days of feeling cold

Cold, cold, cold. Yes, it is....last night temperatures went down to minus 15 celsius.This morning, it's still minus 6 at nearly 11am.

The heating is on, I'm dressed in layers and am even wearing a scarf indoors.That's what I call cold.

Mind you, it's pretty out there.....look....

But I'm not going anywhere today. I shall pop outside to feed the birds, but that's it.I'm definitely not driving anywhere...we live on top of a hill....it's half a mile downhill and there's only one passing place for another car. You just have to drive down in second gear...and coming up, you just pray another car isn't coming down quickly!

But I'm staying in.And you know what are my two constant companions are at the moment.? Two faithful little friends which I can't do without at night?

I know....you don't have to say anything.it's sad....but these old hotties are rocking my world  right now....

and so is this.....Mama's blanket. My mum knitted it for me  and I love it - such a perfect, practical present which has been used and used.It's over my knees at this very moment...

So a quiet weekend in store with lots of writing to do....and perhaps a snooze this afternoon by the fire.

Meanwhile I've had this song swirling around my head all morning....so if you like some retro Little Feat...here it's is "Cold, cold,cold"

A day of snow and birds

It snowed yesterday - about five inches worth, and it's still lying deep and crisp  and even today. I wanted to capture the garden and whoops, fell over, clicked the camera at the same time and this is  how it turned out.

I've told you before how I've never been a good photographer! The reputations of Margaret Bourke White and Annie Leibovitz  have nothing to fear from me,but I actually quite like this.  I suppose it has a certain wonky appeal....


 

This time last week, it was a very grey, heavy skied afternoon. I was in the kitchen listenening to Gardeners Question Time on Radio 4 and taking part in the RSPB (the Royal Society of the Protection of Birds) survey. Like thousands of others around the country I was recording what birds came into the garden for an hour and then posting the results online.

Bird books and binoculars are always by my kitchen window.I wish I was one of these wonderful people who can identify any bird at about 50 metres, but I'm not. Unfortunately my bird watching skills are on the same level as my photography skills.

It was interesting though if not quiet.We normally get quite a lot of birds here as there's quite a few feeding stations around the garden. fat balls, seeds, peanuts....you name it....they fly in for free food.

But last Sunday, as I say, it was quiet. I still managed to record blackbirds,great tits, dunnocks,sparrows,piedwag tail, doves,wood pigeons,robins,chaffinches and blue tits though.

But today, it's been busier than Heathrow Airport. Flights might have been postponed there but birds were flying in every few seconds from every direction, they were obviously starving.You can just about see one on the feeding station on the right, enjoying the potato skins which I boiled up, mashed and put out.

It was good to go out into the snow for a quick walk and to see what the road through the village was looking like. I'm supposed to reading late night news bulletins tomorrow if I get there.....

But tomorrow is another day, and it was far too cold to stay out for long.So I'm back home, in the best possible place to be......

Here!

Today's track from the  Byrds.Always a favourite song of mine, I only saw this piece  of video for the first time about three weeks ago..There is a season for everything...including snow

So, it's the third day of my challenge...and already it's very interesting.

On day one, I started off with boiled eggs and soldiers.The free range eggs were from a friend's farm about  four miles away, and the bread was from Jessica, a local artisan baker who uses flour milled in Leicestershire. So a good start to the day....

For supper, I took out of the freezer a pasta sauce I made in the autumn using my homegrown tomatoes
(you can read the recipe on my other blog at www. thinkingofthedays.blogspot.com).

Now usually I would of course accompany this with some dried pasta, but that 's not an option now  so I had a jacket potato and some of  last year's homegrown peas which were also in the freezer. Unfortunately there's not many of those left so I'm going to have to start sowing peas earlier this year!


I completely forgot  to preplan what I would have for lunch though. Luckily, a hunk of the same bread  and some excellent Sparkenhoe Red Leicester cheese ( made in Market Bosworth and made from unpasteurised milk from their farm) did the trick.

So day one of the challenge was successful...at least eighty per cent of what I ate was  grown or made locally. I did have two cups of coffee though and there was a  third of a cup of red wine in the pasta sauce.Oh and I drank alot of tap water....

I was more prepared yesterday --and  luckily as it was the first Thursday of the month..I popped down to the Farmers Market in Market Harborough.

I couldn't resist some Gloucester old spot sausages from March House farm in Great Dalby. Boy, did they hit the spot last night with mashed potatoes...and a lovely crisp  January King cabbage, which I steamed and drizzled with a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar on top.

And yes I know, the balsamic vinegar isn't from Leicestershire....but that's why I 'm trying the eighty per cent local  food challenge and not a one hundred per cent one! Day two a success and I felt I simply had to celebrate with a glass of merlot...from France.

Cheers  my dears! But don't worry -this  isn't going to be a day in, day out diary of exactly what I've eaten.. Coming up will be reasons why we should all be eating more local food....and  I'll be telling you about a remarkable man from Fife who 's inspired thousands of people to really think about local food challenges.

