Housework versus Decorating

Now I hate both.

But as an option I'll paint a wall rather than wash it down.

Why is that?

I hate the mess that decorating leaves behind yet when it comes to the big housework stuff like cleaning down the walls and dusting I hate that even more, and lets not even mention cleaning windows. Bleurgh.

For the last few summers, I have repainted the walls in the hallway rather than clean them down. Bearing in mind I painted them in gloss paint to make it easier to wash them, I still prefer to repaint than to get scrubbing.

I have tried to teach the dog not lean against walls when he sits down but to no avail, I have had similar lack of success with trying to teach Brendan not to lean on the walls in his dirty coat or with oil smeared hands.

But now I have run out of paint - so I must scrub.

Panelled doors are the same, silly idea, all those little nooks and crannies for the dust to gather in. Much easier to 'clean' them with a paint laden brush.

We are currently trying to finish the insulation of the landing ceiling - the last ceiling to be done, but the trickiest involving as it does the careful balancing of stepladders over the stairs, then juggling large pieces of plaster board with a drill and some screws to fix it in place.

Obviously Brendan is doing all the on the stepladders juggling because I have a much greater probability of plunging to broken bones than he has. Not sure why this is, but perhaps it has something to do with my ability to trip over fresh air?

Anyway -once he has done the MAN thing (I am man hear me roar as I beat my chest and wave battery operated drills around) - I get to do the WOMAN thing - clean up behind him (I am woman hear me mutter under my breath).

Slowly but surely the plaster is extending across the ceiling, inch by laborious inch.

But then there is the filling in to be done. What a joy that is - more gunk on the floor than in the gaps - and guess who gets the job of levering those dried on bits of plaster off. No prizes for that one.

Bless his little cotton socks Brendan does have a big plastic sheet that he spreads out on the floor while he is working. It is such a shame that he can't determine which side is dirty side up, because mostly what seems to happen is he spreads the plastic out, all the dried bits of plaster and paint fall off it, they in turn get trampled into the floor boards, new wet bits of plaster and paint get thrown on the plastic, which is then ceremoniously dragged down the stairs and the hallway leaving new trails of plaster and paint everywhere. Guess who gets to clean that lot up......

Any hoo - when the ceiling is finished that is it - no more DIY.

We have solar powered lighting on the landing, stairs and in the hallway, one panel powering a selection of these little 12V LED lights.  They get turned on in the evening and off in the morning.  The light is a little reminiscent of the strange blue glow that eminates from the corridors of alien spaceships (what, you don't watch Star Trek?  - shame on you), but certainly adequate to prevent you from falling down the stairs - one day we may finally get round to replacing the banisters around the top of the stairs.

When all the plaster is finally in place, I have every intention of claiming the long low horizontal beam that you can see running across the top photo, and using it as additional storage space.  Another bookshelf perhaps.

Until then I shall continue scrubbing accumulations of dust and plaster debris from the floorboards - muttering under my breath all the way.

Here is the solar panel under threat from the grape vines.

If I told you I'd have to kill you.

That is how seriously the French take their mushroom foraging.

I found another three cep mushrooms on Tuesday but I can not tell you where as I am bound by blood oath never to reveal their secret foresty location.

We are intending to eat them gluttonously this evening in an omlette.

I put aside some time today to start conserving all my dried herbs, so far a large jar of dried parsely, a jar of dill seeds, a jar of coriander seeds and three smaller jars of dried chopped chillies.

The cold weather we had a week or so ago which necessitated in lighting the Rayburn left me with space in the warming oven to completely dry out all the seed heads. There is just fennel now left to do, but with the recent Indian summer I have not been lighting any fires, so they are still outside in the garden.

The smallest of the foraged ceps - I am thinking that perhaps one omlette tonight, and a thick creamy mushroom sauce for tomorrow.

Poor Thea - she really hates 'shrooms.

Never mind - I have her hard at work in the garden today, sanding off the new bureau she has been given, which, being a teenager, she is obviously not happy with in its natural wood coloured state and which she wants painted black for her room.


She is of course being ably assisted by Ferguson.

