The Walk

It’s been a wet month, I’ve not been inclined to move very far and work has been keeping me very busy but yesterday we had a long walk in the chilly countryside. It had been a very frosty morning and the temperature remained close to zero, but we were dressed up warm and it felt ok in the sunshine.

We walked a 6-mile circuit to Chilton Foliat, which is a neighbouring village.

It was very beautiful and near the River Kennet much of the time. This was looking West from the Fairy Bridge. The river is swollen and very fast-flowing at the moment after all the rain.

Rather strange to see a lone cygnet but he was enjoying eating the watercress.

We saw some excellent clouds during the walk - I think these are cirrostratus.Edit: Turns out they're cirrocumulus clouds.

And this photo is showing a Sundog (like two small rainbows either side of the Sun) they occur in cold weather and under the right circumstances. This parhelion effect is produced by the Sun’s rays being diffracted through ice crystals and ‘diamond dust’, described by the Met Office here. 

Part of the walk is up this hidden footpath which runs alongside that huge field. One of our previous plotholders has a dedicated bench along there, over-looking the fields surrounding Hungerford.

We’ve seen hares in that field before but yesterday the most interesting wildlife we saw was at the start of our walk - this little muntjac deer.

It was a very cold day, but so pleased that the Sun was shining to show off the Autumn colours in all their glory.

The allotment is looking far less picturesque, this was 2 weeks ago and today has been very dank.

We have had short plot visits each week and the broad beans have germinated. I pulled a parsnip, which had no canker, that’s a rare feat for us! I brought the squashes and parsley home to avoid the frost, but the parsnips should only improve with a bit of frosting.

I had two meals of this mushroom and chestnut casserole - so delicious! Mmm, and look at that roast parsnip - yum yum! And the other meal included a couple of the tiny pumpkins cut into slices and roasted.

I expect my next post will be in December and the Christmas lights are being switched on tonight in Hungerford. It has certainly felt Wintry this week, but definitely still looked like Autumn for our lovely walk.

Enjoy this great song by The Cure.

Viva Tenerife

Home again after a lovely holiday on the north coast of Tenerife.

This was our tenth visit, our first was when I needed to dialyse there - it was two months before I received my kidney transplant. We realised then that we loved the place and now post-transplant holidays are even better, with plenty of food, drinking and walking - oh, so much walking and so many hills!

One of the reasons we return to Puerto de la Cruz is because it improves at each visit for vegetarian tourists.We go self-catering in the Casablanca Apartaments and manmage to find some excellent veggie options in the various supermarkets we shop in.

Including tofu, soya, seitan options

Of course, we had some lovely fresh vegetables too - look at the size of that pepper!

I like the way their supermarkets just sell chunks of pumpkin - I don't think ours do that. They grow a lot of different squash varieties in Tenerife. From the bus you can see them piled in the corners of fields while the fields are prepared for potato planting.

And how about these little lovelies for dessert - orange or lemon icecream, so delicious.

Anyway, I'll stop salivating with the memory and share some photos of the street art in Puerto - (I enjoyed Shaheen's street art posts from various places so I hope you enjoy these).

Probably my favourite

 

I love the huge paintings, but the little ones scattered around the place and on drain covers are good too - look at this little cutie!

Some are better from a distance...

 Others you need to zoom in to appreciate :-)

Outside our favourite veggie restaurant 'El Limon'

If you can't paint, why not crochet?!

I do love the white houses with terracotta roofs but why have white when there are so many other colours - and if you can't decide, well, have them all in a beautiful piece of art!

And here is a traditional song from Tenerife.

Lettuce Soup...hmmm

Yesterday was cloudy! And not so sweltering. We went for a lovely walk along part of the Wayfarers Walk; from Combe Gibbet to Buttermere near Shalbourne. There were so many butterflies - mostly meadow browns, tortoiseshells and peacocks flitting along the ancient chalky path ahead of us. Just beautiful.

In the evening we popped up the plot to pick some lettuce to make lettuce soup. I added an onion, veg stock and garlic. It wasn't that tasty but with some marmite added it was ok - probably won't bother again though!

Today we just had another quick visit to pick some Orla potatoes and courgettes. The potatoes are a bit slug damaged - Jamie's really wishing he had bought the nematodes we talked about last year.  I'm making a layered bake thing with potatoes, onions, Quorn pepperoni slices with a pre-fried cheesy courgette topping.

Our peppers are growing well but not going red yet. Well, perhaps they're timed to be ready with the tomatoes...