This is a much under valued fish in the UK but is fairly popular in the mediterranean where apparently it is overfished. In the UK it can be seen as a more sustainable source than cod or haddock and with a flakier and milder taste, lends itself to more varied types of cooking. Hake Loin I have only really gotten in touch with this fish since moving down to Dartmouth because there are so many varieties of fish availble. So far I have only tried en papillote with a nice thick piece of loin and shallow fried with olive oil. I have also used the head to make an excellent fish stock. Whilst I have put up a picture of hake loin, the recipe that I am going to focus on here is an adaption of a Venetian dish by Rick Stein, hake alla Carlina. I used fillets that were not particularly thick as can be seen from the images but they worked a treat and were well worth it. hake isn't a particularly cheap fish and the pieces in the images cost me just shy of £20. The fish is served with fresh samphire and new potatoes with garlic and butter and there is a side of home made tartare sauce. Ingredients: 4 hake fillets skin on (about 150g each) 2 tbsp olive oil 50 g plain flour salt and freshly ground pepper for the sauce: 2 tbsp olive oil 1/2 lemon 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce 2 small gherkins finely chopped 2 tbsps capers (1 finely chopped) 2 ripe tomatoes finely chopped 3 tbps tomato sauce or pasata 250 ml fish stock ( I used water) For the tartare sauce: 200ml mayonaise 1 tsp Dijon mustard 2 tbsp capers ( whole) 6 small dill gherkins (half roughly chopped the other finely chopped) splash of Worcestershire sauce splash of chilli sauce 50g of washed and finely chopped samphire squeeze of lemon juice tsp of onion granules Method For the tartare sauce Mix together all the ingredients and leave to stand in the fridge preferably for a couple of hours or more. For the potatoes Pre cook the potatoes in water and then cool to prevent over cooking. For the hake Season the fillets with salt and pepper and then coat them with flour. Heat the olive oil in a pan and then add the fillets skin side down to fry for 2 to 3 minutes ( until lightly browned) then season with a squeeze of lemon juice. Turn the fish over an fry for a further minute or two. Remove from pan and keep warm. For the sauce and assembly When you are about to serve the fish, put some butter in a pan and add some finely chopped garlic to warm up but be careful so as not to burn. Hake alla Carlina Blanch the samphire in boiling water and drain. Add the Worcestershire sauce, gherkins, capers, tomatoes and tomato sauce to the fish stock or water. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a bout three quarters to create the sauce. When cooked and reduced add the fish back to the pan carefully to warm through in the sauce . Plate up and serve immediately with a good spoonful of tartar sauce. NOTE: If you don't make the tartare sauce yourself, don't buy a jar. Leave it out.

This year was the 180th year of this annual celebration where, for a few days, the town descends into a madness of noise and stalls and food and competitions and what not. Traffic gets re-arranged and flows in all sorts of unusual directions; car parks become fair grounds; and, dog walking spaces become car parks. You can see from my description that I am not a nautical person as I would have written it differently. Rowing and sailing and kon-tiki raft races, competitions and such like, team work and so on. There was a slight change this year apparently due to the bank holiday falling on the penultimate weekend of August. This meant that the festivities and the madness started with a family fun weekend on Saturday 29th August and ran until the firework finale on Saturday 30th with an opening ceremony (for the Regatta itself) on the evening of Wednesday 27th. The first stalls to go up were the food and drink for the family weekend and this Greek Souvlaki stall was possibly the best presented. What's more, the display stayed as clean and fresh on each day as it did on the first. It was a shame to see the souvlaki bulked up with chips but I guess that we live in a supersized world these days and if it's what the consumer wants (which they clearly did as it was very popular)... Of course it would be wrong to write about the regatta without making reference to the background. The first recorded regatta was held in 1822. In historical context, that was just over a year after Napoleon Bonaparte died on St Helena. The event recorded included a rowing race for six-oared gigs. There was also a ball held in the evening for one hunderd and twenty persons. It wasn't until 1856 that it became the Royal Regatta when Queen Victoria made an emergency stop over in the port due to bad weather and bestowed the title before she departed. There was a lot of activity on an already busy river this past week which commenced I believe with the six-oared gigs pictured here and ended with the tug of war between whalers in the boat float in what was probably the wettest day of the festival. Night time provided an interesting mix of noise and serenity