The History of Hen

Garden visitors

2013-08-13T17:08:00.000-02:30

In digging up the garden I've been having a few guilty pangs as I disturb a few residents. Mattocking away I found these chaps burrowed down in the soil. Fortunately they survived the ordeal. I still haven't identified the exact bumble bee species, but she was huge, about an inch and a half long. The other, it turns out, is a going to turn into an elephant hawk moth. I hope I get to see it after the metamorphosis.

Nesting

2013-07-30T16:27:00.000-02:30

It's official. Dr Herringshaw and I have bought a house. The story of the buying has been better told elsewhere (and here), so I'll just say: we're in, and we love it.

I've refrained from knocking down any walls as yet, and the only thing of real note we've done so far is to cut the grass. Having a garden for the first time in years is something we're enjoying getting used to, especially when you find things like this.

I know that middle age has truly set in now that I'm researching sheds and greenhouses. My main project, though, is to dispense with the grass entirely and plant a floral grassless lawn, like this one. It's partly my laziness, and partly because I've always wanted something like a camomile lawn, but this way I get a bit more variety, insects, and a rest from the lawnmower. Everyone's a winner!

I'm starting small: pratia, three types of thyme, and freshly sown red clover towards the centre. Fingers crossed I don't kill it all.

Festival Of Archaeology

2013-07-20T14:19:00.001-02:30

As part of the Festival of Archaeology this year, they are running a wee competition where people create woolly archaeological things.

I'm not sure if it counts, but I thought I'd give needle felting a go, and so the easiest shape I could think of was the Venus of Willendorf.

Spot the difference!

Pinterest (Proto-)Success #2... nearly

2013-05-21T15:59:00.000-02:30

There are lots of pins about regrowing spring onions on Pinterest so, as I was growing them from seed in the yarden anyway, I thought I'd give it a try.

I chopped up the onion but left the bottom half centimetre and roots, and plonked into potting compost and lots of water, and within a few days it's regrowing!

As I've got loads in the garden I'm in no hurry, which is probably lucky as it's not growing fast...

In which you think one thing about your ancestors, and then...

2013-01-27T17:58:00.000-03:30

Lydia Balcomb is my great-great grandmother - my grandpa's gran. She's someone that I had no idea even existed before I started doing research into my family tree a few years ago.

Looking at censuses I knew she was born in Chaldon, Surrey around 1839, that she lived in Bletchingley for the majority of her life, and that she had married twice, as my great-great grandfather (William George Watson) died in 1891. Beyond that, nothing. In my head, all my ancestors are sturdy, honest, peasant-folk. People that I could see myself having been 160 years ago. Then I started digging.

William George Watson is a shady character. He doesn't exist before he rocks up in Bletchingley and marries Lydia in 1866, allegedly hailing from Wiltshire, though I've found no records to prove this. They had eight children in the space of fourteen years, and I was concerned when I ordered up William's death certificate to find that he died in the Godstone Union Workhouse.

Things were clearly not easy. My view of the family as hard-working poor folk in difficult circumstances was confirmed when, following the poor house link, I found a long record of poor relief applications from 1870-1875, which no doubt continued, but the later records are lost.

My views were changed, however, when I got a week's subscription to the British Newspaper Archive in the hope I might discover something new. I looked up a few names, but was surprised when I looked for the Balcombs and Watsons in Surrey to find the following from 1885:

I wasn't sure what it meant. Was William neglecting his family? It certainly seemed that way when I found a later report where he was taken to court for it, as well as failing to send his children to school. However, equally it could imply that Lydia was none too innocent when it came to cash. My imagination was running wild with thoughts of gambling addiction, expensive drug habits, or something equally shady.

Then I came across another story, which made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion. In 1887, when she was 48, it seems that Lydia had a few too many, or simply got annoyed with one of her neighbours (and not for the first time, it seems).

