A warning

On Sunday evening we attended the carol service at our local church - Christchurch - a church which as it happens has a handsome Victorian gothic revival interior well suited to the purpose. At the carol service we received the seasonal message of hope consequent upon the anniversary of the arrival of the only begotten son.

On leaving however, the Lord chose to remind us of his other side, at least in a small way. The recent rain had washed a very nasty looking pothole out of one of the drains on Christchurch Road, a pot hole which might easily seen off an unlucky cyclist. A reminder of what the Lord could really do if he really got going with the rain.

But as it happened, help was at hand. A young lady with connections made a call from her mobile and by 1100 Monday morning Surrey Roads, or their representatives, had been and gone leaving the pot hole patched as illustrated. Only a patch, which might get washed away by the next rain, but at least our cyclists will be safe in the meanwhile.

Monday was also a day of departure from culinary tradition. Instead of the traditional lentil soup we had broth confected from the gravy left from a beef stew, the gravy left from a lamb stew (hot pot variety) and sundry left over vegetables. Pass through a blender and warm, taking care not to burn it while the fat melts. Very good it was too. Have we started a new tradition?

And then with FIL gone, I was able to resume the tradition of sewing up the stuffed fowl, in our case a woodland reared vegetarian chicken. A tradition started by my dental father who had been known to use both the special pliers and and near circular needle of his trade. We never had the needle and the special pliers - grooved to hold the needle steady - have gone AWOL - so I had to use some other kind of dental pliers, but I managed and the stuffed fowl is now neatly sewn up with green linen thread from the base of the breast bone to the tying off at the parson's nose. I used blanket stitch although I dare say there are other stitches which would do.

We will see if the use of walnuts rather than cobnuts in the stuffing works. I was quite unable to buy cobnuts in any form or to buy walnuts in their shells and so had to resort to the rather unsatisfactory expedient of ready mades. Not the same at all if one has not had the fag of shelling the things. Bit like being dropped on the top of the mountain rather than walking up the thing.