Sowing Seeds Of Kindness

One of the delights of visiting the John Rylands Library last month was being able to look at the digitised version of "A Forme of Cury" - the 14th century cookbook, from the kitchens of King Richard II. Caraway is one spice which crops up frequently. Called seeds, actually they're split and dried fruit. 
They are brown, long, narrow, slightly curved, ridged, and pointed at both ends. They are aromatic and have a distinctive bitter, sharp, nutty taste, with warm, sweet undertones.

Caraway is associated with fidelity and was often used in love potions. And it was believed that possessions couldn't be lost, stolen or mislaid if they contained a few seeds, and country folk fed caraway to their geese to ensure they always returned. It was a tradition in East Anglia to eat cakes or biscuits made with caraway seeds to mark the end of the wheat-sowing season. 
My Mum never had a vast collection of herbs and spices - but she always had a little jar of caraway seeds in the pantry for making the occasional Seed Cake. "Because my Mum did too" she once told me. I wonder how many generations of Essex girls in our family said the same thing?
At the weekend, I decided I needed to make a cake. The last two weeks had been really intense [stolen purse, cards to replace, stained carpet, busy at school and church, a drowned phone and then a temporarily lost phone] ...a session in the kitchen, with the radio making a special weekend treat seemed a great idea. I haven't made a Seed Cake for years.
Seed cake was first mentioned in 1570 by Thomas Tusser in an new edition of A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie

"Wife, some time this weeke if that all thing go cleare,
an ende of wheat sowing we make for this yeare.
Remember you therefore, though I do it not,
the Seede Cake, the Pasties, and Furmentie pot."

Since then, authors throughout history have mentioned seed cakes...here's a few

Bronte; Jane Eyre [1847] - Taking from a parcel wrapped in paper, she disclosed presently to our eyes a good-sized seed-cake. "I meant to give each of you some of this to take with you," said she, "but as there is so little toast, you must have it now," and she proceeded to cut slices with a generous hand.

Dickens; David Copperfield [1850] - I cut and handed the sweet seed-cake—the little sisters had a bird-like fondness for picking up seeds and pecking at sugar; Miss Lavinia looked on with benignant patronage

Tolkien; The Hobbit [1937] - "But I don't mind some cake - seed-cake if you have any." "Lots!" Bilbo found himself answering, to his own surprise; and he found himself scuttling off… to the pantry to fetch two beautiful round seed-cakes which he had baked that afternoon for his after-supper morsel.

Christie; At Bertram’s Hotel [1965] - "We endeavour to give people anything they ask for." "Including seed cake and muffins – yes, I see. To each according to his need – I see... Quite Marxian."

I checked out my cookbooks for a seed cake recipe - HFW's "Love your Leftovers" had a slightly different take on Delia's more traditional version. Hugh says "Based on a traditional seed cake, this is quick to make and is a sweet way to use up leftover roots, especially beetroot, which gives it a cheery colour"

BEETROOT AND CARAWAY SEED LOAF CAKE

• 100g cooked beetroot [or *carrots or parsnips - boiled, roasted or mashed]
• 2–4 tbsp milk**
• 50g ground almonds
• 11⁄2 tsp caraway seeds
• 150g butter, softened, plus extra to grease the tin
• 150g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten 150g self raising flour, sifted
• 2 tbsp pearl or demerara sugar, to finish 

1 Preheat the oven to 160°C/Fan 140°. Lightly grease a 1.5-litre loaf tin and line with baking parchment, then butter the parchment.

2 In a bowl, mash the beetroot with some of the milk until smooth. [I used *carrots, and **replaced 1tbsp of the milk with orange juice.] Mix in the ground almonds and caraway seeds.
3 Using a hand-held  mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs a little at a time, beating well after each addition.
4 Gently fold in the flour, followed by the beetroot mixture, until just combined.
5 Spoon the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and gently smooth the surface. Sprinkle the sugar over the top and bake for 55–60 mins, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

6 Leave in the tin for 10 mins, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. This cake keeps well; if anything, it’s better after a couple of days stored in an airtight tin.

Hugh's Beetroot Cake is very pink. I like the little flecks of orange carrot and black seeds in my version. I don't have any pearl sugar- but used just one tbsp demerara.