depending on what was playing in the Royal Avenue Gardens and on what hour of the day or night that it was. And who was it that parked their VW Beetle on the pavement when all other cars had gone? Early mornings were quiet except for the seagulls who it has to be said, kept a pretty low profile during the day time. One can only assume that it was the sheer number of humans wandering about the gardens and the waterfront that pushed them out of their preferred foraging sites until the early hours of the morning. That was of course dog walking time, always a quiet period of the day (well usually) and one where it is actually to find a little peace and tranquility. Of course there is the canine omnipresent expectation of a free lunch and so walking Gandalf this week has been its own tug of war between the two of us over whether he could forage. It was a battle that was in his interest to lose, having rescued him a week or so before from a couple of large fishing hooks where he had managed to sniff out and half eat an old bit of bait that was lying about fully armed. He must have been worried himself as he whimpered and allowed me to remove food and fish hooks from between his teeth without even a growl. Dog walking was a particular problem duing the week culminating in the regatta proper where the press of people (some with two or three dogs apiece) on Thursday and Friday in particular was quite excessive. On these days, preferred dog walks tended to be through the backstreets to Ford and then back again the other side (South Ford) where, as is evidenced in the image, there are bananas growing. Can you beleive it, bananas growing outside in the UK. Well, in Dartmouth in particular. All in all, the regatta experience was a positive one. There were some interesting spots. Like when a spice merchant tried to sell me chutney and sauces at £9.50 a pot and where I am convinced that the shreds of turmeric in the "concoction" ( his word) were actually carrot. Or missing the point that when the sign says "Car Park Closed" that it really does include those individuals who have an electric moped parked there. We only spotted our error a couple of days later by which time the solitry vehicle had been incorporated into the fairground equipment. And it was still there when the council sweepers were cleaning up a magically empty car park (other than a bike!) that up until late the night before had been a heaving fairground. Of course the big finale is the firework display held on the Saturday. It rained for most of the day and that proved a bit of a washout for the various traders. But on a positive side, the weather had otherwise been good all week. Whether the display was in any risk of cancellation was anyone's guess but the rain stopped when predicted and the sun came out in time to go down, when predicted. We took oursleves to a vantage point up Crowthers Hill to get a view of them rather than staying in the centre of town. It was an impressive view and the image doesn't do justice to the display. Nor, it has to be said, did the formulaic "oohs" and "aahs" that were being muttered in the general vicinity and giving the whole experience a kind of pantomine quality. Which, in point of fact, it was. Now, uncharacterisically, I have failed include a link to one of my novels and so I am forced to be more blatant than usual. Here is a link to The Head Gardener which I am making available to download for free in Ebook form during September.

The most striking feature of Dartmouth is the waterfront. This is especially so at night when the yellow lights of the Quayside compete with the deep blues of the estuary. Indeed, walking along it is oddly reminiscent of a similar waterfront in the novel The Xandrian Quarters , although I didn't think that Dartmouth was in mind at the time it was written. It is the town centre and its proximity to the water that is so striking. Notwithstanding its history, what there is today is a waterfront embankment of about a mile in length running from the higher ferry near Sandquay to the lower ferry just before Bayards Cove. Much of this promenade is railed to protect the unwary from falling in the river but it is also a commercial jetty where crabbing vessels pull up alongside to unload in the early hours when the tide is right. Indeed the waterfront at night has a wonderful look and feel to it. Although it can prove to be a crowded space, especially during Regatta, both at the start of the day and at the end it can be an area of pleasant solitude. In the early morning there is the sound of the gulls (not as irritating as it might seem); the quiet hum of boats heading into and from the sea and the occasional "Morning" called out by other early risers (or dog walkers). At night there is the sound of gulls (straining slightly on the irritation levels); the occasional cries of herons as they are disturbed from their fishing vigils on the pontoons; and, the slightly over friendly greetings for those late night walkers who are trying to walk off the effects of an evenings alcohol consumption. There is just such a wonderful mix of natural and human generated light.