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GODSTONE PETTY SESSIONS:
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DAMAGE TO FLOWERS

Lydia Watson, of Bletchingley, was summoned on the information of Salome Richardson, with breaking and destroying plants growing in her garden, doing injury to the amount of 5s. -- Wm Richardson said on the Sunday morning, the 11th September, he found there had been a great many of his flowers pulled up and laid on the path, but he did not know who did it. -- Wm Wood, gardener, said on the night of the 10th he was walking down the road, and saw the woman, Lydia Watson, leaning on the gate. Witness lived a little further down the road, and standing there he saw her go into the garden two or three times and heard the leaves of the flowers rustle. The next morning he heard a great outcry because the flowers in the prosecutrix's garden had been torn up.-- Mrs Richardson said this was the third time she had had her flowers destroyed.-- P.C. Knight said the reason Watson did not come was because she said that was not her name, and as nobody knew it in Bletchingley she would not come till she was charged in her right name. He told her if she did not come a warrant might be taken out against her, so she promised to attend, but had failed to do so.--Mrs Watson ultimately appeared in court at about 2.30 in the afternoon and denied she was at the gate at the time alleged, but was in bed. The Bench inflicted a fine of 10s, with 5s costs.
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I would dearly love to see more records on this. Mostly as I'm intrigued as to what she's going on about with her name. What is she talking about? Has she ditched the 'Watson' and gone back to her maiden name due to irreconcilable differences? Is she just nuts?

Either way, four years later William dies in the Workhouse, and a year after that she marries John Pooley, a seaman. She lives until 1906 when she dies of heart failure at the age of 67.

I then turned my attention to her earlier life. As she was born so soon after registration began I was having trouble finding her birth certificate. I knew when she was baptised so what I was after from the certificate was her mother's maiden name, and so I decided to go a different route and got the certificate for her youngest brother instead. In a perhaps predictable outcome, it turned out that her youngest brother was not her brother after all, but her illegitimate son. This was hurriedly covered up as the baptism claims otherwise, but the certificate seems to have the truth of it. What this son/brother gets up to in later life is none too pristine either, with another newspaper report of him being caught poaching, and it leading to an attempted murder.

There was also a hint of another illegitimate child in the census, but he's an elusive character, and I'm not fully convinced. Given Lydia's behaviour thus far, though, I would not be surprised if she had ten rather than nine children after all. More research needs to be done, but Surrey's a long way away, and I've not yet exhausted my online sources. So, another certificate has been ordered - this time the next youngest child - in a bid to find out more about their mother. Here's hoping this one's not Lydia's too.

Ginger Beer Revisited

2013-01-27T13:32:00.001-03:30

A friend of mine, in a stroke of genius, has come up with the idea of hosting the inaugural "York Home Brew Beer Festival", due to take place at his house in just over a month. For this, all invitees must brew some sort of beverage over the coming weeks. As I'm not a beer drinker I thought this would be a good chance to revisit my alcoholic ginger beer.

I first made ginger beer back in 2010, before I had any idea about brewing. I still don't have much of a clue, and I fumble my way through with a barely adequate grasp, but I've not poisoned anyone yet. My first attempt was the classic "feeding the yeast" tactic, which can result in some highly explosive results. This time I'm trying a different approach. I did a bit of internet research and came up with this recipe on a Home Brew forum.

I've adapted it for a single 1 gallon demijohn:

200g fresh grated ginger (I only had 170g so that'll have to do)
1 tsp ground ginger
2 tbsp lemon juice (or 1/2 tsp citric acid)
500g sugar
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 heaped tsp champagne yeast (I used Youngs generic wine stuff)
3 pints water plus extra to top up

I grated the ginger and put it in a large pan with the dry ginger, lemon juice and 3 pints of water to simmer for half an hour.

Next I added the sugar to the hot liquid to dissolve.

Once cooled slightly, I added to the demijohn, topped up with the rest of the water and got out my hydrometer.

I don't know about anyone else, but my readings are always something of a fudge as my wines/ciders, etc are always too cloudy to read them through the glass. Even so, the original gravity looked to be about 1.043, give or take. I also realised my thermometer's batteries had died so there was no way of adjusting it according to temperature... It was pretty cool though, so I didn't worry too much.

I then chucked in the yeast and nutrient and stuck in the bung and airlock. It's taking a while to start fermenting (I think fairly old yeast won't' help!) but there's definitely a bubble.

To be continued...