The flavour was lovely - and yes, it did improve with keeping

Mad About Saffron

Older readers of this blog may remember Donovan- he's been around on the pop/folk scene for over fifty years - and his signature song was 'Mellow Yellow' - which begins "I'm just mad about Saffron"
I think I have only ever purchased saffron once, for a special recipe [I cannot even remember what or when that was now!] occasionally when a savoury recipe requires yellow colouring I cheat and use a bit of turmeric. Not for nothing is this spice called 'red gold'. It is so expensive and labour intensive to produce.

The stigmas have to be hand plucked from every flower - and that takes a long time. 

This spice has been prized throughout history. Cleopatra put it in her bathwater, believing it would improve lovemaking, Alexander the Great drank saffron tea, and bathed his wounds with saffron water, convinced it had healing properties. And the Romans ...well they were just mad about saffron. Although it grows better in warmer climes round the Mediterranean, they tried to grow it in every corner of their empire, even the cooler places like Britain. Hence the Essex village named Saffron Walden, a popular centre for cultivating this treasured ingredient in days gone by. 
Saffron gives Spanish Paella its golden colour, and adds a sunny aspect to French bouillabaisse and Indian Biryani. In the UK, the Cornish Saffron Buns are made from a centuries old recipe [Cornish miners used to trade their tin for this precious spice - I must watch out for that in Poldark!]

The problem now is that it is becoming more popular- but as the most expensive spice in the world, the market is being flooded with adulterated products. The genuine article should be strands which are red in colour and frayed at one end, smelling fruity and floral. Fake saffron has no smell. Real saffron, if submerged, will turn the water golden yellow. Put a little saffron on your tongue, and you should taste both sweet and bitter. 

Pure saffron costs up to £25 a gram. £25000  a kilo - which represents 85,000 stigmas. The cheaper stuff may cost less, but may include other tasteless parts of the flower, other 'floral waste' and even synthetic yellow dyes. I am not sure I want to risk my money on something which may not be pure!
An American Soldier, Keith Alaniz, has set up a company, Rumi Spices, in Afghanistan. Along with two colleagues, he felt that the people there would benefit from cultivating a crop which paid more than illegal opium. things are generally going well - but his saffron sells at 'high end' prices.
Nearer to home, we have some saffron cultivation in Britain again. Grown in Wales, English Saffron [grown in Essex and Devon] and Norfolk Saffron are three producers I know about. Sally Francis who produces Norfolk Saffron has been fascinated by these crocus corms for 20 years.

Graduating from Oxford, where she studied botany, she returned to the family home in North Norfolk, and asked her mother for a bag of the corms for her 25th birthday in 1997. She grew them in the garden, then took over one of the family fields which had been lying fallow. It took time and determination, but eventually she was able to set up a company producing all sorts of saffron products.

Now this award winning company produces all sorts of saffron goods - jars of the saffron threads- plain and smoked, saffron flour, and more...
Maybe I should put a jar of golden Norfolk threads on my Christmas list, so I can have a go at making saffron buns. 

Either the Cornish ones, or perhaps Bronte Aurell's Swedish Lucia Buns [I note that her Scandikitchen recipe uses ground saffron, which they sell in little sachets]
Do you use this mellow yellow ingredient in your cooking? and if so, in which recipes?

In Which I Buy A Strangely Curved Squash, And Then My Day Goes Pear Shaped...

Yesterday was to be a day of relaxation - we got up slowly, enjoyed a Full English [thanks Bob] and filled our travel mugs with coffee. We set off for Kingston Lacy. It was looking glorious in the autumn sunshine.

We meandered round the grounds, and looked in the little Potting Shed Bookshop. The flowers were still vibrant and colourful, although the dahlias were beginning to shed their petals. There were butterflies and bees flying everywhere.

We talked about the plants as if we were experts on gardening. I took lots of pictures on his old Motorola phone [my phone recently got drowned in a water spill, and was resting in a bed of rice at home]  And we invented a game called "National Trust Bingo". This would involve scoring points if you spotted any of the following whilst you were visiting NT properties

• North Face or Berghaus jackets
• Genuine Tilley Hats
• Timberland Boots
• Joules or Seasalt Raincoats
• Hunter Wellies
• Anything Boden...etc etc

...we were having a lot of fun with this. Bob remembered that in our childhood, this game was often called "Housey Housey", and if you got a line, you shouted "House!" so maybe in this version the winner would call out "Stately Home!"  We walked to the furthest side of the property, to the Kitchen Garden. 

