Life moves fast in the country

Just three days before I’d been walking through a field of barley wishing I had my camera with me, rather than just my phone. Returning with my Nikon camera on a walk just those few days later though, I found all the barley gone, with the last few bales being collected from the now bare [...]

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CDWM: Lauren continues to feed us

By now, we were full of crudités, soup, fish pie, cheesecake and sorbet. But there was more! Lauren brought out a plate of her trademark dark chocolate truffles to finish us off. As we enjoyed them the tealights along the centre of the table began to burn out one by one – Suzy hastily rearranging [...]

3 Comments Posted in: CDWM, food, friends, photos, video

At night

A couple of nights ago I went out into the garden to photograph the moon. There was a lot of cloud around, so it would tantalisingly appear and disappear on me. I made a complete hash of putting the tripod up in the dark, but eventually got it about right and settled myself in a [...]

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CDWM: Lauren’s dessert

With the way I’ve loaded my recent photos to Flickr, you could be forgiven for thinking that Lauren had provided the The Red Arrows as mid-meal entertainment. She did not. But she did have a handy-dandy sofa in the kitchen onto which we could collapse between courses while she whipped up the next culinary delight. [...]

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The Red Arrows come to town

Every year the War & Peace Show takes place at the nearby Beltring Hop Farm. Military vehicle enthusiasts come from all the over the country to display their vehicles, attend exhibitions and see famous guests such as Dame Vera Lynn and former cast members from Dad’s Army. Even if you don’t visit the show (and [...]

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CDWM: Lauren’s main course

Does anyone spot the reason that Lauren was so good at matching flags to countries in the quiz at Helen’s Come Dine With Me? This world map hangs on the wall by her kitchen table and serves as a great talking point and impromptu “find X” on the map competition. It’s fun to see how [...]

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Fields of gold

I went for a walk yesterday, as part of an ongoing effort to clear my head and get my joints working. I’ve been out in the fields in recent days, among the seed heads of oil seed rape and horse beans, thin and fat, little red bugs and swarms of little flies that I then [...]

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CDWM: Lauren’s starter

Roasted tomato, red pepper and saffron soup

While we were nibbling our nibbles and then talking about them Lauren was busy at the stove preparing our starter. It’s so nice being a guest at these evenings. You get to just kick back and watch someone else work. Maybe that’s why restaurants sometimes have open kitchens: to really underscore the patrons’ enjoyment of [...]

1 Comment Posted in: CDWM, food, friends, photos, video