Our week that was: Apple picking, a play date and moon missions

We’re still playing catch-up here on the blog after another fun-filled week – time is whizzing by in a flash. It does, doesn’t it, as you get older?

Apple picking

One of my friends from the Women’s Institute has a garden with an orchard. She invited a couple of us over to pick some of the apples, as she’d never be able to make use of them all.

The apple trees are old, rare Welsh heritage varieties such as Baker’s Delicious and Cadwaladr.

As well as apples, there were a few, much less commonly found trees in the orchard… including these walnuts that were almost ready to harvest.

We spent less than an hour apple picking, after which I returned home with two large sacks, heavy with fruit, with not much of an idea of what I was going to make with them. A pie and an upside-down cake are most likely; I have so many apples, I can attempt things I’ve never done before; apple juice, apple jam, hard cider?

Play date for Barley

A few weeks ago, we encountered a lady out walking her dog near the Arch near Hafod. After a tentative 30 seconds or so, we were all really pleased to see that her dog, Tala, and Barley hit it off splendidly. They’re about the same size and possess the same energy levels. They got on so well, in fact, that we agreed to meet the following week in the same place for a doggie play date.

The afternoon of the play date was a welcome chink of lovely, warm sunny weather in an altogether damp and dreary week. Tala & Barley loved it; tearing through the woods, chasing each other for most of the hour-long circular walk. We hope it will become a regular occurrence.

For All Mankind

We’ve just binge-watched 3 series of For All Mankind. The series proffers an alternative world history that hinges on the ‘space race’ not ending with the USA landing on the moon in 1969. The series broaches many subjects such as male chauvinism, feminism, sexuality, politics, technology and conspiracy theories. And I’ve just found out – there’s going to be a series four at some point in the near future!

Our week that was: Family weekend, sand spray and fruit picking

We had a visit from Justin’s sister this weekend; it’s been in the diary for ages, and we’ve been really looking forward to having her come to see us again.

Rachel’s visit

Rachel lives in Greater Manchester – a 4-hour drive away. She’s the one we stay with when we have our dentist appointments up in Todmorden, so we’re taking our turn in acting as hosts! We’ve been keeping our fingers & toes crossed for good weather while she was here. The weather forecast wasn’t great, but we did manage to enjoy a few dry and sunny spells when we were out walking.

We took her to the nearby Hafod Estate as she’d not been there before. We cobbled a walk together that took us through steep woodland, fields with highland cattle grazing and above and along the winding river Ystwyth.

Another trip to the coast

Whenever she’s visited in the past, Rachel has enjoyed going for a walk along the beach. So, even though the forecast wasn’t great, we took a drive out to Ynyslas. As usual, we timed it so we would be there at low tide; the dog went completely bonkers, galloping along the long, wide sandy expanse.

Although it was really windy, there was a great, big, blue sky. It was so windy, in fact, that there was sand spray all the way along the beach; that’s how the famous sand dunes were formed!

Blackberry picking

The local hedgerows are currently heaving under the weight of blackberries. They’re like little glistening jewels crying out to be plucked and made into jam, jelly or apple & blackberry pie or crumble. I’ve already picked around 2 kilos and have put them into the freezer while I decide how I’m going to use them.

Our week that was: Fruit, fungi and flowers

Fruit, fungi and flowers, I just can’t help myself with the alliteration! But the last 7 days has been a week of picking; both out in the wild and in the garden.

Free, foraged fruit

Summer fruit season has begun, and it’s a bumper year. I attribute that to the long, dry spell followed by the bountiful downpours. I’ve picked my full of bilberries and blackberries – and it’s not even August yet. About a kilo of blackberries is currently residing in our freezer, and I’ve made a delicious fruit sponge pudding with the bilberries. I used my go-to upside-down cake recipe that works with almost any fruit.

