Tuesday 26th October 2021 - Oranges Too, Slump and a Bit of an Experiment

Earlier this month I wrote about the colour red, referring not only to the Poppy Appeal but also the berries in our gardens and in the hedgerows, at this time of the year. This is not the only colour we associate with autumn, shades of orange feature on berries as well as leaves. Pyracanthas, depending on the variety, produce either orange or red berries and are a great favourite with the wild birds (you can see from the photo, some of the outer stems have been pecked bare).

I love to see the witch hazel leaves (hamamelis) change colour, displaying hues of green, yellow, orange and rusty brown, before they finally fall to the ground. These are just a couple of the many plants displaying the colours we associate with autumn.

We quite often walk along the promenade in the mornings but with the recent high tides, for a couple of days, this was not possible. When we did take a gentle stroll with Barney, it came as no surprise to see the rain last week has resulted in a slump, below where the Overstrand Hotel once stood, covering part of the access road down from Clifton Way. Large lumps of masonry remain ‘perched’ above the new slump which look ready to drop any time. It’s probably best to walk on the area of grass, rather than on the tarmac road, well that’s what I did to be safe while I took a couple of photos, one of which I have included below.

I have mentioned before, Peter downloads various radio programmes which we then listen to when eating our lunch and dinner. One regular is, The Kitchen Cabinet where I often pick up tips or some useful information about foods etc. Recently, one of the panellists was promoting tofu as a good source of plant based foods but one which needs the addition of flavours to combat its blandness. They recommended the book, Tasty Tofu which I subsequently purchased. The pages contain lots of useful information about the different types of tofu as well as how to make it. With a pack of tofu and a bottle of light soy sauce delivered yesterday in our online grocery shop, I am all set now to try one of the recipes in which you make a vegetable curry sauce, coat slices of tofu in panko crumbs before frying, as well as cooking some vegetables and rice to accompany. Never having cooked tofu before, it’s going to be a bit of an experiment. I’ll let you know next time how it turns out.