Maybe not, but my last big meal before I present myself to the dentist tomorrow afternoon to have three back teeth removed. What a relief it will be as I have nurtured and looked after these broken teeth for so long it will be great when I can eventually eat again without discreetly unplugging my teeth.
We had buffalo sausages (from the Farmers' Market), sliced organic onions, luverly buttered mashed potatoes, garlic mushrooms and baked beans washed down with a gorgeous red (leftover from the other day). Scrummy.
This morning I see I've lost two pounds. Finally breaking the grip the ten stone mark has had for a couple of years. Until then, all my adult life I bounced between 8.5 and 9.5 stone. Except after the birth of my first when I dwindled down to seven stone something, even with my generous milk producing breasts, I was a mess with pointy bones sticking through. Not nice at all. Otherwise, I've never bothered about my weight and certainly never dieted as such. I believe in enjoying food and the more you enjoy it the less it weighs on you! My increase in weight I thought was maybe the thickening one gets with middle age but most likely due to my diet. Maybe the loss of weight is due to eating plenty more veggies and organic at that.
I shall be even lighter by the end of this week with less teeth in my head and not eating well after the op. But oh! those buffalo suasages were gorgeous. I look forward to the duck and plum sausages we've also got stashed away :-)
Original Comments:
Wednesday, 21 September 2005
Tuesday, 20 September 2005
Digital Gingham
PS. With the change-over to Beta Blogger I have lost the style sheet commands that controlled this and I'm not sure if I am going to bother to fix it!
A silliness.... an extension of ascii art.... just because I wanted.... no images were harmed in the making of this item...
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Fingers crossed this works once I hit publish...
...er, reminds me of a circus act ... big deal!
Original Comments:
- Ally said...
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Hmm. Looks like a fairisle knitting pattern ... [starts thinking] ...
- Cheryl said...
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Reminds me of Scrabble!
- jane said...
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i think it looks like cross-stitch.
- Universal Soldier said...
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If you stare long enough at the middle you can see a face - oh hang a minute that was my screensaver kicking in.
- Anji said...
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You should make lots, then you'd have a patchwork quilt
- /T/ said...
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Well I have some statistics for you:
There are 169 cubes in your drawing. There are 85 or 50.3% light yellow and 84 or 49.7% dark yellow ones.
Of all the dark yellow cubes there are only 4 (4.8%) that have a (green) cross in it. Of the light yellow cubes there are 17 (20.0%) with an orange cross, and 24 (28.2%) with a blue one. In total only 26.6% of all the cubes contain a cross.
So you know. - doris said...
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/T/ - it looks like you and me have waaaaaay too much time on our hands!
Thank you everyone for your novel or funny comments :-) - lisa said...
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oh cool!!
- Karen said...
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Haha - It looks like my 5th year needle work exam entry.....
Sunday, 18 September 2005
Talkin' a'cha
For over ten minutes he stood there talking at me. One of those people who has a lot to say and instead of discussing, totally alienates you by telling you that black is black and white is white or vice versa and anything you might say is to be argued against. His body language leans into your comfort space and he is physically in your face.
This man is the soon-to-be ex of a new friend of mine and it is harder to think of two people more unalike. She brought me into their house as her friend, like a cat with a new toy but he has to pounce and drag her toy away from her. I was only dropping her and the kids off back home after a day round mine and she made me a cuppa in the dining room, but he has to insist on barging into the room and our conversation. Even though I had been polite and nice and had already given him some courtesy. Best of all, his opening line was "I'm starting a counselling course this week". Like a six year old proud of his new thing but this guy is in his sixties and under various court orders for his abusive behaviour to his wife and kids. And he is to be a counsellor because he feels he would be really good?!
In the end I drained my hot cuppa as fast as possible and made my exit. He was unbearably close to me as he thanked me and said he enjoyed the discussion. As his wife and I hugged goodbye on the doorstep he stood there leering in a lecherous way saying he had to keep an eye on us two. Completely revolting man who can't keep his mouth shut or have the grace to give his wife any space.
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Original Comments:
- Mama Mouse said...
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UGH! I cannot imagine how people like that THINK their behavior is FINE! Glad you got out of there in a HURRY!
- /T/ said...
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What a weirdo. I hope for her he will be a really-soon-to-be ex. I hope it won't interfere your friendship with her.
- Le laquet said...
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"I'm starting a counselling course this week" - yet under court orders for his abusive behaviour to his wife and kids. Jeez people amaze me sometimes! It's all me, me, me!
Thank goodness he is the "soon to be ex" ... but does your poor friend have to carry on living with him? - jane said...
