Month: October 2024

Chicken Shashlik

This morning I listened to the BBC live broadcast of the last day of the first cricket test match between England and Pakistan in Multan.

Later I packed the Hyundai with 14 bags of garden refuse which we transported to Efford Recycling Centre. As will be seen from this I am feeling quite fit and there were no repercussions today, nevertheless I spent the afternoon reading much more of ‘The People’s Act of Love’.

During my first BCG installation two days ago we were given informative dietary sheets clearly indicative of the negative effect of my long term penchant for very hot curries. Naga, Phall, Vindaloo, Jalfrezi all have to go.

Jackie is very partial to sizzling ponir or chicken shashlik. I have always been attracted to the dish when it arrives steaming on the table and therefore tempted to try it, but weakened and chosen the spicy-hottest meal on offer. Since cheese is also best avoided I tried chicken shashlik at Rokali’s this evening. Plentiful fresh salad is part of the meal, to which we added mushroom rice.

Alcohol is not recommended either, but I am advised that my one pint of Kingfisher wouldn’t be too harmful.

As usual fresh flowers appear on each table, and the service was friendly and as perfect as the cooking.

Cleaning And Tidying

This morning I sat listening to the fourth day of the multiple-record-breaking first test between England (visitors) and Pakistan (hosts).

While Jackie, opening up the view to Florence along the Phantom Path,

continued the clearing and cleaning of the Brick Path and Westbrook Arbour, I took a short walk around the garden this afternoon.

This particular pendulous fuchsia Delta’s Sarah and two types of crab apple adorn the front garden;

the main rear plots harbour myriads of Japanese anemones;

roses such as pale pink Penny Lane, a darker hued rambler, and the hips of Rosa Glauca;

numerous dahlias; lingering begonias;

and hanging baskets and a sunflower photobombed by owls.

This evening we enjoyed more helpings of Jackie’s wholesome chicken stewp and fresh crusty bread.

BCG Vaccine Installation Begins

Today Jackie drove me to and from Southampton General Hospital for the first of my six weekly vaccine installations, and stayed with me for the several hours allocated to the process.

Surprisingly, this was a very pleasant experience.

Anna, the colleague of Natalie, who had telephoned me to explain the process, was as clear and friendly as had been the caller.

She began with a genuine and heartfelt apology for the difficulty of discovering my necessary information because of what had been “lost in translation”. She was then very clear about what I could expect to experience, conveying the information in such a manner as to put me at ease without avoiding any details. She took as much time as she needed without showing any time pressure. Indeed she actually made it fun.

The procedure itself was painless, efficient, and lasted all of three minutes.

We then needed to wait for a couple of hours before leaving in order for confirmation that all was in good working order. The timescale for e.g. when I should first drink, and when to urinate to empty the bladder of the vaccine etc was mapped out and Anna kept to the minute at each stage, for example bringing drinks for each of us. She could not have been more attentive, and gave good advice on how to manage the next few days before the next one, which will not require us to wait afterwards.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s wholesome chicken stewp and fresh crusty bread.

Crows Caught Scrumping Corn

Our overnight heavy storm this morning gradually morphed into bursts of warm sunshine alternating with heavy chaotic squalls wreaking momentary havoc.

This afternoon, following a trip to the Milford on Sea Pharmacy to collect medication, by which time unrelenting rain had returned, we set out on a forest drive.

Along Lymore Lane the skies, whenever another car approached us,

filled with a murder of crows we caught scrumping corn. Only the first picture in this second gallery is mine; the rest are Jackie’s.

On the moorland at East Boldre ponies lined up attempting to shelter against the shrubbery,

while a curious cow left off grazing to observe me briefly before returning to more important matters.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s wholesome shepherd’s pie; sliced fried potatoes; firm, flavoursome, carrots and Brussels sprouts; and tender runner beans, with which I drank more of the Fleurie.

Three Minutes

A sudden scary hail-like clattering seemingly about to pierce our bathroom window panes with a virulent volley at 7.10 a.m. this morning ensured that I was fully awake enough to investigate further.

A violent storm had lifted the patio parasol and, leaving the base behind, threaded it through the arms of a chair ripping the canvas top. Three minutes later all was still and silent. Jackie had righted the pot of chrysanthemums on the table before I produced my camera. Later we unthreaded the parasol pole and returned it to the base.

Fortunately the rain kept away while, returning with two reconstituted stone plinths, we transported another fifteen bags of garden refuse to Efford Recycling Centre.

The postman had delivered an admissions letter with a schedule of dates for my BCG vaccination installation procedures, beginning on Wednesday in two days time. This will mean six once weekly trips to Southampton General Hospital and some unpleasant side affects.

I had hoped to put my feet up this afternoon in preparation for some more chopping and bagging up of pruning from the section along the West Bed fence which Martin hadn’t had time for at the end of his recent visit.

Since I will probably be out of garden action for the next two months I

decided to carry out this task today and take a rest tomorrow. It needed five spent compost bags.

This evening we dined on Jackie’s wholesome shepherd’s pie; sliced fried potatoes; firm cauliflower, carrots, and Brussel’s sprouts, with which I drank Patrick Chodot cru du Beaujolais 2023.

We Are Familee

Frances’s friend David arrived at the same time as Jacqueline and Elizabeth delivering our sister-in-law.

