Flippin' Eck!

This bell sits on top of Grange Court in Leominster. When the building was the Market House it was used to signal major events. On Shrove Tuesday apparently it was rung to remind the housewives to light their ovens in preparation for making pancakes. I'm afraid if you did that anywhere near me I would not be held responsible for my actions....you certainly wouldn't be getting any pancakes unless you made them yourself!

For the past few years our town has held its own pancake race. It's organised by the Rotary club and raises a goodly few pounds for local good causes. When I was working [pre redundancy] our company entered a team in the inaugural one back in 2009. It was a hoot, but we certainly didn't win! Now it's a much bigger affair with lots more competitors. I've not seen it since, but it's certainly stirred up a few memories. This time it was held earlier than usual to coincide with half term. For anyone with children of a certain age the compere was Dave Benson-Phillips who did a lot of kids TV programmes back in the 1990s. 

Knowing how temperamental I can be in the kitchen and my serious lack of patience with anything batter related, it is probably best that I am not allowed anywhere near the frying pan....Mr GBT will do the honours and I shall do the quality control bit😋 My job is to clear up afterwards!

Arilx

Trifling

So buoyed up the success of producing a lemon/orange curd in the slow cooker earlier this month, I decided to try my hand at making a batch of citrus biscuits for my February recipe. The result was unremarkable, even dull and although they are being eaten up, I have to say it's without much enthusiasm. The upshot of the was I was left with two zested lemons and an orange glaring accusingly at me. Thinking cap on.......

Trifle or "triffle" as it's known in our sillier moments here at GBT is first mentioned in Thomas Dawson's "The Good Huswifes Jewell" [1585] [thank you dear Wikipedia]. Now I like a goodly portion of trifle and because I take cheaty shortcuts, this pud is a breeze to make! Patting myself on the back for having come up with what I believed to be an original recipe [a later Google search disproved this] this is my version of a citrus trifle.

Layer sponge fingers on the base of your chosen dish and soak in Limoncello or a citrusy liqueur [orange juice for the non alcoholic one]. I spread a tin of drained mandarin segments over the top and then made up a lemon jelly, but added the lemon juice from one of the skulking crew to lessen the sweetness [there was less cold water as I didn't want to alter the standard amount of liquid in the instructions] Pour the jelly over the sponge/fruit mix and leave to set. Now comes the tricky bit....open the carton of premade custard [or you can make your own, but I can't bear the texture of the firmer cold custard] and pour over the top. Finally whip a 300ml carton of cream [I used whipping but think I would use double next time as it went too sloppy when the other bits were added to it], add orange juice for taste [again this was from one of the other lurkers] and enough sieved icing sugar to sweeten but not too much [we used this as the perfect excuse to taste it]. Smear [or pipe if you are so inclined] across the top. Now there's no photo because I decided to sprinkle blue coloured sugar across the top and the food colouring ran in world record time. It might not have been pretty, but it tasted mighty fine!

Arilx

Crabby

[Image from pixabay]

I do so like that word "crabby" and other synonyms of a similar ilk....crotchety, cantankerous, testy, curmudgeonly, scratchy, waspish and a new one to me, peppery. Yes they all describe me at various points over the past few days!

Outwardly smiling but inwardly seething I, for one, am very grateful that truth bubbles do not appear next to my head because I think I might have got myself into a spot of bother as I stomped around the town thinking murderous and uncharitable thoughts about some of my fellow shoppers on Tuesday.

Realising just how big a grump I was in I decided to reward my bad behaviour [well nobody else was going to give me a treat were they!] with a bag of liquorice allsorts from the pick 'n' mix. Understanding the "crisis" I found myself in there was no time to faff about with an unopened bag....speed was of the essence....find a quiet corner away from prying eyes and dive straight in....you would be surprised just how many I can stuff in my cavernous trap in a short space of time...hamsters with their cheek pouches stuffed full didn't come near it. Through this gluttonous process I have discovered that if there had ever been a world record for allsort speed eating I am exceedingly confident that I could break it hands down. Did it cheer me up...of course it bluddy well didn't.....a good night's sleep was the sensible, if slightly duller, solution.

So other than giving myself a sugar rush and then a self inflicted headache there is little else to report from life here at GBT as either the happenings have been of the real life sort which aren't to be shared with a wider audience or work related. I can finish though by revealing that the teenogre has now raised half of his fund raising target for Y Care International and he's off to Bangladesh for his voluntary placement.

Arilx

Wheels

Blimey must be time to share a thoughtful film designed to raise the spirits.

Arilx

Watch The Birdie

Perhaps you need to be of a certain vintage to recognise the phrase "watch the birdie". With the advent of the selfie even "say cheese" might be be gloriously outdated for all I know. Originally photographers used to have bird shaped props with moving wings to hold the attention of the small people who had to sit for interminably long periods. During our reserve trip where we saw the wren we literally did just sit and watch the birdie[s]...patience paid off for in amongst all the blurred ones and feathered backsides Mr GBT took these. Hope you like them.

Female dunnock

Long tailed tit...they don't tarry at the feeders!

Arilx

For Folklore Lovers!

It won't come as any surprise to learn that I am most keen on folklore in all its many different forms and how it played a part in the lives of  some of the ordinary folk who generally leave little mark on the historical records.

For anyone equally passionate about this subject and wanting to find out more, this site might be of interest. It's packed full of articles and there's a weekly live feed over on Twitter #FolkloreThursday with even more info coming in. http://folklorethursday.com/#sthash.AwQl54Ic.dpbs

I, meanwhile, must not buy any more books until I have read the titles already in my collection.

It might look like a relatively modest pile, but don't be fooled. I have another six volumes of the Man, Myth and Magic to add to that. They were my main pressie from Mr GBT for my 50th. I was lucky to get them for an incredibly reasonable price after a friend tipped me the wink.

Arilx

Sunday Lunch

Having worked yesterday with Mr GBT at a show I wanted to make sure that we spent at least a bit of today doing something we enjoyed which would give us a bit of a break. Thankfully we have a couple of options locally which we fall back on in such circumstances.

We had the luxury of time today, so we spent longer than usual just enjoying watching the birds in the hides at the nature reserve near here.

There are two birds I would love to get photos of [Mr GBT's camera is needed for this]- one is a jay which I do see from time to time, but never when I have anything to take a decent shot with and the other a wren. I love their plump little bodies and stubby tails. It always pleases me when I do glimpse one, but it's only ever fleetingly because they are so shy and secretive. I was amazed when I first discovered that they are the commonest breeding bird in the UK. Our luck changed today though!

Arriving without ceremony...well camouflaged against the brown leaf, covered floor.

Rootling around for a tasty morsel.

 Success!

First course downed. Now for a little something to finish with.

Perhaps a spot of dessert is in order.

Bound to be something suitable in here somewhere.

We were able to watch more of its antics when we popped back in on our way back to the carpark.

Arilx