Haggis

Last Sunday, a haggis served in place of the Sunday roast. With us, a mainly a winter dish and one last recorded a bit less than a year ago at reference 1, although I feel sure that last Sunday was not the first occasion since then. In part prompted by a new-to-us brand of haggis being heavily discounted by Sainsbury's in their post-Christmas clear out. Along with the mincemeat mentioned at reference 2.

It was snowing a little in the morning, so my day started with a swing around Long Grove Park on foot, taking in Chantilly Way on the home leg. Where I was able to admire the arrangements made for their horses by people I assume to be travellers; people who may well have little if any legal standing on this particular patch of ground. There were three horses tramping around the ponds in the middle of the lower field to the left of the first snap above, one looking quite plump and healthy. With Street View offering the summer view of the second snap above.

Home to the haggis, which turned out to involve cow as well as sheep in the making. Cased in plastic rather than stomach. Rather dark and dry, quite eatable but not as good as our regular brand. Perhaps time to try the more expensive, stomach wrapped offering from the butcher in Manor Green Road?

Flier from people offering art classes in church halls, village halls and such like. To be found at reference 5. Perhaps a fairly large operation with a fairly large team of local artists who drive things forward at the grass roots. Become a master in ten easy lessons. I wonder now what sort of people they attract. Do they publish any demographics?

Followed by mincemeat and apple tart, on this occasion much improved by the provision of warm yellow custard. Plus some impromptu bread pudding, made with a stump of brown bread, for BH. In the white enamel pie dish.

A drop of Mademoiselle from Tracy-sur-Loire, via Guildford. Plus a drop of Calvados.

All mixed up with being reminded by the NYRB about Sybille Bedford, on the account there rather a strange bird. It then took me about 30 seconds to recover her biography of Aldous Huxley from its shelf. Maybe 180 seconds to recover 'The Legacy', perhaps her most well known book. Not bad given that reference 4 suggests that it is getting on for a decade ago that I last read it. Right behind the bottle.

From there, for some reason, we moved onto Tower Bridge and the number of times it opened each year. I think we came up with the number of 6,000 at peak and around 1,000 now. Given that opening the bridge only provided access to the short stretch between London Bridge - which does not open and which has been there in one form or another for centuries - and Tower Bridge, a stretch which might include wharves but which includes no docks, what on earth is all this traffic? With the figures excluding barges which fit underneath, even Thames barges, as their masts can be pivoted down without stopping.

With the grand opening at the end of the 19th century captured in a painting by one William Wyllie. My researches continue.

After a pause, we moved onto Scrabble, where our combined score was around 530. I won comfortably, despite my being in possession of three 'i's when BH went out.

Still snowing, so a swift march around the block instead of a brick walk. Quite exhilarating as it turned out. 

Given that for once in a while there was some white bread, as noticed at reference 3, followed by cheese and onion rolls. Like bacon sandwiches, not the same on brown.

Followed by some Mozart violin sonata, in the Pauk & Frankl version from the Oxfam shop in Tavistock. The first time for quite some time.

PS: in the course of fighting my way through Windows indexing the blog archive for 'sybille', which took some time, I found that the phrase 'health and safety' (or health & safety) crops up surprisingly often in post titles. I clearly have some issue with the subject. From where I associate to the days when the Health and Safety Executive was a Grade 2 command within the Department of Employment Group, then headquartered in Baynard's House in Bayswater, handy for interesting places to lunch. An executive which had absorbed the factory inspectorate and the alkali inspectorate, both relics of the days when we still did such things. Do they still exist in some attenuated form?

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/03/malden-rushett-and-one-tweet.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/01/boiled-beef.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/02/festival-of-white.html.

Reference 4: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2011/04/health-safety.html.

Reference 5: https://www.theseasonsartclass.com/. 'We incorporate a happy, relaxed feel to our friendly, fun, easy step by step lessons, providing not just a high level of tuition to help develop potential artists, but a bubbly social gathering that all our students look forward to attending'.