Fire-tongs-punch

2012-12-21T08:17:00.000-03:30

Saint Nicholas' Day has become part of the Herring-Child festive season. This runs from December to January, and encompasses as many traditions from random countries as we find entertaining/tasty/alcoholic enough.

It starts in earnest on the 6th December, when we deliberately try and burn the house down in the name of good clean fun.

Feuerzangenbowle is a traditional German drink whereby a zuckerhut (compressed sugar cone) is doused in rum, set on fire, and the caramelised sugar and excess rum drips into a bowl of delicious mulled wine. The magic combination of tasty, tasty alcohol and approved pyromania is intoxicating.

We were introduced to the concept a few years ago and have attempted it with varying levels of success ever since; the chief issue with us being the lack of zuckerhut. Previously we attempted to fashion our own by packing moist sugar into a cone of baking parchment. I suspect had we packed harder, and left to dry for more than a few days, it may have been more successful, but I am impatient when it comes to rum-soaked goodness.

Cue 2012, when I finally caved and bought myself a proper kit from the German Deli in London website. I also loaded up on the zuckerhut from the same place.

It was magnificent.

A word of warning though: when adding additional rum you are likely to lose and eyebrow or two. Also, over excitement can also lead to singed carpets.

Frustration as I clearly didn't add enough rum and it fizzles out in disappointment.

A much more pleasing sight.

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Feuerzangenbowle Recipe
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3 bottles of cheap red plonk
3 oranges
2 lemons
4 cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
(optional, 2 cardamom pods, bruised)
1-2 zuckerhut
1 bottle of strong dark rum (we used Woods Old Navy Rum as it was 50%)

Gently warm the wine on the hob with the juice of two of the oranges and one lemon. Slice the remaining fruit and add to the hob along with the spices. Warm slowly for at least half an hour, not allowing it to boil, then transfer to the heatproof punchbowl. Lay the zuckerhut on the tongs (or other heatproof ledge-type implement) over the bowl and douse in rum.

Turn the lights off, and set on fire.

Use a metal ladle to top up the rum to prevent the flames going out, taking care not to singe yourself, your friends, or your house. Drink, rinse and repeat with another cone and finish up the bottle.

Boring safety advice: DO NOT POUR STRAIGHT FROM THE BOTTLE, or you will end up with a Molotov Cocktail, which is far less tasty.

Homemade all-purpose Mexican seasoning

2012-12-15T10:40:00.000-03:30

I spent a while last year experimenting with chili, and finally came up with a mix that seemed to work as a general multipurpose Mexican seasoning. I add it to chilis, tacos, hot bean dip. etc, etc, etc. I doubt it's particularly authentic, but it does the trick.
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All-purpose Mexican Seasoning
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8 tbsp chili powder
4 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp salt (or to taste)
2 tbsp black pepper
4 tsp dark brown sugar (I used molasses sugar, but demerara is also good)
4 tsp cocoa
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder (I couldn't find this so bought freeze dried onion pieces from a Chinese supermarket and crushed them)
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp smoked paprika (change ratio of smoked to normal paprika to your desired smokiness level)
1 tsp cinnamon

Pinterest Success #1: Rosemary Parmesan Crackers & Texas Trash Dip

2012-12-12T18:34:00.001-03:30

In common with many others, I spend more time pinning things to Pinterest and less time actually making things, but I finally tried out some new recipes. Some worked, some didn't. These are the ones that worked.

First up are the Rosemary Parmesan Crackers (see here for the recipe). These were tasty indeed, and I will definitely make these again (though in greater numbers). For once, something I made actually resembled the picture on the website.

(LEFT: picture from Alexandra's Kitchen blog, RIGHT: fuzzy photo demonstrating my efforts minus the garnish)

Secondly was the Texas Trash dip. It's basically all refried beans and large amounts of cheese - what could go wrong? No pictures of my efforts this time, but I'm highly endorsing this and will do this again.

(Picture & recipe from Life as a Lofthouse blog)

The only changes I made were to halve the amounts, replace the sour cream with creme fraiche, replace Monterey Jack with Edam, and the taco seasoning with a tbsp of my homemade chili mix.

