locally in view of the thought of the huge rebuilding plans next door is proving difficult and fraught and I am afraid we have become guilty of dithering.  The main problem is that rural houses locally or in villages/towns are very expensive and you are paying an extra £150-200k more for a very average characterless house with little garden just because it is in a good area with excellent schools.  If we could use the same budget to buy a property in another county say Somerset, Norfolk, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire you could purchase a really lovely detached rural cottage with a decent garden and not one sized like a pocket handkerchief!  And that really is the crux of the matter and what is causing the difficulty. At our age I certainly don't want to move twice!  

We still have no idea when building will start next door or when they will move out although they seem to have had visits from at least 3 sets of builders perhaps for quotes??

The Planning Officer who spoke to B said they should provide us with something called a Party Wall Agreement which basically gives us 28 days notice before work, lets us agree their hours of work and they need to take out insurance to protect us if for example they run out of money to finish something like the roof which is affecting our house then we can claim to have the job finished. But we have heard nothing and to make matters worse this agreement is not mandatory!!!!!!!  

In the mean time I shall continue to look for a local house that is not extortionate and characterless!!  


I hope everyone is staying safe and well.

Apart from final photos taken by D rest of photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera.


13 comments:

Rustic Pumpkin said...

I agree, Miss Read's books are gentle and soothing for our troubled times, make good bed time reading! The Macaroons do look mouth watering. Treasure's on his way! You have reminded me I need a strawberry tower too. Now, I am envious of all your Cowslips, I'm sure they are my favourite spring flower, the fragrance is unsurpassed. Stay safe and well!

Bovey Belle said...

If you are not tied by work, then I would say give the idea of relocating some good thought. We did and have never looked back. We are in Wales purely because we wanted land all those years ago, and we could afford to buy it here. Value for money here indeed! Shropshire is another county which we would have been happy to move to, and we were looking in Hereford, but prices outran us and we didn't want to be in a modern house or on a main road and certainly not in an estate. We'd have been like the Beverley Hillbillies!!

You have read more books recently than me. A couple of them I have on my Kindle but a friend keeps sending me good books to read, so I haven't got back to them yet.

Well done with the baking - I am frustrated here and not baking much as the oven that came with the house is tiny and I can't fit baking trays of biscuits in it, and it cooks hot so I have to guess how hot it is/how long to bake a cake for. No fun in that.

Your garden looks beautiful.

Ragged Robin said...

Rustic Pumpkin - Thank you - even though those books can have their ups and downs it seems a much gentler time :) Timothy awaiting Treasure's arrival :) I think son got his strawberry tower from Amazon. We are SO pleased the way they have spread although every time I see them the thought of moving gets harder.Stay safe and well too :)

Bovey Belle - Thank you. Sadly are totally tied by jobs not ours as retired but son and daughter's. Daughter can drive and has car and could get a new job probably easily but son is a journalist so far more difficult and he has found it impossible to learn to drive :( Daughter is looking to buy a flat but I can't see son ever moving out. All in all it is a very difficult situation and I can't just tell them they have to move out. I haven't got it in me and I wouldn't do it. I don't like modern houses either. I just want a nice little detached rural cottage with 3 bedrooms and a big kitchen and a nice garden and not too small. (I sound like someone on Escape to the Country!) Village location would even be ok. But I can see us now being stuck here for ever and having to live for one or two years of constant dust, noise and disruption :( Unless a miracle happens and a real bargain came up locally. Such a shame about that house I missed Millison's Wood - there I could have lived and it was actually affordable! Would have had to put some money but not over much and it was well within budget. In fact seeing other houses round there for sale they sold it too cheap!!!! With the wood being within yards I could even have coped with a garden a quarter the size of ours.

Not going out much due to weather so am reading a lot more.

That is a shame about new oven :( Have you thought of an oven thermometer which may help judge how hot it cooks?

Thanks re: garden - that is one thing I would miss a lot after all these years :(

CherryPie said...

I love your account of your garden birds.

My garden birds are active but they have not yet produced offspring.

Ragged Robin said...

CherryPie - Thanks so much - hope you get some nests and young birds soon :)

Millymollymandy said...

The macaroons look yummy! I've never tried making them. I'm surprised you never cooked when you were young. My mother taught my brother and I to cook and I'm really pleased that she did, but it wasn't until after school so before that I made desserts and baked cakes but couldn't cook anything savoury!

Love seeing the pictures of your garden which is looking really colourful, and the wildflower meadow is lovely.

