Walking in Autumn at the Warburg Reserve

Thursday walk

Originally uploaded by Mr_Chips

This wild place is in the depths of the Oxfordshire countryside near Henley. I parked at Maidensgrove common and walked down into the wooded valley to discover its autumn charms.
It had snowed in the Chilterns just the day before. An unexpected downfall that froze over making it treacherous to drive to work. The sun came out and the countryside looked beautiful. I hoped that some of the snow would survive the following day and I might get some interesting photos. It was not the case. There was not even a tiny drift left in any gully. However, the trees still had their Autumn colours so I was hopeful.
It was so quiet in the valley. There was no one around so I had the place to myself. It was raining as I set off but this soon cleared and the sun came through so I caught some good light effects on the leaves and branches. There were deer that scampered off into the woods as I approached. Right down in the bottom of the valley there is an old muddy track that runs through the reserve and one deer came out onto this in front of me and then couldn’t find a way out. She ran away from me on the track her heels kicking up the mud behind her.
In the bird hide, I settled down with my binoculars and had a cup of tea from my flask. Not really expecting to see anything. Then a gold crest came out and moved rapidly bimbling over the branches. I can recognise this bird just by the way it move but it was good to see the vibrant band of yellow across its head and its wide eyes. There was also a male bullfinch and several chaffinches.
Further up the valley I took more photos as the trees looked so good in the sun. I set up my tripod and wandered around looking for shots. Then within a few minutes a cloud rolled over and it rained again. I hauled myself back up the hill for tea and toast back at home.

Red Cabbage

This is an excellent winter vegetable to have with casserole of pheasant.
Ingredients
1 red cabbage
2-3 cooking apples
2 or 3 large onions
1-2 tablespoons brown sugar
sherry glass of wine vinegar
What to do
Chop cabbage into 1/4s remove stalk and slice the apples and onions.
Put a layer of cabbage in the saucepan followed by a layer of onions, apples, brown sugar and seasoning. Repeat until you have used up all the vegetables. Pour over the wine vinegar. Cook on a low heat and stir frequently.

Pumpkin Chutney

Pumpkin Chutney is a great accompaniment for all sorts of dishes. I like it on a ploughman’s lunch with good cheddar cheese and homemade bread.

Ingredients
21/2 lbs pumpkin
1lb tomatoes
1/2 ib onions
2oz sultanas
3/4 lb soft dark brown sugar
3/4 ibs caster sugar
salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger, black peppar and allspice,
2 cloves of garlic
1 pint wine vinegar or cider vinegar
What to do
Peel pumpkin, discard seeds and the pith. SLice and cut in pieces. Pour boiling water over tomatoes skin and slice. Peel and slice onions and garlic.
Put all solid ingredients including spices and sugar in the pan. Add vinegar. Boil gently and cook until the mixture is jammy. It will take about 50 minutes, stir frequently and skim.

The Black Venus, Challacombe, Devon

River Barle on Exmoor

Originally uploaded by Mr_Chips

A delightful pub on Exmoor and ideally placed if you go walking up to Pinkery Pond. I went with D&J on a wet wintry night but there was a warm cosy welcome inside and we were soon drinking some ale and looking at the blackboard menu being careful not to bump our heads on the low beams.
We all had the home made beef and ale pie with flaky pastry. They were served with home cooked vegetables - delicious fresh leeks and carrots. There was a choice of chips or potatoes. I went for the potato option and it was a relief to have good fresh cooked food that hadn’t been messed about with. There were many temptations on the menu. As well as some good starters there was Exmoor Beast - gammon steak. The lamb shank with redcurrant sauce and rosemary looked very tempting.
For pudding I had the plum crumble with custard that went down very well with a cup of tea to finish. I heartily recommend it.

