Tuesday, December 05, 2006
A visit to Devon
Just spent a few days in Devon, primarily to attend a meeting of the Exeter branch of the Dew clan, more particularly Stephen's 18th birthday party. An excellent occasion, if in bed some hours later than usual. Made up for it the next morning.
Stopped at Honiton on the way. Two successful food purchases, vis 8 Spanish navel oranges at 4 for a pound, Very soft texture, neither too sweet nor too sharp. Plus three Spanish cod cutlets at rather more for a pound - something we have not eaten for years. Might have done better with slightly thinner cutlets from a slightly fatter fish but no matter. Not bad at all, fried for about 6 minutes on each side in butter, lid on for about half the time. Not sure about ecoaspects though. Not at all sure that Spanish fishermen are very bothered about all that sort of thing at all. More into the biggest and best marine vacuum cleaners. Maybe I should stick to Waitrose with its line caught sustainable fishery fish from Iceland - despite the fact that the way they light their fish counter makes the fish look most odd. Although one has to admit that it is a lot easier to manage a fish stock belonging to a small island miles from anywhere. No need to share with anybody.
A successful book purchase. Found a bookshop carrying around twenty Arden Shakespeares, mostly brand new latest editions. Never come across such a thing before - indeed havn't come across any Ardens at all for some time. Presumably remaindered from some wholesaler. So I get to plug three gaps, including two plays we are likely to see over the next month or so - As You Like It and The Tempest.
And a successful if short visit to the vicinity of Dartmoor prison. Very scenic - if cold at this time of year - and not a place to be wandering around on in the dark with only sketchy prison clothes and leg irons on. Plus a look at the prison heritage centre.
Continue to be amused by the well established custom for visitor attractions to sell tasteful souvenirs and tasteful food (which mostly seems to come from the same warehouse in China). So Buckfast Abbey has a large old building devoted to monastic produce - mostly either honey or alcoholic. Well that's OK. Monasteries have a tradition of doing that. But the upper classes moving into trade is a bit newer - and a bit odder considering their attitude to trade until very recently. So we were interested to see that the Countess of Devon has opened a grocery - going one further than Prince C in that she is into retail whereas he only does wholesale. We bought some steak and kidney - which worked OK with some lentils rather than flour as thickening - and a breast of English lamb. Roasted whole for an hour or so and just been consumed - with enough left for breakfast sarnies. Plus cabbage.
On the down side a bit depressing that our leaders see fit to commit us to another £60bn or something on nuclear nonsense. One might have hoped that fifty years after Suez this rather small country would grow up a bit and settle down to being a small power - and set a good example to some others. Almost tempted to get down my CND boots from their hook - where they have been for the last 40 years.
And that RSPB seem to have taken over large chunks of Dawlish warren. Dogs forbidden - except in some places where they are allowed provided they are on a lead not more than 1.83 metres in length. Small horses are OK, something to do with restoring sustainable and heritage grazing practises (s or c?) - although in Surrey one gets the impression that horses are pretty rough on the ground - especially on sandy, marginal land like that on the warren. And one of their trusties has clearly got hold of a printer and a laminator and the place is covered with laminated signs explaining what you can't do - they have probably set up Word so that any sentence not containing one of the phrases 'do not' or 'it is forbidden to' gets rejected by the grammer checker. I also think they must be in correspondance with the Epsom common trusties. But despite all the Warren itself remains an excellent place to go. And only a pound a pop at this time of year.
Last but not least several more places on the A303 have been infested with either road signs or speed cameras. The former sometimes having the effect that one has no idea how to get to Honiton or what the speed limit is - but perhaps that is the idea.
Stopped at Honiton on the way. Two successful food purchases, vis 8 Spanish navel oranges at 4 for a pound, Very soft texture, neither too sweet nor too sharp. Plus three Spanish cod cutlets at rather more for a pound - something we have not eaten for years. Might have done better with slightly thinner cutlets from a slightly fatter fish but no matter. Not bad at all, fried for about 6 minutes on each side in butter, lid on for about half the time. Not sure about ecoaspects though. Not at all sure that Spanish fishermen are very bothered about all that sort of thing at all. More into the biggest and best marine vacuum cleaners. Maybe I should stick to Waitrose with its line caught sustainable fishery fish from Iceland - despite the fact that the way they light their fish counter makes the fish look most odd. Although one has to admit that it is a lot easier to manage a fish stock belonging to a small island miles from anywhere. No need to share with anybody.
A successful book purchase. Found a bookshop carrying around twenty Arden Shakespeares, mostly brand new latest editions. Never come across such a thing before - indeed havn't come across any Ardens at all for some time. Presumably remaindered from some wholesaler. So I get to plug three gaps, including two plays we are likely to see over the next month or so - As You Like It and The Tempest.
And a successful if short visit to the vicinity of Dartmoor prison. Very scenic - if cold at this time of year - and not a place to be wandering around on in the dark with only sketchy prison clothes and leg irons on. Plus a look at the prison heritage centre.
Continue to be amused by the well established custom for visitor attractions to sell tasteful souvenirs and tasteful food (which mostly seems to come from the same warehouse in China). So Buckfast Abbey has a large old building devoted to monastic produce - mostly either honey or alcoholic. Well that's OK. Monasteries have a tradition of doing that. But the upper classes moving into trade is a bit newer - and a bit odder considering their attitude to trade until very recently. So we were interested to see that the Countess of Devon has opened a grocery - going one further than Prince C in that she is into retail whereas he only does wholesale. We bought some steak and kidney - which worked OK with some lentils rather than flour as thickening - and a breast of English lamb. Roasted whole for an hour or so and just been consumed - with enough left for breakfast sarnies. Plus cabbage.
On the down side a bit depressing that our leaders see fit to commit us to another £60bn or something on nuclear nonsense. One might have hoped that fifty years after Suez this rather small country would grow up a bit and settle down to being a small power - and set a good example to some others. Almost tempted to get down my CND boots from their hook - where they have been for the last 40 years.
And that RSPB seem to have taken over large chunks of Dawlish warren. Dogs forbidden - except in some places where they are allowed provided they are on a lead not more than 1.83 metres in length. Small horses are OK, something to do with restoring sustainable and heritage grazing practises (s or c?) - although in Surrey one gets the impression that horses are pretty rough on the ground - especially on sandy, marginal land like that on the warren. And one of their trusties has clearly got hold of a printer and a laminator and the place is covered with laminated signs explaining what you can't do - they have probably set up Word so that any sentence not containing one of the phrases 'do not' or 'it is forbidden to' gets rejected by the grammer checker. I also think they must be in correspondance with the Epsom common trusties. But despite all the Warren itself remains an excellent place to go. And only a pound a pop at this time of year.
Last but not least several more places on the A303 have been infested with either road signs or speed cameras. The former sometimes having the effect that one has no idea how to get to Honiton or what the speed limit is - but perhaps that is the idea.
# posted by Jim @ 10:39 AM 
