Native Encounter

 

Kiwano

One great thing about New Zealand is the variety and price of fresh fruit. Since arriving we've been eating kiwi berries (tiny kiwi fruit, fuzz-free, eaten like grapes), white peaches (very sweet), mandarin oranges (I didn't realise they came without the tin).

The most unusual specimen yet though has to be the kiwano, also known as the African horned melon,the jelly melon, hedged gourd and English tomato. It's a native of the Kalahari region and Kiwano is a trade name, used by New Zealand cultivators for export.

A little like a passionfruit or a pomegranate, the kiwano is filled with seeds in jelly pouches. The fruit is eaten by spooning out the seeds, sucking off the jelly sac and then spitting out the seeds. This is a very time-consuming exercise and Wikihow recommends that it's done whilst watching television. We managed a whole episode of Life On Mars and still hadn't finished our respective halves. Luckily we found it sweet, like Fruit Gums, rather than bitter but it was probably more effort than it was worth!

 

Craftiness

Whilst Skene was busy putting the finishing touches to his PhD, I thought I would busy myself by making a cutlery roll for work from an old skirt, one of Skene's shrunken T-shirts and various other bits and pieces from my scrap box.

Step 1: protect precious sterling silver cutlery (!) by inserting into cutlery wrap and folding over the top flap.

Step 2: roll tightly and admire handiwork.

And with the scraps left over, I made a little rabbit, which looks just as suspicious as Tina.

Hutch Sweet Hutch

Here is Skene taking care of the latticing on the roof of a gingerbread rabbit hutch...

Look at the state of the kitchen!

But the finished article is looking pretty good...

Chateau Skene (appellation controllee)

Whilst I was enjoying one or two glasses of Brasenose's finest wine at the Gaudy, Skene was industriously bottling our home-brewed plum wine, seen here in a wine rack that I assembled this morning:

The official tasting took place last night, chez Mark. Clarke thought it smelt like sake and was relieved that it didn't taste the same, whilst Skene iremains convinced that it's quite like cider. Den resisted the temptation to pour her glass away in the nearest plant pot but seemed to put her reluctance to imbibe down to her hangover alone.

There was unanimity on two points:

(a) it was quite strong yet still drinkable and
(b) it didn't enhance our Articulation skills.

We're hoping for more plums from the Great Harwood mini-orchard later this year so that the experiment can be repeated. In the meantime, Skene wants to try potato wine whilst I'm leaning towards a rice-based brew...

Paradise in Progress

Here's the latest picture of the strelitzia or birds of paradise, cultivated by my very own green fingers from seed. Unfortunately, given that they take four years or more to flower, I don't think they'll be ready for Katie's wedding bouquet.

A stitch in flexi-time

After several years of having it sat in the cupboard, I thought that I would revive Grandma's sewing machine and indulge in a little recycled creativity...

Paradise Regained

Believe it or not, these are birds of paradise seeds. Germination of these seeds is rated as "a challenge" and the packet notes "experience necessary".

Undaunted, I set to sowing them following the step by step guide:

1. Remove orange tuft.
2. Soak for up to 24 hours.
3. Press seeds into moist sand.
4. Place inside polythene bag.
5. Put in warm dark place.
6. Wait.

Remarkably, about six weeks later, the seeds have sprouted. I'm not really expecting my luck to hold on this front but I've potted them up in good seed compost and am now prepared to wait the four or more years that it may take for them to flower...

Watch this space!

Fungi Foray

Yesterday morning we set off on a fungi foray on Hampstead Heath. Andy, the fungi-to-be-with, showed us some of the best places to find mushrooms and other fungus - shady corners with well-drained soil and newly fallen trees.

There wasn't much to be had given the week of dry weather but we returned home with a lovely slimy jew's ear, some oyster mushrooms and a handful of St George's (so-called because they appear around 23rd April).

Amongst the inedible specimens, we found blushing brackets, maze gill brackets and King Arthur's Cakes.

Skene fried up the edible mushrooms with the wild garlic leaves that we had also picked and lots of butter and we had a delicious lunch of conchiglie con funghi - Antonio Carluccio would have been proud of us.

Merlin meets Tina

We had been warned that rabbits often fight upon being introduced and so took the necessary precautions in starting the bonding process when introducing Merlin to his new companion, Tina.

First, we put the carrier cage containing Tina on the floor next to Merlin's hutch and let them look at each other warily. Next, we had Merlin under the wire lid of his hutch and Tina in an adjacent pen, in our bedroom where Merlin had never been before - neutral territory. After half an hour of them sniffing around at their novel location, we removed the hutch lid and let them encounter each other properly.