I am making a general pre-new year resolution to actually DO rather than PIN. Or, at least, get the ratios of doing to pinning to a more appropriate level.

5:2 Update #1

2012-10-23T08:30:00.000-02:30

Ok, six weeks in - four if you don't count my fieldwork mid-way through. I've carried on eating as normal (except for the fast days), I've been to a wedding and seriously over-indulged, and yet I've still lost 9 lbs. This makes me sound as if I have an unhealthy diet - I don't. I eat plenty of veg and am generally sensible, but just have the occasional binge.

I am very happy about this, as you can imagine. My modest goal was to lose a stone, and I'm only 5 lbs away from that in a very short time.

Eat, Fast, and Live Longer?

2012-10-08T12:19:00.000-02:30

I'll admit, I've tried Weightwatchers.
I'll admit, I lost about a stone on it.

However, I've come to the conclusion that I am not the sort of person that can do diets: I love bread, pasta, cheese, curries, and pretty much ALL THE FOODS far too much. I fell off the wagon spectacularly and put on way more than I'd lost.

The problem with loving food too much is that, despite having a fairly active job (at least some of the year), the pounds creep on like you would not believe, especially once over the age of 30. Cue a conversation in my office about a month ago, whereby a colleague told me all about the BBC Horizon programme - Eat, Fast and Live Longer (I had to make sure I got the comma in the right place. If eating fast was a prerequisite, then I'd live to 100).

So it goes like this: eat what you like five days a week, but on two non-consecutive days you can only eat 500 calories (or 600 for men). It sounded tough, but the alleged health benefits seemed a bonus to me: weight loss was only one, there was also reduction in cholesterol, lowering risk of diabetes and heart disease, and retarding the development of cancer cells. If even the NHS had it on their website then it couldn't be that bad, in my mind.

I've been doing it for around a month now and I'm the lightest I've been in a long time. I've lost a fair few pounds and am feeling rather good about it all. I even had two weeks off in the middle to go to fieldwork and just picked up where I left off on my return. I've been out for massive curries, I've not given up anything I love. The "hungry days" are actually not so bad. I've found that fizzy water is a great filler and you can eat quite a lot on 500 calories if you choose your veg wisely.

The anal retentive in me has been keeping track of progress in Excel and, as of yesterday, starting tracking body fat and H2O as well. I have a set of scales that measures these - I realise it's not massively accurate, but I'm still interested in seeing what it says.

So, here's my progress. I'll be updating as the weeks go on. The grey bars indicate my hungry days, and the blue my weight (note the gap in the middle when I was away). So far I've noticed that I - unsurprisingly - always drop the day after a hungry day, but then go up again afterwards. However, that rise is rarely as high as my previous weight, so overall the trend shows a gradual drop. It seems sustainable so far, but we'll see!

(Not So) Recent Projects: Hats

2012-10-06T09:37:00.002-02:30

Can it really be that the last project update I did was October 2009? I admit, I'm a lazy knitter/crocheter, but it seems that I'm an even lazier blogger. Mind you, the world* is not missing much!

(* my one follower - hello mum!)

~

So, prepare for a visual feast of knitwear. Or not. Your call.

First off... hats.

Not the greatest picture of a Selbu Modern, but an ace hat nonetheless. My first real attempt at stranded colourwork. Looks better in the flesh, honest!

This Everglade I made for my mum, and am kind of wishing I'd kept it. I don't normally do patterns twice but I might consider it for this one.

Note: the blocking pins and the dinner plate are not a feature.

This one was not for me - even my minute head isn't small enough to fit in that one. It's an adaptation of the Snowflake Hat and the chart I made is on the project page at Ravelry.

This is Capucine. And I wore the hell out of it during the snow last year. I know I look like a five year old in it, but I have little shame.

Another hat for mother. This was highly experimental, no pattern involved, and probably ended up being far too hot to wear. I imagine it's now languishing in the bottom of one of her cupboards.

This was my favourite hat ever. Fitted perfectly, great for fieldwork, etc, etc, etc. It's a pattern called Sixty Cables.

I'm finding this all a bit too emotional though, as it was eaten by a mouse a couple of months back. It still hurts to talk about it.

The mouse is dead now. Revenge was mine.

