Crowded House in the Forest

Last week we were fortunate enough to see Crowded House, one of our favourite bands, live in the open air of Thetford Forest. Having long been a fan of thier music (in fact I saw them way back in 1994 at Wembley Arena) we were really up for it as they say and they did not dissapoint. Supporting them and first on stage was Don Mcglashan another 'Kiwi' musician and songwriter formerly with a band called the Mutton Birds.


Don Mcglashan

Don was accompanied by Neil Finn on 'Anchor Me'



The weather stayed fine for the whole event and the setting was lovely. These events are organised by the Forrestry Commission and I must say they do it really well. I've been to lots of gigs with inadequate facilities where you're jostled & herded around sheeplike but this one was a joy.
Next onstage were Delays, who make a really tight and punchy sound with interesting vocal harmonies as you would expect with a band with a couple of albums behind them.



Delays

Then came Crowded House as dusk fell on the forest. They communicate so well with their audience playing a well balanced set of old hits mixed with some new material. Theirs is a beautifully structured pop/rock with cerebral lyrics but also dance and sing-a-long-ability and seeing them live again after so many years it was very apparent to me what a great singer Neil Finn is and also a very fine and original musician! Before I over egg the 'Finn' pie It has to be noted that the Crowded House sound and look is equally indebted to Nick Seymour's deceptively groovy and wobbly basslines (he's also an artist, check out his album covers and backdrops), Mark Hart's weird and wonderful and sometimes ethereal guitar parts (I especially like his fuzzed lap steel) and of corse the latest addition Matt Sherrod on Drums who plays like he's been there for years.



Crowded House



I also have to add that Neil Finn has not only the knack of writing hit songs with real integrity but has also been churning them out for 25 or more years with Crowded House, brother Tim, Split Enz and as a solo artist. I find it quite surprising how he is not mentioned far more often in those conversations about the great songwriters, you know the ones that go 'Paul Simon this, Neil Young That...blah blah Paul McCartney' etc. Simply take a listen to 'Pour le Monde' on their most recent album 'Time on Earth' and I'll rest my case.





A splendid time was indeed had by us all!

West Mersea church from across the fishermen's hard ~ B pencil

Garlic from Carcasonne

Our 'Lovely' Linda from the Colchester Artcafé just got back from her holiday in France and has furnished us with these two magnificent bulbs of garlic. Unfortunately the picture doesn't do them justice, I should perhaps have included a coin (a euro cent) to give you some idea of scale, they are indeed large 'puppies'. I'll let you know what became of them in a future post.

A Day at the Food Festival

A 'pie' trailer

Sarasparilla ~ very nice with sparkling mineral water

Ostrich or Venison?

My lunch, a chicken dish whos name eludes me

olives-a-plenty

This Sunday I went to the Food Festival in the Castle Park along with Jenny, Holly & Jack, unfortunately Maggie had to work at the Mersea Art Cafe which was a real disappointment as she'd been looking forward to this event for some time and in fairness being the tartist in this partnership a food fest. is more up her street. Anyhow, we persevered on her behalf around the really busy stalls sampling all sorts of tasty (and also bland) morsals as we went.

Some real treats were:~

Frozen Yoghurt from Margaret's Frozen Luxuries who are just up the road in Earls Colne.

Cordials and Presses from James Edwards Botanical Beverage Co.

A Chicken Dish that I can't for the life of me remember the name, but was served with some creamy potatoes with lardons of bacon all of which was cooked in a large pan over a charcoal fire.

Something I always find a disapointment are flavoured cheeses, especially cheddar. At it's best it has be as good as any from around the world, so, why bung cranberries or pineapple or whatever in it...what's that all about? and you can always find them in abundance at these shows. Still, we had a super day in the 'Essex' sunshine which I rounded off with a better-than-average cappuccino from one of those 'nifty' coffee vans equipped with a hand pump espresso machine. I'd love to get my hands on one of those for the artcafe!!

Teaspoons

Silver Teaspoons ~ Charcoal

t

A teaspoon is a small spoon, or a spoon used in measuring, commonly used to stir the contents of a cup of tea or coffee. Teaspoons with longer handles are commonly used for ice cream. Other spoon sizes include the tablespoon and the desert spoon. Much less common is the coffee spoon, which is a smaller version of the teaspoon. The tablespoon is a larger version of the teaspoon.
In some countries, the teaspoon is also used as a unit of volume, especially in cooking recipes and pharmaceutic prescriptions. It is abbreviated in English as t. or tsp. (German and Dutch: TL, from Teelöffel or Theelepel). It is often taken to mean 5 ml; in some countries this value is even defined in law, for example in the USA 21CFR101.9(b)(5)(viii). The same definition is used in some other English-speaking countries (e.g., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom). Older definitions included 1/6 U.S. fl.oz (4.93 mL) in the USA and 1/8 Imperial fl. oz (3.55 mL) in Britain.
A related unit is
1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons (4 in Australia)
Common teaspoons for stirring drinks are not always designed to contain any standard volume. In practice, they may hold between 2.5 mL and 6 mL of liquid, so caution must be exerted when using a teaspoon to measure a certain prescribed dose of a medicine. For this reason and in order to avoid dispensing errors, special measuring spoons are available that hold exactly 5 mL. The common teaspoon is always smaller than the tablespoon.
If a recipe calls for a teaspoon of a powder ingredient (salt, flour, etc.), this normally refers to an approximately levelled filling of the spoon, just like with liquids. For example, a teaspoon of salt for cooking purposes, is 5 mL or about 4.75 grams.
Some recipes also call for heaping (or heaped in British English) spoon measures. Such a heaping/heaped teaspoon, refers to an inexact volume of the required ingredient, obtained by scooping it up with a teaspoon and not levelling it off. The amount obtained by heaping a spoon can easily vary by more than a factor of two.

...so there you have it!

Studio Keys ~ H.B. Pencil

Melanzane alla parmigiana

Jenny's 'Melanzane alla parmigiana'

...baked aubergine with tomato, mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

Our daughter made this for us the other night and it was so delicious I thought it well worth posting about. The recipe comes from 'Twelve', a Tuscan Cookbook, by Tessa Kiros which we bought a couple of years ago. I think it's a delightful book, the format of which is the twelve months of the year represented by rustic italian recipes that real people cook for themselves at home.