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.
