The Keen Ornithologist!

I looked out yesterday to see this enthusiastic birdwatcher sitting in the oak tree to get a better view! I just managed to get this photo before he scampered down the tree and away. Yesterday afternoon I cleaned all my birdfeeders ready to be filled and put outside today. Here they are all lined up on the terrace wall to dry. I get a lot of birds because it's the right sort of garden for them, plenty of food and cover and nesting places. In winter I get even more and usually keep a tally of sorts, one year we had over 50 different kinds over the winter months. This was at a point when we had four cats and I've never had a problem combining cats and birdfeeders though Raffles, my half Siamese did catch quite a few, he also caught squirrels, moles and field mice - he's been hunting in the Summerlands for many years now but lived to be 19 years old. I still miss him. I'll look for a photo of him and post it at some stage, his reign was before the days of digital cameras.
Lots to do today so will just finish with a photo of yesterday's daybreak, I love sunrises and sunsets and plan to try and improve my skills at photographing them this winter.
and just one more of the front garden as I went out with Bilbo yesterday morning.

Another Detour

Off to Sussex once again and the drive down was very quick, I couldn't believe how quiet the motorway was. By 1.30pm I was within 7 miles of Midhurst where I was staying and, as I'd planned, I followed the sign to the National Trust property of Uppark. My first stop was the tea room as I was pretty hungry by this time,they were at the point of stopping serving lunch and there wasn't much on offer so I had a very ordinary toasted cheese sandwich and a sparkling elderflower drink. The ordinariness of the food was surprising as the National Trust usually have really good food. This is the view from the cafe.
I have very few photos of Uppark
as the National Trust doesn't allow any photography inside their properties. I spent £5 on a guide book and then wished I hadn't bothered wasting my money. Including the index it is 96 pages long - Uppark has two floors open to the public, the ground floor which is the 'upstairs' part of the house and the basement which is the 'downstairs' or servants quarters. In 1989 Uppark was severely damaged by a dreadful fire which destroyed large portions of the house, particularly the upper floors where the family who owned it still had/have apartments. Since then it has been restored and a wonderful job has been made of it. The only problem is that, as in most National Trust properties, it is like walking round a museum rather than a place where people lived. The NT have the almost unfailing ability to take the soul out of a place - this isn't an inevitable result of the house no longer being lived in, I've visited places where you feel that people have just gone out of the room and could be back any minute. The rooms on view included the Servery and the usual array of Dining Room,Little Parlour,Red Drawing Room etc etc. In the guide book I've written by the entry for the Servery "Stained glass window is rather lovely,best thing here. Otherwise fairly uninspiring" I think the phrase is 'damned by faint praise! Anyway, I was round the ground floor pretty quickly and then went down into the servants quarters - this is absolutely marvellous and I spent ages looking round, it's very complete - there's the Still Room/Kitchen, Butler's Pantry, Housekeepers Room etc all crammed with interesting things to see. Unfortunately you'll have to use your imagination as not only is there the'no photographs etc etc' bit, but also no postcards in the shop and of the 96 pages in the guide book exactly seven are allotted to this part of the house, eight if you count the page describing the Doll's House which is eighteenth century and rather splendid. This was the part that everyone enjoyed most though, I overheard lots of remarks saying exactly what I was thinking. The only photos I have are of the dairy, (which was a separate building and I therefore figured didn't count in the no interior photos bit!).Inside it was rather beautiful, very clean and cool and tranquil, I liked it best of all that I saw,














This one is the Game Larder which was used to 'hang'the results of the regular shooting parties that would have taken place,game birds in one room and venison etc in the other. It's actually a very pretty building but is sited some way from the house because of the less than wonderful aromas that would be emanating fom it!

Incidentally an interesting thing about Uppark is that the mother of H.G.Wells (of War of the Worlds fame)was housekeeper there between 1880 and 1892 and he spent quite a bit of his youth there.
After I turned off to follow the sign to Uppark I drove along ever more winding and remote country lanes and eventually went through a place called South Harting which is the nearest village to the house. As I passed through I passed this cottage

I immediately decided on a stop in the village on my way back and there were some interesting buildings:
the village pub,it's 17th century and called The Ship Inn because it was built from ship's timbers
the church, St Mary and St Gabriel, is mainly 14th century and stands on the site of an even earlier church.



