beauty

Finally spring has sprung, albeit with a few April showers.
Just a couple of weeks ago we spent the weekend with our daughter and her partner in Oxfordshire.

Despite the gloomy skies



and the rain


daffodils

there was beauty everywhere.


hellebore


crocus

Happy Easter!

blog break

for a few weeks ...

theme thursday - red

Seeing red

I currently have no internet connection. This is due to changing ISP and a subsequent communications failure between O2 & British Telecom.
I spent 50 mins on the phone yesterday evening, being passed from one person to another, then to another and finally another.
Thanks to satellite technology (& low pay) these people were all situated at a call centre in India.
And they were all unable to help me.
One of them was polite and apologised for being unable to help me.

I managed to keep my cool (red is not a cool colour) until I received an automated call from BT later that evening, asking me what I thought of their customer service, at which point I saw red.

So I’m typing this out in Word in the hope that I’ll get a few minutes for lunch tomorrow, when I can log on and post from work. Then I’ll be offline again until (hopefully) things are sorted next week.

Red is a powerful colour. Blood is red.



Warning signs are red.











Sometimes the sky is red.



And some of my favourite flowers are red, too.





Hooray! Got hold of a laptop from work, so have managed to post. Happy TT everyone. Back next week.

theme thursday - I felt an impression

I caught a

Fleeting glimpse of your
Eyes as you rushed from the room,
Leaving me empty, full of longing and wanting you.
Too late! You were gone

And
Now

I was alone.
Maybe there was still a chance.
Perhaps you waited in the corridor, or in another
Room. I looked. I hunted. Opened
Every door,
Sought you
Shouted for you.
If only you had … If
Only I hadn’t called you Nancy, instead of
Neville, then I felt I would have made a better impression.

hope I die before I get old ...

Not really. Well, not often.

I went to see a band on Saturday night. It's not unusual. I love live music.

The band are called Brand New. They've been around for about 10 years and I've been a fan for 2 or 3. Like much of the contemporary music I listen to, my younger daughter introduced them to me with the immortal words: Listen to this, Mum. You'll like it. Thanks to her wisdom Muse, Green Day, Billy Talent, Lostprophets, Placebo and Jimmy Eat World (yes, really) sit happily on my iPod next to Joe Jackson, Runrig, Sarah McLachlan, Miriam Jones, The Rolling Stones & The Who.

But Saturday night was different. For a start, Himself™ accompanied me. I think you'll find it a bit loud. It was. And rather screamy. Yup.
Then, the sound wasn't brilliant.
And, to cap it all, next to me were an older couple, accompanying their daughter, who made it very clear that they hated every noisy minute of the gig. I did try not to let their obvious lack of enjoyment affect mine, but it was hard.
They were also less than impressed by my clapping and singing.

Beneath us, in the arena, the kids leapt up and down, threw beer and body-surfed to the music.
And I was wondering if I was, perhaps, just a little old to keep playing in this particular sandpit?

I shall probably continue to wonder. I am, unfortunately, given to a tad too much introspection.

However, I shall have to put off the decision for a while, as I have tickets to see Lostprophets next month, Louis Eliot in March, Biffy Clyro in May, Mark Knopfler in June, the Latitude Festival in July and Muse in September.

(And just to keep my options open, I recently heard my friends' daughter (a cellist) play Mozart & Sibelius. It was sublime.)

fruit

Yesterday's Theme Thursday made me think about food.
Most of my colleagues have embarked on their New Year Diets and that makes me think about food too!
Last autumn I had one of the most beautiful desserts I've ever ordered in a restaurant. And it was healthy food! (Well, apart from the butterscotch & chocolate sauces.)
I just had to take a picture.



Fruit Platter on a menu doesn't even begin to describe the sheer gorgeousness and lusciousness of what was served to me.
Slices of kiwi, banana, nectarine, orange & 2 types of melon fanned out on a piece of slate (no idea why it was slate, but the black background was a wonderful foil for the jewel-like fruits.)
Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, a little scoop of muesli mixed with fresh blackberries & yoghurt and then pots of those aforementioned sauces together with one of Greek yoghurt, for dipping. Oh, there was a little homemade shortbread biscuit, too.

Gentle reader, you may think I near fainted at the sight - especially as I'd just tucked into a plate of venison and veggies.

I ate the lot.

theme thursday - bread

What a versatile comestible is bread.
It comes in various colours (tho' if it's green, there may be a problem with the quality!)
It can be sprinkled with things. Poppy seeds, for instance.
I don't like poppy seeds and don't have a picture of them.
But I do like poppies.



"Let them eat cake" is the traditional translation of "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche." Usually (and probably incorrectly) attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette, when she was told the peasants were starving and had run out of bread.

Brioche is actually more like a bread than a cake and makes a truly wonderful bread & butter pudding. Just follow Delia's recipe and substitute brioche for the bread. It's even better, if that's possible, with chocolate chip brioche. My friend, Penelope, made this for us in Scotland at New Year. As there was a little left over the next day (hard to believe, I know) I splashed on a tot or two of whisky and warmed it through in the oven. Yumm! (There wasn't time to take a photo. I was too busy eating.)

Staying on the French theme, this Boulangerie in Paris seems rather reluctant to display its wares



And this one has stopped selling bread altogether!