Weekend in London, March 2022

Last weekend was wonderful :) I spent it in London with my friend, on a weekend away we were originally meant to go on two years ago. On Friday evening I enjoyed a catch-up over pizza with my oldest friend - we've known each other since we were 5, and will both be turning 30 in the next few days! And then I spent Saturday and Sunday with another friend on this little trip, enjoying the sunny spring equinox weekend in a couple of the city's large green parks, and some great food, before a breathtaking concert on Sunday afternoon.

First - the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew!

Neither of us had been to Kew Gardens before so we were very excited! London traffic meant we arrived an hour later than planned but thankfully there were still parking spaces (just), and we got inside the gates quickly. And yaaay we're in a lovely green park full of grass and trees and flowers! Of course the trees are still mostly bare, but there were daffodils, and glorious pink magnolia, and marvellous cherry trees just bursting with beautiful blossom. It'd be a wonderful place to have on your doorstep as a local, somewhere to go and while away a few hours or a whole day, with a book and a picnic in good weather.

One of the first things we came to was The Hive, an interactive art installation that represented a beehive. From the outside it looked like an enormous roll of wire mesh, but from it emanated a low vibrating hum and orchestral music. Inside, a thousand LED lights flickered in time with the music and humming, which were created to mirror the fluctuating intensity of vibrations produced by bees communicating with each other, as recorded in one of Kew's own beehives. It was a bright sunny day so the lights weren't particularly obvious, but standing in the middle of the installation and being surrounded by that loud vibrating hum was quite impressive. It was a cool example of environmental interpretation, which we've been covering at college this year, something interactive and immersive that engages different senses. The Hive itself it was surrounded by a wildflower meadow (which obviously doesn't look like a wildflower meadow at the moment, but will be a visual and olfactory feast in a few months time) and little boards giving information on bees and the importance of wildflowers.

Wonderful big old trees. Victorian glasshouses full of exotic plants. (Both of us smiled as we entered the tropical section of the Princess of Wales Conservatory - the heat, humidity, plants, and smell of it all reminded my friend of home in India and me of visiting my aunt in tropical Queensland.) Carpets of daffodils and little purpley-blue flowers that weren't bluebells. A pagoda built in the 1760s. A treetop walkway with views over the park and all the way to the City. A lake. Woodland walks and open parkland. Ring-necked parakeets. Cherry blossom! Oh and a tasty lunch - I had a quiche made with mushrooms, spring onion, and nettle. (I must go forage some nettles and make something.)

I had a mooch around the gift shop, hoping to find a hand lens - small little things that anyone can use to look at plants and insects in greater detail (or rocks, or jewellery, or archaeological artefacts, etc.). But to my astonishment they didn't have any!? I thought that Kew Gardens, which must want to encourage people to have an interest in plants and studying botany, would sell the simple accessible tool that is the hand lens. They didn't even have magnifying glasses. Tut tut.

By 4pm we were pretty tired from all the walking around, so just sat on a bench for a while looking at the trees and daffodils in the sinking sunlight, and we left around 5pm. It was a really lovely day, and we only saw half the park. Definitely a place to go back to, especially at a slightly later time of year when the trees are in leaf and there's more growing.

Cherry blossom and the Palm House at Kew

For dinner, we went decidedly out of our way to Southall, to an authentic Punjabi restaurant called Raunka Punjab Diyan. There was an Indian sweets shop next door so we went in there first and my friend bought a selection. The restaurant was busy, and loud, and I was the only non-Indian person in there; my friend asked if I was happy to stay or if I wanted to go to the quieter Turkish place next door. Had I been on my own I probably wouldn't have been quite comfortable, but an Indian restaurant full of Indian people is a sign that it's good! As a food lover, going to a local, family-run restaurant where they serve authentic and delicious dishes, which you don't get in typical Indian (or any other) restaurants that cater to British/tourist tastes, is one of the best experiences.

My friend recommended several dishes, and ordered for us (the staff interacted with her as she speaks the language). To start we shared paneer shashlik - marinated paneer cheese chargrilled with green peppers, onion, and tomatoes. Then we shared two mains and sides: sarson da saag with makki di roti (cornbread roti), and daal makhani with garlic naan. All was delicious! Sarson de saag is a mixture of mustard leaves, spinach, and other greens, cooked down with spices then pureed and traditionally served with a makki di roti. Daal makhani - black lentils and kidney beans slow-cooked with tomatoes, butter, and spices - is one of my favourites anyway... but oh my goodness this one was incredible! In contrast to the chili heat of the saag, and other daal makhani's I've had, the daal was mild and had a lovely sweetness to it, and it just tasted wonderful. Yummmm :)

The sweets aka desserts sounded amazing, so of course we got some. I ordered ras malai, a chilled dish of a soft cheese dumpling in saffron milk, and my friend had dudh jalebi, coils of syrupy deep-fried batter served in a bowl of hot saffron milk. Both were utterly delicious! Mine was lovely and light and refreshing, the milk ever so subtly fragrant. We also ordered some aloo tikki chaat - potato patties with chickpeas in a spicy sauce, chutneys, and yoghurt - from the 'snack' part of the menu to take away with us in case I got hungry later in the evening... which of course I did not after the filling meal. We left it in the cold car overnight, and ended up having it for lunch the next day. And, for a change, I was enjoying myself so much that after the starter I forgot to take photos of the food! Haha.

