Comments and views, gardening and recipes, football and lots more
Empty and clean greenhouse. Prune roses – be harsh?
Cut back apricot tree – I will cut it back loads (just enough for bird feeders to hang) – and see if it can revive? Move gooseberry bush. And prune wisteria and basically everything else!
Well, rubbish weather forecast from BBC, MetO, Meteo – all said dry this morning -so what is the damp stuff falling from above? Still I did manage a quick hack at the red rose by the bedroom window before it not-rained.
Vaccine may become available in a few weeks. Government estimates it could deliver 1 million per week. So about 3 months just to do the over 70’s (probably longer as others are important too!). I think the 1 million figure is determined by the logistics rather than availability – as more vaccines will become available.
And then to get to 70/80% ‘herd immunity’ is doubtful due to conspiracy theorists, covid deniers and general ignoramuses!
So we will need to live with our current way of life for the next 6 months at least.
The latest lockdown ends on 2 December. It will be another 2 weeks before full impact is known. The evidence of the figures from Wales is that the circuit breaker has had an impact, but not enough to relax.It does not really matter what the improvement has been, what is important is the R number, and the rate per100000. The numbers I have seen for Swansea and Cardiff are still much too high.
Cummings and Cain resign/sacked. Both were advisors – the decision maker is the same.
Maz. Mart and Tams. Sorry! I tried to cook with fresh veg. etc. but basically has one recipe! Mince with onions and tomatoes as spaghetti bol or shepherds pie. I did get pizza sussed eventually, but not much else. Many crappy meals since Banwell have been spoilt because I did not understand that the oven needed to be hot before putting stuff in!
But today I am writing my own recipes! My first. But these ones are ace –
First up – Tagliatelle – I have a pasta making machine, and basil and parsley on the window cill looking like they might want to give winter a miss! I am also not good at amounts as it depends who you are cooking for?
I think most of my recipes have always started the same way with chopped onion cooked slowly to caramelise. I am still unsure when to add garlic? I will look up and amend this.
Add chopped tomatoes, chopped red peppers (or green or yellow ones – make a rainbow!), and sweat a bit. Here I add a few sun dried tomatoes for their flavour, and maybe some sun dried peppers. I like to add dried mushrooms for extra depth of flavour, and a tad of salt. In this vegetarian version I also add a tbsp of marmite or vegemite (Aussie mates). So that is a basic full flavour sauce. Add chopped basil, parsley and some parmesan cheese to taste. Can be zapped up a bit with chilli. I like pepper on most dishes too. nd personally would probably add some cheddar as I am a cheese addict.
Oh, I missed the tagliatelle – make it yourself, 100g to 1 egg and a splash of olive oil. Delicious! I have yet to experiment with this – herbs, spinach, spices? Has anyone tried hot spaghetti?
Someone said they thought that Johnson was at least very clever! How wrong they are. A clever person keeps their friends close, but their enemies closer! The trouble for Johnson is that he cannot discriminate between the two factions. Surrounding himself with yes men was a particularly dumb move, as it deprived him of the superior intellect which would allow his “Duracell Bunny’ impersonations to, if not succeed, avoid the catastrophic failure they are having now.
Lots to comment on
| 27.09.2020 | 07.10.2020 | 23.10.2020 | 27.10.2020 | 5.11.2020 | 12.11.20 | ||||
| North Somerset | 31 | 53 | 79 | 123 | 177 | 243 | |||
| Cornwall | 20 | 31 | 29 | 45 | 47 | 65 | |||
| Bristol | 46 | 143 | 228 | 328 | 350 | 428 | |||
| Chelmsford | 41 | 63 | 68 | 102 | 91 | 94 | |||
| Exeter | 283 | 341 | 175 | 154 | 128 | 146 | |||
| Braintree | 42 | 58 | 60 | 50 | 58 | 94 | |||
| Plymouth | 30 | 64 | 116 | 136 | 150 | 180 | |||
| IoW | 10 | 17 | 24 | 30 | 41 | 78 | |||
| Liverpool | 516 | 660 | 568 | 487 | 330 | 265 | |||
| Manchester | 458 | 483 | 466 | 415 | |||||
| Sunderland | 274 | 281 | 297 | 314 | 309 | 379 | |||
| Newcastle | 445 | 456 | 298 | 294 | 284 | 376 | |||
| Swansea | 397 | 279 | |||||||
| Cardiff | 301 | 221 | |||||||
| Glasgow | 286 | 316 | |||||||
| Aberdeen | 41 | 36 | |||||||
| Belfast | 317 | 226 | |||||||
| Newry | 199 | 140 |
Analysis – you can do your own, but here is mine!
No idea why NS and Bristol. are rocketing up. Wales and NI have big drops, Glasgow still high, but Aberdeen low – due to geographic isolation – a bit like Cornwall, but there is rising significantly. IoW is a surprise as test and trace should be relatively easy there? Cities up north not doing so well although Liverpool has dropped a lot.
Experiment time! Slow cook on a bed of chopped apples with bay leaves and honey on top. Maybe half an orange and mustard seeds? I have 2 gammon steaks so should not need too much time? Then mashed potatoes, or maybe potatoes, sweet potatoes, swede all mashed and then fried? With peas and carrots?