Don't be a Gooseberry fool

I’ve harvested our first gooseberries today.  I doubt we’ll get too many crops as we only have a small bush but as there’s a great satisfaction in eating your own produce, I’m planning how best to cook them.  Although I love creamy yet sharp tasting gooseberry fool, Andy prefers the solid comfort of crumble (what is it about men and nursery puddings?) and as cream isn’t good for me, I think that the crumble option is likely to win out. But irrespective of pudding choice, I’ll definitely be saving some to make a sauce to serve with our mackerel tomorrow

Damp Derwentwater or Tropical Tenerife?

How times have changed. 

Nerea’s off on her post exam holiday  with 3 school friends tomorrow but unlike my waterlogged youth hostelling adventures in the Lake District over 30 years ago, she’s heading to sunny Tenerife.  So today, I selflessly sacrificed a day’s walking in the Lakes (Possibly it would have been too wet) to go “shopping” to buy her some last minute odds and ends.  Luckily, she’s quite happy to shop in Matalan for summer type clothes so we bought quite a lot for our money, including a rather nice rigid suitcase.  Now we just need to weigh it!

Chernobyl, 26 years on

Who could have imagined on 25 April 1986, that 26 years later, a small but unique group of farmers would gather in a Cumbrian pub, united by events unfolding thousands of miles away in the Ukraine?  For, the following day, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded, with catastrophic consequences.  Within hours, the soft, gentle rain falling on the beautiful Cumbrian fells was depositing a silent, deadly legacy that would contaminate the grazing of thousands of sheep.  Last night, that unique gathering was able to reflect on the impact of that explosion and finally celebrate the lifting of sheep movement restrictions 

Our beautiful daughter

Some weeks ago, Nerea modelled a gorgeous Ted Baker dress in the school charity fashion show.  She looked stunning and although it would have been lovely to have bought her the dress, it was rather expensive and she had “no place to go”.  Fast forward to last night and the school U6 leavers dinner.  Nerea attended with Alex, wearing THE DRESS which I’d bought for half price in the Ted Baker sale.  A bargain!  She looked so serene as she posed  for a photo with Alex, I felt a lump in my throat. Quite simply, she is our beautiful daughter

It's all double Dutch to me

Cycle camping round the Zuiderzee may not be everyones’s cup of tea but for Andy and me, our holiday plans are coming together splendidly.  The route has been examined in detail using maps, Google Earth and Street View, the Green Camping Guide is on order and numerous geocaches have been identified!!  Although we’ve visited Holland several times before, we’ve never been on our bicycles so it’ll be a different way of re-discovering the area.  At last, we’re keeping the promise we made to ourselves years ago and are returning on two wheels. Here’s hoping for a dry and windless September!

Crewe Station

Crewe Station.  A characterless, soul-less place.  As one who has sat on the miserable, drafty platforms for hours, it’s understandably difficult for me to conjour up colourful images of expectation and excitement common to those embarking on an adventure.  But surely the heartfelt emotion from thousands of leave takings and arrivals should have seeped into the walls and permeated the consciousness of the modern traveller? Perhaps.  But if it has, it hasn’t resonated with me. I suspect that transitory nature of trains and passengers merely passing through on their way to other more exotic destinations, has defined it ultimately as cheerless

You never know who's reading this rubbish!

Yesterday, I was taken aback by something of a surprise when Andy and I rocked up to the entrance of Skitby, the venue for the Austin Friars St Monica’s Diamond Jubilee BBQ organised by the PTA.  For, as we greeted Alyson Rheinbach, one of the most generous-spirited and warm-hearted ladies I’ve met, as well as being the retiring PTA chairman, she mentioned my “Drabbling”.  It seems that she’d been “googling” and had accidentally stumbled across this miscellany of my mundane musings. I have to admit to being a little embarrassed as I never imagined anyone actually read these scribbles.  

So, Alyson, if you are reading this, let me just say a huge personal “thank you” for all your hard work over the past decade and more.  I know that Nerea has personally benefited from the fund raising endeavours of the PTA during her D of E adventures and life changing expedition to Borneo and for that, Andy, Nerea and I are enormously grateful.

You’ll be very much missed when you move to (warmer) pastures new for your organisational skills, genuine kindness and personal commitment to making the PTA a hugely successful and supportive adjunct to the school.  (And I know this isn’t a Drabble, but it’s my Blog and I’ll write as much as I want to!) Good luck, much love and best wishes for the future.

