All's well...

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...back in action soon.

This is a 50-year-old colour slide taken by my husband in the garden of our first home. A friend converted it to a digital picture for me, with his special scanning device. So lovely to see it again. At the time I called it "Son and shade"!

A game for Christmas

When you are feeling sated and dull-witted after eating your Christmas dinner, try this little test to wake up your brain cells. Save the picture and print it (preferably on card). Then cut the image up into its four separate rectangles, and follow the instructions given.

Best of luck!

Seasonal greetings ...

... to all my readers. No time this year to create a special Christmas message, I'm sorry to say, so here are a couple of seasonal pictures from my biographical collection. In the first one I am the one kneeling, and the picture was taken at Oberlech in Austria in March 1955. The second was was taken at Megeve in France in March 1954. It's sad to relate that I never learned to ski - I was too much afraid of hurting myself!

I hope to be here more often in 2010.

Salut!

Big bully State?

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Martha Lane Fox, Government Champion for Digital Inclusion, is quoted today as saying that the government should make its services such as Council Tax payments, TV licensing and so on, only available on line, to force people to use the internet. The argument is that it would save millions of pounds if these transactions could all be conducted on line.

I read this in the Digital Unite blog as I ate my breakfast, and it made my hackles rise. I don't like getting angry so early in the day, so I immediately wrote a comment, since the blog post was inviting our views. I shall share share them with you here as well.

Those who know me (a runner-up in Digital Unite's 2008 Silver Surfer Awards), will know that I started to use a computer 10 years ago aged 71, and that now I could not live without it - it is my magic carpet. But that does not mean that I want to see non-users forced to go on line, at risk if they don’t of being in default on payments or licenses that are legal requirements.

In addition to training, would government provide an adequate and reliable broadband service, buy computers for all those who don’t have them, pay for their ISP and security subscriptions, and for printers and the peripherals. My guess is that, like me, many older users would be confused and daunted by online billing, form filling etc, and would want to print everything off. Indeed, I think many people would be panicked by the mere idea of it.

It doesn’t sound like a nanny state to me (as Ms Fox suggested it might), it sounds like a big bully state. Government has a duty to provide the services that people need, not to coerce them into using services they do not want. For goodness sake, at least where the retired are concerned, leave us in peace to embrace such technologies as, individually, we feel able for and are comfortable with. If some of us feel that a computer would be an alien and unfriendly presence in our lives, we are entitled to be allowed to live without them. When our generation has gone, and those who remain have all been familiar with computers from childhood, perhaps that will be the time for Martha Lane Fox to wield her stick.

Postscript to last post

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When I agreed to lead a group to set up a new website, I set up a special mailbox in which I keep all email correspondence about the website. At this very moment I have noticed that, since the first mail in January asking me if I would take it on, there have been 1000 emails passing into and out of my computer on this topic. Did I say busy?!

BLOG ACTION DAY - CLIMATE CHANGE

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Today is Blog Action Day. Apparently this happens every year on October 15th, when bloggers are encouraged to blog in unison on some important issue which we feel is not getting the creative attention it needs. I have not done this before, but now that I know about it I think it is worth doing. This year it is about CLIMATE CHANGE.

I have no special angle on climate change. Like most people, I suppose, I believe in global warming, because the evidence seems undeniable. My own experience tells me that the weather is changing for the worse - but don't we always think that? I checked in on the Blog Action Day website and had a look at the Top 100 effects of global warming. Alright, most of them are quoted from newspapers and newscasts, and may not yet be fully attested scientifically - but can we afford to disbelieve them? Many of them are long-term effects which I am unlikely to see:



Ice melting, waters rising, sunamis and hurricanes, rivers drying up, more fires.

Loss of trees, plants, animals and fish. An increase in noxious plants and insects.

More diseases spreading, people getting sicker.

Increased threats to national security due to migrations, boundary tensions, and conflict over food and water. More wars, more refugees.



I think of my grandchildren. I think of those two girls and four boys, aged between 8 and 17, to whose flesh and blood I have contributed through my own sons; who bear my DNA, and will inherit, to greater or lesser degree, the physical and mental characteristics that I have passed on to them. They are my legacy to the world that I must leave, they are my immortality. But what sort of world will there be for them to inherit? Will it be a world that is still full of natural wonders, magnificent resources, beautiful habitats for man and beast a like. Will it still be possible to live full and satisfying lives, lives of invention, service, caring, and creativity? Or will the basic struggle for survival take all their energies. There are enough suffering peoples in the world already leading such lives. My family has been fortunate ...... will it continue to be through all the generations that will follow me?

I do my best with reducing, reusing and recycling, but we need strong and willing governments to lead us as well.
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More scones - by special request

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From The Aga Recipe Book for 2 oven Aga Cookers [no publication date but purchased in 1960]

SCONES

Recipe

8 ozs. plain flour

1/2-1 oz. butter

1/4 pt. milk (sour if possible)

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

(1/2 teaspoon if sour milk used)

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

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METHOD

Sift together the dry ingredients. Rub in the butter and mix quickly with the liquid. Turn on to a floured board. Knead lightly and roll to 1/2 inch thickness. Mark into eight, or cut with a shrp round cutter. Bake for 7-10 minutes on the top shelf of the roasting oven, turning once during baking.

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From Mrs Beeton’s Cookery and Household Management, 1960

IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER WHEN MAKING SCONES

1. If the basic proportions are correct they can be varied in many different ways
- see suggestions.

2. It is most essential to be accurate with proportions, e.g. too much soda will ruin
the scones.

3. Whereas yeast mixtures are kept warm, scones etc. made with other raising
agents should be kept as cool as possible. The cold air expands with the heat
and so helps to make the scones lighter.

4. The best utensil for mixing scones is a round-bladed knife; it gets well down to
to the bottom of bowl and can be used for mixing without pressing on the
mixture.

5. The most important rule is to add all the liquid at once and mix lightly to a spongy
dough.

6. The scones should be handled as little and as lightly as possible.

7. Scones should be cooked quickly - 10 minutes in a hot oven for small scones
and 15 minutes for a round of 4 or 6.

8. Cool oven scones on a cooling tray to keep the outside crisp. Girdle scones are
best cooled in a tea towel to keep the skin soft.

NOTE: From Experiment it has been found that better results are obtained if the scones are allowed to stand (after cutting out) for 10 minutes before cooking. This applies to scones raised with bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar.

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