While I was away and not posting, I was busy cooking and writing about my progress.
I have a small problem with both gluten and milk and finally I've accepted the need to eat gluten-free and to drink lactose free milk, and it's just fine. For years I've suffered unnecessarily, because I didn't want to give up eating some of my favourite foods - namely biscuits and fresh home made bread or cakes - and so I gave myself a great deal of trouble.
Earlier this year I decided enough was enough, as I was also having to take a daily pill to help me cope with my difficulties, and since replacing some of my favourite foods, and various other items, I've felt better, have stopped having to take any pills at all and am feeling pretty pleased with myself.
And I'm also writing about my new cooking and eating routine and trying to organise my own recipe book, which is something my son has wanted me to do for quite a long time!
So life has been very full and interesting but I've missed talking to all of you out there, kindly reading my blog and I'm going to write about food for you. Food is terribly important to me and not just the eating but also for the cooking, research and writing about and reviewing.
Bye for now
Daisy
Tuesday, 18 June 2013
Family history searches...
The trouble with searching for family history etc. is when you hit a brick wall and find you cannot navigate a way forward.
It's so frustrating. Equally irritating is the lack of family evidence held by your own relatives, and/or the reluctance of more elderly family members to divulge what they might know of family history ie their siblings,
their parents family and extended family details.
I could really be totally reduced to tears by my lack of earlier questioning of my family, many of whom are now sadly beyond my scope to question them!
My father and parental grandfather were of the opinion that the past was just exactly that, a distant land closed t9o any further observations or questioning. They just didn't want to talk about their past at all, and in all honesty, I can understand their reluctance to talk as they were of the generations involved with the Great War and WW2, and they must have seen and been involved in ghastly and awful happenings throughout both conflicts.
I really do understand the horror they must have wanted to forget, block out of memory and never return to it again, but, and it really is a very big but, I now find myself desperate to know what they went through, saw and experienced.
I genuinely believe to know, is to honour the lives of family loved ones gone before, in the great scheme of things. One can find some detail and match it up with reports, newspaper articles and books written by those who could write of their experiences.
So I guess the way around a brick wall is to look for other and differently sourced material and to try to discover a way of forging a link between what you know and what you are able to discover through alternative research?
Ah well, back to the drawing board!
Toodle loo
Daisy
It's so frustrating. Equally irritating is the lack of family evidence held by your own relatives, and/or the reluctance of more elderly family members to divulge what they might know of family history ie their siblings,
their parents family and extended family details.
I could really be totally reduced to tears by my lack of earlier questioning of my family, many of whom are now sadly beyond my scope to question them!
My father and parental grandfather were of the opinion that the past was just exactly that, a distant land closed t9o any further observations or questioning. They just didn't want to talk about their past at all, and in all honesty, I can understand their reluctance to talk as they were of the generations involved with the Great War and WW2, and they must have seen and been involved in ghastly and awful happenings throughout both conflicts.
I really do understand the horror they must have wanted to forget, block out of memory and never return to it again, but, and it really is a very big but, I now find myself desperate to know what they went through, saw and experienced.
I genuinely believe to know, is to honour the lives of family loved ones gone before, in the great scheme of things. One can find some detail and match it up with reports, newspaper articles and books written by those who could write of their experiences.
So I guess the way around a brick wall is to look for other and differently sourced material and to try to discover a way of forging a link between what you know and what you are able to discover through alternative research?
Ah well, back to the drawing board!
Toodle loo
Daisy
Sunday, 16 June 2013
A Dog's life........
We all love our dogs and they love us, and isn't it wonderful for us and them - a mutually beneficial society.
They love us, guard our homes and possessions, protect and guard our children and help and encourage us to get our daily exercise. Walking without a dog lacks oomph and enjoyment.
The family pet Dalmatian, our mother's dog, was an enormous presence in our lives. Crescent Lady Candida - Lady for short, used to take me for walks and, off the lead and running free on the nearest recreation ground or park, made me hoot with laughter; just watching her tear across the ground; so obviously enjoying the freedom sensation and loving every minute.