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i think he did that all on purpose. to make her feel uncomfortable & to chase you away. he must see his soon-to-be-ex getting some confidence, enough to go thru this divorce & that threatens him.
what a weasel of a man! i have many other choice words, but your blog is nice & these words aren't.
you're a good friend, doris! - Karen said...
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He sounds like a right weirdo - Some people are just not nice, Is your friend aware how uncomfortable he makes you feel?
- Cheryl said...
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It happens to both genders, I've seen it both ways round - the difference being women are so ready to trust, and men are so much bigger and stronger.
Nonetheless, you get one dependant, resentful person attracted to another for their emotional strength, freedom, and friendly nature. They pull out all the stops to appear to be like that person and therefore appear attractive also. Then when the courting is over and they feel 'equal' the weak minded one continues to consolidate their own self image by treading on what they once looked up to. Thats the point where people get treated as possessions.
Counselling courses should do him good. If its not the degree or diploma, but the basic listening skills, then maybe he will learn about himself, learn to hear what he says. If its further on than that then there are case studies, so he will still be in for a learning curve.
Sorry you felt so slimed. - dog1net said...
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I've never understood how some people can talk incessantly. Where I work we have an individual that drones on about this and that but never really has much to say about any thing except that he just goes on and on until your ears begin to hurt and your head begins to swell, yet he never notices that you're not trying to listen because he's just too busy talking at you.
As always, I find something worthwhile and interesting to read on your blog.
Scot
Friday, 16 September 2005
Is it wrong?
This was sent to me by email intending to be a joke and I wonder if it is wrong of me to say I actually like the dress. I just don't like the bosom line in this nor the headpiece but otherwise, if a celebrity wants to go for pink fluff then good for them. Enjoy! :-)
Original Comments:
- Pookie65 said...
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It looks as if she took the toilet paper cover to a seamstress and said, "This is my dream dress! Make me one"
Then, when she put it on for the first time her enourmous breasts blew the stitching right out of the bodice and she decided what the hell I'll wear it anyway.
Did her friends not tell her ahead of time that this was a perfectly awful dress? Furthermore, did her friends not tell her that her breasts looked like two pigs fighting to get out of a burlap sack? - doris said...
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LOL
Googles for "burlap sack" ..... used for crocus bulbs, manure and that sort of garden stuff. Okaaaay!
There must be some incredible infrastructure to keep her boobs up.
I still think the dress would be OK as long as one could take one's eyes off the boobies :-) - Cheryl said...
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Why can't we see the Christmas tree?
- Chris said...
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I like that dress also, probably because of what pookie said: "her enourmous breasts blew the stitching right out of the bodice and she decided what the hell I'll wear it anyway."
It's great that the model had the courage to wear the toilet paper cover as her dress! We should encourage more women to make similiar fashion statements in the future.
Chris
Deliberate Chaos
BA~~32 - Universal Soldier said...
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Were you on about the chick on the left or right? ;)
- Bernadette said...
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One woman's dream dress is another woman's toilet paper cover?!
You always cheer me up, Doris! - Mama Mouse said...
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I thought the picture just had a pinkish cast! LOL .... but the dress IS pink! The skirt part is ok ... the veil is ok ... the bodice might not need a heavy infrastructure if those huge boobs are fake! Some I've seen don't move even a fraction of an inch and looks as if they are as hard and solid as rocks! LOL
The tiara headpiece HAS TO GO!!! It is HORRIBLE ... and the corset part just doesn't seem appropriate to me for a wedding. But then I'm an old lady! - Le laquet said...
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Oh my - there's a seamstress somewhere that needs shooting!
- prying1 said...
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Being a guy I'm sort of ignorant on this sort of thing. How much packing material does it take to get those ... (Hmmm. Toss up between jugs and melons) ... to pooch out like that. I sure hope she recycles whatever she has stuffed in there or at least gives it to an ebay seller for shipping sold items. -
- Anji said...
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reminds me of Barbie. I've always hated those toilet roll covers.....and Barbie
- Z said...
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Useless pieces of fluff - the pair of them.
mama mouse just doesn't seem appropriate to me for a wedding
more than she would normally wear - must have killed her to keep her clothes on for the camera.
prying1 - LOVE the ebay statement. - Cheryl said...
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To be honest I really don't know how a woman could be happy being so disfigured. Look at those boobs, even facing the camera they are hiding areas of her arms and she looks like she has two spare heads strapped to her chest. How disabling must it be, to have those things in the way, stopping you reaching where you want? She looks like if she fell over forwards, she couldn't put her arms out, they look so restrictive. At least real ones would have more 'give' in them than the silicon version. I wonder if she gets back ache.
- MattyD said...
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Hahahaha!
