Far Lands

Celebrated my birthday in style - champagne, a club, a little charlie and some floozies? Actually, no. Tree planting, winter walking and a surprise visit from the Man at the Pru. Mum's 40th birthday (OK, I was 40 last year) present to us arrived during the week:- trees. Including an apple, two sweet chestnut, a cobnut, a filbert (these last two often known as hazel), a cherry and 20 hazel hedging plants. The idea is for a mixed fruit and nut orchard, and I have planned it so the various fruit trees bear fruit in different months, and store for different periods. The aim is of course, self-sufficiency in fruit (and nuts - admittedly (i) our walnuts are still probably 12-15 years away, and (ii) I do have a particular penchant for brazil nuts). So, pseudo self-sufficiency. The hazel hedging is for coppicing - we are replacing the trees we had down (the 13 dying sycamores) with these. Then a glorious Winter walk:-   To round off a great day, out of the bl...

Just back from an ice-climbing trip to La Grave (Les Ecrins in the French Alps). Good conditions for the first few days (early morning temperatures of about -10C), and some good ice. Probably our best climbing day was Goulotte de Muretouse (II/3+, 200m ***); this involved an approach up a narrowing gully that had seen a spectacular avalanche. The climb itself gave two good pitches. We saw no-one all day, and were home in time for tea and cake! No Ellson epics! But, by the end of the week, the temperatures had rsien (-2C in the morning), and the icefalls were dripping. This gave adrenaline-fuelled climbing but for the wrong reasons. All in all, a good (if not great) trip - no tears, no dropped screws (£50 a pop), lots of cake and baths, some frogs legs and even a little tripe.

I've made another batch of lime pickle. Video below is of Step 3 (Step 4 in 2 weeks is just to jar it all up). Step 1:- (about a month ago) Cut up 35 large limes and then mix them with salt. Step 2:- (a week ago) Add all the spicy stuff (chillis, chilli powder, turmeric; onion (kalonji), methi, mustard and fennel seeds. Step 3:- Add Asafoetida and mustard seeds. Then pour over the smoking mustard oil (see video). Get in touch if you would like the full recipe. Brew or concoction would perhaps be better words. In fact I have just checked my thesaurus for brew and it noted "a powerful brew of sex and violence" which I think captures the intensity of this particular lime pickle quite well. F***ing hot is how I usually label it.

I'm reading Shogun at the moment which is billed as a blistering page-turner. Which it is, but with 1243 pages, it has to be. Clavell states that the soul of a samurai is his sword, and implies that for a samurai not to have his sword is punishable by seppuku (self-imposed death). Although Clavell is simply using the word soul as characterisation (he is not launching into the mind-body problem (a philosophical holy grail) nor entering a religious debate on the existence of God), it did make me reflect on my soul in this context. The axe! Axe as wood-chopper, in light of my current obsession with trees and treework. But also, axe as an ice-tool. In fact I have just sharpened my ice-axes, in readiness for our January roadside ice-climbing trip to La Grave. Kinder Downfall, 2010 So, the axe in one guise or another is my soul . What is your soul ?

Its blown really hard for a few days - all day and all night. A bit disconcerting here (as it is for Sarah on the 27th floor in central Manchester). We have had a few leaky windows and one tree down, so not too bad. And the tree of course (silver birch - v good firewood) is now sawn and in the wood stack. As Seymour comments in his book, trees are a great solar collector. So really, when its Windy Miller outside, its blazing sunshine in our lounge. Amazing what our wood stove gets through - we have emptied the 1st bin (almost re-filled now) and half the 2nd.

Happy New Year! This year we decided to have a holiday at home - a stayvacation ?! No travelling, no I-Spy in the car and no peeing in the laundry basket in the night. But, strictly no chores - no loft (insulation) action, no DIY and no blackberry or computer. Just walking, talking, eating and drinking.     It's been great! Two very wet day walks but home each time to our rampant wood stove, Xmas cake analysis (Mum's the nuttiest, Max's the tastiest (but thin marzipan and wot no icing?!), and mine the booziest) and scrabble. Two evenings at home, and one in the local pub - starry, cold walk each way reflecting on Mum's moon waxing/waning mnemonic (if it's a C shape, it's not Coming!). We even made some NY resolutions - have you?