One less chicken

One of the chickens has died. We did not eat it as we don't know what she died of. Some feathers round her neck were missing, possibly she got stuck in the fence or maybe her 'friends' pecked her.

She was alive when Doug found her but all floppy and not at all well. We put her in a box in the spare room with some food and water but she died the next morning. 

She was very thin and we don't know why. We couldn't find any mite or lice on her and Doug wormed them all only a few weeks ago. I feel bad that we didn't notice before. It is hard to see how fat they are without catching them and catching them is difficult - really only possible in the dead of night when they are sleeping. A few of the others seem quite thin, but there is often a little food left at the end of the day, so it doesn't seem we are under feeding them. We have been feeding them a bit of cat food (recommended way of giving then extra protein) and we will do a thorough inspection of the coops for any mite or lice. Worrying.

Slow cooked lamb ribs with Moroccan spice

Serves 2

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp ras el hanout (or other moroccan spice mix - I used the sweet tagine mix we bought in Morocco)
Some salt
500g or thereabouts of lambs ribs

Put the ribs in to an oven proof dish with a lid. I use a large tagine and cook on the stove top. They should fit in without too much space around them.
Mix together the other ingredients and cover the ribs with the mixture
Add 3 table spoons of water and stir so the spice mix is wet
Cook in the oven at 160° or at low heat on the hob or on top of a wood burning stove for about 3 hours.
Check occasionally and add more water if the sauce is drying out or starting to burn. Turn the ribs a few times during cooking. If the sauce is too wet when when you think the ribs are cooked (the meat should be ready to fall off the bones) then remove the lid for a while to reduce.
Service with rice.

Raspberry canes and black currant bush

We have been intending to get some raspberries and a black currant bush but have not got round to it because of the time needed to clear some land for them. We decided to get a few and put them in beds in the potager just to get us started as there is a bit of a lead time before you get fruit. We hope we can dig them up and re-position later when we get the final plot prepared. We also hope to take cuttings off these ones to help fill that bigger plot.
The raspberries are Willamette and Heritage (two of each) and the black currant is Blackdown.
Autumn is a good time to plan them apparently which is why we got on with it now.

Steam Juicer

After Doug's apple juicing experiments we decided to buy another toy, a steam juicer - partially for apples but more for soft berries like black currents.
I used it to make sloe and apple jelly (there weren't many sloes left on the trees unfortunately as it is late in the year for them) and apple and rose hip jelly - the wild roses were in the same place as the sloe trees.
The fruit go in the top, boiling water in the bottom, steam comes up through a hole in the middle and the juice drips from the top in to the middle section. Seems quite effective.

We need a REALLY big kitchen for all these toys...

Bounty of autumn

With winter just round the corner we have been harvesting apples and most of the remaining veg from the potager - some things have gone well and some less so.

We got one okra, the biggest aubergine was the size of my thumb, there weren't very many sweetcorn and I don't think one jar of beans is going to see us through the whole year. One the bright side we got a lot of potatoes, more carrots and beetroot than we expected - and we had a lot of courgettes and cucumbers earlier in the year - and everything was very tasty even if there weren't enough of a lot of things.

Dehydrator

We have been thinking about getting a dehydrator for some time and got round to it now while we are feeling flush. We have been having fun dehydrating stuff, mainly apples - we intend to store the dried pieces but keep eating them all.

But also tomatoes, chilies, mushrooms and peppers.

We also made 'fruit leather' which is nicer than you would think from the name.

Harris is walking

Harris has been getting better each day and for the last couple of days we have been taking him for a short walk outside. His front left leg starts to wobble and buckle after a while but he can stand and walk for several minutes at a time now. We are thinking of setting up a small enclosure outside to put him in during the day for increasing periods of time to try to get him used to the outdoors again.

Goodbye London, hello France!

I have been back for a few days but have been too hectic to write.

Thanks to Aidan, Helena 'n Kirsty and Rob 'n Sarah for putting me up and to everyone else for the chats, beers, tea, meals etc great to see you all... I miss you!

I enjoyed working - kind of. It was strange going to Moorgate again for a while but it was good to exercise my brain some, and make sure I haven't forgotten everything I once knew.

Before leaving London I took in the Colombian Gold exhibition at the British Museum. Enjoyed it, lots of gold! And some non gold stuff too.

I mentioned before that we had lunch with Ruth, Huw and Christopher before hand. I was very impressed with this ham holder in the restaurant

We went to the friends room afterwards for cream tea. Yummy.

And then popped in here to get some whisky to ship back with a few other things I had bought

I went with Aidan to Hush - an acoustic music evening at a pub called the Perseverance. Enjoyed it a lot, and the beer too - although next morning I felt I may have had a spot too much.

I went to the Natural History Museum

and the Victoria and Albert

I remember going to the museums in South Kensington with my parents - not often I guess as it is a long way from St.Andrews. This tunnel seemed hundreds of miles long to me back then and although I have been here many times since, it still makes me think of my mum and dad.

Rob and Sarah cooked me some very yummy meals - no photos - keen to try cooking pork in milk sometime myself.

I went to see Iain and Hilary's very pretty if somewhat sleepless baby. I haven't put a picture here as wasn't sure if they would mind or not.

I also topped up on curry and crispy duck as well as some Wagamama noodles before coming back to the land of delicious but curry free food...

I keep meaning to try and make these

I cook Japanese noodle soup, but it is never the same as this

I did a teeny tiny bit of shopping before I came back and shipped it home.

When I got back we went on a 2 day drinking spree in celebration. No photos of that either. Since then we have been busy with the autumn harvest, I will do some separate posts - although I didn't do well on taking photos

Poppy seemed pleased to see me... and Doug too. He says that she was much better behaved when I am not here because I let her get away with naughty things!

