when you see the stuff that the goats manage to eat their way through it is hard to imagine that all they have at the front of their top jaw is a hard pad.
Quite a relaxing day today, and I woke up feeling rather smug and 'grown up' for not drinking too much wine at last night's dinner with friends, and getting home on the right side of 1 a.m.
I did a bit of baking, including a fruit cake that I have been meaning to do for some time for an old farmer who lives on the outskirts of the village and turns up at regular intervals with a car boot full of currants, gooseberries, beetroots or parsnips for me. I have never been too sure why I have been singled out for these treats, but suspect it is something to do with the fact that when his wife was dying she moved into her recently deceased mother's house just near ours and I often used to cook extra quantities and plate them up a meal each. He has never said as much, but I suspect that that is his reason. He is quite a character - baling twine holding up his trousers, and one less tooth every time I see him, and he lives on a small farm where he has refused to install electricity, apparently because his father didn't have it. He drives a battered, ancient car and when you see him ahead of you in the road your heart sinks because you know that you wont be going over 25 mph for a good few miles because there is nowhere to overtake. In fact time seems to have little impact on his life, and many is the time I have come down the garden from feeding the animals to see him sitting in our kitchen talking to the kids, and I know that I am in for a long visit! It makes me realise how much of a rush we live our lives in, because I often feel a bit impatient when he is here and there should be more time for things like this, because when you get talking to him you are regaled with tales of terrible winters years ago when the snow lay on the ground for weeks and weeks and the drifts were so high that the cattle walked over the tops of the hedges and escaped from their fields. It also never fails to amaze me, that this man, who when you first met him you would think had probably never left the county, let alone the country, has traveled to China, Zanzibar, Namibia, and has friends all over the world.
Anyway, cake done, I got well into the domestic goddess vibe and made dinner of duck breasts in orange sauce (Angus' request) with dauphinoise potatoes, braised red cabbage and green beans, all followed up with my first attempt at sticky toffee pudding, with toffee sauce and cream - Nigella eat your heart out!
Great shot - it looks like he is laughing at you!! Wonderful narrative - the old man sound so interesting - he should write his stories down!! Dinner sounds wonderful!!
Great shot , were you sharing a joke at the time ? Village life would not be the same without these great old characters who never will comply to the rat race we live in . Super page of your diary ( you should write a book !! ) And your dinner sounds divine !! Love the goat-- A fav
Flipping heck you've gone even more 'All Creatures Great and Small' than usual - he sounds like a perfect candidate for the next film (I saw the old one in a random bit of telly recently and it was still fab). I think I'll knock up an apple crumble for my elderly Greek neighbour - his family look after him so I don't tend to worry about him but he puts up with a lot from us! Shame he doesn't really speak English as I'm sure he has tales to tell as well. You should get your tape recorder out next time he comes round - I so wish we'd recorded my elderly aunts!
Would have been such a mistake to look at your thumb nail & commented without looking large & have missed this great story....your elderly farmer sounds a great character but not to be under estimated & thought of as a fool...he has you sussed out as a warm generous neighbour so a canny man!!
I like the cheeky goat too!
@judithg@jantan I have my elderly late aunt who lived until 93 all on tape telling about her days as a Major in the Queen Alexandras Royal Nursings Corps...so grateful to Northumbrian radio for doing a programme & giving us copies!
I like the cheeky goat too!