An extra day

It would have been nice to be doing something that I have never done before...

Sunday

I just had to complete my choice for the  "Days of the Week" songs! 

 Queen - Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon - 1975

Who indeed has any answers? 
Neither you, nor me
nor the wind, nor the sea
nor the ocean, nor the sun
nor the birds, in the trees
  yet to walk outside in the wild
seems to quell the quest
for the search of a nest
where I belong,
with one to share,
to sing my song.

First Saturday

Lynrd Skynrd - Saturday Night Special - 1976

 

First Friday Epiphany Treats

I love the roughness of the voices.   There was a group called THEM who played regularly at our Friday night school social club.  When we rushed to buy the release of the first 45rpm only to discover that this was not OUR group we were all very disappointed. So our THEM, became THEMSELVES.

GROUTING was achieved today. Then after the day had gone wonky it turned around with beer and galette des rois as an evening apero or supper! 
This was an unexpectedly good drink to have with the sweet pastry.  I have since read that in medieval times, warmed ale with stewed apples in it (a posset), was enjoyed with the cake.

It is the Feast of the Epiphany today.  From English Christmas Pudding, move to French Galette des Rois and within each one win the ceramic model (feve=bean originally {a different narrative}  to have the chance to be King or Queen for the day.  Although you will wear the crown, the reward for your servants is that you have to supply the next galette!! There are many different types in France as there are in other Catholic countries.  I prefer the one with less flaky, flaky pastry, which I think heralds from Normandy but the best are stuffed with a real and goodly amount of almond paste, unless it is a brioche, and so it goes on until we reach Candlemas day on February 2nd when it is traditional to eat pancakes. The French do not wait until Shrove Tuesday!

Well... this is my favourite type of Epiphany cake..all the better as it is from my local baker.  I bought it on Monday 8th January and  it should last the work force at least 4 days. I had to hide it to prevent someone having second helpings. Waistlines must be thought about!

First Thursday thoughts

David Bowie - Thursday Child 1999

Thinking thoughts

Best not to think, GET ON AND DO  but today I am led to think that:

We are so busy in our lives sometimes making mistakes that we don't make time to correct them.

So, if I find myself thinking in a certain way because I think I've been hurt or upset by an event or person, or probably have hurt them, I attempt to follow the Byron Katie model of enquiry and ask the 4 questions to arrive at a nearer truth or the actual truth and turn around my thoughts. This works well and leads to other enquiry.

I was looking in my collection of thoughts from others
which have inspired me in the last 3 years
and
randomly
came upon thoughtfulness from
Jim Morrison - The Doors
NB He was also in THEM

“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can’t be any large-scale revolution until there’s a personal revolution, on an individual level. It’s got to happen inside first. You can take away a man’s political freedom and you won’t hurt him- unless you take away his freedom to feel. That can destroy him. That kind of freedom can’t be granted. Nobody can win it for you.”

“Friends can help each other. A true friend is someone who lets you have total freedom to be yourself – and especially to feel. Or, not feel. Whatever you happen to be feeling at the moment is fine with them. That’s what real love amounts to – letting a person be what he really is.”  

“People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that’s bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they’re wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It’s all in how you carry it. That’s what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain.”

“People fear death even more than pain. It's strange that they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death, the pain is over. Yeah, I guess it is a friend” 

“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.” 

First Wednesday Wonderful Eats for Tiling

This album is Emotional.  This track, based on a true story,  often makes me cry or feel sentimental. I suppose it's poignant; a girl who left home when I never had the courage until I transferred to college at 18 yrs of age, officially becoming an independent adult. 

 

Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band alias The Beatles  - She's Leaving Home - 1967

Well, today is a wonderful Wednesday because grey floor tiles are laid in the bathroom but not without angst. The packs of 7 tiles are very slightly different in size and we are talking about millimetres, which sounds not a lot until they do not marry up with straight lines!  The last one has had to be adjusted and it's lucky not to be in pieces!

Lunch was a fine roast rolled shoulder of lamb from the local fields.  I have to say I rather excelled myself without much effort and reminisced about ditches and lunchtime dinners!
Yesterday I sautéed two leeks and threw in the frozen mâche, added the potato stock and seasoning and left to cool for a soup base. However, today, into the covered casserole dish went the soup with the seared lamb, studded with slivers of garlic, on top of it, surrounded by large chunks of butternut squash, 2 onions with their skins on, (laziness create deliciousness)  and around the top slightly pre-boiled potatoes (Cherie darling), and into a cold oven at the hottest of temperatures.  This is a kind of French roasting. the moisture permeates upwards, tenderising the meat. I roasted for about 1¼ hours and then took out the meat "to rest" before slicing into thick pieces.  The potatoes and squash were taken out of the dish and put onto the hot metal tray in the oven to crisp up for about 10 minutes.  I made a sauce from the liquid in the casserole dish adding a little flour to thicken and a touch of seasoning.  To serve I put a spoonful of the leeks and mâche onto the plate with the slice of lamb on top and around it the squash, potatoes, and one onion which I had removed the skin of.
For dessert... I'd accidentally cooked the Bramley apples for too long in water and no sugar until they were mushy. I'd made a thick batter mixture with flour, egg, milk, sugar (no weighing here!) and then espied a tangerine going 'home'   so I cit it in half and chopped up the eatable portion and threw that into the batter, then poured the lot over the apples and baked that in the oven I suppose for about 40 minutes ... but had turned the heat down a wee amount!  You can smell when it is ready! 

