It's life Jim, but not as we know it!

Recipe/Ricetta - Fichi al forno con scalogno caramellato e Dolcelatte (Baked Figs)

2011-10-06T14:40:00.012+01:00

Well, it's been far too long, hasn't it? Fortunately for my bank balance, I've had quite a bit of freelance work come my way recently; however, unfortunately for my blog, it's meant I've had very little free time.

I've also moved over to a different blog:

http://icanyoucanwecan-blog.blogspot.com/

From now on, everything will be over there!

I also haven't had much time to experiment in la cucina - that's not to say I've been idle; old favourites have been trotted out....and by that, I do mean old favourites. For example, I have very fond memories of the shepherd's pies my mother's mother (my English Nan) used to make me, as I'm sure, do my children of the ones I used to make for them, but we don't eat meat in this house, so I used Quorn instead, and it turned out wonderful! If anyone is interested, I'll happily blog the recipe.

On the few occasions recently when I've had time to play, I've had mixed results; from the positively orgasmic (or mouthf**k as one friend declared!), to the running-around-looking-for-the-fire-extinguisher-because-I'd-gone-overboard-with-the-harissa! (Hey, I'm half-Venetian, not Moroccan!)

So today, we'll have mouth-orgasms; I'll blog the fiery Moroccan Not-Meatballs another day!

Fichi al forno con scalogno caramellato e Dolcelatte (Baked figs with caramelised shallots and Dolcelatte)

Nutritional values per person:

Calories: 243

Carbohydrate: 32g

Protein: 5g

Fat: 12g

Sodium: 200mg

(Please note that these are based on the ingredients I used - your own may be slightly different)

For two people:

4 large fresh figs (around 260g in total)

30g Dolcelatte (or Gorgonzola dolce)

75g shallots

45ml cider vinegar

1tbsp good olive oil

Pinch sea salt

Dash freshly ground black pepper

You will also need baking parchment, foil and a small baking tin or dish, and to pre-heat your oven to around 200c.

~~~

1. Peel and chop the shallots - how finely you chop them is up to you.

2. Spread the shallots in a small roasting tin or dish lined with baking parchment - the vessel should be just large enough to hold them.

3. Pour over the vinegar and oil, season and cover tightly with foil.

4. Bake for around 20 minutes, until the shallots are just starting to caramelise. Remove the foil, stir the shallots, and then return to the oven for a further 10 minutes or so. Do check on them though - you don't want them to go crispy!

5. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool slightly.

6. Make cross-ways incisions in each fig, and then squeeze from the bottom to open the figs out.

7. Into each fig, place a spoonful of caramelised shallots and a cube of Dolcelatte.

8. Place the figs in the oven dish, add a scant sprinkle of black pepper.

9. Place in the oven for 7-10 minutes until the cheese is melted and the figs are warm. Again, keep an eye on the proceedings though!

10. Remove from oven, enjoy!

I like to serve these with a little cardamom praline sprinkled over the top, on either a bed of fresh salad leaves from the garden, or with Prawn, Mango and Avocado Cous Cous. Either way, they are completely delicious, and I guarantee you will love them!

Buon appetito!

Life is pretty good, don't'cha think?

2011-02-06T12:24:00.004Z

After a week of moaning about things, I've been reflecting that although there may be frustrations of a technical nature, in general however, my life is pretty darn shiny!

I have the amazing good fortune to be loved and adored by the most incredible and wonderful man in the entire universe. No really, it's true....you may think that your man is the most wonderful one but I can assure you that mine really is. Fact.

Heheh! ;-)

(Gorgeous isn't he?!)

I am also fortunate in that not only am I very good at several unrelated things (and maybe even brilliant at one or two!), I can also make money from them, and what is more, I get to do it from home too! I am currently engaged in making several bespoke corsets, Lady Macbeth's costume for a wonderful actor, James Tudor, and am editing the wiki for Stronghold Kingdoms! I get to be anally retentive, and creative...does it get any better?!

But y'know what's really great? I think I can safely say that the swine 'flu is finally out of my system. I still get tired really easily but at least I can stay awake beyond 8pm now! Oink!

Of course, there are many other wonderful things in my life, for which I am truly thankful (true and loyal friends, a beautiful home, loving family, etc.) but right now, the ones above are the most paramount.

I am blessed!

This hateful thing.....

2011-02-04T15:37:00.005Z

I loathe this laptop. I really loathe it.

I'm considering taking it back to the shop and either insisting on getting my money back (not a good plan, since I'm rubbish at that kind of thing), or more likely, asking very nicely if there's something which can be done with it.... other than throwing it into the nearest pit of eternal despair.

I may have foiled its spy-like intentions but that doesn't mean it actually works any better, or faster. In fact, this could actually rank as one of the slowest computers I've ever used in my entire life.

It doesn't like multi-tasking, which is a major problem because it means I cannot have more than one program open at a time, and that includes web pages. In addition, the graphics processor, which I was told by the man in the shop was pretty good, is in fact, very not-good. I'd go so far as to say it's rubbish actually. And given that I need to be logged into this MMO I've been working on, I am actually unable to do my job efficiently. I'd say at least a quarter of the time I've spent working today has been spent waiting for this piece of dren to actually work properly.

And the longer it's on, the slower it gets.

It is a stupid design too. Who thought it was a good idea to add a numeric keypad to a laptop keyboard, and move the mouse pad to the left? Said mousepad also has an enlarge-everything-to-giant-size function. I cannot begin to tell you just how annoying it is when your left hand digit accidentally rests on the mousepad because it's in the wrong location, sending everything on your screen all over the place because you're trying to interact with the screen with your right hand digit. I have been through this system over and over again and I cannot find a way to disable this frelling zoom function. It's completely fahrbot!

And stressful. All I wanted was for my old faithful workhorse HP to work properly, and instead I feel as though all my worst tech nightmares have come true. Well, except the one where the casing is actually manipulated by the Nestene Consciousness and suffocates me....

Give it time though, it could happen.

And yet another way...

2011-02-02T13:25:00.004Z

Quite by accident, I've just discovered another way of disabling the infernal NetIntelligence program!

Do this!

In Windows7 Professional, get to your network map by clicking:

Start ---> Control Panel ---> Network & Sharing Center ---> See Full Map

Right-click on your computer icon (or the icon for the computer which has NI installed on it)
Click Manage
Double-click Services and Applications
Double-click Services
Scroll down to the entry for NetIntelligence, and click once to highlight it (under status, it says started)
In the column to the right, underneath where it says NetIntelligence, click More Actions
Click Stop
A progress box will appear briefly - once it's gone, click More Actions again, then Properties
Click the arrow on the Startup Type bar (it should be showing Automatic), and from the drop-down list, click Disabled
Click Apply at the bottom of the window
Click OK
Done!

Please note, that I have no idea whether the steps above will be the same for other versions of Windows7, or for Vista, but if not, there should only be a slight variation - probably at the start to get to your network map.

Cue the Evil League of Evil laugh.....

2011-02-01T14:17:00.009Z

...ha ha....ha ha ha ha haa haa haaaaaa....ha haa...ha ha...

(I'm sure Dr. Horrible would be so proud!)

So I reformatted the new(ish) laptop, and the evil(in-a-very-bad-way)ness was still there. But guess what? With aid of my trusty iPad and teh interwebz [<---yoof speak!], I was able to combat it....or at least put it to sleep in a Jean-Luc Picard v. The Borg kind of way. Oh yes! My tech is now my own again.

Muahahahahahaaaaaaaaaa!

Which is just as well because the only help (and I use that term in its loosest sense) that the people at Net Intelligence was able to give was:

"As this is a Home Access machine, you will need to contact the provider of the machine, as it is they who provide support for any queries you may have. They also hold your account details, so will be able to give you any information related to this."

This completely ignores the part where I'd told them I'd bought a reconditioned machine, and that I'd already contacted Comet (the provider) who told me to contact them (NI)...

"There should be contact information for the provider either on the machine, or on the documentation that came with it."

Oh, and the part where I told them that neither I, nor the shop, nor the previous owner had any of the documentation. I did find a number to call in a document on the machine (referred to in my previous post on this subject).

"Home Access machines were not intended for resale, we are unable to support any that have been purchased second hand."

Aah, so they did actually understand I'd bought it second-hand then....question is, didn't the government foresee that this kind of thing would happen?

Harumpphhh.

~~~

So, how did I do it? Quite easily as it turns out...

1. Download Autoruns

NetIntellingence will actually block some Microsoft Help sites, particularly ones which tell you how to fix issues such as network protocols, but fortunately, by going into the Control Panel, and changing my home page to Google (again!) it allowed me to access the 'net long enough to download this little program.

2. Run Autoruns

For some reason - and I'm guessing NI is responsible for this - it installed itself into My Documents, not Programs, so if you can't find it in the usual place, you know where to look! Anyhow, I digress...

Unzip the autoruns.zip file, and click on autoruns.exe
Click options then choose hide Microsoft Entries
Click File
Click Refresh

Autoruns will run a diagnostic of your system and then list all the programs and processes which are currently running on it (barring the Microsoft ones you excluded), so it's helpful to not actually have anything extra running at this time.

