Rachel Cotterill

Aberdour Castle

2012-05-30T16:01:00.000+01:00

Aberdour Castle is a striking, partially ruined manor house just off the coastal road which runs along the Firth of Forth, and lays (disputed) claim to being the oldest Scottish castle still standing. We'd just driven across the Forth Road Bridge through thick fog, and might not have stopped if the visibility hadn't improved, but we arrived at Aberdour in beautiful sunshine which was perfect for wandering the gardens.

One of the most distinctive features is this beautiful painted ceiling, in one of the remaining original rooms. The colours are faded, but the patterns are still quite clear.

We also walked across to the huge dove cote, a stone beehive-shaped building which would once have provided a decent supply of meat for the castle's residents. On the terrace below, the curators have re-planted the old orchard, so in a few years time it will be even more impressive.

Just around the corner, the small Norman church is also worth a visit. Previously fallen into ruin, St Fillan's was restored in 1925-6, and now has regular Sunday services again.

Warkworth Castle

2012-05-28T16:23:00.000+01:00

Warkworth Castle (in Northumberland) has a beautiful and well-preserved keep, full of narrow staircases and secret passages. Not that these were ever used for the nefarious purposes of which I think when I daydream of castles with secret passages, mind you - they seem to have been built primarily for allowing servants to serve food and drink without wandering through the main rooms. One clear example of this being the stairs from the wine cellar directly up into the great hall - very practical!

We arrived just after a coach-load of small children, which for a moment looked like it could have been very bad timing. Fortunately the kids were being carefully herded around by teachers and parents in quite big groups, so we didn't find ourselves tripping over them all the time. And on the plus side, there were several costumed volunteers on hand to work with the school group, which added to the atmosphere more generally.

There's also a hermitage, accessible only by boat - the boats only run on certain days, and we unfortunately missed it, so it's worth checking to see if you can time your visit to coincide with the boats.

Fusion Room, Preston

2012-05-26T16:00:00.000+01:00

Preston is famous for having the biggest bus station in Europe, and is the town where I did my A levels... but it's not exactly known for fine dining. So when my mum told me that she'd been to a new, top-class restaurant which was also happy to cater for her vegan, wheat-free diet, I was excited to have chance to try Fusion Room for myself.

We phoned in advance, and they prepared a special menu for us, so that we actually had three starters and three main courses to choose from (the regular menu has one veggie option). There was a selection of tasty bread rolls to nibble while we contemplated the menu, of a variety of different styles. There's not much to say about bread, but my mum's gluten free rolls were surprisingly light, and in fact I think her seeded roll could have held its own alongside the regular bread. If you've ever tried gluten free bread, you'll know this is quite an achievement.

I had a goats cheese & asparagus slice to start, which was incredibly rich. I seldom wish for less food, but in this case I would have been quite happy with half the portion. The goats cheese was made into a thick and creamy terrine, and the taste was quite mellow, although it still overpowered the asparagus a little.

Andrew and my mum both ordered tomato soup, which came topped with a thick layer of basil foam. I've been reading a lot about food science lately, including foam and other textural experiments, so this was fun to see, and the foam was actually warm which came as a surprise to me. I had a taste, and it was definitely something I'd consider if it's on the menu when we go back.

For my main course I selected a dish called "Shallot Textures" which consisted of shallot risotto and a shallot tarte tatin, topped with a roasted fig. I wasn't sure how well the fig would work with the other parts of the meal, but it actually complemented the shallots perfectly. The caramelized tarte was quite sweet, but the risotto was savoury with a slightly bitter edge which balanced it out. I'd certainly eat this again.

The main courses were served with more vegetables than we could eat (broccoli, carrots, and roast potatoes) - a pleasant change from some high-end restaurants who really do seem to believe that less is more.

Andrew ordered trout (which has no place on a vegetarian blog!) and my mum had a mixed vegetable stir fry, served with rice and a spring roll, which she enjoyed.

