Protection (I hope) - Elderberry Rob (Syrup)

With the flu season upon us - and a particularly nasty version of the flu this year -  I thought I would make a batch of Elderberry Rob to help kill the germs.  Make up with hot water 1 part syrup to 3 parts hot water.

ELDERBERRY ROB

4 lbs (1.8 kg) Elderberries, weighed on stems (mine weren't as I had already strigged and frozen them)
2 x 5 cm (2 inch) pieces cinnamon stick
1 piece root ginger, bruised
2 chips nutmeg (I used about a teaspoon of powdered)
5 ml (1tspn) cloves
5 ml (1tspn) allspice berries
275 ml ( 1 1/2 pints) water
350g (12 oz) honey to each 375 ml (1 pint) liquid
150 ml (1/4 pint) brandy

I only had half this amount of Elderberries, so halved the ingredients, though I've just realized I used the full amount of water, and the full amount of brandy.

Take the elderberries from the stalks and put them into a saucepan with the spices and water.  Bring them gently to the boil and simmer them until the pan is full of juice, about 20 mins.  Put a piece of muslin or an old linen tea towel over a large bowl (I used my old jelly making net).  Pour the elderberries through it, and gather the sides together and squeeze out as much juice as you can.  Measure it and return to the cleaned saucepan.

Bring the juice to the boil and add the honey.  Stir to dissolve it and then boil the syrup for 10 mins.  Take the pan from the heat and wait until the syrup stops bubbling.  Pour in the brandy.  Pour the hot cordial into hot sterilised bottles and cork it tightly.  Fills about 1 1/2 wine bottles.

Recipe from "The Countryside Cook Book" by Gail Duff.

I had bought some plums last week so made a pan of the Plum, Orange and Ginger Blondies . . .

As a change from a breadmaker loaf, I put the ingredients for a 70% Wholemeal loaf on a dough setting in the Panasonic, and then sknocked back and shaped this loaf and let it rise again before bunging it in the oven.  Nice and crusty and really tasty.

Finally, the cold weather has bought both the "passing strays" back into our orbit.  This is the Big Black Tom.  He does a good line in glares when he still has biscuits in the bowl, to tell me he wants MORE tinned food please, and jump to it!

There is meant to be a return of the colder weather again on Monday/Tuesday, so keep warm everyone.

Meanwhile, I thought I had got well stocked up, only to find that THREE things need AAA batteries (I have none of those, only AAs).  Let's hope the car is fixed on Monday.

Yesterday's walk

Yesterday we had sunshine, and it was far too good to waste, so I set off on a walk up the valley a little way, not intending to go far.  Here our some local lambs - that big one is a real bruiser!

The red farmhouse on the hill.  I think these folk have knitters knit some very upmarket jumpers which go on sale in airport shops.  They had a visit from HRH once (I think it was Princess Ann) - arriving by helicopter of course.

Above and below: looking up the valley.  The mist/low cloud was thinking about coming down again, as you can see.

Then I thought I would walk just a little way up the hill, slowly, to get a better photo at the first gateway. . .

The view back down the valley . . .  The light was just lovely on the fields.

Above: this is how Wales would have looked in days gone by - trees everywhere.

The Italianate tower which is all that remains of the very grand Pant Glas house which was built around the turn of the 17th into 18th C.  It is a holiday village now.

Above: I was glad I hadn't cut across THAT field!  Slurry tanker at work . . .

The lane towards home.

Back tomorrow with some recipes.

More Dinefwr Castle Photos

The rest of the castle photos.  I was late up (again!) this morning, so am chasing my tail.  Enjoy the photos.

Above and below: Views from the ramparts.

View up the Towy Valley again. You can just make out Paxton's Tower on the left of the centre of the photo (and just make out the hill with Dryslwyn Castle atop it.

A fallen giant in the park.

Newton House.  I used to volunteer here, as a room steward, volunteering information about the house and families who had lived there and I really enjoyed it.  Sadly I had several years of recurrent chest infections and one of the ladies in the house was very unpleasant, telling me that I was spreading germs etc (which you don't, with a chest infection), so in the end I left.

This is the old church, now abandoned, which was used by the occupants of Newton House - it was just a short carriage-ride away.  You can just see the little strong-running stream which flows past the church and over the wall.

Christmas Lambs!  Definitely the first of the old year!

Stranded!

Living where we do we need a car.  We are three miles from the nearest bus stop.  Our lovely Doblo has now reached the age where things start to go wrong.  After a few recent replacement bits, we now have problems with what we think is the earth cable to the starter motor which means it won't start.  It is currently with a busy garage in town, waiting to be worked on, but that is unlikely to happen before next Monday . . . 

When it was still working, we had a walk across the fields and through Castell Woods to Dinefwr Castle.  The view above is looking along the Towy Valley towards Carmarthen.  The lump in the middle is the site of Dryslwyn Castle which we climbed the week before.

When the railway ran past this (before Beeching did for it), this was called the Whistle Pool as it was where the trains always sounded their whistles on approaching  Ffairfach (Llandeilo) station.

Another watery view along the Towy valley.

A view across the castle.

The bit on the top of the tower which was added as a sort of summer house in late Victorian times (if my memory serves me correctly).  Some lovely views from up there.

Back tomorrow with a few more photos.

A Friday sort of post

It's a Friday.  When I check my stats for this blog, Friday is always the worst day for people checking my blog out.  I guess  people are busy saying T.G.I.F. and having weekend plans.  So this post will be a little lightweight, and I will do a better one tomorrow, promise.