I'm not so keen on this Beanie Brim Cap. No fault of the design: its probably because I ran out of yarn and the brim's a wee bit too small. Also I was probably a bit bitter at the time.

It's a cat, on a hat. It wasn't for me.

I don't have an updated picture of this sadly, but we abused the poor cat into giving him a body somehow, *and* a bendy tail. In fact, this is definitely the maddest hat I've ever made.

I realise it's too hot in Georgia to wear it, but SEND ME A PICTURE, LESLIE!

INSULATE!

Yes, those are Daleks, and no, as established above, I don't have any shame.

~

Next up... random accessories.

A visitor at New York Terrace

2012-09-06T15:04:00.001-02:30

We are temporarily looking after a friend's Korean fire-bellied toad for a couple of weeks. He's very cute, but clearly a bit mental. His name is Midnight, but we prefer to call him Froglet or Jimmy (Jimmy-fire-belly, of course).

As far as I can tell, for food he opts for simply trying to kiss crickets to death, which seems fairly ineffective. Clearly attempting escape, he has also recently taken to trapping himself in the clingfilm at the top of the tank.

I'm becoming a little concerned that his odd shenanigans will mean he won't survive until his owner returns from the US. Fingers crossed...

Giant Jaffa Cake for a 35 year old

2012-05-20T15:12:00.003-02:30

When I asked Liam what kind of birthday cake he wanted, he decided that a giant jaffa cake was the only way forward for a boy of his advanced years. In the true spirit of experimentation I decided to give it a go. I've lost my notes so I'm writing this from memory - hopefully the amounts aren't too far off.
For the sponge:

110g butter
110g caster sugar
2 large eggs
110g self raising flour

For the jelly:

1 packet orange jelly (I used Hartleys which equals 135g of jelly cubes)
100ml orange juice

Topping:

1 bar of dark chocolate

Firstly, make up the jelly by chopping the cubes into a microwwave safe jug, and add the orange juice. Microwave on full until the jelly has melted, then stir well. Fortunately I had a perfectly sized plate with a sunken area the size of my cake tin.With the benefit of hindsight I will offer the following advice: put clingfilm onto the plate before you pour on the jelly to set. Getting mine off after was nearly impossible!

I used Delia's Victoria Sponge recipe, but for some reason I am rubbish and it ended up denser than hers: Delia's makes two pieces to sandwich together, mine only made one! So, follow her instructions for the sponge. If you are better cook than me, you'll end up with an extra spare cake!

Once the cake has cooled, peel off the jelly and add to the top. Then, heat the chocolate in a double boiler, let cool slightly but not harden, then pour over the cake. I haven't put an amount as I clearly used way too much with about 190g. One 100g bar would probably do it.

Let the chocolate harden in the fridge, then try not to eat it all at once.

Cheesy fun

2012-04-15T14:09:00.000-02:30

I'm getting into cheesemaking again. I'm easing myself back in gradually by starting with paneer. Totally easy to make and great to cook with.

Ingredients
4 pints full fat millk
4 tbsp lemon juice or 1 tsp citric acid dissolved in a little water (approx 1/4 cup)
Spices of your choice

Bring the milk to a rolling boil, stirring regularly
When foamy, add the lemon/citric acid, turn down the heat and, and cook for 10-15 seconds
Continue to stir off the heat until the curds and whey separate, then leave for about 10 minutes to set
Ladle the curds into a muslin and keep aside the whey.
Rinse the curds under warm water then leave to drain. I add the spices at this point, then put a weight on top of the tied muslin to help consolidate it all.
After a couple of hours it's ready to eat.

I've found it's ace if you coat it in smoked paprika then fry it up with some bacon in a tomatoey sauce. Either that or go classic with curry. The whey you can either use in place of water in breadmaking, or I keep it in the fridge and add it instead of water to pasta sauces, etc. It gives it an every so slightly creamy edge. It lasts in a fridge as long as your milk normally does.

I used citric acid to precipitate this one, and added black pepper. You can see I didn't really pay much attention and the spice isn't exactly evenly spread. Citric acid can be pretty hard to get hold of, as people think you are going to cut it with heroin, but some places are ok. Barnitt's in York is where I get mine. They clearly don't care if housewives are addicted to class A drugs.

