Meight pie,taters n peys toneet wi gravy

Jean and Norman called in today on their way home from their van,and we played them a couple of tracks from a disc given us by Gina and Andrew,its a group called Lancashire Hotpot,who sing very funny songs in a lancashire accent about everyday life in their area,one features a shopmobility scooter,and in it the driver falls in love with a lass called Jean ,which presents him with a problem"where my gonna put Jean?if you can download them it will cheer you up but you must get into the lancashire accent,its working class humour at it's best.
Sadly J&N left just before cesspool syd came to empty the cesspool,I would have liked them to enjoy that little episode,especially in view of the blokes name ,Syd!
Tonight I have the job of taking Sheila to Alford to the WI and this gives me the problem"where my gonna park" not really a major obstacle unlike the big cities,just a little quote from the shopmobility song.
Footnote; I dropped Sheila at the vilage hall Alford and there parked outside was shopmobility scooter,I don't know if it was the speed I was pushing her or the sight of the scooter but she was having amused hysterics,(well I think she was amused)I am now on call for the return trip whilst watching Norwich v Reading on sky.

Marco Pierre White's student !

After a busy week providing first class food and care to my poor injured wife,I took her to the quiz night at the village hall last night,we did not win the quiz as many were film questions and such low brow stuff we were not in tune with,though I did win a bottle of bells whisky on the raffle,not a bad £1 spent .
Weather is very good at the moment but we are not able to make full use of it just yet ,I shall now go and see to my lovely stew and yoorkshire puddings which I have made under supervision from "Marco"if you are watching the show on tv you will know what I mean.
Cheers Graham

Egg on the face at the bowling

Just back from the bowling/egg selling,not too much jollity as me and Syd played rubbish and Le Grand Edward was on the opposing side smirking at us,he only laughs when he's winning like the football fans.
Tonight is the return match between Chelsea and Liverpool,on tv but I think it is goodnight Irene for the scousers,though I shall be watching in hope.
As I will not take Montana's advice re these quack medicines it seems he is washing his hands of me,and letting me suffer,it's a bit like the attitude of the preachers of religion if you believe you will be cured,the lame to walk etc. and just as credible.
I really like the idea of Gina going to live near the canal and having a boat,much better than coronation street where they are now,I could signwrite the boat "the onion bargee".
I really like that white boat that Sandra the pom has sent a photo of on her blog,but it is very much in the background.

Nostalgia is not what it used to be

Today has almost dawned it is a dull grey misty and to make matters worse the Le Blades are basking in 22c in Spain,same sort of day yesterday,and I spent a lot of time on the internet looking for somewhere to go to get a little sun.
If I may write a little pastiche of Montana Mike's blogs,I pulled a muscle on friday and and was not able to use my left arm much ,after I plastered it with ibuleve rubbing oil ,it seems a lot better today,but there is I believe aspirin in it and I am not able to use aspirin due to a sensitive stomach(legacy of an ulcer in my younger days),an obvious solution would be not to hump bags of sand around which weigh around a hundredweight,I suffer with tendonitis and if I try to be 30 years old it creates problems which not even M M can offer realistic solutions to, other than eating raw carrots(good for the sight?) and other such delicacies.(end of pastiche)
Looking out of the window the sky seems to be turning "a lighter shade of pale"older readers will more than likely remember the song containing those words,I think it was a procol harum song,of the hippy era,halcyon days,when I even thought of London as a nice place,and misspent some of my youth there.
My friend and agent in Italy,Signor Piero Baral informs me I am heir to a fortune,he is of course joking but he has done a great job of making up a montage of some of my pastel drawings which are featured in a magazine,and for which there is a recompense,though not as he jokingly says making me heir to immense riches,he is a very accomplished photographer,and retired from his ultimate occupation as a talc miner ,at Miniera Paola a mine which is located in the chisone valle near the ski resort of Sestriere,there is now a mining museum there ,and Piero has placed some of my stuff on permanent display, last time I visited we went down the mine and had great fun trying to dislodge two feet long icicles from the roof onto each other(it was winter).
I think of the lovely hot air in olive groves in Italy and Sicily and the smell of different herbs in the dry air,and the silver of the leaves on the olive trees as the wind makes them glisten in the sun,and now here I am clutching at straws thinking the sky is a lighter shade of misty grey,but on the plus side my shoulder muscle is much better,and the sun will rise.
Ciao Graham

close up

Swans

Swans on the Great Eau at the trout farm.

Goodness gracious great eau's of fish!

Today we are going to the trout farm in Withern,about 5 miles up stain lane,my favourite cycling lane as there is not much traffic,and deer can sometimes be seen in the fields,Sheila has ordered a couple of trout at 9am this morning and we are picking them up at 11am,THATS FRESH! much better than the ones a week old from supermarkets,they live in the waters of the local river the Great Eau,I am not sure how it was named but it sounds a little like the Norman French had a hand in it,there is in fact a little hamlet further inland towards the wolds which is named Belleau.
It may be of interest to some readers that our diet here at the little house on the prairie is very well balanced,all our bread is home made by Sheila,we have loads of local vegetables,this is after all the county which grows a large percentage of the country's green veg and "tates" as they are known locally(think Boston potatoes),meat we try to buy from the co op which sources locally,or at the farm at minting near Lincoln,and an added supplement of Chia seeds is sometimes eaten by Sheila,though I am "chia full" enough without them.
The weather at the moment is lovely sunshine and around12 centigrade,for our Sheffield friends and relatives information.

