Real food–easy, cheap, delicious, healthy…

I get a bit fed up hearing/reading on the television/in the press the oft-repeated mantra that “Oh, I have to buy ready meals because I can’t afford to do otherwise,”.

I don’t buy ready meals because I love delicious food and enjoy cooking, and ISTM that ready meals would be likely to fail on both counts. Being curious, though, and liking to stare at food of almost any hue whenever given the opportunity, I sometimes take a scan through the things on offer when I’m at the supermarket, and I have to say that it all looks extremely expensive to me. Added to which, the portions definitely aren’t large enough…

This evening I wasn’t sure what to have for dinner, so I made a v. simple soup from a couple of carrots, an onion, a teaspoon full of a cunning soup base that I made a couple of months ago (recipe culled from the River Cottage Preserves book–see ‘Souper Mix’–delicious and lasts (literally) months in the fridge), some handfuls of orange lentils, green lentils and pearl barley and a handful of new potatoes that I found lurking in the bottom of the fridge. Oh, and a handful of toasted and ground cumin seeds, just to add interest.

It all came to a huge pan for hardly any money at all, and in fact it only takes an hour from having the idea to tucking in (though it’s possible to leave it to simmer for longer, if you want to get all the sticky loveliness out of the pearl barley). I ate it with a yummy wholemeal roll that I made earlier, at a fraction of the cost of what I’d have needed to pay in a shop.

I understand that some peeps don’t cook from fresh ingredients because they don’t have the time, or (in some cases) wrongly believe it takes longer than it does, or–basically–because they simply don’t enjoy cooking. All of those are perfectly fair enough. This crap about it being more expensive than buying tubs of additive-filled semi-toxic gunk at hugely inflated prices is just ridiculous, though!

[/rant]

For Andy, who wonders why we need to worry about wild pigs over here

Andy wasn’t sure why Phil needed to carry a deadly weapon funny stick to deal with wild pigs. But Wee Piglet and I know why…

Grrrr…..

Is Blogspot broken today?

I can’t get into any Blogspot blogs to reply to comments. It’s been going on since this morning. Hmmm…

Ooooh! Brilliant!!

Ye Olde Slowman mentioned to me a brillzville TV programme that I somehow overlooked last year. That’ll be because it wasn’t shown on the Cookery Channel.

However, I’m just settling into Episode 1 of Maestro, the story of 6 peeps competing to learn how to conduct an orchestra. I bet quite a lot of y’all saw it when it was first on. Doh…

Meanwhile, my wholemeal bread rolls are proving (ha! I hope…) downstairs in a bin liner. I made some mixed seed ones yesterday, and I think I can accurately state, without fear of contradiction, that they were just about the most noxious and lead-ridden lumps of dough ever to emerge from a mixing bowl. I ate a bit of one this morning, and I don’t want to go into too much detail at what’s still vaguely lunchtime, but if I explain that it involved an immediate dash to a small room upstairs and an extremely uncomfortable 10 minute hiatus then I’m sure you’ll get the picture.

Weevils in the flour, perhaps? Hmmm… or maybe Piglet and Piss-Piss had some sort of secret input?? I dunno, but I hope the new batch bears absolutely no relation to last night’s revolting bleuch.

Antibiotics and steroids

Poor Piggly.

The vet says the patches on the fronts of her legs have been infected, and that it’s a kind of dermatitis, probably caused by the rubbing of the coat. He also confirmed that she’s come into season, 2 months earlier than expected. Apparently dogs’ immune systems are a little lower than usual when they’re in season, and he said that because of that she may well have reacted more strongly than she otherwise would have done to the rubbing of the coat.

He also removed a tick from the side of Piggly’s face. I found it this morning as we were having pre-vet cuddles.

So, Piglet’s now on antibiotics and steroids for a week. The purpose of the steroids is to reduce the itching, but if she can’t stop licking her legs in the next few days then she’ll have to wear a collar too. In the light of all that it’s clearly a good job we came home.

It just goes to show that it’s impossible sometimes to know what to do for the best. I thought the little softshell coat would have been just right–certainly it kept her bone dry on Loughrigg despite some truly horrendous wind and driving rain–and perhaps it would have been had it not been for Piglet’s depressed immune system. I now wish we’d stuck with her little Equafleece, though, which doesn’t extend down her legs and has no cuffs.

I got P a nice Herta harness too before we left, but I’m dumping that because the buckle rubbed some fur away behind her elbow I do think she needs a harness in the Lakes, but perhaps we’ll take a closer look at the Ruffwear one, which seems to be more padded. We met a Parson’s Jack Russell wearing one near Coniston Old Man two days ago, and the owners said it was great.