Imagine my surprise when recently visiting the fish stall for samphire, to find that the new season of sardines (Cornish) had landed. Of course I bought six for breakfast. These little beauties need cooking as soon as possible so don't leave them lying about for too long or they will start to fall apart. Mine were in the sea Friday, on the counter Saturday and on the plate Sunday morning. I don't include any reference to sardinas in The Prawns of Lebowa but this is a meal that I could imagine the Collector trying out. Here is an extract to give you some idea. So now for my breakfast! There is a lot of oil in sardinas and so they really benefit from a taste that is going to cut across all of that. In the recipe below I used preserved lemons but I guess you could use fresh lemons, sliced and fried in a little olive oil or butter. I also added some samphire for a salty kick. In this case it was French Samphire. I served them with bruschetta. The Ingredients:- 6 fresh sardinas 4 small preserved lemons medium bunch of samphire olive oil 50g unsalted butter For the bruschetta:- Four pieces of stale bread already cut in slices Olive oil 2 large tomatoes chopped 3 large cloves garlic chopped A note about salt. I added no salt to this recipe. The samphire and the preserved lemons provided adequate but if you are using fresh lemons or not using samphire you may need to adjust to taste, having a mind to your blood pressure! A note about fat. Sardinas are high in oil content. 100g of fresh cooked sardinas contains about 7.8g of fat. They are however rich in Omega-3 fatty acids which are good for heart, brain and metabolic health. Method:- I started by roughly chopping the garlic; finely chopping the tomatoes (well sort of); and slicing the preserved lemons. I wanted the garlic to undercook slightly so left it quite large but if you prefer it could be grated or minced using the flattened blade of a chef's knife and salt. All set aside. Then I rinsed and drained the samphire and set aside in a bowl. If you cant get samphire then I would go for something like wild rocket or baby spinach. The rocket will change the taste of it all but I reckon it would be a good variation. Next came the assembly of the Bruschetta: A drizzle of virgin olive oil on the bread; topping with the chopped tomatoes and then the garlic; more olive oil and then set aside. Pre-heat the oven to 200C (180C fan) or Gas 6. Once I had my mise en place for the vegetables; had set aside the 50g of butter; and had a quantity of olive oil to hand, I was ready to prepare the sardinas. Make sure that your knife is sharp all the way to the tip! I neglected to do this and managed to tear the flesh as I encountered the fins underneath. Sardinas do tear easily. Insert the tip of the knife into the end of the gut and slice carefully towards the head stopping just before you get there. Use the knife or a finger to remove the guts and other bits inside and then set aside. Repeat for each fish and rinse them all i ndividually. Make sure they are dry using kitchen towel. Place the prepared bruschetta onto the middle shelf of the oven. They will want about 10 minutes or so, so measure to the number of batches of fish that you will fry. Add a little olive oil to a saucepan and heat. When ready add sufficient sardinas not to crowd them( I fried 3 at a time in the pan I was using). Be careful, they spit! I overheated the oil and did not pat the fish dry before putting into the pan. I had hot oil everywhere and had to resort to lidding the pan. Fry for 4 to 5 minutes each side - turn them only once and don't move them about otherswise. Then either set aside on a warm plate or place in oven. I put mine in the oven and so the first batch was probably overcooked a little (although we didn't notice it). Repeat for each batch then, when finished, look wipe out the cooking pan and add the butter get it to temperature before adding the lemons and the samphire ( or the rocket or spinach if using instead) for a short while to heat up. Turn off the heat. Set 3 fish on each plate and top with the samphire and lemon. Add a little of the melted butter if you wish. Serve with the bruschetta. ¡Buen provecho!

