A Thing Of Beauty

This speaks for itself 

 

Nutmeg Gnocchi with a chilli courgette sauce

This is a therapeutic and easy supper dish 

I made it from scratch today

Here is my masterclass 

You will need

2 potatoes

Garlic

Chilli x 1 red

Butter

1 cup flour

Nutmeg

1 egg

1 courgette

Seasoning

Parmesan 

Mash 2 potatoes and allow to cool

Grate one courgette, chop three cloves garlic and finely cut one red chilli

( this is for the sauce) 

Measure out Half a teaspoon of grated nutmeg

Put one cup of mash into a bowl add nutmeg

Add One cup of plain flour 

Add one egg

Mix and kneed into a dough

Cut into quarters 

Roll into rough rolls

Cut into 3/4 inch pieces and flatten sides with fork 

Boil a saucepan of water and drop gnocchi in. Meantime fry off chilli, garlic in a little oil and large knob of butter. Season well.

Wait for gnocchi to float

Add courgette and fry gently until cooked

Add gnocchi and ensure all is heated through

Season well if needed , add Parmesan cheese and Basil 

Eat with rocket salad

Bloody lovely

41 Guns?

 

The ruins of the Elizabethan house Siamber Wen located just a stones’ throw South of the centre of the village

According to the village Facebook page there was going to be a 41 gun salute to the Duke Of Edinburgh at midday. I went to collect eggs from the livery stables and managed to snap a brief video of the “ excitement” from the centre of the village.

The salute took place on top of the Gop 

You can here me and villager Mandy discussing the spectacle

On my walk I bumped into Affable Despot Jason who is a staunch republican.

“ 100,000 dead from covid and they are shooting guns off the Gop for Philip...makes my piss boil” he commented ....not his usual smiling self. Mrs Trellis passed with her over erect bobble hat on, and she waved 

Jason and Mrs Trellis ( with Blue)

Jason invited me for a drink in the garden.

More sporadic gunfire echoed over the valley as I headed for home.

The sun is shining and the sky is an azure blue 

I’m making home made gnocchi in a chilli and courgette sauce for supper  

Chic Eleanor has invited me for an outside gin at 6pm

The Wall

 Yesterday I rearranged the paintings and the lithographs, and the drawings and the photographs and the embroideries and the ceramics and the tiny piece of the antique Japanese Kimono on the art wall of the kitchen.

The exhibition looked clean and tidy and comfortable once I had finished

A history of my years post retirement

Every framed piece, a step forward to independence .

The wall has significance and it has power.

Where I once had a great deal of pleasure showing joint treasures, and dreams and memories in such a medium now I show my own milestones and art and loves and likes in one place and it feels nice to do so...kind of empowering.....kind of significant .

A while ago a friend asked me about the art wall 

He acknowledged how important it was to me

And he understood when I said 

It is something real , very real to me ...and nothing .....that is a lie

Ok ....that’s enough of all that.....me and Mave won the Big Gay Quiz last night which was fun. Today me and the girls are going to Colwyn Bay beach for a walk and a proper coffee

I’m counting the days until I can go to the cinema, I maybe able to book a seat very soon!!!!!!

Philip

 

He’s been a bit of a constant in my 58 years.

I’ve always rather liked his chutzpah 

My favourite quote of his was about his daughter Anne

“If it doesn’t fart or eat hay, she’s not interested”

he told reporters.

If he had a mop of white hair he would remind me of Tom Stephenson

Chirp

 Lots of wonderful replies to yesterday’s bit of fun

Some moving , many funny, all interesting 

Thank you

Keep them coming if you want , 

I’m listening to this song as a certain bulldog licks my tired  tired feet

Conchita

I just realised that I need a bit of glitter in my life! 

How about all of you ? 

What do you need........

Just one short sentence ! 

Prize for the best answer!

14

 

Hello deArheart,

I’ve got 4 minutes to blog before work.

Clinique Happy has been squirted, face washed, eggs on sourdough eaten, dogs walked, Mary given her antibiotic, coffee made and decanted into my travel cup

Three minutes to go

Soup in the slow cooker liquidised.....it’s butter bean and chorizo again tonight.

