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| Taken on 27 August - our damson tree |
It is good to be home! The last two weeks have been excellent: a superb week at Rydal followed by another one in the Brecon Beacons, but returning to the Usual is, in some ways, a relief. A quiet night in with Claire, who did not come to Wales, curled up on the sofa watching a movie with the Snarkalong Film Club was absolutely the right thing to do. This time it was Relative Values: a comedy of manners with a terrific cast, led by Julie Andrews. Nothing demanding or noisy at all.
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| A running stream in the Brecon Beacons |
It has been a quiet Saturday, though originally Chris & Kate were meant to stay for the weekend. That they have both fallen ill (not Covid, I think) is unfortunate but at least it meant that I didn't have to spend two hours tidying frantically. Instead I have shopped, played my mother at Scrabble, made a fabulous bread & butter pudding (from the remains of the Gugelhopf) and tried to watch Lego Batman, which was a fail from me. Oh, and drunk half a bottle of Prune & Parsnip, which is Perfectly Pleasant
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| Wiggy on 23 October |
I really should write up my wines as soon as I have finished them. It is three days later and I remember little about this bottle. That suggests it was not ghastly. I think it had a heavy, overly floral taste and needed a sugar syrup to make it better, but it was still acceptable. We drank it to homemade pizza, which is always delicious, and a silly superhero film called Ant Man in which the protagonist did not invade picnics or live in a rockery. Otherwise, much as the wine, it was entirely acceptable.
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| My Apple Wine in the Fridge |
A Saturday bottle of wine. The day had been lovely. I spent most of the morning making an asparagus and emmental quiche - which was a Triumph (he said, modestly). Then Richard & Linda came round for lunch, during which the Triumph was eaten with relish. We stayed outside enjoying a British summer's day and it was great to be entertaining again. Late afternoon I played Mom at Scrabble (always a weekly highlight) and in the evening we drank blackcurrant wine (another Triumph) whilst being disappointed with Gross Pointe Blank - far duller than I remember it being in 1997.
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| The Triumph |
I am so pleased with this Tutti Fruti. I obviously did something right when making it. Though it is clearly a red, it has a lightness and a refreshing quality that one would expect from a white.
Saturday was a gentle, undemanding day, in which I got caught in a downpour and lost to my mother at Scrabble (by only 7 points!). I said at the end of April that we were desperate for rain, and there hasn't been a dry day since. One day I'll be able to mow the lawn.
We finished the day by watching Bill with the Snarkalong Film Club - a comedy from the Horrible Histories Team about Shakespeare as a young man. I had expected it to be excellent, and it was merely amusing.
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| The downpour in which I got caught |
The brown sugar I used when making this rhubarb wine has definitely had an effect. There is no hint of pink to this wine - it is instead a golden yellow. Its taste has a burnt element to it, but not in an unpleasant way. This is an unusual rhubarb wine but I think one that is rather good.
We drank it on Saturday evening after a lazy, wet day. The rain hardly stopped, but after the driest April for a generation that is a good thing. I played my mother at Scrabble, getting my highest ever score of 510 and in the evening we watched The Kid who would be King with the Snarkalong Film Club, which was entirely satisfactory. So, a gentle Saturday (which makes for a dull read - apologies!)
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| Taken on 8 May |
If you want to see how I made this wine, click here.
Claire required something nice to drink after I had forced her to have two sips of Magnolia Petal Wine. Being the loving and considerate husband that I am, I directed her to the blackcurrant wine and whilst Claire was drinking this, I was drinking the Magnolia Petal. There was half a glass of this for me on Saturday night, and it is a pleasant vintage of blackcurrant - much like every other blackcurrant made (a remarkably consistent wine ingredient). I drank my ration whilst watching The Core with the Snarkalong Film Club - a truly silly disaster movie with the concept that the Earth's core has stopped turning and only a nuclear bomb will get it going again. Hilarious and predictable.
I started reading 'Knowledge of Angels' by Jill Paton Walsh - and the pages above are its opening. I think they are stunning, and I thoroughly recommend this book.
Claire and I had our first Covid 19 jabs on Saturday, and that makes me happy. It was a remarkably speedy and efficient process. I had expected long and slow-moving queues, and in fact it was the opposite. 24 hours later, my arm feels bruised but otherwise there are no other side effects.
In the evening we celebrated with a rather nice (if floppy) gin & tonic and then this bottle of wine. The wine is excellent, tasting of both blackcurrant and raspberry (odd, that). It is fruity and light and delicious. We also watched Return to Oz at the Snarkalong Film Club. This is a deeply disturbing and surreal children's movie, which has more scenes of electro-convulsive therapy than one might expect for a film aimed at the under-12s.
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| Immediately before the Jab |
If you want to see how I made this wine, click here.
On the strength of this bottle, 2020 was a good year for blackberries. This was everything that blackberry wine should be: rich, smooth, a hint of sweetness and full of bramble flavour. It was also a bottle drunk immediately after it was bottled, and this was because the string snapped a second time and wasting more than two corks seemed excessive.