The past couple of nights have offered some fantastic views of the moon and moonlight over the estuary in Dartmouth. Last night I captured a magical shot of an golden moon rising above the castle. True to form however the picture was out of focus as I had my dog, Gandalf, on a leash in one hand and my mobile in other. Still, it is yet another example of the novelty of this place and the wonderful light that it exhibits both day and night. Whilst I still feel that somehow I have managed to move into a waterside town that I invented in The Xandrian Quarters, I know that I am definitely in South Devon in the United Kingdom. Lebowa, similar in my mind as it seems, is most certainly the subject of the book, The Prawns of Lebowa located on an inland sea in the south of the world of Se Molde. All inside my head. There is no such idyll in the world of Seagrum the Dwarf or rather, there may well be such images and vistas but they are all hiding in plain sight to the merciless bounty hunter of Florencetown. So, to return to the real world, I find myself constantly in awe of the quality of light in this place. It could of course be that my eyes are losing acuity and this in some way improves what I perceive. All I know is that I have seen some splendid sights recently that have inspired me to think about dusting off my paints and getting a few paintings put together. The previous night offered some lovely views of light on water from an equally large (but this time white) moon that hovered above Gallant's Bower. As it ran down along the surface of the water it seemed to gather up the lights from the last ferry and then to disperse across the rippled surface, gold on ultramarine with the lower part of Kingswear in the background. Towards Bayards Cove, the light was a little more close up and personal, a little more fragmented. Then again there is a larger picture with a shot across the river to Kinsgwear from the South Embankment on another clear and still night after the last ferry has packed up for the night and Dartmouth once more seems to be cut adrift from the rest of the world.

T his chowder is loosely based on Mediterranean-style fish soup that is popular in the cheaper restaurants and cafes down by waterside of a number of ports in Xandria. Obviously each one will have its own variation and I have tried to include some of the options in the ingredients list below. The one that I have actually cooked here is from the port of Lebowa which is more commonly known for its prawns (curiously absent from this recipe). To get a flavour of the background to this recipe, listen to an extract from the Prawns of Lebowa here . The one particular ingredient that stands out in this chowder is the tahini which is used as a thickener rather than cream or yoghurt. For the fish I have opted primarily for huss as it is common on market stalls in Lebowa at this time of year (summer) and I have added a small amount of monkfish and a few scallops. I woudl have included mussles as well but they were not available on the day. (Along with the samphire which also was absent.) The stock can be made up of any fish but I used the head of the huss and the remains of the monkfish tail. A bought stock can be used but it is far better to make your own: more subtle and if the fish is fresh ( and our source is so fresh that it must have come off the Lebowna fishing boats that morning) then it is not going to be a stinky affair to make. For the stock: 1 fish head and some bones ( we used the huss head and the backbone and tail from the monkfish) 2 celery sticks (sliced) 1 carrot (sliced) 1 red onion roughly chopped 2 cloves garlic (shopped) 1 small bunch fresh parsley 1 litre of water Salt and pepper to taste For the chowder: 400g of mixed fish (we used monkfish, huss, scallops) Bunch of parsley (instead of either 10g of dried seaweed or some samphire as neither were available) 1 large red onion finely chopped 150g small waxy potatoes 4 large red tomatoes (chopped) Olive oil 1 stick of celery sliced Handful of chantenay (or just small) carrots Some capers (if not using samphire) Fish stock ( see Method) 3 cloves garlic Pinch of mace 1 tsp smoked paprika 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper 2 tbsp tahini (or 100ml double cream) 1/2 tsp ground coriander Salt and pepper to taste For the fresh croutons:- Some stale bread Olive oil 2 cloves garlic Method First make the stock unless you are using a bought one. Put some olive oil in a stock pot and heat. Add the chopped stock vegetable ingredients and stir, frying for about 3 minutes. Do not allow to colour or caramelise. Then add the fish pieces and about 1 litre water. Bring to boil. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Season after twenty minutes. Drain and set aside. Discard all the solids from the stock pot. Do not exceed 20 minutes or the stock may become gloopy. Soak the seaweed (if using) in cold water for about 20 minutes or until soft and rehydrated. Then chop into small pieces. Or rinse the samphire if using and set aside. Or measure out about a tablespoon of capers and set aside. Then prepare the croutons by pouring a tablespoon or two of olive oil into a bowl and then crushing the garlic chef-style with salt and add to the bowl and mix. Whilst infusing, cut or break the stale bread into croutons. as may as you want to have. then add these to the bowl and mix well. Spread out on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and pour a little more olive oil sparingly over the bread. These can be cooked in a preheated oben to 180C at any time in the process and then set aside. Boil