It's sad we can't really get anything like that closer to home. In Southampton, my friend says Sanjha in Shirley is good, more authentic than most Indian restaurants, and there's an Indian sweets shop in St Mary's, but neither are as good as ones in London. I wondered if I would be able to try and make ras malai at home but my friend said Indian sweets all take a lot of time and effort to prepare. But I might still try and make something similar, perhaps with ricotta. And the sarson da saag has given me an idea of what to do with those big bags of spinach that I usually end up wasting half of because I can't use it all in time - I'll try cooking it down with onion, garlic, ginger, and spices, blend it to a coarse puree, and serve with a flatbread. Decent healthy snack or lunch :) 

Holm oak in Greenwich Park

We stayed in a Holiday Inn Express in Limehouse. Parking was £20 so the man at reception suggested parking in a nearby residential street instead - but after driving around my friend couldn't find such a place, at least that felt safe, so pay £20 we did. In the morning, breakfast was included so I enjoyed some scrambled eggs, baked beans, and a Cumberland sausage, plus a yoghurt and a croissant, though I was feeling quite dehydrated from not drinking enough the day before (there weren't any water refill stations at Kew that we could see), so was disappointed to find no bowls of fresh juicy fruit, or even canned fruit salad, to rehydrate with, though I had a few glasses of water of course.

Our plan for the morning was to go to Greenwich Park. Wandering down the avenue of trees towards the Royal Observatory I was very happy to see a magnificent holm oak - an evergreen species from the Mediterranean - its limbs spreading out in a wide circle around it, a real parkland oak. (Parkland trees grow outward as well as up because they are surrounded by open space, whereas the growth of trees in woodland is more upright. This can give you a clue as to the history of a place, e.g. if you see a parkland tree in a wood, or an upward-reaching tree in an open park.) 

The Royal Observatory, which has the Prime Meridian marker, was closed, but we could see the line through the gates and I noticed it went down a wall and onto another footpath - so we got to see and stand on it anyway :) One foot in the eastern hemisphere, one foot in the western hemisphere. We continued down the hill and went to see Cutty Sark - the world's last surviving tea clipper and one of the fastest ships of its time, built for the China tea trade and launched in 1870 - which was impressive to look at from the outside. I do admire the sailors, who had to clamber up the rigging in the middle of the deep dark ocean as the ship rolled about in the waves. Ambling back through the streets I was tempted by food several times - at the stalls in Greenwich Market (a cute little covered market), at a gelato shop, and at a bakery that filled the street with the scent of baking cinnamon buns. Alas the latter had only just come out the oven and weren't ready for sale yet, and the staff couldn't tell us how long it would be, so we didn't wait, and made our way back to the park. 

The reason for going to London in the first place was to see the matinee of 'Planet Earth II Live in Concert' at The O2 on Sunday afternoon. I had been given tickets as a birthday or Christmas gift in 2019, and the show was originally booked for March 2020, then for obvious reasons rescheduled twice. So it was great to finally go! I should have done some research beforehand and pre-booked parking, as we ended up paying an absurd £36 to park for the afternoon. We ate the aloo tikki chaat for lunch, which was of course very tasty, and had some of the Indian sweets my friend had bought, which were really nice. After the ridiculous stressful faff that was collecting the tickets and getting in, we could just sit back, relax, and enjoy the concert.

Planet Earth II, the TV series, was of course stunning. I think it was the first Attenborough series that I watched in full, so it's stayed with me and remains my favourite, though of course they're all amazing. I especially love the soundtrack - composed by Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea, and Jasha Klebe - and the main theme is one of my favourite pieces of orchestral music, probably in part because of its association with the spectacular cinematography of the series; it always sends a shiver down my spine and brings a smile to my face. The concert was basically screenings of some of the more well-known clips from the series, on the big screen, without Attenborough's narration but with the soundtrack being played by a live orchestra. It was spine-tingling, breathtaking, and we both sat there in awe, absolutely loving it. Science presenter Liz Bonnin hosted, coming on stage in between clips and talking about them (and of course the importance of protecting the natural world), with the series' Executive Producer, Mike Gunton, who could tell us about how they made it, which was cool. While Sir David Attenborough is brilliant, the actual production teams are the ones who envision and create these spectacular documentaries. Each clip is a mammoth task and the teams do astonishing work.

After that fantastic concert, we went to find the gelato place within the O2 - I had been wanting some ever since passing the shop in Greenwich. It was of course going to be stupidly expensive, but oh well. I chose a scoop of hazelnut, and my friend got white chocolate-pistachio; we each tried a small spoonful of the other's and her's was amazing, I should have chosen that instead haha. Afterwards we got an early dinner in the Design Quarter's street food hub just outside the O2; I got an Indian naan wrap with minced lamb and salad, but sadly it was very spicy so I regretted my choice a bit. But once back at the car I thoroughly enjoyed finishing off the two Indian sweets I'd had half of at lunchtime. My favourite was a bright orange cardamon-flavoured syrup-drenched ball called a ladoo. 

And that was it, homeward we went. This weekend in London, enjoying so many great things with my friend, was just so lovely, really special, and was a great way to have an early birthday celebration :) I know this has been a long post, but it's more for my memories than for an entertaining read, haha. But thanks for reading if you have.

Piecaramba!

Had a lovely dinner out this evening with my family. We went to a little independent place in Winchester called Piecaramba! (The exclamation mark is part of the name.) 

It opened four years ago, in October 2016, and it's been far too long since I've been there, a couple of years at least. I love it partly because the food is amazing, but also because it's associated with some relatively early social times, when I was living and working in Winchester and starting to be a bit more social and make friends. I went there a number of times with my housemates and their wider circle of friends, and my work colleagues from my first full-time job. I was pleased to see it's still the same, casual and quirky, the walls covered in nerdy stuff like comic book images and film posters. It's small, with four tables in at the moment, but even before Covid there were only seven or so. It's been popular from the start, and does well, but it's nice that the owners haven't started a big chain or gone to larger premises or sold themselves to a larger company, they've kept their vibe and ethos and have for now chosen to just keep doing what they do well. They opened one in Southampton in late 2017 and then a third one in Brighton in late 2019, both still small, and have food stalls at festivals and cater for weddings. The Brighton one fell victim to Covid-caused loss of footfall in August, but happily they partnered with a local pub and have based themselves there since, so people can still get their pies.

