Medley

Decisions: move on to the next posting, or do several separate postings, or just put a few pictures up for the record. 

I've chosen the latter, starting with Monday's Christmas party at Eagley Jazz Club, where The Dixie Beats put on a great show to a full house. Good food, good music, great value.

It's not every day that a message is received from someone you haven't seen or communicated with for 62 years. Mike Shakeshaft, sixth from the left on the photo below, is that person. This week he kindly provided the picture of the students and staff of Ward House, Adams Grammar School, in July 1961. I am sitting on his left. He discovered me as a result of my posting in June 2022, recalling my early days at a boarding school.
Hopefully we will meet up in the new Year.

Sue's retirement nearly 12 months ago gives her the opportunity of indulging in flights of fancy such as that shown below. I'm hoping she will progress to something useful. Xmas cards, perhaps!?

We recently popped in to the Little Heath Farm shop with Ernst and Bianca. They were admiring the trees, and now Ernst has managed to find one that is nearly as tall as he is. Well done. It'll be strange for them to be celebrating Chritmas in Altrincham, rather than in Cape Town's summer sunshine.

Next, I've been doing Wordle every day since I bought my latest (S23) phone. A few days ago the software did what it has done to many others - it ended my run without reason or explanation. Perhaps that's a blessing - I'll never manage such a long run and I no longer have to worry about doing it every day, or even getting it right.

Finally, when Sue isn't doing jigsaws, she can be found labouring over a cold stove. Here's a result, and the recipe is here and below.

Ingredients:

For the biscuit base:
125g softened butter
50g caster sugar
5tbsp cocoa powder
1 egg, beaten
200g digestive biscuits, blitzed to crumbs
100g dessicated coconut
50g chopped almonds

For the custard icing:
100g softened butter
4tbsp double cream
3tbsp custard powder
250g icing sugar

For the chocolate topping:
150g dark chocolate
50g butter

Method:

1. For the biscuit base, melt the butter, sugar and cocoa powder in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir until smooth. Whisk in the egg for 2-3 mins until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and add the biscuit, coconut and almonds. Mix, then press into the base of a lined 20cm square tin. Chill for 10 mins.

2. For the custard icing, whisk together the butter, cream and custard powder until light and fluffy. Gradually add the icing sugar until it's fully incorporated. Spread over the bottom layer and chill until the custard layer is no longer soft.

3. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a microwave, then spread over the chilled bars and return to the fridge. Leave until the chocolate has fully set - at least 2 hours. Take out of the tin and cut into squares to serve.

29 January to 11 February 2024 - Two Weeks in Timperley

Monday 29 January - a great evening with 'The Teds', aka Chicago Teddybears Society Jazz Band, tonight's team being John Padfield on Reeds, Brian Singleton (hidden) on Drums, Jim Lucas on Trumpet, Dean Revera on Double Bass, Andrew Mackenzie on Trombone, and Rae Owens, band leader, on Guitar/Banjo. A lively and entertaining performance.

Thursday 1 February - a visit to great grandma Dot in Eccleshall. Looking quite chipper today, and at 98 she is still enjoying a game of nomination whist

Friday 2 February - Sue and I chose the best weather of the week to enjoy a bike ride to the RHS Bridgewater Gardens, together with Paul and Jeanette.

 

After a lengthy coffee and cake break, we pedalled back home for lunch. It's about 11 miles, (17.5 km) each way to and from the gardens from Timperley Bridge, taking a fairly leisurely hour each way.

Saturday 3 February - Wythenshawe parkrun #557 - quite squidgy. Full results are here.

The usual gang had to wait quite a while for me. An advantage of running slowly is that I save time that the quicker runners spend queuing for drinks in the cafe, including one for me when I finally arrive.

Later - a family meal in Timperley.

Gammon in cola went down well.

Isabella likes ice cream with her apple crumble!

Sunday 4 February - Wythenshawe Community Run. I volunteered to be Tail Walker - taking a pleasant 44 minutes for the 5 km, in nice weather.

Meanwhile, Sue went to a yoga retreat, returning home to create a chocolate roulade in preparation for the evening's annual Book Club 'Christmas Dinner'. A most enjoyable occasion.

Monday 5 February - part of our fence blew down before Christmas. We'll get it mended. Eventually.

Meanwhile, Chris and Darren have given our Leylandii trees their annual haircut, sadly for the last time as Chris is soon to retire. A tree surgeon will need to be found. Thanks go to Chris and Darren who have looked after these trees for a good 20 years.

Sue found a distraction from her 'Retirement Projects'. Can you spot the missing piece?

A walk along the towpath almost witnessed an accident that had happened a few minutes earlier. The driver of the van was thought to have blacked out. A worker from the nearby garage jumped in, smashed the driver's window and dragged the poor man out. A workboat just happened to be nearby and arranged for the canal to be closed to traffic for a while. When I arrived, the van's windscreen wipers were going strong! The driver 'walked away', but was no doubt taken to hospital. Nearly a week later, the vehicle is still awaiting a suitable crane for removing it.

Tuesday 6 February - a wet day in Timperley. I went for a walk around De Quincey Park.

