Clamorous Glue

I can see from my newly-acquired Gaelic 2011 Moon Calendar that we are currently on a skinny but waxing crescent. 'The Moon' is 'A' Ghealach' (roughly pronounced 'Uh-Yalach') in Scottish Gaelic. March is, rather boringly, 'Am Màrt' ('Am Marsht'). The result of this moon, Gaelic or otherwise, is that the tide is still low, though not low enough for razorfishing.

I'm quite content for now to view Gastrobeach from the comfort of my (also newly acquired) 'constant contact' office chair as there is a biting wind blowing and snow is, once again, settling on the tops. A few hardy (or foolhardy) daffodils are now poking through the bank at the back of the house. It had been feeling quite Spring-like. It's only when the flowers begin to show some colour that you realise quite how dark and grey the landscape has looked. Those tiny dots of colour really stand out against this backdrop. And I am glad to see them.

'Constant contact' (as per my chair) reminds me of the book I'm reading at the moment. 'Texture: Human Expression in the Age of Communications Overload', examines, among other musings on modern communicative practices, why people undertake activities like blogging. No firm conclusions yet, and I don't expect there to be any. Some days that vague, scatter-gun, one-way conversation that constitutes a blog post just feels like the right thing to be doing. 'Communications Overload' is a strange concept to me anyway. I'm a filter feeder, somewhat like a clam, when it comes to communications. That's it, I'm a communications clam.

Quick recipe tip to throw in as part of this particular scatter-gun post: Celery and cashew nut soup. Sounds an unlikely combination, I know. But somehow the cashew nuts blended in with the celery take away that wishy-washy, gloopy 'celeryness' and provide a really rich and satisfying flavour. It's an odd but lovely marriage of the virtually non-calorific (the celery) and the ultra-calorific (the cashew nuts). I'm not going to explain the rest of the recipe because that's about all there is to it. Just chuck it all together, cook it and whizz it. It'll be fine.

So, I'll just leave you there with those images of nutty soup and filter-feeding bloggers (have I got that the right way round?). Enjoy your dinner, some good company if you're lucky and, perhaps, ignore the phone if it rings. Just make like a clam.