Bloody fireworks...

 Couldn't find our dear little (big) dog just now - looked everywhere.

After a fretful ten minutes searching, I found her cowering right back behind and under my desk, frightened to bits.

Gormless bloody idiots wasting their sodding benefits.

Sheer joy...

 

By coincidence, Scrobs was making a special soup this morning with lamb stock, leeks from the garden, carrots, potatoes and pearl barley, and as he was on his own in the kitchen, the Airpods went in for a bit of  'Alchemy'!

This has long been a favourite from some time back, when Canterbury Public Library gave all their old cassette tapes to a charity shop to sell for a few pence, and as luck would have it, Scrobs was meandering by and spotted this huge heap of classic rock memorabilia, and bought the lot!

They're still safely ensconced in the attic, shelf 3c, sub-section 4a, but Spotify has changed all that and the earplugs and the soup manufacture made for a fabulous half-hour of melodic interlude!

This copy just popped up on a list a few moments ago, so someone at YouTube possibly has my number, but 'By Jiminy', that soup didn't half hit the spot after listening this morning and now watching such a fabulous performance...

Flat bottle, pleasant surprise...

Senora O'Blene and Scrobs are rather partial to Aussie wines, especially a nice oaky Chardonnay, and it was indeed an eye-opener when these particular flat bottles appeared on the shelves of our grocer!

The bottle is all plastic, and the contents are hardly Grand Cru, but somehow, this packaging seems to suit the style and taste of a half-decent bottle of wine, which sits very comfortably in the fridge! In fact two bottles take up the same space as one glass bottle, and we rather like that idea!

We've never been expoments of the snobby ABC crowd , (Anything But Chardonnay), and the grape is a mainstay of most champagnes anyway, but somehow that little fact seems to be ignored!

Years ago, we went across the pond to the USA, and spent a couple of weeks exploring some delightful vineyards, and our favourite at the time was Fetzer, which was totally new to us! Having remembered laughing at the original concept of New World wines way back in the sixties, the new versions became our favourites, and still are! The Australian styles are still high up on our lists, and long may they flourish, flat-pack and all!

 

50 years...

 About forty-eight years ago, Scrobs was surveying a building in Church Square, Rye - No 50 actually. The owner was a well-respected musician and conductor, and a great bloke all round! His wife was charming too!

In the first floor bedroom, overlooking the square, the dimensions, joinery, decorations etc., were pretty well unchanged from what they would have looked like in the 17th Century, and the one abiding detail I remember so clearly, was that the window seat in that bedroom was extremely worn down, because if one mistily recalls early drawings and paintings of life back then, there was always a face at the window, probably to gain the fresh air, or just to chat with passers by, or even to get away from the kids and I still retain a vivid memory of what that person would have seen outside, while perched on this robust and slightly uncomfortable seat!

They would have seen St Mary's chuch, which is right in the middle of the square!

By coincidence, had the young lady looked a little harder several hundred years later, she would have spotted Scrobs with his new bride, standing in the October sunshine, relieved to have got out of the church after several hymns, seeing lots of happiness at us being married and signing the register to prove it!

Yup; It's our Golden Wedding Anniversary today, and our celebrations will be at home with a special hamper and Prosecco!

Seems like only yesterday...

Provenance of pic -

Arthur and Helen Grogan

Eras come and go...

 

This just amazes me!

Such tranquility and charm, and so it seems impeccable manners from all the actors! The whole cast would be well over a hundred years old today - I wonder how they felt!

Cloud nine...

 

While delving a little deeper into the local weather report, Scrobs was amazed to see that proper meteorologists can identify so many cloud formations!

My 'Boys Book of Just About Everything', which was a present when I was about six years old, showed the basic cloud formations like Cirrus and Nimbus, but until now, as I'm seventy years older, the revelation of so many more formations has taken me somewhat by surprise - and at my tender age, a few surprises are very, very welcome!

In order from the top, we have Asperatus, Mammatus and Iridescent, all found here: - 

http://www.astronoo.com/en/news/asperatus.html

...and a fascinated Scrobs is still marvelling at such beauty, especially as around this time of year, some early morning views are just spectacular anyway...

Soon to be in the sky...

 

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/over-200-jobs-to-be-lost-as-vale-of-mowbray-pork-pies-closes-after-energy-price-rises-3861325

It was Frankie Howard who once joked that he could join the gentry as Sir Melton Mowbray, and my Mum laughed at this forever!

I'm sorry to learn that yet another delicacy of British repute will not be around much longer! There again, we loved Lymeswold, which was a cheese built on a desire to create a distunctive comestible for everyone, and that never really took off...

I guess that the style of Melton Mowbray pies will continue with another producer, and I've been instructed to visit our local farm shop, where I seem to remember that they sell a local variety, probably for twice the price, but that's life!