Weekly Six 21st - 28th October 2007
This weeks six concentrates on some great moments over the busy past couple of weeks, hence this feature being absent last week! It's been busy both socially and on the work front and has heralded some great moments.
Item 1: The North York Moors
First off is our visit last weekend to the North Yorkshire Moors (correctly referred to as the North York Moors) to visit some good friends who relocated to that part of the country earlier this year and it was absolutely stunning.
It was our first visit to see them and to that particular part of the Moors.
We like to make the most of our time in the great outdoors and every holiday is usually spent camping in Scotland or Wales but these past few weeks have reminded me just what there is available within England and at a much shorter distance.
I think Scotland will always be my favourite part of the UK (followed by Northumberland) but our trip to the Moors, and recent visit to the Peak District has encouraged us to get back to more weekends away in the beautiful countryside nearly on our door step.
I didn't take too many photos in the Moors as we were busy chatting and enjoying the views and beautiful sunshine but I got a couple of good scenic ones and a few good group shots (with catalogue poses!) which I will not be posting! This is my favourite. (C & L thanks again for a top weekend, see you soon!)
Item 2: Halloween
Halloween is a holiday I have only recently developed a wish to mark in our house. Some of this has to do with the prospect of doing something fun for my nephew.
This week my sister and nephew came to stay and so we had an early party to mark the occasion with rubber bats hanging from the ceiling, flashing Frankensteins' monster dolls, bubble and squeak for tea, pumpkins and sparklers, games and car races, and a ghost hunt. It was a wonderful evening!
I also have a Halloween bucket in the hall full of sweets waiting for the 'trick or treaters'. We usually get a few accept for last year when our doorbell stopped working unknown to us! The year before I ran out of sweets and had to give out apples which I felt really bad about...although the parents seemed quite pleased!Happy Halloween!
Item 3: A Right Royal Day Out
I had a very interesting day at work yesterday. I attended the opening of a park I have been involved in the restoration of.
The park was opened by the Duke of Kent and following introduction to him, with curtsy, I walked along a section of the park with him and told him about the trees and the various methods we had employed to return them to good health following a 70 year period of agricultural land usage and absence of any such required tree care which had left the park somewhat ravaged.
He was very nice and quite interested which was good. I have never met a member of the Royal Family before and was quite relaxed up until 15 minutes before when I started to worry about fluffing my lines and noticed a large swarm of flies hovering about 2-4m above me in a column! I was standing near recently applied tree mulch and grassland and I am sure it wasn't just me but never the less, not what you want meeting royalty!
I am happy to say it all went well and the local paper chose a picture of me and the Duke for one of two pictures in the newspaper article so I guess that's my 15 minutes of fame! Anyway here is a picture of me and the Duke! (Image Credit: Sam Williams)
Item 4: Tree of the Week
I have been looking at at lot of these trees recently in many forms, the Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa).
I have done a lot of work with them over the past few years as I manage several woodlands of predominantly sweet chestnut coppice or with a high sweet chestnut mix. The woodland pictured here was full of lapsed coppice, i.e. it had been left un-managed and the size of the multi stemmed re-growth was excessive and trees began to fail.
We had the woodland coppiced and the timber went to help build classrooms at a local educational facility.
The woodland has already begun to regenerate and we have planted it out with a mixture of oak, thorn, ash, birch and hazel, much as it was before the sweet chestnut began to dominate.
Sweet Chestnut trees are beautiful. Their leaves are striking and when they fall create a beautiful mat to walk on through a woodland, as do beech, and their fruit is prolific and very tasty when roasted, if you can get them before the squirrels!
If you have any near to where you are now is the time to harvest the nuts and get roasting.
Item 5: The A-Z of Music
Ok, so B......well there's The Bee Gees who I think have to be acknowledged; as you may remember I am a big John Travolta fan and there are obvious connections in Saturday Night Fever (top album!) but they have been consistently brilliant song writers and performers for years. And they thought Kenny Everett's impression of them was funny so extra points for a good sense of humour...because it was really funny!
There are the Bare Naked Ladies who I also feel deserve a mention. I have to say I am really only very familiar with the album Gordon which is blinding, if any one has other recommendations about them I would be happy to hear.
But hands down my B has to go to Mr David Bowie.
My sister has always been a big fan and I was lucky to be able to share in her excellent musical tastes and records while growing up. Thus David Bowie has been a favourite of mine since an early age.
I think of him as a proper song writer, up there with Bob Dylan, and someone with his own totally unique approach and style. And I think there's is something for all occasions in his back catalogue. (Image Credit: Star Pulse)
Item 6: Practical Household Uses For Vinegar Ref. 41.3
Ok, I am including this one as it made me laugh!
Champagne Vinegar - To make homemade champagne vinegar, store leftover champagne in an open, widemouthed (frog) jar at room temperature. In a few weeks it will be vinegar.
Isn't that brilliant! Ok, so I expect that champagne vinegar is very expensive, and possibly that there are amazing things you can do with champagne vinegar, but I know there will never be any leftover champagne in our house!
I am going to look into champagne vinegar and will post more soon.
Item 1: The North York Moors
First off is our visit last weekend to the North Yorkshire Moors (correctly referred to as the North York Moors) to visit some good friends who relocated to that part of the country earlier this year and it was absolutely stunning.