The grooming, feeding and clearing up after a walk was Lady being with us, and wanting to eat whatever we ate but never at the table, and sharing our days. She didn't like the grapes we ate but the oranges were a great favourite of hers. She would have eaten all the chocolate possible, if we had allowed her to do so, but chocolate is poison to dogs, as I'm sure we all know.
Yes, dogs are wonderful and friendly, loving and protective, and it's great fun being able to take them out for their daily walkies!
However, the one aspect of dog owning, and an awful chore which some dog owners taken no account of, yet which must be taken seriously by everyone, is the question of the owners' responsibility in the matter of clearing up after his or her dog when they defecate on a public highway,byway, pavement or green space - or anywhere really. Unfortunately, accidents will happen anywhere.
Local governing bodies provide bins for the collection of such material. Dog wardens patrol public areas where dogs are walked. Notices about such happenings and preventative measures are to be found in relevant places, and we all agree that dog owners and walkers should be watchful and responsible for the dogs in their care, when out exercising their pets or charges.
Yet dog faeces are still to be encountered when out walking, and seen littering the areas where people live and work and play. I have even seen poo left adjacent to the relevant waste bin.
It is an unpleasant thing to clear up such matter but, it only takes a moment to stoop down and retrieve what has been left, and dispose of it in a handy receptacle. Your dog cannot deal with such matter. It is the owner-walker's responsibility to do so.
Why, oh why, is it impossible for some dog owners or dog walkers to be responsible for the animals in their care?
How they are able to ignore their responsibility towards their pets and to their fellow dog-owners, and to all mankind, is utterly beyond me.
We need more bins and a great many more dog wardens, somebody please.
And more education and dog poop..!
Daisy
They love us, guard our homes and possessions, protect and guard our children and help and encourage us to get our daily exercise. Walking without a dog lacks oomph and enjoyment.
The family pet Dalmatian, our mother's dog, was an enormous presence in our lives. Crescent Lady Candida - Lady for short, used to take me for walks and, off the lead and running free on the nearest recreation ground or park, made me hoot with laughter; just watching her tear across the ground; so obviously enjoying the freedom sensation and loving every minute.
The grooming, feeding and clearing up after a walk was Lady being with us, and wanting to eat whatever we ate but never at the table, and sharing our days. She didn't like the grapes we ate but the oranges were a great favourite of hers. She would have eaten all the chocolate possible, if we had allowed her to do so, but chocolate is poison to dogs, as I'm sure we all know.
Yes, dogs are wonderful and friendly, loving and protective, and it's great fun being able to take them out for their daily walkies!
However, the one aspect of dog owning, and an awful chore which some dog owners taken no account of, yet which must be taken seriously by everyone, is the question of the owners' responsibility in the matter of clearing up after his or her dog when they defecate on a public highway,byway, pavement or green space - or anywhere really. Unfortunately, accidents will happen anywhere.
Local governing bodies provide bins for the collection of such material. Dog wardens patrol public areas where dogs are walked. Notices about such happenings and preventative measures are to be found in relevant places, and we all agree that dog owners and walkers should be watchful and responsible for the dogs in their care, when out exercising their pets or charges.
Yet dog faeces are still to be encountered when out walking, and seen littering the areas where people live and work and play. I have even seen poo left adjacent to the relevant waste bin.
It is an unpleasant thing to clear up such matter but, it only takes a moment to stoop down and retrieve what has been left, and dispose of it in a handy receptacle. Your dog cannot deal with such matter. It is the owner-walker's responsibility to do so.
Why, oh why, is it impossible for some dog owners or dog walkers to be responsible for the animals in their care?
How they are able to ignore their responsibility towards their pets and to their fellow dog-owners, and to all mankind, is utterly beyond me.
We need more bins and a great many more dog wardens, somebody please.
And more education and dog poop..!
Daisy
Wednesday, 12 June 2013
Don't you just love eating cream cakes????
Well, I wasn't about to eat one, not that it was too early in the day, or anything silly on inconsequential like that but, out hopping this morning, for the basic necessities,my hand did hover over the crisply packaged and cellophane-d cake boxes filled with Cream Slices, Chocolate Eclairs, and sugar-coated, jam Doughnuts.......yummy!
