Memories

Although I wasn't around in the fifties or sixties, this article in today's paper brought back memories for me.

I spent the early years of my life in a village outside Barnsley in Yorkshire. Kids there played outside (sometimes even when it was raining!) and there was no obsession with health and safety to ruin our fun. I liked finding caterpillars, dropping them into jam jars and waiting until they changed into moths (the big hairy caterpillars, known as "woolly bears", were my favourites). I liked going out on walks, my favourite was to the local pond, and I used to beg my Grandad to take me there to see what I could catch. I could name every animal which lived in a pond and had some "pet" water snails in a bucket in the back garden.

Another favourite walk was along the River Dearne, we used to spot kingfishers and water voles while our dog swam in the river.

Our toys were bikes, swings, Sindy dolls, space hoppers.

Fish and chips were a treat. My Grandad made the best chips and so we used to just get fish from the fish shop and have a chip butty with home made chips (we never, ever used frozen chips in our house).

We used to go up to the local sweet shop and get a 5p or 10p mix - gobstoppers, liquorice, bubbly, sherbet flying saucers, white mice. Another of our favourite sweets was called Space Dust which popped when you put it on your tongue. We also had sweet cigarettes, which would be discouraged now (if you can still get them, I don't know).

Kids today would probably find such a life boring without computers, games consoles, internet, chat etc, but we certainly enjoyed ourselves.

Zeebrugge - September 2011

Our latest trip to Zeebrugge was on 7th September 2011, a very windy day, though thankfully it didn't rain while we were in Zeebrugge!

That was the windiest I had seen Zeebrugge, and the kites were up! I made a video but the bits with the strong zoom are very shaky, you can still see the waves crashing up, the kites and a big ship coming in to port.

It was much more sheltered near the West Hinder boat.

We had ribs and chips for dinner in our favourite Old Barrel and then a nice cold glass of Hoegaarden in our other favourite Old Steamer.

I hope to see Zeebrugge again this year, I love it there!

Roast grouse for New Year

Our first Sunday dinner of 2012 was something I had wanted to try for years, but had never been able to get hold of - grouse.

We went to a food lovers market in Malton last November, and we were pleased to see a stall selling game, including the elusive grouse. We just had to buy some, and so we bought two.

Although some recipes suggest one grouse per person, we cut one in half, meaning that we have one left for another time. It was just the right size.

The grouse, with a few game chips and the bacon it had been topped with

We served the grouse with game chips, bread sauce and steamed cabbage, which were perfect accompaniments.

I always enjoy game, I only ever eat free range meat, and grouse is the ultimate free range bird.