How to easily propagate aconites and snowdrops in your garden
The past two dry days have meant that I have donned my thermal suit and my winter decorating outfit. I’ve started work on the outside of a lovely house, set in forty acres. Here I’ve seen a hare snatching the chance to sneak up the drive towards the vegetable garden (the Labradors were out playing golf at the time), blue pheasant nest there and bountiful feeders attract a wide range of birds. By the pond, I spotted my first Jay as I was watching the moorhens silently pick their way into the safety of the rushes. In a few weeks time...
read moreBest budget recipes for 50% or less: Sam’s perfect oven chips. Best homemade oven chips recipe
Danny has cut our potato bill from around £4 a week to 80p a week. Our cold dark barn is the perfect place to store spuds. He was horrified when he discovered how much that we were spending on potatoes. The price rose steeply last winter. The past warmer winters meant that most UK spuds were susceptible to blight – harvests were small and prices shot up. Since then he has been looking out for marked down spuds in the supermarkets. Generally he finds them for 40p for 2.5 kilos. They are hung in the dark barn in thick Hessian...
read moreDon’t close the shutters when it comes to music
I hate it when people say that they don’t like jazz, blues, opera. It sounds so final. Everyone changes. To cut something out of your life forever, unless it’s going to kill you prematurely seems such a shuttered attitude to life. I try to fight doing the same. When I met Danny he loved Country music and Abba. I didn’t share his passion. How could he enjoy this? I even hated the covers of the CDs. After a few years of D playing them in his car, I realised that I was being a stupid fool. I could be missing out on something great. This is...
read moreSupermarkets and the question of throwing away good food
Sunday was my bi-weekly shop with my mum. This is usually hugely enjoyable. We have a light lunch and tootle over for the last hour of Waitrose Sunday shopping. This trip has all the drama and pace of a decent documentary. Will we make it out of the store before the lights dim? We always flop into the car with minutes to spare. Meanwhile cars are racing in for the final five minutes. Are they just getting that one vital ingredient or doing the weekly shop in almost empty aisles? This Sunday our cashier remarked that they are still asked to sit...
read moreThe chuck wagon
On a film/TV set the restaurant vehicles are referred to as the chuck wagons. Sometimes they are sexy caravans. Often they are converted buses, with the food being served out of catering vans. Good food is essential on a busy set. Bad food could kill a production. Meals and snacks are served throughout the day starting with breakfast, then elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea and supper. There is a hierarchy to these mealtimes. The cast often eat in their own area. The technical staff all eat together – from director to the guy that sweeps...
read morePeanuts or peenuts?
Working freelance in Soho (London) in the 90s was fun. The economy was buoyant and there was the buzz of cash, talent and hope. People worked hard and played hard too. Playing hard was the best part. The bars were packed at lunchtimes and early evening. This is where a lot of freelance people made contacts that might bring them new work. Generally I was too busy to need to do this, but if the telephone didn’t chirrup then simply drifting down Wardour Street often bought work. You’d bump into someone on the pavement, have a drink in a bar...
read moreValentine’s Day – a celebration of love
I’m a huge romantic. I love this card that Danny sent me when we first met. He had no idea that it was designed and made by someone that I knew years before. It always gives me a small jolt when I look at it. The fairytale words “So they lived happily ever after” are so innocent, pure and hugely optimistic. I treasure this little picture. At boarding school I envied the girls who received lots of Valentine’s cards from real boys. There were shrieks. “Ohhhh. I think it’s from Henry!” “Where was it sent from?” “Taunton. But...
read moreNothing can beat that first egg of the season
I’ve been very envious of people who were collecting eggs from their chickens throughout November, December and January. All of ours have been on egg laying sabbatical since October and, although I want them to enjoy a decent holiday each year, I did expect the laying breeds to produce an egg or two in January. They were coddled and eventually cagouled with no egg effect. Life off the nest was clearly far too important to accommodate anything as strenuous as egg laying . Admittedly most of our hens are elderly maidens – but the layers have...
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