How lovely to start the working week blue sky and sunshine. I woke up at seven fifteen, switched on the radio to listen to the news, and dozed off again for an hour. I certainly feel better in the morning if I've had a full eight hours sleep, so going to bed earlier is worth the effort.
After breakfast, housework, then working on next week's Morning Prayer session. Writing a biblical reflection came easily today. I had the Office and reflection already recorded when it was time to cook lunch. Clare cooked curried canellini beans and veg, and I helped by cooking the rice and serving the meal. I returned to editing the audio after lunch, and then went out for some grocery shopping.
I visited the recently opened Turkish owned food supermarket to buy a packet of black peppercorns. It took me ages to find them as the shop is stocked with a bewildering variety of Middle Eastern and Asian herbs and spices occupying over a dozen shelves in one corner. Pink peppercorns were easy to find, black peppercorns were in a different section. It's probable that stocks are arranged by their place of origin or producer. There were several packets of ground black pepper distinguished by their fineness of grinding. The same with other seeds too, coriander I noticed. I imagine different qualities are used in different culinary traditions. When I visit this store I notice something new and unusual on the shelves. Pitta bread is baked on the premises and there's a halal butchery stall too. Instead of oriental background music, the Quran is chanted. It's Ramadan after all.
After shopping, I walked in Thompson's Park enjoying the sunshine for over an hour. A great tit and a long tailed tit were announcing their presence in different trees. In a patch of rough grass under trees, patches of primroses and a few solitary celandines. Spring is under way. Warmer days to come hopefully.
I cooked garlic mushrooms for supper as we had a surfeit of them, both of us bought a box last week by mistake and we hadn't yet got around to using them. A pleasant change. Then I spent the evening watching episodes of 'Dope Girls' a crimmie set in Soho after World War One, about women who struggle to survive by performing or serving in night clubs and petty crime, seizing the opportunity to open and run a club of their own.
Our interest is some of the party scenes in which Rhiannon appears all dressed up. Last spring she stayed overnight with us while working as a film extra at a studio in Bridgend. The story is fictional, based on a book about the birth of the British drug scene, It's presented in a rather quirky way, with 'handwritten' titles and comments telling you what's happening on screen during the action, resembling the format of a comic strip or graphic novel. There's a female undercover cops involved and a Sicilian mafia family making itself at home organising crime in West End London. It's an interesting idea, aiming to portray the early years of feminism at a time when the war had drastically reduced the young male population leaving many women to fend for themselves, by fair means or foul.
No comments:
Post a Comment