Marmalade

Last night I was out in the frost still looking for the Toads, while I did get a brief glimpse of two, they appear to be the early birds. At least I was able to spot them without needing to enter the water, this time. While there was nothing that remarkable about this trip out, with the full moon and clear skies I was able to see a couple of owls that appeared to be hunting along one of the rides as I walked home. They were too distant to identify the species, but an educated guess would be Barn Owls. If I can find the time I may stake out that part of the bridal path and see if I can get a better look at them.


When I got home I was going to write up my notes when I spotted the comment on the Soya, and it is one that is well made as Soya is seriously damaging the rain forest not just in Brazil but across large parts of South America. However, I will return to this latter.


As today I had to go and get my new hard drive. When I got there, I had to wait until they unpacked it, as my actual hard drive as delivered yesterday they had sold to someone else, so had ordered another that was in there delivery somewhere. Well I took a walk and found a bargain twenty marmalade oranges for a pound (that’s cash not weight) so I got sixty. This is what I mean about grabbing bargains when they are there. While I don’t eat a lot of marmalade I bet if I was to invite Paddington round it will be gone before its two-year shelf life expires.


Because of that I also had to get some sugar. While I know that this is cheaper in the supermarket, only by pennies, I prefer to buy it from a "Food Weigh Store" This is a shop where you scoop it out of large tubs and weigh what you want. Much in the way that shops used to be. When I got there, there were two women who were causing the owner of the shop some difficulty as they were putting their hands into whatever it was they were measuring out. I got what I wanted and I was then behind these same two women in the queue to pay. When they left the owner of another shop said you should put a sign up. The owner said that would not help inform the stupid. To witch I suggested "Please ensure you have evolved before entering this shop" I do try to be tolerant but some people just provoke me to sarcasm. Well if nothing else I made the shop owner laugh.


After stopping for a coffee I got my hard drive, 320 gigs should be enough for now. There was a time when I could not see me ever using half of an eight-gig drive, but it shows how far the technology has developed. Weighed down with shopping, as well as the Seville Oranges, I had other fruit and vegetables, created a dilemma for me. As on the bus going out, I had spotted what appeared to be animal tracks on a sand bar in the river. These I wanted to check out on the way home. The River is not that far from my cottage, but it is nearly six hundred feet drop in elevation, therefore the walk back up the hill is steep. I could not relocate the tracks as the river may have washed them away, but I still think it was otter.


Getting home, I fitted the new drive, and as I suspected the copy of Windows that I was supplied with the computer is a Pirate Copy. That was why I could not use it to fix or bypass the problem with the old hard drive. I should have know when instead of me getting the normal welcome screen on starting up windows it said "Aye Jim Lad" While I am no great fan of Microsoft, I will not steal from them. I have emailed the seller and his response was well what did I expect at the price. With the email forwarded on to Ebay I guess that he may be getting more than he expected. Once I sort out the problems I will have a good computer; it is just the added costs and the inconvenience that has really bugged me.


Well at least it has left me with more time for cooking. I prepared the pork and got it in the oven, but two hours latter than had been my plan. Part of that delay was me faffing on to get the right shots. One of these days I may get an assistant, I would have asked the cat to help but as she did not wash her paws properly the last time, I thought better of it. Going back to the comments on the Soya, it occurred to me that the pork would most likely have been feed on Soya anyway. As my readers are more on the ball than I am, there was a further comment that pointed that out.


Now while I don’t know, in detail, what the situation is across the planet, here in Britain the greatest problem is that people have lost the skills to cook. Further, people have lost confidence in food. Nearly every week in the media there is one scare story or another, therefore people need to rediscover the joy of cooking and eating. While I fully intend to make people aware of the issues regarding fair trade, buying local food, and trying new ingredients, I hope to do it gently. As if I just preach at people I know that people just will not want to listen. Therefore I hope that by helping people regain cooking skills people will start to realise that they have choices and those choices matter.


Equally I am going to utilise ingredients like Lentils and Buckwheat as they can both be utilised as alternatives to minced meat (Ground Beef). So over time, I hope that I can produce something that will appeal to all tastes and introduce people to ingredients and foods that people have never tried. I have no idea if anyone will really be interested, but I am having fun playing with the ideas. And it makes meal times interesting. The only down side is the washing up, any volunteers? Oh you have all gone…