Does anyone remember how easy it was to use Windows 98? When you could go into the system and tell it which programs to run at Startup? I miss those days when I could speed up my PC like that! Anyway, Autoruns is sort of like that - from the list, you can choose which programs you want to run and which ones to disable....heheh!

3. Scroll down and uncheck anything which has the NI logo. It will appear in several sections.

4. Scroll down further until you get to the section which is labelled:HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinSock2\Parameters\Protocol_Catalog9\Catalog_Entries

5. Uncheck entries which look like this (there should be about four of them):

"000000000001""Netintelligence Home Edition LSP""Netintelligence Ltd""c:\windows\system32\nihlsp.dll"

Alternatively, the entries may look like this:

(Clicking on the image will enlarge it)

6. Reboot your computer. You should now have disabled NetIntelligence. Try loading up a webpage which was previously blocked.

NOTE: Instead of being able to uncheck the protocols above, you may get a message telling you; "WinSock Protocol Providers cannot be disabled (only deletion is supported)." In this case, you need to reinstall WinSock2. Don't worry, it's really easy! The following is from the Microsoft website, and applies to Vista and Windows 7. For other OSs, check the website....but do it from a computer which doesn't have NI installed because NI will close down the Microsoft Help pages!

1. Go to Start --> All Programs --> Accessories --> Command Prompt this will bring up a terminal (it looks a bit like a DOS screen!)

2. In the terminal, type: netsh winsock reset (if you type it incorrectly, an error message will come up, so make sure you type it exactly as I've done here)

3. Type: exit

4. Press Enter

5. Re-run Autoruns as before, and again, uncheck anything with the NI logo next to it (you may find one more than before, I did). Again, scroll down to: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\WinSock2\Parameters\Protocol_Catalog9\Catalog_Entries

this time you should either find that the entire section is missing, or there is nothing in it. To double-check, click the tab at the top which is labelled WinSock - there should be no NI entries there at all.

