Life is good - Feeling very Grateful

….. I am so grateful at the moment.  We have lovely weather - the stress factor of work is not present and I am very much pleasing myself although the past four weeks have been more of a holiday than doing anything, being a lady that lunches predominantly.  I am going to have to settle down soon and get strict I have a ton and a half of jobs to do and wouldn't you know it they are all time consuming and I am starting to feel a tad guilty about not doing anything.

As I am typing this I have a glass of pink gin, lemonade, sliced strawberries and lots of ice on the go.  It is very pleasant.  However, it will be the only one for this evening but I am enjoying it nonetheless.  We have retired to the house as it is still far too hot outside.  The garden is all watered up though.  

I think I am going to have to rearrange my day and get up earlier whilst this heat wave is on in order to get some jobs done.  We have the big fan on and I have decided that tomorrow nice and early or as early as we can on a Sunday pay a visit to our local Screwfix Direct depot as they have an offer on for a very powerful fan at £29.99. (this is my own opinion yet again and is not due to any form of enticement or advertising).  I just think that this particular fan  is a useful bit of kit.  This one is an industrial one and cools the room very nicely.

Here is the link for the details in case you are interested although please note this is for our Werrington, Peterborough store although I think the link is for their main website.

https://www.screwfix.com/p/18-floor-fan-220-240v/3939x

I intend to buy two, one for the dining room and one for the front lounge.  That way I can make sure that the animals are kept cool as well.    We have a couple of old decrepit ones so they can be recycled elsewhere. This one is pretty pokey and will keep the cats in particular comfy which is what I am bothered about in the longer term.  My family of animals needs to be comfy too.

I have not really done much on the craft front apart from a few rows here and there on my new blanket. I have managed to find a very pretty apple green although not quite the right shade actually blends in with all the other colours I have used as well.  It was bought for another project but I tried it against the random wool and it blends.  I had forgotten to take the random wool with me when picking out further colours - not that I always need it as I seem to be one of those lucky people that who is receptive to and who can carry a colour from memory although there has been the odd mistake along the way.  I will just have to buy more of this wool for the other project, but at least this way my blankets are going to meld with the colours used although being different dynamics and stitches used.  It is growing a little at a time though which I am pleased about.  It is also very lightweight but very warm which I am also pleased about.  That is one of the other reasons I am making rugs/throws/blankets for my home.  Warmth.  It is for me essential especially during the winter months.  I will do a little bit of an update once I have been able to work a little more.  Basically I just cast on the length in chain stitch with the first colour, then work in double crochet. I have been working four rows to form a band on the blanket.

I am a little confused with the seasons at the moment.  We are just about to go into July.  Yet it feels later on.  Perhaps this heat wave is exacerbating matters.

I am just waiting for my tea to be cooked on the griddle. We are having the fresh Queen Scallops (a big treat).  Served very simply the Queenies also have the orange coral on and we just griddle them and serve with brown bread and butter.  You do not need many of them as they are very rich in flavour.

We first developed a flavour for them down in Cornwall.  When we are there we go down to Port Isaac (Port Wenn in the Doc Martin series).  We used to visit the Fish Cellars at Port Isaac, everything straight fresh from the boat,  in an effort really to educate the children about food. We tried anything and everything cooking it back at wherever we were staying as at that time having two children in the household it was a rare treat to be able to go out and have a meal at a restaurant.  Far cheaper to prepare at home though.  Whenever we go down to Cornwall we still pay a visit to the fish cellars.  However it has been a few years since we last visited.

There are still brown shrimps and a dressed crab for tomorrow's snack and we have Monkfish for tea tomorrow night instead of a roast with some of my homegrown salad leaves and some cherry tomatoes with vinaigrette dressing.  Nice and simple is how I like my food and fish, I am very fussy about fish the same as I am about meat.  I love fresh fish because of the flavour; you get the full tasty flavour.  Freezing it does something to it and the flavour goes.  So a little blitz out every so often on everything fish is very worth it from my perspective.  It is supposed to be good for my medical conditions too.

Finding a good Fishmonger can make all the difference to your experience of cooking and eating fish and until you have had it fresh from catching yourself (we do this off Mevagissey Harbour when down their mainly Mackerel but very delicious) or getting it direct from the boats or the fish cellars.  You really have not lived.  It is a totally different foodie experience.

Right am off to potter well to sit and chill.

Have a lovely evening.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

xxx

P.S. Those Queenies were superb.  Yum.  Lucky me.

PP

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