The Cottage Smallholder

Sam's

Sam’s stand caught my eye initially because it was so clean. He was talking to his customers and all of them were smiling. I was intrigued.

Many months ago I bought my first sausage bap from Sam. I was amazed to see that he only sells Musk’s Sausages. It was very, very good. I don’t like burgers so I didn’t try his.

We don’t tend to eat takeaway food. But sometimes, pressed for time, I find myself with no lunch and a long afternoon ahead. In the past I’ve bought the soggy sandwiches and rolls available from supermarkets. Now Jalopy turns towards Ridgeons, a large UK builders’ supplier. And the home of the best takeaway/fast food that I’ve ever tasted in East Anglia.

Sam’s fast food stand is permanently parked in Ridgeons’ car park.

He cooks like a dream and only sells organic, free range food. Eggs, burgers (including pork, venison, wild boar), bacon and sausages are the staples on the menu. He is such a great cook that the famous Newmarket Sausage company, Musk’s, custom make sausage burgers for him – pork and leek, and Mexican.

A couple of weeks ago I overheard a burly builder make his order.
“I’d like a wild boar burger with brie and a little mustard.”
It sounded like designer food to me. But Sam, the builder and the wild boar burger got me thinking.

On Friday I ordered one. Sam wrapped it in foil and I chugged home with an exceptional treat to share with Danny. The burger was unbelievably delicious.

Danny savoured his half (still quite chunky as the burger is 6 ozs). For the first time ever, I had wolfed down my half before D and  enviously watched as he demolished his.
“This is wonderful (chomp) Thank you so much (double chomp). By far the best burger that I’ve ever tasted.”

Within an instant the wheels in D’s brain sprang into action.
“Does Sam do breakfast on Saturday mornings?”
Sam’s of Newmarket is only open 7.30 -2.30 Monday to Friday. On Saturday it’s 7.30 to 12.00. Sam is a treasure. He is gentle and chatty and his food is wonderful. The prices are good too.

He also runs Queen’s Events.  Judging from his professional approach to his takeaway business and his eye for detail I would definitely approach Sam if I needed help with organising an event. Until then I’ll enjoy his exceptional food and the craic around his stand.

I don’t think that I’m going to give up the day job and become a computer repairer.

Despite having the dexterity achieved from making virtually every Blue Peter project for a good five years during my childhood, I have failed on one simple point.

The button that allows a laptop computer screen to be displayed on an external monitor is NOT the button with a symbol of a small square box with a solid square inside. It’s the button that shows an oblong with another oblong inside and a vertical line at either end of the interior oblong.

It should have attracted us as it resembles a tray with a plate, knife and fork.

“I reckon that button adjusts the width of the screen display.”
“Yes,” agreed Danny (IT professional). “This square one must be the button.”

If we had tried the supper tray button, I wouldn’t have spent three evenings getting intimate with the interior mechanics of my laptop or boning up on the possible reasons why the laptop was sick. I also would not have needed to exercise such phenomenal restraint. The urge to pulverise the slim, wide black screen has been overwhelming.

I’m typing this on my laptop attached to the external monitor, the supper tray button having neatly done the trick.

It’s not fixed but we now have a definite route to examine – it could be a sickly inverter board. Hopefully as fingers fly across the keyboard a replacement inverter is being dispatched.

Thank you Colin and Peter!

Mouse count: still just 6

I made a trade this evening. A swap to use D’s laptop in exchange for cooking his favourite cauliflower cheese recipe with bacon and tomatoes.

I’m still trying to fix my laptop. The kitchen table is awash with pieces of paper holding tiny screws corralled with Sellotape, with scribbles noting from where they originated on the computer. We have discovered that it probably isn’t an inverter problem as the monitor that we hooked up to the laptop shows nothing from mine but Danny’s displays OK. Thank you Peter and Colin for suggesting this.

I am now down in the deepest caves of the computer, examining the motherboard. Apparently this can crack under stress. Perhaps the credit crunch?

