Hound Tor, Dartmoor, and a slow-cooker dinner

Yesterday we went to Hound Tor, which was as spectacular as it always is. Somehow, now that we have a hound of our own, it seemed apt.

I love the wildness of Dartmoor. There's something primitive, something truly primordial about it. And Hound Tor is one of the best bits. It's a wild, unforgiving place, where nature concedes nothing. They say that it inspired Arthur Conan Doyle to write the Hound of the Baskervilles.

We strolled along the avenue that runs between the massive granite walls of the Tor.

Then we climbed the shoulder of the hill on which the Tor stands to admire the bleak landscape all around. 

Over the other side there is a little path that leads down through the bracken to a forgotten village, where no one has lived for over half a millennium. It's an eerie place comprising several houses and barns. No one knows exactly what happened, and why the people who once lived there left. One theory is that it was abandoned in about 1350 as a result of the infamous Black Death. Whatever the way of it, the site must have been a desolate, inhospitable place to have called home. Even on a warm sunny day, it feels sort of chilly there.

It's a tricky place to photograph and I only had a little point-and-shoot camera with me, which wasn't up to the job so I'll have to remember to do it justice next time.

After all that walking it was lovely to open the front door and immediately smell our dinner bubbling away in the slow-cooker. 

I'm a really big fan of my slow cooker. It's not an expensive, flashy model, but it's great for those days when we're out and I need to conjure up some food almost as soon as we get back home.

Here's my very simple recipe for: 

Sausage stew

12 good pork sausages

200 g/ 7 ounces of bacon lardons

400 ml/ 2 cups of good vegetable stock

2 medium onions - sliced

6 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

sage

Method

1. Fry the sausages so that they have an attractive colour, but don't cook them right through.

2. Remove sausages from the frying pan and place in the bottom of the slow cooker pot.

3. Finely chop the onion and garlic and fry in the same saucepan as the sausages. When done, tip over the sausages in the pot, and add some chopped sage or a good shake of dry sage if you haven't got any of the fresh stuff to hand.

4. Fry the bacon lardons in the saucepan and sprinkle evenly over the sausage and onion mix in the pot.

5. Peel the potatoes, and finely chop. Then layer over the sausage mixture in the pot.

6. Pour 400 ml of hot, seasoned vegetable stock evenly over the potatoes. 

7. Place the lid on the pot and leave to cook for three and a half to four hours on the high setting.

Simple, hearty food! I served it up with some mushrooms fried in butter with spring onions and garlic, washed down with a nice glass of Rioja.

This recipe will feed 3 to 4 people, depending on the size of the servings: will you be wanting three sausages or four sausages per person? You can do the maths!

Anyway, tuck in and enjoy,

Bonny x

Devon: the quiet after the storm ...

We've come to our place in Devon for Emi's half term holidays, and yesterday was truly glorious - the quiet after the storm.

Our roof safely sheltered by the hill behind

I'm counting our blessings that we've still got a roof over our heads. Our house was cleverly built a long time ago on the shoulder of a hill, so that it is protected by the contours of the surrounding land from the worst of the weather. This sometimes results in the smoke being blown back down the chimney on those odd days when the wind comes over the hill, but mostly it's a very comfortable arrangement.

We did lots of dog-walking yesterday to make the most of the weather. And I've got to say that this is the best dog-walking county in England. People down here love their dogs. Maxi comes everywhere with us, and nobody minds. He joined us for a family dinner in our lovely, local pub on Saturday night. It was brilliant.

Our valley

What a difference a day makes: today we are back to rain, rain and more rain. My heart really goes out to all those poor folks whose houses are under water at the moment. It must be the very worst sort of invasion: smelly, cold grey water.

Today: back to the rain!

We've suffered the loss of four beautiful old trees in the storms. This one below was a fairly young ornamental cherry. I'm guessing that we'll have to fell it as it won't be stable after suffering this split.

And this splendid old beech tree came out by the roots. 

I'm kind of surprised that its root system didn't go wider and deeper. They seem very shallow and superficial for what was once a very tall, majestic tree, whose branches cast a huge shadow in the summer time.

Just look at how it's been split open by the storm. It's almost as though the wind, in its fury, tore the tree in half: an eloquent testimony to the violence of the weather.

Anyway, today I think we'll just hunker down and enjoy the warmth indoors as the wind whistles down the valley, and the rain batters the windowpanes.

Stay warm and safe wherever you are,

Bonny x

Saint Valentine's Day ...

Happy Saint Valentine's Day!

