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Fruitless Summer

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Well, not quite fruitless but weird. We grow food in our garden. Usually.  Thus summer in the UK the weather has been very odd. I know the soild was prepared. Co.post had been composting. We have a worm based bin where the little critters push the goodness out through the holes in the bin. Extra cow poo was added. The ground was turned over but boy have We had a lousy crop.

The lettuce was eaten alive by pests despite all natural deterrents deployed as usual. The broccoli never made past 3 inches because of  hungry slugs and caterpillars. The beetroot have done ok but still on the small size. We had 4 or 5 meals from the spuds where we usually have double that. Whilst there are tomatoes on the vine they are not ripening. We’ve done nothing differently but the weather…..

I’m still hopeful that there will be peppers. No chilli this year, we didn’t get any. I think I’ve sat out once, eaten an outdoor meal once. It’s been lousy.

Don’t get me wrong, there have been sunny days, but few and far between. Yes, we go on about the weather in the UK. Even by UK standards, this year has been strange. This morning ing it rained heavily. Now the sun is shining  and there are clouds overhead. Yesterday was cloudy where my parents ts live and sunny where I live less than 50 miles away.

Usually, I have more blackberries that I  can use for jam. This year, nothing. I guess it happens. We have a warm, comfortable home and enough to eat. I have nothing to complain about. I’m just intrigued as to what’s going on.

Its been a while…

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Family stuff, as they say. One such was a wonderful visit to my second home in the Netherlands. Utrecht is one of my favourite cities in the world. Thus year I had the chance to take my young nieces to visit and explore the city.

Our first meal in Utrecht

Of course they had never tries Dutch food so day one, meal one gad to be traditional ‘borrelhapjes’. To be honest, the wee one can be a touch fussy, so bar snacks offered the widest opportunity for something to be OK. Butterbollen. Kaarstengels. Loaded fries. Loempias. And the best baked apples ever. We ate, we collapsed.

For anyone planning a visit, I’d recommend the Strowis. It’s a workers collective run hostel. Clean. Quiet . It even has a garden…but no sharks.

https://www.strowis.nl/

We stayed in a shared bathroom twin in the attic. Showers are large and clean and there are plenty of loos on each floor. There’s a kitchen too for making your own food though sadly breakfast is no longer available (covid). There’s a bar and coffee available. Games, art materials and they own the pub axcross the garden too. We chatted to Aussies, Koreans and Americans. That’s the joy of hostels you never know who you’ll meet. The staff are great and proved very helpful on this occasion.

Day two with the small people and a visit to the Museum Speelklok which is a personal favourite. Noisy and full of grandparents and grandchildren. We were in there for hours watching and listening to the huge circus organs and making our own musical books to play. Of course there was coffee and apple pie

A ‘straatorgel’

After dad had gone off to the dance music festival in Amsterdam we carried on to the library. I love this building. It was once the Post Office. I’ve been trying to get inside again for ten years, and now it is gloriously open. Go to the library.

Utrecht library

It’s like something out of Dune. I just feel like lying on the floor snd staring at the ceiling. Now there’s a lift so you can get above it to see the preservation work they’ve done. Seriously, go to the library. They also have a play post office which took a chunk of time and an excellent cafe.

Day three saw very tired youngsters peek up at the sight of a playground and a petting zoo in Grift Park. Word of caution here. If you’re an Uber fan don’t expect to find them much outside of Amsterdam because the Dutch use cycles so much so why get a cab?

Day four. Amsterdam. A stroll from Centraal Station to Rokin for a trip on my favourite boat (Reiderij Kooi). By now, the young ones were flagging as evidenced by the question (from the 4 year old) “When are you going to stop showing us things?” To be fair we’d made each of them an age appropriate scrap book to use whilst we were there and these had been used enthusiastically throughout the trip. Daddy was spotted on the bridge awaiting our return. Lunch and off to the airport for us. Naturally, it is more bitterbollen at the Hoppe.

Showing them things

Twi weeks later and our chums from the Netherlands arrived on the doorstep.

Shopping.

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It’s an ordinary Saturday. We’ve done the shopping in an hour…all the food for the week. It’s actually quicker (and cheaper) to go to the next town over to buy our food because of the traffic  around town and because  it’s market day. We try not to shop on the weekend, but this week it was unavoidable. Today’s extra purchase logs for the fire before the price goes up for winter.

We took to making a plan and a list about a month ago on account of the austerity and all that. We are still having a treat of steak for lunch with celeriac chips (fries to my US chums). Meal planning bores me senseless, but having an accountant as a partner it works for us. We have a couple of favourites and have found an app (any list) that means we can share lists across two phones. Definitely makes shopping more efficient.

