Sunday Notes
Newsletter Episode 3
Hello and Happy Sunday or whatever day you are reading this. How are we all? It’s been a while since I produced Sunday notes. One week replacing it with a riveting dialogue about my love of soup. Don’t say I’m not good to you and last weekend I produced absolutely nothing. Sorry about that. Things have improved this week though, you have a feast of content to cast your eyes upon. So without further ado, here's what I've been up to this week.
Pub Quiz
Since moving to Somerset, we have unintentionally joined a pub quiz team at our local cider (what else would it be?) brewery. I say unintentionally, as we were invited by one of our neighbours to make up the numbers when a couple of their team-mates couldn’t make it. Since then, we seem to have been called upon each month. Not complaining, it gets us out of the house, gets the old brain matter working and we usually, shock horror, win, or at least come in the top two! I would like to say this is down to me, but my offerings are few and far between. My greatest contribution was adamantly refusing to allow them to answer that oysters wrapped in bacon were known as devils on horseback. Everyone knows that devils are prunes wrapped in bacon and oysters are angels on horseback, right? My moment of glory. I obviously have never ever mentioned it again since… The quiz this week was no exception, and we won with a total of 89%, so we are now the proud owners of another £20 gift voucher for the farm shop. Which should provide me with enough to at least buy a loaf of bread. Cheaper to shop in Harrods Food Hall than at a farm shop in Somerset!
Wedding Dress Appointment
I spent a lovely morning with my future daughter-in-law along with the rest of the bridal party wedding dress shopping this week. What a fabulous time we had. It is truly amazing how many dresses you can get through in a couple of hours. Every shape, colour and length was tried on, and THE dress was found. She is going to look absolutely stunning on the day, 10 months and counting. I cannot wait. So much so that, as soon as I returned home, I subjected my husband to a full fashion show, trying on all sorts of outfits, trying to decide the best style of outfit for my Mother of the Groom role; poor man, my husband, not my son! Furthermore, I am heading to Exeter this weekend to do a proper try-on. All very exciting, more on this when I have more to share.
Local Artisan Café
Meeting up with a friend this week, I was introduced to a new coffee shop, a shop that also produces its own coffee. Now those who know me IRL will know that I absolutely hate coffee. I drank it as a child, but I now abhor it in any form. I have been known to spit out a coffee sweet when playing Revels Roulette, if you know, you know. I also find that, for me, tea is an absolute essential first thing in the morning. I cannot start the day without it, yet I don’t really like to drink it at any other time. Yes, I’m strange. So when I meet up with grown-up friends who adore coffee or pots of tea, I drink like a child, always ordering a Pepsi Max or if forced, a Diet Coke. Unfortunately, on this occasion, neither were available to me, but they did have a thimble-sized tin, I didn’t even know you could get them that small, of some very fancy organic cola drink. The word cola should have been warning enough, I know. The cost of this can of cola was £3.65. You know where this is going, don’t you? Dear Lord, it was like drinking a glass of diluted mud in both looks and taste. I take solace in the fact that part of the proceeds from each sale goes to the families of the growers involved in its production. I realise that it is probably my tastebuds at fault here, rather than the drink, as they have been damaged over the years by too much consumption of the artificially flavoured drink I prefer, so please do not let me put you off.
Home Produce
My use of Pak Choi continues to develop at a good pace. Fortunately, we are nearly at the end of our crop. I have used it raw in salads, added it to curries and casseroles, scorched it on the BBQ, given it to family and friends, fed it to the dog (small quantities only!) and donated a portion of it to the compost heap. You really can only eat so much. We are learning as we go with planting. I'm not sure why we didn't consider that if we planted that many seedlings we would end up growing the same quantity in vegetable form!
Our courgettes have developed quickly with all this sun and my husband's constant bucket pouring in the evening. I bought the seedlings on the local high street where they were simply advertised as courgettes. We have the standard variety that you find in most supermarkets, but we also have the Romaneco variety, which is far nicer. They seem to grow like magic overnight though, you go to bed, and they are like chipolatas and, in the morning, they are the size of marrows. We are now obviously eating a lot of courgettes alongside the Pak Choi! Still to get round to stuffing the flowers and deep-frying them though. Watch this space…
Charity Shop Haul
My weekly foray into the charity shop world in the local town was extremely lucrative this week. With the purchase of two shirts, Barbour and Charles Tyrwhitt, two Oasis summer tops, a cardigan from The White Company, an extremely unique serving dish and a trug for collecting our abundance of garden produce. All for the princely sum of £28. This too makes me feel better about the cola purchase.
You can take the girl out of the North…
On that note, move south, they said. It will be warmer, they said. They were not wrong. Why did I listen? Oh, to be in the North residing in the positively Baltic 26 degrees this week. It was only a few weeks ago that I was gloating at being 6 degrees warmer in the south. Be careful what you wish for springs to mind.
Wishing you all a lovely week ahead,
Jayne xx