What's good in your world....?

And I only ever have 'good' red wine in!

maniacin or with?

Pity we can't tour round everyone and eat something different every day. It's much better to cook a big potful once a week than a single portion a day. When there were only two of us, I already missed cooking for the family. Now it is just me.

Absolutely hated barley as a child when mum put it in stews.It was always hard and chewy.But now I agree it's great cooked with lamb and veg in slow cooker.I put in some rosemary fresh from the garden.A glass of good red wine would go well with that.

Well I put cinnamon and saffron with preserved lemons into my Cous Cous recipe, do I thought might go with this, but cardoman is definitely worth thinking about!

might smother the saffron though

cardamom perhaps?

I've just put leeks carrots lamb pearl barley and a stock cube into my slow cooker. Don't think wine would go with that mix? Might put. A little saffron and cinnamon in though!
What do people think?

soop the gas man may well be gorgeous

Elegran Gorgeous! The food, not the gasman. I can smell the savoury casserole from here.

I've just put an enormous casserole into the slow cooker, full of diced steak, onions, soaked dried mushrooms, a tin of tomatoes, some bottled red peppers (Lidl) and some leftover red wine. Only me to eat it, so I shall freeze it in manageable portions. Then I put a batch of bread into the machine, which I shall shape by hand and bake in the oven, tastes better that way. How satisfying it is to cook.

And the gasman has just been to fix the boiler so I don't have to sit in the sun in the conservatory to get a little heat.

Just come back from a hour and a half walk with DH, the sun was out, birds were singing. We have found a lovely picnic area not from where we live, the whole area has been turned around from the waste land that it was. The views are breathtaking.
If the sun is out on Monday I think it will be picnic time !

Oh, to be in England
Now that April 's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England—now!

Yes I know its May now but spring is a little late

Listening to DD and all her music buddies playing snatches from Wallace and Gromit tunes, the 1812, and Rock Around the Clock.

Today, it would have to be the countryside. [

That is great with the English teaching Granny A. Lovely to see progress too.
Nice sunny day here to see the sheep up high on the hills opposite.

Well done to all of you who seem to be doing so much, walking, teaching helping others. I'm just having a good time with DH, Ballet in Brum last night, ballet in Truro this pm and tonight then Eden Project tomorrow. Also lots to look forward to next week. I didn't realise retirement would be so busy!

Thanks everyone for the good wishes, had a lovely evening at the local, then foolishly sat and watched Tom Petty until late - worth it tho'

moomin Many congratulations. I hope that many more anniversaries will follow. [flower]

ga - From small acorns grow trees. Marvellous.

That must be a good feeling Grannya

moomin - have a lovely evening.

Might seem a bit of an odd posting in this context, but I've just finished an English lesson with three teenage Afghan boys and it feels really good to think I'm doing my bit (albeit very small) to create a bridge of peace and reconciliation.

Congratulations, Moomin.
Nightowl, your social whirl sounds fun, and it is so much more enjoyable when you don't have anything hanging over you.

The weather is still lovely here - I have had a very tough two-hour circular walk in the mountains near home. I don't know if I will tackle it again, now I know how hard it is! It started off quite gently by the side of a stream with waterfalls, but got much steeper (and muddier) very quickly. I was determined to get to the summit and I did have the sense to take a bottle of water and a banana with me, so I didn't get light-headed. It was worth it when I finally got to the top, as I could see for many, many, miles and 'la vallee verte' was so green it hurt my eyes!

Congrats moomin - Have a lovely evening together.

Today my lovely OH and I have been together for 11 years! We can both remember that first "date" so well when we were both younger and fitter (nothing actually wrong with us nowadays, just creaking a bit!). We both had fractured pasts, he a widower and I a divorcee - 5 grown up children between us. But we found each other and as they say, the rest is history

Tonight going out for an anniversary meal and a glass or two

Finished a very difficult report yesterday (thanks to Greatnan for the much needed push). Spending today with DS1 who is thankfully recovering from his latest depressive episode and starting to feel that life is worth living again, seeing DD later to go through some old photos (lovely), out for a meal with family on Sunday, and all next week off work, looking after DGS every day