I thought this house was interesting because you can see that the original cottage, which must be medieval, was built without a chimney and it was added on to the outer wall at a later date.


When I saw the row of cottages below they looked quite modern at first glance, all uniform and painted in a rather pretty colourwash. Then I looked again and realised that they are jettied, the photo is at an odd angle to show this.


I took a closer look and realised that what I thought was a house name or number actually said this:



I've saved the best until last, this is my dream house


It was next door but one to the rather more fancy version that I first noticed but I actually liked this one better, it looked half asleep and as though it was dreaming - rather magical in fact. All these buildings were literally within a stones throw of each other apart fom the pub, which was a little way down the road towards the more modern end of the village. This is unusual as in English villages the pub and the church are invariably bang next door to each other - and of course that would have been the case here in 1450 when the present day cottage was the Bucke Inn.
So then it was on to Midhurst and the Spread Eagle ready for the next day and the course in preserving in Tudor times - look out for the next exciting instalment!
By the way the photo at the top is part of the garden of Uppark which I didn't really have time to see - pity as it looked rather nice.

An Unexpected Promotion!

Saturday afternoon was my local Knit & Crochet Guild meeting,I turned up a few minutes late as I'd been buying a birthday present for a friend. I waltzed in and found an empty chair then suddenly realised that things looked a bit odd. Fifteen ladies were just sitting there doing nothing and the shutters to the kitchen area were still closed! 'Er.. who's running the meeting today?' I asked with a feeling of doom hanging suddenly over me. 'You are' came the answering chorus, 'you're the only committee member here'. Now, I am treasurer, this is a deliberate choice because it doesn't involve me in standing up and saying anything apart from once a year at the AGM. And here I was, no warning,no notes, no nothing! Fortunately I'd printed out and brought with me the newsletter covering the previous meeting and I knew the lady who was doing the workshop so off I went - talk about flying by the seat of my pants!! Not to mention being all things to all men - I chaired the meeting, took notes for the newsletter, ran the sales table, introduced the speaker and with a 'volunteer' (read pressed labour here!)opened up the kitchen and made the tea and coffee. It all went well, the workshop was excellent and popular and it was 4pm before I knew it. Once again I tottered back home feeling like a limp rag - I've been asked to stand for committee at my WI too and I'm beginning to regret saying 'yes'. Still, maybe I won't get enough votes she said in a hopeful sort of voice...........



This is the lucet that Jean showed us how to use, it's medieval tool used to make square shaped cords which were used to tie your clothes - no buttons, zips etc in those days. It's actually easy and very therapeutic when you get the hang of it - and, boy, did I need therapeutic.

I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't turned up either????

Your mind is a weapon!

I got back from Sussex yesterday but haven't felt very well so decided to take a leaf out of Janet's book when she is short of time or inspiration. I clicked on the personality test on her blog and this is what it came up with.

Your Personality Profile

You are elegant, withdrawn, and brilliant. Your mind is a weapon, able to solve any puzzle. You are also great at poking holes in arguments and common beliefs. For you, comfort and calm are very important. You tend to thrive on your own and shrug off most affection. You prefer to protect your emotions and stay strong.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

I can tell you that one thing my mind certainly isn't right now is a weapon!! More like a piece of rather soggy cotton wool.

I had a great time in Sussex and the course was the most enjoyable yet, but the journey home was pretty awful. The weather was OK until I got to Northampton which is where I'd decided that if it was dry I'd use the motorway but if the forecast heavy rain had started I'd use the A roads instead, slower but safer. It was still dry so onto the motorway I went and five minutes later the heavens opened! Motorway driving in heavy rain is not one of the world's great pleasures - but the die was cast so on I went, slow and steady at 60mph on the inside lane instead of my usual 80ish. I tottered into the house feeling like a piece of limp dishrag and am still recovering. Bilbo Baggins was absolutely delighted to see me and nearly flattened me when I walked through the door. Tonight the weather is wet and windy - I think autumn is finally with us after the balmy Indian Summer.

This is a picture of the South Downs taken on the road between South Harting and Midhurst. More about Sussex over the weekend.

