Jam tomorrow!
These are last summer’s plums, defrosting for jam and chutney making tomorrow.
food
Nalgene containers – Camping and Backpacking
I am off to Scotland next weekend for two weeks and today I have been filling my Nalgene bottles and pots with spices, herbs, ground coffee, milk powder, corn flour, instant chai tea, olive oil, soy sauce and whisky – enough for one. Doing this saves weight and space in my packing. It is too easy to just fill the boot of my car when going off on my own to time share.
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Spice box for camping
I bought this Light My Fire spice box in the summer in Scotland, but I only found it again this morning when I went to sort out my camping food tin.
The spice pot was in in a sale box for a pound as the packaging had been lost. There are markings on two of the sections – “S” and “P” but as I use salt and pepper packets from cafes I have put sumac, in the “S”, smoked paprika in the “P” and garam masala in the third. All of these spices are very useful when I am camping or backpacking as they are “shake over” rather than “cook in” spices so I can easily jazz up my food.
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A day in London #2
We had lunch at a little Lebanese restaurant in a back street in Soho.
Ever wondered how you make a fried egg sandwich if you have a square loaf? Here is the answer.
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Snow, rain, wind and hail
That is how the morning started so Alex and I decided that the only cure for such a day was a full English breakfast. So it was off to The View Cafe Morecambe to see what their’s was like.
The View Cafe and Vintage Music, Morecambe
I had a chance today to take some photos of the memorabilia.
This is not the type of spam I am used to dealing with!
… and here is the breakfast.
This cafe is great, they have the usual range of items on their menu you would expect from a sea side cafe – and spam (although we did not try it). The breakfast we had was well cooked and serve hot to our table and there was extra tea and toast included. I would recommend a visit.
The weather did change and we could eventually see across the bay to the Lake District.
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Walking today – Craigellachie National Nature Reserve Aviemore
With the weather forecast for the day being reasonably good, I decided not to waste any time driving but set off to Craigellachie National Nature Reserve – with a plan to go up onto the ridge and walk along the top.
The weather was great and relatively warm (for January in the Cairngorms), I did not need my gloves, hat or jumper nor did I need to zip my coat up until I got out into the wind on the exposed ridge and summits. One thing I did have on though was the new Helly Hansen Lifa Dry base layer Diana bought me – and it was excellent, it kept me warm, was comfortable to wear and did not absorb any sweat when I was warm so when I did need the insulation on the top, it worked.
Have you ever wondered who puts the rock steps in the footpaths? Well I met two of them today.
Rather than get my stove out to make a coffee, I took hot water in a thermal mug, for the first stop. I had a number Octagon Technology emails and texts to deal with – if there is one problem with the titanium mug I normally use is that on a longer break, like this one, the drink would get cold too quickly. But not when using a thermal mug. I had packed it for this trip having recently read a blog of a backpacker who used one to keep water hot for his late night hot chocolate. He boiled the water when he made his evening meal so it meant he could pack his stove and pots away for the night and still have a hot drink later. I bought my thermal mug a number of years ago but it has had little use but I am going to try it out on this trip and if it works out I may pack it for subsequent trips.
Lunch
Lunch was soup and crackers. I really like the “Squeeze and Stir” tomato soup but I have found it difficult to stir in and dissolve all the paste when I have been making it for lunch when walking and backpacking. I tend to use cup-a-soups which are really easy to make on the trail. But today I had a thermal mug. I put the paste in the mug and half filled it with boiling water. Then making sure the lid was on firmly I vigorously shook it. After about a minute I topped the mug up with more boiling water and I had perfect tomato soup – and once I was finished no messy mug to clean up, I just put the lid back on and packed it away.
click on the above image for a larger version
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Craigellachie – lunchtime
It was raining a little when I finally found somewhere suitable to stop out of the wind.
that is Aviemore under the rainbow
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