Adventure 17: Long term projects finally reach fruition!

Wow! What a crazy few weeks! So busy! First, a weekend away to my house in the West of Ireland. Waking up at 4.30 am on a cold, wet Friday morning to get to the airport, is not my idea of fun. The plane to Manchester was utterly tinsy tiny. I've never seen a plane that small in my life! Only forty odd passengers and little propellers... well, that's parochial air travel for you I guess! The second flight over to Ireland was pretty hairy! Some poor guy had a heart attack mid air - full credit to the wonderful hostesses from flybe for their professionalism and cool heads as well as the small army of nuns who got to work with their rosary beads (only on a flight to Ireland would you find a superfluity of nuns on hand - as Father Ted says they have the direct line to upstairs, I swear...).

Father Ted: 'Old women are closer to God than we'll ever be. They get to that age and they don't need the operator anymore. They've got the direct line.'

 I met my parents, my sister and grandfather in the airport. We were over for the year's mind of my grandmother, Katie, who passed away last year and to unveil her gravestone which we chose over the summer. The mass was lovely and it was so good to catch up with all our family and friends. My cousin who is three was so funny. I was chatting away to her and she said very loudly in front of everyone, 'why do you talk like that!?!' I'm not sure how many English people she's met! I drank a load of Smithwicks (the nearest thing I can find to ale in Ireland) and had several tasty meals at the Dalton Hotel in Claremorris (http://www.daltoninn.com/). Their salmon is seriously good and I cannot recommend the warm, welcoming staff enough at this wonderful restaurant/hotel.

Irish Grandad

Cackie, Deirdre and Grandad

 Family are important

 Cousins

 Terrible blurry shot of Claire and I

View from my (slightly mucky) bedroom window at 6am. Beautiful!

Christmas lights in Claremorris. Grandad and I had a big argument over the English translations of the signs, but I'm sorry by Daidi na Nollag IS Father Christmas. END OF.

Grandma's grave at Taugheen

Oiche Chiun (Silent Night) 

Croagh Patrick, our holy mountain which St Patrick went up

Sheep!

Cows!

More cows!

I love cows!

On the Saturday, my sister and I were able to go for a long walk down some of the boreens. I was curious to see what foraging opportunities there are round rural Mayo. The most notable were the abundance of hawthorn trees laden with berries, the ash keys (I know what I'll be making next summer) and thistles. The weekend was over FAR too quickly and I hope to be back soon!

Taugheen

 Road by the McNamaras

 Gotta love sheep

 My sister, Emer

 The Triangle

The bog

This last week I have been extremely tired and have been trying to catch up with work. However, I realized that a number of foraging projects have reached fruition! Hooray! After weeks of watching the Totnes medlars rotting away in a tray in the kitchen, Levi begged me to take action! And so, on Monday, armed with a medlar cheese recipe (http://les-trois-chenes.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-make-medlar-jam) I set to work. First you have to 'pop' the swollen medlars and remove the seeds. You then have to scrape out the flesh (which is brown but doesn't smell of anything much, if anything, a little winey). Its called medlar cheese rather than jam because it uses puree as its base. Then, it is mixed with cinammon and sugar and cooked into a kind of chutney. It then suddenly began to look fairly palatable and even Levs was interested in trying some and it is surprisingly tasty. Its meant to go with cheese and I enjoyed a very tasty cheese and medlar toastie. Yum yum. I had also kept a few medlars aside to try another recipe. Traditionally, you can eat them mashed with sugar and cream, and though I was not entirely keen on the texture (it was a bit like rhubarb) it was again very palatable. It seems I'm not the only person with a thing for rotting fruit at the moment. Remember, Elaine? The BFF who came to stay from Bath? (http://westernweeds.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/rosehips-rowan-berries-and-auntie-nell.html) Her mum brought a bag over from Northern Ireland and Elaine has been working on her own medlar projects. She's gone for medlar jelly and roasting them with butter and cloves! They look utterly delicious! And I know I'll be back in Totnes next year for sure so I can make me some clovey medlar goodness!

Elaine's medlars with cloves - om nom nom

Other foraging news, my cherry liqueur is on its last stage! The adding of vodka to supplement the cherry alcohol yumminess! Only a month to go! And my first batch of sloe gin is ready to go. Levi and I trialled it last night and it was very good. A bit sharper than the ones you buy in the shops but very drinkable. Have had a good weekend: catching up on sleep, going to Dawlish again for some Christmas shopping and pints, putting up the tree (Stanley, our cat is delighted with his new 'toy!') and attending the Exeter College Carol Service at the cathedral on Friday. I don't like to talk much about work on here (because everyone is so awesome and I don't want to jinx it) but I was very impressed and am proud to be working at such a lovely place. The acoustics in the cathedral were amazing, the orchestra fabulous and the candle lit procession was just beautiful. Next week, we have another visitor, namely Owain, our friend from Bangor who is coming to use the archives here and I have my Work Christmas party! Can't wait! Til next time!

Exeter College students in the Cathedral

 Dawlish