Friday 29 July 2011

Pie-eyed piper

Sight of the day - the Sage walking towards the house, followed by an eager cluster of about twenty bantams and one partridge, hoping for an early lunch.  They received it.

For those of you who came to the party and can visualise it, the section of the drive between the house and the lawn is finished at last.  The gravel was put down this afternoon, all the hardcore having been tamped down and levelled this morning.  They are now working on the part of the drive between the lawn and the field we call the Ups and Downs, widening it and putting in a kerb so that the gas delivery lorry won't break down the edge again.  If you come again next year, there really should be plenty of parking space.  I hope you will.

I've typed up those final fifteen lots, although we haven't done the condition report yet because I need daylight to make the best of my eyesight.  Also, all the Academy paperwork was completed from our end yesterday and delivered, and has gone through today, so there is no last-minute panic.  We are independent, and it feels good.

I wonder how the local authority will fund the schools it's still obliged to, now that the larger, most successful and efficient ones have become academies.  They have relied on the money they make from us to subsidise them and, while we were receiving a good service, we were okay with that.  But the balance tipped too far.  We are not irresponsible, however, we want schools to be good, and it's particularly in our interest to look after our feeder primary schools.

I could have a bit of a rant but I won't.  The Sage and I knocked back a bottle of champagne instead.  Particular good news is that Jan is getting much better and sent a text to Lynn, her colleague, today.  She's still tired and headachy but on the mend.

The yoghurt tastes lovely but was very runny.  I strained it through a muslin cloth to reduce the whey.  I'm not sure if it's just that I'm too used to commercial yoghurt and that it should be so runny?  I'll have another go after the weekend and see what happens then.  The back of the Aga seemed to keep it nicely warm overnight.

8 comments:

Dave said...

The stuff my mother used to make was very runny. Market it as drinking yoghurt.

PixieMum said...

If I remember correctly one of the reasons we used to leave the milk simmering away was to thicken it so the yoghurt wasn't runny.

We used to find full cream (blue top) UHT long life made the best yogurt, after all these discussions I plan to buy some. Once we have nearly finished the shop yogurt I shall set the yogurt maker up overnight, as we have an Economy 7 tariff. Like wallpapering the first attempt is never good but the next is so much better.

Z said...

According to the link Blue Witch sent me, the advantage of UHT milk is that you can just warm it as it's already sterilised. One can add extra powdered milk to thicken it, if you don't want to reduce it.
In this instance, I'd like to make a positive of it being unpasteurised milk and therefore neither boil it down or add milk powder (which may well be made from imported milk, which I deeply disapprove of). So it may be that straining off the extra whey could be the solution. A bit messy, but not a problem.

Christopher said...

Yogurt 0, champagne 10. Good for you. I mean good for you, not necessarily that it's good for you. Which it is. Hugely.

Z said...

Yes, Chris.

Four Dinners said...

Now have you the courage aka mental instability to invite me?

I would bring Caz....and I always behave when Caz is there. 5 feet tall, half Scots 1/4 Irish ridiculously clever....scares the beejabers out of me.

Good job I love her!

Anyroad...I'd bring some Champers.

(I won it at a fancy dress in my local...don't like the muck myself)..;-)

Unknown said...

With ref to Dave's suggestion, the best yoghurt I ever tasted (and I'm not normally keen on the stuff-whatever anyone may try to persuade me, yoghurt is NOT pudding and should not be offered in the stead of pudding, however good for one it's supposed to be) was some years ago in a Hindi restaurant (Govinda's in Stockholm) and was a thin, liquid, fruit yoghurt,quite delicious, and very refreshing as a drink.

Z said...

Absolutely, 4D, I'd love it if you and Caz would come. Next bloggers' party, you are certainly invited. If you come this way at any time (Norfolk/Suffolk border) let me know and I'll invite you, party or not.

Lassi, delicious - although looking up recipes, it has water added, though maybe runny yoghurt would do just as well.