The Crimson Field, the next series in my exploration of watching British TV. LOVED this show. It was an interesting glimpse into life in France (and England-Ireland) during World War I. There was sadly only one season, as it was cancelled after that.
It explored the importance of ladies who volunteered for service, and showed how difficult their lives were. These 3 all had a story to tell and all joined the service for different reason. They came from very different backgrounds. At a time when it was scandalous for women to be in close company with me, nurses and volunteers had to learn how to bath wounded men...the difficulty of bridging their learned privacy rules from civilian life and that in service was huge.
Both men and women were drummed out, or executed for what was deemed to be unpatriotic service or cowardice. Even though there is only one season, I do highly recommend it. I was able to watch this series on Amazon Prime for no extra fee or membership.
This past weekend was Mother's Day. My Darling Daughter sent lovely flowers on Friday so I was able to enjoy them for the whole of the wkend. There were 3 bundles of flowers in the box, enough for me to make two large beautiful bouquets. Thank you Darling Daughter. This is a close up of one of the prettiest roses...look at the gradation of color on the outside of this rose as it begins to open.
I'm a huge fan of one pan, or one dish meals. Makes prep and clean up so much easier. That's even more important to me currently since I'm not super mobile with my broken foot. In the beginning, I would do some prep, sit down...do a bit more, sit down again. Was hard trying to move about the kitchen using a walker or crutches. I would get things at the ready as much as possible (often it took a good while), so when hubby came home from work; he could actually do the cooking. Generally, he put something in oven and with my chair-side direction........dinner would come together. I am more mobile now with my ortho boot, but still trying to minimize how much I'm standing there in the kitchen. It's just not that easy.
Asparagus, potatoes, and chicken. This required a minimum of work to prep. The chicken breast's were cut in in medalions (smaller pieces cook quicker), plus the chicken breast were very large and thick. They were dipped in an egg wash, and layered in the pan with thin lemon slices and topped with fresh basil.
Potatoes quartered, asparagus cut in half. I put all in fridge, and when hubby called that he was on his way I sprinkled olive oil, dash, and Parmesan cheese on potatoes and asparagus and turned on the oven. Cooked in pre-heated oven at 400-425 for about 20 minutes. It cooked while hubby and I had our Martini's
Tasty, not time consuming with either prep or clean up. The egg wash and lemon gave the chicken a nice flavor and helped keep it moist. Was an experiment....one both hubby and I thought worth repeating.
Since I'm still not very mobile (broken foot if you've not been reading my blog previously), I've spent a fair amount of time looking out the window, watching spring happen in the neighborhood. Took this photo out of my bedroom window. Two little girls, one from next door and one from across the street like to set up in our yard. It makes them feel more private I think. LOL Seriously, how cute is this! It took them a while to get all set up and inside their umbrella fort. Reminded me of when our daughter was young and we would travel. She would put up a towel between the two front seats of the car...that way her space there in the back seat was private...she was in her reading fort. She was an avid reader even when quite young and we traveled lots of miles out west to camp and she'd read a book a state basically...all in her private fort.
Having finished the previous afghan (Learning Logs..previous post), got something else on the needles. Picture looks a bit mauve, but the color really is more purple-violet. This is yet anothe afghan. Not using a pattern, so guesstimated and cast on 202 stitches.
After all the color work in the previous afghan, and counting for texture, and the constant binding off and picking up stitches, wanted something truly mindless. Doing basic stripes........probably all garter stitch to just let it flow. Started this ghan a few days ago and have already added the above two colors to it. Since it's all a guesstimate...I'm not yet sure if I'll need to add another color in order to have enough yarn. I have the one gray as above, and 2 of turquoise and 5 of violet. 8 skeins of washable wool. Violet skeins are 197 yards each, turquoise is 277 yards, and the gray is 277; for a total of 1816 yards. That seems a bit shy of enough to me. Thoughts??? When I can get to the basement to check my stash, I might have more yarn of the appropriate weight etc that could get added to the mix. For now, I'll play through.
Latest British Series is Upstairs Downstairs. A bit more rambunctious than Downton Abbey, perhaps with some similarities of personalities. A much shorter series, only 2 seasons. Focused more on the torment before The War in England with regard to Hitler...and how divided The English Government was about doing something about it.
Quite an ending! Fun to see Claire Foy (who played Queen Elizabeth in The Crown), be so very different in this roll. Would have enjoyed the series more I think if Edmund Stoppard as Sir Hallam had been played by a different actor. I've just never liked him, and don't find him at all attractive or sexy...so seeing him a roll where that's an issue was less enticing. But, with that said.......the series was indeed enticing and I do recommend it.