This fell into neglect after WW2, then some of the land was leased out to a Bonsai Company. Now it is all being restored. One area has been set aside to provide Community Allotments [which are well tended and thriving] and there are plans to rebuild the Vinery [KL had a reputation for its amazing exotic fruit and veg, second only to Kew - Queen Victoria even sent her gardeners down to learn the tricks of the trade] Nowadays the glorious purple brassicas, rainbow chard and other produce are sent to the restaurant - but spares are sold to visitors. 

Look at my amazing Trombocino Squash - nearly a foot long. We sat under an arbour and enjoyed our coffee, then began the long walk back to the car, stopping briefly to go into the shop and to visit the loos.

As we were driving away from our parking space, Bob pointed out an interesting motorised caravan - which had a little Smart Car attached to its towing hook. Now this is where things started to go a bit pear-shaped. 

"Stop the car, I need to take a picture! It's a Hymer!"  Bob duly pulled into the side and asked for an explanation. Hadn't he seen Matthew's pictures on facebook? Matthew takes pictures of Hymers [Matthew takes pictures of all sorts of very interesting vehicles and puts them in his fb page]  "I must take a picture for him"

But where was my camera? It wasn't in my bag, or on the floor of the car, or in my best Seasalt jacket pocket. It wasn't in Bob's bag, or in the boot...

I went back to the entrance, and showed my NT card, and said I needed to go back in again to search for my camera. The staff were incredibly sympathetic. 

Not in the loos, nor the shop - Bob tried, unsuccessfully, to track the phone using his mobile. No signal. We asked a gardener by the Main House- who kindly radioed through to the Kitchen Garden. No phone handed in yet- but they would keep an eye out for it.

I hunted from the car park [bottom right of map] to the Kitchen Garden [top left] It took ages, and I felt I was running a half marathon!

The last photo I had taken was these grapes growing on the allotments.

Finally I got back to the entrance. I went inside and said "I couldn't find my phone, but the gardeners said to call later just in case" - and then the other staff member came inside and said "It was handed in 5 minutes after you reported it to us - someone picked it up in the car park"

So a huge thank you to the kind NT staff, and the anonymous visitor who handed it in. I was able to photograph the Hymer after all. The couple inside were very friendly. 

By now it was 1.30 and we both felt hungry. We stopped off in Wimborne and grabbed a bite in Wetherspoons. 

As Steph had encountered David Cameron this morning [he was jogging along the towpath by the canal in Manchester] we drank "Tory Tango" with our meal

[I understand from Liz that this is the popular nickname for Sam Pellegrino]

And we came home - I checked out Matthew's Facebook page. After all that, I had remembered it wrongly. The vehicles he was posting were not Hymer but Hymek - and they are trains not road vehicles!

But as I pointed out to Bob, if I'd not stopped to take that final photo, we'd have gone home and I would not have realised the phone was missing till much later on...

It is never dull round here.

Dedication's What You Need...

...if you want to be a Record Breaker! Record Breakers was a lovely children's programme,  which began in the early 1970s, featuring the late great Roy Castle, and the amazing McWhirter Twins [who produced the Guinness Book of Records]

In every school I have ever worked in, the children have loved this annual of amazing facts. The 2018 edition came out this week. The first edition was the result of an argument in 1954! Sir Hugh Beaver, then managing director of the Guinness Brewery, was at a weekend shooting party in County Wexford, Ireland. 

Guests began disagreeing about the fastest game bird in Europe. This was pre-Internet - and so they had to research library books in a vain attempt to find the answer. Beaver recognised a gap in the market- where could one go to answer these questions about fastest, tallest, oldest, largest...? He found Ross and Norris McWhirter, fact-finding journalists working in Fleet Street, and set them the task of compiling such a reference work.

The rest is history! And now libraries and schools order this sparkling volume each autumn, and children [and adults] pore over the fascinating facts therein. The "longest fingernails" always intrigues the kids - I note that 2015's chap from India now has been beaten by a woman now

 

The Guinness World Records website is packed with information. The rules have tightened up in recent years. Record breaking attempts involving very dangerous stunts or rapid-eating challenges are now [rightly] frowned upon. A local baker here in Dorset is aiming to get into the books this week with the world's largest Victoria Sponge.

