Povey Prattle

Between June and November when the weather patterns are normal in south west Florida, we expect "out of the blue" monsoon like storms sometime in the afternoon. Thunder, lightning, heavy rain are our delight when the cooler air from the Atlantic meets the warmer air from the Gulf of Mexico. I say "delight" because I have enjoyed great thunderstorms for more than fifty years. (Of course as a child I found thunder to be a bit scary.  Mum tried to alleviate any fear by telling us that the angels were delivering coal to heaven -  this was in the days when most British homes were heated (?!)  with open coal fires.  When the coal men delivered the coal in one hundred weight hessian sacks there was a load noise when the coal was tipped into the outside coal bin.) Back from heaven and coal!     We had a cracker-jack of a storm this afternoon from about 5:00 until 6:00.    It came out of the blue. I enjoyed it. (Every drop of ...

I grew up knowing figs only in their dried form, as a Christmas treat. I liked them. All well and good until much later in life I discovered fresh figs I bought some last Thursday knowing that they would not stay good for ever, and knowing that I could eat a pound or more without thinking. I curbed my appetite, but by this morning the figs were beginning to show signs of  skin mould.  I washed them under running water, removed the stalks, and stewed them gently.  If I'd had an orange in the house I would have added a bit of orange juice and zest to make a real fig compote. As it was I had the stewed figs with some roasted slices of pork belly for lunch. So good!