Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weather. Show all posts

Thursday, February 13

A Poem for Thursday...."The End of the Line"



With so much relayed over the media and the papers full of the sad stories of flooded homes and broken journeys...I'm putting up this post as a memory of another sea...another train journey...another ending...though for how long none of us can be sure any longer.

The End Of The Line

Let's go live at the end of the line
Where breakers fall over rolling stones.
We'll ride the train that we rode when young,
Watch how the steam mists our view of the sea
As it hisses and cools on the iron, on the brass.
And the cry of the gulls as they dive, as they soar
Will welcome us back
Will welcome us back.

Let's board the train that we rode long ago.
Where the end of the line will have water and sand.
We'll be welcomed again by the mewing of gulls
By the smell of spun sugar and hot lardy chips.
And there, will be space enough for our thoughts
With salt winds to blow away stale urban fog.
To welcome us back
To welcome us back.

They're saying the crust is beginning to crack.
That the cold winds of change are blowing our way.
Yet, when I take  the journey again to the end
Of the line, where the seagulls are soaring above,
To the edge of the tide, to the line in the sand...
The memory of all things, of all being well
Embraces me back
Embraces me back.


Tuesday, July 2

Elderflowers

Big and strongly perfumed this year...could it be the British weather? Rain...cool ..even some may say...cold and miserable...?
Yes...but...
Is that why the elderflowers are so lovely, fig are "afigging" and the strawberries are bursting...oh and even the cherry tree has excelled itself!?
Well whatever the reason it means that the annual making of the Elderflower syrup can begin.


So this morning my dear friend in Criccieth... north Wales... put up this great recipe for the syrup.
I don't usually make the cordial as I find that I can store syrup in yoghurt pots in the freezer and always add some tonic or soda water afterwards.

The Recipe...

ELDERFLOWER SYRUP

Ingredients

 900 g sugar
 600 ml water
 12 heads elderflowers, picked of any bugs but not washed
 2 lemons, 1 thickly zested, 1 sliced

Method

1. Dissolve the sugar in the water to make a syrup. 

 
                                                                                                                                       2
2. Put the elderflower heads into a bowl with the thickly pared lemon zest and lemon slices. 


3. Pour over the boiling syrup, cover and leave overnight. 


4. Strain through muslin and bottle the elderflower syrup. ...or pot and freeze.

Serving suggestions
 Champagne and elderflower jelly: warm champagne with elderflower syrup to taste – don’t boil. Add softened gelatine leaves (9 leaves for 600ml of liquid) and leave to set in the fridge.
Elderflower granite: balance the sweetness of the elderflower syrup with some lemon juice and water. Freeze the mixture in a shallow tray and break up with a fork when half frozen. Serve with spoons.
 Elderflower champagne: add a drop of elderflower syrup to a glass of chilled champagne. Scatter with a few elderflowers. 

I haven't made the jelly...jello for my US friends...but the granite and champagne are ...
DELISH!




Sunday, April 28

Weekend at the Bay...that's Morecambe!


What a contrast a day makes ...could be a good song in that...change the words a bit...make it more poetic...

...well Saturday was bright and ...yes...windy...but sunny... and what an evening sky...





This pic is from Dave Brown of Wainwright Wanderings...a fantastic photography site . 
...well worth a viewing..
...I was in the house in front of a cozy fire and snuggled up in a blanket...well I said it was windy and the wind was cold.

The potter packed the car this morning ready to set off for Prom Art....
...we got to the front and looked at the Bay...
...and turned round and went straight back to the house! Unpacked the car again...sat and thought about things...and then went out to Red Bank for a coffee and toasted tea cake each....you have to be positive in this weather!!

So on the way back from the cafe...I made the potter stop a few times to take these.

Call them "elemental!...I like elemental actually...just glad of a home to go to and dry out afterward!


Lots of eager fishermen out at the Bare end of the Prom...no pun intended!!






...not bare at all in fact...very well covered up against the howling wind!






...this "craw"...viewed the outlook ...





and a lone fisherman got down in amongst the rocks....




...I'm facing into the wind and rain here and one walker braves it on the west prom......
....quite jolly actually ...he gave me a friendly wave...

...then along comes a mad cyclist head into the storm and pedalling like crazy ...
...going nowhere!





...it was like this...




...but you know it can be like this too...
...if it wants to!





Monday, October 8

what are these?




We always try to have some pumpkins grown for the five grand girls.



This however is a pic from a couple of years ago!

We planted ...yes...well we thought that we had planted pumpkins...


so when the potter went looking for them ...as the time is drawing nigh for pumpkin celebrations!...



... looky look!!...ornamental gourds...well would you believe it...must have bought the wrong packet of seeds.
Still I have wanted a basket of these again for a while...
...I grew them a few years ago and then didn't seem to get them to germinate...weather too cold...weather too wet...weather too dry...you know the usual gardeners' reasoning!


...lots and lots of gourds...


Sadly ...no "turk's caps"...maybe the weather is to blame for that!


Monday, October 1

it's true...summer is over



We're back from the wet north ...and no Grange Prom Art yesterday.

This year has been the worst for the kind of weather that causes openings to be cancelled...
...although we masterfully kept going last month...even though the rain came in bursts...we simply gathered the paintings  up and waited 'til it stopped.
 However on Sunday we met up with the buyer for the tankard and she was really happy with the outcome!
So...can't win 'em all but won one today!

The trees up by Grange are already tinted with reds and golds and looking like fire blazing even in the downpours that have flooded the fields.

I have some seasonal indicators here at the Pottery... telling me that  summer is over...
.


...the virginia creeper outside the window of the lounge.... spreading downwards like a morrocan veil coyly hiding the worst of winter from our summer blinded eyes.








 ...and of course ...the delicate webs of autumn interlaced with trembling raindrops and turned to crystal as the sun breaks through for a brief moment....