I made some lemon curd today which is something I haven’t tried since I was a girl. I used the BBC recipe, and it was super easy to make and (even though I say so myself) super delicious – about as far as you get from the synthetic looking florescent yellow stuff that my father […]
Actually Cats into the Bag… We have been having to fetch one of our two snow Bengals, Tora, back from the village at regular intervals (we think he has a lady friend down there). Most of the time we take the car because it is a pain trying to walk him back to the house […]
Since early summer, the normally prolific chaffinches had virtually disappeared on our bird feeders, and had been supplanted by huge numbers of siskins. For some reason, although they are a larger bird, the chaffinches seem rather scared of the little siskins. Then this week, within the span of 48 hours, all the siskins have departed, […]
I’ve been doing a lot of baking of late (getting ready for the new series of the Bake Off which starts shortly). I ventured into rough puff pastry for the first time recently, and as it proved so successful, I tried two new recipes with it. The first was from a book called “Cookery for […]
I know the picture isn’t a bat, but bear with me. A few months ago I said to R that the cats were a bit past their best and rather too old and slow to catch things any more. How wrong can anyone be; quite aside from Tora and his little expeditions to the village […]
Indeed R and I just did… This was the View Ranger challenge to walk 1000 miles in 2016 completed – and considering we didn’t get started until end of Jan (because they didn’t announce it until then), placing at 41st was not too bad (although the guy that came first must be a real machine…). […]
I have been watching my cherry tree become slowly more and more heavily laden with fruit. Unfortunately, with the lack of sun it was a bit slow in ripening, but we were slowly getting there. But then I noticed that the branches somehow looked slightly lighter – as though some of the nicer red fruit […]
I went for a walk up to the waterfall last night. Most of the midgies seem to have disappeared – not sure whether they have just gone early this year or if they will be back if the weather improves at all. Anyway, at the stile near the Cowal Way sign there must be an […]
I went to my brother N’s house on Saturday as R and I do every second weekend. N is a pretty good cook but he usually sticks to main courses and I’ve never known him to bake anything before. But obviously my latest efforts (tarte au citron etc) have inspired him, because a few weeks […]
I went out for a walk this evening and saw two sets of very impressive fungi. I wouldn’t have expected to see these until later in the year – perhaps the damp cool summer has brought them out earlier than usual. I’d love to have the expertise to identify the species as I am a […]
