24th April 2007

What a difference a few days can make to the weather. Gone the clear blue skies and warm evenings into brooding ashen skies hurling incessant rain down upon us. Worse still the wet weather has awoken the beast we in the north of the UK all fear the most…the microscopic bloodsucking midge. Quite the most interminable nuisance and completely mercenary. Nothing can prepare you for them and nothing deters them and whoopee! We’ve got a whole summer of their company to look forward to.

http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/tfl.midge.html

Still the unseasonable warm weather got me ahead in the garden. It is looking naturally magnificent. A wild mostly untamed beast slowly coming to life and shading the hillside with a pale and translucent green that soothes away all worry. I bought 21 Rosemary plants to edge along the raised bed in front of the swing and shall plant them when the weather brightens up. It is one of my favourite herbs and makes a wicked potato dish.

Take 1 onion and chop roughly. In a pan heat olive oil and fry onions till clear, add cubed potatoes and fry gently adding a couple of crushed garlic cloves. Raise the heat and begin to brown but don’t overstir or you’ll make the whole thing mushy. Take 2 stems of rosemary and strip the leaves from the woody stems and chop roughly. Add to the potatoes and leave long enough to infuse and enjoy with a plain fried tuna steak or leg of lamb braised in the oven with thyme, red wine and anchovies.

Even nicer washed down with a glass of USA Turning Leaf Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or a good Australian Red. But not a French wine under any circumstance, well maybe a Chateau-Neuf –Du –Pape but that’s about it. Generally I find French wine thin and vile…. It is always reassuring bad and now I never, ever buy it.

My sister has just come back from India (she has a house in Goa) and while she was there was tracing family history and thinks without a shadow of doubt that my grandfather was a certain minor royal called Prince Omar from Afghanistan. I had sort of figured that out when I looked in the mirror though. So burqa me I’m practically Taleban. Think I’ll keep that quiet.

I got my 30 year long service award letter today from work and then promptly lost it…so I’ll be in trouble tomorrow. Hope somebody finds it and hands it in.

Have a good week