That was the plan for our four day trip to the Algarve, and I'm pleased to say that we did precisely that... well Phil and I did - Rosie spent all her time in the pool and playing water polo.
The flights both ends were uneventful, with a very smooth transit. The managing agent for Lorne's apartment met us there and handed over the keys, explaining how things worked and leaving us with a local map. He has three apartments and they are located on a gated complex just outside Vilamoura and Quarteira - fantastically safe and very peaceful.
Here's the view from the front door into the dining room and living room, as you can see, we just dumped our cases and went off to explore! You can just see Rosie on the balcony outside. One of the lovliest parts of the holiday was eating breakfast on the balcony in the sun of a morning.
Two photos of the kitchen, which was very well equipped - better than mine! There was a utility room off the kitchen, with a washing machine and tumble drier.
We got changed and went down to the pool right by the apartment, a medium sized rectangular pool which wasn't heated, although Rosie and Phil went in. Here's Rosie going in the pool.
The Boy had to relax with a beer.... of course!
Or two!
I read the whole of Dan Brown's latest novel while we were away - a really compulsive story.
We had a lovely sunset across the villa complex.
This spectacular villa over the road from the apartment had a pool, and when we researched some prices, we reckoned that it must have cost about £750k! Nothing over there is cheaper than the UK, in fact, most things were more expensive.
We spent the last day just relaxing and sleeping in the sun;
Phil took these lovely photos across the villa complex early in the morning.
The old cliches say that time heals and that we learn in time... not always.
To realise
The value of a sister/brother
Ask someone
Who doesn't have one.
To realise
The value of ten years:
Ask a newly
Divorced couple.
To realise
The value of four years:
Ask a graduate.
To realise
The value of one year:
Ask a student who
Has failed a final exam.
To realize
The value of nine months:
Ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.
To realise
The value of one month:
Ask a mother
Who has given birth to
A premature baby.
To realize
The value of one week:
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realise
The value of one minute:
Ask a person
Who has missed the train, bus or plane.
To realise
The value of one-second:
Ask a person
Who has survived an accident.
Time waits for no one.
You will treasure it even more when
You can share it with someone special.
To realise the value of a friend or family member, you have first to lose one.
I hope you never do....
Raspberry and coconut slice (aka Paradise Slice)
Grease and line a rectangular slab pan/baking tin.
300g plain flour
110g caster sugar
90g unsalted butter
1 egg (2 if you have bantams)
Raspberry jam
Topping:
220g desiccated coconut
3 eggs (4 if they're small)
70 caster sugar
Pre-heat the oven.
Put the flour, caster sugar and butter in the food processor and process until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg/s and process again until it forms a ball.
Press flat and firm into the bottom of the prepared pan and bake for 10 mins, or until it's just beginning to turn brown. Remove and set aside to cool. When the base has cooled, smear it with raspberry jam - I use the smoother one that's almost like a jelly - you don't need loads.
To make the topping, pop the coconut, eggs and sugar in a bowl and mix with a fork until it's well combined. Spoon over the jam and press it firmly to compact. Bake again until it's starting to go golden, then allow to cool in the pan before lifting out with the greaseproof paper and cutting into small squares.
Totally divine!
Man in the park...
Every year, around this time, I see an elderly man in the park collecting leaves. He arrives with a rake and black
bags, fills two and then goes, taking the bags with him; he only collects leaves from the oak and beech trees. I have been hoping to catch him and ask what he's up to. It's not like the park staff don't clear the leaves regularly, although they do seem to leave (sorry, unintentional pun!) these ones for him.
Yesterday in the park, he was there when I walked Ruby and he greeted her when she wandered up.... he's 62 (oldsters always tell you their age) and retired, living about 3/4 of a mile from the park, he collects the leaves to rot down in bags into leaf mould for his garden. That and reading books from charity shops seem to be his past-times. I got the impression that it had become a bit of an obssession as he was very detailed about the process, and how some bigger leaves need to be cut up by hand while listening to the wireless.
Amazing what you learn from strangers.... lovely old chap.
My folks came up for lunch on Saturday, they arrived early and we walked into town as they like to see the shops... no different really from what they have.
I cooked a chicken and bacon pie with puff pastry crust for lunch, roast potatoes, mixed veg (boiled to a much as they like them!!) and some field mushrooms in garlic. We had blackberry and apple crumble for dessert. Made enough for two pies and two crumbles :D
After they'd gone, we went for a walk with Ruby, Rosie wanted to stay at home and do her homework so we didn't go far, just to Overthorpe to walk through the fields. It's only about 3 miles away, but just over the border into Northants and I discovered that they are freer with their doggy poo bags there - I harvested some from the dispensers on the lampposts! Ruby was racing around the fields and I didn't notice her rolling in some prize, vintage fox poo *gags*. As Phil commented, she'd obviously been reading the Lurcher Manual as she applied it evenly to both sides, so I had to breathe through my mouth when she was near.. straight in the bath for that loony hound! God, what a stink!!!!!
I did a course at Jude's on Sunday, while Phil went home early to carry on with work. I came back with two meat birds - Jude was having a re-organise in the top paddock and clearing out some birds. I despatched them at the yard and brought them home to pluck and prep. Two 5lb birds at dressed wieght!
I saw this today and liked it....
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has
nothing, is nothing, and becomes nothing. He may avoid suffering and
sorrow, but he simply cannot learn and feel and change and grow and
love and live.