*

Middle-aged post alert

2012-04-15T13:07:00.014-02:30

Spring means a vague attempt by me to grow some veg. I'm fairly black-thumbed so it's always a miracle when I manage anything edible at all. It's not going so badly so far though.

Plum tomato and gherkin seedlings in my mini-windowsill greenhouse.

Orange bell pepper and fuego chilis. I've forgotten which plants are which though...

My chilis and sweet peppers from last year are miraculously still going strong, and flowering already, despite a hefty pruning whereby I chopped about 4 feet off the top.

My heavily-pruned cherry tree blossoming in the yard. Last year it produced the grand total of one cherry at mum and dad's house whilst they were tree-sitting, which was promptly stolen by a bird. I'm hoping for at least two this year.

Taters just planted out at the front, plus other bits and bobs.

Only half of my sugar snap peas have germinated thus far...

I *think* these are carrots.

My courgettes haven't died yet. There's still time.

Wild strawberry plant (back) I stole back from my yarden in Birmingham, plus a new normal one (front) donated by Mother Goodchild, my source for all things seedy.

So, fingers crossed for a bountiful summer. If I manage to eat any of it I reckon I'm on to a winner.

Unobtainable furniture

2012-03-21T20:38:00.004-02:30

I was watching Upstairs Downstairs tonight. It's fairly rubbish - embarrassingly so at times - but I fell in love with this kitchen cupboard. I love it, I want it, I'm never likely to ever source one though or, if I did, be able to afford it. A girl can dream.

Baggergate overhaul no. 1

2012-03-21T10:04:00.007-02:30

So, we've been in our new house on 'the-street-formerly-known-as-Baggergate' since November, and things are finally starting to take shape. Going unfurnished has meant lots of trips to the fabulous Community Furnite Store, abusing the kindness of family, buying unwanted furniture from departing friends, and an unhealthy Pinterest obsession with house decor.

My favourite achievement so far is our shelves: a sure sign of my impending middle age. The premise was simple. Buy some plywood shelves and cover the undersides and front with wallpaper. Turned out after some digging that someone had (unsurprisingly) already thought of this.

Problem number one: I got back from the timber merchants to find a tonne of real wood shelves from the 1960s in the skip at work. Consider some of them dutifully salvaged (with permission!). Fortunately for my sanity, they weren't long enough for the alcove we wanted, so the original plan went ahead.

Problem number two: I am rubbish at putting up shelves and the struts are too close together. Ho hum. They've not fallen down yet!

And finally...

2012-02-07T10:52:00.008-03:30

Last night was my very first appearance on television in a local regional news programme on BBC. The slot didn't disappoint, with atmospheric music, helicopter shots of sweeping landscapes, re-enactors in a bloody battle scene, and moody midnight shots in a graveyard.

It's a shame that we didn't manage to get our results done in time for the finished piece. It's a bigger shame that I didn't get my roots done before filming, and that my overriding feeling coming away from it was "why can't York University afford any chairs?".**

** In all seriousness, the filmaker did a lovely job, and it was a fun project to work on. We'll be writing it up soon!

*

My job is weird because...

2011-12-19T11:05:00.004-03:30

...today I am x-raying joints of pig that have been bludgeoned by replicas of Egyptian weapons (daggers, axes, maces).

What I have learned is that even meat that is only a few days old can permeate your nostrils in an unpleasant way that you'd not thought possible. Barbecues are not top of my list right now.

Of apples and fire monsters

2011-10-16T08:30:00.012-02:30

Having lived in metropolitan areas for most of my life, York's embarrassment of apples has come as something of a shock to me. It seems like almost everyone here has an orchard in their back garden. So, having volunteered harvesting fruit with Edible York's Abundance project for over a year now, I've finally got around to thinking about cider.

After an abortive attempt at using a mini home press loaned to me by the project, I was about to give up with only a litre of juice and a busted shoulder to show for it. Fortunately, Saturday was Apple Day at St Nicholas Fields, and I cheekily took my fruit along on the off-chance I could get it pressed by them. It was a lovely day - I stuffed myself silly on a variety of apple desserts, and failed miserably at the longest apple peel competition. To top it off, it just shows that if you don't ask, you don't get, and now I have a gallon of juice waiting to ferment, as well as some left over for normal un-alcoholic drinking purposes.

