Glanbrydan’s Weblog

The offending object

It is amazing how your day can have unexpected twists. I was all set for a nice glass of the red wet stuff and some supper yesterday when the Wilf one went off to cut up some kindling. I was walking the dogs in the light rain that was starting to fall, our neighbour was out for his evening walk and we were passing the time of day when the Wilf waved at me and called.

Somehow over the years of marriage you get to know your partners body language and his said ‘I’ve hurt myself’. I called out to him ‘ambulance or A & E?’ Thankfully the response was ‘A & E’.

I was amazed at what he had done. Whilst cutting the kindling using the circular saw the blade had been loose so he had been using the allen key to tighten it, sadly he hadn’t switched it off at the wall and somehow had switched the saw to the on position. The allen key had somehow rotated into and then embedded itself into the palm of his hand.

We made the 18 mile trip to A & E where over the course of the evening they managed to remove the offending object. Wilf is now feeling rather saw and his right hand is bandaged like a bears paw, with just the tippy, tip of his middle finger poking out of the bandage. The moral of this is always turn the power off at the wall before you tighten, loosen or change anything.

As an amazing co-incidence I had been looking for more eco cleaning tips on the Internetand came across the recommendation to use a bit of milk to remove blood stains, of which there were a few on Wilfs clothes, it seems to work, but I wouldn’t recommend it for anything you cannot then wash in the machine. I am now going to confer with someone who know chemistry and see if he can tell me why.

In the day when we work at home we can light the wood burner in the dining room and in the evening we use the multi-fuel burner in the living room. Bed time is now accompanied by one of those things that looks like a hot water bottle but is full of rice and goes in the microwave, much safer than the old boiling water type. I find it hard to put anything with a face in the microwave so even though I have a very nice teddy version of the same thing he remains uncooked.

We invested in two pure Welsh wool blankets, one for the bed and one for the sofa as they are amazingly warm and cozy. We are using a summer quilt topped with one of these blankets and are very snug and warm at night. The sofa blanket gets regular use as well now the evenings are becoming chilly.

During the day I put on a cardigan or jumper and have started to rescue some of my favourites by de-fluffing them and press ganging them back into service. The de-fluffer cost me £1 from Wilkinsons, it is not a miracle cure for fluff balls but with a bit of patience I have rescued a rather nice cream mohair cardigan and a thick wool cardi from M & S. Both were new last winter but looked only fit to be used as extra dog blankets – Vickie and Bertie aren’t fashion conscious and don’t mind the odd cast off to line their beds with.

The last remaining problem is the damp the cottage is suffering. The nice summer months that we have so missed this year usually dry the place out and it’s only when we get to mid winter that I have problems with damp spores. Wilf noticed some on the wall behind a chair in the bedroom the other day so I need to go up there with a diluted bleach mixture and send them packing.

We are putting our planning application in today for an extension to the house. It would give us a new kitchen and dining room whilst also giving us the opportunity to insulate as much of the old cottage as we can and also re-render the external walls that face the worst of the weather and currently don’t appear to be waterproofed. Fingers crossed!

Yesterday at Llandovery farmers market we sold out of pasties and tarts by lunch time. In fact we had only a few left for about the last 45 minutes, we need to produce more for each event if this is anything to go by. Also the market organiser was extremely supportive with extra advertising on our behalf and has allowed us to take sweet pastries to the next market on the last Saturday in October so this will also add to our hectic prelude to the market. Again we are so pleased with the results and we hope people enjoyed them The feedback we received, either directly or indirectly, was unaminously positive which also pleased us. There were a few other stall holders around the market munching on our pasties for elevenses.

This time we didn’t have so far to travel, Llandovery is about a 20 minute drive for us but we still needed to get up at the same time and pack all our pasties away in the cool boxes, load up with ice blocks and make sure we had everything else we needed. This time we also took the heated pie cabinet and a microwave so we could sell the pasties heated, which to a limited degree proved to be a success. We think that as it gets colder so the requirement for hot pasties will become greater. One of the stranger rules of selling hot food is that it has to be microwaved before before placing in the heated pie cabinet to ensure it is hot all the way through to a degree that would make it mouth scorching.

The sunny day helped bring people out into the old market town square and everyone enjoyed a late summers day.

Sorry we didn’t post yesterday, I was so tired when we got home I just flaked out.

To prove we are a little more organised for tomorrows farmers market we have finished cooking and it’s before 8:30 pm, last time it was midnight and I just ran out of energy to cook any more.

We have a kitchen full of cooked food all ready for packing away. The table cloths, packing bags and everything else is piled up in the living room ready to be loaded into Wilf’s car tomorrow morning and I am writing a list of the things we have so far forgotten.

The little ricotta tarts we take are a nice none meat eaters treat. They make a good lunch or starter.

