some great ideas there Helen - the bacon sounds good as does the garlic and thickenig flour. I was considering red wine. Im not too sure about the potatoes, which have foud disintegrate not altogether nicely.

Thanks very much. My wife doesn't like celery - so I'm not confident about that either. Idid put in carrots which were fine as were the mushrooms. I was watching the cook Jean Pierre on Youtube and I loved the way he cut up the mushrooms.

Anyway thanks very much.