What's in a name?

My siblings and I grew up knowing that we had no living relatives on my father's side, except for one distant cousin, several times removed.  I knew my father grew up in Calcutta, India and lead a privileged life, much different to that of most people here in England.   His family were part of the Anglo-Indian community that resulted from years of Europeans living and working in India. 

My sister and I have often talked about looking into his other life, but lack of time and other things always get in the way. Sadly, our father died 21 years ago, and I never asked when I had the opportunity.  Finding the Army & Navy catalogue rekindled the thought, so last week I started to search out our family history.

I knew the name of his mother (my Grandmother) and the first name of my Great-Grandfather.  My mother has a few photographs and  bits & pieces that came from my Dad's family and was able to offer several clues.

This is a bag that belonged to my Great-Grandfather and it must be well over 120 years old.  I started to search online for the family name and uncovered a staggering amount of information and so far, can trace my family back to 1800.  What's more, I have found two other distant strands of the family who are researching our ancestry! We have gone to one known relative to many ...

I am now an official genealogy addict.

  

Summer supper

I have come to realise that my whole life revolves around food. 

I wake up thinking about what I am going to cook or bake during the day!

Last weekend, I woke up thinking about fajitas, as you do.

So I made:

guacomole

salsa

spicy chicken & pepper filing

to which we added mixed leaves and mayo.  Maybe next time I could make the wraps too?

The sweetpeas are from my garden.

Back to form

I'm pleased to report that Gwen has made a full recovery, and is now feeling so much better.

Her tail feathers look a bit dishelleved, but apart from that she is bright-eyed, alert and back to being a busy chicken.

Here she is, in action, chasing a tasty fly.

What's more, she is laying again.

 

Good, I can resume baking.

Cheer up chicken

This is Gwen.  She hasn't been herself for a couple of weeks now.  The last decent egg she laid was about two weeks ago.  Since then she has spent a lot of time slowly mouching about rather than darting around in her usual busy manner.  I was worried that she might be egg-bound again but I now know this is not the case as she has started to lay eggs with a soft shell or indeed, no shell at all.

 

She has settled into a pattern of being quite under-the-weather in the morning but perking up by the end of the day.  She is still eating and I've been adding 'Chicken Spice' to her food.  This is like a vitamin supplement especially designed for poultry.

A bit of research on the web - there are more chicken forums than you can imagine - and I believe her to be going through a moult.  This is usual, with some chickens losing just a few feathers and some shedding practically the whole lot (should this happen, I have also found a site that gives knitting patterns for chicken jumpers - no really).  Apparently some birds can feel quite poorly when they are in moult and only want to sit quietly, all hunched up.

I do worry about my lovely ladies but the increase in dropped feathers makes me think there is nothing more seriously wrong with Gwen. 

Did you know that it takes a lot of extra protein to grow new feathers?

With this in mind, and the lack of hard shelled eggs, we have been mixing their Layers Mash with milk, and giving them both a little bit of cheese.

Here they both are enjoying a bit of sun, at last.

Flapjack recipe

 I have never had any luck with flapjacks until I was given this fool-proof recipe from a work colleague.

Melt 225g butter with 225g sugar

Add about a tablespoon of Golden Syrup

Stir in 275g rolled oats.

Press into a 9" x 13 tin, lined with baking parchment.  Don't be tempted to bake without the parchment, as I have before, unless you are handy with a chisel.

Bake for about 20 mins at about 180o*.

Leave to cool in the tin for a while, then remove and cut into squares.  Works every time.

*my times and temperatures are a little vague as I tend to cook by sight rather than precise instructions and more to the point, the temperature gauge has rubbed off our cooker! Still, at least I have one, the cooker we had before had no temperature control at all and I'd have to guess the temperature by the height of the flame.

Breaking Up

Thank goodness we've made it to the end of the academic year.  The children broke up on Thursday and I broke up on Friday.  Broke down would be a better description - I have never known such a tiring year!  The last three weeks at work have been so jam-packed that I haven't had either the time nor the energy to blog.  Still, we made it to the end of term without too many traumas. 

We can  now look forward to six weeks of holidays. 

I hope the bloody sun starts shining!

This photo has nothing to do with the start of the holidays but I think it's more pretty than the empty MacDonalds wrappers and wine glasses that usually mark the end of term!

An amazing find

My father was born and brought up in India and he moved to England during the 1940's. He led a very different life in India to the one he had here and it must have been such a culture shock to pitch up in Southampton after a 6 week boat trip.

The other day my mother unearthed this:

I have had such fun perusing the range of products on offer ....

I have been reading the advertisements aloud and find myself speaking in a clipped English accent much like Joyce Grenfell - I say, what a hoot.  How sensible to tin one's valuable wearing apparel during the monsoon season !!

 

They really are wearing Pith helmets and I'm afraid to say standing over a tiger.*

It is so un-pc but an absolutely fascinating window into a by-gone era. 

I will be posting many more gems from the catalogue for your delectation.


*shikar, shi-kaar, n.  Hunting sport (Urdu)