Steven Oxford, from Sherborne spent a whole day baking this cake for his son's birthday - and it was revealed at the Sturminster Newton Cheese Festival on Sunday night. The cake is 60" across and 8" high. Containing 700 eggs, 50kg of butter, 35kg of jam, 68kg of flour and 59kg of sugar, it was made in a tin created by a local engineering firm, and sandwiched together using a forklift truck.

I doubt Mr Oxford will win GBBO - but the GWR says there is currently no Victoria Sponge Record, so maybe he is in with a chance! I'm intrigued by his recipe though-  don't the WI say that you should have the same weight of eggs, butter, sugar and flour for the perfect Victoria Sponge?

Last month friends took part in the Penzance Pirate Gathering Attempt- but sadly didn't beat the existing record. Have you ever taken part in a GWR event?[successful or otherwise]

Feeling Slightly Less Long-In-The-Tooth

Interestingly, our topic this term is all about food and digestion. Fortuitously, our story book is "Demon Dentist" by David Walliams. Happily, we spent a few minutes on Friday afternoon talking about teeth. Predictably, the class had lots of questions - including "Why aren't we born with teeth?" and "How long do Baby Teeth last?". Unsurprisingly, most of them are in the throes of acquiring their second set, and the Tooth Fairy seems to be working overtime at the minute. Intriguingly, her rates of pay appear to vary considerably, from pillow to pillow!
Proudly, I told them that one of my baby teeth lasted a Very Long Time, and that I still had it when I left Primary School. Jestingly, I asked them to guess when it came out. 
Cheerfully, I share with you the ensuing conversation ...

Were you twelve, Miss?
No!
Thirteen?
Older than that
Eighteen?
Nope
Twenty?
Keep guessing
Twenty one?
Go on
Sixty?
No! she's not THAT old! 
Thirty then?
Well, actually, I was thirty two...
[gasps all round]

I felt I had to draw the game to a close - but was secretly quite pleased that they believe I am not that old. Oh, if they only knew...

Re-reading this post, I can tell it is the start of a new term. Disturbingly, many of my sentences are beginning with 'fronted adverbials'. It won't last, I can assure you!

Still Praying For Lubbesthorpe

I have gone on about the New Lubbesthorpe housing development rather a lot on this blog. It is over 11 years since Bob felt challenged by God to write to the council in Leicester and say "If this happens, how can we help make it a good community?"

He wrote letters, and attended meetings, arranged a day conference, and persuaded some of us to walk through muddy fields in the pouring rain, praying for the people who would  eventually live in the houses to be built there - and for the person who would be the Community Worker.

And last autumn, Sue Steer was commissioned to do that job, and has been taking welcome packs to New Residents, and already organised a successful get together for the new residents who have already moved in. 

 

This week we had a surprise- one of our friends sent Bob a picture of one of the roads under development. I really don't think it is anything to do with my wonderful husband - but I am rather pleased about it. After all the prayer and effort and hard work which Bob put in, when this was just a planning proposal, I am glad that one of the roads has ended up with his surname on it. I hope that when Sue and the other people working to build that community go past the sign, they will be encouraged, and remember that we are still praying for them. 

Bearly Awake

Thank you everyone for the kind words of encouragement, the 2 INSET days, 1 day preparation and 2 days in the classroom have gone OK. But I am utterly 'cream crackered' as they say. However, my class is full of lovely children, and colleagues are all so supportive of one another. And I certainly feel part of the team- I have already made a uniform for the School Bear! 

I would have stayed in bed all morning today -but it's our special Week Of Prayer, so I'll be at the Church for breakfast before 8am. Roll on Monday. Definitely having a lie in then!!

Is He Just A Big Girl's Blouse**?

John Lewis has become the first UK retailer to remove gender labels from its children’s clothing. 

The department store chain has not only taken “girls” and “boys” labels from clothes, but has also done away with the separate sections in stores. John Lewis own-brand children clothing will now simply say “Girls & Boys” or “Boys & Girls.” The clothing style hasn’t changed – you’ll still find floral dresses and skirts, but the retailer is simply proving the point that they can be worn by both girls and boys. 

They’ve also launched a new unisex clothing line for children, featuring dinosaur print dresses and spaceship tops.

Well good for them, I say - 35 years after I struggled to dress my girls, Liz is facing many of the same issues with Rosie. Boys' trousers come in sensible dark colours, and have reinforced knees. Girls' trousers are in pinks and lilacs, with impractical frills on the bottom. Boys' teeshirts are plain grey - stylish, French chic. Girls' ones are embellished with little flowers and butterflies and bows which catch every morsel of dropped dinner, and lace which snags and tears. 