And it was His birthday......but what stopped me buying such a box was the immediate thought-transference to another time and another situation. There I was with my mother, indulging in a weekend-treat occasion, when a cream slice was the only thing to eat; I could taste that same pastry as we did then, and my heart missed a beat as my hand faltered....
Isn't it odd how such recollections can be summoned up, in an instant, by a sight, a sound or a tantalising whiff of a once familiar fragrance....now sadly gone, but held captive in the heart until such a moment of recall jerks one back into a previous time!
Thank goodness for such occurrences, our lives would be so much the poorer without these recollections and lost folk would surely be lost for ever. Death may be an end to someone's life but their presence need never be lost to you, for you hold them in your heart from where they can never be dislodged.
Well, where was I....oh yes, in deep contemplation over the cream cake stand in my local supermarket, buying some of life's not so essential necessities!
And in any case, our present lives are not without cake indulgences, for I made a pink Christening cake for last weekend, and as it was the Dear Man's birthday yesterday, and we're all going out for a birthday dinner party at a local hostelry tonight, for which I'm making him a cherry cake covered with Chocolate Ganache....we are very definitely not without CAKE!!!!
I've been occupied quite heavily with cake making these last few weeks, and cooking gluten-free foods for my other blog, and blogging and gardening which is why you've not heard from me at all.
And my iPhone lost itself from the top of my Mazda as I drove out of Chiswick House and Garden's car park, after my visit to this lovely location in the second week of May! My goodness,, what a silly thing to let happen to one, hey????
How we have allowed ourselves to become so dependent on a 'phone is rather alarming, isn't it. Mostly I use mine for taking photographs as its camera is really quite brilliant, and with my food blog needing to be made more interesting by the insertion of lovely food images, it's very useful to have my 'phone on hand and easily usable!!!
Technology is amazing really, just as long as one can keep up with some of its ramifications, implications and uses....and isn't it great fun, anyway!!
And grandchildren are always nearby or on-hand to show one how to do something with ones latest "toy".
Toodle loo
Daisy xxx
And it was His birthday......but what stopped me buying such a box was the immediate thought-transference to another time and another situation. There I was with my mother, indulging in a weekend-treat occasion, when a cream slice was the only thing to eat; I could taste that same pastry as we did then, and my heart missed a beat as my hand faltered....
Isn't it odd how such recollections can be summoned up, in an instant, by a sight, a sound or a tantalising whiff of a once familiar fragrance....now sadly gone, but held captive in the heart until such a moment of recall jerks one back into a previous time!
Thank goodness for such occurrences, our lives would be so much the poorer without these recollections and lost folk would surely be lost for ever. Death may be an end to someone's life but their presence need never be lost to you, for you hold them in your heart from where they can never be dislodged.
Well, where was I....oh yes, in deep contemplation over the cream cake stand in my local supermarket, buying some of life's not so essential necessities!
And in any case, our present lives are not without cake indulgences, for I made a pink Christening cake for last weekend, and as it was the Dear Man's birthday yesterday, and we're all going out for a birthday dinner party at a local hostelry tonight, for which I'm making him a cherry cake covered with Chocolate Ganache....we are very definitely not without CAKE!!!!
I've been occupied quite heavily with cake making these last few weeks, and cooking gluten-free foods for my other blog, and blogging and gardening which is why you've not heard from me at all.
And my iPhone lost itself from the top of my Mazda as I drove out of Chiswick House and Garden's car park, after my visit to this lovely location in the second week of May! My goodness,, what a silly thing to let happen to one, hey????
How we have allowed ourselves to become so dependent on a 'phone is rather alarming, isn't it. Mostly I use mine for taking photographs as its camera is really quite brilliant, and with my food blog needing to be made more interesting by the insertion of lovely food images, it's very useful to have my 'phone on hand and easily usable!!!
Technology is amazing really, just as long as one can keep up with some of its ramifications, implications and uses....and isn't it great fun, anyway!!
And grandchildren are always nearby or on-hand to show one how to do something with ones latest "toy".
Toodle loo
Daisy xxx
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