What a fortnight! For those of you outside of the UK, you may not be aware but England is apparently sinking below the sea, as deluges of rain threaten to drown us, the railway line has washed away at Dawlish and the rivers in the South West threaten to overflow (and indeed, they have in the next county along - Poor Somerset). Not, the weather really to go out in full stop, let alone go walking or foraging.
(westernmorningnews.co.uk)
Still, I have managed to finish off a couple of projects from the comfort of my flat. I have strained my bullace gin (its in the little bottle on the right). Its much sweeter than its cousin, sloe gin (which is gone now, whoops...) and also the sloe sherry, where I used the sloes from the sloe gin a couple of months ago to infuse a bottle of sweet sherry using this recipe: http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/sloe-sherry-recipe-104/
It seems very tasty, and I didn't even need to add any sugar - very strong though. One for small doses I think! Then, cross at my failure to produce hawthorn and crab apple schnapps over the Christmas Holidays, I have decided to try again with my remaining vodka and some of my frozen stash from the freezer. I now have a small jar of hawthorn vodka mixture and a second with rosehips. I realise now I should have halved the hips (http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/blog/2013/10/rosehip-foraging/) but will see how this goes for now.
Then, trip wise, I have managed to go to both Wales and Cornwall the last couple of weeks. I hitched a lift with a friend to North Wales to visit my friend Daisy in Bangor and to pop and see my Auntie Kay in Holyhead, nearby. The weather was filthy but this did not stop Daisy and I heading to Conwy, looking at the beautiful castle there and supping some great pints (maybe a few too many!) at the Albion (http://www.conwybrewery.co.uk/3.html) in particular their beers from the Purple Moose Brewery/ Bragdy Mws Piws (http://www.purplemoose.co.uk/). Fantastic choice of pub from Daisy. We managed to watch the England game at the nearby British Legion and had a good sleep on the bus back to Bangor. In the evening we went out with a couple of Daisy's lovely friends and hit Y Glob (The Globe) and another pub which name escapes me which had an amazing folk style singer who taught us the most awesome drinking song 'To the left, to the right, forward and back, stand up sit down, to the left to the right' which had us in fits.
On the Sunday, I went to visit my Auntie Kay (my grandad's sister) in Holyhead. She's lived there for nearly fifty years (she's from Laois, Ireland) with her late husband, my Uncle Joe. Uncle Joe was the most awesome elderly uncle imaginable. He was in the merchant navy as a young man and the stories he used to tell us about all the places he went - I think his favourite was Bolivia (or was it Peru?) where for a days wages he could hire a bar, a band and drink all evening. Though that said, the favourite place did used to change every few times we used to go and visit.
Auntie Kay and I had a good afternoon gossiping over lunch in Treaddur Bay (http://www.trearddurbayhotel.co.uk/) and I look forward to seeing her soon.
Then on the last day, Daisy and I went to Bangor Pier - it was so beautiful with the mountains in the distance all covered in snow. We toasted the weekend by having lunch and a pint at the Tap and Spile - another brilliant real ale pub in Bangor. Well worth a visit.
This week, is Half Term. Levi is working but we managed to book ourselves a trip to nearby Cornwall for the weekend. We almost didn't get there due to the weather. We got the bus replacement from Exeter to Plymouth and then found there were no trains to Cornwall at all due to the massive storm and flooding at Liskeard and Penzance. There were no buses either due to police preventing high sided vehicles from crossing the Tamar Bridge due to high winds (the Tamar River is the border between counties). We eventually were given a taxi to Truro and arrived at the County Arms in Truro after 10pm.
Luckily the storm passed and the weather improved. There were no trains running throughout the weekend but we were able to get the bus to nearby Falmouth - a seaside town where we visited the beautiful Tudor Castle there and enjoyed fabulous award winning fish and chips (http://www.harbourlights.co.uk/) and good pints at both 'The Front and 'Beerwolf Books'.
Yesterday, we were able to enjoy the sunshine in Truro. We had to leave earlier than we thought (originally we were getting the train back late afternoon) as no trains or bus replacements were running and we'd managed to book a National Express coach back to Plymouth. Still, we had time to potter around town, look at the cathedral and grab a good pint in the Old Ale House before heading home.
I'm back up in Wales later today. Wish me luck on what will be a very long and dull journey indeed. Better go find a decent book....
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