Have you not thought about just relocating completely to another county now? Or do you need to stay put because of your kids for the time being? I suppose it would be difficult for them to find their own places as it costs so much, even if they are renting. Also of course there is the problem of their jobs (and your hubby, I assume). Well good luck with it all, Caroline. xx

Rosie said...

Lovely post and so many things to comment on. I love Cowslips they remind me of school days in our little village and naure walks and playing in the woods and fields. Your Strawberries look wonderful, ours too are doing well this year, I hope that means a bumper crop of fruits. It must be worrying knowing what to do about whether you should move or not and where to move to, I hope something wonderful will turn up and help with the decision. I enjoyed the latest Fens book too, they seem to get better and better with each one. I have the latest Elly Griffiths book to read, I collected it from the library this morning, I stood outside whilst the librarian took my card and booked it out for me, if I'd gone in to browse for books, which you can do now, I would have had to fill out a track and trace form, I may do that next time I visit so I can look for large print books. Take care:)

The Quacks of Life said...

first off neighbours ... GGGRRR
Dorothy L Sayers? I just couldn't get on with her. I like Christie but Sayers? nope

Ragged Robin said...

Millymollymandy - Thanks so much. They are easy not like the complicated macarons you see on GBBO!!!! I think the trouble was mum went back out to work when I was about 11 and didn't have the time. I know she used to bake cakes with my kids when she occasionally looked after them. She left me her recipe folder and no-one could beat her pastry skills - I certainly can't!!!

Thanks re: garden.

Problem with another county which is where we would prefer is need to stay local atm because of kids and jobs. Daughter is keen to move out and looking at flat to buy next week but it is only a few miles from where we are now! Son has the money but quite happy here. I've always talked them of renting because really it is "dead money" and you are paying someone else's mortgage on a house which will end up theirs. At least being at home it is easier for them to save even though they give us a bit of housekeeping to cover food and a bit towards bills. OH retired now so no problem. Thanks Mandy for the good wishes :)

Rosie - Thanks so much. Yes cowslips (and primroses) always remind me too of my childhood and banks of them in the countryside. Looking forward to those strawberries :) Yes the moving and plans next door is a never ending nightmare that is not going to go away! Thanks too for your good wishes. Lovely cottage just found but 125k over budget!!!!!! Always the way :( I agree about the Fens books! I think I am two behind with Elly Griffiths RG books now - too dear to justify buying yet. Although if new new one out the one before might now become affordable - will have to check! Library sounds a faffe - good luck next time if you decide to go in. Enjoy latest EG :)

The Quacks of Life - Thanks Pete!!! Least said about neighbours tbh the better. I am afraid I am guilty of very rude gesticulations when I see them and their back is turned!

Glad it is not just me with Dorothy Sayers! Usually I persevere but this time I just could not. May re-read some Agatha Christie depending on how much they are on Kindle as no longer have my old paperbacks.

Caroline Gill said...

What a time you are having on the property front, RR. I do hope the right solution appears for you all soon. Meanwhile, what magnificent macaroons! I loved rice paper as a child, the fun, I think, of having edible paper. The popcorn maker looks a lot of fun, too. I am such a cake-lover but sadly a hopeless cake baker. We make Delia's scone-based pizza every so often, and that's about as close to baking as I get (along with mince pies and cheese straws as Christmas with pre-made pastry!). I am longing to see my next butterfly ... the season here really is almost static, like the grey cloudy weather, though I suppose the storm livened things up a bit today ...

Ragged Robin said...

Caroline Gill - Thanks so much for your kind words. I had trouble tracking down rice paper - got it in the end from Lakeland! I think I might make Florentines next - another old favourite :) I have been known to use pre-made pastry at times especially filo and puff! Useful at Christmas if you are baking a lot. To be honest my pastry making skills are not brilliant - even using Magimix and trying different recipes! Cakes, scones and biscuits if you follow a good recipe are quite easy. Breadmaking I can't do - leave that to OH. I did see Holly Blue and Orange Tip in the garden last week but constant rain and hail showers is becoming a trifle wearing!

Pam said...

How wonderful is your garden looking, so much colour! I still have JR Ellis on my to read list, it's funny I always feel a bit bad if I can't finish a book even though I know you can't like them all, silly really! I love a macaroon, I can bake but rarely do anymore, not that I can do anything particularly good though :D

I am keeping my fingers crossed for you that something comes up house wise, it's such a stressful time :/

Ragged Robin said...

Pam - Thanks so much. I do usually try to finish a book but I just couldn't get on with the Sayers one - perhaps now is not the right time when I am looking for good books I can really escape into :) My daughter bakes better than me! I don't bake that much as always someone on a diet!!!

Thanks too for kind wishes re: houses etc. :)