does Big Ears live at Cragside?

There are a few weeks when summer and autumn overlap, when there are still strawberries to be had, but also plums; green beans and squash; cobnuts and mushrooms, raspberries and blackberries.

Startlingly bright lilies and fiery crocosmia share space with flowering ivy, the last nectar-rich shrub to bloom.

The evenings are getting shorter, cooler and the mornings pinker, damper. There are still a few bats about, but the swallows have gone and the house martins are not far behind. Ducklings have lost their fluff, but not yet grown their adult feathers. Spiders spin their webs in terraces across paths, sparkling with dew, catching the early unwary human.
And the television is full of adverts for computers and iphones (indispensable for the new school term). It used to be school uniforms, but these are either bought at the beginning of the holidays or perhaps not at all.
The landscape entices us to all go out walking, foraging, to return home to turn the bounty in to preserves which will enliven winter meals.
Well, the preserves can be made, with or without the foraging.
It is so satisfying to look at a shelf crowded with assorted jars and bottles, holding the promise of wonderful tastes, shining with the mellow colours of autumn.

Crab apple jelly, Piccalilli, Peach+Apricot chutney, Tomato+basil dip, Damson jam and Damson Gin. Old fashioned bottles of loveliness.

A few days away and a walk which was filled with unusual fungi. Heaven!

And a surprise seen at the edge of the road made me wonder if children's stories had been written in this woodland. A fly agaric, which everyone knows is the home of pixies!

So do you think Big Ears might be from Northumberland?

... and a three-legged poodle

I do like to travel. It's the journey, therefore the 'to' is not so important. There is always something to catch the eye. An oddly shaped tree decorated as a scarecrow; a farm shop which sells not fresh fruit and veg, but 'funky vintage furniture'.
Being designated navigator, the map throws up quirky places - Edvin Loach, Edwyn Ralph, Sollers Hope, Hints. And my favourite, Hopton Wafers.
And then the wildlife. When you are stuck in traffic (roadworks, tractors, whatever), there is time to watch the hedges, the verge, the sky. I still struggle to identify raptors but a female blackbird spreading her wings over her brood to shelter them, is just my level. And a gift.
Arriving is good if the room is clean and the shower works. Good weather, interesting food and a family get-together, makes it great.
I had three creme brulee - one was rich, creamy with a cracking top. Two was small, creamy, crispy top and served with apple crumble and apple sorbet. Three was a Coffee and Baileys which had a crisp top and a very creamy base. A bit weird.
The first was simple and very good.
I had two risottos. Sometimes the portions can be just too much.
Coffee was - variable. Very good and served with Lemon Bakewell tart and/or an enormous chunk of Chocolate Brownie Cheesecake. Or depressingly predictable unless topped up with Coffee Tequila liqueur. Smelt very alcoholic. Maybe too alcoholic.
The trip came to an end with the photograph of a beautiful trumpet-flowered plant, over-hanging the car park wall (taken for identification purposes) and a hurrying dog-walker, pulled along by three snuffling pugs and, yes, a three-legged poodle!

Of lost things...

It is raining and we can not find the best umbrella. We went for lunch the other day and it was only thanks to a kind and observant waiter that it wasn't left at the table. Today, when it is needed again, it is no where to be found. Is it lost then, left on the train, perhaps?
I feel old.
There is a new(ish) sandwich bar on the main road, with a sign on the door -
                               "Were hiring"
Is this a ' sorry if you want a job, but it's too late"? A victim of the dreaded predictive text? Or simply another case of a missing apostrophe?
(Did I mention I felt old?)
There is a website that can put you in touch with the railway lost property office. You just have to be able to describe the missing item. (Was it red, black and square? Or green, black and square?)
I wonder if there is a home, a lost property office for all the missing punctuation? An index drawer in some retired librarian's filing cabinet, perhaps, where all those apostrophes, semi-colons and brackets join together and dance through the cobwebs.
After a settling cup of coffee, the umbrella was found in the boot of the car. Of course, we had been shopping that day and not on the train at all!
The apostrophe, from the sign on the shop door,  is still missing.
 

The first in life

Beginnings can be bewildering.

Dry instead of wet. Air, not liquid.
Loud, bright, blurred. Not quiet, dark, closed.
Shout.Shout.Shout.
Then listen.

Soft, calm, susurration.
Familiar, comforting.
Wet, then dry, then prickly outside.
(Calm, gentle, murmur.)
Warm, wrapped, held close, familiar.
Suckle, snuggle, soothed.

Stretch, dream, cough, sneeze.
(What was that? Everything goes WHAAA - then not.  What?)
Snuffle, soothed. Cold on skin then soft murmur, familiar sounds, gentle rocking.
Dream again of before, then snuggled, suckled, soothed.
(Calm, gentle, murmur.)

Hiccough, taste again, snuffle.
Sudden jerk, soothing sounds, now familiar.
Strange people, strange sounds, all new, all bewildering.
So sleep, soothed, gentle sounds of familiar beings, remembered from before, a fading before.