One minute to go.

Hair brushed, teeth brushed , 

One minute late

Back home in 14 hours

Fish Pie

Yesterday my bubble friend Ruth was over.

We ate fish pie ( completed with quarters of hard boiled eggs), drank wine  and watched Amelie 

It was a nice evening. 

Amelie is a movie that only gets better when rewatching . 

It’s film in which it’s editing takes centre stage and where a million visual ideas joint together seamlessly 

I adore it.

Today I’ve bought eggs from Rachel at the village riding stables and have dodged snow showers in favour of cold sunny breaks, then I’ve picked up antibiotics for Mary ( at last my demand for a swab on her ear has yielded a bacterial and not fungal infection as I suspected ) and bought flowers for Trendy Carol who never takes any payment for looking after the girls when I’m at work. 

It’s a no news, bland blogging day today.

I will leave you with this excruciatingly funny clip of  Nick Mohammed
He sings the plot of a film to its score


Enjoy x

Theatre Again

I haven’t much spare cash. 

This is merely an observation rather than a moan.

Fuck me if it was a moan the trolls out there would wet their knickers in the scrum to message what a truly awful person I am .

No, it’s a truism. I have to watch my money. 

True I treat myself to the odd desk and very trendy sofa . 

But generally I have to be frugal, and generally I am 

I have a tv the size of large cornflakes packet, I never buy new clothes and my main extravagance is never on expensive cars, men and liquor! 

But I have just bought a couple of tickets to the outside production of Pride and Prejudice in Grovensor Park in Chester.

How lovely to be sat watching a play again

Old Enough.....Ugly Enough

I went to bed early last night. 

It was 8 pm....unheard of for me.

Subsequently I was wide awake before five, woken by Dorothy who had noticed one of my psoriasis covered kneecaps sticking out from under the duvet  and was busy plucking off the scabs with her teeth and tongue.

It wasn’t an unpleasant sensation, to be sure , so I sipped my coffee ( I leave a flask by my bed now for early morning get ups), left her to it and prepared myself for another day at work.

We all have our own sayings, I’ve always thought.....

Many of them are inherited by parents or significant others or we just have them evolve through the general trails and tribulations of life.

One of mine is .....

“ I’m old enough and ugly enough to deal with it.....”

 This is all about not keeping your gob shut, whether it be in a conflict situation or just in everyday life.

I have an example

Last Monday I went to the garden centre in the village for bedding plants.

The lockdown rules had just been relaxed and the place was busy.

On one till, in front of me a middle aged woman was having an argument with the cashier. The wrong price had been accidentally left on a plant pot and the woman was insisting that she was only going to pay the price advertised on the pot  which was ludicrously cheaper than the right one . 

The cashier politely pointed out that all of the other similar pots had the correct pricing on them and only this one had been incorrectly labelled. She apologised for the mistake but the woman was not having any of it and became belligerent and rude in her manner.

The manager was called and she too was polite , only to be shot down moments later by a louder voice and harsher words and buoyed up by her own adrenalin she looked around the waiting queue for any sign of support.

No one caught her eye but me 

“ Oh pay the proper price you miserable cow” I said

It wasn’t the reply she was expecting.

I should have added something here, but I didn’t as to be the sub text is plain to see

“ If you don’t want my thoughts on the matter don’t ask for me to comment” 

And so it’s Easter Sunday. 

Easter has always been a non event for me. 

For me it was a bland day, filled with Jeffrey Hunter in King Of Kings, a half decent roast dinner and my ex husband going to church. Even as a child the day was marked with bad tv and too many Easter Eggs

So the prospect of working in the community and driving around the pretty places here such as Llanfairfechan can only be a bonus from the old norm. 

I will try to keep to the speed limit too, I suspect I was clocked in the hospice car doing 35 in a 30 mile an hour zone on Monday......another 3 points on my licence ! 

I’m not complaining by the way, just commenting

I’m not as nice as Jeffrey Hunter.....

Hey ho

Happy Easter All