HAPPY NEW WEEK!I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
Young American KestrelAransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas USAPhoto labelled Public Domain (Copyright Free)
I immediately thought "agapanthus" - very popular in commercial landscaping here although they're being replaced by more water-thrifty plantings these days - succulents, etc.
Heather: I can imagine Alison not happy. Kids!! At least we have cell phones these days - when my daughter was in her teens and out and about, I had no idea where she was (not that she'd have told me!) :-) Enjoy the pork. Greengages? Remember the name, but not how they look. What about gooseberries? :-)
OG: You may have woken up, but after 7 hours sleep, I'm ready for a nap already. Still awaiting heat wave....
dibnlib: Hope heel improves sooner than later.
HEATHER/LINDY Lindy, I read what you said about greengage and it reminded me that a couple of years ago I bought some in M&S and offered them round at work. Only one person had eaten them before, the others looked at them as if they had come from Mars. Having tasted them they agreed that they were yummy.
ANNETTE AND OTHERS Thanks for the thoughts on my heel. The GPs I have seen about my heel (I have achilles tendinopathy) have all agreed on one thing. It is a devil to heel and takes a very long time. I see GP again on Fri to tell her if the patches are having any effect. At the moment the answer is "a little but not a lot"!!!!
DIBNLIB- I'm thinking that the bit about 'a devil to heel' was a typo or else you intended to make us laugh. In which case it did and I thank you for that! Seriously, though, I'm really sorry that it is still giving you problems xx
OG- greengages are very very sweet. The variety we have here are so sweet and juicy that they don't keep well.
My mother used to make greengage jam ... I can still remember it now on hot toast or crumpets, or a blob in the middle of rice pudding. Yummy! We always ate Victoria plums on her birthday (24 August) but I haven't seen any this year ... first year I ever remember being without them, and she would have been 107 this year.
Annette - We like gooseberries, which we grow and which you can still buy in the shops. Tonight I made a dessert by rolling out some bought puff pastry, then laying stoned plums cut in half, cut side down onto the pastry at intervals. Then I marked it into squares and brushed it with milk, then dusted it with brown sugar and baked it in a hot oven. When it was golden, the plums were cooked, and we ate a square or two each with a bit of frothy cream, yum!
Watching the sad film about the death of Diana 20 years ago, it didn't seem that long ago at all.
Love all the plums etc talked about here..
Daisy and I forage on our walks and she loves the wild raspberries and abononed but now wild gooseberry bushes.
Lovely day but sadly part wasted but in a good way as youngest flew up but EasyJet was an hour behind time:-)
Daisy very demanding as her Mums up!!!
She will be like a child less excited after a nights sleep.
Hi all.
Thoughts are with the people of Texas and that terrible storm that hit. Thoughts also with the families of the 8 people killed on the M1 in the early hours of Saturday Morning - not too far away from where we live.
Been an absolutely glorious day here and see it is forecast to be good again tomorrow. OH taking me out for lunch to one of our favourite pubs.
OG - hope you can get your medication sorted so that you are not falling asleep anywhere.
http://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/wildlife-webcams/loch-of-lowes/
RSPB Giving Nature a Home
Lindy - that plum dessert you did sounds yummy.Also love gooseberries but haven't been able to get hold of any. Must try a local Garden Centre where they have an emporium of food and see if there are any there (frozen). Years ago use to go to PYO farm to gather them.
Pat O - see your mum's birthday was 24th August, same day as my OH's and the date we were married.
Will be getting back into routine this week and going to the gym twice - must get that bit of exercise!!
Lynette: I'm watching people being rescued by CNN reporters in Houston. Lots of debate to come I suspect about why no evacuation orders, either voluntary or mandatory, were issued for that city.... The mayor says it would have been impossible to organize the movement of millions of people. Still, they knew this was a slow-moving storm that was going to dump feet of water and Houston is low-lying. No gym for me this week; it's going through its annual shutdown after summer camps are done and before the fall exercise class schedule gets underway. Schools here open next week.