Today was Friday so regular Dear Readers will know which market she was going to.. yes ..she went to London Bridge by the Jubilee Line and into Borough Market. She had her Japanese food thermos FULL of tasty beef stew with her, for she had plans to feed Archie,Chris, Joseph, Joe and herself each a big mug.
There is nothing like hot beef stew on a cold day and this was a particularly fine one. The meat had marinated a full 24 hours out of the fridge in olive oil with garlic, dried orange peel, oregano, barberries, pomegranate molasses, lots of black pepper and allspice. There were carrots and parsnips as well and the gravy was truly unctuous..
It had cooked very slowly on Wednesday for three hours and then sat, stewing in its' own juice, for a another day and a half, she heated it up this morning for a full half hour before filling the magic thermos. It was totally unexected by all the men who run the stalls which back onto Ellie's Dairy stall at Borough but, my gosh, it was much appreciated by every one of them!
As it was such a chilly day, she was wearing her old but still, even after twenty two years, immaculate Swedish parka as well as her duffle coat! She was wearing gloves but had mittens in her bag with the thermos but sadly forgot to pick up the basket of ripe Pomegranates that she thought would make a lovely pudding.
Never mind, as none of the men knew that a stew was coming, let alone a pud, no-one missed them!
All the usual suspects were all there, plus a large gang of some extraordinarily 'funny' women who were perfectly normally and, quite smartly, dressed but had antlers perched on their heads with battery operated LED lights.. and they were last seen heading for the wine bar! As if they hadn't already had enough! But heyho.. it's December, the season of silly behaviour, is it not?
And talking of silly behaviour, wait until you hear about what happened last night, right in the middle of it!
She and I were fast asleep, as all good girls should be at approx 03.00 hours in the early hours of nod, when she heard seeds plopping out of my yumyum dish, she growled and told me "to go to sleep", only for more seeds to hit the floor of my night house!
Insensed at such 'disobedience', she switched on the light, just in time to see a sleek brown person abseiling down the bars of my night house.. aka cage.. plopping onto the floor and disappearing at high speed! A fat mouse! But how did she / he get there!
And then she saw another, who was literally frozen on the chain pretending not to be there! The mice were coming down the chain which was attached to the boards that are placed across the tops of the cupboard! These chains were keeping my night house suspended in the air and we had thought it was 'mouse proof', obviously it was not!
Clever bastards!
So she jumped out of bed, scooped me and my yumyum bowl up, bowl was put up high on a ledge out of fat mouse reach and we went back to bed. Where we snuggled down and slept peacefully until a reasonable hour when we woke up, got up and went to break our fast with eggs, hummus, coffee and rosy pink grapefruit.
When she got home from the market this evening, she dismantled my night cage and found the base of another table, this base is veryvery old and collapsible, she put it on top of the two small tables and topped it off with the metal base of my other cage which is much larger than the base. Hopefully, the mice won't be able to climb up the base and get over the metal base.
Here's hoping! For none of those fat naughty mice were at all frightened of Beaky! But now it is time for us to go to bed, for she has 'stuff' to do tomorrow and we need to get a good nights sleep, which hopefully will be 'mouse free'!
GeeGee Parrot.
December 2nd, 2016.
There is nothing like hot beef stew on a cold day and this was a particularly fine one. The meat had marinated a full 24 hours out of the fridge in olive oil with garlic, dried orange peel, oregano, barberries, pomegranate molasses, lots of black pepper and allspice. There were carrots and parsnips as well and the gravy was truly unctuous..
It had cooked very slowly on Wednesday for three hours and then sat, stewing in its' own juice, for a another day and a half, she heated it up this morning for a full half hour before filling the magic thermos. It was totally unexected by all the men who run the stalls which back onto Ellie's Dairy stall at Borough but, my gosh, it was much appreciated by every one of them!
As it was such a chilly day, she was wearing her old but still, even after twenty two years, immaculate Swedish parka as well as her duffle coat! She was wearing gloves but had mittens in her bag with the thermos but sadly forgot to pick up the basket of ripe Pomegranates that she thought would make a lovely pudding.
Never mind, as none of the men knew that a stew was coming, let alone a pud, no-one missed them!
All the usual suspects were all there, plus a large gang of some extraordinarily 'funny' women who were perfectly normally and, quite smartly, dressed but had antlers perched on their heads with battery operated LED lights.. and they were last seen heading for the wine bar! As if they hadn't already had enough! But heyho.. it's December, the season of silly behaviour, is it not?
And talking of silly behaviour, wait until you hear about what happened last night, right in the middle of it!
She and I were fast asleep, as all good girls should be at approx 03.00 hours in the early hours of nod, when she heard seeds plopping out of my yumyum dish, she growled and told me "to go to sleep", only for more seeds to hit the floor of my night house!
Insensed at such 'disobedience', she switched on the light, just in time to see a sleek brown person abseiling down the bars of my night house.. aka cage.. plopping onto the floor and disappearing at high speed! A fat mouse! But how did she / he get there!
And then she saw another, who was literally frozen on the chain pretending not to be there! The mice were coming down the chain which was attached to the boards that are placed across the tops of the cupboard! These chains were keeping my night house suspended in the air and we had thought it was 'mouse proof', obviously it was not!
Clever bastards!
So she jumped out of bed, scooped me and my yumyum bowl up, bowl was put up high on a ledge out of fat mouse reach and we went back to bed. Where we snuggled down and slept peacefully until a reasonable hour when we woke up, got up and went to break our fast with eggs, hummus, coffee and rosy pink grapefruit.
When she got home from the market this evening, she dismantled my night cage and found the base of another table, this base is veryvery old and collapsible, she put it on top of the two small tables and topped it off with the metal base of my other cage which is much larger than the base. Hopefully, the mice won't be able to climb up the base and get over the metal base.
Here's hoping! For none of those fat naughty mice were at all frightened of Beaky! But now it is time for us to go to bed, for she has 'stuff' to do tomorrow and we need to get a good nights sleep, which hopefully will be 'mouse free'!
GeeGee Parrot.
December 2nd, 2016.
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