Pancakes, pancakes, pancakes....

I have eaten pancakes, pancakes and pancakes. Later I will eat more pancakes. I like Spring festivals. Particularly the eating.

(The photo isn't great - my phone's camera is pretty poor - but the message is a happy one.)

And while you're at it, where's my cambric shirt eh?

Being a list of herbs which have so far survived in our front yard.

Parsley
Mint
Oregano
Chives
Bay
Purple Basil
Sage
Rosemary
Thyme
Tarragon

I'm particularly impressed with tarragon, which I hadn't knowingly eaten before a few weeks ago when we made this excellent recipe, with chicken though, not guinea fowl so far.

They are mostly thriving (or at least surviving), but we shall see how the rain and cold affect them. And at least the caterpillars haven't eaten them yet - they're too busy demolishing the broccoli which we have planted in unwisely small containers. Fortunately we live near some shops.

Uncharted Apricots

In which I try to be good.

A new challenge in the listingslightly household: five fruit/veg per day. We even have a chart on the fridge to record progress. This week has not gone well for me.... it's cold and pesky outside and I want baked potatoes, cheese, cake, cheesecake even, and oatcakes. These do not count. Today though I exceeded myself by eating a dinner which included red pepper, onion, red cabbage, carrot, chickpeas, raisins, avocado and apple. It was nicer than it sounds, promise.

Sydthecat is not participating, although his personal challenge (unbeknownst to him) is to run about more and to this end we have been trying to encourage him to play with a crinkly paper ball, with limited success. Mostly he sits and looks at us throwing it backwards and forwards with an indulgent (and indolent) air, pouncing only if it lands pretty much on him. He is enjoying his portly middle age rather too much I fear.

The five fruit/veg thing is weird though - it becomes a bit odd trying to work out whether you've eaten enough of something for it to count as a portion. I've always been scared of people who size up your lunch as a calorie count - it must take the fun out of a sandwich when you can see a big fat number slapped on top of it - and I don't want to be eyeing up my salad wondering what size cereal bowl is the measure of it. Tsk. Still, I am pleased to discover that three dried apricots = one portion as I find them a bit suspicious. I'm not sure a chart with a barely acknowledged competitive edge is a good way to encourage me to like fruit, but still.... on my 300th birthday I may finally be grateful to satsumas.

“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!” (And fireworks, parsnip soup and knitwear)

Watch this space, for soon there will be bears. First I must find them though, so in the meantime here is my list of things that are good about autumn. You might (and probably will) disagree. You might even disagree that it is autumn at all yet, deluding yourselves that it is “late summer”, but if every season is three months long, then we have to be in autumn (September, October, November) now, so that winter (December, January, February) has Christmas in it. You may yet disagree that seasons have to be regimented into three month blocks, and/or that a season has to start on the first of the month - you may be following the Irish calendar, for example. Still, whenever you think it starts it is (or shortly will be) upon us like a big warm snuggly jumper.
(NB Clearly this only applies to the northern hemisphere, and, given the weather-related assumptions, coldish bits of the northern hemisphere.)

1. Food
This would probably be first on my list of best things about any season, but autumn food is particularly fantastic. This is, after all, a time to prepare for hibernation. It is also a time where you don’t have to worry too much about getting your thighs out in public (see 2 below). I’m thinking tea and cake, soups, stews, pies, roasted things, apples, pumpkins, chickpeas, blackberries, parsnips, beans and lentils. My current favourite cold-weather recipe is this (the chickpea one). Yum.

2. Clothes
Lots of them. Tights and jumpers and scarves and hats and gloves and jeans and shirts and coats and socks and boots and cardigans and pyjamas. I did read somewhere once that black opaque tights were like oysters, in that they shouldn’t be worn in a month without an R, although oysters should never be worn, and I don’t advise eating tights either. This summer, however, black-tight-wearing has been pleasingly acceptable, maybe because the weather has been less than scorching, but mostly I think because of the footless tights thing. Still, enough of the floaty, summery, hotpanty season, hello to knitwear. Which leads me on to…..

3. Knitting
I don’t knit in the summer, not if it’s hot anyway. Last autumn I knitted some of these, having been given some rather excellent wool for my birthday. This autumn I am knitting a long overdue present. And probably some more wrist-warmers.

4. Autumn/Winter pubs
...are Victorian, probably red, wooden, warm, maybe with a fire and sell proper beer. In Brighton and Hove, see the Cricketers, the Great Eastern, the Constant Service or the Greys.

5. Gigs (not festivals)
Indoors, warm, dry, beer, easy access to toilets, going home after – mmmmmm. Having said that I appear to have no gig tickets lined up at all. Tsk. I would like to see Cajun Dance Party but they keep playing when I cannot see them. Any suggestions gratefully received.

6. Fireworks
Although not those set off during daylight hours and selected for their decibels, rather than aesthetic appeal. I absolutely love fireworks though. I used to have a program where you could click on a black screen and randomly coloured and sized fireworks would explode, but now the nearest I can find is this. Still, the real thing is much better, in a duffel coat and with a sneaky hip flask preferably.

7. Trees
Because they look like this.