There's also non-food

Just to show I don't think exclusively about food, I've got some recommendations of things to watch and read.

For years I never mentioned food in here, figuring nobody would be interested, I'm not some famous chef whose name sells high end equipment, just a person who likes to eat well, nothing special.

 And for a long time I used this,  originally general purpose, blog as a place for friends all over the globe to check in as Handsome Partner's health deteriorated until they finally got to follow along our path through home hospice till his death, then the online memorial I organized. This saved them calling when I needed to keep the line open for doctors, nurses, physios, and saved me  from giving out the same bulletins over and over.

 I got very grateful notes and emails from people who said that usually people are excluded from hospice if they're not family, and it was comforting to be allowed to know more. I never showed him, to preserve his privacy, after hospice was declared, showed what he could see instead.

 But before that, I would post pictures of him looking at books and letters from blogistas, and enjoying having the Dollivers around, and the cats, and sitting out with me on the patio in good weather.. He enjoyed our meals till very late in his life, though I had to be inventive to make food he could navigate as a quadriplegic with very limited use of his hands. The goal was good food, presented to be eaten with a fork or spoon,  one handed, but still adult meals.

Then once in here, I mentioned something I'd cooked and I was surprised at the response. People did like it. I still don't teach in here, or make very specific suggestions, just talk about what I've done, and include the spills along with the thrills. So it's more fun knowing that people enjoy.

I'm really a desert island person: I'd make art, grow things, cook, on a desert (or dessert!) island, anyway. It's not about an audience. But appreciative readers are definitely welcome. Especially people who suddenly pop up and say, oh, I just thought I'd mention I've been reading in here for years!  I have no way of knowing who follows via anything other than the follower list on blogger. But there are several other ways of following which don't refer back to me.

So thank you all.

Now, what I've been reading.

I invested in the Kindle complete and very funny, works of E.M.Delafield, all the Provincial Lady books, also finally started reading Cider with Rosie, then installed Laurie Lee's whole autobiography, three volumes. And you see Basho and Jane Austen there in my permanent  holdings, says she grandly. All very much worth reading.

And I found Monty Don much more interesting and less irritating in his series now on YouTube, on the Secret History of British Gardens, than in  his gardening series. He's still a bit over the top and spraying superlatives all over, but the production is high end, and he's properly miked.

  It's a four part series, one episode per century of gardening history, architecture, design, and plant discovery, starting in the 17th century.  Unfortunately too late to cover the best of them all, Cecil, Elizabeth the first's minister, adviser and great garden designer, who brought Tradescant, great plant explorer  and propagator, into his circle. Tradescant already had a flourishing career, but Cecil's nod didn't hurt. Anyway, this series is good stuff.

Then there's the vlogging couple who do videos on castles in Wales, much less sophisticated, one camera, couple of handheld devices, but very good, because they're engaging people, not at all acting for the camera, just being friends showing you interesting buildings and their history. I follow their YouTube channel Mostly Castles.

So that's some of what I'm doing.