Big Stomp today

Going to walk to Maiden Castle, near Bickerton today. Taking camera. The Iron Age hillfort is the blue dots at the very bottom of the map below Fuller's Moor.



Gotta get going.

Lady Ridley's Nettle Soup

Ingredients:

1 lb potatoes
½ lb young nettles
2 oz butter
1½ pts chicken or vegetable stock
sea salt & black pepper
4 tablespoons sour cream

Method:

Cook the peeled, chopped potatoes for 10 mins in salted water. Drain.

Wash & chop coarsely the nettles (Only pick the new, young tops,using gloves!)

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the nettles and stew gently for a few minutes. Add the potatoes and heated stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes or until tender.

When all is soft, cool slightly & purée in a blender, adding seasoning and the sour cream.

I hope you enjoy the nettle soup. The hardest work is picking the nettles. Half a pound is a lot of small leaves, but it is fun to do, in season, once a year.

The Viscountess Ridley

More Nettles

There's a website for everythynge

National Be Nice to Nettles Week

Not the Apocalypse

just spring.

Weird weather today. Windy and chilly; one minute brilliant sunny, the next second slate grey sky; the next hail; then a snow flurry...

Spring.

It's quite chilly; colder than it was in February's weird warm patch, and the wind is very blustery, pushing even the big high cumulous clouds fast across the sky.

Normally (or I should say, "so far") our weather comes from west to east, with the wind off the Irish sea pushing the clouds down from the Welsh hills five miles away. But I've noted that it seems to be reversing itself as the spring gets going.

I went out for a long long stomp yesterday up as far as the sandstone ridge of which the most prominent part is Beeston Crag. Cheshire, despite its idyllic rural atmosphere, is a little...well...flat, for me, raised as I was in the mountains.

The little cottages and crofts up there in the hilly bits are lovely, nestling between the streams and rocks and the lanes even windier than usual.
But the wind that one hardly notices down here on the flat bits really screams up there and one is grateful for the lee of the hills. Was very grateful for the Norfolk tweed shooting jacket Uncle Mike gave me. It's a bit like wearing a space suit, completely water and wind proof and very snug. What one wants when spending four hours out there Looking At Things.

Made friends with a very nice horse. He stood quite still nibbling the buttons on my jacket while I petted his head. Next time, I'm going to take my camera and a couple of carrots.

I saw so many little woodland creatures yesterday that I realized if I'd had an airgun, the freezer could have been filled with rabbits, pheasants (yes I know it's illegal) and wood pigeons. Every time I saw the cute little hippity-hoppities, I thought the same thing...if only I had a gun.

Found what can only be a badger sett too. The holes were much larger than the bunny holes under the hedges and it was obviously a fairly extensive system in a little hill in a woody bit. I thought of buying a webcam and setting it in a tree to see what we could see.

I was going to venture out again today to see if I could gain the Sandstone Trail and make some headway on it, but for some reason the Spirit of Frobisher is not with me today. I think I'm going to jar the syrup, put the fire on and see if I can make a bit of Scotch broth, without burning the house down.

101

Stinging nettle has a wide range of uses and is a very versatile medicinal herb.

Since biblical times, it has been used to help with arthritis. The practice called urtication (from its botanical name) involved stinging stiff swollen joints affected by arthritis. Urtication often provided considerable relief with reports of arthritic swelling subsiding within minutes after stinging!

In more recent years, nettle has been increasingly used for treating bronchitis, asthma and hay fever. Research shows that it may effectively treat allergic nasal symptoms and has been used for centuries around the world to treat nasal and respiratory troubles: coughs, runny nose, chest congestion, asthma, whooping cough (pertussis) and even tuberculosis and laryngitis Scientific studies have proven that nettle is an anti-histamine. The leaf extract may also be used to help treat and heal hives.

Nettle is also a traditional liver tonic often recommended for ridding the body of all kinds of toxins. When the liver is sluggish, it processes oestrogen slowly, contributing to the high levels that may cause or aggravate premenstrual syndrome. This herb can also reduce bloating and breast tenderness.

Nettle is recommended for the prevention and treatment of kidney stones and as it's a diuretic it can help with bladder infections. Nettle is a silicon-rich herb which has strong folkloric support as a treatment for gout and rheumatism. Experimental animal studies found nettle increases uric acid secretion and lowers blood levels of uric acid making it useful for the treatment of gout. It has long been used to treat inflammatory conditions that affect the joints and therefore may help in treating bursitis and tendinitis as well.