There followed one of those enjoyable and occasionally embarrassing conversations where one person’s story sparks off another’s and snowballs ad infinitum.

One of mine appears in the following post:

An Attachment To The Gates.

My sisters stayed on for lunch after Frances and David left to drive back to Swindon. The apples from our garden appear by special request from Sheree.

Today’s title is taken from Frances’s title for the e-mail in which she sent me the two portraits in the first gallery above.

This evening we dined on breaded chicken in Katsu curry sauce; Jackie’s flavoursome vegetable rise; firm Cauliflower and carrots, with which I drank Beefsteak Club Mendoza Malbec which Elizabeth had brought.

Sun, Sea, Spray

Late this morning we received our Flu and Covid vaccinations at our GP surgery and returned home along the coast road.

Figures were silhouetted against the bright, cloudy, sky, while

turbulent seas piled pebbles up the promenade, smashing spray against glistening rocks

and dripping breakwaters.

Pinpoints of light stippled swirling seas.

I have long wondered what produces the similar patch of twinkling illumination sometimes seen on the cliffs of the Isle of Wight.

Today I discerned nothing more romantic than sunlight bouncing from stationary cars.

Jackie capped my photograph of the Isle of Wight and The Needles with her image of a yacht passing the shipping hazard and approaching the bloodshot eye of the lighthouse.

This evening we reprised yesterday’s peri-peri chicken meal, with which I drank the last of the Haut-Médoc.

Boldre To Botany Bay

Frances was driven here from Swindon by a friend, and collected by Jacqueline for lunch at Elizabeth’s where they will spend the weekend. Over coffee and cake Jackie and I enjoyed a morning of reminiscences and revelations with our sister-in-law and my sister.

This afternoon, stopping off at Otter Nursery for yet more bulbs, we took a forest drive.

We got no further than the Parish Church of St John the Baptist at Boldre which took us on a virtual journey to Sydney, Australia.

At Church Lane we stopped for me to photograph reflected trees bowing over the still stream.

Around the corner we were attracted by a banner stretched on the church fence celebrating the tercentenary of the birth of Rev William Gilpin.

Unusually the doors – a memorial to John Bousquet Field, his wife, Cecilia, and their 16 year old grandson, Thomas Mostyn Field, midshipman on HMS Mary sunk at the Battle of Jutland in 1916 – were unlocked.

As shown by the list of incumbents on the wall, Gilpin was the vicar from 1777 – 1804.

This text from Lt Col Peter Chitty can be enlarged in the gallery, as can the following extract from Chitty’s pamphlet below.

It is Rev Richard Johnson who

takes us with the First Fleet to Botany Bay, arriving in 1788. The story, featuring in the caption beneath Brian J Down’s drawing of St Philip’s Anglican Church, can be enlarged in the gallery. When I visited Sydney in 2008 many shops carried lists of the names of those first passengers in their windows. I imagine they are still there. Please note Garrulous Gwendoline’s comments below for her important observations on both the First and Second Fleets.

Jackie produced these images of the exquisitely carved lectern

and the flower arrangements in situ.

Field horses are at home in the pastures below the church.

This evening we dined on Tesco’s Kentucky Fried Chicken; onion rings, chips, baked beans, cauliflower and its chopped leaves with which I drank more of the Haut-Médoc.

Further Along West Bed

This morning Jackie and I transported another fifteen bags of garden refuse to Efford Recycling Centre from the heap that had continued growing in the last couple of days.

In the meantime Martin made sure that what was left was more than we started with.

He cleared far more than I had left in the West Bed, and

littered the Brick Path once more,

not failing to clear and bag up the debris.

Jackie continued working in the shade of the wisteria, where she proudly inspected the lily bulbs she had found.

This evening we dined on Nando’s peri-peri sauce on Jackie’s roast chicken pieces, with her colourful savoury rice; firm cauliflower, and tender runner beans, with which I drank a deliciously smooth La Réserve de Sociando Mallet 2016 Haut-Médoc by Sylvie et Jean Geautreau which Tesco clearly hadn’t been able to sell at £28.00 so Jackie splashed out and bought it on Yellow Ticket at £15.40.

Behind The Shed

In preparation for the winter quarters of her potted plants Jackie has spent time tidying the greenhouse where she will now perch on her shower seat recently acquired from Efford Recycling Centre.

The area behind the adjacent garden shed had become a dumping ground for various artefacts no longer in use, for forgotten trays of bulbs such as tête-à-têtes, and for a now collapsed table, all standing on uneven ground harbouring twisting tree roots and prolific stinging nettles. Jackie has also cleared this, uprooting the nettles and having suffered a number of painful stings in the process.

Martin, this morning, opened up the area around the bay and holly trees by lopping branches in order to lift the canopies of these, thus revealing ornaments like dragons which have been obscured for a couple of years.

Between them our two proper gardeners have filled many more bags of refuse to add to those of mine.

Later I read more of ‘The People’s Act of Love’.

Giles had been admitted to Lymington Hospital following a fall last Wednesday. We therefore visited him early this evening. He is out of bed and mobile.

Afterwards we dined on Mr Pink’s first class fish and chips with baby plum tomatoes and cold baked beans, with which I drank more of the Cabernet Sauvignon.