It seems like years since I was blogging on a regular basis. It has been months since my last confession blog post (8th July 2016).

In the interim… life has been busy, fun, and family filled.

I/we are fortunate that our sibling circle is still intact.

We may be hovering on the upper shelf, but we are blessed that our families are now increased by two generations! For my part, I have one daughter, a son-in-love, seven nieces, three nephews with a younger generation of nine and counting! We are indeed blessed.

The highlight of our month of sharing in July was a gathering in the house where we were born and the garden where we were reared, still the home of our youngest sibling: my sister. Special thanks must go to her for allowing an invasion of over thirty wonderful, talented & colourful characters. We each contributed by providing the food, booze and soft drinks for the day, from the oldest to the youngest grand niece, who stirred and tasted the chocolate for the making of Krispie buns! The boys were not left out: Sean’s guacamole was a great hit with everyone and now world famous!

The little people were a happy bunch, playing and chatting while showing their talents using coloured chalks on the pathways. It allowed the grown-ups to natter and banter at will. Plenty of space to wander and catch up with folk we have not connected with for a few years and too meet some new additions to the circle.

The gathering in our old family home and garden was so much better and more relaxed than if it were held in an hotel. We ‘six’ were back in our childhood…days when the sun was always shining! We did have a day of glorious sunshine despite a spell of much cooler and wet weather in the weeks leading up to the special day.

The singing from all six of us in a group or as individuals provided great amusement for the younger generations, some of the ‘littl’uns’ stood open mouthed as they saw their elders in a totally new light. Each song had a story, or a memory of a previous generation now long gone, who on dark winter evenings (pre-television or central heating), found entertainment sitting around a turf fire and raising the rafters with song, laughter and cups of tea! Days when we sang our way through the thirty two counties of Ireland and each song had a verse for every county. These were intermingled with songs from Musical shows… we grew up knowing them all.

A time of memory making that will stay with us all our days.

)*()*()*(

By contrast, for me the last month and a half was dull, frustrating and painful. Things are improving. My taste, interest and appetite for food  and cooking have returned, though the painful problem has not yet been resolved. I no longer feel the need to sleep the days away, though a good uninterrupted night’s sleep would be welcome!

With no energy for gallivanting, visitors, house chores or blogging, I distracted myself with some sewing and crochet.

Over the next few weeks I hope to share some of the projects I completed and of course I have not yet shared properly my wonderful week in London and the bloggers I finally met in person even though we have been friends for years in Blogland.

I did find a little energy along the way for a spell of one-to-one crochet tutoring with a very attentive student!!

Buffy learing to crochet

No.

This time I am not talking about you Anders, I am in the mood for food.

Deep in concentration on my crochet the other week at Parlour Yarns… I realised the conversation had turned, as it often does, to food. Suggestions for dinner were asked for or shared. I cocked my ear to listen more intently.

They were talking Turnips of the Swedish variety. It is often known as yellow turnip, Russian turnip, or in America, rutabaga. In Scotland it is known as ‘neeps’.

I never knew it was a member of the cabbage family.

My only problem is cutting off the root, then peeling, and cutting the tough flesh into chunks.

It appeared on our table regularly while growing up, always boiled in chunks.

Jack liked it boiled with the potatoes and mashed – I now use it this way for the roof of my Shepherd’s pie with a little sprinkling of crushed crisps to finish it off.

Back to the Parlour…

Ray had the floor and was describing a simple way to produce wonderful golden yellow flesh without any peeling or chopping!

“No need to wash or peel it”. She intoned. “Bung it in the microwave and cook it for 20-25 minutes and there you have it!” 

When the laughter stopped someone asked how you knew if it was cooked?

Never stuck for an answer Ray said:

 “Stick a knitting needle in it!”

Jennifer, agreed that it worked well and I don’t think she had the sale of more needles in mind. 😉

Well, you know what is coming… I had to give it a try. I pulled out the swede/turnip from my Vegetable box.

Raw Turnip

I weighed it 900 grs. Placed it on a plate with a layer of kitchen paper over the top, set it in the Microwave ( mine is an E 1000W) on High power for ten minutes… I did not want any explosions. I tested it with a metal skewer at that stage and decide it did need more time. Two sessions of five minutes later (Ray was right!) I lifted it out onto the counter and let it sit a minute. There was a bread knife on the counter and I lifted it and cut the turnip in two as easily as a loaf of bread.

Microwaved turnip halved

The flesh was soft but not soggy. I spooned it out onto the plate and it mashed easily with a fork.

scooped out turnip flesh

There was more than one helping for me so I bagged the remainder and froze it. I had it yesterday with dinner and it was perfect.

I’ll do it this way in future, No struggling to peel or chop the raw turnip and the cooked shell of skin is as soft as a coarse baked potato skin.

In reply to my comment:

‘I am trying to break my self-imposed boundries and finally set some words on the page of my own blog… hopefully inspiration will flow over the next few days.’

Col suggested: ‘Usually a combination of oil and a monkey-wrench will untighten jammed outlets. 🙂‘

Well let me see…………….

I found the the oil, the monkey-wrench AND some inspiration.

Tools for inspiration!

It will have to wait until tomorrow, I have some dusting to do!

Where did I put my duster

UPDATE: I have broken my silence, changed the header and fixed my contact page!

Not me!

I am doing fine. I have been so fortunate, I never expected such a speedy result.

The bubble has cleared from my eye and I can see! I am still fiddling with eye drops four times a day which cause the pupil to remain dilated, thus my self imposed lack of online activity.

Crocheting proved to be easier on my eyes in the past few weeks and I am almost finished a cardigan/jacket… only about twenty more rows to go. Typical me, I see the cardigan in my head – no paper pattern, but it seems to be working out.

I am driving again and getting out when I can.

I hope to resume more regular blogging after I see the Consultant on Tuesday next, 22nd September.

Life is good… even if the evenings are drawing in and the mornings are cooler…. But that had other benefits:-

Drawing the curtains and cosying up to the fire!

BUT … Does our Province have to look like it is at half mast?

My world seems to be at half mast!