I also love that they specialise in just one type of food - pie and mash. There's a wide variety of choices on the menu and they're all amazing. (Not that I've tried more than a few - I'm the sort of person who tends to go for dishes I know I love and have an opportunity to enjoy, rather than trying something new, unless it sounds amazing). It's all sooo tasty and great quality. I usually go for either the Sweetie Pie (used to be called the Heidi Pie - sweet potato, roasted garlic, and goat's cheese), or the Woolverine (lamb in redcurrant & red wine gravy with garlic and rosemary). But tonight I opted for one of their Christmas specials, the Hogmanay - hog roast, spiced apple sauce, and sage & onion stuffing! With cheesy mash, chilli-mint mushy peas, and onion gravy. Oh and it came with crispy crackling on top! Yum, all delicious! As always, it was super filling, and I had to leave some of the mash and pastry, haha. And I even had a cider too, instead of just water! :) (For those who don't know, I very rarely drink.) I did get a cherry pie to take away, though, to have for dessert after tomorrow's roast. Looking forward to that!

Pie, mash, and mushy peas, with a little glass of cider

It was also nice to get dressed up a little. It's a casual place, but it still felt like a bit of a special occasion, I was looking forward to it and wanted to feel good, so I put on my favourite jumper (which I haven't worn since last winter because I live in my hoody at home and have barely been anywhere else this year), my favourite ring (I very rarely wear jewellery), a bobble hat (obviously only for walking to and from the car), and a long thick cardigan/light jacket thing I got back in August but couldn't find anything it looked okay with (glad I have now!). Plus black skinny jeans and my lovely comfy winter boots. It was still a fairly casual look, but I liked it :) 

Selfie

I must go to Piecaramba and Winchester more often. And I need to go to Tom's Deli, a just-as-small Italian deli and restaurant that I've been to only once. 

...I can't believe I've written so much just about a restaurant, haha.

Recipe: Meatloaf

First day of October! Autumn's definitely here, yay! Comfort food season...

It's been a very long while since I posted a recipe on here! But I recently remembered about, and then made, a childhood favourite of mine - my mum's meatloaf.

She doesn't use a recipe, and it's super simple and quick to prepare, it literally just takes a few minutes. I got six portions out of the following:

Ingredients:

• 500g lean minced beef
• Half a packet sage and onion stuffing mix
• One tin chopped tomatoes
• Two beef Oxo cubes or rough equivalent

Method:

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees C
• Put the minced beef in a bowl and break it up with a spoon or fork
• Add the other ingredients, crumbling the stock cubes in
• Mix well, adding about half a tin of water as well, until thoroughly combined
• Transfer mixture from bowl to a prepared tin, either a loaf tin or a square cake tin
• Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, till cooked through

I don't have a loaf tin (well I do but it's in storage) so used my loose-bottomed square cake tin, and lined it with baking/parchment/greaseproof paper/whatever that stuff is (I don't know the difference between them, if there is one). I had to let the meatloaf cool a bit before lifting it out of the tin to cool completely, otherwise it probably would have collapsed, but once cool it was solid and could be cut. Although obviously if you're just going to be eating it hot straightaway for dinner, it doesn't really matter too much if it collapses!

As I said, it's not exact. You'll probably need to adjust the amounts of things, even the baking time and temperature, till you get a taste and consistency you're happy with. But it's super quick and easy to make and very yummy! Growing up we used to have it for dinner with chips and peas and sweetcorn, but it's equally good cold for lunch with some salad. Let me know what you think if you give it a go!

Cold meatloaf with salad

Recipe: Banana oat energy balls

These are something I make quite often, whenever I have overripe bananas lying around. Banana bread is yummy, but it also has quite a bit of sugar in. With just two ingredients, these snack balls are really quick and easy to make, and make a good healthy snack, or even a decent sort of breakfast if you only have time to grab something to-go on your way out the door.

I have measuring cups and a rounded tablespoon measure, but if you don't have those just estimate with a regular-sized mug and a dessert spoon or large serving spoon.

Banana-oat mixture, baking tray, tablespoon measure, and teaspoon

Ingredients:
 - Over-ripe banana/s
 - Rolled oats, half a cup per banana

Method:
 - Set the oven to about 180 degrees Celsius (no need to be exact).
 - Prepare a baking tray by greasing it or lining it with some baking paper.
 - In a bowl, mash the banana well with a fork until it's pretty smooth with only very small lumps left.
 - Add the oats and mix together until well combined.
 - Scoop out a tablespoon of the mixture and shape into a small ball, and place on the baking tray, repeating until it's all gone. (I scoop the mixture out of the bowl using a rounded tablespoon measure, smooth the top, then scoop the mixture out of that onto the tray using a teaspoon, so it's really easy to make into a rough ball shape. Using two bananas I usually get between 10 and 12 balls.)
 - Bake for between 15 and 25 minutes - you may need to try it a few times to find out how well-done you like them.
 - Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool.

Using a tablespoon measure to scoop and shape

You could add other things to these. I like to mix in dark chocolate chips when I have them, and I've added crunchy sugar-free peanut butter before too. Other options are finely chopped nuts, raisins/sultanas or other dried fruit, or a little vanilla extract or honey. You could also use an ice-cream scoop to scoop and shape the balls, but they're larger so you'd need to bake them for a little longer.

Enjoy! :)

Lake District August 2019 - day 2

A much cloudier day, was the Wednesday, and showers were forecast, but one cannot visit the Lake District and not go walking! I was booked onto an all-day minibus tour on the Thursday and would be leaving Friday afternoon, so my main walking day had to be Wednesday. My plan was to go walking in the morning, then rest in the afternoon by doing some sightseeing on the two-hour circular public bus route out west from town.

