Snow

We have snow!  Despite an extended cold spell at the beginning of the year, it's still not a regular winter experience to have snow that lasts for days and so consequently, there is (dare I say it), an element of hysteria whenever the cold white stuff lies. Schools close as the first flakes fall, health and safety issues uppermost in the minds of "the authorities", the media urges travellers to stop at home, avoiding difficult road conditions and public transport all but grinds to a halt.  Our inability to cope amazes me; other cold countries manage without all this fuss!

You have iphone?

We have Iphone!  Or rather Andy has as I doubt I’ll see much of it!  It came about because Nerea had a disastrous encounter with nail varnish remover and her Blackberry.  “It’s my life” she sobbed as Andy pronounced the damage was terminal.  So Andy, being the holder of her phone contract, went onto the Orange website to consider options. An hour later, he had secretly signed up for an iphone for “us” while  Nerea remained Blackberryless.  Nerea’s stunnned reaction when  her “technologically challenged parents” smugly revealed the iphone was perfect!!  And happily, she’ll only be Blackberryless until the weekend

FLAPJACKS

Flapjacks are one of my very favourite munchies, probably because they’re made from delicious ingredients; oats, golden syrup, sugar and butter.  As the weather has turned incredibly cold, I made some so we could indulge ourselves at coffee break.  They’re absurdly simple to make and depending on the type of oats, amount of syrup and length of cooking time, can be as chewy or crunchy as you like.  A handful of dried fruit or nuts or a covering of chocolate can turn them into a luxury snack. And because of the oats, I can pretend they are a healthy option


Flapjack 


80g or 3oz soft brown sugar
110g or 4oz butter
110g or 4oz golden syrup( an extra spoonful of syrup will make them slightly chewier)
300g or 10oz jumbo oats (you can use rolled oats or a mixture of the two)

Set oven to 180C or gas 4
Grease a 20cm or 8” square baking tin

Melt butter, sugar and syrup.
Stir in oats.
Press evenly  into tin
Bake for 20 mins until golden (Longer than this will make them crispier)
Leave in tin to cool for about 10 minutes before cutting into squares

Add 80g or 3oz dried fruit or nuts  e.g sultanas, dried cranberries, chopped walnuts, chopped apricots etc for extra flavour.
Cover completely with melted chocolate or chocolate drizzles for a little extra luxury.

The Tornado

On Friday the Tornado steam train roared into town.  I’m something of a closet railway child, having been brought up with trains at the bottom of the garden.  I clearly remember the fiery monsters steaming past as, hanging onto the top rung of our home made ladder, I fought my two brothers for the best viewing position.  Intoxicated with the unmistakeable smell of the Tornado’s smoke, I watched ecstatically as she came tearing into Carlisle station, whistle shrieking, steam hissing and brakes squealing.  For a few all too brief moments, I was transported to the glorious, bygone age of steam.

Dog Friendly Holidays!

I spent some time on the internet looking for dog friendly cottages in the Scottish Western Isles yesterday.  Although we don’t mind putting Molly in kennels, when we are on an outdoor holiday, we prefer to have her with us. And because Richard and Mavis have never been off the Scottish mainland (unlike their former dog, Domino who camped extensively with us when Richard and Mavis went on holiday to Australia some years ago) they are keen to join us with Misty for a fortnight in the summer. I’ve found several idyllic locations that welcome dogs so watch this space

Helly Hanson Fibre Pile - I love it

I’ve had a 20 year love affair with my “vintage” Helly Hansen fibre pile jacket.  In fact, I love it so much, I’m seriously thinking of setting up a tribute Facebook account for it.  That it’s been worn regularly over the past 2 decades, accompanying me on numerous adventures, not least up several mountains and bizarrely, to a dance show with Ali Bastian and Brian Fortuna at Blackpool Tower, has much to do with my affection. Despite its age, I’m deeply attached to it so I won’t be consigning it to the textile bin for a good few years yet

Geography Field Trips - ahhh, the memories

Portland Screw Fossils in Portland Stone

Nerea has delivered news of a geography field-trip next June to the Jurassic Coast in Dorset.  On hearing this, I was immediately transported back many years to my own field-trip days. We never went to Dorset but we did go to the geologically stunning Yorkshire cliffs at Runswick Bay. All that measuring, chipping and paddling about was wonderful. Nerea’s trip includes a visit to Portland, where geologically rich stone has been excavated since Roman times.  The distinctive white building stone, housing millions of fossils, can be seen gracing public buildings and monuments all over the world. She’ll be totally amazed

"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”

I recently made a visit to London for work.  Despite being a country girl at heart, I empathise with Samuel Johnson’s observation that “when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”.  How could anyone be anything other than enchanted by a city where Pelicans roam freely in one of the Royal Parks or where costumed Civil War re-enactors march and ride through the streets to commemorate the executions of both Charles I and the Puritan regicides some 350 years later? Shopping opportunities leave me cold, but historically and culturally, there is no where else like it

Book worms

I received a fun quiz on FB from a friend yesterday.  It was an eclectic list of 100 books that the BBC had pulled together, along with a comment that they suspected very few people would have read more than six of them.  Being an avid bookworm, I’d read a fair few of them and have been prompted to read some more.  Interestingly, many of my friends had also read considerably more than six on the list so either my friends and I are unrepresentative of the populous or there are a lot more non-readers out there than I imagined

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.*

Instructions:  Bold those books you've read in their entirety. Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read only an excerpt.



1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

 15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

 18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

 19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma -Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas 

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

*And like others, I believe some in the BBC are a bunch of "self promoting grandstanders" who are unable to appreciate the talents and intelligence of their audience or their staff.  

Shock Strictly Exit

Will the shock exit of Jimi + Flavia from Strictly this weekend have any impact on voting in future weeks?  I suspect not. I actually thought their partnership was quite forgettable compared to other couples but admit to being surprised at the outcome. Flavia’s loyal following was obviously not large enough. Or perhaps the credit crunch is now biting resulting in fewer multiple votes. I also think that a significant number of Strictly regulars are actively voting for Ann and Anton in protest at the bizarre and unnecessary changes introduced this series, including the departure of the talented Brian Fortuna

Handwriting

Today I bought a new Parker fountain pen. (Well it uses an ink cartridge but it’s the same principle).  And the reason for this purchase?  My handwriting has deteriorated to such an extent over the last 20 years that now, even I can’t read it! I almost feel that I need to go right back to basics and begin again, re-learning to create letter shapes and then joining them together to form words!  (Yes, it’s really that bad). I blame computing.  I barely pick up a pen now to write and frankly, I am out of practice.  Enough is enough!

Kitchen

I bought Nigella Lawson’s cookery book “Kitchen” in Llandudno.  Mavis and I snuck into Waterstones for a bit of a browse followed by tea and cake and it leapt into my hand. I enjoy Nigella’s recipes although if I made some of her butter and cream laden dishes too often, not only would I be the size of a bus but I’d be in danger of serious cholesterol overload.  I didn’t actually make any dishes when we were away as we’d planned and shopped for food in advance, but I think some may find their way to the Christmas table!

Wet and Windy in Wales

We had a wet and windy week in Wales – again.  It’s to be expected at this time of year but being eternal optimists, we always hope that the weather will be kind to us and over the last 18 years, sometimes, we’ve been lucky. But irrespective of the weather, we still had a lovely time.  Somehow, the simple fact that we’re with friends, able to relax, catch up on old times and enjoy the simple pleasures of life means more than sunny days.  And that we did manage a mountain epic on our one, dryish day, was a golden bonus