Tag Archives: picalilli

Blood Test Debacle!

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In many ways, yesterday’s post was quite easy to do. The words came easily, though I admit it was sometimes hard to select a photograph in the ones from the early years. In the latter years it became more difficult as I am hardly taking any photos. Apart from that, it wasn’t hard, and it was interesting for me to see how things have changed over the years. I hope it was interesting for other people, but my apologies if it wasn’t.

Next November I am hoping to retire, so I’m not sure what the next November post will be. The main worry, now that I am planning for the future, is that the future is uncertain and I can’t guarantee I will actually have one. However, I won’t dwell on that. The other negative scenario is that I mke a mess of all the arrangements and the move turns into a nightmare. That could easily happen, though I have said to Julia that if it happens we will just move anyway and sort it all out after Christmas (Christmas 2024, that is).

Piccalilli – I used to be a keen preserver.

Alternatively, it may all go well and I might actually enjoy it. Stranger things have happened.

Today I had a really bad blood testing session. Three nurses, twelve attempts. No blood. The general, view was that I was dehydrated and this flattens the veins. I’m going back tomorrow after drinking all day. It’s my fault. As soon as they mentioned dehydration I realised that the way I am restricting my intake (to regulate my outflow while I’m out during the day), was the fault. I know it isn’t really the way to go, but it makes life easier. Apart from blood tests. I’m going to have to drink more and face the consequences.

Life, eh? Nobody ever told me about this sort of thing when I was younger. What seem like basic human functions like sleep, bleeding and urination all get a lot more complicated as you get older.

Carrot and Parsnip soup, made from the mis-shapen veg the farm used to buy to feed livestock.

The photos are all from the first month of the blog. Happy Days . . .

Changes

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As you may have noticed, we are slowly adding new subjects to the site. We already have a section on the Ecocentre and a selection of photographs and yesterday added a book review page. I’m going to add some food and recipe pages soon but there’s a problem I need to overcome first.

I meant to do some food blogging while we were on holiday in the Lake District last year but I ran into two problems. One is that I’m embarrassed by my own odd behavior in taking pictures of my food, particularly when the flash goes off or a small child points out what I’m doing. The second is that I often eat the subject of the blog before taking the picture. The pies at Tebay services on the M6, for instance, are really good (though they are possibly kept in the warming cabinet a little too long). We had them twice, and both times I found myself looking down at the biodegradable packaging and a few crumbs. What was worse is that on the second occasion I had gone there with the intention of getting a photograph.

The same applies to cookery – there’s no embarrassment but I do still tend to eat things before remembering to take a photograph. There’s the additional problem of having no flair for food photography, but it can’t be that hard compared to some branches of photography. It doesn’t explode and it doesn’t bite so how hard can it be? I will just have to try harder.

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That’s a cheese and home-made soda bread cob made from wheat that was harvested in the morning and eaten at lunchtime. It’s quite a good shot, but unfortunately it isn’t one of mine.

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This is one of mine. It’s home-made piccalilli. The red bits are chillis because somebody told me it wasn’t spicy enough last year. Nobody has said that this year.

You’ll eventually find that paperwork is a recurring theme with me. Or, to be more precise, my ineptitude with paperwork is a recurring theme.

We made quite a lot of chutney at the end of summer and put it to one side to mature. Now it needs labels. And there is the problem. Somewhere over the last six weeks the collection of paper scraps and diary notes that represent my recipe collection have been scrambled. I have all the information I need to do the ingredients lists for the eight different sorts of chutney, but not all in the same place. It’s a bit of an Eric Morecambe situation – I have all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.

Fortunately I know that the “x2 mustard, 30g fresh ginger, 2 red chillies no seeds 100g honey instead of sugar” scribbled in the last week of August relates to the extra hot piccalilli and needs adding to the printout that contains the standard piccalilli recipe.

Two down, six to go.

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