Lack of Information Technology

Rain was forecast during the night but we had very little and today is blustery with sunshine and scattered clouds, around 10 dgrees centigrade.
Montana mike has problems with his computer company,a thing we are all conversant with,the dreaded Indian sub continental call centre,who have no idea how to rectify the problem but read from a prepared script,and leave the poor customer irate, the luckless asian workers are made to watch british soaps like coronation street to help them understand diverse dialects,some companies here are now using the British call centre as a way of attracting new custom, and I can only think they will be successful, which of course means that the cheap labour others have made use of is shown as being counter productive,here in the UK if the provider is in breach of their contract to supply a proper service, the customer can end the contract before the contract expires officially,whether this applies in the States I don't know.
Maybe the advent of Easter and much ingesting of chocolate eggs and bunnies will help to temper the outrage at the moment afflicting Montana Mike.
I am still waiting for the refund from the heirs to Dick Turpin the highway robber now plying their evil trade in Sheffield,and fear it may be a lengthy wait,speaking of Sheffield, the Blades won in the local derby with Barnsley,and of course Ian Le Blade was at the game, they have a match on friday this week which is featured on Sky TV so we shall be viewing that at the little house on the prairie,last night Man U. were able only to draw with Porto in the euro cup,and tonight is Liverpool v Chelsea on TV so I shall be watching that and of course supporting Liverpool. Thats all for now ,Graham

Surgery most fowl ?

You may remember that I inadvertently fell foul of Dick Turpin,or sheffield city council,as it is now known,not being a person who regularly falls foul of the authorities,I paid a fine of £60 for straying 6 yards into a bus lane on the wicker in Sheffield,I was later informed by Vicki our old neighbour in Sheffield that she had a similar fine at Hillsborough Corner,but if you pay within 14 days it halves to £ 30,today I phoned and was told this is the case so I have sent a letter to them as they informed me I must,they have of course cashed the cheque ,so I now wait for the refund.
Gina is reminiscing about her grandparents on her blog,I remember she used to call our Herbert
Grandfather which amused him and he tried to get her to call Emma "grandmother grey",she writes of his special wave of goodbye,which is a little hard to describe in words, but consists of holding the palm of your hand facing the recipient with fingers and thumb spread apart and moving it left to right as if turning a door knob.
There are a number of references to Florrie in the family blogs,particularly her famous "Florrie Face" I have noticed that a number of her daughters have inherited this particular expressive facial movement and probably are not aware of it, I particularly remember her very own swear word"Flopping" hard to improve on that.
We have a modern fuse box idea here that trips the fuse switch off if a light bulb goes,and leaves us in the dark till its switched back on,which leads me to a strange dream I had two nights ago
that Emma and Herbert were here and the lights tripped out so I went to switch the fuse back on and then could'nt find them when the lights were back on,then I woke up.
I was theatre orderly this morning fixing a table up and showing the surgeons how to put a scalpel blade in the handle,fortunately the "patient" was not aware of the inexperience of the medical staff.

Dreaming of Tuscany La Toscana Sogno

Yesterday was unbroken sunshine and 66 farenheit,I managed to fabricate, prime and undercoat a wooden signboard for a farm and it dried like lightening, I was for a while wafted away in memory to Tuscany,today there is a sea mist blowing in and a fine drizzle ,so it is inside work finishing painting the board.
Last night the England game was a little disappointing,we lacked real attack and were lucky to get the win in the end,many of the players are not international class,though the Ukraine were not that good either,this sunday Sheffield United are on TV ,so we shall be watching that with interest,The Millers won away at Luton during the week,and I'm not sure what that other team who play in Sheffield are doing.
I am gazing out of the window as I write in the hope of the mist clearing and the sun coming out,but the only activity is the pair of blue tits nesting in the wooden nest box,yesterday the barn owl was having a great time in the field next to the little house on the prairie,and made frequent swoops down to catch little furry titbits.
I have a potential customer calling to see me this afternoon about an advertising sign for her residence who may be interesting as I believe she does some kind of aroma therapy or some such strange therapeutic mysterious health therapy,could she be the English version of Montana Mike's friend in the USA,Incandacia the lit up lady? as my old editor friend Moshe used to say,"it's all part of life's rich tapestry"and his favourite film which he watched if he was feeling low was,"The Life Of Brian" whilst singing"always look on the bright side of life",he will shortly be off to his summer residence in Finland the birthplace of his long suffering wife, I believe it is a cabin on an island and access is only possible by rowing boat,we are invited but like to stay in England in summer.
Thats it for now Graham