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Saturday 16 January 2010

Wet Saturday

Such a different Saturday as son and his fiancée are here for the weekend. Their visit involves retrieving our futon from his store so we have enough beds when they visit rather than using a camp bed. Then of course the fixings have been mislayed so phone calls made to Futon company. Thank goodness sainted Ian keeps every piece of paper from our purchases.

Have been baking a pineapple fruit cake for son and fiancée, the recipe for this is a Bailey family one, although not sure whether recipe came down from cousin's side of family or our side. Anyway, it's easy, melting method and long slow cook in the top oven whilst organic beef, red cabbage and carrots are cooking in larger oven.

We are very fortunate to have a local food hero 2009 in our suburban high street so we try to support him and his friendly and helpful staff. Not only meat, but deli items, preserves and vegetables are sold some of which come from his small holding in Chobham. Cannot understand why anyone would buy meat and these other items from the chain store across the road. The only item we cannot buy in Ellis' Fine Foods is skimmed milk so we go to Waitrose, M & S or Sainsbugs for this. Shopping locally in small businesses is so pleasant, one meets other members of the community too.




Ellis Fine Foods

2008 Regional Finalist Butcher Farm shop Selling: Bread / Bakery, Cheese / Dairy, Drinks, Home-Cooked Dishes, Meats, Poultry, Preserves, Fruit & Veg
A Twickenham based family run business that has been offering customers its traditional butchery skills, knowledge and produce for over 18 years. Originally established as butcher’s shop, Ellis Fine Foods is now also a farm shop selling a wide variety of produce, including home grown runner beans, potatoes, onions, carrots, parsnip and other fruit and vegetables sourced from local and regional producers. There is also an assortment of dairy products, preserves, breads and drinks on offer. At the butcher’s counter customers will find organic meats, free range chicken, lamb, game, barbeque products, cooked meats, pies and much more! The owners and staff are extremely knowledgeable and are always willing to give advice on what to buy and how to cook it.
Address:
99 High Street
Whitton, Middx.

Back here after supper, beef was delicious, and son, his fiancée and sainted OH and I played scrabble. Son won. He is very competitive and plays tactically which we should expect from a chess player.

Saturday 9 January 2010

Highways and Byways of Hampton


This is the publication on which I am working.

Also delighted that I have uploaded the picture. There is that old saying about learning something new every day.

Snow days

In a peverse way I am enjoying the self enforced staying indoors in our lovely home. The cold air doesn't like my lungs - even going into the very chilly, unheated utility room causes a coughing fit - so I am avoiding that as much as possible. 

There are many projects to be doing, at present I'm indexing the Borough of Twickenham local history society publications and am working on pamphlet 88. This is the Highways and Byways of Hampton: a short history of every street in Hampton. Every street means over 200 streets to be indexed, many of the streets have more than one entry so this publication is taking some time. So far the index has grown to 50 pages of A4, I have used Word rather than a specialised indexing program as I suspect I may not obtain much paid indexing work in future. If indeed, I ask myself. Do I want to cope with deadlines, panic and the exclusion of everything in my life for the time and energy an index takes to compile?

Now I need to learn to blog. How do I add a picture?

No I don't. There is a kneeler to finish, there is knitting to complete. Darling daughter wants to learn to use my 36 year old sewing machine and I would like to try some sewing projects too. Perhaps a bag in which to store our fold away cushions that we were kindly given my K & D. If successful I could make bags for K & D's cushions too.

Then there is baking, perhaps I will do more as Ian becomes even more involved with his OU M121 course.

Meanwhile, back to the streets of Hampton, I've spent too many years on this work so would like to complete it. Then another pamphlet will be published :)

Saturday 2 January 2010

January 2nd 2010

Lovely afternoon pottering around Richmond, buying second hand books to browse and add to pile that says To be read. As befits the cold weather bought two thermal tops as I feel the cold so much, a new Women's Running magazine for daughter and replacement supply of cod liver oil tablets. A bizzare mix.

Books were a Margaret Forster and a 1908 book about Surrey and its 1909 companion on Middlesex. Some of the drawings showed the towns' architecture has not changed, especially if one doesn't look at the shop fronts in detail.

Pleasant touristy feel to Richmond, fascinating to see changes of shops since I ceased working in the town. When I was a child the shops seemed to remain constant, now they open and close with remarkable rapidity.

Home by bus, reasonably smooth ride and a shorter distance to the front door than if we'd gone by train.

An evening reading book for reading group.