My Mum used to tell me when I was a child that St. Valentine's was the day on which the little song birds in our garden chose their partners. We always had a bird-table, and we always took good care to leave them well-provided for in cold weather. As a result, we had hundreds of feathered friends: robins, blue tits, chaffinches, great tits, wagtails, black birds. You name them, and they'd be there in our garden. We'd watch them carefully through the window, and sure enough there were usually signs of nest-building not long after the magic day. And then, before very much longer, we'd spot a noisy brood of swallow chicks in the garage, and my father would start to get bent of shape about all the bird poo that was landing on his car.

When I was grown-up and single I used to enjoy the Valentine's Day suspense: would anyone think to send me roses? And it always felt like a not insignificant personal triumph when they did!

My husband is a lovely, eccentric man who comes from Barcelona. In his neck of the woods they don't do the whole hearts and flowers thing for the Feast of Saint Valentine.  February, 14th is just another day over there. Instead, they celebrate their amor on the Feast of Saint George, who is also their patron saint in Cataluña. And, what with rescuing damsels from fire-breathing dragons and

everything, maybe old Saint Geordie is a better, more swashbuckling patron saint for lovers anyway.

On his feast day (23rd April) it is traditional for a Catalan lover to bestow a single rose and a book on the object of his affections.

How lovely is that?

Giving someone the present of a book that they will enjoy is surely one of the most intimate gifts that any lover can give. It takes a real understanding of what makes the other person tick to choose correctly.

When someone gives me a book I'm always intrigued by the reverse psychology of why they've chosen that particular one for me. What does it say about how they view me? Eek! Maybe better not go there, on second thoughts... .

If you were to give your other half a book this Saint Valentine's Day, which one would you give?

The 'Don'ts for Wives' handbook from 1913 would probably not be a great choice for the chaps - unless they had their sights set on sleeping in the guest bedroom for the foreseeable future. CJ, one of my cousins, gave me this copy after I got married. I think she was being ironic.

Or how about this lovely book? R.D. Blackmore's 'Lorna Doone' 1913 Dulverton edition, beautifully bound with engraved end boards and coloured illustrations.

 'Lorna Doone' is such a classic, and I love, love, love  my copy. I bought it in a place called the Bookbarn, down in Somerset. They say that it's the the largest second hand book shop in the country, and I believe them. I've spent days of my life in there browsing happily. Anyway this dedication appears on the first page of my copy:

I think it's just grand how Misses Grimwood and Burgess were busy with the Brighton and Hove Rifle Club way back in the autumn of 1913. Good for them! But I also wonder what happened to them in the following years. Did they get involved in the war effort? Did they lose sweethearts/ husbands/ fathers/ sons on the front? Did they have any not insignificant personal triumphs on 14th February, 1914?

 Anyway, whatever you're doing, have a good one!

Bonny x

5 new puppy must-do's ...

As those of you who've visited me here before will know I share my life with a lovely little canine chap called Maximus - or Maxi for short. I did an earlier post about him here: Puppy Angel.

The Mighty Maxi Moser

He's a constant source of love, high jinx and laughs in our house. He's only been around since last September, but it feels as though we couldn't live without him. Somehow his fluffy little face seems to be in every photo I take, everyone always inquires about him and I'd hate to pass the day without his cheerful, up-for-everything presence hovering somewhere round my ankles.

For those of you who are thinking about committing to a new dog here's a short list of my 5 top tips to make the transition to becoming a doggy household as smooth as possible:

1. Toilet training

Have a clear idea on what's going to be your toilet-training strategy and don't confuse the message. Be clear and consistent once you start. There are many different ways of tackling this particular issue. I wavered at first between two strategies, and almost made the whole business more complicated than it had to be.

A very good friend, who is proud mother to a beautiful little whippet girl, advised me to go down the puppy pad route. 'Buy puppy pads, scent them with toilet training spray and leave them by the door,' she advised me. 'Then when you see the puppy looking like he's going to do his toilet business whisk him off and place him on the pad. When he performs, congratulate him like he's just taken gold at the Olympics'.

'Ello! 

It sounded simple. I bought the puppy pads and we gave it a whirl, but somehow back in the balmy days of September (it's a hazy, dazy memory, but we did have some nice weather way back then) it seemed more natural to take Maxi out onto the grass at regular (very regular at first) intervals and praise him to the high heavens when the 'payload hit the drop zone'. I rewarded him each time with a doggy biscuit. It turned out that little Maxi is strongly motivated by food, and learnt very quickly as a result.

