~ merry christmas everyone! ~

a frozen forgotten raspberry in the garden, a late bloomer caught by the winter snows - taken a few days before christmas. Happy Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone (and yes, we’re having fun!)!! Apologies for not blogging. I will try to come back in the new year, and start blogging again, i do miss it. I’ve been taking photographs all along, but my computer is really struggling now – its taken upwards of 10 minutes just to load this one photograph and get wordpress/flickr working, and i don’t have the time or the inclination to do that for a lot of photographs, even though i’d like to share them. However, in the new year, we’re getting new computers so hopefully then things will change and i can do my photographs much more easily.

In the meantime though, happy Christmas, everyone – and a very happy new year!

 

~ holiday, part II – food! ~

Well i don’t think anyone who knows me would be surprised by the next part!! I didn’t take photos of all the food – it was too gorgeous for that, i always thought about it afterwards! – but we did have some seriously good food while we were there. Our anniversary fell on 16th August, while we were there, so Michiel’s parents took us out to a greek restaurant we’d spotted. I had bruschetta to start with, which was lovely, so refreshing, and then the most gorgeous dish which i never would’ve chosen on my own, but Michiel’s dad suggested for me. It was three steaks, lamb, pork, and beef, grilled and then placed into an oven proof dish, with fried mushrooms placed around them. The three were then covered with a gorgeous greek brandy sauce, topped with cheese. A serious amount of meat, i couldn’t finish it all (which made Michiel happy) but it was seriously lovely. I have GOT to find out how that sauce was made…

Otherwise, highlights of the visit, foodwise, included: BBQ (two nights in a row, which made Michiel a VERY happy bunny), Indonesian food, both at Oma’s house and the following day, a little bit of Indonesian food for Michiel’s Dad’s birthday. I cooked a pasta dish once – my chicken pesto pasta – and we ate german food, of course, in Munster. But, enough is enough.. to the photos!

 

~ holiday, part I – the plane ~

apart from my post complaining about 36*C heat last week (was it really last week? seems like ages ago), I’m well aware i haven’t posted anything in absolutely ages. I apologise. i haven’t felt much like posting.. haven’t had much TO post. My usual reason for not posting is depression, but that’s not why i’ve not being posting – quite the opposite actually. i’ve been getting out and about almost every day, out of the house, doing a lot of research into family history and things like that, and its done me the world of good.

Anyway. As you can imagine i took rather a lot of photos while i was on holiday (which may be the understatement of the year). Some i can’t publish here – photos of family and i have to preserve their confidentiality – and others would just bore the pants off anybody but me, but there’s still a lot that i think are good enough to go up here, so they shall. However, since there’s so many, i’m not even going to attempt to publish them all in one go, but over a series of posts over the next few days…

And we’ll start with the airplane! We flew from Manchester International to Bremen Airport. Manchester has recently been redesigned and i have to say, i think the new design is simply awful. Once you’re through baggage control and security, you have to walk through a series of very confusing halls to reach the food court – halls that are badly laid out, with no clear path, full of stinking perfume and women reaching out to give you samples. It makes perfect commercial sense, i have to admit, but as a traveller? Its a nightmare. It didn’t help any that Burger King was closed. We usually treat ourselves to a BK when we fly out on holiday, and this time we couldn’t. We were both starving, and were reduced to eating a substandard, expensive panini each which cost about as much as we would’ve spent at BK, and Michiel’s was cold. Never Again! And when we got to the gate… the queque for the plane stretched back into the corridor, impeding progress for everyone else, there was a screaming child (who was really old enough to know better) behind us.. and.. well. both our tempers were fraying by the time we got on the plane but we managed to get away from the screaming brat and we soon relaxed once we were in the air.

Anyway: I took some experimental shots out of the window of the plane, and they turned out surprisingly well. It does help that the weather was co-operative – it was reasonably clear – and i was able to get some nice shots of the ground…. Enjoy! Behind the cut as usual…

 

thirty six degrees…

Am in North West Germany at the moment.. on holiday with Michiel, staying at his parent’s new home about an hour’s drive west of Bremen.

Temperature here: thirty six degrees.

Temperature at home: sixteen degrees.

I’m honestly not sure which i’d rather be at….

 

~ sweet.. curranty.. dark.. deliciousness ~

no, i’ve not been cooking… at least, not this time! I was lucky enough to pick up a bottle of Tesco’s Finest PX Jerez Xeres Sherry the other week, just about half price (and i very much fear they’ve stopped doing it – i cannot find it on the mysupermarket.com website.) I actually bought it as a treat for Michiel, but we both adore it so much i’m making a note of the stuff.. if i see it again, i’m buying it.

this is the label...

