Family & friends

Just coming to the end of a few days staying in mid-Wales with a cousin & her family.  Had a lovely time, been out with cousins & aunty, caught up with friends & heard family stories.  It's really nice to have such a network of good people, and affirms my belief that most people are thoroughly decent.  Really looking forward to getting home to beloved husband and dogs but I'm pleased to have ended the Easter break with such good times.

Chelsea bun report 3

March - Sultana & marmalade

Very nice filling.  Tried the dough from the January recipe, but it was not quite right.  Didn't rise very well, and a bit chewy rather than bready.  Might try again with a less rich dough.

Chelsea Bun Report 2

February - Bakewell Cherry

I'm not overly keen on Bakewell tarts, but I do like almonds & this was almondy - amaretto & almond essence & ground almonds in the filling.

A richer dough - eggs, butter & sugar - & extravagance in soaking the sour cherries in raspberry liqueur.

I added a raspberry jam glaze to make it even more Bakewellish.

Very nice. 

Chelsea bun report

January - white chocolate & cardamom

Nice soft texture
Cardamom gave lovely flavour, & white choc chunks nice to chomp.
Milk syrup topping seemed a bit strange, but worked well with them.

Put some in freezer, and they defrosted nicely.
Definitely one to repeat.

Janus - looking backwards & forwards

Haven't written for ages, but it's good to review and preview the years.  So 2012 was a good year.  It was the year of the dogs. 'nuff said.  Weather was pretty bad, but I managed to have 2 weeks off at home when it was dry & fairly warm.  However gardening was pretty bad.  Most of the annual flowers I planted didn't come up, or were very feeble.  I did have ipomoea & blackeyed susan in pots, and was pleased with those.

At work I became union vice-president.  Good to challenge yourself.  And 2012 was a good year for Open Access, my work obsession.

We got our act together on home improvements - builders now here till Easter adding a new bedroom, converting another into an upstairs bathroom, & creating a 'vestibule'  or dumping room as I mustn't let it become.

And I started a couple of hours weekly doing admin at Norfolk wildlife Trust HQ, which has been interesting.

So the year to come.

I'm going to do a chelsea bun variation a month!
Hoping that the new dumping room will help me be more tidy in the rest of the house
Want to contribute to the 38 degrees NHS campaign group
Now we're settled into dog walking routine, I hope I'll get some time for birdwatching
Will try planting annuals again.
Spend less time faffing about on the web?  Hmm.  That's the biggest challenge I think.

Wrapping up the blogpost can be tricky, but as they're not meant to be literary works of art, I should just write stuff & stop when I've finished.  There. Done it.

What I've been eating

OK, inspired by Veggiedyke I thought I'd  record my evening meals for a week.
Sunday:  Pasta with roasted vegetables.  Sweet potato & garlic, red pepper, red onion, chestnut mushrooms, courgette & aubergine.  Bit of olive oil, bit of basil.  Boil pasta, roast veggies, mix together & add a few cubes of cheese (used Parlick Fell)
Monday:  Rest of pasta with some Thai curried vegetables from freezer
Tuesday: Mushroom lasagne made on Saturday, & frozen.  Lots of mushrooms, onion, garlic, tin of tomatoes, tomato purée, italian dried herbs.  Simmered till formed thick sauce then layered with ricotta & lasagne sheets, grated cheddar on the top.  Yum.  Ricotta was well past its best before, but was fine.
Wednesday: Baked potato & a lentil concoction from freezer.  Over Easter I bought too many mushrooms, so had some mushroom-based dishes over last week or so.  The lentil concoction was made to go with some 'rustic' potato chips which were very dull & needed enlivening.  The idea had been to make a kind of mushroom chilli sauce, & then I add puy lentils for protein.  It was nice with the chips, and even nicer tonight with baked potato & some grated cheese.
tbc...

I'll round off the week now.
Thursday:  Had egg fried rice. Boiled some brown rice while I stir fried in sesame oil some onion, garlic, cashew nuts, courgette, mushrooms, aubergine, carrot. stirred in a couple of eggs when the veggies were done then mixed in the rice.  Served with soya sauce.
Friday:  Did some of the rustic oven chips with a bit extra oil & some cumin to spice them up.  Made a chilli tomato sauce, and fried some halloumi then served it with pita bread, stuffed vine leaves & houmous. 
 

Photographing wildlife

Been on a course today about photographing wildlife.  There is so much to learn.  Just going to make some notes to remind myself in future.  So...

• Plan the day beforehand.  Have an identified species to focus on
• Think about the light - all the time - which places are best morning or afternoon, which direction to walk around a reserve, where to stop when you see a subject - often better to keep walking slowly to get to where you want to take the photo from - if you stop then walk on likely to startle it
• Generally use ISO400 - doesn't need to vary too much
• Be ready, lens cap off, camera switched on
• Can use aperture priority on DSLR - you set aperture & camera adjusts the shutter speed
• Thirds rule doesn't necessarily apply.  If bird in tree, try to get all sky or all tree, not combination. If 3rd horizontally, have bird looking into photo
• Use depth of field - may want bird to be sharp against blurred background
• Treat it like sports photography, so fast shutter speed
• Don't need to worry about camera shake
• Practise on bigger birds.  And in the garden.  Set up sticks near feeder so birds will perch there

So now I'm going to practise, & practise & try to get the hang of the aperture vs shutter dynamic.  And will need a bigger lens.