Salad Days

Did you ever learn the nursery rhyme that went…

Solomon Grundy,

Born on a Monday,

Christened on Tuesday,

Married on Wednesday,

Took ill on Thursday,

Grew worse on Friday,

Died on Saturday,

Buried on Sunday.

This is the end

Of Solomon Grundy

Some sources suggest the name is a corruption of salamagundy or salmagundi. Salmagundi is a traditional Elizabethan recipe for a classic 'grand sallet' (great salad) that's a mix of boiled chicken, greens, beans, wild flowers, fruit, nuts, potatoes and herbs. And that name is probably derived from the French word "salmagondis" means a hodgepodge or mix of widely disparate things.

For our meal tonight, I cleaned up my Mum’s round steel tray and created a colourful salmagundi of ham, cooked chicken, and various salad vegetables [including more pea shoots]. Naturally we used the New Edwardian Serving Fork!

It has been a rather diverse and busy day, not quite our usual Monday Day Off.

I spent the morning on supply in school [one 4 year old was fascinated by the blue toenails peeping through my sandals and kept stroking my feet during story time!]

Then I met Bob in the City to go to the jewellers [my ring can be fixed, so that’s good] and buy blue fabric for Alice dresses, and go to the Bank – and pick up lunch in Subway.

We both had deliciously fresh 6” turkey and ham subs with sweet onion dressing.

Then we went off to Theddingworth to the NAM Conference.

NAMs are ‘Newly Accredited Ministers’. Bob and I go every June to the start of this event - organised by the Baptist Union Ministry Department – in order to encourage the Revs to join the Ministers’ Fellowship and promote Connexion for their spouses.

The event is held at the Hothorpe Hall Conference Centre, which I have mentioned before.They have beautiful gardens – I love this quirky little teapot-filled corner on the footpath to the Car Park [Jane, if you don’t like tea, perhaps you could copy this idea]

The other thing we have noticed, whenever we visit HH is that there always seems to be a skip at one end of the car park. And of course, we always check the contents!

Last year, it was full of dead lawnmowers. This year, however, there was a whole stack of tubular steel suitcase supports. [As seen on The Hotel Inspector] We felt that there must be a way to recycle them!

Having first checked with Reception, on our way out, Bob collected four of them and put them in the boot of the car. They seem in excellent condition. At least one will go to Cornerstones for the use of guests!

Now I am going to relax a little for the rest of the evening I think!

btw – my last bit of ‘Dumpster Diving’ – that reading lamp – has gone! Although it worked perfectly when we put in a bulb, the frame proved to be too bent to straighten, and a judicious application of ‘Brasso’ revealed it was a base metal and scratched beyond the point of restoration. Ah well…