Fish fumet (aka fish stock)

I decided to make paella and looking through my recipe book I came across the instruction to make a fish fumet as the base for a chicken and seafood paella.  Now, I would normally skip this instruction in favour of a bit water and a few extra flavourings, but as I was standing at the fish stall on the market buying my squid and tiger prawns I asked the fishmonger to make sure I got the heads for fish stock.  "Ah" he said, "I can do better than that" and he produced a large bag of lobster and crab shells.  So I made a fish fumet.  It had rather an elaborate list of ingredients but it did make a great stock and the paella was very tasty!  I have much more stock than I needed so I have frozen it in three containers marked "400ml Fish Fumet".  I feel so grown up!!

Little green shoots

Having given up on herbs in the London window boxes, I've decided to extend my geranium collection.  They are so hardy, they are the ideal plant for the absentee gardener.  I raised all the current plants from seed.  Here's my new crop of babies.  Looks like almost 100% germination rate.  Now that they are hatched I'm transferring them to the cold frame in the garden to do their stuff.

The next day...

Sunday morning and the boys are up and playing with the pirate ship!

The finer points of piracy are explained to the cabin boy!

Meanwhile, across London, the grandparents are having lunch with son no. 1, walking along the Regent's Canal towpath, avoiding cyclists and runners and the murky water, and visiting a 20th Century modern furniture shop.  Along the way admiring the eccentricity of this area of London around Old Street and De Beauvoir Town.

Regent's Canal

Ghost of the Salvation Army hostel

One of the many Hawksmoor churches in this area

The weekend continues

Posing in new hats

After the gardening and lunch, a drive south of the river to Brixton to see the grandsons.  Nancy was out at a birthday party with the boys so we pitched in and helped Eliot clear up and get a move on with supper.  When the boys returned, clutching their birthday bags they were presented with Chilean fishermen's hats, a present from my old Chilean friend Lucila who has known our boys since they were born.   After modelling the hats, we gave the boys a joint birthday present...with which they were absolutely delighted.   It was actually the birthday of neither of them, but they are still at an age when time is immaterial and birthdays can be shifted to convenient dates!   Unfortunately we had not reckoned on the amount of time it would take to put the pirate ship together...as fast as we took the little pieces out of the packets, the boys scattered them!  Then supper intervened - a delicious meal of Sri Lankan curries (chicken and prawn), lentils and flat breads.  Eventually, and after the boys had gone to bed exhausted, the pieces were rounded up and Eliot completed the ship.

At last, ready to leave harbour!

Eliot and Nancy went out to meet some friends for a while and we babysat.   We watched a film about the Mosquito, the wooden World War Two plane, our interest due to the fact that Peter's father, a cabinet maker, worked on the mosquitoes during the war.  He was responsible for quality control.   We were glued to the screen to see if we could catch sight of him in the old footage from the factory near Watford.   No luck!

Weekend in London

View from the balcony - a grey day

Surviving geraniums before getting a haircut.

This is the first time we've been to London since we arrived back from College Station.  I'm pleased to be here.  I love the flat and the London views from the windows.  I don't love the dust so much!  It's inevtitable in the centre of London, but it's quite a task keeping up with the house work when you're only around for a weekend and have better things to do.

However, I have been 'gardening' if I can use the term for tending the window boxes along the balcony.  All but three of the 15 boxes are filled with geraniums which I raised from seed and are now into their third year.  Poor blighters.  They survive on so little water.  You'd think that there's enough rain in London to keep them watered but the cunning design of the Barbican balconies means that almost no rain falls on them.  They've been sadly neglected but, amazingly, are still flowering.  I've spent a good couple of hours watering, spreading dried chicken manure and cutting back.   It seems dreadful to cut off the flowers but the plants are getting so leggy that it's the only way to promote some new growth.   So, over to you geraniums, I've done what I can today!

Not much in the way of herbs!

The herb boxes have fared worst of all.  Just the rosemary is alive and perhaps one little sprig of thyme will make it.  I think I'm going to have to give up on fresh herbs. 

My new tree

How many men does it take...

The solitary blossom

The boys gave me a weeping prunus for my birthday and I've planted it in the front garden with some trepidation!  However, it seems to have survived my ministrations and now has one piece of blossom.  It's a start!    Peter made a stake for it and our neighbour helped to knock it in.  He was passing and couldn't help but get involved.  That was two of them stamping on my flowers!  The tree has gained a stake and I've lost two tulips.  I'm such an ungrateful wretch! 