Nottingham ......and no Alan Rickman in sight

Last week, I’d to go Nottingham for work.  It was the first time I’d been to the city centre although I’d been to our offices on the outskirts, before.  Although it was raining when I arrived, inevitably, my thoughts turned to geocaching for what else is a girl to do when a dull evening in a hotel room stretches ahead?  My Girl Guide instincts having come to the fore the night before, I was well prepared with a selection of caches to choose from.  And so I passed a very pleasant, if damp, evening exploring the city, GPS in hand 

Olympic Torch

Yesterday, the Olympic Torch came to Carlisle. Initially, I was somewhat underwhelmed by the concept of the Torch touring the UK but since it arrived in Cornwall, I have become increasingly enthused by the concept.  Carried by a relay of, in the main, “inspiring” individuals, the torch is visiting cities that otherwise might feel disenfranchised from the London centric Olympic emphasis.  We decided to meet the Torch in Bitts Park where it was resting overnight.  Jordan Little, a local young person who has overcome personal challenges, was the final Torch bearer and moved everyone when he proudly lit the cauldron

Pasta please

Andy was in chef mode again at the weekend.  An avid follower of "Saturday Kitchen", his culinary creativity rose to the fore when he watched Angela Hartnett prepare a spicy seafood pasta.  As fresh pasta is so easy to make, without further ado, the pasta maker was out and the linguine made before you could say “mama mia”.  The deliciously spicy sauce of garlic, seafood and white wine was made in a matter of minutes so we were soon sitting back and enjoying a glass of chilled wine with our pasta and wilted spinach and dreaming of Italy and sunshine

Pasta dough

• 300g/10½oz Italian ‘00’ flour
• 3 free-range eggs
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• pinch salt

Spicy Seafood Sauce

• 4 tsp finely sliced red chilli
• 4 tsp finely sliced garlic
• 125ml/4fl oz white wine
• 125ml/4fl oz fish or vegetable stock
• 300g/12 oz of seafood including crab and prawns
• 2 tbsp flatleaf parsley
• 1 tbsp basil leaves
• 1 lemon, zest only
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation method

1. For the pasta, blend the flour and eggs in a food processor to fine crumbs, then add the olive oil and salt and pulse to just combine.
2. Remove the mixture from the processor, and pull the dough together into a ball. Knead the dough until smooth.
3. Wrap the pasta dough in cling film and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. Once rested, take the dough out of the fridge and roll out to about 1cm/½in thick.
5. Pass the rolled dough through a pasta machine, starting with the widest setting, and reducing the setting each time until on the finest setting.
6. Change to the linguine cutter on the pasta machine and pass the pasta through once more.
7. Weigh out about 35g/1¼oz of pasta per person. Hang the remaining pasta over the back of a chair and allow to dry.
8. For the sauce, heat a frying pan until hot, add the olive oil, chilli and garlic and gently fry until just softened.
9. Add the seafood and gently fry for a couple of minutes, then add the white wine and cook until the volume of liquid has reduced.
10. Add the stock to the seafood and cook until reduced again.
11. Meanwhile, bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the pasta and cook until it floats to the surface and is just tender.
12. Drain the pasta and stir straight into the sauce.
13. Finish with the herbs and lemon zest then season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Rain, again

The weather has broken as I predicted.  Buying that sun lounger was all it took for the fickle, celestial body that is our sun to turn tail and head back to mainland Europe.  We’ve not been drenched by the plump droplets experienced in a down pour or gradually dampened by the invisible drizzle of low cloud.  No, we’ve been well wetted by the soft, persistent rain so typical of an English summer.  And although I’m not really complaining when other parts of the country are mopping up flood water, it was so lovely to see the sun.  She’s sadly missed.

Afternoon Tea

I love afternoon tea.  I confess to having a sweet tooth so that may be part of the reason why cake, scones, jam and cream appeal to me so much (sandwiches ALWAYS take a back seat). But I also like baking!  So it’s not uncommon for me to celebrate any occasion, be that a birthday, special visitors or simply a happy event, with a cream tea.  Inevitably then, tea, scones and cake were on the menu when we welcomed Dick and Barb during their recent visit and unsurprisingly, they re-appeared for our Diamond Jubilee celebrations with Robin and Cathryn.  Delicious.

Diamond Jubilee

Apart from the weather, which was typically British, it must be said that the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee has been celebrated with all the ceremony, joy but appropriately modest restraint that we have come to expect from recent Royal events.  The spectacular river pageant inspired by Canaletto was marred only by the rain but as expected, the Royals did their duty. The Monday evening concert was amazing with some fantastic performances from rock and pop legends, concluding with a stunning pyrotechnic display.  And finally, the Thanksgiving Service at St Paul’s Cathedral was a fitting tribute to our dedicated and humble monarch


Photos courtesy of the BBC

Big Sky Country

Although I love the mountains, there’s something captivating about the bleak open spaces of the Pennine Moorlands.  I don’t know whether it’s the “big skies” that really do stretch into infinity or simply the solitude that still exists there but I’m strangely drawn to them.  So as part of our “geobilee“ celebrations, we decided to go onto the moors above Allendale and find a couple of caches we’ve been meaning to find for some time.  It was a very cold day with a biting east wind but the skies were ever changing and the scenery as hauntingly beautiful as ever