You need

short crust pastry

250 grms plain flour

125grms block margarine

a pinch salt

put the flour in a bowl, add the salt and rub in the margarine. I cut the marge into small pieces, drop into the flour then cut them again and drop the pieces in again. Then rub the marge in until it resembles breadcrumbs, put some cold water in a glass and take 4 table spoons of it and add to the flour. Then get your hands in and start to bring it together. If it is at all crumbly add another tablespoon of water. Put the pastry in a bag and pop into the fridge for 20 minutes or more.

To make the tarts

a tub of ricotta cheese

2 eggs

a good pinch of salt

pepper

some grated lemon zest

40 grms pecorino grated finely

a spring onion sliced

Oven to 200 degrees C

Roll out the pastry and line 6 x 10cm tart tins. I usually roll out small balls of pastry for this, each one about the size of a golf ball. Put the tart cases in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Whisk the eggs until the yolk and white are combined then stir in the ricotta cheese. It takes a few minutes of stirring, just stick with it as it will mix when it’s ready.

Stir in the salt and grind in some pepper. Then divide the mixture between the tart cases. Sprinkle on the lemon rind and the grated cheese. Divide the spring onion between the tarts and just drop the bits on top.

Place the cases on a baking tray and then cook in the oven for about 25 to 30 minutes or until the tops are just browning.

This evening has been a bit stressful. Having learnt some lessons from our cookathon for our first farmers market I am coming to terms with cooking in industrial quantities so this evening I settled myself to making sure all the pasty fillings were cooked. Hours of chopping meat and vegetables and cooking up four fillings, three meat and one chicken.

I have enjoyed this but I haven’t mentioned the Wilf’s contribution which is a disgusting omission on my part (guess who proof read this and added this in), and enjoyed the cooking but I’m now having a well earned glass of wine and a rest so it’s a very short blog tonight.

Pastry tomorrow night in preperation for Saturday morning at Llandovery farmers market. Lets see what happens then.

For a long time I have considered the benefits of making my own home cleaning products and not using the shop bought sprays, wipes and scrubs that are available in a vast array of forms from the shelves of all general grocery shops. I have read articles in papers, women’s magazines and on the internet that tell us how these chemically filled cleaners are so bad for the planet. I have no specifics here or indeed any knowledge about the chemical makeup of the cleaners so it’s really all based on wanting to make my own products to make me feel better. If it’s better for the environment then that’s good too.

It seems that most of the recipes have white vinegar, lemon juice and bicarbonate of soda as a base, some also add pure soap and others suggest essential oils.

Having used a couple of lemon rinds for cooking I had lemons that needed using up. I also had some white vinegar left from the pickled eggs we made a few weeks ago and I always keep bicarbonate of soda in for cooking.

I rummaged around in the kitchen cupboards for an empty spray bottle as I keep a couple for watering my seedlings in the spring time and these would do the job. I squeezed the lemons on the old fashioned glass juicer I use and tipped the white vinegar and lemon juice into the spray bottle. I then put the bicarbonate of soda into a bowl as I had read that if you mix the bicarbonate of soda with the vinegar it can explode so better safe than sorry.

I was ready for action. I removed the bits from around the bath and got spraying, dipped my cloth in the bicarbonate of soda and started to clean. The Wilf one was passing the bathroom and enquired ‘Why does the bathroom smell of vinegar dear?’ I explained my eco cleaner to him and he left not looking impressed but before he did so he asked if I wanted a load of chips in the bath . It may have just been the smell that made him pull a face that almost said “I thought you were stark raving bonkers and now I know for sure”.

I cleaned the basin, the toilet and the bath, standing back I noticed that the normal sparkle I get from using the commercial cleaners was a little lack lustre. Never mind, I went and got a micro fibre cloth from the cupboard and started to polish up the bath and basin. Um, still that smell of vinegar. I left the room a little perplexed having expended double the time and effort for only have half the shine I would normally get.

A little while later I returned for a further inspection, still the smell of vinegar wafted out at me, a little less now. The taps looked a bit less shiny and so did the bath.

I recall reading the holiday section of one of the Sunday papers a few weeks ago, they did an article on green holidays and the author had stayed in a bed and breakfast that did all the cleaning with home made cleaners, her comments had included “the bathroom smelling somewhat like the morning after you’ve eaten fish and chips at home”. I know what she meant now. One last warning, as my ingredients were eco friendly I didn’t put on rubber gloves, my hands are now very dry and require moisturiser.

Overall not a great success, I will keep searching although I do keep thinking that back to the days when cleaning materials were often home made. They didn’t all have nice white porcelain bathrooms with chrome taps to worry about! Any suggestions? Please let me know.

Smudger cat came to us via the cat protection league, she was delivered by the cat lady along with Tattycat. The cat lady told us they had been given cattery names but they had no idea of their real identity only that one had come to them with a litter of kittens and they seemed to have been domestic cats at some stage so we named them based on what we saw. My justification for getting the cats was to sort out the local mouse population so they would earn their keep.