Dolly, my lovely Poland/Araucana cross faded away last week, she was the oldest of my hens at 5 years old, and laid well this summer. Her beautiful turquoise eggs were a joy to see as well as to eat.
She'd gradually got slower and took more rests as her heart slowed down. Last weekend, she was ready to go - sleeping in the nest box. I moved her gently out as I was cleaning their house, popping her in a basket in the warm sun with some flowers. She warmed up and relaxed. On Monday lunchtime, she was gone, peacefully and surrounded by her friends.
We buried her in the garden with her old friends. She was nutty to the last and is greatly missed for her mad, blind zig-zagging in the garden when she was overdue a haircut.
Being an ex-Londoner, I have to stop and think before I mention South Newington, which is near us here in Banbury - I keep wanting to refer to it as Stoke Newington!
Anyroad, we went there for a walk at the weekend, we've hardly had any rain recently, but it stil managed to be pretty boggy in parts - our boots were really mucky by the end. We walked from South Newington, up Iron Down Hill to Hill Farm, through the farmyard, where they keep goats, over to the top of the path into Great Tew, then we turned back as the light was going.
Ruby was enjoying herself stalking the pheasants that had escaped from their pens.
These goats in the yard made us laugh - they were kept in a spacious shed with the feed piled up outside, and looked so funny poking their heads out. Two were older and darker with longer horns, so they had to turn their heads sideways to peer out.
Phil just sent me some of his latets photos, primarily of his folks' new kitten - Archie, there are some other lovely ones too.
On Jean's lap
Here are some action shots from the Kop Hill Climb we went to (click on the thumbnails to enlarge):
Phil sent me this....
Lyrics to Bantam Cock song LOL
Lyrics to The Bantam Cock :
It was a grand upstanding bantam cock,
So brisk and stiff and spry,
With springy step and jaunty plume
And a purposeful look in his eye,
In his little black blinking eye, he had.
I took him to the coop and introduced him
To my seventeen wide-eyed hens.
He tupped and he tupped as a hero tups
And he bowed from the waist to them all, and then
He upped and he tupped 'em all again, he did.
And then upon the peace of me ducks and me geese
He rudely did intrude.
With glazed eyes and open mouths
They bore it all with fortitude
And a little bit of gratitude, they did.
He jumped my giggling guinea fowl
And forced his attentions upon
My twenty hysterical turkeys and
A visiting migrant swan.
But the bantam thundered on, he did.
He ravished my fan-tailed pigeons and
Me lily-white columbines,
And while I was locking up the budgerigar
He jumped my parrot from behind;
She was sitting on me shoulder at the time.
And all of a sudden with a gasp and a gulp
He clapped his hands to his head,
Fell flat on his back with his toes in the air.
My bantam cock lay dead
And the vultures circled overhead, they did.
What a champion brute; what a noble cock;
What a way to live and to die.
I was diggin' him a grave to save his bones
From the hungry buzzards in the sky
When the bantam opened up a sly little eye.
He gave me a grin and a terrible wink,
The way that rapists do.
He said, 'You see them big daft buggers up there?
They'll be down in a minute or two;
They'll be down in a minute or two.'
I had forgotten how lovely these are until I had some again recently, so I had to dig my recipe out. Their real name is Ricciarelli. I have translated the recipe into 'new money' measurements.
Ricciarelli Biscuits
They're great with tea or coffee, or crumbled onto ice cream.
Ingredients
2 medium egg whites
2 tbsp clear honey
175g icing sugar, plus extra for rolling and dusting
½ tsp baking powder
3 tbsp plain flour (Lesley, you can use gluten free)
1 orange, zest
50g chopped mixed peel
250g blanched almonds
Method
Preheat the oven to 120°C/gas ¾ and line 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper or a silicone tray liner. In a food processor, blend all the ingredients except the egg whites until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, stir them into the almond mixture to form a soft dough.
Sprinkle icing sugar over the work surface and pat the dough with lightly dusted hands until it is roughly 1cm thick; I then cut it into pretty shapes but you can just as easily do rounds or make a sausage shape and cut off rounds.Dust with icing sugar and bake for 18–20 minutes or until they are the colour of straw. Cool on a wire rack and dust with more icing sugar.
Warning, these are totally delicious and very addictive!
...Until the Michaelmas Fair returns to town (14-16 October); the most enormous fair, its an annual event, which takes over the whole of the town centre for 3 days. The company tours towns in the area, being the Mop Fair in Stratford upon Avon.
"Fairs were included in many different charters, includign one in which James I granted a Charter for a Fair in 1608. The present Charter was granted by George I in 1718. Originally there wrere several fairs included in the charter, for fate stock markets, the hiring of servants (mop fairs) and for holiday celebrations. The present day fair celebrates the 'great hiring fair' held over the first Thursday after Old Michalemas day."
It's quite an event, but I have to say that I don't much like it and leave it to Phil to take Rosie. It has lost its originality and is now garish and cheap.
We went to London to meet up with some old friends yesterday; people I used to work with 25 years ago! We meet up 3 or 4 times a year for lunch and to catch up on news, this lunch was at a Mexican restaurant in Covent Garden. Normally I love Mexican food, but this place wasn't brilliant, the company more than made up for it though and we had a fab time.L-R Julie's niece, Rebecca, Julie (her OH took the photo), Russell, Henry, Phil (just visible behind Sue), Sue, Me, Rosie
Shy, sleepy Rosie:
