Saw both bullfinches (cock and hen) today; the cock quite clearly had nesting material in his beak.

At Wellinghall's request, an updated back garden bird list.

Collared dove
Wood pigeon
Blackbird
Robin
Great tit
Blue tit
Long tailed tit
Chiffchaff / Willow warbler
Song thrush
Jay
Goldfinch
Black cap
Chaffinch
Magpie
Dunnock
Wren
Pied wagtail
Bullfinch
Mistle thrush
Fieldfare
Crow
Peregrine.

22 different species seen in or over the garden, not counting the sparrowhawk (presence inferred from neat circle of pigeon feathers, but not actually seen), or the kestrel, redwings or assorted gulls that hang out just beyond the boundary, flatly refusing to come on in.  On the other hand I am including the crows and peregrine, as I'm fairly confident they did fly directly over our patch, though I'm not completely 100% certain about them.

Both Wellinghall and I think we've seen a coal tit as well, but haven't had a good enough view to be sure of the species.

If you see a peregrine being chased by two crows while out on your afternoon constitutional, and you think they probably all took a short cut over your back garden, but you're slightly too far off to be sure - do you add both species to your garden bird count or not?

Update on Wellinghall's recent list of birds seen in garden - we've just had a jay on the lawn.

We've just exchanged contracts!  We're selling the old house on the 21st, and buying the new one on the 28th.  And then we can start unpacking books and returning to what passes for normality in the Wellinghall household.

It goes without saying, that when conducting important experiments in low-temperature chemistry such as the making of apricot ice-cream (to find out if it's as good as last time, of course!), to clean all equipment used thoroughly afterwards.

One very effective way of cleaning the remains of the apricot puree out of the food processor is to whizz it up with a glass of cold mild, then drink the resulting apricot milkshake.

Just thought you'd like to know.

My father's been clearing out some old paperwork, and found, among other things, some of my old school reports (could do better!) and the report on a careers guidance test thingy that my school laid on for us a year or so before O-levels.  This was based on a combination of aptitude and personality tests.  So I had a skim through it to see where I'd been going wrong all these years, and learnt:

You are interested in outdoor and physical fields - this may be reflecting a current liking for sport. 

WTF?  I never, ever, enjoyed PE lessons, apart from swimming, and wasn't much good even at that!

Naturally it must have been an entirely reliable, positively oracular, set of results - after all, it said (repeatedly) that I was highly intelligent, and also says, right at the front, "This report has been prepared by computer".  But I do wonder where on earth they got the idea that I was sporty from.

Those not on facebook won't be aware that the road in front of our house has been adorned by fountains.  The first one appeared yesterday, only a tiny one, water seeping up on one side of the road and running down to a drain.  By this morning it had shifted, with a gush of an inch or so tall and maybe a foot long appearing along one side of a kerbstone.  By lunchtime, a second fountain had appeared, this time along the edge of a man-hole cover, a couple of inches tall.  A few minutes ago a Tesco van drove over it, and it spurted noticeably.  And just now the water board have turned up.  They were careful to drive around the big fountain, not over it, but it still spouted most impressively.

And in other news, the rain has reached us, and it's already down to almost tolerable temperatures.

Went to Covent Garden yesterday for Royal Ballet in Ondine.  Lovely ballet - not one I'd ever seen before.  Wasn't quite how I expected it - I'd assumed it would be a fairly conventional, romantic-style ballet, but it was much darker and edgier.  Nice shipwreck in Act II - waves sloshing up and down backstage, music managed to sound so much like water I wondered if they were playing a tape of actual wave sounds somewhere in the background, and everyone on stage except Ondine herself swaying from side to side in time with both the music and the background waves - chap behind me complained about feeling seasick.  Act III was set up as a classic fairytale ending Grande Finale with post-wedding Divertimenti.  Except hints that all isn't quite well - more edgy music, the bridegroom dreaming of his lost fairy bride and clearly getting second thoughts about the flesh-and-blood wife, then the outraged fairy (Ondine's uncle) turns up, trashes the entire place and drowns bride & as far as I could make out all the guests as well.  Carabosse never had it so good!

