Alice in Wonderland

I posted an earlier blog called ‘Meet the girls’ where I introduced my hens including Alice, who should be pure white, but being the tomboy of the group is forever black from digging.  I know she enjoys getting dirty with constant dust baths and routing for tit bits but I discovered today exactly why she gets so grubby. I let them all into the main garden for a bit of company as I indulged in a spot of cutting back and weeding (weeds aplenty thanks to all the rain) and Alice led the way as she headed straight for her little wonderland, an area past the pond under the birch tree where it is sheltered and thick with soft dry earth. The girls love this spot and soon settled down for a good dig.

My first hens, six ex-battery girls, also loved this spot and would find a little area in direct line with a sun beam to enjoy a snooze or a touch of gentle pecking in the soil as they snuggled in. Anyway, I digress, not only was Alice digging to Australia in her enthusiasm and showering herself with soil she was also covered in the earth dispersed by Elsie May and Audrey Joy under their own earnest efforts and was quickly disappearing under a layer of topsoil.

So, now I know, although I have to confess that at the moment Alice is not only sporting brand new, pure and unsullied tail feathers, which are super white (but for how long?), but also a smattering of new lily white baby feathers round her wings and  she does look extremely pretty and extraordinarily white  for Alice, so perhaps this new pristineness will prevail once she shakes out all that muck.
 

Find the best spot

Settle down for a preen - Alice pristine and as white with new feathers

 

 A little ritual pecking and the showering of soil starts

 

A little at first ...

 



... then the full coverage - just a few tail feathers and wing fluff escapes ...

 

One of my little ex-battery girl Gladys a few years ago settling down there for a spot of gentle thinking 

 

As I have been typing we have had a quick but tremendous thunder storm - one second it was bright and the next black and with  a huge clap of thunder the rain came across the field in sheets - the lane is now gently steaming but the girls remain happily snug and dry under their beech tree.

Have a nice weekend.
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Famous Five Go Adventuring again

… okay, only two of us, and we’re not famous, but I like the title and I loved the books. Here is some more of our adventures of our Cornwall weekend.

Saturday morning was really bright first thing so we set off very early to visit Kynance Cove before the crowds came out. We had discovered Kynance Cove for the first time a couple of years ago when we stayed at Cadgewith. The tide was out then so we could walk along the beach. It was enchanting. The sun was low but dazzling, bouncing in beams off the rocks and reflecting the whiteness of the sand and almost turquoise water. This time though we found the tide was fully in and, half way across the coastal path, the weather changed dramatically. Within seconds, the sky turned a thunderous black and the temperature dropped, the wind whipped up and the heavens opened. There was no shelter whatsoever. We were drenched to the skin in seconds. There was nowhere to go. You have to get wet. So, saturated and shivering, we kept calm and carried on to the cliff edge and looked down. The contrast to our first visit was staggering. The rocks were now dark and menacing, the sea churning and crashing over the rocks in thundering white foam and creating loud echoing booms as it rushed into hidden caves below us. It was just as magical and mesmerising.

The coastal path to Kynance Cove and the gathering storm clouds ...

 

... compared with Kynance Cove two years ago

When the sun shone ...

... and the sunbeams bounced off the rocks

This time the tide was in.



... and the rocks looked black

and the water more dramatic but still as magical

The coastal path to Kynance Cove is brimming with wild flowers including tiny tissue paper like cranes bills

... and sunny yellow birds foot trefoil



and pink clovers

After stopping off at Valerie to dry off and change we set off to Mousehole. We always stop off for a stroll round Mousehole, a little fishing village with yellow lichened cottages huddled round the harbour, because it is so pretty and picturesque.

Like the majority of the coves and harbours on The Lizard, the water here, even outside the harbour, is so crystal clear you can see the bottom. The depth marker attached to the outer harbour wall showed that the water there was nine feet deep and you can still plainly see the pebbles and shells strewn along the sand at the bottom. It’s captivating - you just want to lower yourself in. The locals were busy in the harbour setting up stalls for a carnival so there was a buzz about the place. The sun had come back out and the sea was flat calm with the small boats within the harbour walls gently bobbing on the water tugging at their moorings.

The Mousehole car park attendant sounds like a nice man



The lichen covered cottaged round the harbour

The little harbour ...

... and finally, a tiny crooked lane with stone cottages

Chocolatey to the point of madness …

I have just made Nigella’s Intense and Indulgent Chocolate Cookies and the mouth-watering aroma of chocolate is seeping into every corner of the cottage. These are the chocolatiest cookies you will ever come across, is the claim by Nigella and judging by the chocolate overload on my senses right now, I’m not arguing.  Alas, these are not for my consumption - though I am finding it extremely difficult not to sink my teeth into one right now - they are for His Nibs to take to the office. They are loaded with chocolate, rich dark cocoa, melted dark chocolate and chocolate chips ….. two packets! and look very appetising wrapped in greaseproof paper and tied with string, even if I do say so myself.