When planning the trip I'd found a walk to do, but after talking to B&B owner Graham the evening before I now couldn't decide if I wanted to still do that one, or go up Lattrigg, "Keswick's own fell", a small but steep one of 367m literally just behind the town. I looked through a little walking route booklet over my filling breakfast of cereal, porridge, yoghurt mixed with fruit and nuts, and buttered toast, and in the end decided to do the one which was very similar to that which I'd been planning on anyway. Instead of a circular route, it was a seven-mile, four-hour linear walk to the village of Rosthwaite, via Walla Crag, Ashness Bridge, and the hamlet of Watendlath, and I'd be able to return to town on the bus.

I left about 10am and took about an hour to get to Walla Crag. Early on I passed a seventy-something woman coming the other way, outfitted in proper walking gear; I'd like to be like her when I'm older, still going out hiking. Most of the way it was fairly easy, but the last stretch was a steep hill to get up to the crag's summit. A little herd of sheep were sheltering from the wind and incoming rain against a drystone wall. The view from the heather-strewn summit was amazing. It didn't cross my mind at the time but looking back at the photos I can see that the viewpoint I'd been to the evening before, Castlehead (162m), looked from Walla Crag (376m) like just another part of the fields below, it didn't stand out at all. Of course the rain really set in when I reached the top, and my onward route meant I was walking into it so had to keep my eyes half-closed in a squint. I was in a light mood, though, and was somewhat surprised to find that I didn't main getting pelted with rain too much. I was wearing full waterproofs so only my face was getting wet, as well as my hands when I took my phone out to have a look at the route instructions. I wonder if you can operate touchscreen phones through the plastic of waterproof pouches; if not, I may have to learn to read maps. Maybe that would be a good idea anyway if I want to get out walking more.

Panorama from Walla Crag

From Walla Crag, I walked along the ridge for another mile and a quarter, about an hour or so, parallel to the lake shore. I loved the view from above its narrowing southern end, of the jaws of glacier-carved Borrowdale and the imposing fells above it. Eventually heading downhill I was glad to find a finger-post that confirmed I was in the right place, and followed the short path it pointed out to Ashness Bridge.

Derwentwater and Borrowdale

Ashness Bridge, looking towards Skiddaw

The bridge is an old packhorse bridge on the single-track road to Watendlath, and is a popular photo spot because of its fine view looking down across the lake to Skiddaw in the distance. The rain had stopped, and I was ever so happy to catch the smell of woodsmoke - one of my favourite smells - coming from a little bothy just behind the bridge. A bothy is a basic mountain refuge used for shelter. They're free of charge to use, and more remote ones are kept unmanned and unlocked, but this one - the Bark House Mountain Base - is on a road going to a hamlet and isn't too far from other peopled places so National Trust volunteers just open it up during the day. The A-board outside said "Muddy boots welcome. Information point, open fire, and comfy chairs here." Yay!

The Bark House Mountain Base

Inside the bothy

The crackling fire was lovely. Tea and coffee were available for a small donation and you could refill your water bottle for free. The hut has no running water so volunteers bring it in portable containers. It was a National Trust information point as well as a shelter, so it wasn't as basic and empty as I expect some bothies are, it was cosy. There were a couple of volunteers there, at that point keeping an eye out for a Duke of Edinburgh group whose arrival was expected soon. Maps on the walls showed the paths and walking routes in the area, and one of the info boards explained that the name of the hut came from its original use as a storage place for tree bark that would be sent off to tanneries. After a sit-down, a snack, and a little bit of a warm-up, I started to head up the road to another viewpoint half a mile away, called Surprise View. Although I'd known that the whole walk should take about four hours, and was only about two hours in, I was a little dismayed when another finger-post informed me that Watendlath was another two and three-quarter miles, or approximately two hours and twenty minutes, away - and that wasn't even the finish line.

Surprise View

It only took me 15 minutes walking on the side of the road to reach Surprise View, instead of the 35 minutes the finger-post suggested. But it didn't really occur to me that it therefore might take me much less time than another two hours to get to Watendlath, and another finger-post pointed out a path to Lodore, so I decided to try and find the much closer Lodore Falls. But somehow that didn't go exactly to plan - I found a nice waterfall, but it wasn't Lodore Falls, and was bemused to arrive at the main road not by the Lodore Hotel but by the Borrowdale Hotel. I was only half a mile off, though, and knew where I was, the bus stop was directly opposite, and happily there was a little café in the big old farmhouse next door where I had some nice spiced carrot and lentil soup with a bread roll for lunch, perfect after a few hours outdoors in weather like that. They'd decorated a couple of the otherwise plain, whitewashed stone walls inside with a couple of murals, one being a simple map of Derwentwater and the land around it - so I learned that I'd crossed Shepherd's Crag and was in Shepherd's Café. I was the only customer at that point and sat there for about 45 minutes, sheltered from the elements at a table just inside the open doorway, looking out at Borrowdale and watching the heavy clouds and light rain sweeping across, until 3pm when I crossed the road to catch the #78 bus back to Keswick.

Notes taken on phone in stretch between Surprise View and reaching the end: Breathing in earthy smell of the damp mossy woods makes me grin. Listening to wind in trees, running becks, birds, otherwise wonderful quiet. -- Sound of soft raindrops standing under the trees in an oak woodland carpeted with heather and sphagnum moss. -- Smell of bracken. -- Hate the loud full clunky sound of my walking boots on the ground, especially rock. Walking is a light, natural way to travel but I don't feel like I'm treading lightly and respectfully. Barefoot has more grip, too. -- At the waterfall, noticed how the bark of the young oak trees on the cliff next to the falls blended in with the heather behind.

