We had a great Writers’ meeting on Monday night. The group is supportive and the feedback was carefully thought out and well received. There were five of us which is a good number and the convener says we don’t want more than eight. If a group is too large it is impossible for everyone to read their work and receive feedback – if you want to get home before midnight.  

    On Tuesday I helped with the Picton Museum stall at the stadium in Blenheim. We were promoting books about Marlborough that the museum has for sale and also the proposed museum whaling extension. Ron Perano parked the replica whale boat Swiftsure outside the Stadium, that’s the boat that was invited to take part in the Queen’s Jubilee pageant on the river Thames in June this year. It will be one of the boats housed in the extension wing. The other is the whale chaser Cachalot. Submissions to Council for support of the extension close on 12 September. More on this another time

   I imagine everyone remembers where they were when they heard Princess Diana had been killed in a tunnel in Paris. It’s hard to believe it was 15 years ago. I was standing in the kitchen when the phone rang with the news. When John F Kennedy (no relation) was assassinated I was in bed in my dormitory at boarding school. When the twin towers were destroyed I was in the kitchen helping my daughter get ready to go to school.  More on this next week.  For some reason I cannot recall where I was when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. Surely this was the most significant event of all?  And of course the famous words:  ‘One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.’  

   In winter I make vegetarian lasagne. My favourite recipe is in Rowan Bishop’s vegetarian cook book.  I buy Orgran  gluten free pasta sheets.  (See the Orgran website www.orgran.com ).  I use my favourite vegetable, eggplant or aubergine plus pumpkin and anything else in season that I feel like adding and spinach from the garden.  First I make a home-made tomato sauce with a red onion and a can of tomatoes and I use pizza thyme for seasoning as it survives the winter well in the herb wheel and broad leaf parsley.  Then I make a white sauce using rice flour instead of wheat flour. I use Blue River sheep milk feta for the topping and rice crumbs for a bit of crunch and bake the lasagne at 180 degrees for about 35 minutes.  I have also discovered a new vegetable, a cross between a brussels sprout and kale and the florets are very sweet. They are best if you cut them in half before stir frying or you can add them to a slow cooker recipe towards the end of cooking. The only thing I don’t like is that they come packaged in a plastic container.

   I am going to a quiz show this evening being organised as part of Adult Learners’ week. Hopefully the questions won’t be too taxing. We have a team of six so it should be fun.