Here is the recipe, courtesy of Nigella, should you want to indulge, with my notes attentively added in brackets.

              Ingredients

·    125g (5oz) dark chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa solids

·    150g (6oz) flour (it doesn’t specify but I have tried both plain and SR and find that plain gives the best results)

·    30g (a smidge over 1oz) cocoa, sieved

·    1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

·    1/2 teaspoon salt

·    125g (5oz) soft butter

·    75g (3oz) light brown sugar

·    50g (2oz) white sugar

·    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·    1 egg, cold from the fridge

·    350g (2 bags) chocolate chips (I used one packet of milk chocolate chips and one packet of plain chocolate chips)

             Method

Serves: Makes 12 (I use an ice cream scoop as the measure and you get exactly 12 cookies)

1.        Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3 or for a 2 oven Aga use the roasting oven with the grill on the oven floor and the cold shelf on the 2^nd set of runners up.

2.       Melt the dark chocolate either in the microwave or in a heatproof dish over a pan of simmering water.

3.       Put the flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl.

4.       Cream the butter and sugars in another bowl. Add the melted chocolate and mix together.

5.        Beat in the vanilla extract and a cold egg, and then mix in the dry ingredients. Finally stir in the chocolate chips.

6.       Scoop 12 equal-sized mounds and place on a lined baking sheet about 6cm apart. Do not flatten them (I do flatten them slightly with a fork).

7.        Cook for 18 minutes, testing with a cake tester to make sure it comes out semi-clean and not wet with cake batter. (I cooked for 13 minutes in the Aga and they have come out just right – any longer and they start to overcook on the edges and loose that delicious squidgyness).

8.       Leave to cool slightly on the baking sheet (if you can restrain yourself) for 4-5 minutes then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely (before storing in an air tight tin ….. yeah, right! Before scoffing).

Happy baking

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The sea casts its spell ...

The sea,

Once it casts its spell,

Holds one in its net of wonder

Forever

I don’t know where this poem came from – I liked it and later used it on a scrapbook page of my Father-in-Law who was a sailor all his life and had the sea in his blood.

The words are so true.

The sea is healing.

We took a walk down to Church Cove and had a look round first at the little grave yard at the top of the cove, where many sea men are at rest, before walking down to the beach. There are some lovely and unusual inscriptions but I was very taken with these intricately inscribed head stones - such delicate and exquisite workmanship still clear even after 160 years of coastal wind and rain and storms. There were a few stones like these two so maybe they were worked by the local stonemason. Close up you could see the individual chisel marks in the stone.

Down on the beach there was already a number of families and boarders in the surf so we climbed across the rocks to a more secluded area where the smooth seal like rocks held little sun warmed pools of water.

Huge swathes of baby mussels waiting for the return of the tide.

I took so many photos of the sea and I don’t want to bore you with seascapes so I do have to restrain myself from posting too many but I just love the colours and the mood. The dark  brooding rocks against the light sparkling off the sea.

 

I just love these two pictures – really simple with the sea and sky the same colour – the only difference is the sunlight dancing off the water creating these silver shards.

We spent ages just watching. Just listening. To the waves crashing over the rocks.

Yes, the sea heals.

Chocolate Box Pretty

On the way to the caravan we stopped in at Charlestown - a working port which harbours a fleet of riggers ships and has been host to TV locations for Poldark, Hornblower and Mansfield Park - to stretch our legs with a walk round the harbour. This is the first time that we have been here and seen the tide out so we had a meander round the harbour wall and then a walk down along the waters edge and a look in the  little rock pools left by the tide.

An old fishermans hut housing the tools of his trade.

A boat at rest on the damp sand within the harbour walls

Stone steps built into the side of the harbour wall, worn smooth by centuries of fishermen’s boots

 The tide had left seaweed draped  elegantly over the rocks …..

 

….. the fine seaweed looked like mermaids hair curling at the ends

 Teeny little crabs the size of my little finger nail and smaller, black or beautifully translucent scurried amongst the pebbles.

-----

We later went on to Coverack on the East side of the Lizard Peninsular, a quaint and extreemly pretty little coastal village and fishing port with a tiny harbour built in 1724. Cottages in the village are said to have secret cellars that were used to hide contraband by smugglers. The tide was fully in here so we sat on the harbour wall and watched the boats and children diving into the sea from the wall.

Colourful boats were tied up within the harbour walls, bobbing  prettily on the surface like toy boats in a bath

 The view of the harbourcoming into the village

Oh and the chocolate box cottages are just exquisuite.

More to come  later ...

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