Catching Up

15 Replies

I think my last report was nine submissions, one rejection and one acceptance. It’s now one rejection, four acceptances and one where I have made the alterations the editor asked for, so, with luck, that should be another acceptance. Not a bad start to the year. It just goes to show there’s a very narrow psychological line between success and failure. One patronising rejection was, I admit, enough to make me rethink my writing life. A few acceptances by editors I like restored some balance, and the one today was the icing on the cake. It was from an editor with a prolific high quality output and an acceptance from him always feels like a validation.

Yesterday I used my new slow cooker to produce a vegetable stew. It’s new to me, given by one of our old neighbours. We used to have one, and used it quite a lot until it melted. We were always short of space in the old kitchen and I used to stand it on the hob. This worked well until the day that Julia, thinking of other things, turned the hob on without noticing the slow cooker standing there.

I doubt I’ll use it to produce vegetable stew again as it’s just as easy to do it in a pan on the hob, The pan/hob method is quicker, doesn’t need preparing in advance and only needs cooking for thirty minutes, not 4-6 hours. I will, however, try some other recipes, as I know I liked using it before. My memory is just too bad to recall any of the recipes, apart from pulled pork. But as I always found pulled pork to be disappointing, I doubt I’ll try that again. Somehow, the idea is always better than the reality.

There seem to be plenty of other slow cooker stew recipes so a few weeks of experimentation seem called for. I still have gingerbread men to make. Julia bought me a kit and the ingredients for Christmas, but we had, as usual, so many biscuits given us, that we have only just finished them.  I also want to make peppermint creams for Valentine’s Day, and am already telling Julia that a handmade present is worth so much more than one bought from a shop. She seems suspicious . . .

So much to do – so many excuses!

Photos are more of the squirrelbatics – we added spice to the seed. It put the squirrels off for almost two days. Not enough? Not strong enough? Or are they just not as bothered as the internet suggests?

I’m going to have my own feeder built by an agricultural engi9neer, I think. If I just hang the feeders a few inches further away that should do the trick.

15 thoughts on “Catching Up”

  1. Anonymous

    I can thoroughly recommend lamb stew for the slow cooker.

    Your squirrel(s) is entertaining me, so I hope that you don’t discourage it entirely.

    Reply ↓
    1. quercuscommunity Post author

      I will give it a go. We have achieved a balance with the squirrels for now, but they will no doubt be back after having a think . . .

      We did your sprouts, pine nuts and bacon suggestion last week – very tasty.

      Reply ↓
  3. Lavinia Ross

    You wrote, “there’s a very narrow psychological line between success and failure”. That is quite true! Congratulations on the acceptance from the editor that you respect. People in any endeavor who have established themselves and have a true sense of self worth do not patronize others.

    I love the squirrel photos. I don’t think they are all that bothered by hot pepper spice.

    Reply ↓
    1. quercuscommunity Post author

      We moved things around and it has been falling off a bit more. Difficult to photograph. It has settled for bead since the latest move. We have some foreign invasive species which fit in nicely, such as Little Owls, and others which don’t – like mink. The squirrel fits somewhere in between the two.

      Reply ↓
      1. paolsoren

        In Australia the most dangerous are cats, foxes, cane toads, camels, rabbits, pigs, lantana and blackberry. I can continue but that’s enough for now.

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