Friday Food 07-31-20

As a child I read everything I could get my hands on and it seems that many of those childhood stories took place in England.   The only one I can recall the title of is "Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett.   But in all those books the children sat by the nursery fire and ate crumpets.  Crumpets were not part of my world, but I created an image of a muffin like cake with butter and jam.  I guess I never thought to ask anyone or look it up in the Encyclopedia Brittanica.  When I was 17 my best friend Arlene and I took what we called our "maiden voyage", surely the beginning of lives traveling the world.  We took our first airplane flight from Portland, OR, to Vancouver, BC, and then the ferry to Victoria.  We dressed in nice suits, heels, hats and gloves, as was the fashion in the 1950s.  The high point was tea at the Empress Hotel, an experience that we had anticipated for months.  We ordered, of course, tea and crumpets.  When the oh-so-proper waitress delivered our order I was aghast.  I said, "Excuse me, we ordered crumpets with our tea."  She looked at my plate and said "Those ARE crumpets, my dear."  There on the plate were two fat pancakes, they looked nothing like the muffins of my imagination.  Arlene didn't have any preconceptions and dug right in.  After I got over my disappointment I did to and found they were okay, just not what I had dreamed of. 

Since then I have eaten crumpets in Canada, England, Wales, and the USA.  And I do like them.  Trader Joe's sells them sometimes and I indulge.  just recently I have finished the six in the package.  The final two with avocado mashed on top.  Instead of avocado toast it was avocado crumpets.  Delicious. 

Just a fat pancake with butter. 

Avocado crumpet.

Not found in an English novel! 

Froggy's surgery 07-30-20

Apologies for my absence, I have been unable to get online since Sunday night.  Problem with AT&T.  It was all very frustrating and I talked to guys all over the world who I couldn't understand and they were not helpful.  I think I need to find a computer guru such as I had years ago when I first started using the Internet. 

Monday night Froggy needed major surgery as KoKo had ripped his tail almost completely off and was eating his stuffing.  It was a case for Emergency Surgery. 

I trimmed away all the torn "flesh" thinking I could just put on a patch, but the damage was too extensive. 

The fabric his skin is made of is sort of terry cloth like, maybe what was called French terry, but I don't know where to buy such a thing.  

So, I found this green quilting cotton in my green box and cut two pieces with a protrusion for his tail, sewing them together on the machine and turning so the seam went down his back.  Turned the edges under and pinned all the way around.  Hand stitching was required with very close together stitches in the hope KoKo won't rip them out.  

His tail is a bit larger than the original, but it is the part that KoKo chews and sucks on, so maybe bigger is better.  

Here is the "new" Froggy.  He looks a bit like he has a turtle's shell, doesn't he?  There are still some holes that I need to sew up and I will get to those soon.  Meanwhile KoKo seems to accept the newness and brought him to me to throw this evening.  So, I think, all is well. 

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A Flock of Flamingos 07-26-20

Blogger would not allow me to post last night, so tonight I am posting what I had prepared. 

This morning when we went for our walk we discovered a flock of flamingos in a yard down the street.  I haven't seen one of these for a couple years and, as always, they made me laugh and brightened my day.   In the past the flocks have come from organizations that raise money for good deeds.  This flock is from the National Charity League in Yorba Linda, CA.

https://www.nationalcharityleague.org/

Some of the plastic birds wear Leis or hats.

 

KoKo was not interested.

This is a small flock, I have seen yards that are so full of flamingos you could hardly see the grass.  

It will make me smile whenever I walk past this house. 

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