60th Anniversary Dinner Day

Hi Dear Folk,

Last Thursday I went out flower shopping.  It was a beautiful day and I landed up driving through Valley Forge Park which was beautiful, with a sprinkling of snow and driving through the covered bridge.  I was happy to find the colours I wanted for the three orchids to reflect the colours of the bride's dress, lilac and her accessories in lemon.

I landed up shopping for a container to hold them in and came up with this galvanized metal piggy container.  I think it was a hit.

Picked up a few flowers for myself.

This was the bouquet I ordered from a florist where Rob's friend works and I've always liked their work and this was no exception.

Our other tables looked like this.

Gift table, with a video of greetings from friends in South Africa.

Everyone got a personal cupcake, with their name on at their seat.

It all went well, everyone enjoyed it and especially Wilf and Rose, as it was their night.

Christine

What's On The Stove

Hi Dear Folk,

Winter days call for some hearty cooking.  Soups and the such like.

This is my Florentine soup a basic go to recipe, actually originally a Weight Watchers recipe from long ago, which I remember by heart.

Since I wanted to cook up chicken breasts for chicken salad I decided to boil them up in the Florentine soup and that worked out well, and possibly I think gave them a bit more taste.

I've been using my Brownies and Bars cookbook to come up with some bar recipes.  This is cranberry and orange marmalade bars.  With cranberry and walnut topping, very good.

This was a chicken casserole in which I used up my left over pasta.  I always like to use up odd left overs.

So that is what has been on my stove this winter week.

Thank you for stopping by,

Christine

PS:  My new saying is "You need to be retired, just to be retired."  I have now been waiting on the phone with Social Security for well over one hour.  And would I like to take a brief survey at the end.    Really!

60th Wedding Anniversary

Hi Dear Folk,

A friend and I are planning a 60th Wedding Anniversary for this dear couple.  Married in Rhodesia as was, in 1959.  Do you know where they had their honeymoon?  I can't think of a more romantic place, Victoria Falls.

Rose's mum made her dress which was a pale lilac and her accessories were lemon yellow, hat shoes and bouquet.  What a lovely couple.

Wilf used to work on the railroad, he's done many jobs in his life time, one working down the gold mines of South Africa.

I love this photo of them both.  They are such an interesting and fun couple to be with.  I am looking forward to the dinner.

Christine

29th September 2018 Reunion The Bull, Much Hadham

Hi Dear Folk,

Here we are gathered together for our reunion at The Bull Pub in Much Hadham.  We had such a lovely time.  The food was rather slow in coming but was excellent so you didn't mind the wait.

Graham is my oldest friend we've known each other since I was two and he was three.  He lives thirty minutes away from me in the States.  He got together the reunion with some of our old friends.

Christine

The Week That Was

Hi Dear Folk,

The week that was.

My friend makes the most beautiful cards and shares them as gifts.

A quiet moment.

Mum routing around at the last moment, looking for plastic bags to pack Rob's boots in for a skiing trip in Vermont.  Where he lost his phone on the slopes, but they did find it and sent it back to him and it still works.  Joy of Joys.

A friend visiting from Chicago.  Rob and Yesenia, who he has known since Middle School.  Here they have just finished making dinner for us.  Steak with mushroom gravy, asparagus with garlic and mashed potatoes.  It was very good.

Red poinsettia, I love them.  Sitting in my grandmother's Victorian copper pot.

Popped over to say good bye.

Christine

My World Today and Healthcare Government Subsidies Cut

Hi Dear Folk,

Above photo taken at Longwood Gardens.

When it gets to about four PM, dinner is in the oven and I'm sitting in the Simla room, with the stove on, Tuppy basking in heat and doing a little crochet, watching Acorn TV or listening to a Podcast, then it sets in how good retirement is.  At four PM I still would be at the office with another three hours to go before I'd be home and this time of year all in the dark.

Mr. B. cleaned the Virginia creeper off the garage roof and cleaned out all the gutters.  I stood and held the ladder and cleared up the debris.  My goodness so much to clean up out there when the leaves fall.  I dusted the studio room now needs vacuuming but at least I'll be able to sit in there without a guilty conscience.  Made dinner, chicken, carrots sweet potatoes, with onion cooked with a little olive oil and baked in the oven.  Sprinkled with cheese at the end.  Was good.