the potatoes whole in a pan of salted water until you can put a sharp knife through one. Drain and rinse to stop them cooking and set aside. When call cut into bit sizes (halved or quartered depending on size). In a large pan, add a good portion of oil and heat. Add the onion and stir to prevent sticking or burning. Turn down the heat and allow to cook for about 5 minutes. Add the sliced celery pieces and the carrots (sliced or whole) Peel, crush and chop the garlic if not already done and add to the onions. Roughly chop the tomatoes into small pieces (better to prepare in advance). If you don't want the skin peel them first using boiling water but if cut small enough they will not cause any problems with skin on. Add the spices to the pan and stir to prevent sticking and burning. Add chopped tomatoes to the pan and stir in with the onions and cook for a further 15 minutes or so to soften up the tomatoes. Add the all the stock and bring back to a simmer. This is a chowder so the fish, when it goes in, wants to be swimming. Take 2 tbsp of tahini and mix in a small bowl with some of the hot cooking liquor. This is to prevent clumping when added to the soup and to reduce the granularity of the paste. Add the tahini to the soup and stir a couple of times. Pan fry the scallops separately and then set aside either whole or sliced as you prefer. Add the chopped fish and the seaweed to the pan and stir carefully but only a couple of times before the fish starts to cook. You don't want to mash the fish or break it up. Leave over a low heat for 10 minutes or so until the fish is cooked. Add the cooked and cut up potatoes. Add the cooked scallops and the capers (as many as you see fit). If using seaweed or samphire add this now. If using double cream add this to the soup just before serving and stir carefully a few times. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve into large bowls ( white enamel for authenticity) and add the fresh croutons and parsley . Then serve with a hunk of fresh bread of course! Observations The jury is out on the use of tahini. It was tasty but I think I might have preferred double cream instead. Some of the source in other Xandrian ports offer the soup with a smooth base. Lebowa does not but I think that it might have added to the dish to blitz just before the tahini is added. The huss was surprisingly good and could have handled the soup on its own I reckon thus saving the cost of monkfish (huss is relatively cheap). The dish missed out on the mussels and the samphire in my opinion but it was good none the less. All in all though it was really tasty. Bon appetit!

You would expect a waterside place like Dartmouth to have a good supply of fresh fish and the town certainly doesn't fail to deliver here. In the market place on most days, there is the best wet fish shop I have seen in recent times. It's a veritable cornucopia. There are fish there that I couldn't name nor recognise. It reminds me of the description of a similar stall in The Prawns of Lebowa. There really are all varieties and it is quite a challenge to come away with only those items decided upon before arrival. I have tried huss for the first time. An interesting texture a bit like a sort of fish tofu that soaks up flavour beaustiful in something like a Thai Curry. Having only ever seen the long pinkish fillets of the fish previously, I was fascinated when a small shark like creature was produced from a large bucket under the counter, eviscerated and then filleted by expert hands and a sharp knife. In no time at all two good (pinkish) fillets were on the counter before me. " It was in the sea yesterday". Sea bream just tastes divine even though it is a bit picky with the bones. Oven baked it was a tasty meal. Red mullet of course an utter gem: have been back a few times for those. Hake, another new fish to me and one that I thought would be flakey in texture . How wrong I was. I wanted two thick pieces and a huge fish was duly lifted from under the counter and two large pieces of 'loin' we removed. That was cooked in the pan and served with new potatoes, a fresh tomato melange and samphire. The mussels are truly the plumpest ones that I have ever eaten. Again, simply cooked: finely chopped onion and garlic and black pepper fried up in a little olive oil or butter in the base of a large pan, a little dry white wine and then the prepared mussels into a large pan for long enough to cook. Discard any that don't open of course. And served with some sourdough baguette from the French Bakery just opposite the market. And the prawns - where to begin? Juicy and sweet, it is like rediscovering food every time. This simple dish is one that could very well be a picture of the Prawns of Lebowa. Served whole and eaten (mostly) whole for the benefit of my knees. The scallops! Well what can I say about those? Huge plump juicy things with beautiful orange coral. So fresh that they are often still alive ( which may or may not sound gross). Pan fied in a little olive oil and butter, they taste like a slice of heaven on earth. The freshness of the catch can be a little disturbing. My particular distress was to see a collection of octopus on the stall. I watched in horror as one of the tentacles unwound itself with deliberate yet hopeless intent across the surface of the other dead or partially dead flesh. I have to confess that I was sorely tempted to buy the creature just so that I could drop the unfortunate thing back into the estuary. No such scruples about the excellent samphire that you can buy there however. Always a great addition to a fishy feast!