Interestingly, the vet does believe it’s important for small dogs like Piglet to wear coats in foul weather. I got her a coat because she sometimes shivers without one when we’re walking. It seemed obvious that she was cold. Doh… But over on the BT website that I regularly read I was promptly lambasted by a few moronic unimaginative owners/breeders who seem wedded to the idea that Borders have waterproof coats and should Never Have To Wear Anything Else. One of them–both a breeder and a judge–actually referred to dogs who need extra insulation as “cissies”. Um, hello?? I felt transported straight back to infants’ school. Then again, I suspect that many of their dogs never walk more than a mile, and only in decent weather. They’re show dogs who spend much of their free time standing around on tables in halls, simpering at judges.

So, once again: poor Piglet! I really thought she’d love the Wainwrights, and believed I’d done everything possible to kit her out properly. Now it turns out that I failed to notice the beginnings of the problem with her legs, because clearly it can’t all have happened the day before we came home.

I hate to sound trite, but…

…if anybody feeling overwhelmed by life’s challenges didn’t watch Alex: A Passion for Life then you should go and watch it now.

I can’t think how I came to miss it. I found it this evening when checking up on Cutting Edge, one of my favourite documentary series, and discovered that it had been on before I went to the Lakes. It’s the follow-up to the documentary made a couple of years ago about Alex Stobbs, a schoolboy music scholar (at the time) suffering from cystic fibrosis, but with an ambition to conduct Bach’s Magnificat. Now he’s at Cambridge, and this second documentary is about his attempt to conduct the St. Matthew Passion.

I knew it was coming up, but somehow I didn’t see any adverts for it before I went away. Fortunately it’s still available on Channel 4 on Demand, and if anything was going to put a few drizzly days on some slippery hills into context for me then this was definitely it.

It’s utterly inspiring stuff, whether you love the St. Matthew Passion or not, but if you *do* love the music (as I do) then it’s simply transporting.

I think I’ll put the chicken in the oven and go and watch it again.

Edited to add:
Listening to this wee bit of the St. Matthew Passion on the way to and from court each day helped me to win the biggest case I ever did as a lawyer, quite a long time ago now. The whole drama of the thing–all the ups and downs and nuances of cross-examination–was there in the music. Nothing beats music.

Home!

Exhausted Piglet relaxing with her rat

Well, we’re home, and both pretty relieved about it.

The journey was much less painful than it might have been: only 2 hours from Windermere to chez nous. A friendly assistant at Booth’s in Windermere held Piglet in the porch for me for 10 minutes so that I could zip round and stock up on salad and chicken and goat’s cheese, and now I don’t have to nip into town to get something yummy for dinner. (Pity I forgot the milk, but c’est la vie!)

On the way from the station to the house we popped into the vet’s but Piggly’s favourite isn’t in until tomorrow, so we’ll go in the morning and see what he has to say.

Piglet seemed overjoyed to be back in the house. She raced from room to room and then into the garden, and it was only when I spotted her dashing past like a brown and black blur with something pink in her mouth that I realised she’d grabbed a poor soft piglet from a place she isn’t normally allowed to go, and tossed it around in the garden. Wee monster! The poor thing is now muddied, but recovering with a stiff gin and the company of the other piglets on top of the drinks cabinet.

It’s a shame we didn’t complete the walk, but it became clear to me fairly quickly that (i) the exercise was going to take longer than I’d anticipated, and (ii) that Piglet wasn’t wholeheartedly committed to it. I think I was, but I’ve learned quite a lot in a short space of time, and one of the things I’ve learned is that reining in/dragging along an alternately over-enthusiastic/reluctant wee terrier on an extending lead adds considerably to the burden of what at this time of the year up there is already quite a challenging day.

Having to drag Piglet along is simply not what walkies is supposed to be about, and when I woke in the night on Wetherlam to find her shaking–not cold, but frightened (I assume) by the way the wind was buffeting the tent–I felt it really wasn’t fair. When the following day I realised that what a couple of days earlier I’d assumed to be marks left by a tick on one of her front legs had actually been the beginnings of a large sore created by the rubbing of her coat cuff on her leg it seemed clear that it was time for a re-think. I was unsure last night about what to do for the best, but despite the improvement in the weather today I’m quite sure now that I did the right thing. Despite having purchased a new rucksack. Doh… Does anyone want an Osprey Ariel, size small?