6. Reboot your computer.

7. Load up previously blocked web pages.

In both scenarios, you should now be able to delete the NI folder and shortcuts. You won't have uninstalled it but it will be disabled, so should give you no more trouble.

~~~

I'm not saying that there should not be restrictions on kids using the internet, but if there are to be any, surely they should come from parents, not the government. Really, if parents want their children to do tech things, they have a duty to understand these things themselves, and be proactively involved. They should not rely on a net nanny to do their job... especially not in their own homes!

It seems to me that programs like NetIntelligence and its ilk are designed for tech-phobic/tech-illiterate and/or lazy parents...and that frankly, is wrong. As a parent, it is your job to ensure your child is able to use tech safely, sensibly and responsibly. Far better to take the time to understand how things work, and communicate with your child than sit them in front of a computer screen and expect someone/thing else to babysit them. What a child will learn from this is any or all of the following;

a) their parents can't be bothered

b) their parents are idiots

c) that with a bit of savvy, they can get around any security measures their parents put in place

d) getting one over on their parents and 'the system' is immensely satisfying....so what can they do next?

I freely admit that most of the things I've learned to do/taught myself have been the result of someone or something either telling me I couldn't/wasn't allowed, or them actively trying to prevent me from doing so. I don't consider myself to be particularly contrary but I've always had an inquisitive mind, and I've always wanted to know 'why not?' when told no. I do not believe that children today are any different...in fact, I'm 47 and I'm still no different! I still want to know the reasons why I can't do something, and if I don't agree, then I will do something about it! And guess what? I'm one of the most responsible and conscientious people you'll ever meet!

Teach kids how to be trustworthy, and you'll be rewarded no end; teach them that they are not to be trusted, and you'll open up a whole world of pain.... for them as well as you.

Excuse me while I scream...

2011-01-30T14:19:00.009Z

Gaaaahhhhhhhhhh!

Last weekend my HP laptop started crashing, so I took it to the repair shop on Monday morning. After running diagnostics, they determined that the HDD was failing, so they installed a new one. It cost me cost £160, and was fixed the same day. Yay. Or so I thought.

Within half an hour of getting it home, it was crashing again, so I took it back the next day. Got it back on Tuesday evening, and it ran ok for a few hours.....and then crashed as soon as I wanted to do anything graphical (in this case, load up Stronghold Kingdoms, which is an MMO I'm working on).

I couldn't get to the shop on Weds as I had several client meetings, so it went back on Thursday morning. I suspected it might be the GPU, which would mean a whole new motherboard, because, as I'm sure you know, on laptops, the graphics processor is integrated into the motherboard.

Sure enough, on Friday when I spoke to the repairman, he told me it was the GPU, which would cost in excess of what the laptop was worth. He said he'd part exchange my HP (which cost me £350 two years ago), so yesterday I went along to the shop to see what he had that close in spec to the HP.

He had an Acer within my price bracket (I've had so much to pay out recently, I can't actually afford a brand new machine at the moment). Apparently the screen had got broken, so rather than pay to have it repaired, the previous owner decided to trade it in. It now has a brand new screen, and everything has been checked and apparently found to be good working order. I paid £200 for it, which seems reasonable.

However, it is actually very slow, especially compared to my HP, and I think it must be because of all the dren that's pre-installed on it. Apparently it was a Home Access (educational) machine (our government had the not-so-bright idea to give every child at school in the UK a laptop because I assume, it was more headline-grabbing than spending the money on improving our failing education system). This means it has a shedload of rubbish pre-installed on it, which I cannot get rid of because I need passwords from the BECTA control centres. Since I don't have any activation keys, I cannot access the control centres, so I cannot uninstall any of this merda on this machine. In addition, BECTA (which was the government body responsible for this initiative) no longer exists, and despite several telephone calls yesterday, I could not get anyone to give me an activation or access key. All I kept getting told was;

"The parents had no right selling the computer - you should not have been able to buy it"

Nobody had the slightest interest in me telling them that it had been broken, and that I bought it reconditioned from a reputable repair shop.

And if it's not enough that I have gazillion gigabytes-worth of school programs on there, there's a frelling net nanny too, so I cannot even access the internet because......oh look, I have no access code to input. I did manage to briefly get around it by going into the control panel and changing the home page but it soon got wind of my deviousness and foiled my plans for looking at the oh-so-sordid knitting world of Ravelry.

I reformatted it in the hope that the edu stuff had been installed later but guess what? Yup, it's all factory-installed stuff. And possibly even worse - the wallpaper is now a photo of some saccharine children and their father, sitting on the grass, staring intently at a notebook. Actually, since the father is actually screwing his face up, I can only conclude that ants have got into the laptop and are running amok on the screen, or his children have both farted.

Just look at the ickness of it all:

I may vomit.

Tomorrow I'm taking it back to the shop and I shall ask that they do a clean install of Windows 7 without all the government nonsense. Possibly from one of their own OS discs. Really, they should have done that in the first place - surely they should have known that the NetIntelligence program would prevent internet access.... especially in view of the fact that the man in the shop told me that loads of parents just immediately sell their kids' laptops, so it is a common enough practice for him to know about the net nanny prog, and all the other spazzatura.

Grrrrr. And actually, while I'm at he should have picked up that the GPU on my HP was failing. When I spoke to him yesterday, I told him that I'd tested out so many different things in order to discover what the issue was, and he admitted I'd done more to check than he had!

So I am not a happy camper: I've had over a week of tech problems which has meant I've not been able to work properly, plus it's cost me £360, which was more than I paid for the HP brand new, and which I could have done without spending, particularly in view of having to pay my tax bill yesterday too. And I'm STILL having to use my old ageing-hamster-powered dinocomputer.

/giga-grump!

Review: The Artist Residence Hotel, Brighton

2010-07-17T09:53:00.010+01:00

Last Tuesday Kevin and I headed off to Brighton for the Develop conference. It was Kevin's turn to book the hotel for our overnight stay, and as usual, he opted for the quirky choice; The Artist Residence, on Regency Square.

The girl at reception was welcoming but didn't know we'd paid in full up front; she couldn't find any record of our payment! Fortunately she eventually came across it!

The room, whilst looking fun and funky, was exceptionally small, particularly the bed, which was described as a double but was in fact tiny. In addition, it was very uncomfortable and there was only one thin pillow each. No extra bedding was provided.

It was a very warm night but we couldn't have the window open, due to the noise of drunken revellers outside. That and the fact that the other hotel guests were incredibly noisy; slamming doors, very loud voices etc. and one even vomiting very loudly meant we got less than an hour's sleep. This wouldn't be so bad if we weren't at a conference and in meetings the next day.

Breakfast was rather lacking; a cold croissant (with no preserves or butter), bottle of room-temperature water, a small apple and a Nutrigrain bar (which I'm not sure even counts as food!), left in a bag outside the bedroom door. I have no problem with the casual attitude of breakfast-in-a-bag but in all honesty, I have stayed in far better hotels where I've paid less per night, and had a full English breakfast plus yoghurt, fruit, pastries, cereal and toast!

We would have liked to sit out on the balcony to eat our breakfast; unfortunately, the scaffold planks were very wobbly and didn't seem very safe, and the chairs were covered in bird guano! I don't think they'd ever been cleaned, especially as there was a large pile of droppings to the left of the balcony - clearly below a favoured roosting spot!

The advertised WiFi didn't work. We had to ask for the passkey as it was not volunteered; unfortunately it only connected us to the WLAN, not the internet, so we had to go out to a café in The Lanes in order to check our work emails!

We didn't have much time to watch TV, which was just as well because there was no reception, other than Film4! I would however, have been grateful for it in the small hours when I was being kept awake. Thank goodness for my laptop and BBC iPlayer!

Perhaps most disturbing of all was the lack of smoke alarm in our room. I say lack - there had been a smoke alarm once; however, when we were there, all that remained was the plastic base plate screwed to the ceiling, with a few bare wires dangling from it. I'm pretty sure the hotel was breaking the law by not having a working smoke alarm in the room.

The one really positive element was the shower! Granted the en-suite was quirkily bijou (it was in a cupboard) but the shower itself was wonderful. Very powerful, and the water very soft. A real pleasure to use.... even if the cubicle could have done with being a bit larger! Nice complimentary products too (Bee Kind).

To sum up; in principle, I love the quirkiness of The Artist Residence but in practice I found it to be poor value and very uncomfortable. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone wishing to get a good night's sleep, or requiring a decent breakfast.

The table was really sweet - shame all the bird poo prevented us using it!

My laptop bag, which is 18" wide, is there for scale - the bed is tiny!

This cupboard houses the shower cubicle, washbasin and loo! You can actually just see the loo if you look toward the bottom panel of the right-hand door!

Nom, nom, nom!

2010-06-21T11:03:00.005+01:00

Got to Holdenby yesterday to discover that spraying the lettuces and beans has not deterred the bunnies (you'd think chilli and garlic spray would be nasty, eh?). At least they didn't eat everything, and actually, were quite civilised about their noshings, taking only a few bites from each lettuce! Something's been at the peas though, and I'm not sure what. I've taken photos of some of the pods so later on when I get time, I'll do some detective work.

Actually cleared one pea bed as they were just about finished anyway, and got a few pickings which we had with our dinner last night. Harvested from the other pea bed too, so that's dinner tonight as well! Harvested a shedload of salad and am desperately hoping that the rest of the lettuces (under nets, so untouched by buns) won't bolt while we're away next week.

The runner beans have just started to flower, as has the Hungry Gap kale. To be honest, I'm surprised the kale has lasted so long - it's still producing loads of leaves! I've decided to let it get on with flowering now, as I'll need the seed for the next lot. I'll definitely grow it again, especially as this one just didn't prove appealing to critters!

The cabbages are doing brilliantly - I am so pleased with them. They are starting to heart up, so with any luck, we'll get a good autumn crop. Also found a volunteer cabbage when we cleared the peas - it must have been one of the ones we thought had been munched by pigeons just after the snow. We've now replanted it bed #1 in the hopes it survives (it had been munched again).

Removed all the spinach from bed #1 - it didn't do well there. In fact, few of the plants I bought from Plants by Post have done very well. I'm definitely going to sow spinach seed next. Last year's did really well (until the snow came), so I think direct sowing is the way to go.

One thing we did discover is that the pea bed we haven't staked has been pretty productive. I don't know if letting the plants do their own thing is responsible but compared to the staked ones, there is a huge difference. The plants themselves are far more healthy and robust too.

Rook Parliament

2010-06-21T09:47:00.005+01:00

After several hours of weeding at Holdenby, we decided to call it a day. Before we left, we just sat in the sun and chilled out with a can of Pepsi.... until we heard the most incredible squawking coming from the next field. The rooks were all going rather mad! I managed to get some of it on video (my skills as a camera person leave a lot to be desired, for which I apologise).

At the time, we had no idea what was going on - we supposed it was an interloper. However, we've now discovered it was most likely a 'rook parliament'. Legend has it that one of their number is 'put on trial' and if found guilty, put to death. In reality, it's a way of dealing with sick and ailing rooks. Whatever the reason for it, the outcome is generally the same - death to the individual. In this case, I suspect the one which I thought sounded like a younger bird, in retrospect, it was probably just weak cry of the 'victim'.

