Paperless caching?

I really  neeeeed an i-phone with a geocaching app!   In an effort to reduce paper waste, last night saw me cutting and pasting myriads of geocache co-ordinates and descriptions into a single Word document.  We like to have a fair few caches to choose from when we head off to the hills but with the weather dictating where we go and a dearth of any portable internet devices, we’re reliant on paper information for a variety of all weather cache locations.  But £35 a month for a fancy phone that aids geo-cachers?  I don’t think so! Back to the keyboard!

Wales again

We’re off to Wales on Saturday for our 18th annual pre –winter spot of R and R with Richard and Mavis,  although in our world, R and R involves scrambling up mountains or bog trotting in the rain rather than lying by a pool with a glass of something chilled and alcoholic. Our alcoholic haze occurs later in the day relaxing by the log burner!  I also spent some of my youth in Snowdonia on geography field trips and expeditions for my Duke of Edinburgh’s award so over time, we’ve accumulated a collection of very fond memories of the area

Apple cake

I  made a delicious baked apple cake for a dessert this weekend using some apples I’d been given by a friend. I’d not made this particular recipe before but was tempted as it used ground almonds which always make for a moist cake.  It was actually quite deep so the finished product was large enough to have as pudding on Saturday, tea on Sunday and give Grandma the rest for her and her friend to enjoy on Monday. The only revision I’d make to the recipe for the future would be to add cinnamon as we love it with apples

Baked Apple Cake

4 Bramley apples – peeled, cored, and sliced
juice of half a lemon
9oz (275g) soft light brown sugar
3.5oz (100g) butter, melted
3.5oz (100g) ground almonds
7.5oz (215g) plain flour
1tsp baking powder
5 eggs
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp vanilla extract

Pre-heat oven to Gas 4, 180C
Grease and line a 9” spring clip tin with baking parchment.
Prepare the apples, put the slices in a bowl and stir in 2oz brown sugar and the juice of half a lemon.  Leave on one side.
Melt the butter and stir in the eggs, 5oz sugar, sifted flour, cinnamon, vanilla extract and baking powder.  Add the ground almonds.
Sprinkle a further 2oz of sugar over the base of the tin and arrange the apple slices in overlapping layers, covering the base fully.
Add any remaining apple slices and juice to the cake mixture and mix well.  Pour the cake batter over the apples, spread flat with a palette knife and bake for 50 mins.  You may  need to cover with a sheet of foil or parchment about 30 mins in to stop it becoming too brown on top.
Release tin and cake onto a plate so the apple base is uppermost

Brother Nigel

Brother Nigel

Portrait of Brother Nigel

Last Monday we celebrated the life of Brother Nigel.  A joyful occasion tinged with sadness, Nigel was held in huge affection by all who knew him. His last months, facing the inevitable outcome of his illness with his wife and family, were a shining example of courage and faith from a man who was truly an Augustinian.  The sung Mass, concelebrated by Catholic and Anglican priests, and the Augustinian Bishop of Lancaster, Michael Campbell, was a wonderful tribute to a great man.  Nerea felt touched, humbled and privileged to serve on the alter during the Mass in the school chapel


Photos courtesy of Austin Friars School

House Shout

Photo courtesy of Austin Friars School

Stafford won the House Shout (again) on Friday with excellent renditions of “Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines” and “I just can’t wait to be King”.  The House Shout, the annual climax to Friars’ music festival is a hotly contested competition with each of the 3 school houses singing a common song plus one of their own choice.  Despite dodgy choreography by Stafford during the “Ups and Downs”, their performance definitely had greater variation  and musicality than either Clare or Lincoln.  With Nerea being a Staffordonian, naturally we were part of the cheering masses celebrating in the school chapel

Me! Cake decorating!!! It's true

Yesterday, I went to an excellent Christmas cake decoration class during my lunch hour.  A colleague had volunteered to demonstrate  simple cake decorations in advance of Christmas.  Now although I love baking I’m absolutely not into the finer arts of icing and modelling so I had very few expectations of what I might achieve but I was amazed at just what the other attendees and I created.  A simple snowman, pile of snowballs and a parcel now adorn the shop bought cake (provided!) and I’ve plans to make other more technically challenging models like Santa for my own homemade cakes!

Great End

Grains Gill and Great End from Hind Gill

There’s something truly dramatic about Great End.  As Wainwright says, "This is the true Lakeland of the fellwalker, the sort of terrain that calls him back time after time, the sort of memory that haunts his long winter exile.”  From the South it’s merely the end of the Scafell chain but from the North it’s a huge, wall of rock forming an immense, forbidding  backdrop to Sprinkling and Styhead Tarns and Grains Gill.  Although the face of the rock is pitted and scarred, there are scrambles and walking routes to the top giving wonderful views across the whole of Lakeland.