I have to say that even if I’d not had Piglet with me I’m unsure about whether I’d have been able to complete the Wainwrights in the sort of weather we encountered up there. Bad weather is only to be expected in the Lakes at this time of year, of course, and I did expect it, but it’s demoralising when it happens every day; and it’s also very clear that the exercise requires much more planning than I put into it. The Joss Naylor route is a great one, but it’s clear to me now that it doesn’t really suit a person with a penchant for regular descents to pubs with warm fires, restorative beers and bowls of crisply sizzling chips. Maybe I could have done it, or maybe not. What I *do* know, though, is that as I struggled along in virtually nil visibility, with my boots slipping and sliding on rocky ascents and praying that my pack wouldn’t tilt to one side so suddenly that I was unable to correct it, with the consequence that it dragged me off the side of the hill, stranding Piglet alone and unprotected, I thought many times of what Steve Perry achieved on the Munros back in the winter of 2005-6, and marvelled with a whole new insight at his fortitude and determination.

I’m still keen to complete the Wainrights with Piglet, but I think we’ll approach it as a series of day walks instead. As I was travelling home it occurred to me that a camper van would be a very nice way to do it, but since I haven’t got a camper van yet that’ll have to remain a pipe dream for now. In the meantime, Piggly and I will be delighted to go walking up some Wainrights with any of y’all who may be up for it from time to time.

Right! Now it’s time for a shower, and then I’m going to cook something to eat. After that I’m going to see whether I can find any episodes of The Restaurant on TV on Demand. I was horrified to realise that I’d left home without setting the cunning wee device under the television to record it for me… Kate, watch out! I warned you that MTP was just the thin end of the wedge… Raymond Blanc is coming next!

Thank you to everyone who offered advice, encouragement and kicks up the bum, in whatever form. Sadly my email wasn’t working on the phone, and I suspect that I may therefore have missed a few messages, but both Piglet and I treasured every text, telephone call, meeting with friends (thank you, Martin, Brummie Dave, Susan, Alan and Phil) and posting on here as a most welcome connection with home and great friends. And now that we’re home we’re both very glad to be back ♥

Grim in Coniston

We’re back in C after a miserable 24 hrs in the hills. Thick clag with virtually nil vis.

Camped on Wetherlam last night. Was a bog by morning but Akto responded with characteristic fortitude to high winds. Had hoped 4 better this morning but was disappointed.

Worst of it is that cuff round front legs of P’s coat has rubbed big patches of fur away, leaving angry-looking bare pink patches, which P licks at every opportunity. Had hoped 4 vet here but out of luck.Thinking of getting bus to Windermere to seek vet there.

Not sure what our next move is. P tries to get into cars and run into open buildings. I know she enjoys some of it but can she cope with another 6 weeks or more? Can I? Unless weather improves our progress will be painfully slow. I can cut the cuffs off her coat, but not sure what to do 4 the best.

Options seem to be:

1. Continue along Joss Naylor route. Not ideal as his days were so long that there aren’t many descents to villages.

2. Try to follow the 36 (?) routes in Walking the Wainwrights, which might involve buses from route to route.

3. Go home.

Unsure of best course :{

3 in a bed i Grasmere…

This is the way to do it! Lord Elpus and I braved a closed M6 and bowled through the Trough of Bowland to finaly make the Lakes by late afternoon. We hooked up with the amazing Heather Rhodes to be treated with tea and cakes and a quick treatise in the biomechanics of the hominid.

You see, this is an educational blog this morning as I have hijacked Shirls blog. (now you wil see her readership tumble) Ooh, you probably need to know that its Alan who is writing this…

Anyway, Heather is half of the team behhind ‘Pacerpoles’ and we were dropping off essential suplies for Shirl who was having an incredibly tough day trying to buy a replacement lead for Piglet who had chewed through her old one in a last gasp desperate bid for freedom. It has to be said that when we did eventually catch up with Wiggly she was very happily ensconsed at the Royal Oak, having already having treated herself at the in at Skelwith Bridge.

She seemed to be in good spirits…

After supper at the Unicorn we eventually found our way to three in a room in Grasmere, where we are now enjoying breakfast before heading off into the hills…

Filthy morning…

…on Silver How. Having hot choc. P now actually wearing my smock but clearly unimpressed by this change to her accommodation. Hasn’t come up 4 air yet.

Still almost dark. V v glad I now have dedicated GPS AS JUST A BIT OF USE IN FOUL WEATHER QUICKLY DEMONSTRATED THAT THE SMART PHONE GPS would never have coped with the rain.live and learn etc.

Trousers wrong size but very lovely and warm.

BFN x