Is this the last ...

... al fresco lunch.

The sun is out but there is a nip in the air.

It did not stop me taking my salad plate outside even if I did have to wrap myself in a warm winter woolie to eat it.

Local St Nectaire cheese, foraged walnuts and tomatoes with chopped basil from the greenhouse.

Yum.

Mundane Monday

It may be mundane but it is essential, as I have learnt to my cost.

Today I am backing up all my files to my external hard drive and having a bit of a sort out while I am in it.

I had a laptop die on me a couple of years ago and I had not backed up my files.

I was heartbroken to have lost thousands of photos of important occasions like Thea's first day at school, holiday photos, birthday parties and Christmases with people no longer with us, not to mention years worth of work, poetry and prose.

So when I had my new laptop I bought an external hard drive to go with it, and now I back up everything on a monthly basis - or should - like a lot of things I let it slide until one month becomes two becomes three.  So now with my accounts done and several folders of photos accumulated I am backing up everything.

Only 11.6 GB of files to be transferred!

Horses for courses

From yesterday's tatties to today's gee gees.

Fantastic day out for my Canon - just another 108 photos to review.

OK - photos sorted Sunday afternoon, just enough time left to de-husk the 4 kilos of walnuts that Brendan foraged on his way back from his bike club meeting.

Yummy Christmas nut treats, and I can finally make some of those recipes that call for walnuts and not have to replace them with almonds.

He also picked another couple of kilos of chestnuts, but I am already stocked up on chestnuts from last year, looks as though another distribution amongst the neighbours is required.

Fete de la pomme de terre

Went to a local village fair today, the fete de la pomme de terre.

Had a wander around in the sun (hitting 30°C again today - a real Indian summer), and took a few photos.

No chance of a winning pumpkin this year, my measly 25 kilos is nowhere near the current first place of 42 kilos.

For the first time in a while I felt very photographically inspired so took my camera and took several shots and actually loaded them onto flickr and redbubble straight away.

Feeling smug so off to beat Thea at Monopoly now.

Well it only took 3 months....

Way back in the mists of time I vowed that I was going to sort out my wardrobe (here)

And now over 3 months later I have finally got around to it.

And what promped it?

The three failed attempts to get dressed this morning...

- first top I pulled out I had obviously been mud wrestling in and it was totally stained,

- second top I pulled out I had obviously been installing new swivel bearings in the Land Rover with - needless to say it was also very stained,

- third top I pulled out looked as though I had been competing in an Incredible Hulk fancy dress comeption due to the number of rips and tears in it (and no I have no idea what I did to cause that!).

So I finally sorted out my wardrobe - everything out and only 75% back in - no more bag lady for me, I am only wearing unstained, untorn, unblemished clothes for the rest of the year.

And it only took 3 months to sort it out - WOW - that must be a procrastination record.

At least the dog is happy - he gets a lovely new bed for the winter stuffed with whatever cannot be recycled.

Did you know that the Dutch are renowed for their cocoa powder?

Well neither did I, but I read it in a cookery book so it must be true.

Actually being a bit of a nerd (for those who may not have guessed) I went and googled it.  Apparently there are two different types of cocoa powder for those not initiated into the mysteries of high level baking.

There is normal cocoa powder and Dutch processed cocoa powder.  The latter being preferred for delicious desserts due to its lighter and chocolatey flavour, and its suitability for use in recipes calling for baking powder.

That may be something I have to add to my list of goodies to try courtesy of some Dutch friends.

In the meantime with my inferior English cocoa powder - oh no hang on - that is not very politically correct of me - my differently abled cocoa powder - I am going to attemp this recipe from my new second-hand cook book.

'In 3 easy steps' by Conrad Gallagher, cost me a pound in the Oxfam book shop and I have been inspired to try quite a few recipes out, albeit that the title of the books is a bit of a misnomer.  Now even in my novice cuisine naive way I know that nothing that you cook that requires a recipe in a posh book with beautiful photos is going to be acheived in 3 steps.  My day to day cooking is done in 2 normally - 1.  peel things, 2.  throw them all in a pan together and hope for the best.