I had to be really vigilant for those first few weeks, and I must say that this hyper attention to his toilet habits felt as though it was verging on the neurotic.  I'd keep giving unsolicited updates in conversation about his bowel movements. Sad, but true. At one point I was convinced that there was something wrong with his bladder because of the number of pee pees he was doing. My husband, a character who is also strongly motivated by food and hence well equipped to understand the dog's psychology, pointed out that this was more likely to be a Pavlovian-type response - along the lines of: if I just squeeze something - hell, anything- out she'll give me a biscuit.

Anyway I persevered sticking to my "let's go to the garden" routine, and within a couple of weeks he'd got the hang of it. He now prefers going on grass, which is really useful if we're in someone's shed. The shed floor does not have grass so he understands that it is not a socially acceptable toilet. Yeah heh, result!

2. No - absolutely no - negative re-enforcement ever

Just try a bit of empathy here: imagine what it must be like if you're a little puppy who's just been torn away from his mum and his litter-mates. You've got to feel pretty confused and more than a little bit nervous about what's going on. Maxi was one of the smaller chaps in his litter. The breeder told us that he'd been bullied  by one of his much bigger brothers who used to eat all their food, until she intervened and separated them. When he arrived with us it took him a week to find his bark. He's a miniature schnauzer, and I'd been expecting him to have quite a barky personality, but for a whole week he didn't say a single word, not a sausage.

Our Nervous New Arrival

Now imagine how it would feel for this little chap if someone started shouting at him - or worse - for doing his pee pees in the wrong place. It doesn't take a huge amount of imagination to realise that this is not the way to go.

Maxi is sooo sweet that I could never be angry with him, and he starts off wanting to please. So all it took was to praise him, reward him and fuss over him for getting things right, and before long he was getting everything right.

Guess who grew up to be an Alpha Dog?

3. The No titbits feeding regime

I know this sounds harsh, but it's really not a good idea to spoil your new puppy with treats from the table. My father is the world's worst in this regard. My parents' doggy is an over-weight pooch as a result of all the biscuit-sharing that goes on in their house. My Dad loves, loves, loves his dog, but in the long run this is not a good way to go. Our processed food is really not good for dogs. Plus once a dog gets used to being fed from the family table he becomes a total nuisance at meal times.

Chow time!

Another thing to bear in mind when you're doing heavy rewarding for toilet training is to deduct the amount of treats from the notional amount that they should get at meal times. It's very easy to over-feed during this early period.


4. Have a dogs-only doggy snuggle zone

From the very beginning Maxi has had his bed, his very own space where he can go for sanctuary. In fact he's got three beds - one in the kitchen where we seem to spend most of our time as a family, one in his doggy room and another in my study where he and I seem to spend most of our time alone together. But the golden rule is that these are his places, to which he can retreat if the world around him is getting a little bit too busy/ noisy.

Which part of 'king-size bed' did she not understand?

My friend, the whippet mummy, got one of those folding crates for her dog so that she would feel totally comfortable when she had to go in it for travelling. This is a great idea if you've got somewhere to keep the crate in the house, and don't mind how it looks. I don't go the aesthetics of a crate myself, but each to his own, as they say.

5. Make sure you have 100% buy-in for Project Puppy

Our principal obstacle in buying a puppy was my husband, who was very, very reluctant. "What will we do with him when we go away?" he'd ask. It took a lot of persuading/ cajoling to convince him that there were ways and means of travelling with your pet or arranging for him to be looked after when you were away.

But when Maxi arrived my husband was over-the-moon in love with his dog, and it was little Emi, my son, who voiced concern that we might love the new addition more than him. This was a bit of a shocker for me. Admittedly I was suffering from a very pronounced case of puppy-love, but nothing - not even Maxi - could take little Emi's place in my heart.

The very best of friends ...

So I sat him down and explained that, whilst I loved Maxi very, very much, there was no one in the world who could ever knock him off his number one slot, and that we had bought Maxi for him. Over the course of the next few weeks I found as much to praise Emi for as I did Maxi. And you know what? Children are a lot like dogs: they respond best to positive re-enforcement as well.

I'll do whatever it takes to fit in around here ...

Anyway, whatever you do, please remember that a puppy is not just for now: a puppy is for life. It's a really big commitment.

Bonny x

Crochet Lavender Sachets ... and waiting for the delivery man ...

These days I seem to spend my life waiting for deliveries. The principal culprit in all of this is my lovely husband, who has a really bad internet shopping habit. Wild horses won't drag that man to a bricks-and-mortar shop, but boy does he know how to burn his plastic on-line! Most of what he buys is boring tech-stuff that I never even knew we needed, but someone has to be on duty when the precious consignment hits the doorstep. And today, that honour falls to Maxi and me. And we're more than just a little bit bored with how it's cramping our style.


