Petes Pix 2022

  Cannot argue with saving our streams, but this huge bath being trundled around Hertfordshire by Affinity Water provokes a wry smile in this very wet year,

  Apple blossom and Forget-Me-Nots in back garden. More of the latter than ever before, and so colourful.

The newspapers are warning that millions of people who have delayed renewing their passports are all wanting to do so now and to allow plenty of time. The passport office says to allow 10 weeks. Passports covering period from January 1982 to May 2031 I applied online last Monday afternoon. Less than one complete week later my new passport arrived at 10:15 today Timeline Monday 3 May (Bank Holiday) - Afternoon I pressed send on my online application for passport renewal Monday 3 May (Bank Holiday) 17:27 - email from Passport Office saying they'd received my application and asking for old passport. Tuesday 4 May - I posted old passport, 1st Class Post Wednesday 5 May 16:58 - email from Passport Office saying they'd received my old passport. Thursday 6 May 20:33 - email from Passport Office saying passport application approved and sent to print. Friday 7 May 11:43 - email from Passport Office saying passport despatched with link to courier tracking Monday 10 May 10:15 - new passpo...

  Hungary was the 14th country we virtually visited in our Lockdown World Tour. The meal was Goulash (Gulyás), the most famous Hungarian dish, though none of the times we've been in Hungary have we seen it.  I searched the web for recipes; there are a great deal and none of them agree. Only certainty seems to be meat and paprika, the meat is usually beef but there's pork or sausage versions. Paprika can be hot, mild, smoked, red wine, white wine or no wine, caraway seeds, caraway powder or no caraway..... Some recipes insisted that the stew contained  lots of root vegetables, others none. Most included bell pepper. So after reading several recipes, I steered my own course. Mine used diced beef braising steak, caraway seeds, sweet unsmoked paprika powder, a tin of plum tomatoes, red wine, beef gravy and garlic. After an hour cooking I added large chunks of carrot and after another two hours in a low oven I added most of an orange pepper. The  wine was 2013 St. An...

Today we parked by the River Lea bridge on  Waterend Lane and took footpaths to the Ayot Greenway, then towards Hatfield. we turned off to take a footpath at Saul's Wood where there were swathes of bluebells and across fields, through woods, and a short way along roads till we came to the imposing gates of Ayot Montfitchet but how to get through? There's door in the left pillar, and so on till we came back to the Ayot Greenway and home to a restorative coffee. Detail on gate.

  To ASDA Watford this afternoon for our second Covid-19 inoculation. Again it was speedy and slick. Photo courtesy of Joan

Long walk today, from our house up Harpenden Road then through Childwickbury Village  and past Childwickbury Manor (above), home of Christiane Kubrick, widow of film director Stanley Kubrick who is buried in the grounds, and on to Batchwood where bluebells were in flower, then home.