Sunday Sevens #13

#13, unlucky for some!

Again, I wasn’t going to write a Sunday Sevens post (devised by Threads and bobbins) but I thought ‘what the heck!’ I may as well document my mundane life.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the recent, second series of the BBC’s adaptations of the Shakespeare history plays. (The Hollow Crown, The War of the Roses.) Culminating in the final film, Richard III. After watching Henry 6th part two with my hands over my face in horror at Benedict Cumberbatch’s sublime performance as Richard, Duke of Gloucester. I eagerly anticipated his performance in Richard III. It was engaging viewing! At first Richard nicely spun a plot to gain the crown but after being crowned king, his mind soon unraveled. He became paranoid and fearful. Quite rightly so, with the future Henry 7th waiting in the wings in France. The film climaxed with Richard’s death at Bosworth.

Mid week, I made a short visit to Liverpool’s Central Library. I came back with my haul of wild swimming books. I also came back with S J Watson’s second novel, Second Life. It wasn’t a particularly nice book to read. I kept thinking that the main protagonist was rather stupid! She kept saying she had too much to lose, her child and husband and yet she continued with a rather violent affair! It wasn’t my cup of tea. I only read it as I had quite enjoyed his first novel, Before I go to Sleep.

This week happened to be the fourth anniversary of David and I receiving the keys to our house! I was going to celebrate by baking a cake, but I decided it would be cheaper to buy one already made, so I bought a Victoria sponge!

Thursday poured with rain all day! It was a rather gloomy day. I was in the kitchen, making my lunch of curried red lentils when I noticed a male house sparrow on my feeders. I took a closer look and there was a baby sparrow alongside him. The baby looked quite independent, but kept begging for food off the adult. I got my camcorder out and filmed the below.

I’ll finish today’s roundup with a picture from the yarden, of an aquilegia. This plant has grown readily in the yarden for three summers now. Long may it continue to grow!

‘Take time to be thankful for everything that you have. You can always have more, but you could also have less.’ Mohd Uved

Christine x

Sunday Sevens #11

I wasn’t going to do a Sunday Sevens (devised by Threads and bobbins), this week, but after coming home from a lovely day out to Derwentwater, the Lake District (again), I decided to make a quick post.

Let’s begin with a Great British obsession, the weather. Once again it has been glorious this week in the NW of England. I have spent many afternoons doing a bit of sunbathing. I noticed that I have many allium bulbs growing this year, (left) is just one flowering.

I managed to finish Dan Brown’s Inferno. It wasn’t his best novel. I felt at times he broke the narrative to give the reader a history lesson or lecture. It did however make me think of past holidays to Florence, Italy and Istanbul, Turkey.

Il Duomo across the Arno

Madusa’s head at the Cistern, Istanbul

On Wednesday, David and I visited his brother, sister-in-law and nephew for a curry night. I forgot to take a picture but did take one of my curried red lentils which I made for lunch.

The recipe is as follows for 3 people:

Ingredients:

• 1 white onion, chopped
• 1 – 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp of turmeric
• 1 tsp of curry powder
• 150g of red lentils
• 600ml of vegetable stock

Method:

• Heat oil in pan and gently fry the onions
• Add the garlic and spices and stir
• Add the lentils and stock and bring to the boil
• Simmer for 20-30 minutes or until the lentils soften
• Pour into bowls and enjoy!

This week saw the return of the second series of The Hollow Crown. I am enjoying the BBC’s lush productions of the Shakespeare history plays.

Also this week we have been worried about the family dog, Riley. He was subjected to a three hour ordeal last Sunday, of hair cut and bath. It seems that he was not happy with the service, as all week he has been quiet, not his normal ‘mad’ self and been rather listless. We all thought he was ill, but he has bucked up and now seems more like his normal self. Animals do make us worry so!

My last picture comes from today, taken while walking towards Catbells, overlooking the enchanting Derwentwater. I have simply fallen in love with this lake and the area. Look out for a following post on the day’s adventures!

How have you spent your weekend? Been on any nice country walks recently?

Have a nice week ahead,

Christine x

Sunday Sevens #9

This past week has been very uneventful! I have been scraping the barrel, trying to find things to post for this week’s Sunday Sevens, devised by Threads and bobbins.

This week our yarden has been graced with the arrival of not one but two dunnocks! At the beginning of the week we could hear a male singing for a mate and near the weekend he brought his conquest to the yarden! It has been lovely watching them flit about the plants, sifting for insects and grubs. I hope they bring their fledglings in the following months.

Below you will find two videos of them both. The video of the female shows her shaking her tail in preparation for mating, she seems a right floozy, although the male seems to just want to look for food!

Okay, I know I am cheating by posting videos but I really don’t have many photographs to share with you.

I’ve been doing a lot of cooking this week. On Monday I made a carrot and lentil soup and on Friday I made a chickpea and vegetable pilaf. Both of which I never took a photo of! Then on Saturday I remade a One Pot Mexcian Quinoa but I have already blogged about this, here. However I did take a picture of David’s dupiaza which he cooked last Sunday.

 

 

On Tuesday I fell in love.

David and I visited his brother and sister-in-law, who have a delightful son, Ewan. I was surprised when he crawled over to sit on my knee and then proceeded to poke me in the face. lol.

I can’t wait for him to start talking, there is so much I can teach him! 😀

I have recently, been enjoying the rerun of the BBC productions of The Hollow Crown. The four feature length films are adaptations of William Shakespeare’s history plays, comprising of Richard II, Henry IV parts 1 & 2 and Henry V. I missed them the first time they were aired in 2012. If you have not seen them, you can view then here, for the next five months. I would highly recommend them, even if you don’t like Shakespeare. I find that I appreciate his writing as I age.

Potatoes are growing!

Even though the weather has returned briefly to winter this week, the sun has been out quite a lot in Liverpool. On Saturday, we took stock of the yarden. The dahlia which I thought was dead has new shoots coming from its tubers and the clematis that David’s mum gave me has at least two buds on it, and still growing! We may have had failures with the french beans and spring onions (blame Artie for that!), but the maris bard potatoes are growing from strength to strength! Fingers crossed we have a harvest!

To be honest I’ve been in a grumpy mood all day, equally mirrored by the foul weather. Why is it that when a bank holiday beckons the weather turns dire? Anyway, I tried to keep the depression at bay by making a gorgeous dinner of curried red lentils. I’ll do a further post on this in the future.

To raise my spirits I took a snap of the daffodils I bought yesterday. They are unusual as they didn’t have the usual signature trumpet but I can’t find online what type of daffodil they are.

Anyway, I hope you have a pleasant week ahead.

Christine xx