It went on for at least 10 minutes (in fact, we left before it had finished), and at one point they all chased the victim away. However, it swiftly returned, and the others then resumed the swooping and pecking.

I know it's the law of nature but I still find myself feeling rather sad about it.

And the bile goes on...

2010-05-31T18:40:00.007+01:00

Been up to Holdenby today and feel recharged (apart from the aching back). It was much needed as I've now had half a dozen hate mails in response to my blog... all of them friends of my 'chum' who originally sent that piece of bile yesterday.

I've been called stupid, ignorant, a bitch and a c**t. Oh, and a filthy foreigner who deserves far worse than email abuse. This last comment was based purely on my name, which is bizarre because I'm guessing that since my maternal family came over with the Conquest, that makes me pretty much British....OK, half British - my father was Venetian! But that's hardly the point!

My goodness, I don't know - these foreigners, they come over here, boff our women, take our jobs, become productive members of society. Whatever next? Running for Parliament?!

I'm laughing about it now but it's actually been very upsetting. What grieves me the most however, is that my friend who sent the original email has seen this vitriol (because obviously it means so much more if you hit the 'reply all' button, so everyone can see how many words you can remember from the toilet wall), yet she hasn't even had the decency to say anything other than; "Oh, I meant to send you the email about giving a pill to a cat". Not even a "Sorry you're having to deal with this crap".

So it's OK to send everyone else the offending email? And it's OK to sit by and watch someone you call a friend, someone who helped you through your deepest, darkest suicidal period (her suicidal period, not mine, I hasten to add! I don't do self-destruction...I play video games instead!)...it's OK to sit by and watch your other 'friends' send such abuse to them?

And you won't even say, "Nicole, I'm sorry for what they are saying to you"... let alone defend me??

I would walk through fire for my friends....but then I know that my friends would do that for me too. Well, all except one, it seems.

To say I am deeply shocked that anyone I considered a friend would even think about sending that email is an understatement. I'm actually not sure how I feel about her any more. I don't actually want to be friends with someone who considers the victimisation of others a viable proposition. And I certainly do not want to be friends with someone who does not even have the decency to either admit they made a mistake, or stand up for something they believe in, even if it might be controversial.

I don't expect my friends to hold the same opinions as me. I don't expect them to agree with everything I say. I do expect them to respect me and my right to speak out against something I believe to be wrong, even if they don't share that belief. Just like I do with them. I also expect honesty from my friends - not looking the other way and pretending nothing is happening.

Perhaps I expect too much.

Angry, disappointed.... and saddened.

2010-05-30T08:17:00.018+01:00

Yesterday Kevin and I had lunch at our local Sikh temple. It was wonderful food, cooked by one of the Sikh women, and fit to grace any restaurant table. The atmosphere in the temple was wonderful too. We were welcomed with open arms, yet we are not Sikhs. Conversely, twice when going to our local church, we have been viewed with what can only be described as suspicion, and have been made to feel like we had no business being there. I should point out that this is the only church I have ever experienced this attitude in, and that on neither of these occasions was it the clergy responsible for the lack of welcome (the first time it was a couple of elderly women, and the second time it was the bell ringers - I think both times, it was a case of these people just being irritated at being disturbed!). On the other hand, perhaps the priest needs to up his sermons, and teach his parishioners that thing about not judging books by their covers!

:-p

On the way home, we reflected upon the people at the temple and mused that it would be wonderful if everyone could be so accepting. Instead however, every day we have people victimised because of their faith, their skin colour, their heritage.Or just because they are not the same as the people doing the victimising. In addition, people are often victimised because they are lumped in with other groups by people too ignorant to understand the difference between say, a Sikh and a Muslim.

This morning I found what can only be described as racial propaganda in my inbox. It was nothing more than a call to arms against the Muslim community.... from someone I considered a friend. It was entitled:

THIS E-MAIL IS VERY SIGNIFICANT

(yes, in upper case - I suppose that makes it more legitimate).

It said (and was punctuated with images of holocaust victims):

When I was a kid, I couldn't understand why Eisenhower was so popular. Maybe this will explain why.

General Eisenhower Warned Us.

It is a matter of history that when the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.

He did this because he said in words to this effect:

'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened'

This week, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet.. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the, six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests Who were 'murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on and humiliated' while many in the world looked the other way!

Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.

This e-mail is intended to reach 400 million people! Be a link in the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world.

How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center 'NEVER HAPPENED',
because it offends some Muslim???

Do not just delete this message; it will take only a minute to pass this along.

FREEDOM ISN'T FREE...SOMEONE HAD TO PAY FOR IT!

In what way exactly, is it very significant, as the title would have me believe? As far as I can see, its only significance is in affirming my long-held belief that people often act without thinking, and that they are willing to believe anything the media tells them. How sad.

This is exactly the kind of nonsense which makes me utterly ashamed to be British (even if it is only half-British). And to tell the truth, I also feel rather disappointed that someone I considered a friend would even think I might be ignorant enough to appreciate it, much less act upon it. I wonder how many other people on that email list feel this way (I was just one of many it was sent to)? I can honestly say I am shocked that any friend of mine would condone racism…because that’s what that email was – racism, pure and simple.

And it was sent to a member of Leicester local government too – to their work email address. How dumb is that?

Regarding the offending email:

It is three years out of date – it first began circulating in 2007.
It’s complete nonsense – ONE school in the north of England avoided teaching this subject because it felt it might whip up anti-Semitic feeling, NOT because it might offend Muslims. It should be noted that the same school also avoided teaching about the Crusades in order to avoid whipping up anti-Muslim feeling.

It will come as no great shock that the main source for this story - which was hugely twisted and parts of it selectively omitted - was… ta daaaa – The Daily Mail! Quel surprise.

So long as material such as that email is circulated, we are never going to live in a tolerant and racially/religiously harmonious society. Is that what people want? Is that what they want for their children? Is that their legacy? How shameful and tragic that our generation should be remembered for such hatred, when access to so much pertinent information should make such things incomprehensible.

I know lots of Muslims, and I have visited Muslim countries – never have I ever met any Muslims who agree with the extreme fundamentalist minority (and it is a minority, let’s be clear here). Yet I have, rather unfortunately, met far more non-Muslim bigots who seem to think that it’s perfectly OK to target groups of peaceful people who are merely trying to live their lives. Some of these bigots even call themselves Christians!

Whether you like it or not, Britain is a rich multicultural society - and has been for several millennia – isn’t it about time we as a nation, embraced this fact? It’s about time Britain grew up, in my opinion, and started seeing people, not labels. We live in a global society, which means we are all dependent upon each other. We should not be singling out groups of people because they are perceived as being ‘different’.

Eisenhower was wrong when he quoted Burke ("All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."); all that is actually required is that people switch off their brains, their common sense and their humanity.

Negationism is not the sole province of Muslims; it was actually started (to the best of my knowledge) in the early 1960s by an American called Harry Barnes. Presumably this man was a Christian – are we to target Christians as well? And Americans? Of course not because we understand that these views are held by a small number of even smaller-minded people. We have no difficulty in accepting that these views are not the norm for Christians or Americans (or the French for that matter - there have been French Negationists too).

So why is it so difficult then, to accept that not all Muslims are Holocaust Deniers?

For those of you who are actually interested in finding out information for yourselves, you might be interested in http://www.barnesreview.org/ An American magazine which still advocates Holocaust Denial (and denies America’s involvement in the African slave trade too….just for good measure). Yet I’m not hearing a call to arms against the US!

The Muslim argument, as I understand it, is not that the Holocaust didn’t happen, rather that it has been exaggerated and used as a political tool by the Israelis to drum up sympathy and support, and aid their quest to deprive the Palestinians of their land. However, Sheikh Abdullah Nimr Darwish, the founder of the Islamic Movement In Israel, has publicly spoken out against this anti-Semitic feeling:

"I know that many of you have read very dark and harsh texts. The people who wrote them have no right to sign off on them in the name of Islam. These are interpretations and not the words of the prophet,"

Obviously Negationism (or Holocaust Revision/Denial) could not possibly be part of Islam, given that the holocaust happened only 60 years ago! Darwish is not the only Muslim to speak out against anti-Semitism.

Aside from all of the above, do you know what really strikes me the most? The irony of that email. 60-odd years ago, similar rubbish was being touted, and believed. It led to the systematic extermination of six million people.

"All propaganda has to be popular and has to adapt its spiritual level to the perception of the least intelligent of those towards whom it intends to direct itself."

-Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf Vol. I

Probably the truest words Hitler ever wrote.

Think about it.

My Little Bit of Eden!

2010-05-26T09:12:00.004+01:00

Well, maybe not quite but when Kevin and I were up there last evening, it occurred to me that what I love most about this project is the tranquility and the sense of calm I get whenever I am there. Yesterday the horses were in the field, the chestnuts in full flower, and our crops growing marvelously well. Add to that the stillness and peace, and I was one incredibly chilled and happy woman!

On Sunday we were up there for four hours in the baking sun, which didn't please Kevin one bit - unlike me, he doesn't do well in the heat. Still, he soldiered on and finished the willow fence around bed #7 and dug in some more coir. We both then went into the woods to forage for sticks with which to build a teepee for the beans and to support the peas. I think he was glad to get into the shade!

Rather annoyingly, my back decided it was going to give out half way through staking the peas but I managed to get the teepee done first. I was very pleased with it!

Oh, and I swear the cabbages have doubled in size since last weekend!

Yesterday we put in the runner beans. In 1642, although they were pretty widely grown in England, it was for their flowers, not the beans (they had field beans for that). We've chosen scarlet flowered beans, as these are appropriate for the period (even if not the exact variety of 400 years ago!), and of course, we WILL be eating the beans!

I was going to put sweet peas in at the same time but a couple of nights ago, something got into our garden at home (yes the walled courtyard!) uprooted them from their pots. They also had a go at the Tuscan kales. Grrrr. Fortunately it looks like I've only lost one of the latter and a couple of the former but they're in a bit of a sorry state. I'll give them a week or so to recover and then get them in at Holdenby.

Also planted out some land cress between the beans, around the edges of the bed. I'm wondering whether to put the kale in the centre - there's a lot of space which is not being used but of course, this is going to become pretty shady once the beans and sweet peas grow up the teepee, so I think a fast-growing crop is out really. Anyone have any suggestions?

Dock and thistles are still very much a bane of my life - so much so that I am giving serious consideration to putting some chemicals down when the current crops in bed #8 are done. I loathe the idea of using weekiller but we just can't keep on top of the dock and thistles, despite 10 months of constantly digging them out. In truth, I suspect that we've probably made it worse because of leaving behind broken bits of roots, which of course, then grow into more plants. Anyway, I haven't quite made my mind up yet - use weedkiller to get rid of the problem once and for all, or just continue to hurt my back (and have a grumpy partner!) trying to dig them out, knowing that they'll keep coming back, competing with the crops? It's a tricky one.