As a side note, several vehicles have pulled out in front of the car todayboth forward and in reverse. Stay awake, people. I know it’s hibernation time for some of us, but safety first!

This afternoon’s tasks are to turn the veg beds and the compost. This, hopefully, will increase our yield next year. It’s been a weird one for the garden and for foraging this year. The climate changes are definitely making a difference. Even in expert hands, the growth of foodstuff has been unusual this year. Of course the garlic goes in now as it takes the best part of the year to mature, but it takes very little space or effort.

The house is almost done too. A panicked flurry of activity to prepare the room for the nieces to visit last week means the guest room is almost complete. There are pictures to hang in the living room and a cost of paint in the utility space. Next spring will hopefully see the front garden completed. We’re putting a wildflower lawn in for the bees although I think the idea of a beehive has been put to rest.

Manky veg soup

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For those of you not from the north of England, ‘manky’ is a description of things not at their best. Frankly, past their sell by date. It applies to all things, not just food. It can apply to people.

You can make soup from pretty much any food…. not that I think ice cream soup sounds good, but.. our local supermarket has begun to sell boxes of the less attractive fruit and veg  cheap. Sometimes, the bag split. Sometimes, it’s close to their sell by date. Food that would otherwise go to waste. Either way, it’s £1.50  for a box you might pay up to £10 for in the normal run of things. They are available most days  but in limited numbers. Lots of people ignore them. Others are embarrassed to admit that cheap food may be exactly what they want. Now, I retired, and my monthly income was cut in half. I’m still doing OK, but I dont mind sorting through the veg boxes, and soup is always a simple,quick food option

Today, it’s root veg. Carrots and parsnips and a bit of onion mixed with the schmaltz from our last roast chicken. Pinch of salt, little bit of pepper. That’s four each servings for two people for a bit of time. Of course, some excellent bread with a thick slathering of butter.

I’m making myself hungry now.

New Years Eve

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It’s been a busy year. Lots of pre booked and in waiting post (lol) pandemic fun to be had now we have been allowed out. That said, gigs were missed due to covid and bad weather this year, too, but not the trip down under. The world looks a little different. Some people didn’t make it this far, yet others were born. Same as any year and not at all like anything I’ve experienced before. I trust that the future will be just as unpredictable as the past was when it, too, was the future. My best wishes to one and all. I’ll keep trolling on about my stuff here, and who knows, maybe you’ll stay with me. I wish anyone reading all the best for the future however long it lasts.

Big Rock

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Mount Connor rolled into view after a good few hours on the road. Smiley called it out. ‘Look a big rock’ … It’s no Uluru. Actually quite a different shape, but it sent everyone scrambling for their phones and cameras. Even though I expected this ruse, the feeling of getting so close to ‘that’ big rock was overwhelming.

To backtrack a little we’d been on the road for several hours. Mostly on corrugated dirt highway, Smiler had provided commentary and we’d been on the lookout for camel, giant lizards and, had seen Brumbies running wild (gorgeous, golden horses). He put on an Aussie classic ‘The Castle‘ (and a true story) for us to watch and we settled back for a long haul. People were quiet and tired after a couple of days of extreme heat and long drop toilets. (If you know, you know). I am in awe of the energy Smiler and Karen bring to their work every day. They deserve a chill too.

A ‘long drop’ toilet

We had our Afternoon tea at a station called Curtin Spring which lies outside the region supplied by the Great Artesian Basin aquifer and had not seen rain in over 9 years. They do have bore holes drilled on the property and are well enough supplied. We were introduced to station life by the wife of the current station owner in the tea room what they call the ‘bough house’ which has served as the only shelter for the family for 15 years when they first moved into the land. You can just see the grey spinifex grass roof on the left hand side of the image below (under the satellite dish). There were were no walls only the shade of a wire and grass roof. You have to be a certain kind of resilient to live out here. The wives made tea for travellers in part to get some company whilst the men were away dealing with the livestock and partly because food and water are hard to come by and hospitality highly prized.

Curtin Springs Station

Curtin Springs suffered like many small businesses during the pandemic with fewer tourists due to both internal and external travel restrictions. Who knows where the idea came from but they decided that they could make high grade artists paper and set about making it happen. We were treated to a paper making talk and demo in the old slaughterhouse which now houses the paper making and the containers which form the gallery exhibiting work by the station owners daughter. Naturally we were given samples and bought more of this high quality product. (No, they re not sponsoring me but you can buy paper through the link).

