On March 13, Andy, Nerea and I were lucky enough to be involved in Illuminating Hadrian’s Wall. It was an impressive event to mark 1600 years since the end of the Roman rule with 500 beacons lighting the entire length (84 miles) of the wall from Segedunum at Wallsend in the East to Bowness on Solway in the West. Although much of the media attention was focussed on the impressive sections along Whin Sill, those of us on the Western end still played an important role. We felt as though we had been a part of a significant, historical experience
We had a stunning walk with friends last week upto the roof of the Pennines. I can see the fells from my office window looking East (I have a view of Carlisle Castle looking West) and on the spur of the moment, suggested to my husband and our walking friends that we escape from the drudgery of office life for a day and go walking. We had a fabulous day, walking 18 miles and finding 6 geocaches along the way. Although the weather was fine, the area is quite remote and we barely met anyone. A truly wonderful, wilderness experience.
I’m about to do some knitting. This may sound sad but I’m very excited about it as I love knitting and yet, perversely, I haven’t done any for ages; infact, not since my daughter was small. Thanks to creative designers there are some stunning garments to create with wonderful quality yarns so it’ll be an absolute joy. It’ll be productive and will release me from my recent addiction of wasting precious free time in a virtual world, hunched over the computer. I’ll even have time to verbally communicate with my husband and daughter again. Will they even notice or care?
It has actually been a while since I drabbled . Sometimes real life gets in the way of these “virtual” musings and before you know it, weeks have elapsed. Which brings me to my point. My “real” life has included pouring over the Strictly forums. But, actually I’m wasting time communicating in a virtual world with people I don’t really know and don’t necessarily want to. I don’t share their views and values on the appropriateness of public postings and I’m neglecting other, more important things. I feel I’m addicted which is never a good thing . So it’s over
Last week, I had a day off work so decided to go for a geowalk with a colleague. She was apprehensive as she hasn’t done much walking and we were planning to cover 12 miles. But she needn’t have worried. The weather was glorious; the views and the landscape varied and the terrain was forgiving. .We found 18 geocaches in all sorts of cunning hides and interesting locations. As they were only a short distance apart, they acted as “milestones” to aim for, which kept our motivation levels high. We had a great day and we both achieved something positive.
Today I was late for work but for an unusual reason. I’m one of the illuminators on Hadrian’s Wall at the weekend and Radio Cumbria wanted to interview people. The organisers contacted me to ask if I would agree. I was quite nervous so prepared a few notes on why my family wanted to be involved. In actual fact it was just like speaking to someone on the ‘phone. Hopefully, I didn’t sound too inane. I’m really looking forward to the event on Saturday. It’s going to be a great celebration and we’re thrilled to be a part of it.
Blueberries were on offer in the market yesterday. While cycling home with my haul, I thought of the bilberry bannocks my mum used to make following Auntie Bessie’s recipe. Auntie Bessie was a redoubtable Scottish lady (she regularly cycled from Glasgow to Blackpool on a 3 speed bike) who baked bannocks after gathering wild bilberries from the moor. When I was growing up and the bilberries were ripe, it was “all hands on deck” until we picked enough for making jam, pies and bannocks. Bannocks are like scones and are delicious with a cuppa. I just had to make some.
Blaeberry Bannocks
(or Bilberry/Blueberry/Whinberry/Myrtleberry…..… or any sort of berry bannocks)
Bannock mixture
10oz SR Flour
3oz Butter
2oz Caster Sugar
1 punnet fresh blueberries – wash, dry and toss in flour.
milk to mix
Lemon topping
2oz icing sugar
2tbsp lemon juice
zest of half lemon
walnut sized knob of butter
Pre-heat oven to 200 degreesC or Gas 6
1. Rub the butter into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs.
2. Stir in the sugar and the blue berries
3. Add the milk a little at time, stirring gently to form a soft dough. Don’t crush the blue berries as you clump the dough together.
4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Gently pat and shape the dough with your hands into an oblong about 8 inches by 6 inches and about half an inch thick
5. Cut the dough into 4 squares and then cut each square into 2 triangles.
6. Put the 8 triangles onto an un-greased baking sheet and bake for 15 -20 mins until golden brown. Leave to cool on a cooling tray
7. While the bannocks are cooling, blend the lemon juice, icing sugar and zest together. Add the knob of butter and zap in the microwave for about 50 seconds on high power. Leave to cool as it will thicken. Brush the thickened syrup over the top of the cooled bannocks.