Back to the good news though; the peas are now podding, and we've been eating fresh garden/herby salads twice a day, every day since the weekend! I don't know if it's this or the weather, but I am in a very happy place right now!

Sourdough!

2010-05-19T18:14:00.006+01:00

Today we made a mother sponge! We received our sourdough starter, fed it and have set it aside to do its thing. Can't wait to make bread! And injera too!

I'm used to baking my own bread - I've been doing it for years - but this is my first foray into sourdough. I'm quite excited at the prospect!

May 15th/16th: EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL!

2010-05-19T17:23:00.008+01:00

We didn't manage to get up last weekend so of course, today we arrived to see triffids in the garden! OK, they may have been docks but they were huge! Still, everything else has got pretty huge too, so I'm not complaining. We even have a large nettle crop, so I'm considering nettle beer....or fertiliser! Definitely soup though!

I dyed some Blue-Faced Leicester with madder on Friday and took it up to Holdenby to dry in the sun. I would have dyed it up there if not for my very 21st century dye pots! There was a lot of interest from the MoPs (Members of the Public) though, so I'm looking into getting some decent sized cauldrons which I'll be able to use up there.

I picked the first of the kale and sautéed it in butter, over an open fire, with home-grown squash, chives and garlic leaves. It was delicious and authentic fare but I wish I’d cooked more!

Oh, and the willow fencing is growing! Heheh!

It took Kevin and I the best part of the day to weed all of the beds (Kevin did more than me!), although in fairness, we were stopping to speak to the public quite a bit. In addition, I discovered the limitations of trying to garden in heavily-boned 17th century stays! I'm considering either making new ones or removing some of the bones. Of course, I'd prefer to have reed bents instead of spiral steel but finding a supplier is one thing - affording them is quite another! I'll have a look at the next living history fair I go to.

But I digress!

Kevin started building a willow fence around bed 7 but is trying out a new design, so it's a bit slower going than it was with the others. I'm really impressed; he loathes practical stuff like this but he seems to be enjoying it at the moment.

In addition, he appeared to be having a great time talking to the public...but then he *had* spent the last month cramming so he could be sure of what he was talking about! We're both something of authenti-fascists when it comes to living history, and it's really important to us that we don't give the public inaccurate information. I know not everyone takes this approach, and some even think it's OK to fill in the gaps in their knowledge with stuff they've just made up (or worse, seen in a Hollywood movie - I kid you not!), but we're not like that. I even handstitch our kit and use as close to period fabrics as possible! Anally-retentive, moi?!

Of course, the Holdenby garden isn't 100% authentic but we are quick to tell people that while the design is correct for the period, it is actually better suited to a higher status person; however, we're only growing crops which would be available to the kind of person living in the cottage (i.e. a farm labourer).

The reason for this compromise is because to do something completely authentic according to status, we'd end up with something visually unappealing to the paying public. Since we don't own the land, we want to make sure that we give the owner as much value as possible. Especially since he pays us £200 a year for the upkeep of the cottage and garden.

In previous centuries, almost everyone (in England) lived on farms, and grew their own food, but by 1642, around a half of the population was dependent on wages. (One modern study shows that whereas in 89% of a rural population had land beyond their own cottage and garden in 1560, by 1620 that figure had dropped to 60%, making these (nearly half of) rural households, like their urban cousins, entirely wage-dependent.) And while the number of large farms was increasing, smallholdings were dwindling. It was the rise of the wage-based labour-market.

While much food was bought, almost everyone had a garden, from which vegetables, pot- and 'physick' herbs could be grown and gathered. A labourer's cottage in the country would include its own garden, and even in the impoverished East End of London, one third of houses had a garden.

However, food bills accounted for around 80% of people's wages, particularly those at the lower end of the social scale, so it made sense to use every scrap of land available to them to grow as much food as possible to supplement this. For us to do this at Holdenby, it would mean that the public wouldn't really be able to walk around the garden and have a look at everything. Hence, we opted for an in-period-but-not-status-correct-layout! As I said before, we do tell people that this is a representation and not exactly as it would have been!

Next job is to finish the fences, and forage for pea-sticks. Mind you, I think I'm going to do a bit more research into how peas were grown because certainly in the middle ages, there were pease fields, which I'm sure were not staked, so I'm wondering whether in the 17th century they would have done. At the moment, the peas are looking quite wild and straggly, and since I want some intercrops I'm hoping that I will find that they would have had sticks as supports!

Also on the agenda is building a teepee for the runner beans and planting out the gazillion beans and sweet peas sitting in my garden at home, waiting to be put in the soil! Runner beans at this time were grown for their scarlet flowers, not the beans! I'm not sure when people discovered they could actually eat them! I've also got some land cress which needs to go in, carrot seedlings (purple of course!) and quite a few herbs. However, I'm loathe to put them in until they can take care of themselves!

Happy days!

April 4th: THE REGIMENT ARRIVES!

2010-05-19T17:18:00.005+01:00

… or rather, a few of them did (James & Vivienne, Matt & Hannah plus Bob (not Kate!), Krusty, and Sam & Andy)! They helped with planting out (replacement broad beans, peas, spinach, beetroot and cabbage), weeding and securing the beds (plus did some more repair work to the chimney stack).

Things are definitely picking up in the garden, and now that we’re covering the beds with chicken wire when we’re not there, there’s been no more bunny damage. Hoorah!

I moved the leeks from bed 7 into bed 1 in the hopes that they will do better there, since this has had much more dug into it. Bed 7 will benefit from the addition of organic matter (coir) and a fence before the runner beans go in. We also planted five plum saplings up on the bank. The orchard-ette is growing!

March 21st: THIS JUST ISN’T BUNNY!

2010-05-19T17:09:00.005+01:00

So, after surviving the snow, just as we thought we were back on track, in came the rabbits and dug & chomped their way through our crops. We now have nothing but the garlic, onions, a handful of leeks, and the kale. Bloomin’ nuisance. Time for chicken wire, I think.

The dark patches of soil are where I filled in the holes. Bah!

Garth very generously volunteered to lurk on bunny duty!

February 7th: WILLOW FENCING…

2010-05-19T16:53:00.008+01:00

Now that the snow has gone, we can get on and build some low willow fencing around the beds. Neither of us has done anything like this before, so it’s a bit of a learning curve. And speaking of curves… the bed I did has plenty of them! I like the wibbly wobbly walls though, so ner!

It’s good to see things springing into life again – I’m so glad!

Oh, and we planted our first apple tree up on the bank (generously donated by James and Vivienne).

January 9th: ‘SNOW FUN THA’ KNOWS!

2010-05-19T16:22:00.010+01:00

It’s been snowing again and the garden is covered. We went up to Holdenby to check the damage…oh dear. Why didn’t we harvest the rocket, spinach and other salad before the snow came? It was all doing so well a couple of weeks ago, and now it is mostly gone. I’m very sad about it.

Most of the brassicas have survived however, and the winter lettuce seedlings look ok, as do the turnips, so all is not lost. It’s still galling though.

November 22nd: LAVENDER IN!

2010-05-19T15:54:00.004+01:00

The large lavender bushes which were very kindly donated by Rachel went in today. Fingers crossed they‘ll survive.

This is only a temporary home for them; at some point we'll move two to either side of the front door. We're planning to add a wringing post, so the rest of the bushes will be nearby that so we can lay out the linens across them to dry in the sun. Not only will this fragrance them, the photosynthesis from the bushes will help to bleach the linens, thus removing any stubborn stains! Cunning eh?!
Bed 2 is looking very lush - I think we'll have to harvest it soon.

November 7th: SPROUTING PEAS!

2010-05-19T15:44:00.004+01:00

The peas are sprouting…which is better than the sprouts pea-ing! Heheh! Lettuce seedlings are doing well too.

We harvested some radishes and turnips today; I’m going to bake them in butter and olive oil with rosemary, and they shall be nom!

October 21st: LAST TWO BEDS DUG!

2010-05-19T15:39:00.005+01:00

Weeeeee, ‘tis done! Kevin dug the last of the eight beds yesterday while I planted up Bed 6 with Wintergreen spring cabbage and Musselburgh leeks. It’s all looking lovely! I’m tempted to put in some catch crops of winter lettuce too! Just need to plant up beds 7 & 8 now, and then make some netted frames for them all.

Next big job – extend and dig over the dye bed…esp. as I discovered I’d been sent even more extras in my brassica and leek order!

And of course, there are the leaves which need to be cleared…..ugh!

October 19th: MORE BEDS DUG AND MORE PLANTINGS IN!

2010-05-19T15:09:00.008+01:00

Since we were being sociable all weekend, we didn’t get a chance to get up to Holdenby, so we took the afternoon off work today! Working for ourselves has its advantages!

While Kevin dug out bed 6, I planted out loads of garlic and onions into bed 4. Because I was too late sowing brassicas and leeks for overwintering, I bought in 20 each of the following;

MUSSELBOROUGH LEEKS
HUNGRY GAP KALE
JANUARY KING EXTRA LATE
WINTER GREEN SPRING CABBAGE

However, I actually received 27 of the JKELs! Bed 5 received 16 of them! I plan to use beds 6, 7, & 8 for the rest of the plants and to put whatever is left in the dye bed, since it’s not going to be doing much until spring anyway!

It’s really exciting seeing it all coming together and being productive. Once all the planting is done, I want to get some more wattle fencing around the beds. I’m also looking into C 17th pest control because the critters are beginning to be very annoying! On the plus side, they do appear to be quite lazy! When the feverfew was in the dye bed at the back, it was left alone – now it’s in the herb bed at the front, something has had a go at the flowers! We’ve now netted as much of the herb bed as we can at the moment but it looks horrible! As soon as we’ve extended it outwards, I want to get a low fence around it.

In the meantime, I’ve been in touch with Stuart Peachey and Mark Rostron who are responsible for the renovation of Grayhill, a C 17th farm (as featured in BBC’s Tales of the Green Valley). Kevin and I have been invited to visit there so we can see the kitchen garden first hand! I’ve also been looking at pictures of Little Woodham (the project which partially funded the purchase of Grayhill 21 years ago), and from what we can make out, it looks as though there is at least one netted A frame, so maybe we’re on the right track. Just need to get proper net and lose the plastic stuff!

Oh, and the winter lettuces under the fleece in bed 3 have started to come up, as has the mustard in bed 1.

More beds to be dug during this week, and more planting to go in. It’s all go!

Garlic Is Driving Me Wild!

2009-10-15T13:02:00.003+01:00

My onion sets (Red Baron & Sturon) arrived this morning, along with four garlic bulbs ( two each of Albigensian Wight and Lautrec Wight). It's all been sitting next to me, in its padded envelope, on the sofa whilst I catalogue it on Folia...and it's making my tummy rumble something rotten!

Torture I tell you!

The scent from the garlic is so strong - I'm sorely tempted to just go and bake one bulb and turn the other into garlic bread! Fortunately, I have some of this year's garlic harvest sitting in my kitchen, so the new stuff is safe. For now! Probably best to get it in the ground at the weekend! :-)

Now then, regarding lunch...!

Weeding and seeding...and some great news!

2009-10-14T19:07:00.008+01:00

Saturday 10th October:

Well, the first thing I have to say is that only three hours of gardening so soon after having ‘flu absolutely knocked me for six! Nevertheless, we still got quite a bit done, although not as much as I’d planned. Ho hum.

The Regiment had been over the weekend before – whilst we were away in York – and tidied up the grassy parts of the garden, plus cleared the orchard area and built a delightful little wattle fence around Bed #2. Spiffing!

Our priorities were to get at least two more beds dug out, dig over Beds 3 & 4, weed, and get the peas and beans in. Kevin dug over the beds only to discover some building remains about 6" down in #4! As it is probably Elizabthan, we decided not to emulate Time Team but to leave it be, and only plant shallow rooted varieties in there!

Since the broccoli in Bed 1 was not authentic and had also been munched to near-death by critters, we decided to take it out. We also got rid of the aubergine because it’s now far too late for it to fruit…it had only just come into flower! In their places, I sowed some land cress and broadcast mustard. I think I shall be thinning the turnips next weekend, and possibly getting a second radish harvest.

