Casino Chips Nature

I've been feeding the  beautifully carved window ledges with beeswax

OK, so you might not think these are going to be the most exciting crisps in the world but let's take a closer look.

For a start, the brand, Casino, is a supermarket group headquartered at Saint-Etienne. I once visited a massive branch near San Tropez and thought it must be the largest shop in the world. Mind you, that was back in 1991. Or was it 1992? But never mind that. I found these crisps in a motorway service station: where else? Maybe Casino own the little shop? Or maybe they sell their products in non-Casino-owned shops? I don't know.

Anyhow, this 100g bag of salted crisps looks nice and simple.

But wait! It may contain traces of gluten, milk, mustard or celery. Not celery? How could you accidentally add celery (my nemesis: it should never ever be eaten at all if you ask me) to a crisp? Oh well.

And then the instructions for enjoying these crisps are a little unusual. The packet suggests I put them in the oven for 3 or 4 minutes at "thermostat 3" (would that be gas mark 3 do you suppose?) before tucking in. They don't recommend you stick them in the microwave. Most packets of crisps probably expect you to tear them open with your teeth and start eating at once.

Of course in the household of an internationally renowned crisp reviewer we open the packet carefully with the aid of the kitchen scissors. I'll just go and do that.

And? Quite a fine cut crisp. Pale colour. Not too much salt. In fact, rather an old fashioned style of crisp. Not bad. And heated up? Mmnnn.... Yes, OK. Yup, quite nice. But not much different from the cold version.

And today is amazingly sunny and fabulous. So here is a photograph taken from our lovely garden. It has been very overcast for a couple of days. But now...