For dessert, I had the chocolate & amaretto sponge with orange sorbet. The moment I saw amaretto on the menu, I knew what I'd be ordering. Unfortunately, the orange sorbet was so sharp and strongly flavoured that I couldn't actually eat it with the chocolate cake - at least, not if I wanted to be able to taste the chocolate and amaretto (which I did!). So I ended up effectively eating two separate desserts: a sherbet-orange sorbet, and a chocolate amaretto cake. Both of which were delicious, but it was a shame they didn't quite work together.

My mum had told us all about a sophisticated rhubarb dessert which she'd loved on her previous visit, so she was a little disappointed to find that when we went, the only suitable option was a selection of sorbets. However, they made it look incredibly pretty, and the flavours were as bold and bright as the colours.

Andrew had a lemon tart, which was a sort of deconstructed lemon meringue pie (the meringue having been cooked with a blow-torch, straight onto the slate). This was served with raspberry sorbet, but in contrast to my dessert, in this case the lemon and raspberry were both vibrant flavours which could stand together without either overpowering the other.

Overall, we had a fantastic meal and it's always great to see a restaurant go to so much trouble to make vegetarian and vegan guests feel just as welcome as everyone else. While there were some elements that seemed slightly unbalanced, this didn't stop me enjoying my meal - and I'm sure it will only improve as the chef gathers more experience. I'll definitely be going back next time I'm in the area.

Coal Sands

2012-05-24T16:00:00.000+01:00

We hadn't really noticed the huge number of tiny black stones along the tide-line of the beach. Or rather, we've seen enough black sand beaches that we crunched through it without thinking any more about it. It was only when our friends pointed out that it was coal, that we realised we were seeing something quite unusual. Apparently they used to dump coal dust from the mines out into the sea, off the coast of Northumberland, and now it comes back ashore with the tides. It was quite an impressive sight, and formed some beautiful patterns of sand and shiny coal.

Slow Cooker Recipes

2012-05-23T19:24:00.000+01:00

I was browsing recipes when I stumbled across a post about baked macaroni cheese over at Cheap is the New Classy - in which Dawn teasingly refers to her "tried and true" recipe for macaroni cheese made in a slow cooker. Now, I grew up making macaroni cheese in the oven, so the idea of a slow cooker recipe really intrigued me. I didn't even know you could cook pasta in the slow cooker. And how do you get the crispy cheese crust on top?

Unfortunately she doesn't seem to have posted it! So in part, this is an appeal for Dawn to please (pretty please) blog the slow cooker recipe as well.

But in fact, I'm only just getting the hang of my slow cooker in general, so I thought my readers might be able to help me out with some recipes.

Although we were given the cooker as a wedding present, I haven't had as much time as I might like to try new things: experimenting with day-long recipes requires a bit more commitment than my usual dabblings. So far I've pretty much only made soups and stews that I'd normally cook slowly on the hob. I remember my mum putting rice pudding on overnight, for a warming winter breakfast, so I'm planning to try that too.

Meanwhile, I'd love it if you'd share your favourite vegetarian or vegan recipe for the slow cooker. Any ideas appreciated, particularly for main dishes that I could set up in the morning ready for dinner. Thanks in advance!

Belsay Hall, Castle, and Gardens

2012-05-22T16:30:00.000+01:00

Belsay Hall was built between 1810 and 1870, set amidst gently rolling hills in Northumberland, the northernmost county of England. The castle (above), a short walk away through the grounds, predates the Hall but became a fashionable folly once the Hall was in use.

When we visited, it was gorgeous weather for wandering through the gardens - a substantial portion of which consists of passage-ways cut into the hillside. The looming cliff faces and lush vegetation gave the whole place a somewhat fantastical feel, which I much preferred to the somewhat sparse formal gardens nearer to the house.

