Apple Time

Lots of apples on the trees this year, unfortunately they were mostly rather small and a fair few were quite manky . . .



The harvest looked fairly impressive mind you:


Chopped up the mealier specimens, and stuck them in a demijohn with a couple of bottles of brandy and vodka, and some cinnamon sticks.


Will add sugar syrup in due course - hoping that a couple of the months down the line we'll have a nice Christmassy Apple Liqueur!

Out East

A few days 'out east' visiting family - weather could have been better, but got out and about, including a trip to Ely (antiques, tea and cream scones, the market and cathedral).

Next day we headed off to Houghton Mill, a local National Trust property - particularly interesting to me because it used to operate as a youth hostel - brought back a few memories anyway:















Good to catch up with family and have a few days away . . .

Dolphins in the Bay

Walking the prom this evening, and there were dolphins in the bay - although the surfer must have got the better view:

Bean Harvest

The green beans seemed to take forever to get going this year, but the first harvest today was fairly substantial.


Saved some for tea, and chopped, blanched and froze the rest - although it looks like there'll be another harvest to follow in due course.

Conferencing Cardiff

This year's ARA conference actually came to Wales' capital city - although didn't get out of the hotel much - saw more of the Cardiff Hilton than Cardiff itself!



Did cross the road for the Welcome Reception which we hosted in one of the National Museum Cardiff galleries (not so much free drink, but some very fancy canapes, and beautiful surroundings).

Conference itself was very good - some really excellent speakers this year.  Good to catch up with old friends, and the gala night ceilidh was great fun.


It was a long journey home though - as we were away for three nights, we'd travelled by train (5 hours + as opposed to the 3 hour car journey) - and after three days of conference was more than glad to get back to Aber.

Marrow Mountain

The courgettes got a little out of hand again this year - we were well into marrow territory by the time this little lot got picked:

Over the course of three days made: marrow curd (better than it sounds, bit like lemon curd but with a slightly more 'grainy' texture); marrow and potato soup; ratatouille; marrow and pesto soup; and marrow pickle - still had some left mind you!

On My Bike . . .

Finally took the plunge and ordered myself an electric bike the other day - had been thinking about it for a while - the idea being that it would give me sufficient extra oomph to halfway keep up with Martin on the hills.

My new 'Batribike Diamond' turned up in a box (some assembly required - luckily Martin knows his bikes).  Took it on a test ride and it certainly helped me keep going up the hills (still have to keep pedalling).



Couple of minor issues - the rim tape on the inside of the wheels wasn't up to the job, and the first few times I went out kept getting spoke punctures on the back wheel (which is a real pain on an electric bike - not easy to remove the wheel to change the inner tube).


A reel of electricians tape later and the problem appears to have been solved - which means I'll have to get on my bike from now on . . .