A pretty place

Waterfall selfie

At Shepherd's Café

At the bus station in town I switched to bus 77A, the public service going once every two hours clockwise around the circular route which takes in three lakes, a few mountain passes, a slate mine, and a forest. It first headed south along the slopes of Cat Bells on the western shore of Derwentwater... Notes taken during the journey:

Great views over lake, hotels on opposite shore dwarfed by hills. Winding lanes precarious, steep sides and few passing places. Hundreds of pheasants around on patches of land along the road; a little disappointed to realise they weren't free-range chickens. Grange Bridge looked lovely, a swimming spot on the river, cute pretty cottages, a café. Seatoller is a cute hamlet too. Into Honister Pass, so steep that bus slows almost to a crawl at points. A hostel next to the slate mine. At the mine, the hill drops steeply and the valley widens spectacularly. Pass ends at Buttermere lake, the fells on the opposite shore rising too steeply for a road there. Mid-point tiny Buttermere village. After Crummock Water fells become further away and less steep, the land around more rolling with more trees and farmland. Round to Low Lorton then to Whinlatter Pass. Whinlatter Forest has Go-Ape and adventure stuff and bike paths. Start going downhill and I see the valley open up wide below and see Bassenthwaite Lake to the north of Keswick and the town a few miles away. Pass through Braithwaite and back to main road. Back ten minutes later.

I didn't even try to take any photos through the half-steamed-up windows of the moving bus, but nor did I really want to. I managed a few poor ones at the impressive Honister Pass, but the rest of the time I was happy just gazing out and taking it in, being in the present. I'd like to go back to that pass one day, have a look properly and maybe go for a tour of the mine. There's an age-10+ Via Ferrata climbing route there, too, which a teeny tiny part of me likes the idea of, but I know my limbs would turn to jelly doing that.

Summit of the Honister Pass, and by the slate mine

Coming out of the bus station towards the high street, I noticed an independent bookshop called Bookends. Anyone looking at me would have seen my eyes go wide, my mouth go Oooh and break into a big smile, and me making a beeline for the shop like a child to a coveted toy. Haha. I spent about half an hour in there, and was unable to resist buying an absolute gem of a book called Jacob's Room is Full of Books: A Year of Reading, by Susan Hill - a sort of diary, with several entries for each of the twelve months, reflecting on what she has read, or done regarding books, what else that throws up in her thoughts, and other little unrelated observations of things in her daily life. I've read the first two months/chapters already, and love it, I can imagine myself writing something similar, and it conjures up a picture in my mind of being curled up in an armchair with a blanket and a book, in a cosy home full of books and lit warmly with lamps, like the house we stayed in last summer in Sydney. An absolute dream! After leaving the bookshop I spotted a café, closed by this time, called Laura In The Lakes! I can also so imagine myself running a little place like that.

"A town isn't a town without a bookstore" - completely agree!

I went back to the B&B and got changed, rested for an hour, then headed back out to have dinner at the Royal Oak pub, which I'd chosen to go to after looking online at the menus of a few different places. It was busy but they managed to find a table for me. While I'm happy in my own company, there's something comforting, after spending the day alone with few or no other people around, about just being in a busy place, and being surrounded by chatter and civilisation and people going about their lives. That applies to walking through town on the way home after a day by myself in the office as much as it does to having dinner in a pub after a day of solo hiking. Anyway, I ordered a glass of their homemade lemon, ginger, and elderflower cordial, and Cumberland sausage with champ, onion gravy, and cider and apple chutney. Both were yummy. The sausage came in the traditional coil shape so was longer than normal, but it was very good quality and somehow I managed to eat all of it and the substantial pile of mash. Some veg would have been welcome, but a side of wilted greens was an extra £3.50, more than my fishcake and chips the night before had cost. Did you know that sticky toffee pudding is from the Lake District? (A pair of chefs started serving it in their hotel the 1970s, from a recipe they'd got from a hotel owner in Lancashire, who'd got it from two Canadian air force officers who lodged at her hotel in WW2.) So of course, for dessert I had sticky toffee pudding with toffee sauce and custard =] After that I went back to the B&B and collapsed into bed, reading for a while. A very enjoyable day!

A Cumberland sausage coil with mash and onion gravy

Sticky toffee pudding and custard - yum

Lake District August 2019 - day 1

Last week I went to the beautiful Lake District for the first time - yaaaay! Being unable to drive, I travelled up there via plane, train, and automobile (well, the last was a bus rather than a car). Early Tuesday morning I flew up to Manchester from Southampton, which takes just 40 minutes, and by 8:30am was on the train to Windermere. It was funny getting on the train with local commuters, and getting off it two and a quarter hours later with tourists. From Windermere, I caught the 11:09 bus to Grasmere.

From my travel journal as I was on the bus: "After just a few minutes I'm already loving it, it's so beautiful, stunning! Lovely rolling green hills rising steeply to fells, trees everywhere, wonderful clear streams, such pretty Victorian buildings."

Windermere lake, from the bus

Grasmere was smaller than I was expecting; it's a tiny village and all of the places I was planning to go to there were within a five-minute walk of each other. I went first to Green's Cafe & Bistro for lunch, and ordered their Rarebit With Attitude - basically a rarebit with chilli-lime-ginger jam, served with crisps and salad. It was nice enough, but personally I didn't think it was worth £8.50. I also forgot that rarebits have mustard in, and I'm not a fan of mustard. It didn't fill me up either, but I didn't get a pudding, thinking I would get one after dinner later on. Oh well!

I was happy to discover the Herdy shop! Herdy is a small retail chain based in the Lake District and their slogan is "Made to make ewe smile" - and it does, it's so cute! They sell a wide range of things (umbrellas, mugs, keyrings, bags, coasters, baby things, stationery, etc.) decorated with the simple but very cute design of Herdy the Herdwick sheep and/or Sheppy the sheepdog. I didn't let myself buy anything, because I don't need a mug or a large umbrella or an absolutely adorable toy sheep...