You can climb the castle for beautiful views over the surrounding countryside, and we enjoyed watching house martins swooping in and out of the towers, clearly enjoying the sunshine as much as we were.

An Automated Massage

2012-05-20T16:00:00.000+01:00

When my mum told me that she was going to take me to try out a bed when I next visited her, I have to admit I was more than a little surprised. She did explain that it was a massage bed, but even so, I didn't really know what to expect.

At the Ceragem centre in Preston, you can turn up once a day to get a free massage using these special massage beds; there are fourteen sessions per day so they can fit a lot of people in! Of course, what they really want is to sell the £2000+ beds, but I think it's nice that they're happy to let people attend regularly for free. We went along for the first morning slot on Saturday, which is at 8.30am.

Although the centre is large, the beds are packed in quite tightly, and it feels strange to be stripping off your coat and shoes and "getting into bed" just a few inches from the next person over. You arrange your sheets and yourself on the bed, make sure your spine is centred, and wait for one of the staff to come and start your machine.

There are jade rollers which move up and down to massage your back, shoulders and neck. It's also heated to 55°C (131°F), which feels surprisingly hot through only a t-shirt and thin sheet. I wouldn't call it a relaxing experience, as the rollers really pummel your muscles, which was sometimes painful. But that's also true of regular massage.

I don't yet know whether it's been good for my back pain, but I was aching all day Saturday, so it must have done something. I was also really hungry and thirsty afterwards, which is typical for me following a deep massage. If I lived close enough to try going daily, I might well see what it was like to do it regularly - my mum and her partner certainly find it beneficial.

Kadriorg Palace, Tallinn

2012-05-18T16:00:00.001+01:00

On the outskirts of Tallinn, the park at Kadriorg Palace is a beautiful and peaceful spot. It was a glorious day when we visited, in the middle of summer, and yet we saw only a very small number of visitors wandering through the grounds. I loved all the colourful flowers, and it was a wonderful place for a gentle walk. I was surprised that it seems to be so overlooked.

There's also a museum in one of the palace buildings, but it was closed when we visited.

Clandestine Cake Club (Gloucester)

2012-05-16T16:00:00.000+01:00

I first heard about Clandestine Cake Club from Jacqueline of Tinned Tomatoes, who founded a cake club in Dundee. It sounded all kinds of wonderful, and of course I headed straight over to the site to see if there was a group a little closer to me.

So, on Saturday, I went to what was only the second meeting of the Gloucester chapter of CCC.

It was a lovely afternoon, where we got to meet some likeminded (cake-minded) people, and indulge in far too much sugar. I took along a ginger loaf cake - it was one of the simplest offerings, but no less tasty for that! (Personally, I prefer cakes with less icing as I don't have the sweetest tooth.) But I was certainly inspired by the other contributions, particularly Lara's stack of hazel meringues, which I might have to try for myself.

After almost two hours of chatting and munching (with tea and coffee to wash down all the cake), we even got to take home the leftovers. Although I think the Gloucester group acquitted ourselves admirably: there wasn't that much left!

If you're interested in finding - or founding - a group near you, check out the Clandestine Cake Club site.

So many beautiful cakes!

Our hostess Fran invited us to tuck in...

...and we happily obliged.

After an hour, we'd made quite a dint in the spread.

Ginger Cake Recipe

2012-05-14T16:00:00.000+01:00

I love ginger cake. I made this one by starting from a very basic cake recipe, adding lots of ginger (both liquid extract and crystallized pieces), and using half muscavado sugar. It's quick to mix up, although you do need to allow about an hour for baking and cooling before it's ready to eat.

