More Prattle from Povey

  I have a consultative appointment for Zion's likely future surgery on Dec 5th at 9:30 a.m., much sooner than I had anticipated.  The Hospital is about a forty five minute drive from my home. I've been able to e-mail all the pertinent information to the Hospital, including the Radiography slides from his recent exploratory surgery here in SRQ.  That should be helpful to the Ellenton Vet. In my previous posting I was not all that clear about Zion's malaise.  It is called   Peripheral Odontogenic Fibroma , a non   malignant growth. Zion's is on his lower jaw from the gum line and on to an incisor tooth. It can be left untreated with a risk:  that it will grow to the point that it causes problems for the gum line and for the teeth, leading to extractions. Of course I will opt for surgery.  Most outcomes are positive, and recovery time is swift.  It is my hope that Zion's surgery can be slated before Dec 15 (the day on which I...

To quote from the report of the biopsy of the mass on his lower jaw gum it is consistent with Peripheral Odontogenic Fibroma    See this link. https://animaldentalspecialist.com/peripheral-odontogenic-fibroma-pof/ There is an option of doing nothing. That does not seem to be wise. So, in due course Z will have surgery.  Canine dental surgeons are few and far between.  I hope that such a surgeon in Ellenton FL , 16 miles away will be able to (after consultation) be able to take us in. I'll wait until after I've had the surgery for my cataracts  (both eyes), but the dates have yet to be determined for those procedures.

when you spot an open space in your Supermarket's crowded parking lot, Only to find that a Motor Bike got there first!

  A New Jersey father at his son's same sex wedding celebration. NOT TO BE MISSED! Click on this link.  It will take you to the fabulous video https://youtu.be/peVTewkX-nU

                                                         Beans/Corn This ex-pat British man is very fond of the Heinz Company's Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce. The Irish Company called Bachelor also makes a very good product. I prefer these as a matter of reverse snobbery in the light of  British anti Irish prejudice. Many millions of Irish and British children have enjoyed Beans on Toast as a simple, tasty and nutritious snack.  Far too many eat   Bachelors  or Heinz Beans as the major and only item on a daily main meal. I like to add some canned or frozen corn for a bit of crunch! -------------------------------------------------------------------   Bridies A traditionally Scottish Meat Pie. Wonderful flakey pastry, wrapped around seasoned ground beef etc.  Delicious  Available   in Sa...

  Via Interstates I 75 and I 275 with a little bit of urban driving at both ends, 45 - 50 minutes. Interstates not too busy, with no hold ups. With my eye sight deteriorating (cataracts) I kept my driving to 60 mph. I can se the road clearly enough, but the road signs are fuzzy. With that in mind I will do no night driving until after the surgery. I'll see the surgeon (Cathleen McCabe, MD) for a consultation on 15th Dec 2022.  No date yet for the surgeries. The fellowship of the Table with my friends Ron and Char T, and their daughter E was wonderful. Good food, but with no pressure to have seconds. With due respect to my gracious hosts (and with no respect to the food industry) I must say that Turkey meat is vastly over rated.  I ate it with gratitude of course.  But it won't be on my plate until another year has passed. Zion was the star of the show.  He and E. flirted outrageously.

  I will try to remember that fellowship around the feasting table is more important than the food.    Our Thanksgiving meals are a complement to the pleasure of being with friends and family. Some will be alone.  A 'phone call saying that I am thinking about you and I love you will extend the fellowship beyond the table.  M

The nearby to my home Bobby Jones Golf Courses in Sarasota are being re-designed and re-made. It is City owned, with two 18 hole courses (a British and an American), with a 9 hole Executive course across the road. The City neglected this treasure for many years.  Each course was in bad shape, and the Clubhouse was miserable. But in a rare moment of wisdom the City Commissioners recently voted some Twenty five million dollars for a rebuild. When the work is done there will be but one 18th hole course (plus the renewed executive course). It gets better.  The un-used land will be transformed into a Nature Trail for we non-Golfers. We abutters are delighted that this lovely City owned 256 acre site will be preserved and not sold to Property Developers ( a.k.a. Retarders). We will have breathing space in p erpetua. -------------------------------------------------------------- Work began last week on the Nine Hole Executive Course. The work was a magnet for two Avian...

  Finan Haddie. Poached Eggs, and ** Galega Bread.  ** Galega Bread is the staff of life in Spanish Galicia.  Whole Foods carries their very fine version.

