Rain can’t stop us

06.07.12. One winch at a time in the Monkey Woods.

A friend of ours, Nick, is fortunate enough to have five acres of woodland in a very picturesque part of Sussex.  It’s a great place to spend time sitting by a fire and cooking the odd sausage in the summer months.  Sadly, of late the experience has been less than pleasant; we’ve been forced to sit feeling sorry for ourselves under tarpaulins - trying to pretend it’s not raining.  

We had had almost given up the woodland dream, when Nick met Sandy at a gypsy themed party. Nick, being a sensitive soul, fell hopelessly in love with her at first sight. 

Sandy the caravan - www.hazydayscaravanhire.co.uk/

OK, so I know caravans aren’t all that cool, but you haven’t met Sandy.  As Sandy is already spoken for, Nick decided he needed one just like her in the Monkey Woods.  So along came the Compass 342, fresh from the fields of Kent. 

Admittedly she’s no Sandy but we’re working on it.

Four of us met at the gates to the Monkey Woods in anticipation of the delivery of the Compass.  After 15 minutes of good progress with the four of us pushing and pulling, the poor compass was thoroughly stuck in a rut.  With the promise of a free meal, I shot off home to grab a winch and dragged her up onto even ground where she sits proudly as queen of the woods.

 So now we can escape to the woods, whatever the weather and the sound of the rain drumming on the roof is rather nice, actually. Watch this space for some foraging experiments from the caravan kitchen. 

 

New take on strawberries and cream

Nature's Aspirin

Summer nostalgia

27.06.12: A walk along the Ouse. 

There may be dark clouds hanging over Sussex, our roads seem to turn into rivers on a nightly basis and I have despairingly packed my flip-flops away for good, but I do distinctly remember there was a balmy day back in June. Alice and I stopped in at the Anchor at Barcombe Mills, for a quick pint followed by a swim in the Ouse with Archie in tow. 

That stretch of the Ouse is one of the best available ‘wild swimming’ spots (or just ‘swimming’ as I like to call it!) in Sussex.  We made it a mile along the river, which was a good test for a longer swim we’re planning, when, or if the weather improves.

Whilst we dried off we went on a hunt for meadowsweet.  Riverside fields and meadows are ideal territory for meadowsweet, which prefers damp ground.  It’s distinctive ‘candyfloss’ flowers peppered a hedgerow nearby and we were able to harvest a small carrier bag full.  Leaving plenty more for the bees of course-chesneybeeproject.blogspot.co.uk/2010/07/meadowsweet.html.

Sadly the sun seems to have abandoned us for the year, but meadowsweet is still prevalent in the meadows, strangely.  I'll be adding are some recipes I tried out with the ‘Queen of the Meadow’ as the main ingredient I hope you enjoy them. 

Wild garlic pesto

The wild garlic season may have come to an end (April-June) - but I found myself with a craving for it  so got out some Wild Garlic I froze a couple of weeks ago to use with lunch...