Silver linings

I have my computer back - or rather, Mark has changed my broken computer for the identical one we bought for the music room last year.  He's reloaded the basics and I have most of my data back in place, even if all those sign-in passwords, bookmarks and so on need replacing.  So, the back up program did its job ok with all of that - what's missing is all photographs taken since February (though thankfully, I wrote our holiday pics to a dvd recently....phew!)  Hopefully, they're all still there on the old hard drive and he'll be able to retrieve them in the next few days, now we're out of crisis management mode.

We (I!) have reassessed our (my!) backup routines and have invested in two 1Tb external hard disks in John Lewis yesterday and music and photo storage is hopefully more secure as a result. 

Hopefully, that's it as far as "learning experiences" go this week. 

On a more positive note, the time gained from not sitting here at a keyboard has been well used.  Here's the evidence:

Not to mention another project used as occupational therapy which I'll blog about later.

Well, I had to find something to do, didn't I?

Update on Sunday, September 20, 2009 at 5:04PM by Gill Thomas

A shout of triumph was a good indicator of success on the retrieving lost files front.  Looks like I shall soon have all photos and other treasures restored...

Do we have fun or what?

Having a bit of a crisis

Because my computer isn't working right now and I'm sitting at Mark's pc wondering if I can work out how to upload some photos and blog about my day.  Though it's scheduled to back up automatically and has been retrieved successfully in the past, things don't look so good right now and my earlier optimism is fading.

Spooky thing is, it's exactly a year since this happened

What is it about the third Thursday in September, then?

Squirrelling

I'm lucky to have good friends.  The sort of friends who always think of me when the sloes are there for the picking.  Who are clever enough to find them even when others fail and who, this year, did the whole thing twice, simply because having gathered me a couple of bagsfull, they found better, riper, more juicy berries a week or two later.

So today was sloe gin day.

Having done my reputation as a pillar of the community no good whatsoever by buying gin in quantity from Asda this morning, we've spent the afternoon decanting last year's jewel-like liquid into bottles and putting together the 2009 vintage.

This bluey-glass bottle looked so pretty with the pastel pink coming from the sloes as they began to steep in the sugared gin.  But this was just the overflow, for I'd already filled a demijohn.

I think it's going to be a good year.

Look, the ruby red juices are already starting to flow.

As well as the sloe gin, I also prepared some courgettes and onions for a  preserve shared by our friend Tonie, in Ticino.  We enjoyed her Zucchetti so very much, we brought home a jar of them and the recipe too.

Plus and as well, there's bread rising for today's loaf.  We're trying a rye blend today.

All of which goes some way to explain why the draining board looks a little like this now.

Late Summer Sunday

Cobnuts, for the Hairy Bikers Kentish Cobnut cake 

They took quite a while to shell, but what beautiful individual markings on each nut...like woodgrain.  The cake is so-so and we think we'd rather eat the nuts.

Out in the garden after lunch, taking in the warmth of a late summer afternoon, these caryopteris bushes were humming with the sound of bees.  Almost every flower had a bee sitting on it.

Meanwhile, someone else was enjoying one or two of the last plums. 

Lunch in the City

Mark had a lunch meeting in London yesterday so on the pretext of keeping him company on the train, I went up for the day too, for there was an exhibition I quite fancied seeing.  Edward graciously accepted my invitation to lunch and immediately booked us a table at the new Terence Conran restaurant Lutyens.

A day in London is an opportunity to get my eyebrows sorted, so a quick call into Blink in Selfridges is required.  Yesterday, I stumbled into a dark, glossy black corner of the basement and was greeted by a young man explaining the concept behind The Icecreamists.  Sadly, 10.30am wasn't the best time to try one of their signature ice cream cocktails, 'The Sex Pistol': Viagra Ice Cream served as a shot in a pink water pistol, but I'm sure that later in the day, they'd have rather more customers!

The surreal continued, for immediately beyond the ice cream parlour, there was a wall of Christmas decorations - yes, the season has already begun!

As always, I was in plenty of time so hopped off the bus a stop or two early to walk to the restaurant along a street I've only driven along before.  I spent some time looking around St Clement Danes , thinking how quiet this little traffic island is, in spite of being on one of the busiest thoroughfares in the capital.  Across on one side of the road, there stand the Royal Courts of Justice

whilst on the other side, there's the original Twinings Tea Shop, a listed building currently undergoing renovation (one reference cites this as the "oldest shop in London" but I'm fairly sure that's not correct)

Entering the City of London past Temple Bar, and walking up Fleet Street, I passed the entrance to the Law Courts branch of Lloyds Bank and glimpsed inside through the open door, doing a double take as I did.  Stepping inside the foyer, I spent ten minutes enjoying the beautiful Royal Doulton tiles which decorated the entire entrance hall

Gorgeous colours!

By now, it was time to step on it a bit and meet Edward, already there waiting amongst the suited and booted bankers enjoying a Friday lunchtime in this fine new restaurant.  Lovely to enjoy his company over a pretty good meal, catching up with the goings on and wonder where any signs of a recession are to be found - not here, not now, that's for sure.

He headed back to the office after lunch, I retraced my steps to the Courtauld Institute and the exhibition, which I really enjoyed.  Equally fascinating, however, was the discovery of Lord Lee of Fareham's role in this place thanks to a photograph of Old Quarries, Avening, on the wall there.  I knew that the property (now a residential home owned by the Home Farm Trust)  had been owned by Lord Lee; I knew that artworks from the National Gallery had been stored there during the war, for safe keeping.  But I hadn't realised that Lord Lee had been such an influential and powerful figure in his day and finding the familiar photograph in the same gallery as so many treasures was quite a surprise.

To Trafalgar Square then, to meet Mark and take a quick look at what was happening on the fourth plinth (not a lot) and a cup of tea in the National Gallery Cafe before heading back to Paddington for the train home.