Nettle contains considerable amounts of the mineral boron, which can double levels of the hormone oestrogen circulating in the body. In several studies, oestrogen helped improve short-term memory and helped elevate the moods of some people with Alzheimer's disease. In addition to the magnesium in nettle greens, studies show that nettle also has anti-bacterial activity. It can be added to toothpastes and mouthwashes to reduce plaque and gingivitis.

Nettle may also be used to treat prostate enlargement. Extracts have successfully treated benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH). Researchers gave a few teaspoons of extrxct daily to 67 men over 60 with BPH and found the herb significantly reduced their need to get up at night and urinate. The herb apparently has some inhibitory effect on the conversion of testosterone.

Finally, tincture of nettle leaf can also prevent balding in those with thinning hair.


100ml 1:4 Alcohol Volume 25%. Take 10 - 15 drops 2 x daily.

Nettled

Well, as we have read elsewhere, the jelly was a bust, but not to be deterred, I've tried nettles.

Went collecting today with the Norfolk jacked Uncle Mike gave me (that thing could probably stand up on its own and very likely deflect bullets. At least, it certainly was entirely proof against the very cold wind today).

Just for starters, I collected a shopping bag's worth and carted them home. Washed in cold water with rubber gloves on and sauteed in a hot pan with olive oil and a crushed garlic clove. And they were GREAT. Very much in the spinach line, but with a nice subtle mushroomy flavour and a much nicer texture, given by the little hairs that normally deliver the sting.




mmmmmm...good.

(I have to admit though, that before getting outside them, I did give them a little poke with my ungloved fingertip. I'm not crazy, after all.)

Cottage Life

So, I found out that the way you get a name for your house is just to decide on one, buy a sign and stick it on your front door. Or more usually, stick it on the front wall of your house next to the door.

Most of the houses around here have names, which is a Big Thing in rural England. What I like is that the Royal Mail will take the name of your house as the official address, so that when you give your address, you can call it "Hawthorne Cottage, Huxley Lane, Cheshire, England, CH9 9QE" and letters will come to you as that.

So, I've decided to get right into it and name the cottage. I'm leaning towards "Rosehip Cottage" since rosehips have become something of a defining lifestyle choice for me. But I think it might just be a leeetle too twee.

Suggestions are welcome, therefore, since those who know me will remember that I am the world's very WORST name-thinker-upper. I have had the same teddy bear for 22 years and in all that time, other people have named him all sorts of things, (including, oddly, "Manta-Bear"...don't ask) but between the two of us, he has remained "Mr. Bear". All my dollies were "Dolly". I got really creative one time and had a dolly named "Polly".

I went today for a very long stomp up past Bolesworth Castle and along some footpaths that had been flooded out in the "winter". I saw that the time for collecting nettles is upon us, with the sprouts everywhere and looking very healthy and green. I'm looking at recipes online for nettle wine, nettle beer, tincture of nettle (good for all sorts of things that ail you) and nettle shampoo that is guaranteed to keep your hair from falling out or thinning and is very good for it.

Nettles are also very good to eat and extremely healthy. But of course, the best reason to eat nettles is revenge. The same reason I used to enjoy eating shark a lot in Nova Scotia, ("Oh yeah? Think you're so tough? Well, who's got the thumbs now Mr. Toothy, eh? EH?!")

Some more excellent news is that, while the relations have moved from the house next door ("Medway House") to a place that was once the Tattenhall train station ("Station House" Get it?) and I feel a little lonely without the kids screeching and giggling next door, the new house has an enormous garden, including a formal herb garden. Uncle Mike and I inspected it as we were all helping the tribe move yesterday, and we decided to appropriate the garden for ourselves. With five very rambunctious kids to chase after and two full time jobs, there won't be a lot of time for yard work, so I get my wish of having a bit of Cheshire to dig in without having to wait 30 years on the list for a Council allotment, and the cousins get a gardener they don't have to pay.