Half of the bottle accompanied The Blues Brothers which (shockingly) I had never seen. Lots of fun and hyper-cool. It has not aged badly at all - with its best attribute being its sound track, but with the most ridiculous car chase running it a close second.
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| Taken on 15 March |
If you want to see how I made this wine, click here.
This is another successful orange wine. It is difficult to wax lyrical about it when it tastes pretty much the same as every vintage made. The wine is sharp, clear and has the expected citrus taste. I think it drier than 2019's batch, but that is neither a good nor a bad thing. We drank it mostly whilst making a spinach & bacon quiche - I was in charge of the pastry and Claire the filling. We were meant to save some for the Saturday Night Snarkalong (Cowboys and Aliens) but the bottle was empty by then. The film wasn't nearly as camp as the title suggested, and that was a disappointment. We switched it off half way through and made our way to bed.
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| A Hebe in our garden |
If you want to see how this wine was made, click here.
This was such a good bottle of blackcurrant wine - sharp and fruity with a taste of summer. We drank much of it whilst watching Snakes on a Plane as a Snarkalong Film Club choice. The movie was predictably entirely ridiculous (and ridiculously entirely predictable). That is not to say that I didn't enjoy it however. About two thirds of the way through, Wiggy entered the room with a large and feisty mouse. She promptly dropped it and 20 hours later, it has yet to be found.
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| Wiggy - a couple of hours before the Mouse |
When Claire asked what bottle of wine was next on the list to get rid of, I chose Rose Petal - a flavour that we drink slower than we might if it were better! This bottle was actually fine and I may make Rose Petal Wine again one day.
There was nothing exciting about either day on which we drank it, save that we watched The Death of Stalin on Thursday, which had a fabulous cast and managed to be both brutal and funny. Not a light comedy, and it explored the nature of power with a satirical eye. Recommended.
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| Taken on 18th February - A Study in Circles. |
What a splendid bottle of Xmas Tutti Fruti. It was rich and full of berries, and it is a shame that this was the last of its vintage. We drank it after having a Zoom Gin & Tonic (or two!) with Catherine and whilst firstly eating sausages (sausages are a wonderful thing) and secondly whilst watching Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Apart from the zombies, it was remarkably close to Austen's original - but I flaked out three quarters of the way through and had to go to bed.
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| Pinned to a park notice board. |
Claire is of the opinion that this wine has deteriorated massively in quality and refused to drink any. I think that whilst it was not at its refreshing best, it was entirely fine so I drank the bottle over the course of the week, beginning with a Lockdown Dinner Party with Rachel & Duncan and finishing with an incomprehensible film version of Charlie's Angels. I suspect that my lack of comprehension was alcohol related.
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| Our garden on 2 February |
I dug out a bottle of Orange 2016 for Saturday night, but on one sip that was rejected and Claire requested something nice. Blackberry wine satisfied that job description and helped round off a gentle yet enjoyable Saturday. I turned the remaining bit of the Sicilian Lemon & Orange Cake into a fabulous bread & butter pudding and our Snarkalong Film Club was Galaxy Quest. This was charming and funny and sweet natured, and it appealed to the barely-hidden science-fiction geek within.
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| Wiggy, looking as if butter wouldn't melt |
Saturday was one of those days where I pottered. It was much like all other Saturdays have been stretching back for months. Post Office, grocery shopping, Scrabble with my mother, bottle of wine (as prune & parsnippy as ever) and Snarkalong film (Ocean's Eight). The only different thing was that I made a serious effort with our Book Group Book: Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford. It is 824 pages long. I have reached page 144 and Nothing At All Has Happened. I am relieved that I still have nearly four weeks until Book Group.
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| Parade's End |
I fished out this bottle from under the stairs to go with a supremely hot curry. My reasoning was that whatever wine we had, we would hardly taste it. And Rose Petal is no longer a favourite in this house. In fact, this wine was rather good. The floral taste did not overpower the wine and, despite its age, it had not acquired a sherry taste. We then ruined the evening by watching Nativity! on i-player. Never trust a film with an exclamation mark. It was abysmal.
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| Taken on 19 December in my local park I found it emotional, hearing live music again. |
I opened this bottle after an abortive attempt at Apple & Strawberry 2018. Saturday night needs a good bottle of wine; not one that is only just on the right side of 'drinkable'. And this wine is excellent - smooth, unusual and delicious.
The Snarkalong Film Club was Dirty Dancing - last seen in 1991 with my awful ex-girlfriend (also called Claire) and I hated it then - probably because ex-Claire loved it. Anyway, without that baggage it was better. Not a masterpiece, certainly, but okay (and so very 80s).
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| Taken on 12th December |
This bottle was better than I had remembered. It was not cloyingly sweet and there was a pleasant depth to it. We drank the wine at the end of one of those dank days which just makes you want to hibernate. Instead, though, I made a Christmas pudding (now to be stored until Boxing Day) and created my first panel of our Advent Window (lots of stars - relatively easy and a bit dull). In the evening we ate 'Hot & Sour Guinea Fowl' and watched Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Gently amusing, but no more.
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| The Christmas Pudding before 8 hours of steaming |
