It's true!

Every cloud does have a silver lining.  Yes, I know that is a cliché, but so what?  I have discovered it to be true.  Or maybe it's just a bit of positive thinking.  Or lateral thinking.

Whatever, I have discovered the silver lining in this particular cloud.

I have fond memories of a family holiday way back when I was a young teenager.  My parents rented a cottage in Somerset, with the Bridgwater Bay beach just across the dunes from the cottage door.  Lunch each day was fresh bread, New Zealand butter and real Cheddar cheese.  It's those lunches that I really remember.  Food fit for a king. Good, mature Cheddar has ever since been just about my favourite cheese, although Stilton and Roquefort are pretty high up the list as well.  You can imagine, therefore, my horror when my doctor informed me that cheese, especially hard cheeses like Cheddar which are 30% fat, is now off the menu as far as I am concerned.  That is, if I want to reduce my cholesterol level to bring down the 1 in 3 chance of heart problems.

The silver lining in this?  I have rediscovered Bovril and now, instead of lightly salted butter and Cheddar cheese on my lunchtime rolls, the first is spread with a butter substitute and Bovril while the second is scrumptious with homemade jam, strawberry, raspberry or apricot.  Life is still pretty good.

(The Bovril web site is quite fun.  And the packaging has hardly changed since I was a boy.)




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Back in the courtyard of our French cottage, the flower border was full of colour with three different roses (one peachy cream, one white and one red - only just visible in the picture), a purple clematis in the far corner and blue lavender which was almost hidden by the foxgloves growing just outside the border.  I rather like the herb Robert at the foot of the drainpipe with its pink flowers and red foliage even though most people see it as a weed.  I call it God's gardening.