Ginger Loaf Cake
8-10 slices

3oz muscavado sugar
3oz soft brown sugar
4oz butter
2 eggs
1tsp ginger essence
6oz self-raising flour
3oz crystallized ginger

Preheat the oven to 165°C (or a little higher if you don't have a fan oven) and grease a medium-sized loaf tin.
Finely chop most of the candied ginger to make 2-3mm cubes, but reserve about a quarter for decoration (I chopped these into about 1cm pieces).
Cream the butter and sugars together with a spoon. Break two eggs into the bowl, add the ginger essence, and stir until the mixture is smooth.
Fold in the flour and fine-chopped ginger.
Spoon the cake mixture into the tin, smooth the surface with a spatula. Arrange the remaining (larger) ginger pieces on the top, pressing lightly into the mixture.
Bake for 45 minutes until the crust is golden-brown, and a skewer comes out clean.
Remove from the tin onto a cooling tray, and allow to cool before eating.

Regency Dress #3 - Cutting, Stitching, Wearing

2012-05-12T17:26:00.002+01:00

I knew this was an (over?) ambitious project when I started it, given my minimal dressmaking experience prior to this. But how hard can it be to make a dress? You have a pattern, you cut out some pieces, and then you put it together - like a jigsaw with sewing.

Only... turns out it's more like a three-dimensional jigsaw, with pieces that only approximately fit together, and seam allowances and slippery fabrics and only the vaguest idea of how it's meant to look. And it needs to fit.

Combined with the minor fabric emergency (which set me back by at least 24 hours), giving myself less than a week to finish this project may have been crazy. However, with the help of several late nights, stabbed fingers, and a very understanding husband, I managed to finish on Thursday night - just in time for the ball on Friday.

You might be interested to see the "matching" dress which my friend Emma made. We both used the same pattern, but the results are quite dramatically different!

Stop! This Museum Is Not Ready Yet...

2012-05-10T17:00:00.000+01:00

Following the instructions in the Tallinn Card brochure, we took the bus to the suggested stop for the Seaplane Harbour ship museum. It was the stop at the end of the line, and we were expecting signs to point us in the direction of the museum. We found ourselves in a peaceful, leafy, and almost deserted suburb, with beautiful wooden houses, but no signs. To find our way to the museum, we used a compass, general knowledge of "the sea is that way," and an assumption that we'd find the ships on the coast.

So it was that we arrived at this building-site-come-museum. We walked to the ticket office through clouds of thick construction dust, and had to dodge out of the path of an oncoming digger.

The leaflet we'd followed to get there told us of the beautiful new exhibition hall which had "opened in May 2011". I can only guess that they must have gone to press before then, and included an optimistic estimate of their opening date; when we visited in July, it was far from finished. We could, however, enjoy an artist's impression of what was underway. And, of course, an inside view of the construction process.

The Soviet steamer-icebreaker Suur Tõll was fully open for business (and was a genuine highlight of the entire trip) but to get to it, we had to clamber over rubble and unlaid cobblestones.

The submarine Lembit, launched in 1936, was also highlighted in the brochure. We arrived to see it being unpacked, after it had just arrived on site. Unfortunately we weren't able to get inside, although walking around underneath it gave a very good sense of scale.

A new, themed playground by the in-progress museum hall was a good indication of what this will all be like once it's finished. I think it's going to be a fantastic attraction - we just visited a little too soon.

On Board A Soviet Icebreaker

2012-05-08T17:00:00.000+01:00

Don't miss my Children's Book Week giveaway over at my book blog this week!

I've always loved being on the water, so ship museums - the kind with real, ex-working ships that you can walk through - are often my favourite to look around. The steam-powered icebreaker Suur Tõll is the star of the show at Tallinn's ship museum, and we had a great time visiting last summer. Built in Estonia in 1914, it later became a vessel of the Soviet fleet - from which it was later returned to Estonia for display at the museum.

Looking around the deck and the crew's cramped living quarters was interesting, but for me, the highlight was being able to get up close and personal with the engine rooms. And oh, what engines! I could just imagine getting my hands dirty, maintaining these on a long Arctic journey. A fantastic glimpse into another world.