My nan has a toilet roll cover like that! I'll check it out next time and see if it looks like Jordan or any other famous people! - ella m. said...
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I wonder how many horrible bridesmaid and prom gowns had to die to provide enough taffeta for that circus tent of a skirt and the veil attached to that wanna be ms. universe headpiece.
- Karen said...
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I'd love a dress like that - just to wear in the house when everyone was out.
- jane said...
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well, something just doesn't look right. her skins too tan. her boobs are WAY too firm & big.
but she looks more like a paper towel holder cuz it looks like a pole is stuck up in her.
i don't care for it. but no, it's not wrong, doris. :) - Janet said...
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Interesting, I didn't know anyone still used those t.p. covers.
- Le laquet said...
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Doris - could you please check to see if the pop-up is gone for me? I got rid of some bits and pieces - Ta muchly!
Jo - Ghone said...
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Let's hope they both fall in a toilet real soon!
- Sarah said...
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The dress definately isn't my thing, and that's coming from someone with a bright pink blog lol.
- fin said...
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I'm sure that a five year old would find it bee yoo tee full...
- laura said...
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Fake, fake, fake. Those things are soooooo fake. (Her ginormous breasts, for the blind among you.) And she's clearly proud of them, too, shoving them up there, twice the size of her poor empty head. sheesh.
Thursday, 15 September 2005
Farmers Market Lunch
Wahey! Today happened to be the Farmers Market and so Mr Doris and I popped out to take our first ever serious look at one. We were impressed by the range and many of the prices were fine. We got to taste test buffalo cheese; duck and plum sausages; various other cheeses; and pork pie. So we bought all those except the pork pie, plus buffalo sausages; various speciality sausages at little more than the cost of premium range supermarket sausages; minced steak; pork chops; and a little piece of lamb.
Three large bags of "nearly organic" vegetables and salad cost £8. It was fun at home unpacking with son sitting to one side and naming items. The sweet corn in its husk (?) completely stumped him as he guessed all sorts. The dirty carrots still attached to their greenery were obvious so I asked him if he had seen them like this before.
"Yes" he said, "on the cartoons"! The small yellow squash also defied him as it did Mr Doris, and although I knew what it was I had never cooked one before and had asked the seller. She said to treat it pretty much like the courgettes (zuchinis) which we also bought.Which is something else, I had some great chats to the various stall holders about all sorts from the Grand Canyon to the mentality of buffalo to what's involved in being defined organic and the colour of fat.
I don't remember the type of lettuce I bought but once I had washed it and whizzed it in the salad spinner it was spotless and dry and full of life. Most of the crops we had bought had been picked in the last day!
For lunch we had the most wonderful salad of lettuce; a stick of celery (gorgeously plump with wonderful aroma) and a spring onion finely sliced and sprinkled over; a chunk of cucumber diced and a fresh carrot washed and then grated, complete with skin. With this we had two avocados (not from the market) sliced between the three of us; a lemon wedge and a hunk of the local fresh cheese.
I chose only to have a crunch of sea salt, black pepper and the squeezed lemon on my avocado and just the squeezed lemon on the salad. Son went overboard with his mustard, dressing and herby concoction. And you know what - it was delicious! Son even made a special effort to eat up every scrap of carrot and then licked his plate clean. But I reckon it was the dressing that did it for him.
On a practical level, Mr Doris said he wasn't sure if he could tell the difference between this and say, supermarket salad. I can understand that, but I didn't have a full-scale dressing on my salad and that is usually the only reason to have salad! The whole meal felt like it came to life and sang to me. I feel happy knowing that this was fresh produce. I reckon that the difference for us is that the supermarket produce goes into the fridge and goes off really quickly and I do not respond to it with any love.
There is so much to be said for putting in the effort and that's why I think this is really about having a different philosophy towards food. The supermarket takes us into a dream state and stupefies us.
Thank you so much for the encouraging comments in the last post. This is obviously early days and I plan to take things "slowly". If only we had garden space then I'd grow my own but with a bit of investment that is still not impossible. I just reckon we need to go one stage at a time.
We've cheated and have a lamb and mint pie pie with a pastry crust for dinner. Organic meat and made by pie specialists. I'll serve that with the fresh potatoes and some of our other produce. If the kids respond well to the pastry crust then maybe I can start to make my own pastry!
Original Comments:
- Universal Soldier said...
- If you want some 'home-grown' flavour without the effort/time of full blown vegetable gardening then a little herb garden is great. Very little effort and bags of flavour.
- doris said...
- Hopefully I will get to that stage. Previously when I've tried to grow herbs they have either just died on me or weren't used!
I just found this nifty website for the UK to find local producers:
www.bigbarn.co.uk
- Cheryl said...