There is tons of work to keep the diggers happy; it has been sorely neglected for many years. Mike and I happily pottered about inspecting hedges and shrubberies, lawns and garden sheds. The house is semi-furnished and comes with a full complement of gardening tools. There was a pond in the front lawn that has been filled in with rubbish of various kinds. We decided that it will make an excellent raised bed for veg, and the front gets sun all day (as much as there is in Cheshire), so there can be cold frames as well. Possibly one day even a hothouse for tomahhtoes.

Oooo! Digging! Rapture!

Went for a short stomp on Friday morning and took the camera, as well as the collecting bag for bits of oak tree.


my sitting room in the morning light.



St. Alban's churchyard daffs


I like it when the willows get that yellowy-green haze...sprouting.


Daffs grow in great carpets and clusters everywhere, wild, lining all the lanes, in the fields and woods...(note the young nettles)


I'm not sure what this little yellow flower is, but it grows very abundantly by the sides of all the streams. For some reason I think it is a mallow, but I'll have to look it up.


crab apples flowering in the hedgerows. Next year's jam crop.


a pal of mine with Beeston crag in the background.


This lane, between two fields, is my favourite. It is lined and arched over with oaks, chestnuts, roses and crab apples. It has been lovely in every season I've been here, and is the best place for rosehips. Its hawthorned hedges have started sprouting.

as you can see.


towards the village end of the lane, on one side is a rather posh house with very beautifully kept grounds.


apple blossoms.


the flowering plum across from the Village Indian and green grocer's at the end of Church Bank.


an host of golden daffies


the flowers came from Auntie Gill and Uncle Mike for my birthday.


Anyone looking at this would think I live in a decorating magazine.


I had a bucket of boiled crab apples and rosehips in the freezer all winter, waiting on the day when I was down to the very last scrapings of the last jar. Today's the day. The rig was something Uncle Mike came up with in the fall for the first batch of rosehip syrup. It works a treat.

St. Mary's Church, Nantwich

In the fall, I was taken to visit the beautiful and ancient market town of Nantwich, not far from here.

Nantwich is one of Cheshire's Roman towns, and was founded as a market centre around the town's original industry, the salt mine.

Wiki:

The origins of the settlement date to Roman times when salt from Nantwich was used by the Roman garrisons at Chester (Deva Victrix) and Stoke-on-Trent as both a preservative and a condiment. Salt has been used in the production of Cheshire cheese and in the tanning industry, both products of the dairy industry based in the Cheshire Plain around the town. Wich and wych are names used to denote brine springs or wells.

We took a stroll around St. Mary's Church, a famous landmark.



The church is almost completely untouched. Unlike most medieval churches in the area that have only bits that are original, St. Mary's has had no significant re-building since it was first put up as, naturally, a Benedictine monastic church, in the 14th century.



a transept chapel



can't remember what you call the little sink with the drain that goes directly into the earth in which one purifies the vessels. But whatever it is called, this one is the original.


I was particularly taken with this stone lady, possibly one of the church's early patronesses.


Very disappointed that this one turned out fuzzy.

A better version comes from the church's website:



Like nearly all the churches in this poor stolen country, it makes me very sad.

Long before the building was called a church there had been a chapel on the site under the control of Acton church. At that distant time there may have been a simple building erected in Anglo-Saxon times before the Norman conquerors arrived.in 1066.

About 1130 Acton church and Nantwich chapel were granted to Combermere Abbey run by a small group of Cistercians from France. For a hundred years monks came from the abbey to officiate in Acton and in Nantwich.

Around 1380 the present building was started. Masons came from Yorkshire and the red sandstone came from the Runcorn area. Money came from the abbey estates; through the religious gilds; and from wealthy people during the Hundred Years Wars in France.

Built in the Decorated style with later additions in the Perpendicular style the church is huge for such a small place as Nantwich was in the 14th century. Little wonder that it has been christened the `cathedral of south Cheshire.`

The oldest parts are the choir, chancel and nave(13th and 14th centuries) and less old, the 14th century transepts.

Features to look for are: the triple-canopied choir stalls; the misericords(carvings on the undersides of the choir seats - often quite amusing); the ribbed vaulted chancel ceiling; the faint remains of inscriptions (the Ten Commandments), high up on the east wall of the nave; and the effigies in the south transept. One is of Sir David Cradoc in alabaster.

After King Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s the church changed from being Roman Catholic to Protestant or Church of England.