Images of Autumn

I'm off to Sussex again this morning so this is just going to be a few photographs taken over the last couple of weeks in the woods where I go each day with Bilbo Baggins who will probably be making an appearance in one or two of them and a couple of the garden.All will look better if you click twice and get the larger version. This is a sweet chestnut lying on the woodland floor
and a late bramble flower which is a really pretty pink instead of the more usual white
This is really more late summer than autumn but it's such a pretty image of seedheads that I couldn't resist including it
This is another of the photos I took in Cheshire a couple of weeks ago.

A particularly rich hued fungus
This was a misty morning in the garden, I must admit I rather like days like this, it makes everything look rather mysterious.
I love the different shades of green in the lichens on this tree
'It's no use, I've just got to learn to climb trees!'

The last photo isn't very good but makes me laugh,Bilbo had been chasing a squirrel which had just shot up this tree and he was desperate to follow it up there.
Here he is again.

Late afternoon sun in the garden.

That's it, got to go, back to blogging at the end of the week.

Come on ,you Blades!!

Well, yesterday's idea of a quiet day writing letters didn't go quite according to plan. At 1pm the back door opened and in walked Steve with Kaitlyn, at 2pm it opened again and Neil appeared as well. Sheffield United's game was live on TV and they'd arranged to meet up here to watch it, so it was just like old times with the four of us watching the Saturday afternoon football (soccer to those of you in the US!). Since we actually won for the first time this season there was a good deal of noise at times - I get as loud as anybody on these oocasions I'm afraid. When the boys were in their teens and early twenties the three of us used to go to Bramall Lane together a lot and standing in the Kop the shy little violet turned into a rather excitable person leaping up and down and shouting with the best of them. The Blades is the nickname of Sheffield United which is where the title of this post comes from - Sheffield of course being famous for it steel and especially it's knives, at least it was famous for them in the days when the club was originally formed in 1889.
Fortunately I'd made a couple of cakes before they arrived, an apple streusel cake


and a cherry and coconut cake
Alas, The apple streusel cake is no longer with us!

I also took this photograph of a cotoneaster in the front garden, I love these berries and so do the birds, when it gets cold it's full of them stripping the berries off. Which is fine with me as my garden is planted as much for wildlife as for me.

A Tudor Kitchen

At last I'm getting to the final part of my visit to Sussex and, as I'm fighting off a migraine, this is likely to be fairly short and sweet but I want to get it done before I go again next week for another course, this time on preserving food in Tudor times. Fortunately I kept a journal of sorts otherwise I'd be struggling to remember what happened by now!. The photographs will be mostly of the Weald and Downland Museum as the ones I took inside Winkhurst kitchen of the breadmaking etc turned out very badly, there is no electric light, only the light from the door and tiny windows plus candles and I'm not a good enough photographer yet to make the right adjustments.


There were eight of us doing the Tudor Bakehouse course, four men and four women. It's very unusual to get an even balance like that, usually there are only one or two men at most. The men were very useful as they did all the playing with fire to get the oven heated up and had a thoroughly good time doing it. Did their masculine egos no end of good as we ladies looked on admiringly! In the morning we made just plain household bread using flour as it would have come from the miller ie wholemeal - really wholemeal which makes a very solid and filling loaf. It's possible to make finer flour by sieving which removes a good portion of the bran but still leaves what we would consider a wholemeal flour and then it's possible to boult it which is incredibly hard work.The wholemeal flour is rubbed through a muslin cloth using a large wooden ladle and it takes forever to produce quite a small amount of fine white flour. As you can imagine this sort of flour was used only on special occasions and in wealthy households. The photo isn't very clear and was taken on the second day when we were all women, only two of us did both days.
We made bread with two doughs, one left overnight to rise in a cool atmosphere and the other made that morning and using the traditional warm rise.

The overnight rise actually made much nicer bread and I'm going to give that a try in the near future. While the dough was rising the oven was fired up, it took 5 large bundles of sticks to heat it to sufficient temperature to bake bread. When you judge it is hot enough, the fire embers are raked out and the inside is given a quick once over with a damp bundle of rags on a stick and the loaves are loaded in with a paddle. The wooden oven door, which has been soaking in water is then quickly put in place and sealed with a mixture of flour and water mixed to a sort of sticky pastry consistency - my job for this particular time and as I always make my pastry by hand rather than machine I was able to judge the consistency pretty well.The term the 'upper crust' comes from this process as, of course, the bottom of the loaves tends to be rather black fom the residue of the ashes, consequently the bread was sliced horizontally and the wealthy family members got the nice clean upper crust and the servants and also rans got the grotty bits off the bottom - so now you know!