Its an intensely rich, dark, sweet dessert sherry – it knocks stuff like Harvey’s Bristol Cream and Croft’s cream sherry – the stuff i grew up with that mom would pour over the sponge in a trifle (and occasionally let me have a tiny bit out of the lid) into a cocked hat – the first flavour that comes to mind is sultanas or currants. You take a sip, roll the flavours on the tongue, then sigh softly, as you’re reminded just *how* good flavours can be…

Most people may not realise Sherry is now a protected name in the way that say, Stilton is, only fortified wines produced in a specific area of spain can call themselves a sherry. PX is actually Pedro Ximenez – the name of the grape the wine comes from.

Anyway. If anyone ever wants to buy me something, then take note. This is the stuff to buy. Rich and Fruity, PX Jerez Xeres Sherry, bottled by Luis Alvarez Garcia. I will love you forever….

other reviews: Guardian – “So syrupy it will almost have your fillings out”, Times – “Made from dried pedro ximenez grapes that yield an amazingly luscious, concentrated liquid which in turn is partially fermented to yield a rich, sweet, intense wine that oozes gorgeous, figgy, moscatel raisin scents and tastes, plus a fine toffee-charged finish.”, Telegraph – “Fortified sherries, madeiras and ports have staying power. This immensely sweet, toffee-and-raisin PX is virtually indestructible. Pour over ice-cream and vanilla panna cotta.”

doesn’t it sound simply gorgeous?

 

~ garden update ~

its not that i’ve exactly done any work in the garden today… but on the other hand.. the garden seems to be doing very nicely without me thankyouverymuch, so i thought i would snap some shots of various things in there this afternoon, and i’ve wound up with a bunch of pics i really like – although there are some repetitions within the set, i hope you’ll bear with me on that, cos they are gorgeous pics..

lily flower that has come into bloom in the garden

rest behind the cut, as always…

 

~ food food glorious food… ~

… hot gammon and roasties*!

cider baked gammon with a sugar-mustard-spice glaze.. absolutely gorgeous.

apologies to the cast of “Oliver!” but thats what we had today – i’d managed to snaffle a large smoked gammon joint from Tescos for just £3.50 (whoopsied) and I found a gorgeous recipe for it today, here. Its an absolutely fabulous ham now, and i’ve had to restrain Michiel from scarfing the lot in one go. It was served with garlic roast potatoes, peas and parsley sauce. Very very Nom. The plate only shows the carved joint, but still, it looks gorgeous enough!

More food photos behind the cut…

 

~ garden update ~

spent some much overdue time working in the garden today, potting up plants, sorting out stakes and things like that. Its been a good afternoon – i’m going to sleep well tonight!

Tomorrow, if the weather co-operates, i plan to drag the strimmer out, then do some more pottering around.

Of course at the end of today i got my camera out….behind the cut as usual!

 

~ the best taste ever… ~

… that first, fabulous, luscious, beautiful red, rich, sweet, oh-my-lord, toecurling goodness of the first home grown strawberry of the summer….

THAT, my friends, is what grow-yer-own is all about…. it really doesn’t get better than that…

 

~ D-Day commemmorations ~

I don’t often bring up national politics on this blog, i know, but this is something i feel quite strongly about. We’re watching this at the moment, both of us sniffling along. But does anyone else feel that Gordon Brown just has no place being there? If anyone should be there, its the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, two people who actually *saw* the war through – and both on active service. I know Prince Charles has gone there, to try to mitigate the row – but, really, what WERE the French thinking? and then for Gordon Brown to try to make out that the event is for “prime ministers and presidents, not royalty”, like somehow being a prime minister trumps royalty..

I’m watching it now and I just want to push his smarmy face off stage. Gordon is a) an unelected PM, b) a failure PM, and c) seems to have absolutely no understanding of the duty and sacrifice that the men at  the event have lived through. if he had, he’d not be attending today. He’d not even be PM. He’d have resigned last week. He just comes across as being so petty. I’ve just watched him push Sarkozy up the steps, seemingly because he couldn’t bear to be a “step lower” than the French President, even though Gordon is quite a lot taller…

I seriously hope, that the next time there’s a big commemmoration event (in 5 year’s time?) that the French see sense and invite the Queen promptly, and that Gordon is not even in politics any longer, let alone PM. Maybe then we’ll have someone who, along with the Queen, can represent this country with dignity & pride.

Edit: the latest gaffe: he referred to Omaha Beach as Obama Beach. Seriously. How STUPID can you get? He also got booed when he stepped up to speak at the commemmoration service yesterday. Not a lot, but enough. i think that says it all. (and many.. MANY kudos to the Master of Ceremonies who told the VIPs to get off their backsides under the shelter and stand out in the rain with the soldiers for Auld Lang Syne. Well done, Sir, that was a masterclass in how to shame politicians into action…) even the telegraph has noted it… I especially liked one person’s comment on that page:

Never served, never given, not even donated except on expenses, this hypocrite should not be allowed within miles of a service for those who did and do.
This man spends billions on his like minded and similarily parasitic fellow travellers at the expense of those who do stand and serve. No decent life saving equipment and weaponry for the undermanned armed forces.
To cap it all he is a gibbering inadequate who cannot even read a speech properly.

Well said.. well said…