A walk in Wales

After a warm weekend in Bracknell at the house of Dave's parents, cozy with food and conversation, I drove the rental Corsa (with quite a bit more confidence now that several British road trips are under my belt) to a small unimposing castle at the Welsh-England border:

Probably fewer draughts than my flat in Cardiff.

My friend Alex joined me for a ramble in the Wye Valley, trekking 6.5 miles from Chepstow Castle to Tintern Abbey.  The Wye marks the border between Wales and England, and also forms a natural divide between flatlands and hills.  The trail was gently rolling through luxuriously saturated forest, with occasional glimpses of broad horizons towards the Severn bridges.

An adorable feature (read: quadricep killing) hiccup in this comfortable walk was the "Eagle's Nest," also known as simply "365 steps."  The exercise could act as penance, one step for every day of a naughty year.  Also cute was the idiotic trailmarker placement.  What do you have when the trail branches into two equally worn paths?  No marker at all.  After you've guessed a direction, walked for five minutes, and are in a stretch where your options are to go straight on or be tossed down a cliff face....?  Obviously we need a marker to indicate the correct option.  Fortunately, the combined gut-instincts of Alex and me kept us, literally, on the right path. 

Eventually we emerged from the forest, and had the pleasure of traipsing across pastures.  Here is Alex, deftly avoiding a fresh cow pat.  (Grumpy cows in traditional black and white splotches remain safely off camera.)

And finally, when my toes were finally starting to complain (oh alright, my vocal chords joined it as well).... Tintern Abbey.

This skeleton of a cistercian abbey is gorgeous.  It wasn't as mystical as I was hoping for, perhaps due to the carpark of tourist vehicles just out of the frame, but the lush colors and surprising perspectives are nonetheless quite special.

So that was my first walk in Wales.  I expect there to be many more to come! 

Trees grow on money

I have just thrown £150+ into creating a kitchen jungle:

Not visible in this picture: almost 300 Liters of soil and a raised bed structure that needs assembly, plus a few hand tools and such.  Soon all these little guys will be placed in their respective corners of the flat, getting to know the lovely mini-tree that Lara bequeathed to me during the mass exodus from Oxford that occurred this week (more to come on that).  The potting soil will be placed in an outdoor bed and vegetable seedlings will be transplanted there.  I definitely feel a sudden shift in the place, adding plants really makes it feel like a home :)  I hope they like it here as much as I like having them.

Sprouts!

Update on my foray into vegetable gardening:


I have bought some little peat pellet thingies that expand almost 4x when you first add water but are surrounded on the sides by thin mesh to keep their shape.  Seeds get dropped into the center of each pellet, and you just poke around with a finger until it's covered and pretty looking.  I found all vegetable seeds at Homebase that suggested you could still sow them in August: Carrots, Beets, Spinach, and Rocket (Arugula).  The little peat babies get coddled under plastic and brought indoors at night.

Et voila, 2/4 of my seeds have already popped up with sprouts in just a couple of days!  The carrots and spinach are just late bloomers, I have faith they will emerge when they are good and ready.  The beet sprouts are a beautiful red color, and the rocket is quite leafy.

So I am very energized and enthusiastic for more planting and eventually transplanting into a proper outdoor autumn vegetable patch, albeit in raised containers.  For now, the seedlings will stay cozy in their peat pellets, basking in Cardiff sunshine.

You should visit my kitchen.

It is a warm and inviting place, full of happy things and enticing smells.

Note all the essential ingredients to a happy kitchen:

1. Pot with stuff simmering.  Who cares what, anything that simmers along is likely to end up lovely.
2. Fancy stirring devices in cheerful colors
3. A large bowl that makes even massive portions look reasonable
4. Random paper towel ready to absorb all of my many little accidents (I am no graceful Nigella)
5. Wine.  Oops, the glass is empty.  That means the dinner will definitely have that extra je ne sais quoi
6. Big knives looking impressive in a knife block.
7. Little knife I actually used.
8. Fresh herbs in pots, actually looking perky now that I interpreted their depressing wilting as a desperate cry for attention/water
9. A nice view with sunshine (er, it's Wales... indirect sun tempered by lots of, um, clouds)
10. Good tunes.  You can't see this, but I'm rocking out to the radio recorded Cambridge folk festival played far too loudly on my trusty speakers.

So in this environment dinner was guaranteed to be a success.  When I stopped dancing around the kitchen long enough to pour, chop, or stir, I managed to concoct:

Spicy turkish couscous with tomatoes, beans, capers, lemon, and fresh cilantro and parsley.  Possibly the best thing ever, I promise, although I was a little heavy handed with the cayenne and needed water rather than more of that wine :)

So you see, if you visit me you get fed.  Better yet, you will be invited to join me in cooking in this ever-so-inviting kitchen!

Let me know when flights are booked...