The old ways are best

When you have a problem with your hands the best way to keep them warm is the traditional muff, says Sharon.

Getting gloves and mittens onto her left hand is almost impossible and they never fit right. So, an old-fashioned muff with a warm fluffy interior is the answer. She keeps her fingers warm as toast inside.

Yesterday, out for a roll around town, two people came and spoke to her saying how cosy she looked with her blue muff.

www.sharonskitchenworld.blogspot.com

Gaggles of geese fill wetlands

The marshes and creeks of Wigtown Bay are now full of thousands and thousands of geese.

The geese are making their way north from their warm winter homes in Africa and the muddy creeks and grass-covered expanses of the bay provide a welcome stopping off point. Wigtown Bay is the largest local nature reserve in Britain.

March includes lots of activities throughout Dumfries and Galloway in the Wild Goose Chase programme which encourages people to see the geese close up at several locations around the region, including Wigtown. For more information telephone 01988 40267, visit www.dgcommunity.net/wblnr, or email wblnr@dumgal.gov.uk.

Geese that visit the area include the following: Barnacle goose, Canada goose, Brent goose, Pink-footed goose, Greylag goose and the Greenland white-fronted goose. There is a hide at Wigtown harbour with access for the disabled from the car park.

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Junk mail tide set to rise

Fed up with receiving junk mail? Well, things are about to get an awful lot worse.

The recent settlement between the Royal Mail and its unions includes a clause buried away in the text which removes restrictions on the amount of un-adressed rubbish that the poor old postman has to push through your letterbox. Previously, this junk mail was limited to three items per household per week. Not any more.

But you can opt out of the junk mail torrent. Royal Mail bosses and junk mail producers don't like the term “junk mail” and prefer to call it “direct marketing.”

To let the Royal Mail know that you don't want to receive un-adressed items write to:

Freepost RRBT-ZBXB-TTS
Royal Mail Door To Door Opt Outs
Kingsmead House
Oxpens Road
Oxford
OX1 1RX

Or email: optout@royalmail.com.

A letter is probably best, as you will have proof that you actually asked. See more information at www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?catId=400126&mediaId=500081

A postman was suspended once for telling people on his round about this opt out service, so you aren't going to find the information on opt outs being promoted by Royal Mail. After you make a request you will be sent a letter asking for confirmation and after this has been sent back it will take about six weeks for the junk mail to stop.

Of course, if junk mail generators have your address then Royal Mail legally has to deliver it. To try and stem this flow you need to contact the Direct Marketing Association. See their website at ttp://www.dma.org.uk/information/cps-introduction.asp You can also use this site to opt out of annoying marketing phone calls and other irritations.

But there is nothing you can do about the flyers pushed through your letterbox by businesses that employ people to do so.

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Ice on the lochs lambs in the fields

There are lots of lambs in the lower fields but up in the hills there are still mantles of snow.

Large parts of the Clatteringshaws loch are covered with sheets of ice.

The loch was created by damming the River Dee between 1932 and 1936 as part of the Galloway Hydro-Electric Scheme, which now belongs to the Spanish company Iberdrola through its Scottish Power subsidiary.

The River Dee carries a very ancient name. Daphne Brooke writes of times 2,000 years ago and more in her book “Wild Men and Holy Places”: “A strong local cult of a water deity is marked by the Latin name of the River Dee ('Dea' – Goddess).”

The Clatteringshaws Visitor Centre of the Galloway Forest Park opens tomorrow, as do those at Glentrool and Kirroughtree. For more info on the 300 square mile park see www.forestry.gov.uk/gallowayforestpark

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A pattern from the past

Sharon's grannie was born about a hundred years ago and was a very jolly lady who devoted her days to cooking and baking.

Sharon has fond memories of visits when she was a little girl to her grannie's home in Sedbergh, North Yorkshire. Sedbergh is now England's book town in the same way that Wigtown is Scotland's.

“There weren't any bookshops there when I used to visit grannie,” says Sharon. “I can still remember the smell of baking, she was always making something. She used to make scones, cakes, jams, marmalades, toffee – she made everything. There was an open coal fire in the sitting room that we used to snuggle round in the evening.

“I used to pick the raspberries for the jam making. She grew them in her garden and was very proud of them. My favourites were things called sadcakes which were the short-crust pastry version of Eccles cakes. But they were not little and were sliced like a slice of cake and were bursting with currants. I don't know why they have got such a strange name because they were yummy. A slice of sadcake with a cup of tea was always given to anyone who called at grannie's house.

“I would love to hear from anyone who has a recipe for sadcake.” (sharon888bruce@gmail.com)

Sharon has a pure-wool bedspread that belonged to her grannie. This was bought during a holiday in Scotland during the 1950s or 60s and has an interesting pattern from the times.

www.sharonskitchenworld.blogspot.com

A bantam egg pie

Sharon tasted bantam eggs for the first time after neighbour Carol popped in with half a dozen from the happy Pekin Bantams that liven up her garden.

The small eggs and pale white and very rich. Boiled they are lovely.
We also used them to make a leek and mushroom pie.

Carefully wash and clean one large leek, making sure you remove out any remaining soil between the leaves. Chop finely.

Clean and chop half a dozen mushrooms.

Sweat the leeks and mushrooms in a little butter, adding scatterings of salt and pepper.

Grate two ounces of strong Scottish cheddar – see if you can get Loch Ryan.

Take a non-stick quiche pan. Roll out puff pastry to a size to cover the pan (we used ready-made from Sainsbury's)

Mix the grated cheese with the leek and mushroom mix and put into the quiche pan.

Pour in six well-beaten bantam eggs, with a splash of cream or milk.

Place the pastry on top and prick with a fork a few times to let the steam out
Bake in a medium out for about 20 minutes until the pastry is a nice golden colour.

If you can't get bantam eggs, use chicken's eggs instead, but fewer of them.

We enjoyed the pie with some penne pasta boiled with a few raisins and lettuce in yoghurt.

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How does it feel to have your food cut up for you?

When you are severely disabled, can't see well and only have the use of one hand, you have to ask for a lot of help.

Sharon says: “It is embarrassing. I remember cutting up the food for my children when they were little. Now that I am a grown up I am supposed to be able to do it myself but I can't any more. So, this is yet one more thing that I have have help with.

“Sitting out in public, knowing that everybody is watching that someone is cutting up your food for you is mighty embarrassing. And belittling.

“Every day there is always an occasion where I am so grateful and cheered up by the help that so many kind people give me. Quite often I don't even have to ask for their help. They just somehow seem to know and do it automatically, which is wonderful. People hold doors open when they see me coming in my wheelchair, help getting it up steps ask me if I am all right and there is anything they can do for me.

“The kindness of so many people is so touching.”

www.sharonskitchenworld.blogspot.com