Misty start to a pleasant day. Becoming much warmer by mid-afternoon. Thunderstorms in the evening.
I wondered why my camera obscura wasn’t working in my bedroom this morning. I mean I was getting live pictures of upside-down mist on my mosquito net, I just didn’t know that until I threw back the shutters.
Nothing much to report today. I spent an hour-and-a-half in the Internet shop to catch-up with emails and trying to find some local architectural salvage places (I’m looking for a window). Today he charged me 5 euros and 60 cents for the 90 minutes and that included some print-outs. I think he just makes-up a figure each time, because last week I was only in there 20 minutes and he charged me 4 euros, and another time when I had 50 mins he charged me 2 euros. I am tempted to ask why, but I’m afraid he might start charging me properly (whatever that is).
Came home and, as it wasn’t too hot, I thought I’d tackle some gardening. The grass has got long again and I want to be able go and sit out there from time-to-time without worrying about what’s under it. So I raked-up all of the last lot of cuttings, and then one man went to mow. Went to mow the meadow. One man and his 2-stroke brushcutter.
The garden looks so much better with shorter grass, and I was sufficiently enthused as to continue tidying-up other parts of it as well. I cut down the brambles that have grown-up since last August around the cartwheels, and reclaimed a bit of a view. And then I did some weeding. Not in the borders (I haven’t got any of those really), but on the driveway where the weedkiller had seemed to have had some kind of effect. The instructions on the weedkiller said not to put it down when the temperature is too high, or too low, or on a wet day, or on a dry day, or on a windy day. What other day’s are left? So I risked putting it down on a slightly warm day with a slight wind and it had actually turned most of the grass and weeds brown. So I got down on my hands and knees to scrape-out all the roots as best I could. I didn’t finish it all, but the drive looks a whole lot better without any errant greenery.
So all in all a satisfying day in the garden.
And now, by popular demand – animal news! There are a lot of insects about this evening presumably because there are storms around. In the twilight earlier I saw this huge beetle flying around the garden – it must have been as big as my thumb!
So I took a picture of it resting on the little cherry tree, so I can identify it later. Answers on a postcard please.
6/6/2007 – Wednesday
Warm start to day, with high light-grey clouds. Humid, with heavy storm showers mid- afternoon, turning to rain into evening. A real cherry-crumble sort of day.
In the days before they had the International Supernetwork Highway, people had to rely on books like encyclopedia’s to look things up (search under Google for “books”). That’s where I find myself these days, and so after breakfast I looked through my extensive library to see what I could find out about yesterday’s animal.
It came as no surprise to find that it was a stag-horn beetle, except that in England these are usually only the size of a thumbnail and not the whole thumb. It also told me:
Stag-horn beetle: (Lucannus cervus): Genre of insects of the coleopteres family. The male has large mandibles rather like that of a stag from which it gets its common name. Usually found fluttering around at twighlight during the month of June. The female stays hidden. Usually to be found in forests of oaks and chestnuts trees. Their larvae develop in dead wood.
Fascinating eh? And spot on – month of June, twighlight, fluttering. All correct and in order.
Today I decided on another job that wasn’t on my list, but it felt like the right time to do it anyway, and that was to clear-out the hay from barn. There were a number of good reasons do to this now – but principally it meant that I could actually start using the space in the hayloft and I could use the hay to mulch the ground around the brambles I cut down yesterday. Hopefully with 6 foot of hay on top of them, the brambles won’t grow back as quickly as before, if at all. To make doubly sure, I also laid down a couple of old mattresses and an eiderdown underneath as well. Let them try and get through that lot in a hurry!
I was a bit worried venturing into the hayloft at first. The hay has been there for some years (at least 5), and knowing the amount of wildlife there is around here I was expecting something to scurry out at some point. Also, the floor is not in the best condition and bows and creak as you walk onto it, so I was a little concerned I might fall through it at any point.
I needed have worried though as it happens, and in the end it was quite easy to move the hay out of the door and into a waiting wheelbarrow to be carted down the garden. I do find it amazing that I didn’t find any evidence of any animal whatsoever in a tonne of hay in a dry comfy barn. I mean, why is it that pet shops have sold us hay to make nests for our mice and gerbils all these years? My rodents won’t go near it – they prefer ceiling cavities it seems.
