Saturday 28 March 2015

Life goes on


A Herefordshire view from last weekend.


Although I grieve deeply for my friend, life still goes on of course.  It helps to keep busy.  Though NOT in the middle of the night!  My husband has been sleeping restlessly this week, and had a nightmare on Tuesday, where he was doing battle using one of the swords from his collection (which had seen plenty of battle, having been used in the Anglo-Indian wars.  I can't hold it, for I pick up on its bloody past and within seconds my arm aches as if I have been fighting for my life for hours . . .) Anyway, in this fight, my husband said he decapitated his rival, and although there was a red mark around his neck, it was his legs that fell off!  The next morning, he had managed to strain a wrist, so vigorously was he fighting in that dream.  The same happened last night, though he didn't remember the dream when I poked him and said "oi, oi, oi" as he was flailing about and kicking out and woke me.  That was 2.30 a.m. and I was still awake 3 hours later, although I had come downstairs to read a book (I am re-reading the Poldark novels at present, which I find very comforting).


I am sure you are enjoying the new series of Poldark on a Sunday night, and Mr Ross Poldark is very fetching indeed!  When I was feeling low earlier in the week, I will confess to going on-line and ordering the DVDs of the first two series (books) from the 1970s, with Robin Ellis and Angharad Rees.  I will follow up with the other two next month I think.



Here was a job which has needed doing a long time - sorting out the books in the Junk Room.  This was mainly the Overspill bookcase and we have gone through this and packet several boxes with titles we are unlikely to read or look at again.  I will have a try at selling a few in the Unit and at a few car boot sales this summer, and what doesn't sell can go to the Charity Shops.


Further along that wall in the Junk Room, a double book case awaits our attention, although there will be very few books being shed from this one.  The wooden frame in the centre was once the main entrance to the house when it was an L-shaped hall-house.  On the other side of this there is a lovely arched recess, where we have a dresser and china.  This was done, we think, around 1817 when the house was "modernized".  There is a plaque over the door telling us this and that is was done at the charge of Thomas Lewis, who lived there then.


This was today's indulgence, after we had been to the very wet Car Boot Sale at Ffairfach - which also hosts a largely poor house clearance type of auction under-cover, a deadstock auction out in the field, and a poultry and occasional livestock auction also under cover.  We were up late because of sleeping poorly, and set out half an hour later than planned last night, by which time the light drizzle had turned into lashing rain.  The few stalls of the car boot sale outside, were soon done and dusted and we went under cover to see what was on offer inside, and came out with two axe handles we needed and a replacement tyre/wheel for my wheelbarrow.  The rain was still lashing down sideways and I was blinking furiously after rubbing a wet eye and getting mascara and an eyelash in it.  Yuk.


We needed bread, so I made this Multi-Seeded Wholemeal loaf from a recipe in the magazine.  Slap hands though BBC, whoever is doing your proof reading made some schoolboy errors and whoever worked out the recipe for this loaf MUST know that 250 ml and over 500g of flour does NOT mix.  Admittedly the recipe did reluctantly say that you could add more water a spoonful at a time if the 250ml wasn't enough but since the original amount was meant to be a moist dough, I'd hate to see what a dry one looked like!  I should imagine it would bring a newbie baker up short cutting their teeth on this recipe.


Between a death and a funeral is a time of limbo and I felt I needed distraction this week.  Over on Facebook I have been following the pages of Southampton Memories, and it was been good workout for my mind, trying to remember places as they were when I knew them, and see the changes since earlier photos and postcards.  During my clearout today, I came across this book from 1980, when I went back to live in Southampton after my dad's death.  Some things don't change, like God's House Tower above, which is now a good little Museum.  Or it was last time I visited.  It was strangely comforting to go back in time, even though a lot of the photos were well before my time . . . .


Mindless crochet has helped too and I have finished the very simple border on a throw for middle daughter G, which has been abandoned for a year now.  Then I picked up this book with a view to trying out some new designs, but these require concentration, so Poldark it is then . . .

10 comments:

  1. Dam I missed the sale again, I have now put it on the calender for next month, I love your bookcase, I could do with one like that for my kitchen if you come across one.
    Your bread looks delicious :-)

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  2. I think this is all one can do at a time like this BB - aimlessly wander about doing random jobs. Funerals are like the real endings, the full stop that allows one to get on with life and enjoy the memories of happy times together.

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  3. The bread looks good, how do you get the seeds to stick on top, I mix mine up in the dough, but top seeding always leaves the kitchen awash in poppy seeds

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  4. The bread looks good, how do you get the seeds to stick on top, I mix mine up in the dough, but top seeding always leaves the kitchen awash in poppy seeds

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  5. Gosh it was wet today .. it lashed it down at the car boot .. very few customers ventured out. Once we got home the sky cleared and the sun came out .. and now hubby is painting outside!
    x

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  6. Vicky - car boots are no fun in weather like that - you turn out, set up shop and no-one else bothers to brave the weather! Our rain stopped late morning.

    thelma - I use a beaten egg wash and then sprinkle with the seeds. Artisan bakers spray the dough with water or oil and then roll the dough in the seeds. You can also add another layer of egg wash about 5 mins before the bread is due to come out of the oven and that really seals the seeds on so the crust is like sandpaper!

    Pat - I have been catching up on jobs and have two cupboards sorted out now (a job loooooooooooong overdue, as I found stuff from the Millennium in one of them!) I shan't be able to move on for a while though as I promised Annie I would help her daughter clear her house.

    Dawn - last Saturday of the month. You didn't miss anything last weekend apart from getting very wet! That particular bookcase started off life as a wardrobe, but we took the doors off and my OH converted it with stout boards planking. Check out the local auctions for bookcases. (Welsh Country Auctions at X-Hands and Peter Francis, and also Brecon Auction (McCartneys). Just about all our furniture has come from auction.

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  7. It's good to keep busy at this stressful time, and you seem to have lots to do too.

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  8. The business this morning included retrieving my plastic polytunnel from two fields and over 1/4 mile away Suzie! I hadn't planned for that exercise, or budgeted for the expense of going and buying two smaller seedstacks to take its place.

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  9. The whole of this post intrigued me, but must comment on a few points. My foxed and mildewed paperbacks of the Poldark series were among those books which I couldn't salvage after last summer's invasion of moldy what-ever in the former house basement room. My daughter and I watched the Poldark episodes on Master Piece Theatre--probably circa 1978--wonderfully done, it seems to me. At some point I hope I can collect the books again for a re-read.
    I admire the black and red trunk as well as the stuffed-full bookcase in your junk room. Clearing out is a mind-boggling under-taking.

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  10. The whole of this post intrigued me, but must comment on a few points. My foxed and mildewed paperbacks of the Poldark series were among those books which I couldn't salvage after last summer's invasion of moldy what-ever in the former house basement room. My daughter and I watched the Poldark episodes on Master Piece Theatre--probably circa 1978--wonderfully done, it seems to me. At some point I hope I can collect the books again for a re-read.
    I admire the black and red trunk as well as the stuffed-full bookcase in your junk room. Clearing out is a mind-boggling under-taking.

    ReplyDelete