Wonderful Wednesday

Wonderful Food

FRENCH LANGUAGE:

mâche  nf  =  lamb's lettuce

First Tuesday Salad Days

Two beautiful songs to celebrate the first Tuesday moving stone, sand, gravel, garden pots then clearing and sweeping the courtyard now that the drainage solutions are complete.  

Another load for the déchetterie.  

Another fine lunch: different salads with fresh smoked mackerel from the fishmonger - a whole fish which I skinned and deboned, flaked with aioli and served on toasted 'sweet chestnut and fig' bread from the local bakery.   

In French markets and supermarkets, cooked "betterave" is often a long variety. I love the way the crunchy, darkened, brown skin can be pulled off.  A favourite salad is to chop beetroots, garlic, leeks, cooking/eating apple, then mix with sultanas or raisins, mayonnaise or aioli, lemon juice/rind and season to taste.

The whistling wind arrived late afternoon and so it was to batten down the hatches,  keep warm by the fireside with less physical activity.

First of all, The Moody Blues and Tuesday Afternoon 1967

followed by 

The Rolling Stones and Ruby Tuesday 1967

 

 

She would never say where she came from

Yesterday don't matter if it's gone

While the sun is bright

Or in the darkest night

No one knows

She comes and goes

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday

Who could hang a name on you?

When you change with every new day

Still I'm gonna miss you...

Don't question why she needs to be so free

She'll tell you it's the only way to be

She just can't be chained

To a life where nothing's gained

And nothing's lost

At such a cost

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday

Who could hang a name on you?

When you change with every new day

Still I'm gonna miss you...

There's no time to lose, I heard her say

Catch your dreams before they slip away

Dying all the time

Lose your dreams

And you will lose your mind.

Ain't life unkind?

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday

Who could hang a name on you?

When you change with every new day

Still I'm gonna miss you...

FRENCH LANGUAGE:

betterave /bɛtʀav/ feminine noun =  beet ~ rouge beetroot

aioli = garlic mayonnaise

ail  pluriel = l'ails or l'aulx /aj/o/ masculine noun = garlic 

poireau, pl ~x /pwaʀo/ masculine noun  = leek

First Monday Wrong Shoes

Fleetwood Mac - Monday Morning 1975

Up relatively bright and early to witness the final skim of floor-levelling compound in the bathroom-to-be, then to help raise flagstones in the drive to reveal the guttering drainage pipes which have to be re-routed.  I keep finding myself saying, "Wrong shoes", as I try to keep outdoor and indoor shoes separate.  I have tiled floors and am constantly sweeping, vacuuming, mopping.  Clean sand, mucky sand, stones and rocks, have been dug out and heaped onto polythene sheets so we can drag and tip back in the dug channels after the new pipe has been laid.  Stone rocks are being carried to the growing rockery at the end of my rear garden and rubbled earth was scattered on the dips in the 'lawn', Broken slabs and rubbish from the ground was collected for the déchetterie. All mains drainage pipes had to be tested with the real thing!  Not nice but it had to be done as the drop, I think is 1mm or 1cm in every 100.  I never remember figures.  My friend is experienced in drainage difficulties! Then we had to lift and carry sand in the wheelbarrow from the rear garden to the front courtyard.  Kept after the beams were blasted, it was bound to be useful.  Back and forth helping the main man.

Meanwhile, I re-organised and cleaned the laundry/larder room.  And why on earth did I choose clinically white floor tiles?  Yes, I can see the dirt! I've now organised 'ballet shoes' by the door so that I don't wear 'wrong shoes' and make footmarks on the floor!  This is where the aerodynamic water boiler is situated and I'm sure one day it will take off! I also carried a lot of logs in..for the two woodburners as well as chopped kindling wood from the waste wood piled in a dry outdoors area.

Lunch was mainly pre-prepared: home made beef and mushroom casserole found in the freezer, which I served with wild rice and savoy type cabbage.  Yesterday the freezer section of the fridge which also acts like a freezer needed to be urgently de-iced... and hey, I have a guest invited for New Years day dinner!  For dessert it was more of the Tesco Christmas pudding that I cooked yesterday. Blackened, dried fruits had 'coagulated' into a rich and creamy consistency.  My daughter gave it to me... and being never too much worried about sell-by and eat-by dates decided to give it a try. It was dated 2007/2008 and was remarkably delicious with cream and brandy butter. By 16h we were wilting. Tea and the shared final slice of a New Year chocolate gooey French cake indicated we'd had it!  Here I am resting and reporting but the next task is to tackle the paperwork.

How unusual is this?
Daffodils in my garden are so small that I have had to carefully place the metal wine rack on the grass to protect them from being trodden on.  They were not dwarfed last year!
Yesterday, the blackbirds sang as if it were Springtime.

FRENCH  LANGUAGE:
déchetterie; noun feminine  = waste recycling site