Crab Apple Jelly

Our beautiful little home has a fabulous big lawn with beautiful flower garden and fruit trees. Through the archway at the back is the landlord's orchard in which we have been given free reign to pick whatever we like...

 I hate seeing things go to waste so have recently been making apple pies and apple sauce but without the family around to feed, I just have to stop cooking. However, the other day I found that the crab apple tree was laden with fruit ready for picking.

 There is something so satisfying about cooking the produce from your land. (well, someone else's land technically but we wont split hairs).

 I haven't made crab apple jelly before but the end result looks great.  Like most jams it just takes fruit, sugar and lemon juice, a lot of boiling, some skimming and then you're done. I did feel a bit sick pouring all that sugar into the pot when I have been so busy trying to keep sugar OUT of our food, but the end result is so beautiful.  Satisfaction is a beautiful jar of homemade jam.

A day in York

Yesterday I went to York. It's an easy 1.5 hour journey from Peterborough on the train.  I went because David was off to a meeting there and I thought we might be able to catch up for lunch, didn't happen.  However, I had a great day mooching around on my own.  Thankfully I had worn my leather jacket as it was cold even at 10am when I arrived. My first mission was to find a cafe with GOOD coffee.  I was distracted as I passed the museum gates (one of my possibilities for the day) by a sign advertising a guided walk at 10.30am.  That was it! I now knew what I'd be doing for the next couple of hours. I whipped across the road and found a fab deli/cafe  Cabra Verde. I just had a coffee but it was great and the cakes and treats on display looked very tempting but for once I was good. This will be a place to return to on future visits.

Back to the park gates where I met up with John, a lovely retired man who is passionate about York, literature, history and coins (I'm sure he had many other hobbies too but we didn't have time to get onto those!!).  John charged the man standing next to me for my ticket as well before I explained that we were not together - the man looked very relieved! I love these sorts of tours because you find out so many fun facts that you would never know about just walking around with a guide book.  And so we set off on the Snickets, Ginnels and Walls tour with John who had an old leather satchel out of which he pulled coins found in actual sites around York, old books, photos and maps. He had stories of famous people from York, including Judi Dench (one of my favourite actresses) whose career started in York. Having worked at the library and then as a tour guide in the Minster, John had a wealth of information about the place. We visited the Kings Manor (below) where Henry VIII stayed when in York. We even got to see York's tiniest window which is said to be where the king's bathroom was. One of the fun things was that he pointed out many places where the city has been altered to meet tourists expectations. Tourism is York's major industry and the town was full of thousands of them yesterday.  But John  had photographic evidence of streets that were asphalted in the 50's and now are cobble stoned, once derelict buildings now prettied up to look like marvelous old shops and even one of the town entrance arches bearing arrow slits facing into the town (really, they were going to shoot their own?), where previously there had been arched windows - again verified by old artwork. It was a fun 2 and a bit hours and John was a great guide.
The rest of my afternoon I wandered the streets, checked out a few lovely stores and walked a part of the city wall. The walkway around the city wall did not exist when the wall was first built (thank you John for the info).  Apparently, wooden scaffold would be used on the inside of the city wall so that if the wall was breached the scaffold could be pulled away so that the enemy faced a large drop. It wasn't until ladies in crinolines started visiting York that the walkway was built for them to take in the views of the city and its surrounds.
It was back to the train station and the 16.02 to Peterborough. David jumped aboard at the last minute so we got to enjoy the ride home together, mostly through fields, some still being harvested, nice views, sunshine, sleepiness. We are loving the train travel, so comfortable, easy and FAST.
And my favourite sign of the day.......