By the time the bread came out of the oven it was time for lunch which we had sitting in the warm sunshine by the lake. Then it was back to the kitchen to prepare dough to make fancy breads, we divided into three groups and one lot made a panettone type dough, another did a herby bread and my group made something similar to Scottish Black Bun - a heavily fruited and spiced dough enclosed in a plain dough case (Black Bun actually has pastry as the outer case). The oven was fired again - more good times for the boys - and the various breads were baked. Of all of them I liked the herb one best, that group had used a lot of fennel among their herbs and as I love the taste of aniseed it really appealed to me. Then came the really hard work as we had to clean all the utensils and scrub the wooden tables using salt as a scourer and a disinfectant.

The next day we made all kinds of pastry and pies. We split into groups again and my partner and I made a bean tart using butter beans as the main ingredient. It neither sounded nor looked particularly appetizing but those who tasted it said it was actually very nice. Other things made were a jam tart, apple dumplings and custard tarts. As on the previous day the oven was fired twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. In the afternoon we all made hot water crust pastry which is something I like to eat but have never tried to make before. It was surprisingly easy and I shall certainly have a go at the filling I concocted for mine using apples, raisins, brown sugar and cinnamon topped off with walnuts of butter. Others made savoury fillings using fish and herbs or cheese and onions.Unfortunately the course finished before these had baked so we never got to try the results of our labours. I just know that apple-y/cinnamon thing of mine was good though. It will all have been eaten the following day by volunteers and visitors to the museum.


As I was leaving I took these photographs of Romany caravans and the traditional piebald horses as well as the colourful miniature Romany caravan below , both were part of the preparation for a weekend about Romany people and their way of life. I wish I could have seen that, it must have been fascinating.

OK Bloggger is at it again, it's says it has uploaded photos but they are not appearing. It's been like this since last night so I'm going to publish this now and keep trying to edit the photos in during the day. I'm going to be at home baking and writing letters so I can do it in between things - I hope!

Success! Thanks to those who reminded me about Mozilla Firefox, it's worked the oracle. The photos have all turned out to be of the course after all so I'll put up some of the rest of the Museum tomorrow.

String of Pearls

On Sunday evening I got to use my birthday present from my younger son and his wife - tickets to a concert by the Glenn Miller Orchestra UK in Buxton. They couldn't have come up with anything better for me. I discovered Glenn Miller when I was about 13 in the midst of all the Tamla Motown era - I was and still am a big fan of The Temptations and Marvin Gaye etc - and I can't really remember how I came across his music now. I've been a huge Miller enthusiast ever since though and have a fairly big collection of CDs, LPs (do you all remember those!?) and tapes. I very often do my housework to the strains of Chattanooga ChooChoo, In the Mood etc etc. One of my favourites is String of Pearls though, hence the title of this post and the photo at the top. I inherited the pearls from my dear mother-in-law and don't wear them that often but thought this was the perfect occasion for them. The band was really good and I thoroughly enjoyed my evening out especially the rendition of Tuxedo Junction which was the best bit of the whole thing as far as I'm concerned. The last photo is of me wearing the pearls and looking rather pensive! I am a bear of very little brain tonight so the continuation of the Sussex story will have to wait until I'm feeling rather more awake.

Oh! My Aching Wheels and Axle Rods Moaned Henry!

I've been working nearly all day on a deceptively small and innocent looking bed in the garden. It can only be cleaned up by crawling about bent double or squatting on your haunches because it contains shrubs and is very narrow and has a tall beech hedge on one side. It's finished now and so am I! Everything aches now but tomorrow I shall be really glad I did it. The title of this post will be familiar to anyone who has ever read Thomas the Tank Engine books to their children - Henry is the big green engine! My boys both loved these stories.
The photograph was taken last week when I was driving home from a funeral in Cheshire, this is on the road from Congleton to Buxton in Derbyshire. It's a high,narrow,winding road through some really beautiful countryside and I coudn't resist stopping several times to take photographs. The little black and white dots in the foreground are cows and the white dots on the top left are sheep!