It was our first visit to see them and to that particular part of the Moors.
We like to make the most of our time in the great outdoors and every holiday is usually spent camping in Scotland or Wales but these past few weeks have reminded me just what there is available within England and at a much shorter distance.
I think Scotland will always be my favourite part of the UK (followed by Northumberland) but our trip to the Moors, and recent visit to the Peak District has encouraged us to get back to more weekends away in the beautiful countryside nearly on our door step.
I didn't take too many photos in the Moors as we were busy chatting and enjoying the views and beautiful sunshine but I got a couple of good scenic ones and a few good group shots (with catalogue poses!) which I will not be posting! This is my favourite. (C & L thanks again for a top weekend, see you soon!)
Item 2: Halloween
Halloween is a holiday I have only recently developed a wish to mark in our house. Some of this has to do with the prospect of doing something fun for my nephew.
This week my sister and nephew came to stay and so we had an early party to mark the occasion with rubber bats hanging from the ceiling, flashing Frankensteins' monster dolls, bubble and squeak for tea, pumpkins and sparklers, games and car races, and a ghost hunt. It was a wonderful evening!I also have a Halloween bucket in the hall full of sweets waiting for the 'trick or treaters'. We usually get a few accept for last year when our doorbell stopped working unknown to us! The year before I ran out of sweets and had to give out apples which I felt really bad about...although the parents seemed quite pleased!Happy Halloween!
Item 3: A Right Royal Day Out
I had a very interesting day at work yesterday. I attended the opening of a park I have been involved in the restoration of.
The park was opened by the Duke of Kent and following introduction to him, with curtsy, I walked along a section of the park with him and told him about the trees and the various methods we had employed to return them to good health following a 70 year period of agricultural land usage and absence of any such required tree care which had left the park somewhat ravaged.
He was very nice and quite interested which was good. I have never met a member of the Royal Family before and was quite relaxed up until 15 minutes before when I started to worry about fluffing my lines and noticed a large swarm of flies hovering about 2-4m above me in a column! I was standing near recently applied tree mulch and grassland and I am sure it wasn't just me but never the less, not what you want meeting royalty!
I am happy to say it all went well and the local paper chose a picture of me and the Duke for one of two pictures in the newspaper article so I guess that's my 15 minutes of fame! Anyway here is a picture of me and the Duke! (Image Credit: Sam Williams)
Item 4: Tree of the Week
I have been looking at at lot of these trees recently in many forms, the Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa).
I have done a lot of work with them over the past few years as I manage several woodlands of predominantly sweet chestnut coppice or with a high sweet chestnut mix. The woodland pictured here was full of lapsed coppice, i.e. it had been left un-managed and the size of the multi stemmed re-growth was excessive and trees began to fail.We had the woodland coppiced and the timber went to help build classrooms at a local educational facility.
The woodland has already begun to regenerate and we have planted it out with a mixture of oak, thorn, ash, birch and hazel, much as it was before the sweet chestnut began to dominate.
Sweet Chestnut trees are beautiful. Their leaves are striking and when they fall create a beautiful mat to walk on through a woodland, as do beech, and their fruit is prolific and very tasty when roasted, if you can get them before the squirrels!
If you have any near to where you are now is the time to harvest the nuts and get roasting.
Item 5: The A-Z of Music
Ok, so B......well there's The Bee Gees who I think have to be acknowledged; as you may remember I am a big John Travolta fan and there are obvious connections in Saturday Night Fever (top album!) but they have been consistently brilliant song writers and performers for years. And they thought Kenny Everett's impression of them was funny so extra points for a good sense of humour...because it was really funny!
There are the Bare Naked Ladies who I also feel deserve a mention. I have to say I am really only very familiar with the album Gordon which is blinding, if any one has other recommendations about them I would be happy to hear.But hands down my B has to go to Mr David Bowie.
My sister has always been a big fan and I was lucky to be able to share in her excellent musical tastes and records while growing up. Thus David Bowie has been a favourite of mine since an early age.
I think of him as a proper song writer, up there with Bob Dylan, and someone with his own totally unique approach and style. And I think there's is something for all occasions in his back catalogue. (Image Credit: Star Pulse)
Item 6: Practical Household Uses For Vinegar Ref. 41.3
Ok, I am including this one as it made me laugh!
Champagne Vinegar - To make homemade champagne vinegar, store leftover champagne in an open, widemouthed (frog) jar at room temperature. In a few weeks it will be vinegar.
Isn't that brilliant! Ok, so I expect that champagne vinegar is very expensive, and possibly that there are amazing things you can do with champagne vinegar, but I know there will never be any leftover champagne in our house!
I am going to look into champagne vinegar and will post more soon.
Love the weekly six, trips down memory lane with the music input.
ReplyDeleteDays and nights pass, memories remain, which I would not swap.
Vinegar tip makes me smile and just how many vinegar flies do you want in the house.
mac's neice bought me a bottle of CV, which is very delicate and used with mild flavoured foods.
Thanks for the tip and glad you enjoyed the memories. I have a surprise for you...although you will probably have seen it by the time you read this!
ReplyDelete