49 posts from 2008

Dead Pigeons: a history

Jul 14, 2008
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I rarely see dead pigeons. I know this must be true as I remember each one I've seen over the last decade. I'm not sure why this is. Perhaps they tend to die on rooftops, or perhaps foxes and other carrion eaters are so quick off the mark they spend precious few minutes on the streets and squares of our cities. Whatever the reason - they are a rare sight in my experience.

The first one I remember seeing was not just a dead pigeons but also a live pigeon. I was standing at the tram stop, waiting for a tram. There was a pigeon pecking away at something on the road. It was so entranced by the baked goodness of whatever it was pecking at that it ignored the bus the drew up behind it. Alas, it didn't pay attention when the engine tone became higher, indicating the bus was about to pull away.

The bus pulled away just as the bird was pecking at the ground. Its head fell beneath the bus's tyre and came clean away. The headless bird continued to wander around for a minute of so after the bus had departed and then fell down. No doubt, whatever it was that kept the pigeon walking after the loss of its head was a little confused.

The second pigeon (pictured below) was a brace of birds that seemed to be a religious offering of some kind. I walked past them on a Sunday afternoon in Montevideo after a very long flight from Amsterdam. I've never been quite sure why people would want to decapitate a brace of pigeons are serve them, uncooked, on a bed of popcorn. If you can explain it, please leave a comment!

Beheaded_pigeons_461

Finally, this afternoon's dead pigeon. This one still had its head attached to its body, although it had a far less glamorous resting place than its family in Montevideo. I found it around the side of my apartment block and I can only hope that some cat or fox makes a meal of it before it starts stinking the place up.

Pigeon

I'm almost tempted to get out a recipe for pigeon and start looking for some fresh pigeon meat from a farm. I'm sure a smoked pigeon breast would make a tasty starter and a couple of pigeons could make a tasty casserole. Mmmmm.

Westminster

Jun 16, 2008
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I used to work next door to the Palace of Westminster. It was a pretty cool place to spend some time while I was at university. There were TV screens in the corridors showing who was speaking; there were divisions bells that rang occasionally, calling members to vote; and it was pretty great to walk through Westminster Hall, which dates back to the 11th century.

Today I was in Westminster for a meeting and loved the look of the palace in the sunshine. In fact, the sunshine was so bright it made it quite difficult to photograph the palace from Parliament Square, so I had to touch the photo up a bit.

It was great to pop back there again and have a gawk at Pugin's glorious design.

The Palace of Westminster

Pears of Granite

Jun 6, 2008
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Rock Hard Pears

Eddie Izzard was right. Pears really are "gorgeous little beasts", although I have severe doubts about whether I will actually get to eat one this year.

I love citrus fruits and berries but I don't normally buy apples, pears and the like because you tend to have to make a commitment to eating a whole one. If you open a satsuma you can eat the segments slowly without worry that they'll go brown from oxidisation and berries, of course, are perfect little self-contained wonders. Not so with an apple: leave it for five minutes while you take a phone call and you come back to something that looks like it's already decomposing.

Which is why I was glad to see some small pears in the supermarket when I grabbed some groceries before my evening calls last Thursday. Of course, they were hard when I got them but I was hoping that they'd ripen up over night and that I'd be able to have one for breakfast the next day, or over the weekend, or maybe on Monday. But by Tuesday morning they still felt like they'd been carved from jade.

That was a little disappointing as I had to go away for a couple of days and I expected that I'd return to a bowl of liquid pear goop. But no. This evening I returned home and found the pears are still giving me a nine or 10 on Mohs scale. So maybe I'll get to have pears for breakfast and maybe they'll have their moment of ripeness overnight and they'll be "dead pears" in the morning.

You gotta laugh

May 23, 2008
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They woz robbed

May 21, 2008
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This morning I heard that Ireland's excellent entry to the Eurovision Song Contest was knocked out in the preliminary voting last night. Frankly, I am shocked and disappointed as I was hoping to vote for Dustin on Saturday night.