After resisting temptation in Herdy, I crossed the village green to the Heaton Cooper Studio and pottered around there for a while. William Heaton Cooper founded the gallery in the late 1930s and the place now exhibits the artwork of four generations of the family. They sell prints of the works and a wide range of art supplies; of course there's also the nowadays-expected pretty little gifts and homeware items, and a café. They also sold books, mostly ones on art, but some nature-writing and local interest. I really liked one in particular, but, again, didn't let myself buy it, as I was planning to go to the bookshop opposite afterwards.

Of course, with Sam Read Bookseller's being a lovely independent bookshop, I spent about an hour in there. I did let myself buy one book, The Art of Mindful Reading... and also left with a list of 19 other books to add to my ever-increasing "To-read" list! (Mostly from their delightfully-named 'Curious non-fiction' section.) On a related note, I wish I was more familiar with - more interested in, I guess - traditional poetry and art. Some famous names spent time in and were inspired by the Lake District - William Wordsworth (lived and died in Grasmere), Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Ruskin, etc. - but I know none of their works. I've heard of Daffodils but don't actually know it beyond being able to recognise the first line or two. I am a bookworm, but I know nothing of classic poetry and there are many pieces of classic literature that I've never read.

It was nearly 3pm by this point, I'd been up since 5am and was carrying round my cumbersome holdall, so I went next door to Lucia's Café & Bakehouse for a sit-down and a cinnamon bun. I also gulped down two glasses of water, having barely had any to drink all day. I loved that they baked everything from scratch on site, in the small kitchen right behind the serving counter. After that I went to find the Grasmere Gingerbread Shop! I love gingerbread, be it cake or biscuit. Grasmere cook Sarah Nelson came up with a recipe in 1854 that became very popular locally, and nowadays queues out the door are normal. The shop is in the old church cottage, which is tiny, and because the gingerbread is made in the same building, on the other side of a partition wall, the shop section is so miniscule that only five or six customers can squeeze in, and you don't really feel able to take a few minutes to look around at their full range. I liked it, though. They probably could afford to get their products made elsewhere and use more of the cottage space for the shop, but they choose not to, and it means the place keeps a sense of originality and history; it's easy to imagine some shops being that small a couple of centuries ago. Oh and the smell! You could smell the gingerbread from the front door :) I bought a packet of six pieces and put it in my bag to enjoy over the week. I was only in the queue for ten minutes and it had tripled in length by the time I came out.

I had a wander around the rest of the village and came back to the main road. Another place I wanted to go in Grasmere was Barney's Newsbox. It's a newsagent, selling the usual stuff you find in newsagents nowadays... and hundreds upon hundreds of jigsaw puzzles! The upstairs was absolutely crammed full of them, every flat horizontal or vertical surface excepting a bit of floor space was used, so much so that only one person could actually fit in between shelves and I couldn't get further than the top of the staircase, which was likewise lined with puzzle boxes. I wish I'd had time to stay and explore it a little more.

I had another bus to catch at 4:15, but before that I went to find the village hall, which was holding The Lake Artists' Society's annual Summer Exhibition. You needed to make a small donation to go in and I didn't have enough change left, but they had postcards of the artworks out front, so I got to have a look anyway. As with poetry, I sometimes wish I had a better knowledge of and appreciation for art.

The 4:15 bus leaving lovely Grasmere was to Keswick, the market town on the shores of Derwentwater in the northern Lake District. I sat on the top deck again to see the views on the way :) Grasmere is roughly halfway between Windermere and Keswick so it was just over half an hour's journey, and I was happy to find the town a very nice little place. It took me less than 15 minutes to walk from the bus station at the bottom of town, through the town centre, to my B&B at the other end. Owner Graham let me in, gave me a map of the town, asked what my plans were, and recommended a couple of walks. I rested for a couple of hours before heading out to walk up to Castlehead, a viewpoint just outside town.

Just 15 minutes after leaving the B&B I reached the top of the hill, and the view was amazing. Derwentwater was spread out below, surrounded by fells, the town was partly visible through some trees to the right, and the sun was just setting over to the west. A dial on a cairn showed the names, heights, and directions of 30 fells you can see from there in clear weather. An Irish couple, perhaps in their sixties, were sat on the bench sharing a flask of tea and a sandwich, the gent talking away amiably to his wife. I stayed up there for just over half an hour then made my way back down as it was getting dark.

I headed down to the lake shore, as I hadn't been there yet, and found the Theatre by the Lake. If I'd gone out earlier I would have bought some fish and chips and eaten by the water, but it was pretty dark by this point, so I went back up into town and ate my late dinner on a bench in the market square. It was about 9pm and pleasantly lively out, people milling around going to and from restaurants and pubs, or the chippy like me, or enjoying an ice-cream. Just off the market square was Packhorse Court, a courtyard outside a pub with a few little shops and a Mexican restaurant, and decorated prettily with strings of lights, bunting, and flower-filled hanging baskets. I walked back to the B&B, had a piece of gingerbread for a sort of pudding, and went to bed after a very long but very nice day.

Recipe: Crispy peanut butter baked tofu

For dinner the other night I made crispy baked peanut butter tofu to go with a stir fry. So I thought I'd post the recipe! I got the quantities from one I found on the Minimalist Baker website.

For four portions, you'll need:

• 1 block of firm tofu, cut into small cubes
• 2.5 tbsp (40g) peanut butter (crunchy or smooth, your preference)
• 1.5 tbsp oil (sesame oil if you have it, but I just used sunflower oil because that's what I have; olive oil probably wouldn't taste quite right)
• 4 tbsp soy sauce or tamari (gluten-free soy sauce)
• 4 tbsp light brown sugar or honey

If you're familiar with cooking with tofu and know that you'd like more than a quarter-block as part of your meal, feel free to scale up. The above could equally serve as two larger portions.

