Pen's Nest

What *is* it with Americans and mashed potato? I read this morning about THREE weddings that had "a mashed potato bar". One of them involved three different colours of potato (white, sweet, and purple) served in martini glasses, with a choice of toppings. It's mashed potato. I mean... what is the allure?

I fear that if I turned up at a wedding reception and discovered a mashed potato bar, I would be baffled rather than impressed, and if there were 'cocktails' of mashed potato I would assume somebody was demented.

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BIL's birthday yesterday, we had a guided tour around the city, and by 'we' I mean Beast, BIL, Boy, Bun and Bun's Chap, plus six of Beast/BIL's cousins who'd come over to Norwich for the weekend. Today they are all coming here for lunch. I shall be peeling things in a very few minutes.

The tour was very interesting, although it would have been good to see a few more Interesting Bits and have the talking in smaller lumps, as it did mean standing in place for a while every time we stopped. Still, there is a lot of history in Norwich, and our guide told his stories well. I have now felt the nipple in the flint wall (for good luck)(it's a thing, apparently), and learned about how Sir Thomas Erpingham got away with murder, or at least manslaughter, and how a sixteen-year-old girl held off an army with only forty-two men-at-arms. What a hyphen-heavy clause that was. And many other things besides, which I shall no doubt forget.

Afterwards we went to Biddy's Tea Rooms for cuppas and cakes/scones, and had a jolly good chat.

You know, I have composed so many DW posts in my head, and totally failed to follow through by posting here. I actually fell off DW for a few hours as I didn't manage to renew in a timely fashion. But I am still here!

Things are very busy at the moment. Beast and I spent a week travelling south and west, first to see my sister in Devon, then to Convention in Bournemouth, then to Oxford to see my bro, then home. My cat was greatly relieved to have the Imposter Humans gone—our housesitters. Ungrateful cat.

The visit south comes with a Public Service Warning: if you drive an electric car, it may have 'acoustic foam' in the tyres, and this foam may come loose and make you feel as though the car will shake itself into oblivion, or the axles will come off, or something. We had a very long day, is all I will say about it!

But Devon is very pretty, sister's house is lovely, and we visited a honey farm which was a lovely way to spend a reasonably sunny afternoon.

Convention had its moments, including my chorus winning the award for best in division—which we had sorta anticipated, being as how we were the only ones in the division. But our score was disappointing, as it went down quite a lot. I was honestly expecting an improvement. Oh well.

I was trying to think how long it is since I've seen my brother, and it might well be ten years, absurd as he really doesn't live that far away, but somehow... Well, he is in fine form, and even cooked lunch for us on Monday.

And now I'm back and looking to the next thing, which is my BIL's birthday event (this coming weekend), which will involve me cooking a mighty meal for about a dozen people, and us also doing a walking tour of the city. I hope the rain lets up for that, though I am glad it has been raining a bit. There are beans and peas growing in the garden. And kale! And cauliflowers! And courgettes! So far, anyway. I'm sure they were glad of the sprinkle.

It was such a beautiful day in London on Tuesday. The sky was perfectly clear of clouds, there was a little wind but gentle, not biting. Grand day for a trip down the river to Greenwich!
( cut for length )

I meant to note on Monday that it was the tenth anniversary of our arrival in Norwich. Beast and I spent the first night in our new house on an air mattress, but the lorryload of Stuff arrived the next day and we settled in. Ten years. And no regrets. The only disadvantage of Norwich is the inconvenience of travelling into London.

PS I uploaded a couple of mini stories to my AO3 account because of a story challenge, and because to my surprise I didn't seem to have uploaded them there already. (Is it possible to organise one's AO3 stories in a sensible manner, or are we just stuck with chronology?) Anyway, don't get excited, they're quite elderly. Utter crack, both.

Further to my Magnolia Week mention, here are some very pretty pics:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DHp4NmlsWri/

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Here, by contrast, are some Baby Boyband pics which are both pleasing and Very Unsettling.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHsDNpER16P/

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We have begun painting the bathroom.

My visitors are All Gone. I had turlough for a week, "chalcopyrite for a long weekend, and ephemera for a short weekend.

Beast and I were scheduled to sing on Saturday, so we went into town early and left the other three to wander (into the awesome ceramics gallery, I think, and then Biddy's Tea Shop) while we headed to our warm-up room. Then into St Peter Mancroft Church for the chorus session. Last year there were six choirs in the Adult Choirs section, this year there were FIFTEEN, split into three sessions! The standard in our session was very good. We (mixed chorus) sang third, did an absolutely beautiful rendition of I will go Sailing No More, had a bit of turbulence in the key change section of Come Fly With Me, but finished strongly with You've Got a Friend In Me, which is sorta our theme song.

After receiving our certificates for participation—unlike last year, there was no judgment, just feedback, which on reflection I rather like—we went to find our three playmates and ended up swinging into a vegan falafels+such place which turned out to be very good. At least, their loaded fries were excellent!

Beast and I were singing again after lunch, rehearsing a number written for All The Choirs to sing on the steps of the Forum, which we duly did at 3pm. It seemed to go pretty well, although with the chorus divided geographically by parts, it was hard to tell if there was harmony or not, most of the time.

Anyway. Coffee time, and then to the Shoebox Project for their Hidden Streets walk. One family had brought a seven year old and a five year old, which goes to show they had not really researched the tour as there is a lot of Interesting information imparted verbally but not much to look at. However, our lovely guide handled the situation very well, and we learned a lot, including that the denizens of Norwich enjoy a good riot every century or so. Perhaps Trump can visit—we'll have another one!

Then dinner at the Belgian Monk. Where I was disappointed to find that their formerly extensive menu of foodstuffs, which included a whole page of vegan options and many, many vegetarian offerings, had been reduced to a single sheet. Grump. But the tartiflette was good enough to inspire me, I think, to try making them myself. Once Beast is feeling better, anyway. He has been suffering a bit with something that might be viral gastroenteritis, possibly.