The problem is we're here:

When we'd really like to be here:

Or here:

Of course, it helps that it's raining outside and blowing a gale (no surprise there, we're in London and it's February), but still we'd like to have the option of going on one of our 'Big Out-of-Doors Adventures'.

To pass the time, because I can't seem to settle my head for any proper work, I've been playing about with scraps of wool.


After my efforts the other day with the Skinny Heart Lavender Sachet I got to thinking that it might be nice to make some smaller lavender sachets to use with my woollen jumpers, which are always vulnerable to moth attacks.

What do you think?

It's a variation on the Skinny Heart that I wrote about before, but this one is smaller and not quite so skinny - more of a Sweetheart heart (of the fizzy sweets fame).

I added a rosette flower, which borrows more from the prize rosettes down at the pony club than anything Mother Nature ever conceived of. It's very quick and easy to make as I used treble stitch for speed. I'm aiming for a lot of sachets in as little time as possible.

If you'd like to have a go at my variation on a theme here's what you need, and how to go about it.

A: to  make the heart sachet

Materials

Small amounts of double knitting in main colour and contrast

3.5 mm crochet hook

Pattern

The number shown in brackets is the number of stitches that you should have in each row. I am using English terminology, so if you're on the other side of the pond you may have to make allowances for the lingo.
At the end of each row you should chain 3 to turn, which is not included in the instructions below.

First side

1. Chain 2
2. 2 Treble Crochet (TC)  into second chain. (2)
3. 2 TC in each stitch. (4)
4. 2 TC into first stitch. 2 TC. 2 TC into last stitch. (6)
5. 2 TC into first stitch. 4 TC. 2 TC into last stitch. (8)
6. 2 TC into first stitch. 6 TC. 2 TC into last stitch. (10)
7. 2 TC into first stitch. 8 TC. 2 TC into last stitch. (12)
8. 2 TC into first stitch. 10 TC. 2 TC into last stitch. (14)
9. TC entire row. (14)
10. TC entire row. (14)

Large lobe of heart

1. TC 7.
2. TC 7.
3. TC 2 together. TC 3. TC 2 together. (5)
4. TC 2 together. TC 1. TC 2 together. (3)
5. TC 2 together. TC 1. (2)
6. Cast off and work other lobe of heart. 

Small lobe of heart

1. TC 7, with the large lobe held to the right hand side.
2. TC 2 together.TC 3. TC 2 together. (5)
3. TC 2 together. TC1. TC 2 together. (3)
4. TC 2 together. TC 1. (2)
5. Cast off. 

Second Side

Rows 1 to 10 for main body of heart as above.

Small lobe of heart.

1. TC 7.
2. TC 2 together. TC 3. TC 2 together. (5)
3. TC 2 together. TC1. TC 2 together. (3)
4. TC 2 together. TC 1. (2)
5. Cast off.

Large lobe of heart (made with small lobe on the right hand side)

1. TC 7, with the small lobe held to the right hand side.
2. TC 7. 
3. TC 2 together. TC 3. TC 2 together. (5)
4. TC 2 together. TC1. TC 2 together. (3)
5. TC 2 together. TC 1. (2)
6. Cast off and weave in the loose ends.

Join together with contrasting yarn using DC stitch.

Stuff partly with toy filling, and with dried lavender heads wrapped in kitchen muslin to keep them from spreading through the body of the sachet. You can see how I wrapped them up here: Skinny hearts

B: to make the rosette flower

Materials

Small amount of 4 ply wool for the centre
Small amount of double knitting for the petals
My plan in using different thicknesses of wool was to make the petals bunch chunky like on a rosette.
2 mm crochet hook.

Pattern

Chain 4 in centre colour (green in my case), and join with a Slip Stitch.
Chain 3 and make 11 TC into chain 4 loop.
Change to petal colour (pink double knitting wool in my case).
Slip Stitch to join. Chain 3, 1 double treble crochet (DTC), Chain 3 into the same stitch as the original slip stitch. *Slip stitch into next stitch, Chain 3, 1 DTC, Chain 3, all into same stitch*. Repeat from * to * all the way round to create 12 petals. Fasten off, weave in ends - or leave them loose and trim like the tail of a rosette - and attach to the crochet heart.

I have used English terminology here, but I think the following is an accurate translation of the terms into American terminology:

English Double Crochet = American Single Crochet
English Treble Crochet = American Double Crochet
English Double Treble Crochet = American Treble Crochet

Anyway fingers crossed for my delivery to arrive some time before I need to leave for the school run,

Bonny x