As the photo shows there is a mark under Smudger’s nose that looks as though she has dipped her mouth in black ink and tried to wipe it off. It looks all smudged, hence her name. Her black and white coat is shiny and sleek, framinga neat athlectic petite frame. Her manner is friendly if very wary. We cannot imaging how she has been treated or mis-treated in the past and she cannot tell us but every day we see and are saddened that something us humans have done has made her so scared now that no matter what we do or how much love we give she still retains a degree of mistrust.

As instructed by the cat lady we left them locked away for two weeks only venturing into their new home to feed and water and clean them. Their home is a shed that the previous owners used as a workshop but we had stuffed the space full of furniture and tools that didn’t quite fit in our cottage.

Among the mix of items in store is our set of dining chairs and a big pine wardrobe taken apart and resting under some drawers The cats soon made their home in the dark corners. The cat lady assured me that dark corners to hide away in would make them feel safer than cavernous open spaces. The many hiding areas did meet with the cats approval particularly the empty drawers as we added a couple of old pillows and they made themselves at home in the drawers. For a long time Smudger would have nothing to do with us while Tattycat started to get to know us then gradually we would get an odd glimpse of her black and white coat hidden well away from us. The day came when we would have to open the doors and see if they stayed or ran. Thankfully they chose to stay.

Smudger immediatly went to work on the mice population of the area, I will just say that she is a very efficient hunter. Tattycat is the opposite preferring to stay home all day so Smudger brings home her prizes, Smudger didn’t stop at mice and hit on the small birds. Trying to help our beautiful feathered friends we took action, we stopped stocking the bird table with nuts and seeds that gave her sitting targets, the wild bird cull eased but hasn’t stopped.

Gradually over the months Smudger has settled in and she trusts us more and more. She now accepts small pieces of meat from our fingers (and takes endless fusses from the Wilf one, much to my annoyance) and wanders into the house if the door is left open. Sometimes she comes to us when called but only to see if we hold out food and not just empty fingers. We persevere with our friendly calls and gentle coaxing and every now and then she surprises us by trusting us just a little more.

Being given flowers is always nice but being given flowers that the givers have grown themselves is really special. These sunflowers were a gift from our daughter and son in law. They were the first ones to open their garden and now I want to grow sunflowers.

I have a list of flowers that I have seen in other peoples gardens this year and I would like to grow next year.

My idea is to look and see what I like and then go out armed with a list of flower seeds I want to purchase rather than spending hours wandering round the garden centre and then coming out with a random mix.

Sunflowers are on my list, these small headed sunflowers make very pretty cutting flowers. I would also like cosmos flowers, I have seen them in countless gardens this year. They look pretty and seem to have long lasting flowers.

Californian poppies were a star in our neighbours garden on a barren patch of earth that was just a patch of stones on the side of the road, their orange petals looked sunny even in this summer.

Michealmas daisies are another delight I have seen in patio pots this summer and last but not least lupins. These are one of my favourites and I don’t have a single lupin in the garden.

Yesterday we visited Abergaveny Food Festival, we were wondering if we could take the food business there next year and went to see how busy it was.

It was incredible how many people there were and the variety of food. Speaking to a lady who runs a handbag shop (we just happened to wander in there to get away from the crowds) she said it is the biggest event in the town every year.

The food festival is spread across the town, which is itself a lovely place to visit. They do charge a £5.50 entry fee for the main food events but even if you just visited the town the food stalls are in the high street as well.

The market town was transformed into a giant market with Chinese food, beef burgers, pies, pasties, wine, cheese, cheese, cheese, meals prepared by well known local hotel chefs and food demonstrations.

We ate a fresh cooked roast pork and all the trimmings roll each and took home a couple of pies for further research (and dinner). We stopped for a cup of coffee and a cold drink in one of the many local cafes as we worked our way around the stalls.

The photo is from the last night of the proms at Swansea. I love fireworks and it was the most fantastic evening that I would recommend to all as a super night out.

I left a couple of parsnips in the ground last winter after they didn’t really grow when they should. Having then left them this spring they started to grow and flower and I thought they could stay a bit longer. I watched the stems grow up to about five feet high (sorry don’t do height in metric), I watched them flower and didn’t think too much about them.

Yesterday we were putting the chickens away and I noticed the flowers were looking autumnal and ready to go in the compost bin, on closer inspection the Wilf one and I realised the big flower head was covered with parsnip seeds. I collected them and they are now sealed in an evelope ready for next year.

We also have some broad bean seeds drying on the kitchen windowsill, these are the ones I’m thinking of replanting next month.

The peppers were all looking wonderful and so I picked most of them the other day. Then I strung up the long hot peppers and I’ve hung them from an old hook on the kitchen ceiling. They are too hot for us so I hope that when I’ve dried them the heat should calm down and make them useable. They look pretty hung up in the kitchen and will still look good when they have dried.

I also harvested the sweet peppers and I’ve hung up one of these from a string on the kichen wall. They have been really good this year and the peppers are firm, sweet and juicy. I would be happy to grow them again next year.