Tag Archives: gala pie

Bears and Bikes and Bloggers

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I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know what makes a good blog, I have about eight regular followers/commenters. This is down from the dozen I used to claim, because I am getting steadily more boring and less active. If I knew what made a good blog I would have done it, and possibly increased this number to twenty. It’s also well down on the 2,505 followers that WP claims I have. It would be more but I cleared a couple of thousand out a few years ago when it became clear that “followers” in WP are much the same as “friends” in Facebook. It provides a very shallow view of the world if you think a friend is gained by the pressing of a couple of buttons.

Bear in the Garden

When I started blogging I really wanted to reach out to thousands of people. This was partly because I wanted to publicise the Quercus group, and partly because I was vain. I’m still vain, but the thousands of followers don’t seem to have materialised.

The bears in the title are provided by Paolsoren, and the bikes by Tootlepedal. For details of an old codger’s evening meals (he had gala pie last night!) I have Derrick J Knight, for gardening and weaving I have Helen and for the secret life of a writer I have Laurie. I get my politics (in reasonably palatable doses) and embroidery from Billy Mann and my look at sophisticated life in a  big city from LA. Finally, for cats and music in Oregon, we have Lavinia, who is still around despite the alarming content of her last post.

A Bear of Very Little Brain

There are others too, now that I have finished the list and added links I realise how far from Finished the list really is. However, adding the links, which involves reading blogs (which I have been bad at recently) has taken enough time already, so I will have to post and run. Julia requires me to actually do something – she doesn’t believe that blogging is doing something.

The blogs I’ve mentioned are all good blogs, and allow me to sneak around peering into the lives of others, but none of them are “good” in the sense that they are really followed by huge numbers of people. You have to talk about handbags or getting rich quick or photograph yourself in underwear to make it big on the internet. Even though I am trying to resist it, a picture of my thirty year-old thermal long johns is coming to mind. Yes, definitely time to go.

Straw Bale Bowie Bear

Notes for Posterity

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After yesterday, with its snow flurry and snow storm, this week is set to be significantly colder than a week ago. The day started with a miserable grey light, partly because of the weather and partly because we put the clocks forward at the weekend. So far, at 5.30, the day has remained grey and cold, though it has not yet rained. That is a good example of damning with faint praise.

“How was your day?”

“It didn’t rain.”

See what I mean?

The only other notable feature of the day is that it is now six days before we go shopping again. This counts as a significant milestone in a wasteland of tedium.

Today’s food intake, for people reading this in 100 years time, started with a breakfast of 2 Weetabix, milk and two slices of brown toast with strawberry jam. It was actually TESCO own brand, and the bread, being a bit dry, made very dry toast, which disintegrated as I ate it. That’s a bit of detail for future readers.

For lunch we had gala pie with the last of the coleslaw and some spinach leaves and tiny tomatoes. I’d better explain a gala pie for my future readers, as it’s likely to have been declared illegal by 2120. They are not very good for you. They are pork pies with eggs in the middle. With my customary hindsight, I really should have photographed it before eating.

To save you time, the health-related link includes the words “it’s a heart attack in a packet”.

We had a cup of tea in the afternoon with a few biscuits.

There are currently four monster potatoes baking in the oven. I bought “Wonky Veg” on Sunday and it seems to mean “Extra Large” in the case of these potatoes. It will be two for tonight and two for tomorrow, and probably some leftover bits for later.

I’m thinking of Kensington Rarebit for tomorrow.  I found the website The 1940’s Experiment yesterday when I was looking for Woolton Pie recipes. I’m thinking that it may be a useful source of recipes for lockdown.

This, of course, is an example of First World Problems – the food I have on hand would appear like a banquet to most people during the war. Here’s an interesting article on rationing in two World Wars – plus a view of what happens when the government prepares properly.

 

 

Considerably Bigger Buns

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After a holiday season of dreadful  TV I’m happy to report that last night’s viewing was Calendar Girls. It was the second time I’ve seen it and I enjoyed it immensely. It’s a fantastic cast, great script and heart-warming story.

That set me up for a leisurely day.

I won four games of dominoes in the afternoon. The opposition was mainly provided by a ninety-year-old man who has trouble remembering that I’m his son, but you can only play what’s in front of you. My wife and sister both play to let him win but I think that’s discourteous, Anyway, when we played last week he wiped the floor with me despite my best efforts. He may be gradually forgetting everything he knows, but he’s successfully clinging to his domino skills.

This is the only thing of note that happened today, unless you count getting stuck in a chair.

We had a cup of tea in the newly refurbished reception area of the care home, which was very pleasant. When it was time to leave I found that the chair was clinging on, like an inappropriately affectionate koala. I really must lose weight.

We had salad and gala pie for tea on our return. Julia has just gone to the kitchen for cheese.

All in all, this has been a satisfactory sort of day.

The header picture is self-explanatory if you’ve seen the film, or mystifying if you haven’t. Same goes for the title.