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Thursday 22 December 2011

Llantrisant Mari Lwyd

I'm loving getting to know the people and interesting things that are going on nearby. One of my favourite discoveries is the Llantrisant Folk Club, a weekly gathering of a fantastic group of people, where everyone gets their turn to entertain, playing folk songs, singing, reciting poems, even playing the spoons! It's such a warm evening, like stepping back in time, not a single iPhone to be seen all evening. 


I joined the group on a Mari Lwyd tour, such a strange and wonderful tradition where a group travel from pub to pub with a dressed up horses skull, singing Welsh folk songs. Our tour took place in pubs in Groes Faen, Llantrisant and Cross Inn. I made this video to show you all, it was such a brilliant way to spend a Sunday!

Sunday 18 December 2011

Olive tree

I've been given a rather lovely olive tree. Here it is, being kept warm in the greenhouse by Seren. 




The only thing really growing in the garden at the moment are the onions which are coming along nicely. 

I finally picked my jalapeno chillis that are clearly not going to grown anymore. We had them on a homemade pizza, they added a really nice kick to it! 




It's finally turned properly cold, and we've had some very strange changeable weather lately. Here's a photo of the garden from last week after a big hail storm!

Tuesday 13 December 2011

The first taste of the sloe gin

Today I sipped the first of the sloe gin. It tastes amazing, according to Steve a cross between cranberry juice and mulled wine. 



I saved this Nigel Slater recipe for inspiration of what to do with the lovely sloes that have been soaking in the gin for so long, I'm marinating some wild duck breast (that I bought at Riverside Farmers Market on Sunday) for tomorrow's dinner. 
 We're having a few friends around for carols round the piano on Wednesday, so in preparation I've made some little angel and star Christmas biscuits

Oh Christmas Tree

We put our Christmas tree up last Tuesday. It looks so pretty!




 Here's Seren admiring it too. She sure loves to pull off the decorations...
 Oh and I made some mince pies on the weekend, using this very easy recipe. I put some cooking apples that I've had for a few months in some of the pies, they are tasty.