Burghley Horse Trials

Waking up it was wet, wet, wet outside so we weren't sure what the day would hold when we were going to an outdoor event.  However hard it had rained overnight though, it managed to rain itself out and we ended up with a dry day that got warmer and warmer as it progressed.  We set off to Burghley around 9am and took the back roads in and across the fields of the estate. We are still amazed by the numbers of people that are at events. Apparently 160,000 people go to the horse trials over a 4 day period so its pretty busy.  We went on Saturday which is the cross country event day so there would have been around 40,000 people there.  It is quite spectacular. 
The event itself doesn't start till 11am but prior to that everyone heads to the shops and the score boards. Serious money is spent there!! It was fabulous to look at and very tempting.... you could buy anything related to horses  from clothing, boots, hats, to horse equipment and feed, horse trailers, and then there was everything unrelated but that would make you look fabulous anyway, Rolex watches, Aga ovens (go figure - "I brought my Aga at Burghley"), designer jewellery, cashmere clothing, leather everything and the list went on. I think my favourite thing was the alpaca scarves in the most beautiful colours and the finest weave.  I should have taken a few more shots of the fashion for the day, often involving tweed, hunter boots and sleeveless quilted vests.  There were some fabulous suits, but we couldn't choose which one suited His lordship the best.
Next to the shopping were the food outlets and oh my, there was some amazing goodies there. Massive wheels of cheese, amazing pies filled with wonderful concoctions, juices, cakes, fudges, the biggest meringues you have EVER seen (yes we did share one and it was delicious but oh so sweet). I settled on paella and David had a wonderful pie with mash to warm us up for the start of the event.
 Basically we walked the course and it took us the rest of the day. The course is about 6.5km long, up and down hills, with a couple of areas with big screen TV's to watch the action. I am so glad I have watched this all on TV before coming because when you are on the course you only see one rider for no more than about 20 seconds as they appear down the track, leap what jump or jumps are there and then thunder past you. It is all thrilling, but you then have to wait another 5 minutes for the next horse and rider.  We sat down by one of the big screens and it was great to see the rider coming through the preceding jumps and then heading onto the next ones.

 The things that struck me most was that these were some seriously courageous people riding these horses, the horses are all big but some of them are MASSIVE.  A couple fell off and one rode past with a bloody nose and then another one nearly lost it right in front of us and managed to hang onto the horse's neck and drag himself back on. Real adrenaline pumping action.
We walked along an avenue with the plaques of past winners.  It was very cool to see the Kiwi riders in there and particularly Mark Todd who is around 60 and was still competing that day - we gave him a good old Kiwi cheer as he went past. He is an amazing athlete to have competed at the top level of his sport for 25 years or more. There are not many sports that you can do that.
 
We had a great day, we were thoroughly exhausted at the end but we had a Pimms to sustain us half way round so it was all very manageable.

Edinburgh Fringe Festival

We had booked this weekend a while ago. That doesn't mean that too much was planned other than time off and tickets to shows. However, we like the mix of random and organised. Last Friday we left Peterborough around 9am and on the way decided we should stop somewhere about half way for a good break, food and a walk, it's about a 5.5 hour journey to Glasgow.  The first stop was for food at Cross Lanes Organic Farm.  We had spied this place from the road last time we travelled home from Scotland.  It might be the location or it could have been the grass roof with the sheep grazing on it that caught our eye.  It's a great building; positioned for the sun, grass roof one side, glass roof the other, hay bale building with reed water filtering system and best of all great food and coffee. Not to be forgotten is the organic meats, food and cheeses - some of which we had to take to Scotland with us.

After replenishing we crossed the road and drove into Barnard Castle, yes, that's the name of the town but there is a castle, or was, there.  We love walking around castle ruins, getting an impression of the size and how people used to live. This one would have been cold to live in but with stunning views up and over the river (great for spotting the enemy I guess). The town itself was gorgeous, this is definitely a good stopping point for us on our journeys north and next time we will head to the Bowes Museum for a visit.

As soon as we hit the border we headed into the worst rain we've been in since a tropical downpour in Queensland but it cleared quickly and the drive through to Glasgow and our very welcoming family was easy from there.
The next day we were up early and off to Edinburgh with the family. We took the park and ride option as there is such limited parking in Edinburgh.  We drove to Edinburgh airport and caught the tram into the centre of town for £3 return. The full tram was a good indicator of the volume of people in the city. They were everywhere! We had booked 5 events for the day. 

The first would have to be the standout for it's passion and intensity. I, Elizabeth is a 90 minute monologue of the actual words of Elizabeth 1. Rebecca Vaughan was a totally convincing queen and so passionate that she even had tears and snot (not nice but appropriate to the performance). A totally WOW show and had the 4 of us captivated from start to finish. This was followed by a photographic exhibition then kiwi, Jane Ashton's musical Promise and Promiscuity - a totally captivating energetic one woman show for anyone who enjoys Jane Austen.