I purchased a teeshirt in M&S the day Rosie was born, and the assistant was most concerned that it had a car on it - what if the baby is a girl? Because, of course, women can't drive properly, can they? [Actually, statistics don't support this myth]

Women have been great inventors, paleontologists, explorers, drivers and scientists, and architects - and men have been gifted botanists, artists, jewellers, butterfly collectors, musicians, and cake makers. Your gender does not define your career or your interests.

So why can't people be more laid back about this?

We didn't do a lot of Disney stuff in our home - but I know many families who have every Disney DVD, and they can sing all the words to 'Let It Go' etc. It seems particularly mean that little boys are unable to access the Princess for a Day experience at Disneyland should they want to [Prince for a Day is apparently not an option] 

Imho this is nothing to do with the LGBT issue - it is about children wearing clothes that enable them to be themselves, and to be well rounded children - whether that's sturdy garments for clambering, climbing and crawling - or pretty clothes for imaginative, colourful and creative roleplay.

In the wake of the JL announcement, Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: “I have no idea what would possess John Lewis to do this. Boys and girls labels and signs are informative. I think removing them could be very confusing for the consumer” I cannot get over this remark. How insulting to the intelligence of the consumers!! Is he suggesting that a Conservative Nanny from the Shires might come up to Oxford Street to buy little Sixtus Rees Mogg an outfit and accidentally purchase a pink frilly dress, or thoughtlessly get his sister Mary a navy teeshirt with a tractor on the front...

**Big Girl's Blouse was an expression coined by comedienne Hylda Baker in the 1960s, meaning a weak and ineffectual person. Not sure that I understand why. 

A Load Of Rubbish

Here we are 4 days into Zero Waste Week 2017 and I feel totally out of the loop. Lots of my blogging friends have referred to it already and declared what they have done to help our planet. I am not sure I have done anything much. 

Do I have any excuse...well, no I don't, not really. I should have planned better and got my act into gear. I can blame last week's disasters [handbag theft, stained carpet] and this week's busy-ness with 4 days in school and a lot going on at church, but really I have not been very good. In fact, worse than usual...

• The replacement cards have been arriving from the bank and other agencies. Which has meant Bob cutting up his redundant cards [plastic to landfill]
• Much of this post appears to come in polythene bags, so that cannot even go into the paper recycling
• I have been disorganised about my home-made yogurt, and ended up buying some yellow-stickered plastic pots in M&S for our packed lunches [I did take a metal teaspoon in my bag not a disposable one]
• On Monday I was ridiculously tired when I finally got home, so Bob suggested we went out for food. We went to the KFC [that's something we rarely do] We both had a chicken salad - on the menu this is shown on a rectangular paper plate. It actually arrived in a domed plastic drinks cup  - along with plate to decant it onto, plastic fork and napkin. Our diet pepsi drinks came in plastic cups, with plastic lid and a straw [wrapped in plastic] All on a tray with a plasticised paper liner, and 2 plastic sachets of mayo, and paper sachets of salt. I felt so guilty tipping my trayload of debris into the bin.
• Tuesday we had a Prayer Walk round Ferndown [it is our special UCF Week of Prayer as we start a new year in the life of the church] On the way, a chap from Iceland presented Bob with a plastic box of grapes, sealed in a plastic bag. They were being given away because the wrapper said red grapes, when they were clearly green [ 'white' is the proper term I suppose]
• Yesterday [special treat] Bob took me to 37, the lovely coffee shop round the corner, for one last 'leisurely' breakfast before all these early mornings now school has started. My alarm went off at 6.38am on Monday and Tuesday, and experience shows it will have to be earlier because of the traffic on my school-route. It is only 7½ miles, but can take up to 45 minutes sometimes. 37 served us lovely bacon sandwiches, and a great pot of tea [china pot, cups, saucers etc] The brown sauce served in a little steel dish - not a sachet - but again, paper napkins. One of these never got used - so I folded that neatly into my bag for future use [shops cannot re-use them once they have been out on a customer's plate]

 

So this week I admit failure in terms of achieving 'zero waste' - but - I have been really aware of the amount of plastic that is around me. And I am thinking hard about things I might do to improve my situation.