This afternoon, once it had finally stopped raining, I set off to walk to the top of our hill to look across at Black Mountain.  It was a little hazy, but I could see there was still snow there.  I was feeling OK after the first hill, so set off on the next, much steeper, section which has two V's printed on it on my map, to show it is seriously steep.  I managed that too (though I didn't push myself and stopped to look at the view a couple of times).  I carried on walking for half an hour, to the Colomendy turning just past the farmhouse that was Isaac and Rosina's, but now they are pushing up daisies, now belongs to his son, and the land is still farmed in the same way, mostly sheep.  They have donkeys too, which throw a few foals each summer, and guinea fowl, geese, ducks and a few chickens.  Oh, and two barky-Collies whose only entertainment seems to be in alerting their owners to passing walkers . . .

I have spent lots of hours hand-quilting my Twister table topper this week and am getting towards just having the little squared border to do.  The quilting is acceptable - I can see a few wonky stitches, but I'm OK with that.  It's not going to be entered in a competition.

I started the New Year as I mean to go on and when we were in Swansea earlier this week (darling middle daughter G was treating us to a wonderful meal to celebrate our (large number) wedding anniversary) I persuaded my dear husband to drive us across to the Mumbles where there is a lovely little patchwork shop.  I left him naughtily parked, engine running (no pressure then!) and shot along the promenade, noting how far the tide was going out, and noticing a few brave souls who out in the mud digging up bait with what seemed like feverish haste. 

Once I got to the shop, I didn't even LOOK at the bolts of fabric but went for the Charm Packs as I could make up my mind quicker and they didn't need cutting.  These two came home with me.  I said to the proprietor, "New Year, new quilt."  "Ah," she replied,  with a twinkle in her eye, "You'll have finished all your other ones then," and of course, got the answer, "Don't be silly!!!"  Apparently I was not the only new year/new quilt customer also with w.i.p's waiting . . .  I have a feeling I will be revisiting the Moda William Morris fabrics pretty soon . . .

Above and below: the WONDERFUL selection of fabrics which were sent to me (several years ago now . . .) by my good friend Sharon at Morning's Minion blog for me to make a quilt with.  I laid them to one side, intending to make the quilt once we had moved.  Well, that's not going to happen any time soon, and so finally I have given myself a shake and made a start cutting out. That alone will take a good few hours.  I shall show you the pattern once I've sewn a couple of blocks, but it is very simple and so hopefully will make up quickly. 

 So, watch this space . . .

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.

Househunting out in the wilds of Carmarthenshire

Over-catering, as always, for when friends came round.  I bought Tam a copy of "Making Winter" by Emma Mitchell for Christmas.  It is a lovely book and I may treat myself at some point in the year to come.  The Plum, Orange and Ginger cake came from there and Oh My Goodness, it is GORGEOUS.  I will put the recipe up tomorrow, as it's too good not to share.  I made Ham & Cheese Pinwheels too.  Years since I last made those, but it was good to revisit them - they are so tasty.  Just puff pastry, spread thinly with mustard and then chopped ham, and a good covering of cheese.  Roll up and slice into pieces, brush with beaten egg and bake in a hot oven until golden brown.  However, I am going to have a break from baking for a while now.  We have a Fair at the end of the month, but it's not the one where I bake and share with everyone so I shall just do some muffins of some description.

It was a grey and gloomy and wet day last Friday.  Tam wanted to check out a couple of properties as she and her partner intend to move back to Wales, and it looks like Carmarthenshire is top of the list - which means we probably won't go as far as Herefordshire now when we downsize and will either stay in the county or just over the border in Breconshire or Monmouthshire.  We love Crickhowell in the Usk Valley.  Such a beautiful area.

Anyway, this was property number one - a derelict chapel, with 2 acres of land but no planning permission.  When we saw it, we could see why it didn't have planning - we suspected the owner was a farmer and he hadn't applied for planning as the risk of it being turned down was probably quite high and it would have been a waste of his money.  The views were lovely, but views mean you are high up and Tam thought this was too exposed.  Also, a big chunk of masonry had fallen from the wall since the Agent's photos had been taken, and what you hadn't seen from the photos was that the altar end of the chapel had half the wall removed so that sheep or cattle could go in for shelter and to be fed.  Hmmm . . . at £120,000 it was overpriced by a long way.  Plus it was really in the middle of nowhere.

As you can see, ripe for conversion!!!  Though quite into what, I can't say . . .

Here are a few photos of the beautiful countryside on the way from property A to property B.  Probably about 7 - 9 miles from the nearest town (Llandeilo) where the nearest shops are.  The nearest Junior school probably at Talley, although the secondary school would again be Llandeilo. A lot of driving around.

Above: I played around with one of the gizmo's on my camera (don't know what I pressed to get the short cut to it though!) and was able to highlight the greens in this picture.

We made it to the second property in the higher Cothi Valley.  It was one of a small development of farm outbuildings - barn conversions.  Unfortunately, to see it close up, it would have been a bit like driving into a close and then out again, which we didn't care to do, as the other properties were all occupied.  It was clear that the river was very close to the whole development, and perhaps the risk of flooding (even if it had never happened) was the reason why this particular property hadn't sold at auction, even with a very tempting come-on price (not much higher than the ruinous chapel).  It was in a beautiful setting though, and there was a little family of Bullfinches along the trackway (you can just see two males in this picture). 

Now Tam has gone back home, and we have a day off today to play catch up.  Home Economy of course, now that the tree is out and the decorations down, and beds used over Christmas need stripping and laundering.  But first . . . I want to try and finish my Twister table topper this morning, so watch this space.