Afternoon of   Saturday 19th November 2022 Braden River at Jigg's Landing, Manatee County, Florida https://manatee.hosted.civiclive.com/departments/parks___natural_resources/parks__preserves___beaches/jiggs_landing_preserve I was there with my bff Ashley  (and  Zion) for a gig by a local Blue Grass group called Stumble Creek. I've had various obsessions in my life, e.g. a Model Railway; and Photography.  They usually last for about five years.  Blue Grass and Stumble Creek is my latest! https://www.stumblecreek.com (See BAND on the website)   The fiddle player and singer Sara is the grand-daughter of Joe R (one of the members of our Thursday Zoom group "Black Lives Matter"  ABOUT SARA (from the Website) Sara Stovall //  Vocals, Fiddle   When she was four years old, Sara ran into the kitchen where her mother was washing her little sister's birthday cake off the dishes, and she proceeded to pitch a hissy fit that climaxed in a de...

Finnan Haddie Wonderful poached or steamed, with a poached egg or two on top.   From: -------------------------------------------------------------------------    Butternut Squash, Apple and Pear Soup  Butternut Squash, Apple and Pear Soup (my cheating version). I started with this. Then I added an Asian Pear and a large Fuji Apple;  each peeled, cored, chopped and stewed; then liquefied  and added to the T.J. Soup. Better than good!

  The plot to sabotage our Condo. Assoc. budget meeting failed. Thanks to Defective Inspector jmp and other owners there are sufficient proxies to ensure that the meeting will have a legal quorum. This is in the best interests of all owners.  A year without a legal budget would have been disastrous.   If only the Jan 6th type insurrectionist had asked questions before he stirred the pot.

  I plan to spend the Thanksgiving Holiday (Nov 24th) with my dear friends Ron and Char T. who used to live in Sarasota, FL . They are now in St. Petersburg FL. I chatted with Char today and offered to bring Hasselback   Potatoes to the feast. Char accepted my offer and we ended our chat. 'Twas only then that I realized that I had been calling them Hackensack Potatoes   not Hasselback. Ooops!  

  A bit of my Condo, repaired by a neighbour after Hurricane Ian The damage could have have been repaired by the Condo. Association, but my neighbour beat them to it. AH YES  a Condominium Association to which I gladly pay monthly dues.  It's a bargain. The dues cover such items as:  Weekly Landscaping; Trash and Recycling Collection; Water and Sewer costs (we do not have individual meters); Cable T.V; Repairs to the exterior of each unit -  and a programme for regular exterior painting and roof replacement (covered by prudent reserves); Road maintenance  (our streets are private); Exterior sewer line repairs; Electricity for Street lights and the Club House; Swimming pool heating and repair;  The list goes on. Most importantly Property Insurance - essential in our tropical storm/hurricane prone area. Florida residents will know that the Property Insurance business is in complete disarray here.  So much so that only one of the seven...

  'Twas a Sunday morning.  I wandered out from my Harbourside Hotel to the City Centre. The Grand Parade had begun.  Civic leaders, the Anglican Bishop, the Roman Catholic Bishop, detachments from the Armed Forces, Girl Guides, Boy Scouts, Mounted Police, Wounded Warriors all headed to the Bristol Cenotaph for Remembrance Sunday observations. Armistice Day (11th November) is observed in the U.K.  with two minutes of silence, but the major observations are on the following Sunday. This began during World War 11 when men and woman could not be taken from their vital tasks on a work day. The idea of Sunday ceremonies is smart. Ordinary people  (the workers) and school children can be present on this semi day of rest. I was about 1/3 mile from the Cenotaph itself.  I could hear the music which is always played at the events: "Nimrod" by Sir Edward Elgar  (see below). The Bristol Cenotaph Precisely at 11:00 an Army Detachment fired ...

  Why (in Massachusetts and a few other States) are stores that sell beer, wine and liquors called Package Stores, (often Packies/Packys  in Mass.) https://patch.com/massachusetts/boston/only-massachusetts-why-liquor-store-called-packie

My fascinating post about the Cumberland Farms (Cumbys)  chain of Convenience Stores in the north eastern  U.S.A . went unloved and un noted.    (Tongue in cheek!) Nevertheless  I draw your attention to the  BMOC of the Convenience Stores business: There are two theories about the roots of 7/11   One asserts that the owner of an Indy Convenience Store in California realised that the 9:00 - 5:00 hours of his store were not useful to his patrons;  the ordinary everyday working men and women whose work day was not 9:00 - 5:00.    7:00 - 11:00 would better serve their needs. The other theory is that the 7/11 concept was introduced by the Southland Ice Co. in Dallas TX. 7/11 is now ubiquitous.  It owns or franchises 78,000 stores in 19 countries I can think of eight  7/11 stores not far from my home.  Some are small and shabby, like some CUMBYS. The one nearest to my home is my "go to"  for Gas/Petrol....