I was so looking forward to it that last weekend I actually connected my TV to the wall - a process that involved moving heavy furniture - and spent ages hunting around in the menus for the channel tuner. Eventually I had it all set up, had found a Belgian station showing the competition and was planning to listen El Tel's commentary on BBC radio.

I'm not sure whether I ought to bother watching now. Mally says the Swedish entry is highly rated but neither of us like it much. On top of that, Charlotte Perrelli looks a bit like one of those strange grey aliens at the start of her video and I suspect she's going for the 'easily suggestible' vote.

I can't see this year's contest giving us an Abba or a Bucks Fizz but it might squeeze out a Nicki French.

Irelande Douze Pointe

Charlotte Perrelli - Hero

Vox Hunt: Striped Showoff

May 19, 2008
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Show us something striped.

I took this picture in Skagway, Alaska a couple of years ago. The light stripes are the result of avalanches. The snow knocks the trees down and lighter coloured bushes grow in their place. The bears eat the berries that grow on the bushes. It's all very "cycle-of-life".

Avalanche Trails

Electrical Storms

May 15, 2008
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I love 'em! It's just started and I'm hoping the crane across the street is going to light up later on tonight, once it's good and dark.

Electrical Storms

Wild Asparagus

May 13, 2008
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It's asparagus season. I know it must be because you couldn't move for special asparagus menus in restaurants in Berlin last week.

I like asparagus a lot and try to make good use of it in season. I used to buy a lot of 'baby' asparagus spears and nibble on them raw as a snack while watching TV, sprinkle them on home made pizzas, toss them in salads and put them in sandwiches. I also love using the big, thick asparagus spears in soups, although I think they tend to be a bit too chunky to make a good vegetable side.

So I was delighted to see these beautiful wild asparagus spears this evening. They remind me of the seed tops on the summer grass on the village green by my primary school.

As you'd expect, I tried them raw. After all, almost all good ingredients can be eaten raw and lots of them actually taste really great that way (lamb, beef, salmon, tuna, onions, mushrooms, cauliflower, peas etc...). These wild asparagus spears are lovely raw and gently cooked. I par boiled them for a minute and tried them with a little olive oil and grated goats cheese.

The verdict? Whether cooked or raw they have a lovely gentle flavour, are crisp and fresh and just different enough from the regular commercially farmed asparagus to make an interesting change. But, one punnet of asparagus was far too much for me for the next couple of days as a vegetable side so I think I'll try and make a soup from the rest tomorrow evening and chill it down to be served as a summer soup.

Raw Wild Asparagus

Par Boiled Raw Asparagus

Closing the Curtains Keeps it Cool

May 12, 2008
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I have a south facing view from my apartment, so I get lots of sun in the afternoons and evenings. It's fantastic in the winter as I get superb views of the sunset and loads of natural daylight. Now that the warm weather is here I've had the balcony doors open and have been enjoying the cooling breezes that have been coming into my living room. I tried sitting on the balcony to read a book but it was far too hot for that.

Not being used to sultry weather I made a bit of a beginner's mistake on Saturday and kept the curtains to my south facing bedroom open all day. At 1am on Sunday morning it must have still been abut 80° in there and I don't think I managed to get any sleep until so late it was early. So I have now closed the curtains in there and managed to keep the temperature down to something under 70° last night.

Balcony Doors

Looking at this week's weather forecast I think those curtains won't be opening until the thunderstorms that have been promised for Saturday. And although having a really good storm during the day would do a good job of cooling things down, I'd quite like it to happen at night as I love a good electrical storm.

Tea and tatties

May 8, 2008
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Knowing that I was going to want a really good cup of tea when I got back from New Orleans I asked Julie for recommendations on somewhere in Santa Monica. She suggested the Tudor House and I gave it a go. Good call.

The tea menu was everything I had hoped for and the tea came in a generous pot and wasn't the weak, insipid stuff I drank at another place the week before. The service was friendly as you could hope and as fast as you'd expect in the US. I really didn't need the fried potatoes that came with my omelette but they were very good and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I deny anyone not to enjoy fried potatoes or a really good pot of tea.

I think I know where I'll be drinking tea when I'm next in the area.