Regency Dress #2 - First, Wash Your Fabric

2012-05-06T17:00:00.000+01:00

I have to be honest - I came worryingly and carelessly close to going very, very wrong on my regency dressmaking project yesterday. If the lovely Louiz of Random Acts of Yarn hadn't mentioned it on Facebook, I almost certainly wouldn't have remembered to stick the fabric in the washing machine before cutting it. And as Louiz pointed out, I might then have had an unwearable dress after the first time I washed it.

Lesson learned. Wash the fabric, then cut it.

Thankfully yesterday's weather was bright and blustery, perfect for drying washing on the line outside, so I wasn't expecting this to constitute a massive setback.

But of course, these things never go smoothly. I went out to fetch in the dry fabric, only to find it covered in white speckles from the laundry powder. Argh. I was so excited about my fabric - such a gorgeous, deep shade of purple - so I hope I can figure out a way to rescue it. Meanwhile, because I've got to get on and make this dress by Friday, I've had to buy some different material (different because the shop where I got the first lot is closed on Sundays). This will be followed up by a sternly-worded letter to the powder manufacturer, as it turns out their product contains bleach, without being advertised for whites only!

So, my new fabric is velvet, which will make for quite a different style! The cotton for the lining (bottom picture) is the closest colour I could find, and although it's not an exact match, it looks good underneath.

Estonia's Open Air Museum near Tallinn

2012-05-04T19:37:00.004+01:00

I'm a huge fan of "open air" museums, where you can usually wander around old buildings and get a feel for how a place used to be. So when we saw the Estonian Open Air Museum listed in the booklet for our museum passes, we simply had to hop on the bus and visit.

The Tallinn museum is set in a beautiful wooded park, with a choice of several paths leading between the reconstructed houses (and churches and windmills) of various periods. The park also abuts the sea, and you can look across at the modern city and passing ships for a sense of perspective. I really loved it, and would definitely go back.

Of course, given how much we enjoy relaxing in different cafes, we also had to have a drink in the tavern - which was a pleasant environment, although I don't think that our coffee was terribly authentic!

You may also be interested in my recent interview with Jean Sasson, over at my book blog, covering her experiences as an American woman in the Middle East.

Pipe insulation to protect your furniture

2012-04-30T16:53:00.000+01:00

I love wooden furniture but sometimes I do worry about knocking and damaging it - or in the case of this sofa, the damage that a the back was threatening to the freshly-painted wall. After just a few days we were starting to see a slight mark on the wall, just from sitting down.

It turns out that a length of cheap pipe insulation is perfect for protecting walls and furniture from one another. It holds itself in place, takes seconds to fit, and you can't even see it from the front.

You just need to find a piece of insulator that's designed for a pipe about the same size as than the part of the furniture you want to protect, or slightly smaller (because this stuff is quite stretchy and you want a snug fit so it doesn't fall off). If the insulation is a solid tube, as mine was, you also need to cut a straight line along the length so you can open it out.

Rules for Writing

2012-04-28T19:00:00.000+01:00

Whenever I write a post about the linguistic principles underlying common writing rules, someone suggests I should write a book about this stuff. One day I might well do that, but I thought I'd start with a series of essays here, and see whether it ends up book-length after a few months.

So I have a question for all of my readers - many of whom, I know, also enjoy writing. What writing rules have you heard thrown around? I don't at this stage mind whether you agree with them or not (there are, after all, exceptions to everything). I'm interested in capturing a big list of rules and cliches, and I'll work on explaining those that I can, from a scientific linguist's perspective.

As a starter for ten, here are a few rules off the top of my head. I've heard all these repeated often, and usually without any particular explanation attached:

Always use "said" for speech
Don't use adverbs
Don't use passive voice
Show don't tell
Make your dialogue sound natural
Never use a long word if a short one will do
Scrap prologues & epilogues
Read your work out loud to hear its rhythm

Please feel free to leave your own ideas in the comments, and/or vote for those you'd most like me to write about. (The links are to posts I've already written.)