On Sunday, it was of course the Yarn Festival. We had a very decent brunch together, then deposited ephemera at the railway station and went off (sans Beast) to the East Anglia Yarn Festival. As usual, this is a Good Time. I was very restrained—it helped that vae gifted me a whole bunch of lovely plummy yarn as soon as she saw me (prearranged but I had forgotten) so I had a partially filled bag without even spending any money! Also, I took notes as I went round, and found that writing down the name and description of something luscious satisfied me enough that I didn't need to buy it right away. I had time to assess towards the end of the afternoon and bought, I'm sure, far fewer skeins than I might otherwise have done. And some very nice shawl pins.

We spent much of Monday at Felbrigg Hall, beginning with their extensive walled gardens and going through the house after lunch. The Chinese Bedroom and the Cabinet Room are the nicest, and the kitchens have a massive array of copper pans which are just lovely. It was chilly in the wind, but mostly sunny, and things do look so lovely in the sunshine. Beast was still not feeling quite the thing, though. :-(

Unsated, turlough and "chalcopyrite picked up more yarn-based items in the city's yarn shop on Tuesday, and also Art from the ceramics gallery. This pleased me—I have the happy feeling of spending money on Creative Work without having to spend it myself!

Anyway. Sable is just beginning to realise that only the correct humans are in the house this afternoon (the plasterer in the bathroom finished at lunchtime), but she will have to put up with the fitter again tomorrow and for three more weeks yet. Still, the sofa is restored to its usual spot, and she had her lunchtime snuggle again.

Back in the late '70s/early '80s, I used to read Punch, mostly for the cartoons. I retain a fond memory of one showing a man in medieval tunic with a lit candle strapped to his wrist, and an acolyte to whom he remarked: I prefer the pocket sundial. It doesn't singe the falcon.* I imagine regular readers here will understand why it appealed to me.

Anyway. Clement Freud used to write a food column for this magazine, and on one occasion wrote thus: The best suet pudding in the world is Sussex Pond Pudding. I am not prepared to argue this. If you make it you will find that I am right.

I made one for lunch today. Discovered, in the process, that I no longer possess a proper pudding basin, and that the pressure cooker is solid aluminium and does not work with our induction hob, so I had to steam the pudding in a regular saucepan. It could have used an extra hour, I think, but the butter and sugar had melted into delicious goo, the lemon was sufficiently steamed/soaked in sugar and butter, and the suet pastry, although not quite as fluffy as I would have liked, was not bad. All this with Gluten Free flour, as my BIL and son were present at the feast.

I shall equip myself with a properly shaped pudding basin, and try again. With a bit more margin to allow proper steaming time.


* It was in fact a 'recaption this elderly cartoon', and a jolly good one, too.

What are sexy first names for men? And which men's names are decidedly unsexy?

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My knitting group went back to Biddy's Tea Shop on Saturday! It's the place where we first met up, except not exactly, because the establishment has moved to literally the opposite side of the alley. We approve of the new location. I was there first, and found us a round table in a good space by the windows (windows! we did not have windows before!). We had also forgotten the portion sizes, so those who had a slice of cake were very pleasantly surprised. I had a spiced fruit scone, which was a generous scone but not, like, double-sized. And someone brought round little taster cups of Chili and cherry tea,which were very good indeed. It's so nice to meet up in person, we can show off our knittings to one another. I have finished a nice, long scarf in good time for a birthday this week, but took it along to display because I am very pleased with it. Photo will make it to Ravelry eventually.

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What with that, and walking into the city on Friday, I only went to the actual gym once this week, but had a good workout. I discovered that I cannot do pressups at all, but did sufficient other arm exercises to have a good feeling of muscle-work across my chest afterwards.

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So. Sexy men's names?

This was my Yuletide story for 2024, a Peter Wimsey story that focuses on Harriet, and her relationships with the women in Peter's family (and one or two others).

If you have come from my website and would like to leave a comment, this is the place!

Poor Sable. We had to take her back to the Vet again last Saturday for the final check-up. She knew Something Was Up. She was *extremely* wary of us all morning! At one-thirty, having had her snuggled as usual while we ate lunch, she disappeared about three minutes before we decided it was time to capture her.

After some baffled pursuit, we were sure she went into the library. But... no cat to be seen. Not in her armchair, not in her usual spot on top of the shelf, not in any of the spaces between the bookshelves. It was only when Beast was on the point of searching elsewhere that I spotted an unusually furry book on the bottom shelf....

Well, her tooth is now fine. I think she forgave us for this visit, as it was brief, and nobody stuck any needles in her.

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I have been trying to follow the ZOE advice to eat at least thirty different plants in a week, and so far it has worked well. It encourages me to be a bit more experimental - no longer is breakfast regularly mini shredded wheats with ginger, nuts and possibly sultanas. Now I break out the blackberries or raspberries or mixed berries from the freezer, or have blueberries and pomegranite seeds with kefir, or porridge with mixed seeds and cinnamon. And I've tried roasting fennel (very nice), aubergine parmigiano (not bad) and tomorrow there will be kalettes, stir fried, which should be interesting at the very least. There's not a lot of plant material in a bacon sandwich, of course.

Does anyone else do this? Any recommendations for unusual plants to eat?

In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story.

Whether you've been in fandom for a while or just discovered fandom, we'd love to know how you came to fandom! Was it that one book or a TV show or movie or anime/manga or a band/song that gave you that first spark? Or a character or characters that you wanted more of but the canon material just didn't have enough of them? Or were you introduced to fandom by someone?

( Cut, because I've said this a lot, but here is an expanded version )