Met a couple of Northfarthing regulars (Operabuff and exSecretary, for want of better names for them) also in the audience, and had a good catch-up.

Other news, saw Meglorien and Foradan on Friday, and met Narizinho for the first time - cute baby, good at smiling, very happy to be passed over to a total stranger for cuddling, has mastered the art of throwing the rattle on the floor and watching grown-ups pick it up.  Great fun!

And I went home to Bedfordshire on Wednesday to keep the place looking orderly.  There was a lot of tidying up to be done in the front garden, which had been re-designed by a passing motorist a few days earlier.  He'd come off the road shortly after coming round the corner, skidded across a few of the other front gardens and ended up crashing into, and demolishing, the small fir tree on our plot, before coming to a stop just short of our wall.  The tree in question had been sheared off so neatly it looked as though it had been cut down deliberately - not ripped or torn at all.  I dread to think what speed he must have been doing to have that effect!  The chap who's buying has according to our next door neighbour already been round to inspect the damage, and told her he'd been planning to take it out anyway.  The people in the car got away with shock, so no real harm done - but if the tree hadn't been there (we'd previously decided to cut it down as it was growing too big for such a tiny plot, but lacked round tuits) it would probably have been a very nasty accident indeed.

A punnet of apricots, stoned and halved and poached with sugar and just enough water to stop them from sticking to the pan, then blitzed to a puree.  Custard made with two eggs and half a pint of milk.  Allow both to cool, blend, taste, add more sugar, carry on until it's sweet enough or your tasting has emptied the pan.  Mix in half a pint of double cream, whipped - don't worry if it doesn't blend in smoothly, it's not harmed by little white bits.  Freeze, and enjoy.

Bristol Temple Meads is a fine sation, but it's a good fifteen minute walk from anywhere useful, and down some mostly pretty dull roads at that.

OTOH, I've just discovered there's a ferry from just behind the station to the city centre.  And at £1.50 a hop, it's a pretty affordable treat.  There are far worse ways of travelling!

In other news, I've discovered by careful experimentation that leftover butternut squash added to cheese scone mixture makes very tasty scones indeed.

I've had a few of these pop into my head every time I see this meme, so thought I might as well give the whole thing a go.  Even if it won't let me quote the dialogue.  Basingstoke!

Pick your artist: Gilbert & Sullivan
( Cut for music meme )

Well, we started the cheesecake on Friday evening and finished it on Sunday.  Very tasty throughout, but the texture was definitely slightly better (rather firmer, while still feeling extremely creamy on the tongue) by Sunday.  So leaving it does have some purpose!

I've just made a cheesecake, for the first time in, ooh, far too long.

Catch is the recipe says I should leave it to chill for 24 hours before serving.

So my question is, should I scoff it now before Wellinghall gets home, or wait 24 hours as the recipe says?

I've never quite understood why "avocado" suites get quite the vitriol they do.  I mean yes, it's a drab colour, but (class shibboleths aside) there are far more offensive shades.

The colour that a ripe avocado turns if mashed without lemon juice and left to oxidise, for example.  Why on earth would anyone ever have thought that was a good colour for a bathroom?

Is the world prepared for this http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/4688453/Giant-rat-caught-in-China.html story?

A builder's helmet.  A flourescent jacket.  Both lying abandoned on a small heap of dust and rubble.

Didn't know they get vampire builders!

Luton - the only place I know which *still* manages to look ugly, even under three inches of snow.

On the other hand home was magical - complete silence apart from birdsong, not the slightest hint of background hum from the M1.

And I'm the only one in the office so far!

Genre fiction book meme -
1) Look at the list, copy and paste it into your own journal.
2) Mark those you have read however you want. - Bold for read (whole book, or at least two books in series), italics for started but gave up, underlined for only read one of a series.
3) Feel free to tell your friends what you thought of them.
( Read more... )

The Big Read thinks the average adult has only read six of the top 100 books they've printed below.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.

( Read more... )