Before I go on with today, I meant to mention, a couple of posts ago, that I’ve worked out how to make a Vienna Schnitzel without wheat flour. I used to make a sort of Chez Gaz schnitzel (veal wrapped in parma ham) in the bad old carboholic days but have demurred since The Big Change. On Friday I decided to try using coconut flour. It worked perfectly though it does depend on how much one likes coconut. Fortunately we both do.
Another thing we both like is snowdrops, the little white flowers that herald spring and are generally the reason for the first NGS gardens to open for the year. And today it was the turn of Chawton House and their veritable ocean of them.
A minute fraction of the whole
Mind you, while the day was beautifully blue the wind was an icy knife cutting through any unclothed flesh. This is the precursor to the Beast, due to make an appearance in the UK next week. (Apparently, according to the meteorological boffins, the wind chill will get down to -15, something Mirinda is not looking forward to. I’m looking forward to it.)
The temperature of the wind had little effect on the snowdrops as we wandered all round the gardens at Chawton House. Incidentally, Chawton House will be open more often (seven days a week, it seems) now that it has to make its own money rather than depend on the largess of a rich benefactor. Which is good, I think. If it can’t stand upon its own feet then should it really exist at all? It’s the old ‘funding for the arts that no-one wants to see’ argument and not at all relevant here.
Heading for the walled garden
Of course the puppies came with us and had a sense-orama of a time. They are so funny. They smell something then something else then again. Their little heads don’t stop moving, their tails wagging non-stop.
Actually there were quite a few dogs out and about at Chawton House today, which is always good to see. There’s something terribly civilised about a vista containing rugged up couples with leads attached to well behaved dogs, all happily cavorting among the snowdrops.
Actually, there wasn’t a lot of cavorting.
Looking towards the house from the (pretty little) Wilderness
The rest of the day, either side of Chawton House and its snowdrops, was taken up with Mirinda working on her Literature Review, a task she needs to complete by tomorrow ready for me to edit. And I cooked Persian roast chicken for dinner with cauliflower cheese. Lo-carb heaven.
