Happy International I Love Broccoli Day!!!!

I was going to tell the tale of Prince Broccoli of the Auvergne, but was too busy with work to do any real research, so you will have to gird yourself with patience and make do with the following little Limerick:

Some eat it with glee

others see it and flee.

Among experts it's rumoured

that it thrives if well humoured

and is watered with Lady Grey Tea.

Although strictly speaking a flower, I have not been lucky with arranging it for the living room decorations! Therefore I made a sort of scallopped potato/ham/broccoli gratin, cooked in cream and topped with cheddar cheese, bacon bits and spring onions. Quite delicious, even if I say so myself. It is quite a flexible recipe, but whatever you do, don't forget the nutmeg!





Fry slices of potato lightly in olive oil ...

add cut up cooked and smoked ham ...

add broccoli ...



dust with nutmeg and add grated cheese and lots of cream  ...

bake in oven for one hour ...

scatter chopped onions anf fried bacon bits!

Is there a better dessert than strawberries?


Have a Lovely International I Love Broccoli Day!!!

Butterflies outside my window ....

We have been having very unpleasant weather, hot and steamy and polluted, and the last few days were rather trying.  My great consolation were the dozens of butterflies that cover the buddlea just outside my window.  There are loads of them!  They are tricky to photograph, partly because the buddlea sways in the wind, partly because butterflies are hard to see when their wings are folded up - only when their wings are spread out do they photograph well.

That's what I love about living where I do, lots of wildlife in the centre of town!









A white one!

A yellow golden one!

One of the problems with this deluge of butterflies is that they come into the house ....



London Sights - Little Venice to Camden Lock

Yesterday I met up with some old friends in London.  After coffee at the Club, lunch at Fortnum & Mason (air conditioning!!!) and a little light shopping, we decided to walk to the Paddington Basin.  In the heat it was quite a feat, but we eventually got there.

The basin is just behind Paddington Station, right in the middle of London, and still looks a little unfinished / abandoned.  We walked along the canal to Little Venice, discovered that there were canal cruises, and decided to drift along the water to Camden Lock.

A lovely trip, especially since we floated through an area that looked very industrial and a little shabby - still lots of tourists, mind.  It was wonderfully cool on the canal, very welcome after the unrelenting heat recently.  As for Camden Lock, that would require several posts to describe - madness cubed!

Another week at least of heatwaveish weather, how ever will we survive?

Paddington Basin

Standoff at Paddington - two men facing each other, see also below

Walking towards Little Venice

 

Floating on the canal - see the Vespa?

Note the Pirate flag!

Chinese riverboat?

Arriving in Camden Lock

Gerry Rafferty - Right Down the Line

America - Sandman

EAGLES THE BEST OF MY LOVE [HD]

Roger Whittaker Durham Town

Johnny Cash-A thing called love

Do you know these songs?

I am feeling a bit melancholy, my favourate aunt has died, and so has her husband.  My heart is so full of memories, and I cannot help but muse on things long past ...

Somehow I can't seem to paste the You tube songs I want to within this post, so I shall add them as individual posts.

Oxford Beach and Castle

The mountain that was once topped by the Keep

Oxford is having a little heat wave, it is positively la Bourboulian around here!  I use the occasion to dry-run my holiday in France, sorting what clothes to pack etc.  And since I always take lots of photos in La Bourboule as well, I am now operating in holiday mode, as much as the office will let me.

So to kick off the photo posts, here is a little bouquet of Oxford Castle!

Oxford's answer to the Paris Plages!

Tower in background is Nuffield College library

Entrance of Castle - long used as a prison, until a few years ago it was turned into a hotel

Residence of the prison governor

The stocks - family version?

The Stocks - hands and head only

A good thing they didn't have credit cards in those days!

The mount is mainly filled in, but a few remnants remain

I think this is the tower Queen Maud escaped from by climbing down a rope in the 12th century

There are lots of trout in the old moat!

Shot from top of restaurant next to the Mount

Ditto

My favourate photo - doesn't it look like southern France?

Road to castle - there is a market there at Christmas!