On the wood sorrel in the garden this morning.

Lovely to see this house on the Old Photos of Cork Page.
It is, according to the man who took the picture, Joe Healy of Cork, now again for sale and pretty derelict.
He took this picture in 1984.

It belonged to my Great Grandfather, Joseph Harding at the turn of the last century, was called West View then.

The other picture is of my great Agnes’s wedding in 1913 to my great Uncle Billy taken outside the same house .
She was the daughter of the house and my mother’s Aunt.
He my father’s uncle.
Both sets of my grandparents are in the picture.

I cooked tonight’s fish (Cajun Blackened Cod) in the frying pan in the oven, as chefs often do.
Then, later,when dinner was over I went to tidy up and discovered that the pan handle was still extremely hot, I exclaimed * * * * ! (naturally) and then answered to Sile’s asking “what was wrong ?” said “It’s already hot !”
I don’t think she even noticed but it struck me that I made no sense.

What I had done was to think, just a bit, in French where the word “encore” means both “still” (as in yet) and “already” (as in so soon).

Of course we all know (just to throw the cat among the pigeons) that to shout “Encore” at a concert is to ask for the song to be song again- a word of French we all proudly holler- except the the French don’t- they say “Bis !” which strictly speaking means “twice”.

Or then we could be positive about the negatives ?

(with further apologies to Mr. Hood)

No mouth of wood,and no sore head
First thing when you get out of bed.

November!

As ever I shall withdraw from the demon alcohol for four weeks from tomorrow.
Here is my mantra for the month:

(With apologies to Thomas Hood)

No Beer, No Wine

November

You know this business about “Youth is the Happiest Time of Your Life”

I just think most of it is bullshit.
I am now 66 going on 67 and I am loving my life.

Okay there were times when I was much better at doing stuff which I can no longer do, but, life has a funny way of compensating.
We had two young men, friends of friends, visit us today and they were amazed at how much we both were enjoying this time of our life so,my advice to anyone younger than me is:
Don’t worry- It doesn’t suddenly get worse, and,
just maybe,
it could get better.

Hang in there.

Made by Roger Bennett.

Every year, about this time, when I did a weekly slot on Deise AM on WLR, Billy McCarthy and I would discuss our cookbooks of the year.

Well Billy I now have my number one ready !

Trish Deseine’s “Home- Recipes from Ireland”,(published in France as “Mon Irlande”)has just been published at home and away and it is certainly a book to treasure. I suppose that- in the time honoured fashion- I should mention that Trish is a neighbour of ours here in France and a friend- but when you talk about a book as good as this,this is more of a boast than a confession !

In the book Trish shows how the thriving Irish food scene is right there in the forefront of innovative world cuisine and she relates this to our tradition and her own growing up in Northern Ireland.

The two pictures I have chosen from this beautifully illustrated book (superb photos by Deirdre Rooney) really say it all.
First one is the typical Irish High Tea of my youth, complete with strong tea, the three piece salad with the holy trinity of bare lettuce tomato and cucumber, curranty bread and the left over sunday lunch. She even has a teapot which is identical to my mother’s.

The second shows a good Irish interpretation of the French “Apero” nibble using brown soda bread, goats cheese and then tasty foraged plants. All respectful of tradition and yet thoroughly modern.
Trish gets some of Ireland’s cutting edge chefs to write their own recipes for the book including Stephen Toman of Ox, David Hurly of Gregan’s Castle, and Robbie Robbie Krawczyk of Tancardstown House (how old does it make me feel to say I know his Mum and Dad) while giving her own twists on traditional Irish recipes ( her grans pure and simple Irish Stew sounds perfect) while also showing that she can be up to the minute with several delicious sounding versions of savoury porridge (now why did I never think of that?) an intriguing Sour Apple and Kale Soup and a relish for salmon or mackeral made for raw rhubarb.

As well as being an important book which acknowledges our past as well as our present food culture this is a really user friendly and perfectly illustrated book would make any foodies Christmas.

Bravo Trish !

Sometimes the social media can be amazing.

Like a lot of old hippies I am sad to hear about Joni Mitchel being laid low after an anurysm, she has given me so much joy with her songs for the last 45 years.

Now I am an old fan and also a “friend” of Judy Collins on facebook (one of many thousands) but was glad to see her writing there that she had heard that Joni was making great progress.
She also said that she was going to see her next week.

Knowing that it was a complete shot in the dark but also very keen to help if I could I left a comment on this piece by Judy.
(One of several hundred comments.)
To my astonishment not only did she read it but two hours ago, she also replied.

Thank you Judy and thank you and Joni for the music.

Martin Dwyer:
Hi Judy, if you get to see her (or to read this) I too had an anurysm in 1990 while running a restaurant in Ireland. The best news anyone gave me was to tell me that it takes 5 years to recover, this gave me strength and a goal. Now all is in the past and I feel perfect.
Like · Reply · 3 · October 20 at 6:41am

Judy Collins:
Yes, that is what it has taken a close friend of mine who had a brain injury much like Jonis, and she is doing very well- thanks for sharing