Thursday, 11 June 2015

Visiting an old favourite park

We lived in Twickenham for over twenty years and enjoyed the fantastic local parks when the children were young. We continued to visit them often, just because...

I'm going to invite you to visit all of them, starting with the largest and most spectacular: Bushy Park.






Bushy Park is a royal park, rich in history:

Bushy Park extends over about 1,100 acres (445 hectares) of grassland to the north of Hampton Court Palace. Cardinal Wolsey began by enclosing farm land adjacent to the house when he took over Hampton Court and, when Henry VIII acquired the palace in 1529, the old oak fences were replaced by a high brick wall, traces of which can still be seen today. The park was originally of several distinct areas until the present boundaries were completed in 1620. The name “Bushy Park” was first recorded in 1604 and was probably a reference to the many thorn bushes. These were planted to protect the young oak trees which were being grown as timber for ships in the navy.
In Tudor times the parks were important as hunting grounds - Henry VIII stocked them with deer and there were rabbits in abundance. After the royal palace at Richmond was destroyed by fire, Hampton Court became increasingly important as a royal residence and the land we now know as Bushy Park was the adjacent hunting ground. Henry, and later his daughter Elizabeth, both enjoyed riding and hunting here.
There are formal areas, where the gardens are kept very neat, but there are also very rugged areas, where we find an abundance of wildlife. Actually, the wildlife is all over the park!

Jackdaws congregate in a grassed area::

A couple of coots, one nesting, the other going for a walk:



Another nesting bird:



An Egyptian goose:



A couple of ring-necked parakeets:



The famous Bushy Park deer:




I hope you've enjoyed the visit to this very beautiful place.




[Last three photos by Helen Carrington]

Wednesday, 10 June 2015

A delicious chicken recipe for the summer

I found this recipe on a site for British expats in France. I'm not eating any animal based foods at the moment, but that doesn't mean I can't salivate all over the keyboard and share the recipe with friends who can enjoy it in real life!


A slow roasted chicken with garlic and lemon, perfect for when the sun is shining. “This is also one of those recipes you can’t make once: that’s to say, after the first time, you’re hooked” says the creator Mark Binmore. It is gloriously easy: you just put everything in the roasting dish and leave it to cook in the oven, the fabulous smell will pervade the house, at any time of year, with the summer scent of lemon and thyme – and of course mellow, almost honeyed garlic…
Mark Binmore is the proprietor of Maison de l'Orb.
Ingredients
1 2-2.25kg/4lb 6oz-5lb 8oz chicken cut into 10 pieces
1 bulb garlic separated into unpeeled cloves
2 unwaxed lemons cut into chunky eighths
Fresh thyme
3 tablespoons of really good olive oil
150 ml/5 fl oz white wine or vermouth
Black pepper
Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 160ºC/325°F
2. Put the chicken pieces into a roasting tin and add garlic cloves, lemon chunks and the thyme; just roughly pull the leaves off the stalks, leaving some intact for strewing over later.
3. Add the oil and using your hands mix everything together, then spread the mixture out, making sure all the chicken pieces are skin side up.
4. Sprinkle the white wine over the mix, grind on some black pepper, then cover tightly with foil and put in the oven to cook, at flavour-intensifying low heat, for 2 hours.
5. Remove the foil from the roasting tin, and turn up the oven to 200ºC/400°F
6. Cook the uncovered chicken for another 30-45 minutes, by which time the skin on the meat will have turned golden brown and the lemons will have begun to scorch and caramelize at the edges.
Serve it straight from the roasting tin if you like, after garnishing it with the rest of the thyme. Serve with vegetables, potatoes, rice or pasta – this dish goes with almost anything.
Don't forget to get some French bread to mop up the juices – bon appétit!


Tuesday, 9 June 2015

Green

Green is another colour I like. It makes us feel good when we think of rain forests, the lovely feel of cool grass under our feet, the walks in the local park. Green foods are healthy and refreshing. But... we can look green when sick, be green with envy or haunted by that green-eyed monster called jealousy. Hey, all this talk of green reminded me that our resident leprechaun has been absent for a while... 

Enjoy today's collection!















[The results of the "Colours" poll were very close, so I settled for posting the series every third day, making it just a tiny little bit more frequent than twice a week.]

Monday, 8 June 2015

Medieval Fair

Guest post by GrannyJ

The fair was excellent. It took place in two large fields that were set up to represent actual medieval fairs that might have taken place in Western or Eastern Europe or the Middle East. The day was sunny, not too hot, with a nice breeze off the water. A perfect day.


There were musicians, buskers, artisans, falconers, archers, merchants, weapons of war, vikings, and jousting knights in shining armour on horseback.








I loved the jousting but it is not a sport for sissies…that is for sure. They call it full contact jousting - no scripts, no choreography and no air-bags. The horses are huge and they are travelling at about 35mph. The hits when they come are comparable to being in a car crash. One of the jousters told me that when someone gets hurt it can take months to recover. In the final competition there was a huge crash where both jousters were hit, the lances broke and flew in all directions and both knights ended up on the ground. As soon as they fall, the horses stand still. Here is the website for the Knights of Valour  for further details.



They are trying to get more people involved and start up an actual league - similar to NASCAR! In the little video clip the man with the loud voice is Mike. He got quite involved! Mike was cheering for Sir Matthew, but unfortunately he lost out to Sir William in the final round. Mike is no better at picking the winner of a jousting competition than he is at hockey! For $5.00 you were allowed to ride one of the war horses after the jousting competition.





I guess you can’t have a medieval fair without “weapons of war”. I actually enjoyed the Warrior’s Battle. The men were in full armour and they really went at one another with actual weapons - but blunt swords and axes. The funniest part was when two little girls volunteered to be the princesses and they were kidnapped by the Black Knight and taken to the castle. Then came the storming of the castle. I got a little video clip of that. It was a riot!






There was also an encampment of tents representing the various regions. The Eastern European presentation included a re-enactment by the Dark Ages Recreation Company.

Their website has this little blurb:

DARC is composed of people interested in using living history to research aspects of life in Northern Europe during the Viking Age. This is accomplished through workshops and experimental archaeology where the focus is on developing traditional skills as we create accurate replicas of period artifacts and processes. Our historic events are centered on the 'camp', where the activities revolve around 'daily life' and the interaction of carefully researched characterizations. The Company further strives to provide a resource of skilled and experienced historic interpreters and physical demonstrators to museums, schools, and educational programs.

The participants which included whole families, actually camped out in their tents over the 3 days of the fair. Their demonstrations included historic glass bead making, wood carving,





In the marketplace there were tons of things for little princesses and knights, (and big ones also and too!) I think every kid there bought a wooden sword. And then after the jousting they were allowed to come and be knighted by the king.





I must mention the Roaming Pickle Man. I made sure to get a picture of him in his kilt. He was quite nice looking. And he could call out PICK-LES! in one breath that had to have been 30 seconds or longer! Very impressive.



We all had a great time.