The view is a tad different

Harris took a step

Harris managed to stand up for a second yesterday and took a step today before collapsing. Doug says his improvement seems to be speeding up a bit. We feel cautiously optimistic about recovery. Now we can start wondering whether prolonged zapping affects fertility...

Family

Aidan (my bro) and I went to the Colombian Gold exhibition at the British Museum - I will post some photos when I get a chance to download them from the camera.

Before that, we met for lunch with Ruth, Huw and Christopher (doug's sis and family). We were going to go to the court restaurant, but it is closed for refurbishment so we went to the temporary replacement '63'. Nice food and lovely catch up. Aidan is not in the photo as he took it...

Surprisingly tasty!

I went in to the beer shop near Rob and Sarah's this evening (amazing selection) to chose something to go with my curry (important to eat as much as I can while I am here! Not good for the waistline, but worry about that later).

I picked up a bottle of something I thought was porter, then read the label and quickly put it down again. The guy standing next to me piped up and said that he had done the same when he first saw it, but then decided to try it and really liked it. So I decided to go for it despite closer inspection showing it should be disgusting!

Surprisingly it is very nice! Sarah liked it too - generally she doesn't like beer.

It is sweet for a beer - although not more than some porters are - and has a delicate apple-y sharpness as well as some hopiness.

Harris still struggling on

There hasn't really been much change in Harris's condition, sometimes he has seemed a bit worse and not wanted to eat and sometime slightly better, moving around a bit more and eating. Fundamentally there hasn't been much change though and he still isn't able to use his legs so still no clear view of whether he is going to recover or not. Doug continues to feed him cow nuts (granules formulated for cows, but good for sheep too) and hay and some sugar water to keep his strength up. He is also continuing to encourage him to move with physical aid and food so that if the nerves can recover he might have some muscle left - maybe it even helps the nerves we have no idea.

Harris update

Doug got him in the the barn yesterday with the help of a friend. He is still trying to stand up and moves himself around in his attempts which makes it hard to keep the food near him. However he doesn't really seem to be improving. I was hoping that a good nights sleep would help him recover, but it seems not. We have searched the internet but cannot find accounts of what happens to animals trapped in an electric fence for a long time - so we don't know what damage there might be and whether it is likely to be permanent. V sad. Poor Harris.

Flight home booked

Although I am very much enjoying seeing lots of my bro and friends and even enjoying stretching my brain at work, I am really really missing Doug, Poppy and home. I am finishing work soon and have booked a flight home on the 23rd October. A friend and neighbor is dropping family off at the airport that day and can pick me up - super convenient.
I have to confess to Doug that despite instructions to spend NO MONEY while here I have bought one or two tiny (huge) things. On the whole I have been very good I think - I haven't got any new clothes, shoes or handbags. I have got a bike carrier for the back of the car (it is meant to fit on the tow bar - we shall see), a wool duvet (yes I know we have a duvet, I couldn't help myself, I thought it might help you sleep better, the people PROMISE it will), some new bike lights for us both (they are super bright and USB rechargeable - how cool is that?), a head torch and some reflective arm bands (for safety horse riding in the dark).
Obviously it cannot all come back hand luggage so will have to be shipped before I leave. I hope to add some food items and a load of chillies to the list in the next 12 days before my departure.
It is strange actually, thinking about it I still have nearly a 1/3rd of my time away from home to go, but it feels like I have been away AGES and I am going home SOON.

Home

Looking up the one of the fields

View from the house

More of London

The joys of commuting (Waterloo)

By London Bridge we used to live just round
the corner from here just before we left London
Cool area

Cool lights outside the office in Finsbury Square

The Tower of London and Tower Hill tube - Doug worked
near here for quite a while

More joys of commuting 

Leicester Square - used to come here a lot when I was young

Mmmmm yummy! Crispy fried duck

This used to be the Dive Bar, where I/we went
too often as students. All changed now

China town

Visiting friends

At the weekend I went to visit Simone and David. Although they have been in their house over a year I hadn't been there before (what with having been in France and all). It was lovely to see them, the kids and also Richard and Carolina (whose wedding you might remember we went to a few years ago in Argentina). As Doug hasn't visited the house either, here are some photos. They have done lots of work downstairs but still have plenty to do upstairs. Simone assures me the house is too small, but I thought it was lovely and big. I suppose 3 kids take up a reasonably amount of space.

Cool made to measure wall paper in the play room.
It is even more snazzy in real life

I thought maybe a groovy mirror like this in one of our
bathrooms if we ever get that far... or maybe in the bedroom

House with C and N

Learning to scooter on the soft grass - hard to move though 

Simone the expert

Lights like this down our stairs - round the bend rather than a
straight line would look good (again if we ever get that far)

Girly room

Cute huh?

The kitchen extension

This doesn't really help you see the colour of the light,
but it is an LED bulb like maybe we should get.
As a spot not recessed though

Octopus? Or Spider? There is a cool hat with eyes too

Outside in the sun

Living room

Cool John Deere electric car

 They are thinking about getting a black Labrador - to tire out the kids (!) and because you can't live in a big house with a big garden without one. We spent quite a bit of time talking about the responsibility of having a dog, whether there is a danger of not bonding with it and whether you can cope with the effort of caring for it if you don't. We went to see a little of puppies recommended by a friend. They were SOOOO cute, I wanted to take one home with me - although generally I prefer skinnier dogs to Labs. I must say though that having looked around more it seems that the black ones don't get as porky as the yellow and brown ones.

Awwwww cute!