Povey Prattle

  FLIES My home has been invaded by them.   Calls for the use of old fashioned fly paper RATS And the rat or rats is or are back. I am becoming an expert in the identification of rat scat.  Remember this;  to be engraved on  my Grave stone, "He knew his rat scat". The little bugger/s are back. Turns out that it/they are using a hole in the dry wall behind my oven; a hole inelegantly designed and made to allow 240 f  current to power the oven. As my friend Barbara Hauler would say "Gosh, darn it" I have made a temporary cover for the hole,  (my good handyman will mend it permanently). I have been reluctant to use rat poison  for two reasons.  (1) I am told that it gives great pain to the dying rat, and (2) I do not want the stink of a dead rat to pervade my home, So on the advice of  a staff member at my local and wonderful ACE hardware I have placed a kind of super dooper fly paper (in yellow)  near the hole, He tells me that if a rat steps on it she/he will never g

 

 From Today's Guardian Newspaper https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/may/06/guardian-200-ad-that-saved-jewish-father-from-nazis

 

  Quinoa Salad with peas, corn and mini tomatoes. Based on a product sold at Trader Joe's.

I love making soups; for me and to share.   Here is my latest - Cauliflower and Cheese Soup.  I can say that  it was pretty darn good   without pride, because all I had to do was to follow a recipe, and my own instincts. In this case I mashed the cooked cauliflower rather than blending it, so that there was some texture.  It can be eaten cold or hot.  Scrumptious either way! The dark bits are parsley   Here is a recipe https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/cauliflower-cheddar-soup/

You most likely have heard of the Yazidis an ancient near eastern cultural/religious group, so bitterly persecuted by the so-called Islamic State.  What do you know about them?   For what it is worth what do you know about the Mandaeans,  a near eastern Gnostic religion; now gaining new followers in the Boston/Cambridge area of Massachusetts.  Or the  Zoroastrians,   at one time the principal religious group in Persia (Iran). And there are the Druze an ethnic/religious group (which reveres Pythagoras) and is present in Syria, the Lebanon, and Israel. Do not forget the Samaritans, well known to readers of the Christian gospels, and still preserving their beliefs and customs in two communities in the State of Israel. Or the Coptic Christians   with deep roots in Christianity, and now somewhat beleaguered in Egypt. What do you know about these groups.  If  your response is "not much"  please read this masterful book by Gerard Russell, "Basic Books"  (Perseus Books Gro