Dehydrated . . .

Got my new 'toy' the other day - a food dehydrator - just in time to deal with the small mountain of cherry tomatoes harvested from the clearing of the small greenhouse.

And - Ta-Da! - 6 hours or so later, sun dried tomatoes!

Well, machine-dried anyway . . .




Got a bit experimental with the one tray that didn't get taken up with tomatoes, and tried a selection of pepper, chilli, mushroom and apple . . .



All seemed to work quite nicely - nice intense flavours - and the right kind of texture - so all in all rather pleased with the results.

Norfolk Coast and Castle

Followed the sun to Norfolk for the last few days of our holiday:

'Stalked' deer in the parkland round Holkham Hall.

Explored Castle Rising with its stairs and gargoyles.

Walked the beach from Wells to Holkham.

Followed the Norfolk Coastal Path to Cley windmill.

Marvelled at the price of beach huts - £57,000 - honestly!

Dinefwr Day

A slight improvement in the weather took us off to Dinefwr Park and Castle for the day. Had a wander round the House, and a nice walk up to the Castle.



Along the way encountered one of the local deer population, which bounded across our path, but didn't hang around to have its photo taken . . .






. . . the rather fine looking sheep were much more relaxed models!

Wild Wales!

As the remains of Hurricane Katia batter the UK we've been enjoying some spectacular seas off the Aberystwyth coast.

At any rate it made for an interesting and invigorating evening walk!

Blackberry Whisky

Continuing the rather alcoholic theme of the last few posts, we've also now got a demijohn of blackberry whisky maturing in the pantry.  Spent the (rather windy but at least sunny) afternoon blackberrying down the Rheidol Valley, and the fruits of our labours are now infusing into 2.5 litres of cheapish whisky.



The sugar has now more or less dissolved, and the blackberries also appear to be breaking up nicely - will definitely have to strain this one though - blackberries are inherently more 'bitty' than damsons.  Anticipating making some nice boozy blackberry jelly in due course!

Home Brew

In addition to the Damson Brandy, we've also just started our first lot of home brew.



I'd bought Martin a 'kit' for Woodford's Very Strong Headcracker Pale Norfolk Ale a bit back - and we finally got around to cleaning out a barrel and getting the fermentation process underway.






The barrel has now been relocated to the utility room (with its very own fleece coat for those colder nights).  It should be ready by the end of the month - although at 7% ABV Martin will probably need a bit of help to drink it!

Damson Brandy!

Having been given some 5lb of damsons the other week, decided to try making up some damson brandy - got a demijohn to mix it all in, added the damsons, and sugar, and a litre bottle of 'cheapish' brandy.  Except that a litre didn't exactly go so far:





Ended up adding another couple of litre bottles (hopefully we'll like the result!) - the sugar has now all dissolved, and now it's a case of waiting for 3 months while the damsons infuse, before bottling (just in time for Christmas!):

Zero Food Miles

Finally harvested our own apples the other day - a few more than last year - some of the 'eaters' are still a little tart - and conversely the 'cookers' seem quite sweet - wondering if we got them mixed up somewhere along the line!

At least it all comes with zero food miles - unless you count the 3 minute walk from the bottom of the garden ;-)

Basking in the Sun

Basking in the sun is not proving to be much of an early September phenomenon - but Sunday did produce some nice warm sunny spells, so headed off to repeat the walk out to Llanerchaeron from Aberaeron.





As usual (somewhere along the way) I gazed rather enviously at a really cute cottage near Llanerchaeron.  Had a nice wander round the gardens, and round by the lake did actually catch a dragonfly (at least that's what I think it is) basking in the sun on a bench (before the weather clouded over again!):

August - A Dog's Breakfast of a Month!

A bit of a dog's breakfast - that's how someone described August to me recently - and must say I have to agree.  August (the so-called height of summer) was predominantly cloudy (although not as bad as 2008) with sunny spells and showers - in fact pretty much like August last year.

This is the month where my childhood memories are of hot summer holidays - I guess we only remember the good bits!

Edinburgh Nights

Been away at the Archives and Records Association conference in Edinburgh for a few days - good conference, although there wasn't much of an opportunity to see Edinburgh.  Did get to visit General Register House as part of the Welcome Reception - great ceiling . . .







. . . and had a nice walk through the night-lit streets back to the conference hotel later.






Nice to be home again now - by the last night (with lots of dancing and wine) after two full days of talks, I was beginning to feel like my candle was well and truly burnt at both ends!




Must try for a return trip sometime soon, but one that doesn't involve work . . .