March stuff...

YUP, IT’S end-of-month blog time again. Hope everyone’s okay out there in cyberspace land. I’m not doing too badly, although my tum is still giving me a bit of gyp.

Spring has supposedly sprung – I just wish they’d remembered to let the weather know!

I ought to be busy with my vegetables, but I’ve not yet dared to. We’ve had such a string of cold, blowy days and heavily frosty nights that I doubt if anything will “take” at the moment.

Actually, I’m a bit in two minds about growing things again; last year was such a dispiriting wash-out I can’t help feeling it’s a waste of effort and money.

I heard on Gardner’s Question Time (BBC Radio 4, Sundays) the other week one of the experts say that there’s very little point in growing your own tomatoes and peas and green beans and potatoes – it’s cheaper to buy all that at the supermarket. Don’t go for the ordinary, try for the expensive and more exotic.

The problem with this is that I don't know how much more successful at growing the likes of courgettes and artichokes I’d be.

In any case I’m not sure how much My Good Lady and I even enjoy the taste of aubergines and celery and the like… so what’s the point of growing them?

I might give the veg a miss this year, and when the weather finally perks up, I’ll just fill my raised beds with flowers.

Meanwhile my experimental cookery sessions have grown apace – I seem to be doing them three times a week now.

Not always successfully, though, I must admit. Some of my stews and risottos and the like have proved less than enjoyable – or even edible… These one-pot recipes can end up a bit monotonous. We’re bored with them after the second mouthful.

Still my lamb curry tomorrow should be okay.

My Italian language learning has begun in earnest, and I find it a lot harder than my previous efforts in French were. Almost every word ends in tongue-twisting vowel.

MGL has been busy reading up about the area of this coming holiday, and she tells me that we’re more likely to find German spoken in our region – that, or some local dialect that not even native Italian speakers can comprehend.

Sometime I wonder if I don’t make a rod for my own back!

Arrivederci, ciascùno!

February things...

A SPOT of what I suspect is food poisoning has made me late for my end-of-month posting for February… please forgive.

Anyhow, our month seems to have been taken up with holiday plans – we’ve decided to risk Italy again this year. (I know, I know, some folk never learn from past mistakes!)

At least this time we’re going to the other end of the country, Venice, the Dolomites and the Italian Lakes.

We’ve discovered this dinky hotel up on Lake Molveno, which looks so pretty and peaceful, and if comments on Trip Adviser are to go by, is excellent in matters both of hospitality and cuisine.

And best of all it has an adapted room which is wheelchair accessible – just right for My Good Lady.

Our plan – which is still in the flux stage – is to fly to Venice and drive up in a rental car; a couple of weeks of peace and relaxation and plenty of good books, then a couple of final nights in the Serene Republic itself.

Sounds like bliss – no?

Mentioning books, MGL and I have been wondering whether to invest in one of Kindle type e-book readers.

The honest truth is we’re both a little nervous of technology – it tends to break down on us. Books – proper books – don’t pack up on you just as you reach the story’s dénouement.

Oh, I know you can’t carry hundreds of titles in one slim package – but why should we want to? A couple of good authors each should be plenty to keep us thrilled and entertained.

Pair of Luddites, or what?

January posting

A NEW YEAR’S resolution – I promise to try to post at least one end-of-month blog.  

How was your Christmas?

Ours was quiet, very quiet. We had been invited to pass the festive day with friends, but decided against it. What, with My Good Lady’s health issues and my own general unsettledness, we thought it wiser to spend the day at home, alone.

Actually, we enjoyed ourselves by watching Disney’s Lady and the Tramp, and then having our traditional Christmas dinner of cooked turkey breast topped with cream and cheese.

It was the first time in about six years that we’ve had the big day at home, and very relaxing it was too.

Health issues continue to preoccupy us. MGL’s pancreatitus and the general lack of feeling in my left arm and leg… Oh, the joys of growing older!

Still, mustn’t complain, things could be a lot worse – and no doubt, before long, will be.

Tomorrow we’re planning to treat ourselves by a trip to the local cinema – we’re off to see the movie of the moment, Les Misérables. Readers will know that this is one of my all-time favourite shows – we went to see it a couple of years ago on the West End stage, and I’m reliably informed that the film is definitely worth viewing on the big screen.

And the local fleapit gives heavy discounts to old crocks and codgers like us on Tuesday afternoons.

I’ve even promised to take MGL for a slap-up restaurant meal afterwards. (A slick bit of bribery here you see, but please don’t tell her!)