Also made bread and butter pickles today, with some left over cucumbers I had that I didn't want to go to waste.  This is the type you can just keep in the fridge for a month.

I phoned about the health insurance for next year.  We've been on Obama since I left work and it was not too expensive, now for the coming year because the government subsidies have been cut back will now cost $550 for the same plan, so needless to say we'll have to cut down to an even lesser plan.

Now get this, because I'm 65 and can go on medicare next year, part way through the year, but Mr. B. is three years younger, and will have to stay on it, the health insurance that we are looking at for next year would actually more than double when I come off it, and yet they will be insuring one less person, now go figure that?  There is no figuring the health care system in the USA.

Yes I know we no longer will be penalized for not having healthcare, heaven forbid you should actually be ill, and not have health insurance, it's expensive enough when you do, but were we told subsidies would be cut so much?  Or did I miss that one?

Sunday we were invited out to a late lunch and watched Victoria and Abdul, a very good movie with Judy Dench playing the queen.

Christine

30th August 2018 Down To The Basement Kitchens Holkham Hall

Hi Dear Folk,

And now to my favorite place to visit in these grand mansions, the kitchens.  My mum had an older friend Edith who had been in service as a young girl.  She was quite a feisty character and I remember one time she babysat for the very well to do family that I used to babysit for, the Bedingfelds who lived in our area, before he inherited Oxburgh Hall, also in Norfolk.

In any case to get to the point, one day one of the little girls caller her Glover.  Well Glover was her surname and that's what all servants were called when in service, just by their last name.  Well Edith soon set them right about that, "I am Mrs Glover to you and you are not to call me just by my last name."  Which was only right.  It's good we have moved on from those times.

What hard work it must have been, just look at those roasting spits.

Polishing all that copper.

Stopping for a gelato would have been a highlight for the Grand Tour Party, as they travelled through Italy during the hot dusty summer months.

In the early 18th century Naples was at the centre of the ice cream trade.  Street vendors sold ices from buckets to the ordinary people on the street, while the upper classes ate their's from dainty dishes in the ice cream shops.

Although ice cream had been known in England since the 1670's it wasn't until Italian confectioners such as Domenico Negri, set up a shop in the mid-eighteenth century that it became a popular treat amongst the wealthy.  Negri's shop in London's Berkley Square the "Pot and Pine Apple", which opened in 1757 evolved into the famous Gunter's Tea Shop.  Some 100 years later another Italian entrepreneur Carlo Gatti brought the delight of an ice-cream "penny lick" to the masses from his business in London's Little Italy.

A historic name to name an ice cream shop would be the Pot and Pine Apple, of course one would have to add a plaque with the significance of the name.

Not sure how healthy a penny lick would have been.

Christine

30th August 2018 Getting In and Out of the Village

Hi Dear Folk,

The weather was beautiful this weekend, a true Indian Summer, which we were able to take advantage of on Sunday, driving over to New Hope and Lambertville, on the Delaware River.

We ate at a Middle Eastern restaurant, Marhaba.  I had lentil soup with lovely fresh pita bread, it was delicious, Mr. B. had stuffed grape leaves, which I tried, yummy, my soup was excellent too.  Followed by a lamb gyro, I took half home and Mr, B.  had a spinach and cheese pocket, can't remember the name, like a calzone.  I also had hot mint tea, lovely on a cooler day.  I definitely recommend this restaurant if you are in Lambertville, NJ.  You must take cash and it's BYOB if you want to.  Afterwards we stopped off at the French Patisserie in New Hope, of course we had to and The Boy had requested cake.  My pictures of the day are on Instagram.  Do play the train video quintessentially American.

This was one of the roads we used to get in and out of the village, as you can see it was quite narrow, but even the other roads in other directions were not much larger than this.

You can understand why nobility had their second home a hunting lodge up here in Norfolk, including of course Sandringham, owned by the Queen.  Lots of forests and wild life.