Bed 2 was a joy to work on; it just needed a little tidying up, and I couldn’t resist taking a photo! Next weekend, I shall be thinning the kale.

In Bed 3, I sowed Aquadulce broad beans, Meteor peas, and some winter butterhead lettuce. Haven’t put anything in #4 yet but am hoping to get some plants in over the next week or so. Kevin marked out Bed 5 but his back was aching, so we thought it best to quit whilst we were ahead! Will be full steam ahead this weekend however, because we should have some brassicas and leeks to go in (I was too late to sow any, so have bought in plants).

Also transplanted three decent size feverfew bushes and a tiny one from the dye bed to the herb garden.

October 14th:

Today I received some Carlin peas from Manda at http://www.catstripe.co.uk/ . I’d emailed her after reading on her blog that she’d been growing some Carlins (very popular in the 17th C), and asked if she had any to sell or swap. She very generously sent me 95 seeds and said to ‘pay it forward’ next year instead of sending something to her! How wonderful! I love gardeners!

The best news is that today I also received my Heritage Seed Library membership pack! Can’t wait to be able to order my six packs of seed! I’d like to eventually become a seed guardian but that’s going to be a way into the future…I’d like to get an allotment first. Or perhaps access to Holdenby’s kitchen garden! Heheh!

Pictured below;

Bed #2, Snowball turnip, Summer Crunch radish, feverfew, part of herb bed

Ketchup!

2009-10-10T08:46:00.013+01:00

It's been far too long since my last post...but there has been good reason. During the last few months I've been working on corset and wedding gown orders, knitting, researching historical foods....and digging. Lots of digging!

Back in May this year (2009) Kevin and I were at the Holdenby House* Garden Show; we were supposed to have a PermOrganics stall there but unfortunately we didn’t have enough ready for it, so we decided to go along to the show anyway.

Whilst wandering around, we happened upon a sign, pointing us in the direction of a cruck house farmstead…so off we went to explore! When we got there, we discovered a reconstructed 17th century cottage (although not a true cruck house) and a very neglected garden. We both thought it was a shame that such a place was so overgrown, so noting the contact details of the people responsible for its upkeep, we resolved to get in touch!

Although the cottage is within the grounds of Holdenby, the owner (James Lowther, descendant of the Duke of Marlborough) has given over the care of it to a regiment of the Roundhead Association (oh, the irony!). We got in touch and had a meeting with them the day before my birthday. The day after my birthday, we began work on the garden! Four of the regiment (the Earl of Essex's Regiment of Foote, which we've now joined to do some Living History with) came over to help clear the land, and together we made good headway.

Since then, we've dug four food beds (planted and sown two, with more to be done today) and one for herbs at the front. The plan is thus;

Create eight food beds in total
Plant fruit trees on the slope at the end of the house, with possibly some invasive dyers there too!
Create a dyeplant bed at the back
Englarge the herb bed at the front
Be as authentic as possible (so no potatoes or caulis as they were very much high status foods!)

Fortunately, I have a wealth of information regarding what was grown by the common person during the mid-17th century, plus I have loads of recipes (which fill in the gaps). I also have a facsimile of a 17th cent. seed catalogue!

At the moment however, we’re concentrating on getting the land working, so have put in things from our garden (pepper, aubergine, broccoli) for now but come spring next year, we’ll be growing heritage/heirloom crops!

The best thing however, is how much Kevin has got into this! He’s never been a gardener but now he’s really keen, and even nips up several times a week by himself to check how things are and to do a bit of groundwork! He’s even making suggestions as to what we should be growing! I love how engaged he's become with this!

The rest of the regiment has been great; they organised a work party to go over last weekend (when we were away in York), and have offered to do a lot of the heavy work which I can’t do very well because of my back. They’re also going to be doing some repairs and restoration to the cottage. :-)

Long-term, we’re hoping to be able to get all the repairs to the cottage done, put some more appropriate furniture and tableware inside, and do some living history there. Holdenby has visitors to the gardens every Sunday in the summer, so it would be great to be able to give them a glimpse of 17th cent. country life! In addition, local schools visit, so I want to put together some fact sheets, and perhaps even some worksheets too (plant identification etc.).

’Tis all very exciting!

These two photos (above and below) are pretty much as we first saw the cottage in May...

Below: By August the first three beds had been dug. From the right of the picture; two beds have crops growing away nicely (although something decided to dig up the carrots in the bed on the far right!).

Above: Bed #2.

Below: The herb bed at the front of the cottage (well, the half of it which has stuff growing!); I have plans to extend it out into a more pleasing shape but it can wait - there's no hurry!

Today the plan is to get the broad beans into bed #3, dig over bed #4 and make a start on the other beds in preparation for getting in the cabbages, leeks, kales, onions and garlic. Once they're done, we'll move over to the dye bed!

*(Holdenby is a stately home, built in 1583 by Sir Christopher Hatton, Elizabeth I's chancellor. At the time it was the largest privately-owned house in England. After Hatton died, the house passed to James I and then to Charles I. During the English Civil War, Charles was kept there under house arrest (1647), and at some point shortly after, the house was sold to a Parliamentarian who reduced it to the size it is now – still pretty large, despite being only an eighth of its original size! After Charles II came to the throne, Holdenby went back to the Crown, and in 1709, it was bought by John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. It’s been passed down the female line ever since.)

Genius!

2009-05-10T10:05:00.002+01:00

I just found this....

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

Brilliant!

Star Trek XI

2009-05-10T08:30:00.005+01:00

SPOILER ALERT: Whilst there aren't many, there are a couple...you have been warned!

Although I wasn't expecting anything dire, I really wasn't prepared for the absolute brilliance of it all. Not only was it well-written and wonderfully directed, but the casting was top-notch too. Quinto & Pine have Nimoy & Shatner's nuances and mannerisms down to a tee. So much so, that it really was as though we were watching their younger selves! Even down to McCoy's sniping at Spock! Plus, the humour was very natural - it certainly felt more like the originals than the oft-forced banter of later Treks. The chemistry was definitely there!

I thought it was very well-paced too; there were no "Skip to the end" moments ('Spaced' fans will understand this!), no slowing down, no boring bits. It was relentless...but in a strangely relaxing kind of way!

I suspect the bit with Scotty materialising inside the silo thing was a nod to the the Scotty TNG episode. Also, Deep Roy had a cameo (I saw him briefly on the bridge of the Enterprise), so maybe that was an explanation for the Willy Wonka-ness of the scene. Simon Pegg was genius (we gave a little cheer when he finally appeared on screen!), and I suspect that he enjoyed playing the part just as much as we loved watching him. I also loved all the little homages to earlier Trek (Orion slave girl as a cadet, banging head on overhead beam, Delta Vega, ubiquitous hairy monster fight...although I did think it was going to get kicked in its knees!), and I loved the other sci-fi references too - particularly Cadet Vader, and one gribbly being swallowed by an even bigger one! They were a really nice touch, and a definite geeky crowd-pleaser! Apparently there were some Lost references there too but since I've never seen the show, they were....well, lost on me!

Visually, the film was stunning. It wasn't just a case of excellent SFX - although they were pretty darn fab - but more one of brilliant design and crisp contrasts. I absolutely loved the drab harshness of the Narada in comparison to the almost sterile environment of Spock's ship. The Romulans were pretty cool too actually, and it was great that they were gnarled and hard-bitten miners as opposed to the shoulder pads and psuedo-Vulcan hairstyles of TNG. For that alone, I think Nemesis did a good job! The tattoos were brilliant as well! I like tattoos! The Enterprise too, looked amazing - you really got a sense of scale and magnificence that I don't think has ever really been present before. I have to admit to getting a little goosebumpy!

I also really liked that the classic uniforms were kept. Yes the fabrics may be 21st century (and I'm glad they ditched the ric-rac braid!) but the style and the colours were faithful...and very cool! And it's great to see that a red shirt still means you're going to get bashed up (and certainly don't ever wear a scarlet skydiving suit!)!

All in all, a thumpingly good film; well written, well acted, well directed. A finely crafted piece of sci-fi....and a jolly good romp around the galaxy to boot!

As for Bones – definitely swoonworthy! He was my favourite character from TOS (and The Doctor is my favourite from Voyager too!); it was great that Karl Urban managed to recreate that curmudgeonly attitude so well. And I am sooooo pleased we got a "Dammit, I'm a doctor not a physicist" line! Of course, it would have been good to have a "She cannae take it Cap'n" from Scotty but I suspect that's something for another time! Apparently the next one is already in progress! Yay!

I heard on Friday from someone in the know that the SE DVD will be an extended version, with over an hour of restored deleted scenes, including, I presume, the sex scene between Kirk and Uhura.

I think there is every probability that I shall have to see it at least twice more at the cinema!

Fast food - should the law be changed?

2009-02-12T12:25:00.003Z

Bry has just posted something about fast food which got me thinking:

Call me a fascist but I really do think that fast food should be more strictly regulated in some way. The laws applying to catering and FF are not the same as those for food which we buy from shops/markets etc. This means that a gazillion types of rubbish is legally allowed to be put into this 'food'.

For example, a caterering supplier around the corner sells drums of pomace oil to restaurants/takeaways. Pomace is non-food grade olive oil. It's the worst kind of olive oil you can get, and is most commonly used in the cosmetics and soap making industry. It's what's left after all the nutritional goodness has been squeezed out of the olives. It's essentially a by-product, and generally deemed unfit for human consumption.

Because laws pertaining to supermarkets are pretty stringent, Waitrose for example, couldn't sell it to its customers for cooking use, but a caterer can. Yet this stuff will clog you up, and give you a bad tummy...to say the least.

As may be assumed, I'm not a fan of fast food (although the odd pizza has been known to pass my lips) - probably because I was brought up with good, healthy, home-grown food. I've always cooked from scratch too, and frankly, I find it utterly frightening that legally, companies are allowed to put so much crap into food.

Beef connective tissue anyone? Trans fats? Chicken feathers?

Even more frightening is how non-resistant some people seem to be to the appetite-stimulating chemicals which are pumped out of these places and into the surrounding air. Think they don't do that? Think again. Even a certain high st. chocolatier pumps out chocolatey scents in an attempt to get our receptors dictating to our purses. Add to that the flavour enhancers and other almost addiction-inducing chemicals, and what you end up with is a nation of junk(food)ies.

It's not just the obesity issue, although admittedly it is a huge problem, if you'll forgive the pun. It's a question of health too. I go into town and I see leagues of greys at McSatan's. Their skin is dull and lifeless, their hair is manky, and they generally look like extras from Shaun of the Dead. Food is supposed to be good for you. It is supposed to maintain health, not destroy it.

There has to be a level of responsibility because if as Bry says, people are unaware of the damage they are doing to themselves, then the onus must surely be on the food suppliers to ensure that risk of damage is limited. I don't expect for one minute that your average person walks into JunkBurger and asks for nutritional content and an ingredients list for the Big Whoppa they've just ordered. In fact, I'd be surprised if the staff could even furnish said customer with such a thing! How is it so difficult to make a healthy and delicious burger? Surely people's health is more important than profit?

People are always going on about their civil liberties and the Nanny State, but if they are not capable of looking after themselves, then it's time surely, that someone stepped in to lend a hand. We all accept that alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs can be hazardous, so why do we still close our eyes to the damage that food can do?

And don't even get me started on the ecological implications...

