James & Clare, Coddiwomplers Inc

Wednesday, 4 November 2015

Awesome Autumn - Oct/Nov 2015

We were delighted to have another chance to stay at Jenny's in Stradishall with Trix and May whilst she was in New Zealand (see previous post). We had the pleasure of hanging here for just over four weeks before heading back to New Zealand ourselves.

We were really looking forward to spending autumn here as, being out in the country, there are a lot of hedgerows to be looted. Talk about a foragers dream come true.

We couldn't believe the quality and size of the blackberries around the fields where we walked the doggies daily. These soon became fodder for breakfast: blackberry compote, muesli and yoghurt. The compote was also yummy drizzled over fresh scones (although my first attempt at scones was one of my epic failures - even the chooks having a hard time with them).
We made blackberry vodka and sloe vodka.

There is the most beautiful quince tree in the yard, so lush with quince that they are bowing the branches quite badly. These were most enjoyed baked with butter and soft brown sugar. Enjoy with some succulent roast pork.

A cock pheasant had the misfortune to cross our path on our first day here. Roasted whole this time. Similar to roast chicken of course, but MUCH tastier.

We gathered a lot of wild mushrooms also. Rule of thumb is if you can positively ID it in the edible family you can eat it. http://www.wildfooduk.com/mushroom-guides/ If not, chuck it out. We enjoyed Honey Fungus, Field Mushroom and Wood Blewits. They were all cooked into soups, omelette, pearl barley risotto and quite simply on toast.

Cheeky little critters

Sweet chestnuts and walnuts

There were also lots of nut trees fruiting at this time. We were delighted to come upon a sweet chestnut tree whilst out walking with the girls one morning. The last one of many that the other walkers and/or squirrels hadn't discovered yet.

We spent a night in Leiston on the east coast and did some fishing off the beach in Sizewell. It wasn't particularly warm - although the weather this autumn has been great in general - but yes, we did catch some fish .... two bass and six whiting, all too small to keep so we bought some skate wings and dabs from the local fisherman Noel. Delicious!

Another couple of interesting things happened during this time. We spent a morning at home with a film crew being interviewed and videoed for a promo on behalf of Trusted Housesitters www.trustedhousesitters.com The dogs, chickens and ducks were all impeccably behaved and enjoyed the attention immensely. It was an interesting process for us too. Not sure how much, if any, of the footage will be used but I can't wait to find out!

We were also interviewed by a freelance journalist for an article about Housesitting to be featured in Saga Magazine (just quietly, a UK lifestyle rag for the over fifties! See the article on our "Really useful links for visitors" tab. Not sure what all the interest in Housesitting is all of a sudden, but hey, any publicity is good publicity .... so they say.

You can now view the article by following the link in our LINKS section

Thursday, 22 October 2015

Grazie Italy - Aug/Sep 2015

It's hard to describe how we felt upon arriving at the house on the hill just outside Montecastelli in Umbria, Italy. We surely had landed in paradise. The house was last but one up on a hill overlooking the Tiber Valley. In the valley below they were growing tobacco and sunflowers.

The temperatures were up in the thirties when we arrived but the house was cool .... in both senses of the word! The indoor/outdoor living was just perfect. And there was a glorious pool.

Our house mates were Jock, a big black lab cross and Jess, a cute little Jack Russell cross. They were both Battersea rescue doggies. Their delightful personalities complement each other so well. Jock is such a softie and a little bit needy, as big dogs can tend to be with his world revolving round his stomach. Jess is very independent ... although you wouldn't believe it looking at some of the photos. Amazing what you can get away with when you're only little.