Cucumber sandwich darling?

Thirteen long years ago, summer of 1996. Home from an Irish tour, gig free weekend, best buddy Mark n' me threw a few things in the band bus and headed to the Cotswolds. Prescott hillclimb. Pitched up atop an empty field and went to watch the Vintage Sports Car crowd throw vintage cars up the hill. The Orchard, Esses, the Circle and across the finish. Rained on the Saturday so we picked a dry bank at the Esses where I snapped off a roll or so of poor pictures on my OM10. Evening found us camped beside Dick Buckland and his Lomax driving friend. Dick was a huge influence when we were designing our Trifid - and he'd somehow managed to park up beside us.
Night fell. Laying in the pits between Bugattis, Bentleys, and wonderful vintage specials, listening to the sounds of a dixieland jazz band wafting down the hill from the evening entertainment. Bumped into James Diffey, wonderful bloke who'd befriended us at local trials. Now sadly left the planet and despite the fact our paths crossed seldom, the world notices the loss. Sunday sun brought 'god's beautiful people' out in ancient grand tourers. Champagne, crystal and cucumber sandwiches.
We vowed to make this our annual pilgrimage.

Promises, promises.


So. Thirteen long years. And we went back. Mark in his Standard 9 special - I took the Cee-dan packed for camping.

Cheese n' wine in the campsite. Stayed a week and travelled to the Forest of Dean, much of Gloucestershire, a few teary memories of a Cotswold holiday long past, and a torrential trip back. Loving it. How long to the next time, and how much water to pass beneath life's bridge - time only knows.

Blue Peter Badge

Found! Not lost at all, just hiding. Had the loft insulated which involved emptying out three, five, nine, sixteen years and beyond of assorted boxes, hand-me-downs, old carpets, old stereos and general it'll-come-in-handy-one-day schmutz.

Amongst it, one baby backpack, decorated with a handful of badges. There it was all along, my Blue Peter badge right between a small Austrian cowbell and a Golden Shred golly. Next mission to find the letter from Biddy Baxter...

David Harkins.

Saturday. Went Maypolin'.
Should have gone to an auction in Cumbria. Regretting not putting in the effort to bag a bargain now...
Instead I find a Cumbrian poet.

“You can shed tears that she is gone,
or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back,
or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.
Your heart can be empty because you can't see her,
or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her only that she is gone,
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind,
be empty and turn your back.
Or you can do what she'd want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on.” David Harkins.

Ah, bugger. Happiness and beyond.

New Years Eve reflections

New Years Eve, party with the neighbours. Been right here before. Mirrors to the past. Taking stock. And talking to a friend who understands. Tragic loss and all alone. Guilt for surviving and carrying on without them. Her husband. My Kate.

Looking forward to a myriad of futures each clock chime promises. Still back to times past ended.

Cider, confetti cannons, chinese lanterns, curry and wine. C'mon New Year, give it y'best shot.

Apples, bathrooms, tinsel n' cider

Christmas coming, things to find, MOT on the van looming, carting stuff for the Nervous Bob till it runs out... rush. Rush, Rush. Again.

But, wahay!
Amidst all this I have somehow created a bathroom that I'm getting real pleased about! A bath that I actually fit in, a toilet that flushes, and a mirror in front of a stable sink that I can see to shave in. When I get a moment... With; count 'em - TWO taps!

Just the tiling, ceiling. lights to go. And a few more floor tiles. And some more stuff that I can't remember without some kind of list.

House been cleaned and decorated too despite the mess, all thanks to the lovely Lynda. An angel sent from heaven I'm told. How christmassy. Busy weekend ahead of parties and gigs, so tonight's the time to deal with the heaving quantities of apples that have languished for the past week or two whilst I played plumber. First up I guess is another batch of chutney before racking off the cider. It's all getting very exciting!

So - for those that don't receive a jar, here's my own personal recipe for the eradication of the excess of eating apples this year has brought. I have also used other recipes for all the cooking apples that didn't become pies and cider....

Spicy Apple Chutney

Ingredients.

2.5kg cored and peeled eating apples, chopped (type unknown, largish, red n' yellowish but most importantly flavoursome n' free...)
1 large onion
500g white sugar
125g crystalized ginger, chopped
0.5 litres of white vinegar
8-10 little dried chillies, chopped (bought on special at Julian Graves on a whim - they go a looonnggg way!)
1 teaspoon peppercorns
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon paprika


Method.

Chop up the apples, ginger, and onion and place in a pan, add the sugar and chillies, pour over most of the vinegar and begin warming. Meanwhile combine the other ingredients with a pestle and mortar and dry roast them in a small frying pan for a minute or so before adding to the apples. Bring to the boil, and then turn down to simmer for about one hour. I like to stop cooking it whilst there's still some lumps left. Eating apples soften quickly and produce a fair amount of liquid - add more vinegar if required.

Clean some jars and warm them in the oven, bottle the chutney. Resist eating it for maybe a month... Try to make enough to last a year.


I've made a few batches of this so far - adapted from a mango chutney recipe. It's warm, lovely, and yellow.
Tried juniper berries in one batch. That worked but make sure they're crushed. More chillies in the last batch. That worked too!