But this is quite a simple book for posh nosh.

So here is his Dutch Chocolate Mini Cakes recipe and my larder substitutions in blue.


100g unsalted butter
175g dark chocolate
110g caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 vanilla pod seeds scraped out and kept    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
40g flour
1 tablespoon Dutch cocoa                          1 tablespoon supermarket own brand cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
110g chopped macadamia nuts                   100g chopped flaked almonds


Now I could copy word for word his 3 stages but in reality they are so crammed with information that it is easier to follow if I break down each stage further.


Preheat oven to 180°C

Cut the butter into small cubes and put it with the dark chocolate broken into small pieces in an oven proof dish and leave it in the oven while it is preheating to melt.  (that is my adaptation of the butter and chocolate melting thing as it is a much easier and economical way of doing it)

Stir in the sugar while the mixture is hot enough to melt the sugar so that the mixture is smooth.

Leave it to one side to cool, then beat in the eggs and the vanilla seeds or extract. It has to cool or the eggs will scramble.

Sift all the dry ingredients together into a large bowl, then stir in the chocolate mixture and then the nuts.

Pour into individual paper cases or cake moulds and bake for 10 minutes.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I have to say that the lush food photography really is food porn for the eyes.

The photographer is Gus Filgate - google his name and you get a whole host of lush photos of food guaranteed to get your mouth watering.

This is going to be my next foray into 3 easy steps cooking - Goats cheese and Polenta tartlets.

have to go now, drooling all over the keyboard.......

Work in Progress Wednesday

What I would really like to post on here is some fantastic new project that I have started full of enthusiasm.  But it is not to be this Wednesday.

Instead I am still drowning my sorrows in not winning my bid on ebay for some lovely new camera goodies - but the point of a budget is not to blow it so once the price zipped past my top bid I could only look on in full realisation that I was not about to win some new toys.

Consoled myself with a glorious splurge on a new UV filter at the grand price of £1.62 delivered direct from Hong Kong.

Oh well win some lose some.....

To console myself even further I decided to take my pumpkins for a walk and delivered them around the hamlet, we really have got far too many just for us, so I am now awash with neighbourly coffee, the caffeine rush has my fingers splattering out random letters instead of words on the keyboard, and I feel sure that at least a million trips to the loo are going to be called for this evening.

And no these are not the neighbours that benefited from a free pumpkin delivery but some of our newer neighbours destined to be next year's milking herd.

'Shrooms - Foraged Cep Risotto

I love a good 'shroom, I am just very wary of picking anything that I can't identify.

Luckily one of the tastiest 'shrooms is one of the easiest to be sure of, the Cep, (thank you Wiki once again : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boletus_edulis).

Looks like Mushroom Risotto for dinner tonight - all except for Thea who is convinced that I am going to poison her so just plain pizza for her.

Foraged Cep Risotto


1 cup of arborio rice per person (amounts below are for 2 people)
1 large cep cleaned and sliced thinly
1 large onion thinly sliced
1 small glass of white wine
1.5 litres of boiling chicken stock
salt and pepper to season
1 tablespoon of olive oil or butter


Bring the stock to the boil in a separate pan, meantime in a large shallow pan fry the onion gently in the olive oil (or butter if you prefer).

When the onion is translucent, add the rice and fry gently until every grain has a coating of oil and has started to become opaque, then add the glass of white wine and bring to the boil, when this has reduced start adding the stock a ladle full at a time.

Stir through the rice until it has been absorbed then add another ladle, after about 10 minutes and when the rice liquor is thick and creamy with the starch from the rice, add the sliced cep, leave to cook for a further 20 minutes stirring pretty much constantly to prevent the rice sticking to the base of the pan, until most of the liquid has been absorbed.

Season and serve.

You can grate over a bit of parmesan to finish - but I don't have any and I don't like it anyway so I don't.

Best not to eat these though, beautiful though they are....

thank you Wiki again : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_muscaria

Here we go, dinner cooked on the pot belly stove in the living room, making the most of only lighting one fire that can provide heat and a stove.