Basically you can make this two ways. I've done both, but it was a couple of months between making each one so I can't remember which I prefer, haha. You can either marinade the uncooked tofu in the peanut butter mixture, then bake it; or you can bake the plain tofu then saute it in the sticky sauce. Try it both ways and see which you prefer!

Preheat oven to 200C, and line a baking tray with baking paper.

Option 1 - Bake first:

• Pour the cubes of tofu onto the lined baking tray, and bake in the pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes, or until it looks firm and crispy.
• Mix together the peanut butter, oil, soy sauce and sugar/honey.
• Pour the baked tofu and the sauce into a wok or other pan over a low-medium heat, and mix together for a few minutes (like, 3-5) until the sauce is warmed through.
• Serve with stir fry stuff! Veg, noodles or rice, etc.

Option 2 - Marinade first:

• Mix together the peanut butter, oil, soy sauce and sugar/honey, in a bowl.
• Add the tofu cubes and mix well till it's all coated. Leave to marinade for as long as you can (anything from 10 minutes to an hour to several hours, entirely up to you).
• Pour onto a lined baking tray and spread out a little so the cubes aren't clumped together.
• Bake for 25 minutes, or until at a level of crispiness you're happy with!
• Serve with stir fry stuff =]

I've just thought of an Option 3, which is a mixture of both: you could marinade the tofu cubes in soy sauce (or a mix of soy sauce and peanut butter) overnight (well, during the day), then bake, then saute them in the peanut butter sauce. I'll have to try doing that...

There isn't a picture, I'm afraid, as I thought of doing this post after I'd made it. Anyway, if you give this a go, hope you enjoy, and maybe let me know how you get on! :)

An afternoon in Winchester, 26th May 2019

I probably looked a bit odd this afternoon, dressed as I was in jeans with stretched and baggy knees, scruffy biker boots, a bright red raincoat, and a backpack... and carrying a pastel-coloured posy of sweet peas, probably the daintiest and most delicate flowers you can get. A bit of a mismatch. And a particularly unusual sight on the riverside path and St Catherine's Hill - I don't imagine many people wander the countryside carrying a bunch of flowers, haha. But oh well! I don't care, I have a wonderfully-scented posy of very pretty flowers! :D

I love Winchester but haven't been there properly in ages. I went today for something to do, to get out the flat and the city and treat myself a little bit. Bonus was that it was farmers market day - YAY!!!! :D

Pretty! The Ivy brasserie.

Farmers markets are wonderful. I absolutely love all that local, seasonal, good quality stuff, and wish I could both afford to buy produce there often and knew how to do the ingredients justice. I also wish I had an idea of a little business I could do, something I could produce and create using hands-on methods and be as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible, using quality local ingredients. Something where I could have a real in-depth knowledge of and love for what I spend my time doing and the end result. Ice cream, butter, honey, beeswax stuff, damson gin, elderflower cordial, jams and chutneys, pies, cakes, chocolates, bread, full meals, whatever! Or just, y'know, be a farmer.

Anyway, despite the fact that I've been worrying about money the last few days - actually, probably because of that - I let myself get a few treats. Life's all about those tiny moments that bring you joy, simple pleasures. You have to let yourself have those sometimes, even if it costs a little money. As well as the posy of sweet peas that will sit on top of my bookcase for the next few days or so, I bought some nice-smelling hand cream that will last a while, a cheese and local-tomato sourdough toastie that I ate sat on the lawn outside the cathedral, an almond macaroon and a slice of millionaire's shortbread, both of which I ate on my walk, and a lamb and redcurrant pie which will be my dinner later this week :)

Then, along the riverside path leading towards St Catherine's Hill, I saw the cutest little creature! A teeny tiny mouse-like thing, literally the size of my thumb, right on the edge of the path. Squeeee! I can't put emoticons in here - picture the huge-smile face with the love heart eyes, haha. I Googled it afterwards and reckon it was a bank vole. I think it was a youngster, as it was smaller than the internet said they grow to be and it was very unsteady on its feet, perhaps trying to run but not succeeding even to walk properly, eventually stopping and curling itself up a bit. It was probably scared so I left the poor thing to it, hoping it would move quickly to be out of the way of dogs and people not watching where their feet go.

So yes, very lovely afternoon, leaving me in good spirits! :) I'll have to make sure I go to Winchester occasionally, especially when the farmers market is on. There were some locally-made reusable (sustainable and biodegradable!) beeswax food wraps I'd really like to get, as well as a jar of the incredibly delicious local honey :)

Weekend away in Staffordshire, April 2019

At the end of April I had a few days away up in the Staffordshire Moorlands with one of my friends. He'd got newspaper vouchers for two free tickets to Alton Towers and we decided to make a little trip of it rather than go all the way up there just for the day. We booked the theme park tickets for the Monday so drove up on Sunday. But we started our weekend on Saturday evening with a folk gig in Ferndown - the band Flook, who were around in the 90s and have just reformed - which was great!

On Sunday we left Southampton about 10am, stopped for lunch at Ikea Birmingham, and later at a supermarket for supplies, and arrived at our Airbnb in Biddulph near Stoke-on-Trent around 2:30pm. Owl's Loft was a little converted outbuilding next to a pretty farm cottage in the middle of the countryside. There were other little farms and cottages nearby but the nearest village was just over a mile away. So it was wonderfully quiet! :) I don't think the interior could have been any more "me", haha, I loved it.

We were close to Biddulph Grange Country Park, so after unpacking we headed out for a walk into the winding country lanes. Coming to a wooded, bluebell-strewn valley with a pretty little river at the bottom, I think we both broke out into big smiles; this place was exactly what we'd wanted - space, peace, quiet, nature, well away from the city, literally a breath of fresh air, a relief.