Of course, when I rule the world, there will be no fast food outlets. There will be no junk food sold in shops. There will be no wearing of sports clothing unless a sport is being participated in. (The latter will be easy enough to implement however, due to the chavs having been exchanged for fine upstanding citizens from less wealthy nations, who are more than willing to work for a living.)

Furthermore, it will be illegal for Microsoft to try to turn the 360 into a Wii.

Or for Michael Bay to make any more films.

Or for Tom Cruise to call himself a reasonable human being...much less an actor.

Oohhh shiny!

2009-02-11T17:30:00.005Z

Despite still feeling utterly rough, I am nevertheless chuffed to bits. Why? Because my wonderful man has just paid for my Hub 2 ticket! The second Torchwood convention next month is being held literally five minutes from my home, so Birgit is coming to stay for a weekend of Weevils and Blowfish!

Snarf!

As if that wasn't enough, Kevin's 360 has just been returned, all fixed an' everything. Inside the packaging was a code for a free month's subs to XBL! Not that either of us needs it at the moment, due to purchasing a year's subs (each) in advance, but I'm sure it will come in handy sooner or later.

:-)

Well, that will flimmin' well teach me....

2009-02-11T08:50:00.005Z

Kevin took me out for a meal last night to one of our favourite restaurants. We've purposely not dined out since New Year's Eve because of my I-must-shift-the-poundage-thing. It was lovely. The food was gorgeous as usual, and it was lovely to go out on a date again with my beloved. (Although we've been living together for just over two years, we make a point of going out on dates!)

However, I'm really paying for it now. It seems that in just five weeks, my body has grown accustomed to not having rich food, which meant that at 4.40 this morning, I awoke with a horribly churning tummy. By 7am, I had resorted to Immodium (which is still giving me cramps). Ugh. In addition, I feel....well, heavy, sluggish and generally bleurgghh. It's really not nice at all.

My chum SapphireBlue blogged about having a food hangover a little while ago, my SIL's hubby had one the weekend before last, and now I understand how they felt. It's utterly heinous. Even worse though is the idea that I may be doomed! I mean frankly, if this is going to happen whenever I have something rich to eat, I'd rather not bother; however, I don't want to give up dining out. I love food, and I get so much pleasure from going out on dinner dates with Kevin. Perhaps at some point, I'll find a happy medium.

For now though, I'm sticking to ultra healthy nosh! :-/

Valentine's Day - bah humbug!

2009-02-04T11:06:00.003Z

I loathe the way that over here (in the UK) every 'special' day now seems to be turning into mass consumerism. Valentine's Day should be about showing your love for someone (or declaring your fondness for them), which ought to be a very personal thing. Instead, people are conditioned to buy overpriced bouquets (the price of red roses is extortionately raised on February 14th), chocolate and meals out. And if they fail in their duty to line the pockets of shopkeepers, they're often made to feel bad about it. Why? Because they're told that this is the way to behave. Just as we are told we must spend, spend, spend in order to make our loved ones happy....and love us in return.

What utter nonsense.

What's wrong with a simple handmade card? Or a poem? In fact, there is a lovely scene in 'Cranford', where, upon seeing factory-printed cards for sale, the ladies declare that anyone stooping to such levels instead of making a card, cannot possibly be sincere!

Just as with Mothering Sunday, if you need to have a designated day to tell someone how much you appreciate them....

I admit I am rather curmudgeonly when it comes to all these events. I'm happy to let V/Day slip by unnoticed but K likes to do something romantic (it's not like we don't have a romantic relationship anyway!), so I go along with it. In fairness though, we don't do the whole champagne and roses thing. A candlelit dinner for two in our beautiful cellar tends to be as far as it goes, which is good. Actually, we always have candles on the table for dinner. And breakfast too sometimes! I really wouldn't be impressed if he spent a small fortune on a bouquet. After all, what's a bunch of flowers saying? Looks lovely for a short while, starts to fade and wither, and then eventually dies. That's not my idea of true love, and it bears no resemblance to what K and I have.

And we're on the subject of pointless celebrations;

I don't celebrate Easter because I am an atheist. I don't celebrate Samhain (or Hallowe'en) for the same reason. And if it weren't for K and his family, I'd have nothing to do with Greedmas either! Because yes, you guessed it, I'm a complete non-believer!

I actually find it incredibly sad that the majority of people in the UK appear to celebrate things that they have little or no idea about. Non-Christians celebrating the birth of Christ by getting themselves into debt and overeating? Is that really what Jesus was all about? Non-Pagans celebrating the time between times by dressing up as Barbie and extorting sweets and chocolate from their neighbours? And you wait, if the prol has its way, very soon we'll all be expected to hang footie flags out of our windows in April to celebrate a chap in the Middle East who inexplicably became England's patron saint by virtue of his cruelty to animals.

I have a solution though - instead of dressing up our desire to have a good old knees-up and tack-fest with pseudo religious excuses, why not be honest about it? Let's replace Christmas with Consumer Day, Hallowe'en with Disney Day and Easter with Chocster. And if we have to have it, instead of St. George's, let's have National Act Like a Thug Day.

And Valentine's? If you truly love the person you're with, then every day should be an excuse to show it.

Roofs, rain and red rings of death!

2009-01-28T11:15:00.005Z

Our roof has sprung a leak. So much so that we've had to move the bed! It's not too bad at the momet however, and we only have to use the bucket when the rain is torrential! Of course, it couldn't have happened in November when Kevin was still employed.....oh no, it had to wait until the end of December! Luckily his consultancy seems to be taking off, so we'll be able to afford to get it fixed soon.

As if that wasn't enough, on Sunday we were on our way to see my eldest son; he's at Canterbury Christchurch, and as the M25 was a bit snarled up, we decided to go to Broadstairs via the North Circular. Good job we did because the car suddenly decided it wasn't going to work anymore! Luckily there was a bus stop, and as Kevin pulled in and switched the car off (can you tell I'm not a driver?!), the roof started to go down. It was pouring with rain at this point! It was pretty comedic! Luckily, Kevin had joined the RAC last week.

An hour and half of playing hangman later, the engineer arrived and decided that it was something to with an electrical fault in the transmission. Another hour and half (and more hangman) later, the towtruck arrived to take us back to Northampton! The garage said yesterday that they've fixed the transmission but the roof and the wipers are still being mental! Apparently they are ringing Smart to see if they will cover part of the cost of the repair because it's going to be pretty expensive.

Bizarrely, whilst we were waiting for the RAC, there was an accident across the road from us. Fortunately nobody appeared to be hurt but one car's entire front resembled a concertina. Ouch.
We've decided that actually, living in the middle of the town, we don't really need a car that much, especially not now both of us work from home. Any travelling that Kevin has to do generally requires a train journey into London, or a flight. Shopping is not really an issue because I'm happy to walk to the market every couple of days, and for other stuff, Waitrose delivers. So it's only really visiting that we'd need a car for, and it would actually work out cheaper to hire one for two weekends a month than to keep a car on the road full time!

The worst thing though.....last night Kevin got the Red Ring of Death .

Poor man switched on his 360, and there it was in all its reditude. (Sob) He spent half an hour on the 'phone to Microsoft, arranging to have it fixed (£59 - gulp), only for them to ask him to call back because rather ironically, their system had just crashed! (Doh!) Thankfully, mine seems to still be fine, so we can carry on playing Mass Effect together!

They say bad things happen in threes don't they? Fingers crossed that's right then!

EDIT: Those nice people at Smart have said they'll cover £1,000 of the £1,500 repair bill, despite the car being out of warranty. That's a loyalty scheme that's really worth having!

Baked Vegetable Crisps

2009-01-22T10:25:00.004Z

Baked vegetable crisps

Servings: 4
Cooking Time: 120 min

Ingredients

Spray oil
2 medium parsnips
2 medium sweet potatoes
2 large carrots
Freshly ground salt and black pepper if desired

Preheat oven to Gas Mark ½/130°C/250°F

Line a couple of large baking trays with parchment or spray with a spray oil (try Filippo Berio Spray Olive Oil – much nicer than Fry Light).

Peel the veggies (I set aside the peelings to make stock with later), and then finely slice them. I use a food processor to do this but you could use a mandoline or do it by hand.

Blot the veggies with kitchen paper, muslin or a clean teatowel to remove as much moisture as possible. Once dried, spread them out evenly on the baking trays. Don’t worry that it seems a lot – they will shrink considerably.

Coat the veggies with some spray oil, and season with salt and pepper.

Bake for 1 hour and then turn the veggies over. Roast for a further 1-2 hours, or until the crisps are crunchy….but not charred!

Store in an airtight container or bag for up to three days (if they last that long!).

Defiance...

2009-01-22T09:48:00.005Z

Last night we went to see Defiance. It wasn't bad - not a great film but certainly not a bad one. Daniel Craig, despite being stubbly, scruffy and largely dirty (and not in a good way!), was still gorgeous - he was the highlight of the film! Great to see him actually acting again too...although I have absolutely no objection to his eye-candyness of James Bond (aesthetically, I still prefer Mr Brosnan though).

Two things which struck me about the film; the sense of doom - no matter where they ran to, they would always be hunted. How on earth do you manage to keep up morale? I suppose given that they didn't actually know how long the war would last, they just hoped that tomorrow it would all be over. Even so, it was surely unutterably grim. I don't think the film really conveyed just how awful it must have been.

Secondly, the film conveniently neglected to mention anything about what happened to them between 1944 and the end of the war. If it's OK to show that the Nazis slaughtered Jews, why is it not OK to show the same regarding the Russians? OK, it may not have been the wholesale slaughter of the Nazis but we know that once the Russians gained control of Belarus, many Jews returned home and were promptly murdered by the Russians who'd taken over their homes, farms and factories, so why not say so in the epilogue? Instead, it was all happy happy, nice nice. Sure, for some there was a happy ending but for others it was completely tragic. I do think that if film makers feel the need to inform through their storytelling, then they should do it properly, and not be so keen to turn a selective blind eye. Surely in doing so, it devalues to some extent, the magnitude of these people's travails?

On a happier note, I am feeling justifiably pleased with my own defiance in the face of demon Minstrels! No, not some hellish fiddlers forcing me to dance unceasingly on the Sabbath, but those of the rather more chocolatey variety! Previously, our cinematic experiences have always included a pot of Minstrels and a large cup of Diet Coke (with no ice, for certain they are the Devil's lumps!).

Not last night though. Oh no, I planned ahead!

I knew my resolve would probably not be enough to tell me that snacking at the cinema was just a psychological habit, and that I didn't actually need anything to eat; aware of this, I made myself some baked vegetable crisps (recipe to follow), and took along a banana and a bottle of water. As yummy as they were (and believe me they were), I didn't even eat half of the crisps! But even better, Kevin had a pot of Minstrels (he didn't munch his way through all of them, I hasten to add), and I wasn't even tempted. In fact, I can honestly say I didn't so much as think about it!

Paneer and Spinach Curry

2009-01-20T16:03:00.005Z

Paneer and Spinach Curry

Servings: 4

280g pack paneer
150g frozen peas
1 large tin chopped tomatoes
1 large white onion
100g fresh baby spinach leaves
1 tbsp mild cumin & coriander curry paste
50g Total 0% fat Greek yoghurt
30g Fresh coriander
2" cube of fresh ginger
Freshly ground salt and black pepper
1 tbsp rapeseed oil

Chop the onions as finely as you like them and fry gently in the oil. Peel and finely chop, or mince, the ginger and add this to the pan. When the onions are soft, add the curry paste, peas and paneer, stir, making sure everything is coated, and fry off for about five minutes.

Try not to inhale as you stir as things can get a little acrid at this point!

Add the chopped tomatoes and the coriander, which you will have had the foresight to chop finely or shred before you get to this point! Stir and leave to simmer for 10 mins.

Stir in the yoghurt and simmer for another five minutes. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper if necessary. If in a hurry, it can be served now but it will be much better if you let it simmer on as low a heat as possible for another 15 minutes.

Whichever you choose, just before serving, stir in the spinach. The heat from the curry will just wilt it, so you still get max vitamins etc, plus all the taste. I personally can't bear it flaccid but if you prefer it that way, then add it a little earlier.