Hello !

A sunny but freezing start today  to a new challenge where local food rules!

I love food. I adore growing some of my food, cooking is always a pleasure.(if not an adventure for those who I force to eat my culinary efforts) and as for eating....well, it's what I'm good at. Throw it at me and I'll eat it - apart from shellfish. ....

So apart from the stuff I grow myself, where do I get my food from? Well, I like to shop locally if I can - using a local butcher and the nearest  farm shop, but about once a fortnight I do a supermarket shop for the essentials.

Those "essentials" mount up ...and although I do try to buy foods in season....it's so easy to get sidetracked, and at Christmas I found myself buying green beans from China and clementines from Morocco amongst other things.

I resent the fact that some of the fruit and veg I'm eating have travelled further than I have in the last twelve months! It's also a fact that eighty per cent of the food we eat in this country is imported. Eighty per cent! Yes, I know, I had to sit down and fan myself when I found that out.

So, the challenge is...cue the roll of drums - to turn that statistic on its head. I'm going to make sure that eighty per cent of what I eat has been grown, made or produced here in Leicestershire and Rutland.

The other twenty per cent will take care of food and drinks such as bananas, coffee, red wine and the occasional treat .

As well as writing about this challenge here on this blog, I'll be covering it on air on BBC Radio Leicester. Why not?It's what I do for a living...but usually I'm featuring other people's stories!
Here's the very beginning...do have a listen...

http://soundcloud.com/localfoodrules/bridgets-challenge


I'm looking forward to seeing what food I can buy locally , how much I can grow on my two allotments and I can't wait to meet lots of independent growers and producers around here in the coming months.

The challenge means a new way of thinking, eating and living....so bring it on!

Days of being a tourist in my own village

We've got a houseful again, and it's great having friends and family to stay. And not just for the sheer pleasure of seeing them, of catching up on all the news and having a laugh either.

No, it's seeing where I live through their eyes. The mundane, the usual, the places and things I know and love but perhaps take for granted suddenly become different .

For example, I love the view from my kitchen window. It changes every day according to season, to light, to the mood of the weather.Every morning as soon as I wake up I look out while the kettle 's boiling and I scan the horizon....

But last weekend, our visitors arrived on Friday night...it was dark. When one of them wandered into the kitchen the next morning , it was light and as he looked out of the windows he literally jumped."Wow, I didn't expect this" he said, and I felt lucky all day.Lucky to be able to wake up every
morning  and drink in the view.

Similarly, a walk around the village with my friends  and seeing it through their eyes makes me fall in love with the place all over again.It's only small..there are 26 houses and a church.It's a conservation village, set in beautiful countryside.I know that. I love this place.But I appreciate it even more after friends see it for the first time.

Would you like a quick look at what I saw this morning on my quick solitary walk in the sunshine?

Here's our 12th century church...so simple yet so serene.....

Our mud thatched wall around the church is rather rare....

Obviously posting a letter is a regular event. Our village postbox is very old, and has the tiniest slot to post  cards and letters through .I actually have to fold some cards in half to post them, and it's always muddy by there...but when some American friends virtually had orgasms  about "the most darling little Victorian post box, "I glowed with pride..

I love where I live......and being a tourist in my own village reaffirms that love every time.

I wonder what makes you look differently at where you live?

Today's track, 'Tourist by Athlete' I must have seen this band at least ten times live and they always give a good performance-always a joy to watch them.
                                         



 

a chocolate pot day

We've just had a lovely weekend with old friends coming to stay. Jenny, Phil, Dave and Bridget  arrived from the West Country on Friday night and we did nothing but laugh,eat,drink lots of prosecco and wine,plus go on some long walks.

Normally I  suppose I'm rather a slapdash cook, I usually forget to buy one vital ingredient which is frustrating when I live three and a half miles from the nearest shop.So this weekend, I was highly organised...which stunned everyone (including me) ..and it was such a relaxing weekend.

I'd cooked for the rather filthy weather...rainy , cold and blustery. Warming casseroles and boozy crumbles, homemade soups and the like which went down well....what I call homey food. The sort of food that you can put on the table and everyone can dive in .

Now there's nothing I like more than delving into cookery books ..I adore cookbooks..I've got quite a few and I'm such an easy person to buy a prezzie for. OOH, a cookbook....thank you! But I'm no Masterchef or Cordon Bleu cook.

However this is the book that I use time and time again...for the tried and tested , the recipes that never ever fail ....as well as the ones which I can adapt easily when I do forget that vital ingredient!

It's full of handwritten recipes I've scrounged from family and friends and old family favourites which haven't been written down before.

This was the pudding I made on Saturday night....

As you can see from the date, I've been making this since 1994 - it's so easy and everyone likes it. Dot is my friend who lives a couple of houses away from me.Now she is a cordon bleu cook...and can knock up anything from a the perfect souffle for two, to a hunt tea for a hundred.She's amazing...and I 'm planning at some stage to  lock her in her own  kitchen , chain her to the aga and refuse to let her out again until she teaches me some of her skills and more of her recipes.

