Regular readers will know that I have been struggling with postings to substack because my Apple hardware is ancient and I can no longer update the operating systems because tech companies like substack design their systems to operate with up-to-date operating systems. This is my latest attempt to overcome the problem with a little help from Susan. I have used this logitech keyboard with my iPad for a good few years to type letters and emails. Now I have got it working with substack, so I am keeping my fingers crossed. . .
I became a Guardian reader back in 1964 when the Labour national newspaper The Daily Herald folded, and the The Observer in 1993 when it was taken over by The Guardian. If I could have only one part of each newspaper to read, these would be them:
‘In Real Life’ from The Observer and ‘Country Diary’ from The Guardian, which is a single column on the paper’s Letters Page. I am hoping the papers will be pleased that I am sharing my love of these particular features with the few substack readers that I have. This has been a particular good weekend. . .
I love the premise behind both and the piece by Olivia Ovenden headed ‘Upper crust’. I am not particularly a fan of baguettes. Too many crumbs, but when I make a half-brioche loaf in a Pullman bread tin, as I do every few days, I will let it cool for several hours, then use my bamboo bread slicer to cut the loaf into fourteen thick slices, eight of which I will freeze so I can make mid-morning buttered toast for me and Susan, which we eat every day why, and four slices will be used to make strong mature cheddar cheese sandwiches, which are buttered of course. Nothing else. They are heavenly. I do substitute watercress for cheddar quite frequently, which is just as heavenly, but the point of telling you this is because what Olivia Ovenden is writing about the claim that ‘The world’s best sandwich is a ham and (Normandy) butter baguette’ is made in Lat Petit Vendome in Paris and I the only quibble I have is what makes a sandwich? I thought it was two buttered slices of good bread with a filling of your choosing. Having said this, it is a great little story, which I think deserves to reach as wide an audience as possible.
As for ‘Country Diary’column by Nic Wilson, headed ‘Hitchin, Hertfordshire’, I love it. It is about sparrow chicks, their parents, dragonfly nymphs and a pond. It is a painting in words. Simply beautiful.
Our garden in half-formal and half-wild, with a small meadow separating one from the other. Our pond is in the wild half and more than half-empty right now thanks to all the hot weather we are having in middle England right now. Beeston on the south-west edge of Nottingham to be precise. They are part of the same conurbation and I love them both.
Three quarters of DNA is rural, made up of my maternal grandmother and my paternal Irish grandparents (who I know next to nothing about, yet I have little interest in the countryside beyond reading about it. I like urban industrial townscapes and spent much of my life exploring them. I would like to read a daily column about towns in The Guardian.
Well, it is 6.17pm and I should have started tea 30 minutes ago!. Today it is leek pasties I made this morning. If you were here we would happily share.
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.