Adventures in Wales

In desperate need of a holiday after several hard months, we took a week off and went to Wales and the national park of Brecon Beacons. We once again found a great little cottage within convenient reach of a train station – though this time much closer to a store, pub and chip shop. The place was really cosy and quiet and the owners were extremely hospitable and drove us to a larger shop where we could buy a few more substantial things – thank you Nichola!

The cottage is called the Coach House and sits on the grounds of a country estate – Pantybeiliau, which according to the owners was a hotel which enjoyed a rather seedy history before being bought by the previous owners as a weekend country escape from London. The house of the estate looked fascinating and certainly would have been interesting to explore – apparently the basement which still contains hanging chains!

We had dry but fairly cloudy weather the first two days, perfect for long walks of 10.5 and 9 miles respectively. The first day was up the 600 meter tall peak of Sugarloaf, which included some rather steep paths. For much of the walk it was just us, Guinness and sheep.

We saw a few people at the top, but it was still quiet enough to enjoy a bundled up lunch on the lee side of the mountain – out of the wind.

After tackling such an arduous peak on day one, we settled on a more relaxed walk along the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal. We walked the 3.5 miles down to Crickhowell, a lovely little village on the Afon Wysg (or River Usk in English).

Along the way we were lucky to come across some very dog friendly stiles which saved us the hassle of picking Guinness up and over each one.

We settled into the cosy Bear Hotel for lunch, which was extremely dog friendly and included a bowl of chicken for Guinness! He was quite surprised when the waitress placed it under the table in front of him, but he quickly recovered his senses and dug in.

After lunch, we took advantage of the many hills and valleys of Wales and managed a halfway decent climb in the afternoon, one that included a herd of curious cows, a few random collies here and there protecting their territory and the most secluded youth hostel we have ever come across.

The weather closed in on us after that and though it broke a bit on the fourth day, enough to climb up to the Lonely Sheppard, another 300 meter high ascent, we spent much of the week reading, working on photos, playing games, watching movies and preparing for the wedding shoot on Saturday. Guinness meanwhile enjoyed his long bouts of fresh air followed by wonderful long naps in between.

It was a great mix of relaxation and physical exertion, one that was desperately needed and enjoyed!

A Walk in Richmond Park

We recently had our good friend Kris visiting from the US and took advantage of a day off to take her to Richmond Park, probably our favourite place in London. We had lunch in a sun-filled Richmond pub garden overlooking the Thames before walking up Richmond Hill. It was a wonderful autumn day with the smell of drying leaves being carried by the breeze.

The park dates back to around 1300, when King Edward called it the Manor of Sheen. It was Charles I in 1637 that controversially enclosed the park and made it a Royal hunting ground for the deer. The walls and deer (well their descendents) still remain.

One of the great things about Richmond Park is how close to wild animals and a secluded sense of nature you can get, whilst still having unencumbered views of St Pauls Cathedral 12 miles away. The park is famous for its herds of Red and Fallow Deer, totalling 650 animals between the two species, that usually roam the open spaces in large herds.

September and October are mating season for the deer and therefore we knew that they were potentially more dangerous, especially should Guinness startle one whilst it was having a nap in the high grass. However, we wanted to ensure that we found at least some of the deer to show Kris, and we certainly did not fail.

The deer were everywhere! We saw a single male lounging in the ferns within ten minutes of being in the park and then kept on finding small pockets of them scattered under trees, in fields and wandering in the undergrowth.

Several of the males were quite vocal, but none were aggressive and towards the end of our circuit we were able to get quite close to several males and females, who seemed more interested in sleeping or eating conkers, then in whatever we humans were doing.

Kris was amazed at how many there were in the park and how close you can get to them, whilst even we had to admit that it was the best deer sighting trip we have ever had in Richmond Park.

It was a great day out and all four of us were completely exhausted by the time we got home!

[bol-ee-wood]

Bollywood (बॉलीवूड) [bol-ee-wood] noun : informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India

Bollywood Ball (बॉलीवूड *&@#) [bol-ee-wood bawle] noun : opportunity to be one with the Hindi-language film industry while making a complete fool out of his/herself and laughing silly. See moving illustrations below for example.

