pumpkinstrokemarrow

Virginia Water a fine place with lots of good trees. We saw some of them, including some big beeches and some big sweet chestnuts - probably getting near their passover dates so it was good to see some newer planting. There was also a handsome house on the far shore, a house which brought to mind a wood engraving we used go have on the wall, to the point that I thought that maybe the house on the far shore was the original, the artist having lived not too far away at one point. Back home I turn the thing up to find that it is about as completely different as it could be be while still being a house on the far shore. Funny thing memory. Must get back soon to see more of the trees.

On the way home, having decided to have a steak night, we stopped at the deli in the station parade, probably http://www.winecircle.co.uk/, who sold us a holy mother camembert and a couple of slices of apple strudel. Both excellent, the cheese improved by our happening to have some white bread - don't believe in brown bread with soft cheese. White bread was one of those frozen dough bake in the back of the shop jobs from our local Costcutter. Not much flavour but quite eatable when fresh and entirely suitable as a vehicle for a camembert.

The meal had started with a couple of sirloin steaks from the butcher next to the Costcutter and for once they were spot on. Neither too fresh nor too cooked. Served with newish potatoes and runner beans. We continue to be puzzled as to why the runner beans we have been buying quite a lot of over the last month or so don't have strings in them. The beans I grew nearly always did.

Steak helped down with the Gevrey-Chambertin mentioned on August 13th. A limited edition of 7,660 bottles from Vougeraie back in 2006. So another puzzle is where the 7,660 comes from. Label entirely in French. But it was a fine wine, worth the extra dosh. The adjective which comes to mind is clear. A very clear taste, reminding one of the note of a small bell or that of a cut glass. No hints of raspberries for us.

Off this morning to harvest some of the Horton Lane hazel nuts. I was able to pick 7.5lbs in about an hour off of just one clump of bushes in the hedgerow. Mostly green rather than brown. The nuts seem to be of more than one variety and to vary a great deal in size, up to around half an inch in diameter. We have learned that the shell grows before the nut, that is to say that one can have a full size nut shell, some of them getting of for perhaps an inch long and more than half an inch across, with a very small nut embedded in a hard white stuff filling the rest of the shell. Hard white stuff not looking very edible; we did not try it anyway. Most of them now spread out on an old sheet in the garage to dry; natural drying producing a much nicer nut than the kiln drying practised by commercial growers.

Probably be better to wait a bit before picking any more, seeming to remember picking them brown as a child. Take a chance on someone or something else having a go.