Mod
The first concert I ever went to was The Who. I was about 9 or 10, and can still remember Pete Townsend's windmill and Roger Daltry swinging the microphone. Unfortunately Keith Moon made no impression on me at all. Which is a shame, I'd love to go back and see it again and watch Keith Moon's antics.
Toaday Ailsa sang at the Mod, as part of her school choir, competing against one other school (with the same music teacher - how quaint). I'd love to be able to tell you that the performances of the song celebrating the joys of a May morning were moving. Alas.
It's remarkable how SERIOUSLY it was all taken. 2 performances, 2 judges, each judge stood up and pronounced on the strengths and weaknesses of each performance, musical interpretation, accuracy of the gaelic etc for five minutes. Anyway Ailsa's lot lost - not having not pinned down the gaelic well enough.
Moths
Then we sped off to Borgie Forest for national moth day, and were treated to the excitement of opening a moth trap that had been set last night. This part of the event was fabulous and we saw all kinds of moths including stunningly spectacular hawk moths, beautiful carpet moths, prominants, pugs and many many more (like that's enough showing off about how much I know about moths - but it's important to record it now - I'll have forgotten it all tomorrow).
After a slide show we traipsed off into the wilds looking for moths. But the fresh water mussels, toads and dragon flies stole the show. I think Mr Moth was a bit peeved - I mean he certainly knew his subject, considering there are thousands of moths and many of them look very similar and he's only been studying them for a couple of years - and us all getting excited over a few toads.
We came home and I did a bit of gardening. Look at the piccies - I have lettuce and spinach and much more - and Lulu has given me some kale and lupin and it's all good. I cleared nettles away from the gooseberry and currant and found another toad. And there was a lizard in the cats water this morning - (this sounds like it should be some portent - I wonder what?).
Aye when there's lizards in the cats watter
It'll end with a splatter
So I'm hitting the red wine - you can't be too careful.
Mozzarella
And look at Jussi's door. She made this weeks ago - her first bit of carpentry, using reclaimed wood. It opens and it shuts and it even fits. A grand achievement.
Then it was time for pizza using Mozzarella made by Jussi on her cheese course. Another fabulous achievement.
Mach
There are things that we decide not to do, omit to do, forget to do, don't get round to doing, delay doing, can't be bothered doing and can't face doing.
Shaving for example. I hadn't shaved for a couple of weeks, and frankly the itchy mass was driving me nuts, so Today was the Day. And boy it hurt. So it was a slow process trying to spare myself the ripping pain of shredding my face off.
Unsurprisingly it gave me time to contemplate consumerism. I have a two blade razor - had it for years, in fact when I got it I seem to recall the innovation of having two blades was quite cutting edge (ouch). The blades for it have been discontinued now - cant buy them anywhere. Fortunately Jussi came across a shop selling them off cheap a couple of years ago and bought a stock of them. But when that stock exhausts what will I do? God forbid that I'm faced with the possibility of a five blade gillette mach wank. It's a perfect metaphor for the obscenity of consumerism - the stupidity of the notion that anyone needs a jet powered five blade razor. Mach my arse.
Hair is another things altogether. Ailsa wont let me cut mine. It is getting rather long. I mean we'll soon be talking pony tail here guys. Aaargh.
5 comments:
Hey, did you say you guys bake your own bread? If so, can I bug you for the recipe (anything resembling a recipe will do :)? Do you use one of them bread machines, that people here tell you you can't do without?
Am also curious how the mozzarella turned out - was just reading about cheese making in Barbara Kingsolver's book and am wondering if I should give it a try...
and Jussi's door does look amazing, holy *&#*! How'd she do that? Can we borrow her sometime?
Hi Pedi,
Yeah we bake our own bread (well Jussi does) and we use a bread machine. We use standard bread recipes (flour salt yeast water - nothing else) - adjusted through trial and error - to suit the bread machine. We dont use the recipes recommended by the bread machine manufacturer - these add all kinds of strange things like sugar and powdered milk. The yeast we use is active dried yeast.
Jussi also has a sourdough culture. She brought this over from a pet baker in Hamburg. Making sourdough bread is a bit different from other bread but not much - once you have your culture ask again and I'll get more detail.
The mozzarella was great - we've also been eating her crowdie and coulommier - both of which are fab. Jussi used to make her own cheese in Dunbar - it is relatively easy - but you do need a fair amount of kit, and it is an art - so a cheesemaking course is useful - and you need to find starter cultures if you're to make more than soft fresh cheeses.
And no you cant. She's mine.
Bl**dy marvlus door, Jussi.
And get some photos of the long-haired bearded buffoon image before you have another Mach-wank. By the way, razors go blunt the longer you leave them, so never buy up old stock to keep for years or you'll just be ripping your face off for no reason. %-)
Hugs to y'all
Mike the Bike
thanks! Just ordered my mozzarella starter kit, see how that goes before I venture further...
am now pondering the acquisition of a bread machine. I'm always a little reticent when it comes to new appliances, just don't want more stuff around clogging up the kitchen unless it's really going get used a lot. I've baked bread before, without a bread machine, and it generally turned out just fine. But admittedly, it was a lot of work. So you're happy w/ your bread machine? Any recommendations on what kind to look for?
Wow - go for it Pedi!
And Mike - if you keep new blades dry they'll keep. As soon as they're used they start to blunt. I think they're probably coated with some fantastic nano-particle preserving film or something.
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