Spring is a time we crave change and many folks go a-travelling. USA, Spain, Singapore, New Zealand.
We went to Birmingham (don't laugh!)
It was just a few days, but there is so much there, we will have to go again.
Museums are always a must see. The main one would take a full day to see properly. Fortunately it has a great restaurant to fill the hunger gap. A local lad Matthew Boulton, made steel buttons that 'shone like diamonds' and 'impressed the ladies'. At one time it was an offence to wear cloth-covered buttons, to do so risked a fine and said buttons removed!
 There was an unprepossessing building with dusty windows and a battered door just up the hill, which housed the pen museum. Easy to miss, but please visit it - it was fascinating. Pen nib making was woman's work (cheap labour, but then it was realised they were also more skillful) so I was shown how to use the presses and made 3 nibs to bring home. Took me right back to junior school.

The NT look after a row of back-to-backs in the China town area and a guided tour is highly recommended. A salutary lesson of less affluent times. The last tenant moved out in the late 60's.

We walked around the Bullring, the cloth market and down to the canal. New buildings and old, all mixed together.

We missed the coffin museum, can you imagine? What a city!
Loved it.
Photographed it.

(Well, there will be photos when I have worked out how to import them...... In the mean time, do you know who/what is Oozells? There is a bridge and I wondered, is it a bird, a flock of which nested there? Or the chap who built it? Or bashed in to it with his boat? Or fell of it after a night's merriment in a local hostelry?
Any ideas?)

P.s. Yes, have had a lesson and now have  acquired import/export expertise!

results and childish games....

There is a theory that play is a way for children to learn. Social skills as well as simply how to play a particular game.
 I remember having a doll (although no memory of actually playing with it), a dolls house (likewise), a tricycle and a bike, both of which I rode till the tyres were bald. There was also a Spyrograph which was supposed to make pretty patterns with coloured pens, encouraging textile design - I had a lot of torn paper. An etch-o-sketch which may have encouraged architects, but everyone I knew spent all their time trying to get the straightest line from top left corner down to bottom right corner. (Perhaps patience was the lesson taught here.)
 There was also bako, lots of rods and bricks with which a child could build a house, throw at siblings or push in their ear. This developed in to lego (no rods, bigger bricks) then sticklebriks (which merely stuck to each other, randomly).
Board games I remember as a family event, to be pulled out of the sideboard when visitors came. Monopoly caused ructions or boredom. Totopoly upset the younger members who could not understand the rules. Snakes and ladders was for babies.
So cards were played most often. Newmarket was a favourite, played for ha'pennies*
Magic bemused me, just could not see the point. Although......
Have you seen the young orang-utan, watching the bloke do a simple sleight-of-hand?
It's sure to be on YouTube, although I saw it on 'Have I got news for you'.
The animal looks carefully and expects the final reveal to be a cup containing a ball - but of course it is empty. The orang-utan looks up at the man then falls over on its back, laughing hilariously! So funny! It makes me smile every time I think of it!
So that is the point of magic, not the watching, but watching its effect on others.

Okay, so here is the solution to the wall posted last week.

1)    Father Christmas     Fungus      Ug          Snowman
                               All stories by Raymond Briggs

2)       Mill                  Fall                 Cress            Chestnut 
                        All can be preceded by 'water'

3)      Sling            Martini               Sour               Punch
            All alcoholic drinks (gin sling, vodka martini, whisky sour, rum punch)

4)     Cracker          Vera           House           Castle
              All eponymous television programmes.


It was only a bit of fun so please don't get cross with me!

* This is from the 'old' money, as in - 2 ha'pennies to a penny, 12 pennies to a shilling, 20 shillings to a pound (£1). There are lots of other denominations in between, info on t'internet somewhere......

little grey cells...

Decorations down, magi travelled safely to the crib and packed away, last of the chocolates gathered together on the piano and the cards in a bag, waiting to be recycled. Tree chopped in half and taken (with the door ring) to the tip, vacuumed up what (we hope) is the last of the pine needles.
Back to normal.
So what is this bundle of envelopes behind the new pile of reading material? Ahhh...
When hands are busy with repetitive baking, the mind wanders off. Well, mine does. I am a fan of Only Connect and am inordinately proud of myself when I get an answer right, especially in the quarter- and semi-finals. So I planned a little quiz for the dull moments over the festive season. Only there weren't any, so the sad little pile of envelopes are still behind the books.
For those who are unfamiliar with the quiz (which is tougher than U. C.) the first round is Find the Connection. Second round, Last in Sequence. (4 clues in each, more points the sooner it is solved.) Then the Wall. Four groups of four, one point for each group found, one point for the connection. Find all four and a bonus two points is yours.
Of course, the is a limited time to do this, but no-one is watching!

This, then, is the Water Wall.

                 Snowman           Cracker          Sour           Chestnut

                 Cress                  Punch             Mill            Martini

                 Vera          Father Christmas    House         Fungus

                 Castle                 Ug                 Fall              Sling

I will put the solution up in a weeks time.
Have fun!