At lunchtime I came over all nostalgic, and the heap of hay by the barn reminded me of a scene at the turn of the last century. So I got out my camera and put it on a setting of c1908. This is what it took. Entirely natural and un-staged of course.
Very shortly after moving all the hay the weather changed, and a large thunderstorm broke. It looked like it was set for the day so I retreated indoors and contemplated what to do next.
Fortunately my fiancé phoned at that moment and gave me some suggestions, one of which was to make something out of the cherries that I’d picked the other day. Well that was another thing that wasn’t on my list, but hey-ho it clearly wasn’t going to be a day directed by lists.
So I decided to make a cherry crumble and very delicious it turned out to be. I’ve never made anything so adventurous before, and as I didn’t have a recipe I decided to make it up as I went along. For the sake of completeness, I’ll write out the instructions here.
Richard’s Cherry & Walnut Crumble
The Filling: 144 cherries
24 walnuts
Handful of raisons
A bit of sugar (pure cane)
The crumble: A guesstimate of 100g Waitrose Organic wholemeal flour
A guesstimate of about 75g of Tournolive margarine.
3-day old French bread made into breadcrumbs
A bit of sugar and a few walnuts
First, put “Make a cherry & walnut crumble” on your To-Do list. Then put 144 cherries into boiling water and leave for a few minutes to get tender. While that’s going on, find the walnuts that Madame Tronche kindly harvested for you. Pick out a reasonable number, but make sure it’s divisible by 4 (I chose 24, but you could use e.g. 16, or even 44). Get a large hammer and smash the walnuts so that you’ve got a nice mess to clear up later. Remember to use safety goggles. Put the nuts into a dish near to where you’re cooking (because that’s what they do on the telly).
Put some music on. I chose Decibel FM because they were playing a Latin mix that goes well with cherries, but reggae should work equally well.
Retrieve the cherries from the boil where they’ve been on slightly too long, but drain them and spend a good half-an hour removing all the stones. Put the fruit into an oven-proof dish.
Find a pestle & mortar. Never sure which one is which, but they always come as a pair so nobody will suspect your ignorance. Grind half the walnuts a little bit and add them to the fruit. Add 25g of the sugar. Find some other fruit lying around the house that you want to get rid of. I chose raisons because I can never find any other reason to have them (there’s a French pun in there somewhere). Add a handful of those as well, and stir it around a bit. Then hide mixture under a fly-proof cover while you find a recipe book that’s got something resembling ‘crumble’ in it.
For the crumble – Mix the flour and marge together in a mixing bowl. This is hard work if you haven’t got a mixer and you’ll probably have to stop halfway through to …
….open a bottle of wine. Leave the room and stand for a while.
Come back revigorated and try to finish the damn mixing. Think about changing the music but realise this is only another distraction you’re inventing to get away from the hard work.
When the mixture resembles plasticine, add some sugar. Add some breadcrumbs that you’ve made with the 3-day old French bread. Pestle the other half of walnuts in the mortar (or visa-versa) and add these to the mixture as well. Mix well.
Check the wine glass is not empty.
Pre-heat the oven to gas mark “vague”. I mean it’s never going to be 10 is it? It’s always 5 or 6 unless you’re cooking meteorites!
Finally, try and cover the crumble mixture over the fruit. If you’re lucky this will just about stretch, but you might have to make some more if you’re oven dish is larger than average (like mine). Bake for 35 – 45 minutes.
Cross off “make cherry & walnut crumble” from ToDo list.
Serve warm with custard. I didn’t have any custard because this is France, but I did have some Crème Frâiche which did the trick. Very tasty.
There, that’s all there is to it. Aside from all the jocularity, I think my efforts were well rewarded. I think I could have taken the pudding out of the oven 5 minutes sooner, but I’ve got a very enthusiastic oven and there is little difference between marks 2 and 9. The results should look something like this.
So after two portions of cherry (and walnut) crumble I had to sit down for bit. After that I went outside as it had stopped raining and I noticed that – at last – the van battery had charged. I’ve had it on constant charge for 2 days and I was beginning to suspect that it was a no-hoper.
So to round off my day, I re-attached the battery to the van tool shed, turned the key and to my delight it started first time. Not even first time really – it started just as I twitched the key. So I left it running for a bit, then moved it off of the driveway at last, along with all my tools of course.
What a perfect end to a cherry-crumble of a day.