World Book Night 2012

2012-04-24T20:19:00.000+01:00

It's World Book Night!

Or rather, last night was World Book Night, but I've just today received my book: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I've never heard of this novel before, nor its author, but I think that's kind of the point. It'll inspire me to read something I otherwise might not have come across.

Twenty thousand volunteers have each been given 24 books to distribute, to friends, family, or strangers on the train. And in fact, the idea of giving out all these books is that they should be passed on to other readers when you've finished. There's even a tracking code in the front so you can register and watch its onward progress through worldbooknight.org (this is done through BookCrossing, if you've heard of that project). There are twenty-five different books being distributed, only five of which I've already read, so I wonder if I'll manage to "catch" any of the others as they're passed along.

As well as getting me to read something new, it'll also be very strange reading from paper. I've got so accustomed to my Kindle! (And paper books are much harder work, since I can't adjust the fonts without a magnifier.)

Of course, as soon as I've read The Book Thief, I'll post a review over at my book review site, so look out for that if you're interested.

Regency Dress #1 - Pattern Cutting

2012-04-22T10:00:00.000+01:00

Some friends are having a regency ball to celebrate their anniversary next month, so I've somewhat naively decided to make myself a regency-style gown for the occasion. I actually bought the pattern last year, but you know what I'm like with deadlines, so I've only just got around to doing anything about it (with three weekends to go). Another friend is also making hers for the same party, so at least I'm not entirely alone in the crazy quest that is amateur dressmaking.

And I really am an amateur. This isn't quite my first attempt at historical costume-making, but my previous effort was a Roman stola, which is perhaps the simplest dress pattern ever (just two straight seams and some buttons). Although I did hand-sew that one for added authenticity, which I probably won't bother to do this time.

I spent a good chunk of this afternoon tracing and cutting the pattern - I'd prefer not to cut the original, you never know when you might want to make it again in a different size. The guidelines that came with the pattern give me a different size for each of my bust, waist, and hip measurements so I've gone for something in the middle and will tweak it as necessary later.

Next, I really need to find some suitable fabric for both the toile (to enable said tweaking) and the actual dress.

Music Videos

2012-04-18T21:36:00.000+01:00

Following on from my last post about the Mechanical Music museum, a friend pointed me in the direction of an unconventional recording of Pachelbel's Canon. I'd seen this once or twice before, but it's wonderful enough to bear rewatching (several times), so I was very glad of the reminder:

I've also managed to find a couple of videos that nicely represent the things we saw in Northleach. First, here 's Vladimir Horowitz playing his Carmen Variations via pianola. We heard the same piece, on a similar instrument:

And a very early jukebox in action; we saw a machine very similar to this, but for us it played Amazing Grace rather than this odd plinky tune:

PS All this musicality somehow reminds me of the bounce juggling rendition of Steve Reich's Clapping Music which I blogged about last year. Worth a watch, if you missed it the first time around.

World of Mechanical Music in Northleach

2012-04-16T15:00:00.000+01:00

We had friends visiting this weekend, and one of them has wanted for years to visit the World of Mechanical Music, so it seemed like a good excuse for a day out. I wasn't quite so excited by the concept, but actually, it was incredibly interesting and a lovely place to visit. The artifacts on display ranged from the familiar (such as a collection of gramophones) to earlier and rarer experiments in the recording and playback of music, and the guided tour means you get to see (and hear) many different machines in action.

The oldest piece on display was this barrel organ, whose music is laid out using a series of tacks and staples. These catch the pins as the barrel rotates, and each pin is linked to a different length of pipe at the back of the organ. Several songs could be played from each cylinder, by lining the pins up for a different piece of music.

This method was soon superceded by carefully crafted, fine metal cylinders. These were fitted into beautiful wooden boxes to furnish the homes of the wealthy, often decorated with inlaid wood or painted patterns, although our guide explained that there wasn't always a link between quality of finish and quality of sound!