Christine

29th August 2018 Fish and Chips What's Not To Love

 Hi Dear Folk,

Wednesday and Thursday were in the seventies and sunny.  Today is overcast but still fairly warm.  I got my Simla and Kitchen patio cleaned up.  The Simla patio was a bit of a mess because it was were the boys had worked on filling up the hole to stop the water getting into the basement.  Weeding between pavers is no fun, but does look good when it's done.

I've been cleaning windows, rearranging furniture and sorting all week.  Yesterday I was quite energized but today I am tired.  This morning I made sweet potato soup and pureed it.  I think it will be good served with a little cheese and sour cream on top.  Earlier in the week I made banana bread, which I always like.

Finished my Queen Ann Lace scarf made from my Norwegian yarn, and have enough left for wrist warmers.  Also made another chunky Queen Ann Lace scarf for a friend.  I received my bamboo yarn from China unfortunately they packed dark brown instead of the black I wanted, but the hazzle to sort it out is greater than the cost so I'll just try and order some black.

Where else to eat Fish and Chips than at the seaside near the promenade.  Here we are in Cromer and this was rated as a very good place to get them, you can see the queue. We didn't get a seat near the window, but were to busy chatting and eating to matter, we'd already been out all day.

We all got cod, I think my favorite, although I do like haddock and plaice.

BB had a glass of wine and I had a Norfolk Ale, which hit the spot.  Not sure what Trev got.

We walked a little bit along here, but by then the wind was coming up in the evening.

I love the brightness of these pavilions.

Christine

24th August Finchingfield The Dirty Duck

Hi Dear Folk,

Today is a beautiful Indian Summer day. I do love it, it gives you that extra time before winter to get jobs done. I was so cold getting into bed last night with cotton sheets, I said "it's time."  Mr. B. and I made our bed and put on the winter sheets.  I had also bought a new mattress cover, with a lovely cotton top pad.  We have a deep mattress with a topper on so was happy to see that what I had bought fitted perfectly, long overdue.

It's been busy around here, bringing in all the garden furniture and finding a space to put it, which is the real problem.  Then all the china pots have to come inside, I put all these on the steps to the basement, which gets closed up for the winter.

While I was away the basement got flooded and the boys had to sort this out and clean this up.  It seemed a drain pipe had gullied out a deep hole hidden under the pavers on the Simla patio and water was collecting in there and has eventually found a hole in the basement wall.  Mr B and Rob filled and concreted this up, redirected the down pipe and it seems to have solved the problem.

Although they had cleaned the basement up, it still needed more.  I had to wash all the rugs and scrubbed one side of the basement floor 1'm much happier with it now.  An old basement is continual work.  If I spent as much time on other parts of the house 1'm sure they'd sparkle more.

Mr. B. bought a new gas grill.  Almost seems the wrong time of year to buy one, but we use our grill summer and winter, it sits right outside the back door, it would be nice if it had a little cover over it, but doesn't.  He had to put that all together.

I re watched The Barchester Chronicles last night, by Anthony Trollope.  A most satisfactory ending.  The seven episodes are on YouTube, 1982 production by the BBC.

Back to the UK.  I was able to spend a few days with an old family friend Jean D.  We had such a lovely time together, lots of long chats, and reminiscing about my mum and dad, and thoughts on life.

Here we are in Finchingfield a popular picturesque village.  The sad thing I noticed about a lot of villages of my youth, that would have had little general store, a bakers and a stationery/sweet shop, were now all gone to be replaced by teashops and restaurants.  Lots of places to eat at, but no little shops to wander around and enjoy.  No cakes to buy, no little bags of sweets and a pretty postcard to take home.

We had lunch at the Dirty Duck.  Probably named after the area of the village Duck End,

The view from our table.

I had the pate, it was good.  Several pots of tea and chocolate Victoria Sandwich for desert.

A Post Mill, you can literally turn it around for the sails to face the wind.

Jean.  The leaves fell early because of the draught.

This little blue cottage is slightly tucked behind another cottage, I'd take that.

The restaurant we ate at just behind the bridge.

Christine