Anyway, I decided to make these chocolate pots for Saturday evening.After all, what could go wrong? Well, there was just one small problem - I couldn't find the little glass pots that I serve them in. I couldn't find enough little ramekin dishes either. Now I'm not blaming Mr Thinking of the Days -but he has been reorganising my kitchen cupboards recently!

 While I was frantically scanning the kitchen  for them and mouthing a few expletives ....Jenny pointed out my expresso cups and saucers.So that's what I used...

 I added some of the shortbread biscuits I'd made on the Friday on the side too. I haven't done that before either. but I will from now on....So here's chocolate pots ....in cups

Ingredients

8 ounces dark bitter choclate
1oz butter, cut into pieces
4 eggs
2-4oz of ordinary chocolate

Method

1.Break the chocolate into a bowl and melt in the microwave for a minute or two.

2.Seperate the eggs.When the chocolate has melted , beat in pieces of the butter and the egg yolks.

3.Whip up the egg whites until stiff and fold gently into the chocolate mixture.

4. Ladle into small glass pots , ramekin dishes or even expresso cups (!) and put in the fridge for a couple of hours.

And that's it.....so easy....and you don't have to add ordinary milk chocolate either.Much richer flavour if you don't. You choose!

And this post's track....It's "End of the Movie"from Stornaway...... I love this band -interviewed them back in 2010, and adore their album Beachcombers Windowsill.Played it on the i pod on Saturday night and now Dave does too....

It's a new day, a new dawn and a new allotment....

It was going to be an easy going Sunday morning....get up late....potter about a bit....go out with my good friend Laura . We were only going to buy some potatoes from a nursery to chit and that would be it. Job done,with a  lazy Sunday afternoon to look forward to.

But it hasn't quite turned out like that. My mind is now racing, I've got a piece of paper out and I'm trying to draw the future.

Mind you, I hadn't even managed to get out of the house today and I'd already been distracted.And spent some money. I blame Fiona from www.cottagesmallholder.com  

She'd put up a blogpost about what she'd just ordered from Thompson and Morgan's online sale...Sungold tomato seeds for 20p? I couldn't resist....and also managed to find myself ordering cheap salad leaves, some runner beans plus some poppies I had no intention of buying.


I digress...by eleven o clock I'd picked up Laura and we were on our way to Brookside Nurseries , north of Leicester ,to get our potatoes for the coming year. It's where I've been going for the last three years for potatoes. So many different varieties , so tempting - so we both bought far too many.

First Early favorites for me are Arran Pilot, Rocket and I'm also going to try Lady Christl...but it's the salad potatoes which really get me going.....such as these, as well as Anyas and Charlottes

And that's why we've now found ourselves sharing a new allotment. Because we'd bought too many potatoes!

And onions...

Now getting an allotment in the UK in most areas is not easy.Some people have to wait for years on a list and wait for someone to die or become too incapicitated  before they can take over a plot.

I had to do that myself for one of my allotments...three years I was on that list. And I love it there...it's a single row of about thirty or so plots set between two rows of houses in town. It's fenced and a real suntrap ..and last year I grew pounds and pounds of peas, broad beans , french beans and tomatoes there.

But I have another allotment which I share with Laura. It's not far from my house, it's in a windy, at times god forsaken field, which we share with rabbits, muntjaks  , allotmenteers and other  wild animals.

In my bit I grow fruit - blackcurrants, gooseberries and raspberries.I also grow potatoes and garlic.

Laura's American so she's got a blueberry thing going on, and she  loves artichokes ( or fartichokes as I call them). Not that I'm saying she has a problem in that department you understand, but the last time I went to France and the whole family had some - let's put it this way, we could have gone from Limoges to Nice only using about 10 litres of petrol. Definitely wind assisted.

I'm digressing again  though. Back to the nursery and a trolley full of potatoes, garlic , and Laura with the onion sets....

.I happened to mention that I'd heard there was half allotment plot going spare in the field. Laura's face lit up, and the next thing I'm phoning Monica ,who runs the allotment society ,to find out which allotment it was. Not that we're picky mind, but there are plots and then there are others. As with buying houses it's all about location, location, location. But at this stage, this was merely an enquiry as to which one it was.

Monica then gave us the good news. It's the plot right next to ours. Mainly covered with black plastic. We said Yes, and that was it. Until we had a little wibble and asked ourselves if perhaps we were taking on too much.

We took a detour on the way home - to our allotments.  Yes, allotments - in the plural.We've not only agreed to take this new one on, but we've seen Monica and already paid up our subs.

This wasn't quite what I'd had in mind when I got up this morning - but hey, it's a new day , it's a new dawn and a new allotment. And it's feeling good..

The only thing is, I haven't yet seen Mr Thinking of the days to tell him the good news yet.....

Guess what today's song is? I 've always adored her ...Nina Simone....

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