The biryani is a perfect one pot dish that is so easy to prepare and cook that its a wonder it isn't more popular. This recipe has been cobbled together from a number of sources and adapted to suit my taste and the amount of time required to prepare and cook it. This one pot curry is a little different to the one described in the novel, The Xandrian Quarters but in the spirit of the book and its influences, I have chosen lamb as the meat. It could equally be chicken or indeed vegetable based. I have a fancy to try aubergine and will report back in some future post. Ingredients ( for two persons), the following:- 1.5 cups Long grain rice (white) 1 cup lamb stock 3 cups water 325g butterflied lamb leg 1 medium red onion finely diced 2 garlic cloves 150 waxy new potatoes 1 tbsp (heaped) Greek yoghurt 70g long stemmed broccoli 30g Celery tops finely sliced / diced 1 Bird's eye chilli (finely sliced / diced) 1 tbsp Ground coriander 1 tbsp Ground cumin 1/2 tbsp Ground turmeric 1 x 2 inches Cinnamon stick 1/2 tbsp (half) Ground cayenne pepper 1/2 tbsp Ground paprika 3 whole cloves Salt to taste (we didn't add any) 1 tbsp oil for frying Method Pre-heat the oven to 180C (Fan) or 200 conventional). Gas 6. Make sure that you have a large enough oven proof pot with a close fitting lid. The pot in the images below was just about sufficient for a recipe for 4 (i.e. doubled up). Wash the rice a few times in cold water and then leave to stand in a large bowl of warm water for 20 to 30 minutes . Slice and chop the garlic, chilli and celery tops if not already done. If the lamb has a skin , remove it. It doesn't matter if the meat is in parts once this is done, but the meat does not need to be diced. Rub some additional paprika, chilli and coriander powder into the lamb meat. Meanwhile in the pot that you will use for cooking the biryani in the oven, fry the finely diced onions in the oil until soft then add the garlic and celery tops and chilli and continue to fry for a further 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Drain the rice and then pour the fried vegetables into the drained rice mix. Remove the tops of the cloves and discard the stalks and then add all the spices to the rice bowl. Mix thoroughly. Place the small potatoes to the cooking pot and add the yoghurt and mix together loosely. (Yes there are small carrots and one brussel sprout in the image - these extra raw ingredients were just available - waste not want not!) Pour the rice mixture onto the potatoes and level out but do not mix . (Leave the potatoes on the base if possible but it doesn't matter if a few get to the surface). Add the lamb stock and the water to the pot. Drop the broccoli into the pot and leave spread about the surface then add the meat to the top. At this point there should be liquid covering the surface with the lamb sitting just like a meaty island. Place the lid on the pot ( preferably a tight fitting one to minimise evaporation) before placing in the centre of the preheated oven. Cook for about 50 minutes to an hour or until the rice is done. Remove from oven and leave to stand for about 10 minutes before serving. The meat will need cutting. Dig deep for the potatoes! Add some fresh cut green herbs ( eg coriander or parsley or methi). We used parsley from one of our two Auks.(Our indoor herb garden) bon appétit! Our Two Auks

Went walkabout around the Quay just before lunchtime today. It was quite busy as the season is picking up and the number of people walking aimlessly about at the waterfront is increasing now. I stood at my door for a while until I had a suitable slot and then I slipped into the stream and joined the flow avoiding, with moderate success, some butt-ugly dog that was gasping and snorting on the end of a short leash. On the south embankment, there is only one pub near the waterside. A decent enough sort of place: not the kind that graced the pages of Seagrum the Dwarf. Just up from there was an ambulance and a coastguard search and rescue vehicle. I assumed that someone had gone in the water earlier. Not wanting to appear too curious, I made my way further down the embankment to look at the water as it rippled vigorously in the light breeze that was blowing. I have recently been struck by the refraction of light in water. I guess that is because I see the stuff more frequently: morning noon and night on dog walks as a minimum and plenty of other times in between. I am not entirely sure whether it matters if the light has natural source or is man made; is night or day; sunny or overcast; early morning or as the sun goes down. It seems, at certain times, to give the water a viscosity that goes beyond its actual physical properties. To give shape to the water. I am not observing this as a scientist and I am not referring to any of the physical qualities associated with the liquid. It is simply the mystery of light as it reflects and refracts on and in the water of the river. Take some observations from today as I walked around the boat pool and along the Quayside... A hot midday sun with some cloud and enough of a breeze to ruffle the water in the estuary, leaving the river with a surface of quicksilver. Yet, insufficient wind to disturb the surface of the boat pool...where the surface looked like an impressionists palette.... However in the boat pool there was a shoal of young mullet milling about and occasionally making the surface bubble and roil to keep the visual momentum. You can just see the ripple of a fish rising in the "impressionists" shot. I watched them for a while hoping to catch a good shot of the shoal itself but only managed that with a video , the single images more apparent as the shape of water than the texture of the fish. My musings were brought to an end by an alarm on my phone to remimd me of another client call in a few minutes. I headed back home leaving the mullet to do what they do whilst above them in shoals, the humans swirled around and around.