It wasn't perhaps so cheeky, as I did spend much of the day over a hot brazier making caramelised apples for the general public from Abundance apples. Whilst doing so, I totally fell in love with Bernie, the "Fire Monster" upon which I was cooking. He was made by this chap here who does sell them to the public, but sadly has no web page as yet. Since then I've been hinting heavily that a Bernie of my very own would be a highly appropriate Christmas present.

Sloe-lazy

2011-10-16T08:10:00.006-02:30

The best way to get fully matured sloe gin, apparently, is to forget to put enough sugar in it, then not drink it because it's grim, fully intending to get around to sweetening it up, but inevitably never getting around to it.

This is why I have a small bottle that I made last year, which lies undrunk on my shelf. Well, NO LONGER! Today I have actually gone and got off my arse and sorted it. The sugar should all be dissolved by the time we (*fingers crossed*) move into a new and exciting house, and shall therefore get polished off in one sitting come the beginning of November.

So now, what to do with those gin-soaked sloes? Never one to miss an alcoholic opportunity, I'm going to try this recipe for sloe sherry. I don't even like sherry, but I can't not try!

Caution: Actual Archaeology Content

2011-09-14T10:43:00.012-02:30

This last weekend me, two colleagues, and some intrepid volunteers went to carry out some geophysical and topographical survey on a prehistoric site up near Lockerbie. It didn't start well, when I realised that my tiny Toyota Yaris didn't fit the Bartington magnetometer in his less-than-capacious boot. Cue a traumatic evening trip to Halfords to purchase roof bars. The next morning we realised that jute twine probably wasn't the best method of attachment for a three hour journey, and that four people, their luggage, Barty, the resistance meter, and the DGPS and tripod would be a bit of a squeeze. Still, to give everyone their dues, we got it all in, and Rolf (Yaris) made it all the way to Lochbrow farm with minimal issues, bar a couple of hills.

Once there the weather was predictably dire, but we braved the cold and wet, and the beginnings of Hurricane Katia for the advancement of science.

The site was found via cropmarks by Kirsty as part of her PhD thesis, and also fell within an area predicted by Dot as likely to contain prehistoric activity. So, we dutifully attacked it with all the methods known to man, in the hope that the timber cursus we already knew about, and its context, would be elucidated somewhat. Luckily for us it was, along with a few surprises, both positive and negative, which we'll be writing up soon for your delectation.

The Concrete Jungle

2011-07-30T12:30:00.009-02:30

This year I've been attempting to do a better job than I've previously managed in producing edible goods. With a tiny concrete yard this is problematic, but armed with a magical self watering thing kindly given to me for my birthday last year, I seem to be doing okay-ish.

At the side I've got a rogue tomato plant I started growing indoors, but had to put outwhen I buggered off on holidays. It went a bit mad and I'mhaving to support it on our broken washing line. Look - it even has some actual tomatoes, which is a great improvement on my fruit-light-foliage-rich effort from last year!

The tomato plants at the back are just mental. They keep collapsing under their own weight and I've had to rig up a ridiculous string support system. Same goes for the runner beans, which are actually starting to be real beans. Not sure I'll have enough to make this fabulous stuff though.

I thought I'd try something different alongside the standards, so I planted some patty pan squash, which are HUGE and starting to flower.

I also found some potatoes trying to become a new lifeform in the back of my kitchen cupboard so decided to plant them. It's a bit late in the season, but I've already hilled them a bit and they seem to be doing okay.

Meanwhile, indoors, my chili and pepper plants are going for it. The chili is nearly three feet tall. Here's hoping for spicy goodness.

A day in the life...

2011-07-30T12:08:00.004-02:30

Yesterday I took part in the Day of Archaeology. This was a great project and I've really enjoyed reading the posts. It was also nice that folks I've met at various points in my life: Rome, Canada, etc, turned up as contributors.

In case anyone wants to hear about the sorts of things I get up to of a day, my post is here.