Some early precursors of the record player had metal or wooden discs, stamped out with holes to represent the tune.

Later developments include a number of self-playing pianos, where rolls of paper tape are used to play the keys of a real piano. Some of the paper rolls had been recorded by virtuoso pianists and composers - we were given the chance to listen to Grieg playing a piece of his own composition, and it was quite spooky to watch the keys moving of their own accord.

As well as being open as a museum, there's an active restoration business here, and most of the music boxes on display are also up for sale... if you have a few thousand pounds to spare. This also means the tour will be slightly different on every visit, as current stock changes; I certainly wouldn't mind going back again one day.

I've also posted some videos of similar instruments if you'd like to see them in action.

And finally, little light entertainment for a Monday afternoon: I've just taken a fun general knowledge quiz about Europe on the Dorling Kindersley website. I'm almost embarrassed to say I only got 15 out of 20 on my first attempt, but geography has never been my strong point and there are some tricky questions like the number of canals in Venice. (At least it highlights the right answer when you get something wrong, so you can learn something along the way.) If you fancy playing the Europe Quiz for yourself, then do come back and let me know how you did!

Juxtaposition

2012-04-14T16:00:00.000+01:00

No left turn. No right turn. Oh, and no entry.... this set of signs made me smile when I spotted them in Wotton-under-Edge.

The Best Way To Trim Asparagus

2012-04-12T20:00:00.000+01:00

Asparagus is one of my favourite vegetables, so I'm always happy at this time of year when asparagus season comes around. So in preparation for the season just beginning, I wanted to share a handy little tip for preparing asparagus.

Rather than taking a knife it to trim the ends off, all you need to do is bend each spear gently between your fingers until it snaps. There's a natural breaking point which will remove all the woody stem to leave you with only the tender vegetable.

As you can see from the photos and video below, this point can vary a lot between different stems, even from the same crop of asparagus, and it's hard to second-guess it by appearance. But by taking advantage of the natural breaking characteristics, you can make sure you don't get woody bits stuck between your teeth, without wasting any of the good stuff.

PS I did this deliberately slowly for the video, but in reality it's much faster.

Portraits of Polar Life

2012-04-10T19:00:00.000+01:00

I met Konstantin Savva in Nuuk, where we both enjoyed the processions, music, and dancing at Greenland's National Day celebrations. But while I went home after a couple of weeks, Konstantin has spent months exploring the polar regions. I'm very envious of his expedition, particularly getting to see the deep north in the depths of winter (something I plan to experience for myself one day). So I was thrilled to hear that the Sakhalin Regional Museum in Russia is holding an exhibition of Konstantin's photography, which runs until June.

Konstantin has kindly given me permission to share a few of his photos here as a taster. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. And if you can't make it to Russia in time (which, let's face it, most of us won't be able to), you can still visit the exhibition virtually via Facebook.

Yevgeniy Mikhailovich Galyatagin, walrus ivory carver and scrimshaw artist in Nutepelmen, Chukot.

Boris Vukvukay, famous deerherder of Chukotka, the hero of Aleksei Vakhrushev's film The Book of Tundra.

Karina, proud daughter of the deer herder.

Nomads getting ready to move on in Neshkan, Chukot.

Northern lights over Nuuk, Greenland.

All photos in this post are (c) Konstantin Savva, used with permission.

See all my posts about Greenland.

Deer in the garden

2012-04-08T14:00:00.000+01:00

Sorry for being so quiet lately - we've had a few days without broadband, as a result of switching supplier. Thankfully we're up and running again now. More on that another day, but for now, here are some pictures of a deer happily settled in our garden earlier this week. They've been around a lot lately, munching at the new spring growth in the garden. Beautiful - but we are going to have to sort out some decent fencing before I get going with my vegetable patch again.