As someone said at a training day I attended recently "There's no point in dwelling on past mistakes, learn from them, draw a line underneath, and move on..."

Absolutely Crackers

Last Saturday I decided to do some pre-term decluttering. Liz is far better at this than I am, and her endeavours lately have encouraged me to try a bit harder. And there was a lot of stuff temporarily moved onto the spare room bed during the carpet cleaning which really needed sorting. I found a whole file of recipe clippings. And I had to accept that 99.9% of them would never make it into the kitchen, let alone the oven. So they went into the recycling bin. But I did keep back 'the 10 best oat recipes' - saved from the Guardian 4 years ago. I always have oats in the cupboard, porridge is our favourite breakfast cereal. And Bob is very fond of an oatcake [or 4] as a snack, with some cheese.
I thought I'd have a go at Chutney and Oat Crackers

Recipe says "Makes about 45 crackers" - it lies! 20 if you're lucky

• 80gm rolled oats
• 30gm nutritional yeast
• 1tsp salt
• ¼tsp baking powder
• 30g chutney
• 3tbsp olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 180º/160ºfan. Line baking sheets
2. Grind oats in processor to a fine flour. Add yeast, salt, bp -pulse several times
3. Add chutney and oil, pulse till dough comes together
4. Roll out between two pieces of baking paper to ½cm thick. Using round cutter between 2cm and 5cm diameter to cut out crackers
5. Bake for around 14-16 minutes, until golden brown on the bottom. Leave to cool, then store in airtight container.

What on earth is 'nutritional yeast'? I used 1 tsp Marmite, and omitted the salt. 2cm is way too small for a cracker- that is postage stamp size! I used a 4cm cutter. I think I rolled dough a bit too thinly. Magazine pic on left, my crackers on the right

Bob said they had a pleasant 'umami-savouriness' about them, but next time he thought I should cook them for a shorter time.
TIP - I used a silicon loaf tin liner to line the baking sheet [hence oval shape] and also rolled out dough between 2 of these liners.  Less wasteful than using parchment paper.
Crackers crisped up beautifully when cool. Will try again, larger and thicker next time.

Not In MY Name

Our government is keen for Britain to be established as the world's second largest arms exporter.
Yes, you did read that correctly - and despite the fact that the Foreign and Commentwealth Office 'Report on Human Rights and Democracy' identified 30 'countries of concern', with respect to their record on human rights abuse and torture. Yet the government gave 8 of these countries 'VIP Status' at the 2015 DSEI Arms Fair and in 2016 the UK licensed military equipment to 20 of them
I do not want London to be the centre of the Arms Trade.
Many people, of many faiths, feel just the same.
It appears that our Prime Minister [despite being ever eager to claim her Vicarage Heritage] does not share this opinion with us, and seems to place profit above peacemaking.

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, says he would like to prevent the 2017 Arms Fair happening here but sadly does not have the powers to prevent it. He says he is 'opposed to London being used as a market place for the trade of weapons to those who contribute to human rights abuses'
Steve Hucklesby has written a helpful article for the JPIT [that's the Joint Public Issues Team of the Baptists, Methodists, URC and Church of Scotland] You can read the full article here or a condensed version here.
The actual warmongers' event starts next week.
The peaceful pickets and protests start today
Because my week is very busy, I am preparing this post on Sunday afternoon, against a backdrop of news bulletins about weapons testing in North Korea. I cannot be among those in London who will be peacefully protesting. But my thoughts and prayers are with them. May God keep them safe, and through their actions, may He challenge the consciences of those who make their living in death and destruction. Deep in my heart, I do believe, that one day, the words of the prophet Micah will come to pass.

They will beat their swords into plowshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
    nor will they train for war anymore.
4 Everyone will sit under their own vine
    and under their own fig tree,
and no one will make them afraid,
    for the Lord Almighty has spoken.
5 All the nations may walk
    in the name of their gods,
but we will walk in the name of the Lord
    our God for ever and ever.

Pass The Garlic, S'il Vous Plait!

This year marks the centenary of Coco Chanel's iconic 'Nautical Collection' - in which she first introduced the Breton Top as a fashion item. I love these garments, in fact I have four of them -so I thought I would find out some more about them. The designer was apparently at the seaside watching the sailors [!] and became fascinated by their tops.