(note figure in black in above video)

Workshop and Bollywood routines wonderfully provided by http://www.vibesdance.com/

Recipe :: Courgette and Lemon Pasta

Another delicious and easy to make recipe to share

Ingredients:

225g spaghetti
450g courgettes coarsely grated
4tbsp olive oil
55g pine nuts
Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
200g freshly grated parmesan
Good pinch of dried chilli flakes
Fresh parsely

Instructions:

Boil pasta and heat oil in a large frying pan. Quickly fry courgettes for 5 minutes until tender. Add pine nuts to courgettes and lemon rind and black pepper. Fry for 1 min or so. Meanwhile, drain pasta and add to pan with courgette mixture. Add most of the parmesan and chilli flakes and mix well. Season, add lemon juice, and serve sprinkled with remaining parmesan and parsley on the side. Serves 4


Source: London Paper, adapted from Saturday Cooks Cookbook by Antony Worral Thompson

Recipe :: Butternut Squash Couscous

Another delicious recipe to share - and one I promised Sharon so here you are, enjoy!

Ingredients

1 butternut squash (2 pounds)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup canned diced tomatoes
1/3 cup dark or golden raisins
1 32-ounce container vegetable broth
1 15.5-ounce can chickpeas, drained
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 cups couscous
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
1/4 cup (1 ounce) almonds, chopped

Preparation

Halve and peel the squash. Remove the seeds and cut the squash into 1-inch chunks. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, cayenne, cinnamon, nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon of the cumin and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the squash, tomatoes, raisins, broth, chickpeas, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of the salt. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes. Uncover and cook until the squash is tender, 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water and the remaining cumin and salt to a boil. Stir in the couscous. Cover, remove from heat, and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork. Divide the couscous among individual bowls and ladle the squash over the top. Sprinkle with the parsley and almonds.

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Thank you Real Simple - definitely making our lives easier.

Source: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/butternut-squash-cumin-couscous-10000001548736/

Running into the next decade

The Sunday before CW turned 30, he celebrated his 20s by running a 10K race in St Albans with our friend Oliver. The weather was great - sun shining but not too hot or windy - so it was the perfect day for a race.

CW coming up to the finish, very closely followed by Oliver

Oliver catching site of his fan club

They both did very well and ran it just under 41 minutes - with only 12 seconds between them! They took 32nd and 33rd place out of about 465 people so they were quite pleased!

Well done guys!

Recipe :: Moussaka

Another favourite recipe to share!

Story behind these recipes: For a few months now we've been trying to make something new at least every weekend, and if we can, we use a new ingredient from the market. Recently we've experimented with butternut squash and sweet potatos for example. Last week we made another foray into Greek food - making Moussaka.

Ingredients

1 kg (2lbs) eggplant

oil

Meat Sauce:

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tbsp oil

1kg (2lbs) ground beef or lamb

1 cup chopped, peeled tomatoes

2 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 cup white wine

2 tbsp chopped parsley

1tsp sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

salt and pepper

Cream Sauce:

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup flour

2 cups milk

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

salt and pepper

1 egg, lightly beaten

Instructions

1. Cut eggplant into 1/4 inch slices with skin on. Sprinkle slices with salt. Oil base of baking dish, add layer of eggplant and brush with oil. Lightly brown under a hot grill, turn, brush again with oil and brown other side. Stack on a plate when cooked

2. Gently Fry onion and garlic in oil for 10 minutes. Add meat and brown over high heat, stirring well. Add remaining meat sauce ingredients, seasoning to taste. Cover adn simmer gently for 30 minutes.

3. Melt butter in a saucepan, stir in flour and cook gently for 2 minutes. Add milk all at once and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Let sauce bubble gently for 1 minute.

4. Remove from heat, stir in nutmeg or cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of the cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover top of sauce with greased paper if not required immediately.

5. Grease an oven dish, 13x9x2 inches, and place a layer of eggplant slices in the base. Top with half of the meat sauce, add another layer of eggplant, remainder of meat and finish with eggplant.

6. Stir beaten egg into cream sauce and spread on top. Sprinkle with remaining chesse. Bake for 1 hour at 180C (350F). Let stand 10 minutes before cutting into squares to serve.

Recipe :: Pastitso

filling

• 500g (1lb) long macaroni
• 4 tbsp butter
• 3/4 cup grated parmesan
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• salt and pepper
• 3 eggs lightly beaten

meat sauce

• 1 large onion chopped
• 1 clove garlic crushed
• 2 tbsp butter
• 750g (1 1/2 lbs) ground beef
• 1/4 tomato paste
• 1/2 cup dry red or white wine
• 1/2 cup stock
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• salt and pepper

cream sauce

• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 3 cups milk
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• salt and pepper
• 1 egg lightly beaten

instructions

1. Cook macaroni in boiling, salted water until just tender. Drain and return to pan

2. Melt butter until golden brown and pour over macaroni. Add 1/2 cup cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste and toss well. Leave until cool, add eggs and toss again. Keep aside

3. Make meat sauce. Gently fry onion and garlic in butter until onion is soft, increase heat and add ground beef. Stir well and cook until meat begins to brown

