Monday, March 18, 2024

 A quiet day — no one came to see us. And, again, a spring day. They’re having nice weather in Kirkmichael, too. Helen has sent a picture of our teeny tiny wellingtonia. It’s looking well. 

  I pressed on with knitting. I have finished the Calcutta Cup, and — because I positioned the Cup farther down than I meant to — I have almost finished the first half of the plain vanilla st st band at the waist. Within a couple of rounds, I must turn around and knit the same amount up again and join for a hem.

   But mostly, apart from dozing, I have pressed forward with Chinese cookery and my project of working my way through Fuchsia Dunlop’s “Every Grain of Rice”. I won’t be able to attempt the next recipe until I have a grocery delivery on Wednesday plus some more delicacies from Sous Chef. 

   Dunlop has a page early on called “magic ingredients”. If you have them in your larder, you can whip up a delicious Chinese meal in no time from the desiccated vegetables in the back of your refrigerator, or so it is claimed.  I am ordering ingredients as they crop up in recipes. No point in getting too far ahead of myself — I might lose interest. I sent for six items today; two or three last week. I haven’t got any of Fuchsia’s magic ingredients yet. My next recipe will be “Cold Chicken with a Spicy Sichuanese Sauce”.

  Wordle: Mark’s brilliant two was the scene-stealer today.  Thomas and Ketki and Theo were the threes. Alexander and Rachel and I came chugging up behind with fours. Nothing from Roger yet. It’s early. I may yet be able to record his score before I fold and go to bed. And I am able: it was a very creditable three, and I can still hold up for another ten minutes or so.  


Sunday, March 17, 2024

 Many American holidays have insinuated themselves here, notably Christmas and Mother’s Day and evenThanksgiving. (All of those were known here, but in recent years the American form of observance  has taken over.) One outstanding exception is today. If you live in Ireland, you’re welcome to celebrate. If not, forget it. St Patrick was getting out of hand in the US when I was young, in the early 50’s. I rejoice annually in having escaped it.

  On the other hand, this has been a real first-day-of-spring sort of day. The light in the bedroom this morning seemed an hour brighter, although it couldn’t have been. The sun is shining. It’s warm.

   Scotland lost at rugby yesterday, but we didn’t disgrace ourselves. I didn’t watch either of the other matches — watching rugby is hard work. Both were thrilling. Italy beat Wales. They’ve had their best season ever.

   I made a Chinese lunch — “tofu bamboo with spring-onion flavoured oil”. It was really rather nice. I now have to pause for a few days and order some more ingredients.

  No knitting, though.

   Wordle: my two starters gave me all five browns today — I don’t think that has ever happened before. The struggle with the anagram wasn’t too bad — three for me. Alexander, Mark, Thomas, and Theo had threes as well. Four for Rachel. Five for Ketki and Roger. A lot pf people struggled with the second letter.


  

Friday, March 15, 2024

A bit better, today. The weather is a bit brighter. I got some knitting done — one more round will finish off the Calcutta Cup. I mean to do that this evening. The final Six Nations matches are tomorrow. Ireland v. Scotland is fairly late in the afternoon and we are very likely to lose. If you don’t hear from me, that’s why.

   David is coming from Thessaloniki tomorrow. He and Helen will stop here on their way to Strathardle.  I will re-emphasise the importance of a picture of our Wellingtonia.  

   Thank you for your food comment, Lisa. I found smoked tofu with celery boring. Not enough chilli sauce? No peanuts? Should I have fried the Tofu? I will press on — the next recipe is Tofu Bamboo with Spring Onion Flavoured Oil, and for that I have to wait until some tofu bamboo and Sichuanese pickled chilli is delivered from London.

   AA Gill, of whom I was a great fan, said once that if you want to be a good cook, the trick is not to cook ten things, but to cook one thing ten times (and get it right). Perhaps when I get to a recipe that nearly pleases, I’ll pause and try it that way. My mother (who loved them) was violently allergic to nuts. I’ve never had such a reaction, but I don’t much like them and tend to avoid.

356    Wordle:  Mysteriously, Thomas says he scored four today — but Wordle says he failed, and set his  356 day streak back to 0. Maybe you’re not allowed more than a year? 

   I, too, scored four, as did Rachel, Theo and Roger. Mark scored three, and the husband-and-wife team of Alexander and Ketki were the stars with two each (but different grids). 


 



 


Thursday, March 14, 2024

 Gloom reappeared, weather-wise. And there is little else to report. I haven’t done any knitting at all — not illness or even decline, I don’t think, just disinclination to having to push the stitches around that slightly-too-small needle (see yesterday). I am about to attempt smoked tofu with celery and peanuts from”Every Grain of Rice” for my supper, because it’s next in the book. I may leave the peanuts out.

