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Only for ten minutes, but the sky was cloudy, then darkened. I could HEAR it pattering against the windows, and when I went to the back door the noise was sublime. There were even puddles!
This is nothing, we have not had rain for weeks and it has been above 30°C in some parts of the country for over a month.
Now I’ve just finished the washing up and I’m drenched with sweat. It’s still warm and extremely humid. I’m so tired.
Goodnight.
Yesterday it rained for the first time in a month. It didn’t last long. My cat came in a bit damp, so I looked outside and there were droplets of water on leaves.
England and Wales are officially in drought conditions. A major Nature Reserve at Mimsmere was destroyed by fire. Whole parts of it that supported rare species of plants and animals are gone.
But big companies want drilling for oil, digging for coal, while European countries are ablaze and Canada boreal forest is threatened.
Listen to the world, not politicians, bankers and industrialists.
Third heatwave in a few weeks
I’m exhausted
Too hot
Found a small fan.
But I wait for the room
To get hot
Before I switch it on.
Then bliss as cool air
Sweeps over me
But don’t want to use
Too much electricity…
You lie flat,
Relaxed
Trying to stay cool
Purring out of sleep
Into a hot day
More sleep heals
Till you come down for breakfast.
He’s got an airfryer this weekend.
Never used one before. I’ve only used mine for a few months. I got a bit motherly, trying to explain how it works, that it’s not a deep fat fryer.
When you get something new it’s not always simple to understand. Which buttons do you press? What’s suitable for cooking in it? What are the hazards, risks.
But the good thing is it seems more economical than a full sized oven. They need regular cleaning and drying or food can bubble up and stick on surfaces
You can get charts to tell you cooking times and heats.
I once used a greaseproof paper sheet and managed to char it’s edges. An airfryer is not a microwave. It gets very hot, and removing food from the baskets can be… Ouch… Hot.
Still I would recommend this piece of technology for cooking. I just want one big enough to roast a chicken.
Holey wonderful food. Bubbles rise through doughy flesh. Toast on both sides. The bottom is solid, the top is covered in tiny holes that look like the streams of bubbles that rise up in champagne or lemonade.
Make sure you get them nice and hot and spread butter on the top so it drizzle through, forming puddles on your plate. People eat them with jam or marmite hazelnut spread, cheese, honey… But I prefer just butter. Sometimes it drips down your sleeve!
I used to toast these on the bars of the gas fire when I was a child. We used a fork hooked on by it’s prongs to the horizontal bars in front of the white ceramic blocks that the flames came up through.
Toasting the bottom of the crumpet first, then the top. It would get really hot and the butter would melt all the way down into the bubbled tubes of the crumpet. Delicious x
(not to be confused with English Muffins)
I’m sitting hoping the night will cool down. The backdoor is open and a couple of moths have come in. I’m watching an appropriate film “in the heat of the night”, set in the deep south of the USA. It’s about a black detective and a racist white policeman trying to solve a murder against the racial tensions of the 1960s. Somehow they manage to work together despite their differences. It’s very tense and thought provoking. I think people ought to watch it in these troubled times. I’ve seen it several times. We are so inhumane to people who just look different. It’s crazy.
Went for lunch with my friend. Overwhelmed by the size of my meal… Sausage, bacon, egg, beans, mushrooms, tinned tomatoes, a hash brown, and two slices of toast and butter. When I was younger this might be my Sunday breakfast, but I only eat it occasionally these days. The food was well prepared and hot, I enjoyed it, but also felt guilty having so much when so many are struggling. But it’s still worth asking the question. Why is the world so unequal?
Today I painted a fire for the play Who is Molly Leigh…. Not the fire surround or the hearth, or the objects around it, but a piece of cardboard with a brick chimney backing painted on it and a coal fire burning strongly in the grate.
I asked another maker what she thought and she felt the flames should be more yellow and red, but the photo I worked from showed bright white flames surrounded by glowing yellow, orange, and red. It’s funny how people’s imaginations have stereotypical ideas of how things should look. I really enjoyed adding bright colours in between the coals to make it look really hot.
Mallaband-Brown