(Who says Lancashire lads can’t be smooth?)

So here endeth my first end-of-month posting. Hope I can keep it up.

Season's Greetings

Snatchems

HIGH TIME I posted again, I think – readers, if I still have any, will think I’ve been kidnapped by Martians or something…

I’ve been somewhat preoccupied with My Good Lady’s health scares – including having to ring for ambulances a couple of times, and her four-day stay in the local hospital; and that is on top of the various GP sessions I’ve had to take her to. It’s all been a little worrying.

She’s doing a little better now, I’m relieved to say, although she’s still got more scans to attend – we’ve still no real idea of what the problem is.

Aside from this what’s new? Well I suppose one of the main issues is that we’re now no longer going the Geriatrics’ Corner of the Pub. So many of our friends have either passed away, or just drifted away, that making the eight-mile round trip seems pointless. It appears that the happy, golden, Camelot years there are well and truly over.

Instead we’ve been visiting a local landmark pub: Snatchems, more properly known as the Golden Ball Inn. Sitting right on the river, as it does, the road to it floods twice a day, cutting the old place off from the outside world.

The original pub dates back to about 1710, but the new owner has spent a fortune restoring the place, adding an upstairs wing which looks out across the river towards Lancaster and the open Pennine fells beyond.

MGL and I come to spend an agreeable hour here, watching the birds on the water – herons, geese, gulls and the like – and occasionally meeting up with some other refugees from the Geriatrics’ Corner.

The pub’s nickname comes from the fact that the River Lune is navigable at this point, and ships setting off from Lancaster Quay which were undermanned would put in here and shanghai any drunks who happened to be about!

I’m told the practice is now discouraged!

Rediscovering Ambler

A CHANCE find at our local public library has brought me to the company of a favourite old author.

I’m talking about the spy/thriller writer Eric Ambler. Sadly, most of his work seems to have been out of print for quite a long time now – I haven’t seen any of the books for years, at least twenty…

So, if you haven’t heard of him it’s hardly a surprise. But re-reading Ambler now, in a new Penguin Modern Classics edition, I’m enchanted all over again by the quality of his prose.

It’s the kind of writing I would have liked to have done myself. Indeed, I once had a bash at writing thrillers, but discovered my imagination simply didn’t run in that direction.

Which is a pity, since I do enjoy reading this genre of fiction, especially when it’s of such a high order.

Okay, yes, it’s a little dated, written and set, as it is, in the pre-World War Two years of the thirties. But the wonderful sweep of the storytelling, the realism of the setting, the truthfulness of  psychology of his characters, the pristine quality of the literary style all make for sheer reading joy.

No need to take my word for it, though. When the likes of Graham Greene, John Le Carré and Alfred Hitchcock all praise him as one of the best thriller writers of all time, then you just know you’re onto someone really special.

I commend him to your attention.

Still rolling along

THOUGHT it about time I posted another of my once-in-a-blue-moon blogs.

I’ve been somewhat preoccupied with life, health, weather and miscellaneous other issues – to the point, indeed, of finding myself somewhat at a loss for words, not to mention time and enthusiasm.

So, then, what have I been up to lately?

Well, not a lot really. When asked how I am, I tell people I’m like the wagon still rolling along, if only on three wheels (and two of those are wonky!).

We had a rather nasty blow a few weeks ago – torrential rains and high winds – and as a result some of my raised beds look as if they’ve been trampled on by an elephant. The metal frame of one the beds has sheered right off, while another has got so badly bent I’ve had to use sticky tape to hold it together.

I almost gave up on having any crops at all this year – my tomato plants looked utterly wrecked, and the green beans and peas seemed crushed. Only my spuds seemed to thrive on all this rain.

And yet, amazingly, little green globes have appeared on my Black Russians and we’ve already enjoyed some of my sugar snap peas and french beans. Truly, nature can be wonderful.

On the health front, I’ve been fitted up with aids to help sharpen up my loss of hearing – but I find they become irksome after a few hours and on the whole not a great deal of help. If anything, too, I suspect they are making my tinnitus worse.

Meanwhile, I’ve taken my punishment for a speeding offence by attending a four hour long awareness day in lieu of having my licence docked; to be honest I found the afternoon tedious and tiring, with my concentration badly flagging long before the end.

So that’s about it. Oh yes, I’ve had various other health-related anxieties especially with regard to My Good Lady, but she’s already written about those herself.

Anyway, if you don’t hear from me for a while, don’t worry – I’ll still be rolling along.