Remarkably, it was love at first sight for Merlin. He chased Tina, flopped on his side, paws in the air in euphoria, quacked and squelched delightedly. Tina was not so sure and ran rings around Merlin, desperately trying to escape his attentions.

Fortunately, Tina eventually decided to tolerate Merlin and their new shared home. Now we just have to persuade Tina to like us too...

Passport Stamps

I've been having some fun this afternoon with passportstamp.com - logging my overseas travel with a view to finding out how close my ambition to conquer the world is to being met.

As you can see from the map below, there are some large portions of the globe still to be visited. Russia, Africa and South East Asia, in particular, look like they are in need of some attention. I shall look forward to that...

Ethical Eating

My ethical eating challenge began most enjoyably with a visit to the Three Fishes at Mitton.

This new restaurant in an old pub focuses on providing locally sourced food and uses organic ingredients wherever possible. Grandpa's steak came from a Bowland Forest bull and the sheep which donated Ian's shoulder of mutton had been reared in the Ribble Valley. Meanwhile, my fish platter and Jennifer's fish pie included Morecambe Bay shrimps and other delicacies purchased from the fishmonger in Clitheroe. Perhaps best of all though were the desserts, all served with custard, cream or ice cream made with milk from Simpson's Farm, just down the lane from Grandpa's cottage in Dinckley.

The next day, feeling inspired, I went foraging with Grandpa in the field. We picked dandelions for Merlin (which he devoured as though he hadn't eaten for a week) and nettles for me which were used in a delicious fry up with (not so locally sourced) feta and black eyed beans.

I've signed up for a weekly vegetable box from Abel & Cole too. Abel & Cole don't seem to be quite so good with their food miles (some of it is shipped in from overseas) but at least it's all organic. Treats so far have included new season's asparagus and two lovely globe artichokes (delicious with smoked garlic aioli).

Hopefully, I'll be able to supplement the box with my own homegrown vegetables later in the year. The vegetable plot has been sown with peas, spring onions and rocket and there's tomatoes and chilli plants germinating in the propagator. I'm now torn between hoping for a sunny summer and praying for lots of rain.

Wroclaw

Undeterred by Skene's dissatisfaction with Warsaw, I decided to extend my work trip to Wroclaw by a day to do some exploring. It probably helped that whilst Skene had to endure the spring thaw, I enjoyed an early summer as I visited Wroclaw's many churches.

I think I must have notched up nearly a dozen churches in my one day of sightseeing: some Roman Catholic and others Russian or Ukrainian Orthodox. One even featured a side chapel full of clockwork toys.

Given the heat (26 degrees!), I only managed one church tower though before I had to collapse in an ice cream parlour in the town square (which was oddly Bruges-like). Fortunately, a boat trip along the River Odra (the banks of which were lined by sunbathing locals) and a meander around the Botanical Gardens offered some respite from the heat and the overwhelmingly elaborate religious edifices.

On the food front, the pirogi (stodgy ravioli) were pretty interesting but needed washing down with a good measure of bison grass vodka and apple juice.

Click here for a sample of my many photographs of Wroclaw.

Bruges

Bruges was our destination of choice for the Easter weekend. We spent a leisurely day travelling there by road and ferry, stopping for lunch in Calais and arriving late afternoon.

We had a slightly difficult start, discovering that our hotel booking had been overlooked and then being rebuffed by a waiter for attempting to speak French to him (it may be the second official language in Belgium but they'd rather speak English). We soon settled in though and found ourselves enjoying a jenever in the oldest pub in the city, the unpronounceable Cafe Vlissinghe.

Having decided that spring was in the air, we headed off on our bikes towards Zeebrugge. The canalside route took us past a series of windmills on Bruges' outer ramparts and then beyond the city limits to Damme, a charming old market town which was the setting for the film of Girl with a Pearl Earring. Tempted though we were to join the locals on the cafe terrace, we pressed on down the Leopold Canal towards the North Sea reaching Zeebrugge in time for lunch.

The next day we joined the rest of the tourists to see the quaint city sights before spending Sunday meandering back down the coast via Ostend and Dunkerque towards the ferry.

View photos online here.

Flame Throwing

I'm not quite sure why Katie and Brendon thought that Skene could be trusted with a blow-torch but trust him they did.

Here's his birthday present in action...