  I spotted something in my local 7/11 store the other day.  What a surprise, a Cumberland Farms product in a 7/11 store. Cumberland Farms  (or Cumbys),  is a convenience store chain;  well known in New England, parts of New York, and northern New Jersey. Life began for Cumbys when from 1938 on Vasilios and Aphrodite Haseotes created a huge dairy farm in Cumberland R.I.  They opened a Dairy Store in Bellingham MA in 1958. That store morphed into a chain with headquarters in Westborough MA Cumbys was/is never a store of choice.  It is/was the place to go when you'd run out of milk, eggs, bread; and maybe canned soups etc; and certainly cigarettes.  There might be beer and wine, depending on State laws. The stores were a bit drab, even shabby. I think that they were rarely seen in bigger Cities; but just about very small town in their catchment area had a Cumbys. The chain tried, without success, to move into the Florida Market. Hence my surpri...

  Tuesday 8th Nov 2022,  4:00 a.m. I took Zion out for his daily early morning "lifting the leg" ceremony. I saw what I thought  to be a bright waxing moon.  "That's odd", I thought,  "it was full moon yesterday". By 6:30 a.m. I was at Bayfront Park SRQ.  Michelle, one of the fine City workers asked "did you see the eclipse"? I responded " I didn't know there was supposed to be an eclipse". DUH    What I seen was not a new moon, but the final stages of a lunar eclipse. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Photo' from Axios.

  Cumberland Coil Sausage,  Hasselback Potato, Orange Pepper  (and a wee bit of H,P, Sauce)

  Bangers, bacon etc. Created  in Chicago by a British Ex-Pat using locally sourced fresh ingredients and traditional British/Irish recipes. VERY GOOD STUFF! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumberland_sausage Fabulous Chipolata Sausage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipolata Back Bacon This is the Bacon you first encountered on your breakfast plate in the U.K. or in  the Republic of Ireland.    You thought  that it was ham! 'Tis not a bit like the bacon you purchase in the U.S.A.   That's known as "Streaky Bacon" in Britain and Ireland. "So called" Canadian Bacon is back bacon.  It's good, but does not have the same taste as the U.K/ Ireland back.  It's all in the curing. My money is on the real thing .  I am more than  well pleased with the bacon and sausages  which I purchase here: https://jollyposhfoods.com Splurge and Enjoy

  Do you remember these? Under kitchen cabinet paper towel dispenser  (now out of fashion). They worked well enough for paper towels, but not for plastic cling wrap, Here is my hack for an easier way to access and dispense cling wrap. A bit of dowel or unused beading works better than those cardboard push-in tabs.

 He was a died in the wool imperialistic racist. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reflection on the United Kingdom having a Hindu Prime Minister. "The Tory Hindu revolution has seen it convert from a party that, historically, hated Hindus – and that is not too strong a word – to one that has pivoted enough towards the Hindus for the community to lose its old fear of the Tories. The Tories may not like being reminded of their hatred for Hindus, but inside No 10 Sunak will be unable to miss the portrait of the man who articulated it: Winston Churchill. As recorded in the diaries of Churchill’s Downing Street secretary, John Colville, on returning from Yalta in February 1945, “the PM said the Hindus were a foul race, ‘protected by their mere pullulation from the doom that is their due’. And he wished Bert Harris [head of the RAF Bomber Command] could send some of his surplus bombers to destroy them”. -----------------------------...

  So immediately recognizable throughout the world NOT Henry Ford's signature,  DESIGNED in 1907 TWEAKED through the years NO significance in the blue colour or the oval shape, What you see is what you get. ------------------------------------------------------------------ In the U.K. of my generation we never learned cursive. We were taught "joined up writing"!

  I like Pizza, but not well enough to make it a regular part of my diet.  It is more or less a semi-Annual treat. Today was the day.  It's on Cauliflower Crust which makes it nice and crisp.  I added meatballs before cooking as the veggie topping was skimpy. I wonder what torture a Cauliflower endures before it emerges as a Pizza crust.