Well, we moved onto The Quay on 20th March 2025 after living for over 40 years in Frome in Somerset. It was quite a transition from a large four bedroomed house built in 1867 with a large garden and 4 decades of clutter to a second floor apartment on a Quayside in Dartmouth with no clutter. Well almost. There were a few things that we could not part with and that small collection of things came with us. We couldn't bear to leave these guys behind It was quite an experience, getting rid of so much that we had held dear for so long. Much of it went 'on the wall' as we put it. Anything small enough to sit on our front wall went out there. Over a period of about six months we had moved pretty much the entire contents of our loft through the house, onto the wall and then into the new owners car or carried off in their arms. Death cleaning, the Swedes call it and I guess that is what it is. We have at least spared our offspring the bitter sweet experience of sorting out the belongings post mortem. More Brio trains From a purely personal point of view I think that we both found the action quite enlightening in most senses of the word. The sheer weight of having two huge prams in the loft; the boxes upon boxes of clothes ; treasure chests of lego; almost all the large activity Playmobil sets that were around when our children were growing up; more Brio train sets than you could count. It all went. One last fossil - a doorstop Even my library and my collection of fossils ( admittedly they went to one of our grandsons). The books went in a mixture of ways: gifts to second hand book sales; some, I'm afraid, went to the local recycling; some on the wall to avid readers. St Augustine's, De Civitas Dei went to a retired Anglican clergyman just up the road. It was a sad series of days that they went, I have to say. Now I have a small but select collection of about 10 books, plus my own scribblings and about 15 cookery books that I was unable to part with. The learning that we took from that experience was probably as follows. Firstly, they are only possessions - it's just 'stuff' - and let's face it none of it is going with us when we take the final journey in this life. Secondly, it was helpful to gift things rather than sell them. That way we felt that we hadn't crystalised a loss but had contributed to other peoples lives. Thirdly there was a kind of symbiosis thing going on. We had a number of small chicken houses that were fit for burning along with a couple of old water tanks that were littering up the garden . Not to mention two survivors of our great chicken experiment, two unnamed hens that still occasionally provided us with eggs. The great chicken experiment These all went at no cost to us and at considerable value to him, to a local gypsy who in the end proved to be very resourceful in removing unwanted things from our garden (with our blessing). The hen houses he tidied up; the water tanks went to store water for his goats; the hens went to live out their old age in his garden. Finally, we got the chance to hand things over to our kids in their lifetime without the difficulty of bereavement (for them) or the risk of quarrels over the spoils.