- Sounds glorious!
- Le laquet said...
- Lunch sounds fabulous - I LOVE avacado. We only rarely get a farmer's market here which is such a shame as I love the farmer's market in my parent's village. All the local farmer's sell their fruit / veg / jam / wine etc. A woman in the village makes fantastic goat's cheese - wonderful! The old chap who sells vegetables still works prices out in francs and all ways chucks in some free herbs to go with the vegetables. Simon and I have vegetables delivered as part of an organic veg scheme - lovely courgettes and aubergines this week .... pricy but always fresh and seasonal and importantly no pesticides and horrible things!
- Sparkling said...
- I love Farmers markets, though, even with the reasonable prices I always come out having spend a small fortune. Worth every penny off course.
I cannot grow herbs to save my life, but my green peppers are growing marvelously. Are peppers a herb?
- Z said...
- You can also grow quite a bit in tubs and pots. We do that too. I know I'm a wonder ;)
Thanks for the link - I'll check that one too.
- doris said...
- I haven't given up on the idea of growing our own in tubs etc! Peppers even!
I have to say that our dinner went fantastic! The lamb and mint pie went down a treat including with the kids and I was pretty sure my daughter wouldn't eat pastry! She was amazed and wondered that Tesco sold such great pies! Pah! I cooked up the fresh potatoes with their skins and served with a little butter; made a ratatouile with one courgette, the small squash and an onion from the market; and served two small raw carrots grated as I guessed my daughter wouldn't eat the ratatouille. And I cracked open a lovely bottle of red. I'm still wide awake in myself whereas I often work late but don't feel good... and somehow my libido feels quite good ;-)
Oh, and thanks to Cheryl, I got out the vitamin pills this morning!
Z - you are definitely the wonder woman and hope I can pick up some tips :-)
- Karen said...
- You sound as if you are enjoying your new way of life - Fresh veges really do make a difference - You are right to take it one step at a time....
- MattyD said...
- some days i really wish that i ate vegetables!!
sounds really nice though :)
- Z said...
- Doris - First libido - I'm sure your biochemistry won't be working that fast but your psychology will. Feel like you're achieving - feeeeel good. You know what I mean.
Second - I only like cooking if I make it interesting for myself. New recipes all the time. I really don't know how people get into cooking convenience foods, if we need something quick, my partner will do it or else I will bore the pants of myself. Not in a libido sense either ;)
And your meal sounded wonderful.
Third. Wine - always enjoy a good red but this can fast become habit forming and we are presently on an - alcohol only at weekends - thing. Start drinking a bottle with your meal and before you know it - it's a bottle every night, which is all well and good but gets expensive.
If you do want any tips on container growing or veggie growing - do ask. I might start a gardening tip blog or something for next growing season maybe. Especially if a bunch of like-mindeds wanted to do a group blog.
Like I said before - we live on a farm and we do have the luxury of a lot of land for veggie growing. It's not our farm but we just live here in a two hundred year old house with servants quarters and everything. It's a long story, maybe I'll write about it one day.
If you're ever down our way - come visit. I'll cook you a slap-up.
- Anji said...
- Wow you are off to a good start! I had to laugh at the lettuce being 'full of life'. I hope you don't mean insects!! Rob and I visited a farmers market when we were in England this summer, we were so disapointed, there only seemed to be homemade cakes. Keep on crunching.
- Neutron said...
- Yum yum. I remember when I lived in Greece in the 70s rediscovering tomatoes and cucumbers...they had TASTE!! It all came flooding back how things tasted when you could buy them from greengrocers and butchers.
Another memory of childhood popped up too not so long ago when we bought pea pods from an organic farm shop...oh yeah...they come in pods! Not in tins or packets...my kids couldn't believe it!
- jane said...
- What a wonderful experience for the 3 of you. Your son's personality is so adorable, I just want to ((((hug)))) him! How wonderful it is that you & your husband take the time to teach him that knitting technique & make fresh produce interesting for him. He's so impressionable!
Aside from being healthy & sounding delicious, you & hubby are doing what many, many of us parents are often too busy for.
Fresh food tastes so much better than canned or frozen. Can't wait to hear about your next trip.
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And your meal sounds delicious.
Congrats on losing weight! The meal sounded oh so yummy!! Its a good thing its nearly dinner time 'cause now I don't think I could hold out too much longer!
I need to go to the dentist so bad, I have a broken tooth in the back and I have been putting off going. The last time I went to the dentist I hurt more afterwards then I did before I went in. I guess I will just continue to live on aspirin until it gets to the totally unbearable stage. ; ) Good luck to you..I will be thinking about you.
Hope it goes quickly and hurts very little.