In view of the courgette mountain we are building up at Aspen House, I thought a quick glance at the Kenya Settlers’ Cookery Book would not go amiss. After all, you never know where you are going to find that gem of a recipe. Silly me! There aren’t going to be any recipes for courgettes [...]
Over the hot weeks of the summer, we found evidence of new visitors to the garden – a few rabbit droppings on the lawn, a hole or two dug up in the flower beds, a couple of new mole hills up by the compost bin and an old coat left on one of the benches. [...]
So that’s it then – into our fifth year at Aspen House. In the absence of another bottle of Bird in Hand Pinot Noir, we celebrated with a bottle of Tom Oliver’s excellent perry. It went really well with our courgettes. The start of our fifth year has also been marked in a totally unexpected [...]
The nineteenth of August. Unless it is your birthday today, the nineteenth of August is notably dull as a date. It certainly doesn’t have the ring of the Glorious 12th. Nor does it possess the charisma of certain other calendric milestones, such as the Fifth of November. In fact, the nineteenth of August is just [...]
Well, what a strange week. I know we are in the Year of the Dog, but no one told us about the Week of the Tooth. That is what it has been at Aspen House. One of our guests, on a 7-night stay, fell victim to toothache on her third morning. After having missed out [...]
We have a bit of a conundrum on our hands this week. Just recently we have spotted a blackbird with a gammy wing hopping about in the back yard. Regular readers, like us, might well be saying, “Aha! Upf’rit is back.” And indeed this seems to be the case. What we say is, “If it [...]
Hands up who has seen Fantasia? And do you recall the scene with Mickey Mouse playing the Sorcerer’s Apprentice? Well, in that case you understand exactly what is going on with our courgette patch. Of course, it is a well known fact that courgette plants are somewhat prolific. We were fully expecting to get a [...]
Here’s one for Lynne Truss, the bad grammar watchdog . . . We spotted a people carrier the other day, evidently owned by a taxi firm, judging from the message on its bodywork: ‘Danny’s Cabs – no journey to big or to small.’ I thought most taxi firms would go anywhere if the price was [...]
Gaaargh! Another bit of Tesco packaging in a bedroom bin! This time it is a Tesco Healthy Living’ product – ‘ready to eat chunky flamegrilled chicken’, complete with the usual visual hook, a colourful ‘serving suggestion’. Its health messages are loud and clear: less than 2% fat! Only 83 calories per 70g! (half the packet) [...]
Clearing the bins from the rooms following the departure of our guests this morning, we spotted some packaging emblazoned with the Tesco finest logo and containing ‘2 fresh cream scones’ According to the description, these are ‘golden sultana scones filled with a lavish blend of fresh whipped cream and rich strawberry conserve.’ Sounds wonderful. The [...]