Sarah and Mike… Probably

A view across Yeadon Tarn to Leeds Bradford Airport behind the trees. The whole lake was covered in ice and was topped off with about 10cm of snow. The dots on the right are seagulls standing around on the ice. I’ve not done much manipulation on this - the sky above me was as white as the snow, but gave way to blue in the distance.

I took a walk up to Yeadon Tarn at lunch time. It was frozen solid and covered in snow. The clouds above me were white too, but gave way to a little smudge of blue in the distance.

Wildflowers in the meadow at Yeadon Tarn, just next to Leeds Bradford Airport taken during a really hot lunch hour.

I went for a quick walk around Yeadon Tarn at lunchtime yesterday. The wildflower meadow is overflowing with delicate flowers that make an excellent subject. I took loads of images, with this being my favourite. The background bokeh is brilliant!

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves 2

What you need:

1 head of leaf chicory
 1 tsp(s) honey
 30 gm(s) pine nuts
 1 avocado
 2 chicken breasts
 2 tsp(s) wholegrain mustard
 1 Cos lettuce

What to do:

Slice up the chicken breast into smallish cubes. Heat some olive oil over a medium heat and add the chicken, honey and mustard. Give it a good mix so the chicken gets nicely coated in with the mustard and honey. Cook over a medium heat until the chicken is cooked through and the honey and mustard is starting to char on the outside.

Kahlua, Baileys and Vodka, apparently.

I love this triptych by James. It sums up that awful, um, drink that Stephen bought me. Thanks Stephen!

A picture taken from underneath the flower, with the sun directly above the flower head. I love this!

We’ve had a really sunny weekend. On Saturday, we went to Kathryn and Allan’s house for a barbecue. I took this picture of a flower growing in one of their front borders. Every once in a while, a photo comes along that I just love, and this is one of them. I love the deep blue sky, the sparkling bokeh of the leaves in the background and on the stem, and especially the way the flower’s petals seem to glow.

As soon as I saw the flower and the sky, I knew the photo that I wanted to take. It took a long time (this shot was number 13 out of 16). Crawling on my knees to get underneath the flower, I held the stem in my left hand and pushed the flower head across to block the sun and get a composition without the side of the house in it, while holding my camera in my right hand. Because it was so bright, I could get away with a shutter speed of 1/1250, so there was no chance of any camera shake! I think this is my favourite photo of the summer so far. (Apart from the vintage looking one of Charlotte, perhaps, that Flickr friends will be able to see.)

[ISO 100, f/4, 1/1250, 25mm]

There were some wonderful buildings in Valletta, and some really steep streets. This one was stepped downwards towards a road back up the other side.

At the end of April, we went to Malta for a holiday with Charlotte. I’d forgotten to post a link to our photos until now. I took over 400 pictures which I managed to edit down to 40 or so. There is a random selection below, or you can see the whole lot on our Flickr photostream. Note that you’ll need to be signed into Flickr as a ‘friend’ of ours to see the ones of Charlotte. (Or we can give you a Flickr guest pass if you ask).

Vegetables: broccoli (purple sprouting), cabbages (various green varieties), cauliflower, greens (spring and winter), lettuce, radishes, sea kale, sorrel, watercress, early asparagus

Fruit: rhubarb, bananas* 

Wild greens and herbs: alexanders, chickweed, chives, cow parsley (aka wild chervil), dandelions, fat hen, hogweed shoots, hop shoots, meadowsweet (leaves), nettles, sea kale, sea spinach, sorrel, watercress, wild garlic, wild rocket (leaves)

Wild flowers and fruits: primroses (garden)

Fungi and nuts: morels, St George’s mushrooms

Meat: spring lamb

Fish and shellfish: cockles, crab (brown, cock), pollack, salmon (wild), sea trout, cod, red mullet

Game: wood pigeon

Other: eggs!  They may be available all year round nowadays, but naturally-reared chickens will only start laying again once the days start to get longer…..

* As with last month’s citrus fruits, these obviously aren’t indigenous to the UK!  Try to avoid buying air-freighted and GO FAIR TRADE where you can.

The Photo a Day Flickr group that I take part in every day has a small sub-theme of “a day in the life”, where each week we take a picture from a different hour of the day. I took this picture of my car radio at 7am a couple of weeks ago. In the photo’s notes, I wrote:

“7am exactly and I’d just got into the car for the drive to work. It’s only a 10 minute drive. Vernon Kay rabbitted on about his friend who had a cello.”

Since then, I have had about 2 hits a day from Google Image Search of people searching for “what car does Vernon Kay Drive”. Two people a day who want to know what kind of car a radio personality drives. Why? That’s 28 people who have wanted to know so much that they typed in the phrase to Google. 28 people who were so intrigued by the picture of a car radio that they clicked into my rather mediocre photograph just to see if it was a picture of Vernon’s car radio, perhaps?

A couple of nights ago we went to East in Pudsey ( http://www.eastbarloungegrill.com/ ) for CS’s off-to-Africa farewell meal.  Both the bar and restaurant are nicely urban and neutral in decor, the service is efficient, polite and unobtrusive, and the menu offers a mix of old favourites and dishes I’d not come across before.

I had fish pakora followed by a murgh pocharga, which falls into the dishes not come across before category.  The fish pakora was OK, if a little chewy…  On arrival, the murgh pocharga looked suspiciously like chicken in Campbell’s condensed cream of tomato soup and, being largely tomato- and cream-based, tasted not dissimilar too.  However, it was a pleasant, mildly-spiced dish which I did enjoy.  Not sure I’d order it again, but I’m glad I tried it out!

Mike had lamb samosas and the chicken dahi; the samosas were “amazing” and the accompanying salad “very tasty”.  The chicken dahi was also “very good”.  Mike’s only complaint is that there was far too much food for a Mike to cope with.  Half a poppadom and 2 lamb samosas are surely enough for any man…  In fact, we both only managed about a quarter of our main course, but the staff were perfectly happy to pack it up for us to take home and sustain ourselves with for the rest of the week….  In fact, I’d even go so far as to say mine developed in flavour for keeping overnight! 

The piano bar is an interesting touch, though not exactly conducive to conversation…  Personally, I found it a bit more relaxing when the good old chill out CD came on.

Price: the bill worked out at £21 a head for poppadoms, a starter, a main course, a couple of sundries & a few drinks each = extremely reasonable!

Brownie points: they serve non-alcoholic Cobra; the ambience is chilled & refined (at least, it is on a Wednesday night between 7.30 - 9.30pm…)

Red cards: it was freezing!  The only thing stopping me from keeping my coat on all night was fear of dragging my sleeves through the raita.

Overall impression: extremely pleasant and bar and restaurant, good value for money, friendly atmosphere, good food and drink - would definitely return.

Vegetables: broccoli (purple sprouting), cabbages (various green varieties), chicory, spring greens (i.e. the first leaves of early cabbages), winter greens (e.g. kale, ruby chard, spinach), leeks, sea kale, celeriac

Fruit: rhubarb (forced), blood oranges*, mandarins*, oranges*

Wild greens and herbs: alexanders, chickweed, chives, cow parsley (aka wild chervil), fat hen, nettles, watercress

Wild flowers and fruits: primroses (garden)

Fungi, nuts and saps: birch saps

Fish and shellfish: cockles, mussels, crab (brown, cock), oysters (rock), pollack, salmon (wild), sea trout, cod, lemon sole

Game: hare

For further details:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2006/oct/21/foodanddrink2

*These are obviously not UK-grown, but are currently in abundance on the continent, making them a cheap import.  Just avoid buying air-freighted!  Visit www.abelandcole.co.uk