Less irritation

From time to time I comment on over-enthusiastic shearing of grass and verges by the council shearers, for example at reference 1. So I was pleased to read in the 'Comet' today - a pick-me-up from Sainsbury's - that our council is reconsidering their shearing policy, with a view to doing less of it. It seems also that the Comet has conducted a readers' survey and that, as ever, there are plenty of views. But at the very least, the matter is being given an airing.

To celebrate, a spot of beef stew for lunch. Start off about a pound of stewing beef in oil, then add chopped onion and celery. Simmer for a couple of hours. Meanwhile, cook about two ounces of red lentils in a little water and then put aside. About an hour before the off, add the lentils and the water they were cooked in to the beef. Simmer for a bit longer. If necessary, add a little more water. About ten minutes before the off, add some sliced carrots, about three small carrots worth. Add some peeled and coarsely chopped cooked potato, left over from the day before. Serve with boiled crinkly cabbage and boiled brown rice. Not a flavouring, colouring or e-number in sight and very good it was too. 

Then, for the first time for a very long time, possibly not since the long gone days when we used to frequent Chinese restaurants in Soho, a tin of lychees for dessert - a tin which had been organised in St. Ives, in what was Huntingdonshire, not far from my father's birthplace. See reference 2.

PS: in the margins, I came across an amusing quotation in the Financial Times, in connection with the alleged fragility of our supply chains, allegations which I admit to retailing: 'It is time to wheel out the old saying of the American humorist and newspaperman H.L. Mencken: for every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong'. With the Financial Times being clever enough to ensure that my innocuous copy and paste into Microsoft's Notepad came with a serious warning about pinching their material: '... Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights ...'. I don't suppose that they can trap the use of the Snip & Sketch tool in the same way - but then you get image rather than the text that I was after in this case.

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/05/trooley-418.html. Note misspelling: once allocated the filename of a post cannot be changed!

Reference 2: https://www.ldhltd.com/. Proud to be chosen to help supply Sainsbury's.