After getting back to the cottage we sat outside on the patio and relaxed for a while before getting on with making the healthy curry we'd planned for dinner. My friend had brought his bluetooth speaker/radio so we put that on as well. There's something homely, for me, about having the radio on in the background while doing something in the house. Not any station, but something like BBC Radio 2 or 3 or 4 or Classic FM. I'll have to get a radio to put in the kitchen when I eventually get my own place.

Anyway, for dinner we'd found some tikka masala paste pots at the supermarket, which we added to onion, pepper, chicken, a tin of chopped tomatoes, and some spinach. Super easy! My attempt at turning a couple of tortilla wraps into an alternative sort of poppadom didn't go quite to plan, as I left them in the oven too long and they burned, haha, but the second attempt wasn't too bad so we had something crunchy to go with the curry and rice. It was all yummy! I even treated myself to a fruity cider :)

I made some wraps from the leftover curry and rice to take as lunch to Alton Towers the next day, while my friend got the wood-burning stove started upstairs in the lounge, and we settled down to spend the next three hours watching the brilliant Interstellar, with the fire crackling away nicely.

It was so nice to wake up the next day to sunshine, a countryside view, and no sound except birdsong :) We left around 9:30am for Alton Towers. My friend commented that he wouldn't have thought of me as a theme park kind of person, haha. I haven't been to one for a couple of years but I do enjoy them when it's quiet on term-time weekdays. Can't abide long queues. Anyway, it was good =] My favourite rollercoaster was the Wickerman, a wooden one that felt like it went faster than the others and had loads of twists and turns and loops and was just great fun! 'Hex', the ride inside the old mansion, was really cool, too; you're seated on rows of benches and don't move much except in a slight pirate-ship motion, but the room moves instead so it's enormously disorienting and surreal and baffling and a laugh, haha. I hadn't known the park was a former private estate, where the Earls of Shrewsbury lived, and I really liked the areas where the grounds were still in their original state, like the large lawn area in front of the now-ruined mansion, and the ornamental valley garden full of trees, winding paths, and water features, which provided a nice quiet place to get away from the concrete for half an hour and eat lunch.

We left shortly before 4pm and headed back to the cottage. Again we just relaxed for a couple of hours before heading out for dinner at 7pm. The owner of the Airbnb had recommended The Talbot pub in the village, and we decided to walk there, which was a nice way to see some the surrounding area and more pretty countryside. It's one of the Vintage Inns chain so it was really nice and did really good food. We shared a starter of garlic cheesy baked mushrooms, then I got lamb shank with mash and honey-roasted carrots, followed by apple and rhubarb crumble :) All delicious! Of course we were completely full up when we left after a couple of hours. It was dark by then, but the half-hour walk back along the unlit country lanes was quite cool =] We'd bought some ingredients to make lemon drizzle cake, but were too tired by the time we got back to make it.

Just a cute place we passed on the way to the pub

We left late the next morning, wishing we could stay longer, and drove up towards the Peak District so we could see some of it properly before heading back home. Just before the national park border, we passed a lake and an entrance to a car park and decided to turn in and investigate. It turned out to be Tittesworth Reservoir and had some signposted walks, a visitor centre and café, so we stopped there for a while. We opted for the shorter of the two walks, 1.5 miles, the route including lakeside, woodland, and views of some rocky ridges, then went for lunch in the café overlooking the lake.

There was only a couple of hours left before we needed to start driving home, so we drove up towards Bakewell with the intention of getting some good Bakewell Tart. Upon entering Bakewell, however, we were surprised by the sight of chain stores and franchises and were both immediately like "Oh! Hmm, nope...". We hadn't realised it was a proper town, and we wanted a cute little village with local independent places. So we carried on through the pretty rolling countryside, and soon found the cute little village of Youlgrave. Propped up against the corner of a cottage was a little chalkboard pointing towards a place called Peak Feast and "cakes!" and "pies!". We both got really excited, found a place to park and walked through the tiny village to the bakery.

It. Was. Wonderful.
Perfect.
Tucked out of the way up a little side street, Peak Feast is a bakery and shop. You walk in through the beaded curtain and find yourself faced with a freezer full of pies and locally-made decent ready meals on your right, shelves of jars of preserves, loaves of bread, bottled soft drinks, crisps and crackers, and - most importantly - tables of freshly made cakes on the left. A few women were baking more in the kitchen behind the counter. I was in heaven! :D Part of me loves the idea of having a place of my own like that.

We each bought a slice of Bakewell tart and a drink, and sat outside on a picnic table in the sunshine, I for one giddy and grinning. The drink I had was gorgeous, a Franklin & Sons strawberry and raspberry with black pepper. I don't usually like sparkling drinks but it sounded good so I tried it. And of course the Bakewell tart was yummy! I kind of wished I could buy a whole one rather than just a slice, haha - but I'd already bought a slice of treacle tart to save and eat the next day. I need to learn to make both!

(FYI - Bakewell tart is a shortcrust pastry case with layers of jam and frangipane and topped with flaked almonds; Bakewell pudding is a dessert made of a flaky pastry base or case topped with jam and a filling of egg-and-almond paste, kind of like an almondy set custard; Cherry Bakewells are Bakewell tarts with a layer of icing on top of the frangipane and topped with a glacé cherry.)

After about half an hour there, it was, very sadly, time to go. We took our time walking back through the pretty and peaceful little village, wishing we could live in the cottage opposite where we'd parked the car. It was such a nice few days! And I really enjoyed going with someone and not on my own for a change. It's just nice to share things with someone else who appreciates the same things you do. It was a shame we didn't get into the Peak District proper, and see the craggy moorlands there, but we still had a great time :)