A good showing of tulips

Out walking

Blickling Hall

A beautiful spring day and a 5.5 mile walk around the Blickling Estate...bluebells, daffodils, rape (that's the yellow stuff) and a pub at the end of the walk.  Heaven!

We started off with coats and hats and gradually peeled off the layers.

Our pace quickened as the pub came into view!

Leisurely lunch

Today our friends from two doors up the road came for lunch.  We wanted to thank them for being so helpful while we were away, keeping an eye on the house and taking in post and parcels for us.  They are first class neighbours!   We ate and chatted until four in the afternoon.   Very enjoyable!

What do you do with the change in your bag when you arrive in a foreign country and have to swap your currency?

You put it in a special purse of course! 

I received another birthday present today - a purse to keep my money in when I travel and swap currency.  I thought this was a brilliant idea.  It was purchased in Singapore and is such a lovely vibrant colour that it won't get lost in a hotel drawer while it's doing it's job of holding my British spare change.  I can never think of good small gifts for people and this has inspired me.  It's such a clever thing to have thought of.   Whenever I travel I shall be reminded of the person who gave it to me!

Gurnard

Ugly fish, tasty dish: chefs extol the sustainable virtues of the gurnard 

Don't look at me like that!

This is the title of a newspaper article I found when searching for a recipe.  I'm on my own for supper tonight so I decided to eat a sustainable fish.  And here he is, annointed with olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper and ready to go in the oven.  Not a pretty sight, but hopefully he'll turn out to be delicious!

A reproachful eye!

Normal life resumes...

Book group ladies

Book club today! We have been reading 'Life after Life' by Kate Atkinson and all but one of us really enjoyed the book.  We were intrigued by its structure which we decided worked, despite misgivings in the early stages of reading the book.  It tells the story of Ursula growing up before during and after the Second World War.  The twist is that we see her life unfolding through a series of possible scenarios.  It might have happened like this...or like this.

Cheese scones, ginger flapjack, blood orange cake, meringues!

We had an animated discussion before we fell on the cakes!  It was lovely to be back and to hear what people had been up to.

I should explain that each month we go to a different member's house and so we get a very interesting variety of eats!  All excellent (well, sometimes mine aren't brilliant!).  We have a book club blog where we keep a record of the books we've read.   We include a picture of the tea table!  We used to include a recipe but that went by the board some time ago.  A matter of time I think.   We also have a short review - a digest of our discussion.   People aren't falling over themselves to write these reviews and today somebody sneakily taped the conversation and is going to use that to construct the review.  A cunning plan! 

I think I'll be 70 again!

Just returned from a wonderful family weekend in Edinburgh to celebrate my birthday.  Peter had hired a Vivat Trust property large enough for the whole family, perched on top of Calton Hill and overlooking the whole city.  The views could not have been more spectacular when the mist and clouds parted and we could see beyond our noses.  But this was Edinburgh in March so a bit of gloom was to be expected.

The Old Observatory house perched on the top of the hill (on the left)

The entrance

Sitting room

Staircase up

The dining room

Our bedroom

View from the dining room

One of the other bedrooms

The upstairs sitting room

I flew up on Thursday, Peter joined me from Aberdeen where he had been working and the kids arrived in shifts on Friday.  Getting to the house was a challenge!  Three flights of steep steps and two steep slopes.  I had to stop a few times on the way up the first time, but gathered a bit of puff by the time we had done it several times more.  The poor kids were taken by surprise, especially those pushing the double buggy and carrying a very heavy box which turned out to be a present!

Struggling up the hill with the buggy and cases!

We were all delighted with the house and the views, but not so amused by the plumbing which, on the first night, didn't yield enough hot water to bath the grandchildren.  However, we were alright once Peter had tinkered with the thermostat on the hot water cylinder.

On Friday night Nancy and Eliot made a fantastic game pie and on Saturday we celebrated my birthday early with champagne in the upper sitting room and a meal out.   The kids left on Sunday morning and Peter and I polished off the game pie.

Enjoying a well earned cup of tea!

This is the way the ladies ride...

Helping Grandma blow out the candles

Family portrait!

Highlights of the weekend?

Walking round Edinburgh - one of my favourite cities
Dinner at Howie's
The children playing round the table in the circular dining room
A delicious and wicked Black Forest Gateau from Patisserie Valerie with candles and help blowing them out from Abe and Saul
Two bottles of champagne and other sundry alcoholic beverages!
A blender from the children
Exhibition of paintings by Fergusson in the Modern Art Museum

Arriving home to find a tree waiting for me...present no. 2 from the children!