Wednesday 7 February - a walk to Hale for coffee and cake with Paul and Jeanette found us in Stamford Park, admiring the durability of some information plaques for which I helped with some of the artwork many years ago.

What's a giant alligator doing in a children's playground!

Thursday 8 February - walking to Sale and back in the rain, I may have paused for a coffee at 'Walton Perks', had there been any sign of life!

Friday 9 February - an Isabella day, starting with a second breakfast of hot cross buns.

Jump Heaven is currently a favourite destination. Isabella went flat out for two hours, before baked potato and beans in the cafe for lunch, and a nap in the car on the way home.

I'm not quite sure what was going on here.

After more playing, we enjoyed a musical interlude on the way home while Sue had a long phone call.

Saturday 10 February - Wythenshawe parkrun #558 on a misty morning.

I was marshaling at 'Far Bridge', on the way to which the going, after rain on Friday, was decidedly muddy.

After 287 participants last week, this week only 181 folk braved the mud. Many people gave themselves a rest, as there was a cross country race nearby in the afternoon. Laura, Paul and Rufus jogged round by way of a warm up for that. Full results are here.

Sunday 11 February - about 115 participants assembled on a cool, misty morning for their weekly outing on this entirely dry underfoot 5 km run. With adequate volunteers, I was able to go at my own pace, which included some walking. 33:55 was an acceptable time on the day. Results are here. It's great to see the small children enjoying this run.

Phew, that's got the blog up to date, albeit without mention of parkrun's controversial deletion of many of the parkrun statistics, nor any mention of Balmoral House.

Friday 30 December 2022 - A Visit from Jessica

This is definitely the last 2022 posting!

We had the pleasure of a visit from Jessica, who spent the time cooking. Junior Masterchef looms! Or does it?

Red apple crumble, assisted by blackberries from the freezer, was her first assignment.

Then cupcakes were concocted.

The oven did its work...

Strangely, this result of Jessica's cooking seems to have disappeared from our house, with the crumble container nowhere to be found. Oh well.

Our erstwhile neighbours, Andrea and Thomas, now residents of Heidelberg, like doing jigsaws. They thought we would like one that they had already done, so this 750 piece Ravensburger 'Exit puzzle' arrived in the post the other day. It's a bit confusing, as the small picture on the box only vaguely resembles the actual puzzle. Apparently it's the jigsaw equivalent of an Escape Room, and once the jigsaw is finished you have to solve six puzzles within the picture.

We've had a two week break from looking after Isabella, but we did pop in to see her at home while mum and dad were busy. She was surrounded by toys and dolls but the only picture I took was of Millie, in heaven with some wrapping paper.

Happy New Year!

I’ve noticed some bloggers raising doubts as to whether they will continue making postings beyond the immediate future for reasons such as the issues they cover having been exhausted, or the feeling that they are unable to add usefully to the subjects they cover.  I pondered their dilemma whilst we were engaged in the pleasurable festive activity featured in this posting.

There is no such dilemma on these pages.  This blog remains true to its header, written when it was set up over five years ago:

“The main purpose of this blog is to keep in touch with friends and family, and maybe entertain others with common interests, particularly in relation to the outdoors. We hope you enjoy it, and your comments are valued....”

The blog actually followed on from over five years of reporting on our outdoors activities through our website that continues to this day (though a ‘programme’ for 2013 is somewhat overdue).

The on-line record, which starts with Sue’s account of our Tour of Mont Blanc trip in 2000 – thanks go to Alan Rayner for reminding us last night of that lovely trip – follows on from a diary that started in 1980 (thanks, Laurie) and has now reached Volume 74, albeit latterly through a lot of copying and pasting (literally) from these pages.

So this blog will continue in one form or another for as long as I’m around to make the postings.  You could say that it’s in its 33rd year!

Family and friends can now call in to Picasa, etc, at will to view images of scenes in which they may have been present, and I do get satisfaction from the fact that digital images can be displayed for all to see.  What a contrast to days past when the photos or slides received a cursory glance before being boxed or albumed and eventually relegated to the loft.  I even have a set of negatives from my first venture across the Channel in the 1970’s which have never even been printed.  I must dig them out and scan them sometime!  If you are reading this, Jacqui, Roger or John – be warned!

I also gain pleasure from the comments and viewings by complete strangers who visit these pages to seek information that may be useful to them, whether it be a route, image or a gear review or sundry piece of information – this blog and our website receive over 200 such visits every day; we hope that some of those visits provide the answers or information that is being sought.

I could ramble on, but I’ll finish by thanking Richard, Jenny and Dot for their assistance with this seasonal indulgence, and Nell and Keith for providing it in the first place.  It was fun…

 
… and it brought back happy childhood memories.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas Presents (1)

We had some lovely presents this (last) year.

Here’s one of the best, a 250 piece wooden jigsaw featuring a classic view.  For a change, it’s not Shutlingsloe!

Thank you, Andrew and Kate, for this lovely present.  We’ll dismantle it soon and bring it round to your house for reconstruction.

Similar products are available from here.