We needed sustenance after the show and found ourselves at a fabulous place for lunch,  56 North.  It just so happens that this place has the largest selection of gins in Scotland, over a hundred from all over the world. Three of us selected our gins, then our mixer (yes there was a range of tonics) and then our garnish. It was a delightful lunchtime sip and was accompanied by a beautiful Ploughams Platter, yum indeed!


Late afternoon we went to the Assembly Hall at Mound Place which is in itself a fascinating building, and there we watched 5 guys and 1 girl throw themselves all round the stage and up in the air in Traces.  Their strength and agility was amazing. great show for David who happened to pick the seat which was at the end of their mats and where he was sometimes accompanied by a catcher in case they misjudged their tumbles. We tried to find somewhere for dinner but everything was booked out, we hadn't thought that one through, so we had to make do with fish and chips in a tiny chippie. That meal lead up to our final show which was a Nina Simone tribute, Soul Sessions. I really enjoyed it because I loved the story interwoven with the songs but it wasn't everyone's cup of tea.  At the end of all that we took ourselves back to Glasgow the way we had come and got in around 11.30pm. All exhausted.

Day Two dawned sunny yet again, the predicted rain disappeared and we enjoyed another superb day wandering Edinburgh.  This time we had nothing booked but we had the gorgeous Annie (another intrepid Kiwi) instead of the Scottish cousins, to accompany us for the day.  We wanted to just see the sights and we did; a book festival, numerous street performers (my pick would be Simeon Baker, a young Aussie percussion guitarist), people people and more people, the smallest pub, the groovy 70's caravan, a pub with our name - too full to go in, a castle (actually THE castle), beautiful houses, tweed shops, gardens and balconies, fabulous spaces to sit, and great food.                                            

   We finished the day satisfied that we had seen enough to fill us up for a while to come.  We are in love with Edinburgh and will go back to continue the journey......

Campanology, gave it a go!

This trip of ours was supposed to be about new adventures but you know, new adventures don't just happen, you need to be purposeful about making them, taking the first step and embracing them. You might not believe me but I can get myself into a pickle before I start something new.  However, last night I put myself out there and ended up having a great night.
I was recently inspired by my friend Amber who had a go and entered her jam in a local show in Australia; she even got a prize! Our local village gardening and craft show is coming up but as I have no cooking delights to offer, I am going to enter in the photographic competition, the theme is village life.
My idea for my village life picture was to go and photograph the campanologists hard at work; the local bell ringers. I had no idea what I was going to see or what they would be like but I had the nicest evening and even got a quick lesson and rang a bell myself. Not just any old bell, a 350 year old bell in a church that is centuries old, built on top of Roman ruins.
I'm not sure if my photos will win any prizes, I don't know that I captured anything special last night  (picture wise) but I met a lovely bunch of people who did their very best to convince me that I needed to join them regularly, even plying me with wine afterwards at the Prince of Wales Feathers. I might just do that!
Here's a few quick shots, one of the team even snapped me having a go.

Queen of Faffing

Let's set the record straight. The Queen of Faffing is not a beautiful country pub just down the road, nor is she a quaint thatched roof cottage.  No, this Queen of Faffing is me! That's right. Hard to believe, but true.
"What have you been up to today", my beloved innocently asked on our way home after he'd slaved away all day on his hot little computer.
I wanted to answer honestly but felt that my response was not really sufficient to account for the 10 hours since I'd last seen him. So I paused for a moment before giving him my response.
"I think I have perfected the art of faffing".
He looked at me......
It's true. I can easily while away a day doing not very much at all.  In fact on that particular day I'd washed the sheets, dried them, ironed them (yes, I DO iron my sheets, a much nicer finish on the bed I think), and remade the bed.  Currently we wanderers only have one pair of sheets so this all needs to be completed on great weather days, requiring coordination skills. I even did a second load of laundry, washed, dried, ironed, folded and stored. I checked up on my FB friends around the world, relationship building is important. I looked for a job, really, I did but nothing took my fancy.  In between I may have pulled a few weeds, though not enough to get my hands dirty or to make a large pile of weeds. I talked to the chooks who have decided my garden is a lovely scratching place, and tidied the cushions on my couch and well, that's about it. All that in 10 hours.
Seriously, I need to get a job but I am wondering, now that I have perfected the art of faffing, how will I fit in any work?