Finally back on the black top road Uluru loomed into sight. Its a hard to describe feeling. This really is one of the wonders of the world. Personally I’ll take Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) over Uluru (Ayres Rock) any day. Smiler took us for a brief circuit of Uluru before depositing us at the hotel. Sadly this was quite Americanised and as such jarred with the feel of the park. Yulara is a purpose built resort just outside the Uluru /Kata Tjuta National Park. As the sacred spaces have now been returned to the First People (the Anangu) and they have come to an arrangement in leasing the land back to the NT government and use the money to run their local school and house the community. Obviously its a massive draw and there are hundreds of people who want to experience this incredible place but the annoyance of a pool with piped pop tunes and a lot of people more intent on the hotel than the countryside was a disappointment. Oh, its lovely, clean, great food … oddly two double beds in the room … but massive and busy and would not have been my first choice but then all the hotels (there are about 6 of them) all seem much of a muchness. It served as a place to sleep and we were not there much.

Uluru in the evening sun

The big rock does change with the light and we had the chance to see it from dawn to dark (although the clouds on day two rather spoiled the sunrise). The coaches were provided by a different company as we were whisked away to the ‘Sounds of Silence’ bush tucker inspired dinner overlooking both these spectacular geological sights. Sadly there was a digeridoo player there to greet us … the Anagu do not use these. Hey ho. Champagne and the sunset then on to dinner.

Kata Tjuta at sunset

Once dinner was over all the lights were extinguished and a voice came out of the darkness. Our Star Talker had arrived to weave local stories with astronomy and astrology to show us around the night sky and for me my first glimpse of the milky way. They left the lights off for the remainder of the evening as we used our torches and a few shielded foot level lights to make our way down to where a telescope had been set up to allow us a clear view of Saturn and its rings. Full of champagne and excellent food we were ferried back to the hotel.

Of course tomorrow was our chance to explore further.

Meanwhile back in the desert…

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So many people do not realise that a desert can be cold as well as hot. At home right now it’s minus three degrees centigrade. It’s been like this, though not quite as cold, for about three days now. I’m about to tell you what life was like in the Red Centre of Australia in 39 – 40 degrees.

The frost this morning

Alice Springs overnight before heading off on the Larapinta highway and tne Merenee Loop to Kings Canyon. I’m just gonna bung a load of photos in here. Suffice to say it’s no ordinary ‘minibus’ that carries us and Outback Spirit need to give Smiley Oz and wife Karen a bonus for the value added commentary and obvious joy they have in the NT. (Northern Territory) even if Karen is a Scouser (a person from Liverpool).

At Alice Springs Station

All I can do is recommend a visit to Alice. It is like nowhere you’ve ever been. A quick tour of Flynn’s memorial (the guy that invented the Flying Doctor Service), ANZAC Hill, (more of which later) and a whizz round downtown Alice and we were deposited at the hotel for the night. We were warned not to venture out after dark because of some recent incidents but, honestly it does not feel like a scary place. Next door was Lasseter’s Casino (made famous in Pricilla Queen of the Desert if not before).

Out early (every morning was early) onto the bus (with Smiler, our driver, supplying a commentary and soundtrack ( a link to Spotify) and Larapinta Drive out of Alice. This was to be a day of wonders. First stop Standley Chasm (Angkerle Atwatye), where we picked up the stories of Albert Namatjira and his art. Onto Namatjira Drive, named for the man himself. We passed the ochre pits and learned about sunscreen and bush craft. On to Ormiston Gorge (Quarta Tooma) and the waterhole made famous by one of the ‘White Gum’ paintings that made Namatjira’s name.

I’m being careful to include First People names where I can as these lands are contested and the names are gradually being returned to them. I’ll not include images of every tourist spot please look them up if you’re interested. Out final stop on the ‘black top’ highway was a little known spot that is the scene of a meteor landing and where the crater is still visible. There is something about standing in the eroded base of a meteor crater that makes you feel really small, especially knowing that 1000s of feet have already been eroded from the hills surrounding you which form its walls.

Then we went … I was going to say off road but in reality onto a thing they call the Mereene Loop. This is a corrugated dirt road and we were at the start of the wet season. We are sitting in s 25 seater minibus. Bouncing along. Swerving to avoid puddles for the next 3 hours or more. Sounds exciting eh? Our ‘minibus’ was in fact a converted lorry. Seriously build for these conditions, 4×4, high road clearance, leather seats mini video screens, coolers for food and water. We pulled up at one point to hand over water to a guy whose car had overheated (its what country people do) and to check he had help on its way. You never leave a fellow traveller on these roads. Along the Loop we saw Brumbies, Desert Oak, Gums of various varieties, Grass trees, and still no Roos.

Destination Kings Canyon. (see earlier Pricilla reference) and the Kings Canyon Resort. Now ‘resort’ means a different sort of thing in Australia than what you might be expecting….