That's two weeks running we've had really fine weather on Sunday, which is great for those poor souls who have to work; at least you have decent weather to enjoy yourselves and then the consolation of it raining on Monday.
Two bits of feedback: the Gentleman's Roast was delicious, and the pan juices made an excellent gravy. The only downside was that the stuffing and gramolata type coating on the outside was very salty, so we had a bit of a disturbed night afterwards. Nonetheless it was well worth it. Tonight I'll do bubble and squeak to go with the cold remains.
We've not done so well with the Kate Mosse; neither Sheila nor I could get through it. The evocation of 13thC Languedoc was fascinating, but the supernatural plotting just wasn't our thing, sadly. Her heroines also seem to suffer from the same problem that Mary Stewart's do; in order to drive the plot along, they have to behave in a seriously stupid way from time to time.
One advantage of a Kindle book, though – since it was less than seven days since I bought it, I was able to return it for a refund. Try doing that with a paperback – "Er, no, there's nothing wrong with the book, I've just decided I don't like it. Can I have my money back?"
Instead, I've bought Iain Banks's Stonemouth, which I'm a lot more confident I'll like, since I've read absolutely everything else he's written, both with and without the M.*
It being a lovely day, we went for a walk after lunch, down the main road towards the Trent bridge and along the track just before the river, which leads to a nature reserve in some old gravel pits. A few birds were spotted, mostly Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebe and Lapwing. There was a party working on the far side of the lagoons, clearing and burning some reeds, so most of the birds were hiding.
The group set off back as we were finishing our watching, and came into the far end of the access road as we came away. This was bad news for the two tykes tearing along the track on their trailies, as they disppeared round the corner straight into the arms of the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust guy.
They didn't reappear for quite some time, so hopefully he took their names and will be reporting them for reckless riding; at that time on a Sunday, there were a few families walking along the track, some with small kids, and the brats were not slowing down at all for anyone.
We found a new way back from the site, round the near end of the reserve and over the railway by a footbridge that brought us out onto the towpath. Sheila's not fond of high railway footbridges, but hopefully can be persuaded to repeat the route on another day.
After I've done this, I'm getting a haircut and beard trim from my live in stylist…
*Iain Banks writes two kinds of book, non-genre literary novels as plain Iain Banks, and space opera type sci-fi as Iain M Banks.
4 comments:
Not everyone who works does Monday to Friday, you know. I've been at work today -- it was dark when I left home, and dark when I got back, with the sunshine only while I was in the office!
I find the Iain M Banks rather violent - I've never yet finished one, though Richard has read them - is it a man thing??? :-)
Sue, nb Indigo Dream
ps. We have our annual plague of mice - can we hire Sally, as our hounds are far too busy snoozing to catch them? :-D
Adam: how frustrating for you. I wondered when writing this post whether I should comment on all those working antisocial days and hours, and clearly I should have. After all, I did enough of it myself in the NHS…
The upside is having the chance to shop and so on when everyone else is at work, I guess, but it's still not quite the same.
Sue: Sheila doesn't like Iain Banks either, so yes, he's probably more of a man's author, just as Kate Mosse is more of a woman's, not that she's not pretty bloodthirsty in her own right (or rite). There are two skeletons and a ritual murder in the first couple of chapters of Labyrinth.
All the best
Bruce
Sorry Sue, should have said – Sally doesn't do mice, as far as I know, and has also spent the weekend asleep, exhausted by all her supervisory work last week. I will ask her about mice tomorrow, but don't get your hopes up ;)
B
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