Fort William to Inverness

We had a few days with not much to do so decided to drive. We ordered a hire car  from Easirent.  DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT ever hire a car from Easirent. To be fair, we did warn Easirent that we would tell all our friends that we would NOT recommend them or use their services again. Not sure why we had selected them anyway, they looked the cheapest but once we got to their desk the costs started to add up.  We had no choice but to take this car but really........ Anyway, the least said the better about Easirent.

We headed for Tyngrum taking a break at The Green Welly Stop.  This place can't be recommended for it's food but it has clean rest rooms, petrol, a fabulous shop that has Scottish goodies (shortbread, whiskey and lollies) and a great range of outdoor clothing and accessories plus good phone reception.  This was important as I had timed our stop to coincide with a job interview, only interrupted once by a fighter jet flying directly overhead, so loud that I couldn't be heard!! Interview complete we headed off again and on to Fort William where we stayed at a fabulous B & B, Buccleuch Guesthouse.  This was 5 star but at a reduced rate online so we feel like we got a great bargain.  It was sumptuous to say the least and that influenced our decision to stay for a second night.  The service, food and the bed were fantastic - think Grandma's feather bed covered in luxury linen. 

Fort William is a small town but a hub for loads of activities.  It is where the West Highland Way ends (we will walk that before we leave) and the road out of town leads to castles, bens, lochs.  Eateries are few and far between but we managed to find a pub with reasonable meals and a deck to sit on to watch the sun go down.

Our first stop next day was the Caledonian Canal where we laced up our walking boots and hit the track up beside the canal.  We were really fortunate to see a boat just starting to go into the lock at Neptune's Staircase.  We stayed around and watched it move up a couple of locks. Patience required. We missed a turn off but as you can just keep walking alongside the canal we still had an enjoyable walk before heading back to the car. 

Next we were off to Mallaigh.  On the way we stopped at Glenfinnan and climbed the hill to view the viaduct on one side (aka Harry Potter's viaduct) and the monument at the top of Loch Shiel where Bonnie Prince Charlie rallied his troops.  The monument was closed and it was bitterly cold on the top of the hill so we headed off again, not before smiling for the Google Maps photographer, and enjoyed the spectacular scenery on our way to Mallaigh. It is a tiny port town, filled with tiny coloured fishing boats and the large ferries that provide transportation to the Isle of Skye. We had left our run a bit late that day and the weather didn't look so good for staying the next day on Skye so we had some lunch and a quick look through the shops and headed back to Fort William.

On the way we diverted to look at Loch Morar, Scotland's deepest loch. It was magnificent in its isolation. A few houses on the shores but no one to be seen. It's so hard to capture the colours (various shades of brown mainly), the light and the sky but it was all really intense and would be a fantastic place to just get away from everything.
Day Two we headed north out of Fort William with our first stop at Fort Augustus. This is another beautiful little town on the Caledonian canal. We watched more boats going through the locks there. Not too far on from Fort Augustus was our favourite castle so far, Urquhart Castle. 

Actually it's not a complete castle because it was totally ransacked in the 1500's (and apparently since then by locals for their use!). It's now in the care of Historic Scotland and it is has a great display in the visitor centre but also what is left of the castle gives you a great idea of its proportions. There are plenty parts that you can climb up, and the views of Loch Ness, which it overlooks, are just stunning. The only siting we had was of a lone motorboat, dwarfed by the size of the loch.
From there we drove up the side of the loch to Inverness where we stayed in a B&B on the banks of the river.  After a long walk around the town centre we found a fabulous Italian restaurant, Riva. They had a selected early evening menu which we thoroughly enjoyed. We finished it all off with the best cup of coffee we had had to that point in Scotland.  The barista was new to the job that night but he nailed it - real coffee made well - a satisfying end to the day.