   What I neglected to mention yesterday is that there has been an article in a horticultural/scientific journal about Wellingtonias. Apparently there are far more in GB than in California. They were brought here in the mid-nineteenth century. The one in the youthful Agatha Christie’s garden (as mentioned here recently) will have been an early specimen. It grows quickly, and, in maturity, is the largest living thing on earth.

   The article apparently doesn’t mention that Mrs Miles of Strathardle put one in recently. I’ll have Helen photograph ours when she is next there.

   Wordle: My starters gave me three browns and a green. I hate anagrams. But all my entries were real guesses — no Jean-words. I scored a very undistinguished five. So did Roger in DC; some comfort.  My nephew Theo, his son, also in DC, scored a brilliant two.

Everybody else scored either three or four. Alexander and his son Thomas, to be specific, were the threes, with identical grids.


Wednesday, March 13, 2024

The sun came out, late this afternoon. It’s extraordinary the extent to which it raises the spirits.

Not much knitting. I thought  that perhaps now I have identified the problem — that knitting the welt on a smaller-gauge needle is tight and slightly unpleasant — it would be easier to plow on, but it isn’t. Fairly soon I’ll have done my three inches (fairly soon, at least, if I can persuade myself to do any knitting). Then I turn it inside out and knit another three. Do I dare go up a needle size? No, surely not.

   C. came this morning, all well. No news. 

   Anonymous, I hope you enjoy Every Grain of Rice. Some years ago, when I could walk, I started working my way through it systematically. I got up as far as “silken tofu with avocado” on page 42 (not  very far) on 4/1/19 — my note is “dull, even with wasabi”.

   Today, I decided to resume the practice. I have a grocery order coming tomorrow anyway. I added the few extra things I would need for the next two recipes, and off we go.

   Wordle: I had a tough time today, and was pleased not to fail. The starters afforded two vowels, a green and a brown. I used a Jean-word in line three, which gave me a second green vowel.  I finally thought of a word that fit — wrong but useful. I got it in line five. 

   Alexander joined me there. Rachel had a four. The other three Brits scored three. In DC, both Roger and Theo scored four.






 

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

 A grey and relatively uneventful day. Helen came late (=just now) after a busy day preparing for a teaching session next week. We had a nice time (Helen, me, carer) talking about. The Royal Family. I thought it was just me who had an unhealthy interest.

  Knitting has progressed somewhat. I am knitting a broad st st band at the bottom of the sweater (which I am knitting top down). I have gone down a needle size, as instructed, and the result is that knitting is not so pleasant or easy as I expected. 

   I’ve been thinking about Chinese food (of all things). I find it I have the audio version of Fuchsia Dunlop’s “Invitation to a Banquet”. I’m sure I’ve got the book — I read it last summer when I was in Cramond. But A) I can’t find it now and B) I’m equally sure I never bought the audio book.

  Still, here it is, and I’ve been enjoying it. Fuchsia herself is the reader. Nice voice. I think I’ll have another look at her “Every Grain of Rice”. I can’t cook, since I can’t walk, but I can boss carers about fairly successfully.

 Wordle: I scored a not-entirely-disgraceful three. Alexander joined me there. Ketki, Mark and Rachel had four, Thomas five. However, the really interesting score came from further away. 

  Theo had four, nothing interesting about that. Roger’s first row was ???, ???, grn, ???, grn. So was his second row, and third, and fourth, and fifth, and sixth.  I’ve never seen anything like it. No browns in the mixture at all.Tomorrow when I am somewhat more alert (perhaps) I will try to think what some of his guesses might have been






Monday, March 11, 2024

 Another day of non-achievement. There’s still time for a bit of knitting. Grey and cold.

   Mysteriouser and mysteriouser, when it comes to the Royal Family. Or is it just that they’ve got accessibility wrong? I wasn’t happy with that now-infamous Mother ‘s Day picture from the beginning, not for any of the real reasons but because it looked to me as if mother and children were smiling on different occasions. That could have been because she is a grown-up (and not very well). It’s encouraging, I guess, that she feels well enough to take on some photo-shopping.

   Wordle: I struggled this morning, resorted to a Jean-word (= couldn’t possibly be right) for line four, got it in five. All the other players on this side of the pond scored four. In DC, Theo was another four and Roger, as often, hasn’t been heard from yet. Whatever he regularly does first thing in the morning, it isn’t Wordle.