 These were introduced in 1858, when an Act of Parliament declared this top to be part the official French Navy uniform. Allegedly the stripey design made men more visible in the waves if they fell overboard- and there were 21 stripes to represent Napoleon's victories at sea.

Coco put this top at the centre of that year's collection. It has been in style ever since. 
Film stars and others - male and female - have adopted the look. Here's Brigitte Bardot, Audrey Hepburn, and the Duchess of Cambridge sporting variations on a theme.

In France, these garments are often called chandails - a corruption of merchand d'ail [garlic seller] because these were popular among the garlic traders at Les Halles, the fresh food market in central Paris.
My four tops have stripes in different widths. None has the correct 21 stripes- I've counted!
Steph remarked earlier in the year that perhaps I have enough of them now [all bought from CS or sales, I said, attempting to justify myself]

But it was Bob who put the final nail in the chandail coffin. We were out in Norwich and he said "I like it when you wear that red striped shirt. It's easier for me to spot you in the crowd - I just play a game of 'Where's Wally?' !"
However, someone else in the family clearly likes stripes too...

What A To-Do!

This past week has been an utter disaster in terms of ticking off the items I had planned to get done before school starts.
My trip to the Post Office took ages- and then there was the whole stolen bag debacle. So Tuesday night I felt drained and just flopped in front of the TV. The Card Protection Policy did much of the work, stopping cards [and there has been no attempt by anyone to use them] but on Wednesday morning I still had the membership cards and reward cards [National Trust, Libraries, Boots, Sparks etc] to sort out. But I had to ensure my sermon for Sunday was sorted, so that took priority. Friends kept sending encouraging facebook comments, and sympathetic messages [Hold on Ang, maybe God has something better in store for you]

Thus it was rather late on Wednesday before I tackled the ironing mountain - which included laundry from before the holiday, during the holiday and since the holiday. So 9am Thursday morning I went upstairs to put everything away,  A brief task, I thought - taking my cup of breakfast coffee upstairs. I put everything away. Then went to drink my cool coffee- and knocked it over. The carpet was a mess! I decided I ought to take the opportunity to do the whole bedroom with my Vax Rapide. I shifted all the furniture I could [i.e. not the bed] Vacuumed the carpet, loaded the machine and began. I went over the stain once, then I worked from the window back across to the coffee stain. But I noticed a black smudge had appeared. I stopped, and cleaned under the Vax [had I run over something which was smearing?] I went over the coffee stain - and the black got worse and worse. The Vax began to smell. I switched it off. Bob came in and we checked - the Vax motor appeared to have burned out and soot was emerging from the exhaust holes underneath. Bob fetched the Little Scrubber handheld cleaner from the garage.[This had not been unpacked since the move- we found shopping bags, a missing funnel, and earplugs in the box!] The LS made some, but not much improvement to the soot. It was midday - and we dedided to hire a Rug Doctor Carpet Cleaner. 

Off to Tescos to collect it, only to find they had no detergent. Rang RD who told us another local supplier. Decided to buy lunch from the nearby chippy [it was well past 1am] but they were shut! As we drove to the next one, Bob said that marriage to me was exciting- he never knew what each day would bring! Had lunch and by 2.30 I was back upstairs, wearing ear defenders [these machines are so noisy] At last my bedroom carpet was clean.
You can see the four stages of the cleaning process here -

So relieved it is clean again! But of course, hiring the RD machine isn't cheap. So then I felt obliged to do all the other carpets and the stairs. It took ages

I managed to disconnect Bob's PC, and lose 2 hours of his work.  I felt really useless, and generally sorry for myself. 

But a friend on holiday in France telephoned, she'd picked up on the net about the theft - and Steph rang after work to cheer me up, and Bob managed to recover the lost files...and life didn't seem quite as bad after all.

I may never complete my to-do list, but I have to accept that interruptions happen sometimes, which take over the day completely. I may be feeling I have lost a few days of planned activity to deal with minor domestic crises, and I've lost about £30 and a nice purse - but that is all I have lost.

• I have a home [with clean carpets] - thousands of people in India, in the USA and elsewhere have lost their homes this week.
• I have cash in the bank [and a new bank card] - many people in my own town, let alone the rest of the planet - are genuinely in need.
• I have family and friends who love and care for me - lots of people are lonely and feel unloved.
• I have a job to go to [tomorrow I am off to school for a training day] while others are unemployed and undervalued.

So I thank God for all I do have, and maybe my to-do list should be more like this one...