Pumpkin Curry

Pumpkin

Originally uploaded by Mr_Chips

I love growing pumpkins although rarely successful and this year’s crop was lamentable. About 8 small sized pumpkins was the result of immense effort with many seedlings. I like to grow giant ones and all sorts of strange shaped squashes. The dreams in March are immense but all I end up with is a few orange ones as usual.
Anyway, I made this wonderful pumpkin curry. I mix and match the curry specifications with whatever comes to hand so don’t worry too much about exact measurements. I also added some leaks to the recipe below just because I had some. Careful with the chilies. I got the mixture in my mouth and eyes which is very painful especially wearing contact lens. Serve the dish with rice and drink cider or lager to take the pain away. yoghurt is good for cooling the effects of the chilly and curry.
I love the colour of pumpkins and prefer cooking it as a savoury dish rather than the american way. I also don’t like the festival of haloween but it does mean you can buy very cheap pumpkins in the shops after the 1st November if your own harvest fails.
Ingredients
1 onion
garlic cloves
2 teaspoons of ginger
1 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground tumeric
2 tablespoons curry paste
1 1/4 lb of pumpkin chopped up into small pieces
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
vegetable stock
1 can chickpeas
2 chilies
1 large banana

What to do
Fry the onion, chilies and ginger in some oil in one pan add the spices and leave for while until the onion is soft.
Put the pumpkin pieces in a bowl and cover with the curry paste. Fry in some olive oil in another pan.
Add the tomatoes, chilies and stock to the onions. Add the pumkin mix and cook for about 20 minutes. Towards the end, add the banana. Serve with rice and yoghut.

Lemon Drizzle Cake

Lemon Drizzle Cake

Originally uploaded by Mr_Chips

This is a wonderful light cake that my mother makes. It is simple to make and very heart warming.
Ingredients
250 g unsalted butter
250g castor sugar
4 large eggs
zest of a lemon
250 g self -raising flour
8 tablespoons milk.
For the syrup
juice of 3 lemons and 200g icing sugar

Cream the sugar and buuter. Add the eggs with a little of the flour add the meon zest. Fold the flour into the mixture with milk. Spoon into a cake tin and cook at about 180C for about 45 minutes.
Syrup
Prepare the syrup whilst the cake is cooking and enjoy a cup of tea. Just put the lemon juice into a suacepan with the icing sugar and heat until the sugar disolves. When the cake is done, spike the top with a skewer and pour the syrup over the top to soak in. Leave in the tin until the cake is cooled.

Wild Swimming

Bassenthwaite Lake

Originally uploaded by Mr_Chips

In the Lakes for a week so I decided I really wanted to try some wild swimming, inspired by Roger Deakin’s Waterlog. The question was - when and where. It was cold that week and the weather raining and grim. This was not conducive to swimming. I was staying in Braithwaite and I eyed up the local river where it is dammed just above the village forming a good pool that looked deep enough to swim in. But the water was freezing - it had been a cold summer. Even a dog dipped its paw in and turned away in disgust.
Then on the last day, early in the morning to Bassenthwaite lake to take some early morning photos. The clouds were down and the light not great for photography but suddenly the calm water drew me in. Fortunaly there is a little gravel beach so it is possible to walk into the water without getting muddy. It is shallow at first and then it shelves quickly so in no time at all I was swimming in the Lakes District’s one and only true Lake and it was glorious. The water not too cold and it was good to have a fresh perspective on the surrounding mountains.
No sign of the otters or osprey that are living nearby, in fact there seemed to be no birds or wildlife aound at this early hour. Just the faint swish of cars on the main road.

Crab Apple Jelly

Apples

Originally uploaded by Mr_Chips

Crab Apple Jelly
I am always amazed at the sight of wild crab apples hanging from autumnal branches in the woods where you least expect to see apples. Sometimes there is the sad site of a tree that has lost its load and there is a carpet of apples at its feet. Slowing fermenting in the late indian summer or being nibbled by muntjac deer. Too sour to eat raw they make a lovely jelly and combined with a few sloes or rosehips to add a red glow they form a work of art with the sun glinting through them on the kitchen shelf.

This is a delicious jelly to eat with lamb but can be a useful accompaniment to many dishes. The addition of sloes or rosehips will add a pleasant tinge of red to the jelly. You could also try cranberries. You could leave out the rosemary for a plainer version. You can also add a pint of cider vinegar which gives the jelly a bit of a kick.
Ingredients
A big bag of crab apples
2 hand fuls of rosehips or sloes
You will need to measure the resulting juices but about 3Ibs of sugar for 3 pints of liquid but this will depend on how much you obtain from your apples.
Sprigs of rosemary.