4. Add remaining meat sauce ingredients, cover and simmer over gentle heat for 20 minutes

5. Make cream sauce. Melt butter in saucepan, stir in flour and cook gently for 2 minutes. Add milk all at once and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil gently for 1 minute

6. Add nutmeg, salt and pepper and cool a little before adding egg

7. Add 1/2 cup of this sauce to the cooked meat sauce

8. To assemble pastitso, butter a 13x9x3 inch oven dish. Spoon half of the prepared macaroni evenly across the base and top with meat sauce. Cover with remaining macaroni, leveling top

9. Pour on cream sauce and spread to completely cover macaroni. Sprinkly remaining cheese on top and cook in oven at 180C (350F) for 50 minutes until golden brown

10. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting into squares to serve and enjoy

serves 6-8, cooking time 1 1/2 hours

source: unknown

Adventures in Picklescott

We finally indulged in the proper English countryside by taking a long weekend at a farmstead cottage in the Shropshire Hills.

Shropshire is an English county right on the Welsh border, just south of Chester. Our cottage, The Old Workshop, was a mile and a half from the village of Picklescott, which nestles in a small hollow next to a quaint running stream. Picklescott has no store, church or even public phone booth, but does have a very nice pub, the Glass and Bottle Inn.

The three of us - Guinness was welcome at the cottage - took the train up on Saturday and after locating a private hire driver willing to take us, we ventured over the Long Mynd (see below) to our rather secluded cottage. We took a short walk through some nearby woods and open fields full of curious sheep to take advantage of the afternoon sunlight, but then retired in front of the wood burning stove.

Sunday we got up and out for a long walk through the countryside. We wandered through Picklescott and then up onto the Long Mynd. The Long Mynd is a series of moorland hills that run for approximately ten miles north-south near the Welsh border. It is rather striking to suddenly come across this area, as there is farmland and small coppices of trees all around and then you walk over a hilltop and there it is stretching out in front of you.

We traipsed over a few of the hills and down into a couple of the hollows as well before enjoying a somewhat windswept packed lunch. Then just as suddenly, we wandered off the Long Mynd and back into the farmland.

Some of us thought he could dig us a shortcut home...

We ended, well nearly ended, our walk at the Bottle and Glass Inn for a nice pint, then made a somewhat more sedated mile and a half walk home over the country lanes.

Monday morning didn't involve a 530 wakeup or hour long commute, but rather a breakfast of eggs on toast, with the eggs coming directly from the hen house outside our door!

Filled with good countryside food, we embarked in a different direction and ambled past several small villages, shorter hills, churchyards full of snowdrops and the occassional mud bog.

Our intention was to have a good wander, but get to the village of Castle Pulverbatch in time for lunch at the White Horse Inn. One problem, it wasn't open on a Monday afternoon in February. Oh well, home wasn't too far away and the sun was shining, so we enjoyed some PB&J on the patio!

All in all it was a very relaxing couple of days, which we all enjoyed. The cottage was absolutely perfect for us - decorated and outfitted extremely well and very much to our taste. We would have no hesitations about going back in the future or recommending it to anyone else!

A Rare English Snow Day

Last Monday we woke up to an amazing and beautiful sight – snow! There were already a few inches of snow on the ground and more heavily falling – an extremely rare occurrence! In the five winters we have experienced in this fine northern European country, we have only had three instances where snow fell, AND, actually stuck to the ground for longer than five seconds.

The combination of the snow and England’s transport system’s inability to deal with any adverse weather (see previous post) resulted in both of us staying home to work. Much of the morning was spent taking quick glances out the window to ensure the snow was still falling and then finally it was lunchtime - finally a chance to be a kid again!

We went out with Guinness and met up with Elliott and Bentley, human and dog respectively, for a good old romp in the snow. Snowballs were flying at humans and dogs alike; though for the dogs it was more for them to catch in their mouths.

Guinness flying for a snowball

"Throw the ball, just throw the

ball!" says Bentley

"Please just throw the bal

l, you're killing me!"

"Yes I know, I'm very cute, but why in the world am I sitting here in this wet cold white stuff?"

The two dogs had a great time and we humans didn’t exactly dislike our time outside. In fact, I reckon it was the best lunch break we’ve had in a long time!

Looking Back at 2008

Apologies for our silence as of late, we've both been super busy with life in general it seems. So to all of you reading this, Happy New Year a bit late! Hope you have had a good first 41 days of 2009 and may this year be a happy and healthy one!

It might be a bit late for reflections of 2008, we really enjoyed this photographic series showing world images from events and memories of last year.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

p.s. This was blog was started on 21 January but finished today, 10 February, hence the apparently wrong calculation of 41 days based on the blog post date.