~~~

Eaten on the day of making, the flavours tend to cycle, which is great, but if left for 24 hours, all the flavours tend to infuse and blend together, so it’s almost like having two different meals from the same recipe!

~~~

By the way, for those worried about the ethics of cheese, if you get the paneer from a Hindu-friendly place, you at least know it has been made after the calves have had their fill of the milk, and that the cow has been treated properly. It doesn't contain rennet, so is suitable for veggies...but obviously isn't vegan.

Pasta e Funghi alla Goktor!

2009-01-20T16:00:00.004Z

Pasta e Funghi alla Goktor!

Servings: 2

Preparation Time: 10 min
Cooking Time: 25 min
Level of Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

1 large can tomatoes
200g fresh mushrooms
1 medium onion(s)
3 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 tablespoon low-fat plain fromage frais
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh basil (shredded)
½ tablespoon mixed Italian herbs
300g cooked pasta
Freshly ground black pepper

Make the ragu: Finely chop the onion, and gently sauté in the oil in a large pan or wok until softened and beginning to turn golden. Add the garlic and mix in well (if you add the garlic before now, it will turn bitter and also risks burning).

Continue to sauté on a low heat while you prepare the mushrooms; wipe off any growing medium with a piece of kitchen roll, and then slice finely. Add to onion and garlic mix, increase the heat and cook off for about five minutes, keeping the food moving all the time to prevent burning and sticking (I use two spatulas for this as it makes life much easier!). Add all of the herbs except the basil.

Once the mushrooms have browned, reduce the heat to its lowest setting once more, add the tin of tomatoes and stir in well. (You could use fresh plum toms if you prefer but in all honesty, good tinned ones are just as acceptable, and much less bother.) Simmer on a low heat for around five minutes, and then stir in the tablespoon of low-fat fromage frais. Continue to simmer for a further 10 minutes. Add the shredded fresh basil just before serving, and check for seasoning.

Cook the pasta: In the meantime, cook the pasta according to its instructions until it is al dente – you need this slight bite to it because it will continue to cook for a couple of minutes once the ragu is added to it. If you cook it until it’s completely soft, it will become overcooked at the final stage.

Drain the pasta once it is done, and place into two warmed dishes. Divide the ragu between them. (Normally I would mix the pasta and ragu together and then serve up, but I think that by doing it separately, it’s easier to check that everything is divided equally, thus ensuring the correct amount of points.)

To veganize: Substitute the fromage frais for low-fat plain soya yoghurt. I suspect it will be just as creamy but I can’t verify this because I have a soy intolerance. If anyone does use the soy yog, please email me to let me know whether it works! (nicole AT nicolelestrange DOT com)

A note about pasta: I used a good-quality dried spaghetti for this recipe, which works really well, but it’s entirely down to personal preference as to which type/shape you use. Just remember however, that if you opt for fresh pasta, it will alter the points value of this meal.

A note about herbs: Whilst it is always best to use fresh herbs (not just because of the flavour but also for the vitamins etc.), if you don’t have them, it’s okay to use dried ones, provided they’re less than a couple of months old. It’s really not worth keeping them any longer than this as you lose so much flavour. If using dried, halve the amount called for in the recipe because the drying process intensifies them. If using frozen herbs, use the same amount as for fresh.