Every pint of liquid use a lb of sugar
Collect a bag of wild crab apples avoiding heavily bruised ones. About 3 lb.
Wash the apples and chop into quarters. Put them in a preserving pan and cover with water. Then cook until they all go soft and mash them up a bit with a wooden spoon.
Cook up the rosehips or sloes in a separate pan with water and cook until they go mushy and then add the mush to the main mix.
Pour all the mix into a jelly bag and leave overnight for the juice to drip out. You are left with a clear juice.
Simmer the liquid in a pan (about 20 minutes) with the sprigs of resemary to create an infusion then strain back into the preserving pan.
Measure the liquid and then add 1 lbs of sugar for every pint of liquid. Boil rapidly until a set is obtained. The sound of boiling will change and it goes frothy on top. Use a saucer from the freezer to test the set by putting a dropof the liquid back in the freezer for a minute or two to cool. Test to see if it has set.
Skim the liquid and then pour into heated jars. As they cool put a fresh sprig of rosemary into each jar for decoration.

Use your loaf

Use your loaf

Originally uploaded by Mr_Chips

I always make my own bread but one of my contacts on Flickr-Falling Sky- posted his results of using a recipe from the Guardian. I tried it out and was impressed by the taste and airy nature of the final loaf. It uses the sponge method of soaking half the flour in the water and yeast for several hours. By a strange coincidence there was a TV programme on just this topic last night- The Hairy Bakers.
I have adapted my own recipe to make a batch of 3 loaves using the Kenwood mixer with dough hook.
Ingredients
For the sponge:
1 1/2 Ibs of strong white flour.
2-3 level teaspoons of dried yeast.
1 1/2 pints of warm water

For the dough
1 1/2 Ibs of strong wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon of salt
2 oz of butter.
Put the water in the large mixing bowl and add the yeast. Add the flour and give it a quick blitz with the dough hook to stir it up. Leave for several hours with a tea towel over the top. This is the sponge and it will rise up as the yeast gets to work.
When ready, rub the butter into the second half of the flour - I like some wholemeal mixed in but you can use all white. Mix into the sponge and it may be necessary to add a little more water to create a sticky mix. Leave again and give it a quick knead with the dough hook 30 minutes later. Leave for another 30 minutes and then take out and knead on a surface until its nice and smooth. Don’t add too much flour to stop it sticking. You can oil the board if you want. Then shape and put in to the bread tins. Leave again until they have doubled in size in the tins. Brush the tops with milk and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake in a hot oven - 200C in my fan assisted oven for 30 minutes does the trick. Tap the bottoms and they should sound hollow.

RememBird Digital Audio Recorder - Review

Pale Chanting Goshawk

Originally uploaded by Mr_Chips

The Ravenous Rambler is a keen bird watcher so I feel a review of this device fits into place here among the recipes and walks.
Have you been out walking and wondered what that bird song was? Maybe you have been looking for the first chiffchaff of the season but can’t quite remember what the call is like after a long winter? Well, the RememBird device is exactly what you need to ‘remember bird’ calls.
I was thrilled to find this new invention at the British Bird Fair this year. It is a small device that is easy to hand hold but can fit with velcro attachments to the underside of your binoculars. It has two buttons. Press one to make audio notes about the birds you are watching. Then press the other button to record the birds’ call with a built in microphone. All the audio is digital and can be down-loaded to the computer later using the special program.
The details have been meticulously thought about. It has simple buttons and light displays and runs on one AAA battery. Also once you have made an audio note, the device records on a 4 second loop waiting for you to press the call button. So if a bird flies past singing, you will re-capture the last 4 seconds worth of the call. All the settings can be altered in the preferences.
But how does this teach you the calls? Well, I bought the European library of calls that comes on an SD card. Using the ear piece, you can search through the calls and listen to the library. There are calls and songs for most of the species, allowing you to compare your own recordings. You can even create your own library.
Back at the computer, the program downloads your own recordings and puts them in a database with date, place and your comments. It’s brilliant and great fun.