If I can’t solve the problem by Saturday it will be sent away to be fixed.

Meanwhile it’s war in the larder. We discovered that mice had eaten into packs of cereal, rice and raisins. They sampled the salt but clearly didn’t like it.

I like mice but not in our larder so I set two traps. Fallow for a day, they began to execute their deadly commissions on Tuesday. Head count is six already. We have opened a book on the final count. Danny says 10. I reckon that we could catch 65 or more. All the mice that we’ve caught are large husbands. Mice are sociable and tend to have enormous families.

One Christmas we caught 13 mice who were living in the spare room wardrobe. I had flu and was sleeping in the room. Too ill to join in the mice parties – these were wild and noisy events, that kept me awake at night. My Mum was going to sleep there at Christmas so we dusted off the traps.

I hate killing mice. Often I hope that they will just find somewhere better and move on. Thinking about it,  our larder is a mice heaven. Packed with superb tastes from across the globe. If there was a Radio4 larder section in their food awards we would be in with a chance.

The traps are so fast that the little creatures have no time to close their eyes and die with dignity.  Tiny bright black eyes stare accusingly as I remove their bodies from the traps. And they are beautiful. I always applaud when they climb deftly through the shrubs to feast on the bird feeders outside the cottage. Especially when one curls its tail around a twig to get a secure anchor to stretch and reach something delicious.

Meanwhile I’m examining the curly wires inside a laptop.

For the last few weeks my laptop has gradually been developing cataracts. It has been difficult to write and publish my articles. The problem started with a display that flickered intermittently, then long spells with a black screen and a very faint image of what I should see when I touched the lid switch.

Last night it moved from sick to critical. A black screen with a faint unreadable display. As this is the engine that drives the blog writing, there can be no posts or answers to comments until the laptop opens its eyes again,

I’m now trying to fix the problem myself with the help of Danny’s set of computer repair tools and loads of advice from forums.

I am writing this on Danny’s company laptop which he needs access to 24/7. Hopefully the Cottage Smallholder site will be up and running again very soon. 

Just in case somebody might have the answer, my laptop is a HP dv1000. The Internet has provided many potential solutions but it will take time to try them all.

If you have a laptop like mine, have experienced this problem and fixed it yourself, please let me know how you did it. I can still receive email on my mobile phone.

Planning my decorating week, I checked the weather forecast last night as I still have a backlog of outdoor jobs. The symbols indicated that it would be misty and foggy all day. Too damp to paint outside.

But this meant that I’d be snug indoors, beside someone else’s Aga in a house where the central heating is always on. And as I’m painting Georgian sash windows, I’d be gazing at the landscape through the mist for hours. The thought of heat and views had me pulling on my work boots at 09:00 am.

I love the filigree of trees in the winter. They offset a gentle winter sunset and today hovered dreamlike in the mist in between barely being there and possibly disappearing forever. This is the time, just before Christmas, that magic is almost tangible.

A quiet morning of painting and gazing at a view, that has been the same for centuries, was followed by a busy afternoon. My clients live in their kitchen, a space that would easily house half the cottage. I was hugely entertained as I worked. I was introduced to cut priced tailor made shirts (Danny’s Christmas present?)
“Fiona, this would be perfect because they are £25 each and that matches your Christmas present budget.”

Meanwhile a giant crab bought from the Racecourse Christmas Fair was being prepared and dressed in the sink area.

We all tackled the Telegraph crossword. My clients have won prizes for crosswords. My mum used not to get up in the morning before she had solved at least three clues. Sometimes I joined in when I was decorating her bedroom. I used to grab the Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, before mounting her steep stairs.

So this afternoon my first question was.
”Do you have a Brewer’s?”
This was met by a roar from the crab preparation area.
“That’s cheating.”

The people sitting at the table and precariously balanced on the top of a step ladder didn’t agree. Brewer’s has taught me so much over the years. Better to use Brewer’s and learn rather than toss the crossword into oblivion. Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable would make a great Christmas present for those who don’t want to live in a mist.