Eco-Home.

Our good friends Craig and Carol have recently started building their long planned Eco-Home. It has been designed to be environmentally friendly, super-insulated, and extremely cosy in winter. I believe that Carol is busy, as I write, stuffing sheep's wool into sacks for the actual insulation.

The house itself is quite compact, but will undoubtedly grow with the addition of several extending pergolas, where outdoor living (in summer) will be comfortable in whatever climactic conditions are thrown at us (them).

Their plot overlooks open countryside, and even on the foul rainy day when I took the above photo, it shows its definite charm.    

It's a fun project, and we're following their progress closely. Unfortunately we can give little practical advice about Eco-building, but we're all doing our bit, by taking cuttings for their future garden; I've already earmarked a few herbs, some Peach trees, and a Fig.

They're hoping to be installed before Christmas; who knows...... Watch this space.

New Hobby.

Doctor Harvey J, and Fireman Ollie, have been busy measuring everything in their N London garden.

They've measured slugs, trees, each other, and countless other things.

Some children play with hand-held, battery-operated, killing games. Some climb trees and swim in ponds. But this devilish duo find fun in taking out the old tape measure and simply 'measuring'.

I've got a great idea for their Christmas (sorry about that) presents!!

Dahl Saag.

One of the increasingly regular meals chez Magnon, is Dahl Saag; a very simple dish of lentils (dahl) and spinach (saag). And the good thing is, that the ingredients are in everyone's cupboard.

Once the lentils have been cooked and drained, I add roughly chopped spinach (actually I use chard), a small tub of yoghurt, about 2 tsps of garam masala and 1 of curry powder, the juice of half a lemon, and maybe half a chicken stock cube. This is then reheated until the spinach is cooked. The finished dish should be the consistency of fluid porridge.

                     

Serve with basmati rice, and your favourite Indian pickles. A fabulous tasty meal, very few calories, and as cheap as chips..... What more could you want; I love it.

My Fear Averted.

Some people go all gooey at the sight of a new born baby, others drool over boxes of chocolates. Me, I salivate over the above; a few young, fresh, not-too-slug-eaten, Cépes. Heaven!

Contrary to my previous fears, we now have enough Cèpes to dry for winter. They are still to be found, and they are still in perfect condition; although I did find a few old ones this morning that I'd (annoyingly) missed yesterday.

The racks, above, are waiting to go outside into the sunshine. They only take a couple of days to dry out, then I finish them off above our wood fired cooker; one final blast of warmth before they're put away in an air-tight box. 

In winter I make risottos with Chicken, rehydrated dried Cèpes, and ordinary mushrooms, and the drying process is specifically for this purpose.

The Gloves are Off.

Lady Magnon recently bought herself some new, reasonably expensive, leather gardening gloves. The first time she wore them, she was surprised to find that her hands had turned bright yellow, making her look like a 50-a-day cigarette smoker. She wasn't happy.

So, the next time we were out, she purchased a second pair of, again, reasonably expensive gloves.

And guess what; her hands turned yellow again!

What's up with these bloody gardening glove manufacturers? Are they obsessed with turning ladies hands the colour of nicotine? Lady M found the colour quite difficult to remove.

I think we should be told!

Oink, oink.

If I was asked to create a 'pie-chart' of the Magnon household's meat consumption, the largest slice would certainly be devoted to Pork; second would come Chicken, thirdly Lamb, and (unfortunately) with a very small slice devoted to Beef. I also suspect that the relative size of each slice would be indicative of the price of the product.

Last night I roasted a small joint of Pork with a few spuds, and a few bits of 'unripe' Butternut Squash. What could be more simple (or delicious). A relaxing 60 minutes in the oven, and job done.

Our Quince tree is dropping its huge yellow fruits by the barrow-load, so I just HAD to use one. I cut the edible bits into biggish chunks, and gently fried them in Olive oil and butter.

Both Lady Magnon and I thought they tasted more like Pear this year; anyway, they were melt-in-your-mouth gorgeous. The perfect accompaniment to a bit of roast Pork.  

A name; a voice.

                                               

This gentleman, above, has one of the most recognisable voices on the UK's BBC Radio, and his name is known to millions. But given the above photo, almost no-one would know who he was.

I suppose that's the beauty of radio; one hears a voice, and imagines the rest.

When I was small my parents didn't have TV. On winter evenings (I don't think we listened in summer) we would gather around the fire and listen to the radio. And, exceptionally, on Sunday lunchtimes we would also listen to '2 way family favourites' and 'The Archie Andrews show'. I loved that radio.

Nowadays I listen at night. As an insomniac, I stick a thingy in my ear, and listen to BBC Radio 4 extra, and the BBC's World Service without disturbing Lady Magnon (who sleeps like a proverbial log).

If you're still wondering about the gentleman above, it's the velvet-voiced Brian Perkins; a New Zealander, who devoted 40 years of his life to BBC news-reading. He's now retired, and much missed.