A garden tended well should give back far more than a human can put into it. We tended our garden in Frome for over forty years during which time we grew a mini coppice at the side of the house and managed the decline and removal of the ancient apple trees that defined the garden when we first moved in. We kept the original paths and added to the number of borders, reducing the area of lawn. We went through a fortune's worth of plants as we painted this wonderful canvass with iris (the flag varieties refused to grow), monarda, primula and peony to name but a few. At one time we had over thirty species of salvia. Despite the hard work, it was a place of peace and tranquility; a place of sense and sensuality . At the end, the herbaceous borders were still growing strong when we left Broadway. Nothing short of a mechanical digger was going to stop the crowns of astilbe, phlox, goats beard, hemerocallis, Siberian irises and so on. Yet in truth it was more than we could manage. We had already failed to clear the main paths around the garden for the first year ever. I had also rebuilt a large part of the surrounding walls ( five foot high) as drystone on my own in recent years because the older constructions had fallen over, the thought of having to repeat the task for some of the remaining areas, was more than my aging self could handle. The limitation brought about by age, or rather in anticipation of the limitations that would eventually be imposed by age were one of the deciding factors in our eventual move to Dartmouth. So how do you go from managing God's quarter acre to living in a second floor apartment in a Grade II listed building of 77 square metres? Decisively, of course! Initially we had thought that our only gardens would be Royal Avenue Gardens on the other side of the Boat Float. However on a cold December's day on Newcastle's moor, we had a conversation with a friend of one of our daughters. We had just sold our Frome house and were expressing our regret at the loss of a garden and in particular the loss of access to fresh herbs. "Why don't you try hydroponics," he said,"you can get units that will fit a kitchen." The conversation went on a while and then eventually his children called him away but it left the germ of an idea. When we got back home ( our daughter's home as we were at that point technically homeless) we dived into Google and found some interesting results. Eventually we found a product by Auk in Sweden. It looked practical and the idea seemed plausible and it would give us ( if it worked) fresh herbs all year round growing in our kitchen. It is a measure of our outlook on life that we ordered two of these units even before we had a home to move into. For more about Auk click on the link here but from our point of view it is a brilliant idea. Setting up was easy; growing and watering was easy and tidy; all the seed varieties germinated and started producing. So far, since planting in March, we have grown and continue to benefit from the following crops: Lettuce Oregano Sweet Mace Argula Basil Watercress Flat-Leaf Parsley Coriander They are still cropping on the kitchen worktop four months on and look as though they will continue for some time to come. We have just bought a new supply of coir, nutrients and seeds to replace the stock when they stop producing ( although I think that we may have to force the issue). The only aspect that might be a negative ( and we haven't bothered to work it out) is the potential energy cost for the LED lighting. This is a passion for us so frankly we don't care. So that was the productive gardening sorted out. All that we needed now was a form of flowering and ornamental planting. Did I mention that our apartment is north facing? It has a lot of benefits but it does limit what you can grow indoors. We have gone for the easy option of three medium sized foliage plants that we picked up from Marks and Spencer and we may eventually go back and get another. So that just leaves the trees... perhaps we might consider a bonsai?

Norway may be one of the more expensive countries to visit but it is a marvellous place in terms of its scenery, its culture and its people. After all, you have to recognise the simple efficiency with which the public transport services are run. The fact that everything looks clean. The simple observation that even the people begging on the street have a VIPS (sort of bank account) to receive payments from donors. Our reason for travelling there is to visit our daughter and her family in Oslo and we have managed three trips together, two in the summer and one in November. The November visit introduced us to the concept of cold. At its coldest it was only -12C for one day whilst we were there but the whole idea of Sognsvann being frozen over for a further five months at least was a bit mind bending. The cold pop pool I’m a made me think about the first chapter of The Collector of Tales. I was particularly excited to explore the culinary delights of Norwegian food, traditional food that is but the whole concept was more or less dispelled on a first walk into downtown Oslo. Looking at the various eateries on offer, there were every variety of cuisine under the sun. The most dominant appeared to be sushi, followed by bakeries but there wasn't anywhere that was clearly set out as a traditional Norwegian menu. Indeed, in the first visit we made we didn't try anything specifically Norwegian ( ok maybe other than brown cheese) except the bolle. Whilst not exactly a healthy snack especially in terms of the butter content, they are difficult to refuse. We found an excellent little bakery on Inkognito Terrasse in Oslo called Apent bakeri. In my opinion, they offered the best bolle and kanelsnurra. We liked them so much that we brought a copy of their Bread Baking cookbook back with us and have tried our own versions with some success. It wasn't until we took the second trip that we risked something that looked at least like it was Norwegian food. We were visiting a viking village at the end of the world's longest road tunnel at Njardarheimr. It was a salted meat fest with mashed kohl rabi. It was good solid comforting food. The kind of thing I guess a viking would expect when he came back in from viking. I wouldn't repeat it though and was indeed only glad that it didn't repeat on me. Looking back at the menu board it went by the name of Potato dumplings and I guess that I can see that now. Actually it was better than it looked by a long way. This all being said, am sure that I haven’t done justice to Norwegian food and so I will have to explore further when next we visit.