Field fungi

Our Instragram feed has been lit up with photos of people’s fungi foraging exploits. We set out specially this week to one of our mushroom picking spots, in search of chanterelles. Alas, not a single one was to be found – perhaps in a couple of months time (which is when we’ve previously scored ourselves a paper bag full of the delicious mushrooms). I did, however, find and pick my first parasol mushroom of the season – it’s currently sliced and drying nicely in the kitchen.

Favourite flowers

Only a couple of years ago, our hydrangea ‘Annabelle’ was a half dead little thing sitting in the bargain box at a local garden centre. She consisted of 3 spindly little sticks and looked extremely sorry for herself. This year, she’s standing tall, proud and strong; producing a profusion of stems and blooms. We’ve put a handful of them in a white ironstone jug to enjoy indoors right now. A few other stems have been picked and are hanging upside-down, drying to display later on in the year.

Our week that was: Gooseberries, a group visit, germs and a gilet

OK, enough already with the alliteration. We promise, we won’t do it again!

Before you read on, one of the other little things we did this week – along with what seems like half the world’s population – was to join Threads. We’ve not got our heads round the app yet, and we’re not sure how much use we’ll make of it… but go give us a follow if you’ve joined too.

Home-grown fruit

I’ve been trying to work out my optimum gooseberry-harvesting timing – don’t pick them before they’re ripe, but don’t allow the birds to get there before me. One of our bushes was completely devoured by sawfly larvae and it produced no fruit. But another was heavily weighed down with an abundance of large, bright green gooseberries.

I held off for as long as I dared before picking just under 500 grams, about half of the crop. Justin doesn’t like them, so I had to find things to do with it where it wouldn’t go to waste. I made jam and pickle last year, and still have jars of both left in the pantry. I decided to use the majority to make (almost) a large jar of compote and the remainder in a fruit sponge. The compote will be swirled into my morning yoghurt and the sponge – with a pouring of thick cream – made two portions of delicious dessert for me!

The Catholic Church at Henllan

Last weekend, I went on a coach trip with my local WI group to visit the prisoner-of-war camp at Henllan. After a quick stop for coffee and scone at the nearby Teifi Valley Railway, we made our way to the prisoner-of-war camp, specifically to see the fascinating Church of the Sacred Heart located there.

Created by the Italian WWII prisoners who were housed there, the church is testament to what can be achieved with a lot of determination and very little else. The men were given permission to use one of the accommodation huts as a place of worship.

What’s amazing is the way in which the space was decorated to make it look and feel less like a pre-fab box and more like a chapel. The ‘stone’ columns and scroll-work capitals pictured above were made using thin bits of metal (used corned beef tins), painted to look like marble.

All the murals and frescos were created using paints made from tea leaves, coffee grounds and vegetable peelings mixed with crushed fish bones… and they remain vibrant and intact over 75 years later.

After the war, many of the ex-prisoners made pilgrimages back to Henllan, often bringing items to leave in the church. The framed watercolours above are fine examples of these. They are two of 14 Stations of the Cross painted by Mario Ferlito – the original muralist – that now hang on the walls around the chapel.

A trip to the dentist

We’ve lived in Mid-Wales for 4 years now and still haven’t been able to see a dentist in the area. We’re on a waiting list – at least we think we are – so, in the meantime, we have to travel back to Yorkshire for our 6-monthly check-ups or any other dental work that needs to be done. That’s an 8-hour round trip and an overnight stay with family… for about 10 minutes in the dentist’s chair!

We have a regular stop off point where we stretch our legs and give the dog (and ourselves) a comfort break. We’ve not long discovered a cracking charity shop nearby where we’ve always found something to buy. This trip, I bought this cream Berghaus gilet – that will come in useful as the autumn approaches.

Fever

During our aforementioned car journeys, we listened to Fever: The Hunt for Covid’s Origin, a BBC Radio 4 podcast series. The programmes are presented by John Sudworth, the BBC’s Beijing Correspondent at the time of the Coronavirus outbreak. The series investigated the possible origins of Covid-19 via interviews with scientists and Sudworth’s own courageous investigations from within China with its highly authoritarian, one party state system.

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: fruit picking