Tuesday 2 January 2018

It's like Wuthering Heights here!




It is dark, and raining hard and the wind has started wuthering around the house ahead of Storm Eleanor, who will be arriving later tonight.  I was thinking of the Brontes today, as we drove to Gloucestershire and back to pick up some chairs we'd bought at auction.  For the life of me, I couldn't remember the titles of Anne Bronte's novels (I know, I know, I've remembered them NOW!)  I was a  few LOT short on Charles Dickens' output too.  For your peace of mind, this wasn't when I was driving, but when I had laid aside the book I had just finished - the first of 2018 - Felix Francis' "Pulse".  Nice light reading to start the year off - my brain was thinking about revisiting some classics in the coming year.  Instead, I have just started "Dunstan" by Conn Iggulden.  I bought it last year for Keith, but he said it wasn't his style of writing and quickly abandoned it.  I am enjoying it, however.

But I digress.  The weather was foul this morning - pouring with rain, and lowering cloud which didn't help matters driving on the motorway.  As it was the first day back at work after the Christmas and New Year break, there were VERY few (just a handful) of heavies heading out of Wales, and we had left after 9 a.m. to miss the early morning rush-hour.  I was glad Keith was driving as it wasn't nice.  I usually opt to drive home, which is the scenic route via the Forest of Dean, with an occasional obligatory stop at Waitrose in Abergavenny, so I can have a good browse of the goodies they sell which Tescopolis and Lidl don't.  Today I just bought vegetables, apples and some Cinnamon.  We use a lot of Cinnamon and Keith likes to have the better quality stuff (Barts).  He has some on his breakfast muesli and I use it a lot in baking.

We changed drivers at Abergavenny (Waitrose) and I was able to take in some of the scenery.  It was good to see the golden tassels of the first Hazel catkins, and I am sure the Snowdrops will soon be out, though they are slightly later in my garden than elsewhere (the earliest ones I've seen are at Newton House, Dinefwr Park). 

Even whilst driving, I had noticed the recent heavy snow brought lots of branches down across the Forest of Dean, and the wild boar had been feasting on something they loved as the verges were dug up as if by the wheels of a gigantic tractor!  The wild boar are very common there now.  There were long skeins of Old Man's Beard threaded through the roadside trees and bushes, their progress helped by the upsurge of wind from passing cars and lorries.  Winter wheat was coming through in a vivid green in sloping fields alongside the road as we dropped down into Monmouth, where the River Monnow was high and muddy-looking as we crossed the bridge over it.    Weeping Willows were a beautiful tawny tan colour, looking tousle-headed in the wind.  There is colour, and interest in the winter landscape, if you look for it.  I noticed the undulating flight of a Woodpecker as it flew from one stand of trees to another the far side of the road, and a Heron stood one-legged in a water-logged field margin.

Now to things more practical - that recipe I promised you.  It is SO GOOD . . .




The recipe from Emma Mitchell's wonder "Making Winter" book.  I hope the text is clear enough for you to read.  Can I suggest that the chopped preserved ginger ISN'T optional, as it makes it, to my mind.

12 comments:

  1. In my kitchen ginger preserved in syrup is mandatory, I managed to get a stock in before Christmas, and have emptied 2 jars already. We have the rain and wind,the road is like a river and I am so pleased to be on the high side.

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    1. Here too. We have a big stoneware jar full of dried ginger pieces, jars of powder and more jars of the ginger squares which I coat in plain chocolate for Keith, as well as several jars of ginger in syrup.

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  2. I love reading your descriptions of your landscape. I'm reading Longbourn by Jo Baker and enjoying it as a light read. I was reminded of the 1995 TV P&P series today as Benjamin Whitrow who played Mr Bennett was playing John Betjeman in two Radio 4 plays about his life which I caught up with on iplayer this afternoon while hand sewing more pinwheels. Only 14 out of 72 to go now! 'Sadly Ben Whitrow died last September and didn't quite finish recording the play so another actor was drafted in. I thought I would make the cake but with fresh seasonal English pears. My baby Victoria Plums were frosted on the tree last year so no plums in the freezer. I always put my scraped out vanilla pods in my jar of caster sugar. I'm half-watching the football from Swansea and it is torrential rain and horribly windy. Feeling like a cup of tea and piece of Dundee cake now!

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    1. Hi Sarah. I used to write very much better - I get all sorts of wonderful descriptions in my head when I am driving along, but short of dictating them to record them, they have flown by the time I get to sit down at the computer. I will keep an eye open for any Jo Baker books as she writes about the things which interest me. I loved your cosy description of sewing pinwheels and listening to a good radio 4 play - I think I caught a few minutes of that. Enjoy the cake with pears (will be just as good).

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  3. I really enjoy your blog. My husband and I went to Wales several years ago and it was one of my very favorite vacations ever. It is very beautiful and peaceful. All the best for 2018. Kathy Chicago, IL USA

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    1. Hi Kathy, lovely to meet you. I am glad you have been to Wales, as there may be bits of it I visit that are familiar to you, though we don't often go to North Wales, I have to say. It is usually very peaceful here but right now the farmer next door has employed a chap with a Very Large Roller to come and pound and flatten his farm tracks and it's making the old windows rattle!

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  4. One of my Christmas present was a copy of Wuthering Heights which I have just begun reading. I haven't read this book since British Lit Class in college a long while ago. I have trouble finding much color in the winter landscape but you have inspired me to look harder. Nice post!

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    1. Hi Chip. I am sure you will enjoy Wuthering Heights although it is a pretty Gothic novel and I always wondered how a genteel parson's daughter discovered passions which would seem beyond her experience! That said, they read the Blackwood's magazine and created juvenilia writing about countries with passionate characters (and also had some pretty stimulating prints on the walls though the artist escapes me. I can just remember seeing one in an art gallery once - GIGANTIC painting of the end of the world. Very stimulating indeed!!)

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  5. The recipe looks delicious - have just written it all out. When I next go shopping will get some plums - have oranges and preserved ginger left from Christmas Baking. Must admit I have been tempted to buy that book :)

    I do like the Bronte books but must admit I have never really enjoyed Charles Dickens - my son is horrified as he loves all his books! I have nearly finished the Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths and then am about to explore some new authors although I think first I will re-read the Jamie books by Diana Gabaldon. Hope your daughter finds a house she likes.

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    1. Enjoy the recipe. I shall make it soon, that's for sure. I have to say, the most-read Charles Dickens (Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and David Copperfield are my favourites, and others I started never got finished, but this was a LONG time ago - in my 20s I think. Must try again (when I have time).

      Re-reading ALL of Diana Gabaldon's novels will soak up 2018 nicely I think!

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  6. I read this post through twice--absorbing the descriptions of the landscape through which you drove/rode. Winter can present beautifully on a day of sunshine and then seem dull and rather depressing when rain drizzles down and the wind lashes. 'Wuthering', by the way, is one of my favorite words--one that often came to mind during our years in Wyoming where the wind is relentless.
    I think the featured cookbook is one I could happily read even if I never tried a recipe.

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  7. As I was saying, so many words "leave home" before I get to commit them to paper, but if I am not driving, I sometimes jot things down in the little notebook I have in my bag. We tend to drive the same bits - Keith drives to Wotton on the m/way and then I drive x-country to Abergavenny, where we swop, so he gets to do the bendy bits between Trecastle and Llandovery.

    The book mentioned isn't solely a cookbook, but has a few recipes in, some crochet projects, dried wild flower pictures, that sort of thing. Tam loved it.

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