In the Soup

As I walked out the other morning the weather she was gray, the sky cloudy, the wind chilled.  Frozen, I wandered around 'exercising.'  Today, trapped by the smelly washing and then making chicken soup I am stuck inside while the sun hits the 60's F.  Innit typical!  

The soup came from a chicken of dubious heritage, or is it just that no chicken today provides nourishment?  Yesterday I prepared the chicken and turned on the oven at 20 minutes to ten, then sat at the laptop awaiting the oven heating up.  At 20 minutes past 11, I remembered the chicken and placed it in the oven!  An hour and a half of warm house but uncooked chicken!  It was nearer one before I could eat.  My whole day was put out by crass stupidity, and not for the first time.  I could not hobble to the church this morning, too far for me today, though they were open, and could not find a proper service online, it being hours before our online one arrived, so I filled my time with listening to Alistair Begg again.  This however is not the same as meeting people, even wrapped up according to the orders, but he is always worth a listen. 

With the clocks marching forwards we see Spring in action properly, the gas and electric folk want a meter reading!  This means clambering down the awkward stair and then clambering slowly back up again tomorrow to read them.  Have they no heart?  Can they no longer employ people to read meters?  No, they cannot, that costs money the shareholders want!

 

Beasties.

As the Christmas shoppers have unlimited cash, or so it appears, the shopping centres do their best to bring them in with a wide variety of attractions, usually those that attract the kids.  Today our centre once again went for animals, a goat which as I passed later was standing on a hay bale with the kind of expression that spoke of conquering the entire world, a couple of ducks in a basin of water but quite happy and ponies, chickens and lots of people.  The people I must add were visiting the centre, not stuck inside the fenced of areas with the animals, although this might be an idea worth considering.  There was an aroma emanating from this area but it kept down the aroma of the locals so that was OK.

Now it is late, I am sleepy and my restful mind is being tested by the woman next door.  She has been cooking MEAT!  Once again the fragrance of roast beef is filling the place and I am sitting here nourished badly, a mere seven stone weakling, while she stuffs herself with proper food and I suspect with gravy and all the trimmings.   She must do it for spite!  I will drift off into sleep and dream of meat all night now.  Bah! 

The sun however did reappear today leaving bright golden leaves on the trees.

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An Old Bird

I met this old bird in town today, he didn't say anything and was not all that keen on his visitors. As the dear kiddies are off school this week for yet another holiday (teachers have such an easy life don't they?) the shopping centre in town puts on events.  Yesterday a couple of shetland ponies from a rescue centre ignored the kids and today a menagerie appeared.  White ducks, rabbits, a bored dog, sheep, chickens and a goat or two, oh and a bored pony.  Small pens kept the beasts from the animals (yes that is the right way round) and it reminded me of the old pictures of the town when market day really was a market.  Similar stalls stood in front of the pubs while folks sold sheep, pigs, horses and cattle. The pubs did a roaring trade as they fed and watered those coming a distance to market.  The Victorian way was everybody around one big table and eating when the landlord got things ready.  I think such a scene happened in one of Dickens books but I may be wrong. 

     
Goats and horses are always happy together I am informed by those who know, this pair prove that. Possibly bored, possibly just weary they made it difficult to obtain a picture when both had eyes open. The little pony and his mate were content however and the pony happily rested on his mate. Interesting how these two creatures get along so well.  

The other big chick was not much more impressed than his friend.  I suppose as I was discussing preparing 'Cock-a-leekie' soup with a woman he was offended. I had to be careful with the explanation of the soup also, English women are not very bright at times.  Still he was a beauty of a bird and both have been well prepared for their day out.  I suspect they both have practiced that suspicious expression of theirs for some time as it was very wary.  I was surprised at just how big two these birds were however, this is not how I imagined them up close.   

I always considered such beasties as wee birds, or at least not this size! Possibly they are shown at er, shows, as well as paraded around for the kids.  I am quite glad they chose not to show us just how loud they could be however.  Every so often a news report indicates newcomers into the country have complained to the local council re the noise of such birds crowing early in the morning.  Some have been known to grumble, which I never do, about cows 'mooing' too loudly in the fields nearby.  Not that long ago a young couple objected to a town clock that insisted on chiming every 15 minutes and clanging away on the hour!  Now if you retire to the country for peace and quiet you might well find it but if you don't do the homework a council, on some occasions a judge, will tell you to move back into town if you can't stand chickens or cows.  They make noise, that is what animals do!  A clock that has rung continually for a couple of hundred years will not cease because you are a spoilt brat either.

That said I am glad to have found the beasties. It brightened up a poor day. The brain is not quite functioning yet as the bug still leaves my mind weary and I have written and rewritten the intro to the war for the museum exhibition booklet around a hundred times, and that only this morning!  That was the reason I went out, to oxygenate my brain.  It failed.  I'm going back to bed.

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