Morecambe

During the first week of my leave at the end of August, Chickpea and I had a day out in Morecambe. It's been a long time since I last visited: in fact, I think I was still primary school age so that's more than 30 years ago. My family holidayed almost every year in nearby Blackpool with its tower, piers and bright lights. My Dad's sister and her family, however, preferred Morecambe so, one summer, we joined them. We stayed in a caravan near the railway line and the highlight of the holiday (and the only thing I clearly remember) was planting an apple pip under the trees at the back of the caravan and wondering if it would grow. My only other memory is that everything shut at 5pm and there was absolutely nothing to do. So, Morecambe, are you going to redeem yourself?

Morecambe is, unsurprisingly, situated on Morecambe Bay and lies a few miles south of Arnside which I wrote about back in April. The Bay has the largest expanse of mudflats in the UK and is notorious for its quicksands and fast tides. When we arrived the tide was just starting to go out though I think this pebbly beach is uncovered even at high tide.

The first thing we noticed were all the bird sculptures which are part of the Tern Project of artwork all along the promenade. These cormorants are part of 'Rock Islands'.

More cormorants stand on the railings along the stone jetty. This one looks out north across the Bay with the towns and hills of Cumbria curving all along the horizon.

This 'funny' joke was part of the Tongue Twisters section.

'Mythical Bird'.

At the end of the jetty is a small disused lighthouse which dates from 1855 and a building which is now a cafe.

Back along the prom, we came across a flock of unidentified birds all of which had shiny heads: it was impossible to resist stroking them, they were so tactile.

Nearby, lapwings were flying over the play area.

However, the sculpture we'd really come all this way to see is this one of Eric Morecambe. When I was younger the Morecambe and Wise show was one of my family's favourite programmes. Who can forget the famous breakfast sketch? And how many of you did the skippy thing that the lovely Eric is doing here to 'Bring me sunshine' during the end credits? I couldn't find a decent video of them performing that song so here's one of them singing Positive Thinking instead. Lovely, lovely memories, and my Dad still wiggles his glasses up and down and puts them on skew-whiff like Eric did.

And did we take photos of each other doing the pose? Of course we did :)

The other thing we came to see was the Art Deco Midland Hotel which reopened in 2008 after being fully restored.

There's a history of the hotel and pictures of it in its heyday on the Friends site.

We should have taken longer to have a proper nosy around but were so hungry we just headed straight to the Rotunda Bar for tea and sandwiches. We did get to admire the architecture of the room and the view of the sea while we ate though.

After lunch we headed back out for a walk. At the north end of the promenade, the pebbly beach gives way to golden sand. You'd have expected this beach to have been a lot busier given it was the middle of the school holidays and a lovely sunny day, but everywhere was very quiet.

We came across quite a few boats which had seen better days. Not much use for sailing but great for photos.

Luckily some were in better condition, though this boat wasn't going anywhere as the tide had gone out by this point, leaving it stranded on the mud flats. As the water recedes, you can see why people might be tempted to walk across the sands to the far shore.

However, beware, there are all kinds of danger, some hidden and some very obvious. There is an official Queen's Guide to the Sands, Cedric Robinson, who has been leading groups of people across the sands for 50 years. He uses 'brobs' or laurel branches to mark out the route. You can read a recent newspaper article about him here.

Back at our starting point on the pebble beach, I had a last look around to see what I could uncover and to choose a few treasures to bring home. At the start of the day I'd said to Chickpea that my aim was to find one of those elusive heart-shaped stones.

Well, it was clearly my lucky day as I uncovered this little pink heart along with some sea glass and a few shells.

So, did Morecambe redeem itself? I so want to say yes but, in truth, although efforts are being made to revive the town, it has a long way to go. It's such a shame really as this part of the coast is truly stunning with those wide open views. Having said that, we did enjoy our day and could have spent more time investigating the Tern Project sculptures, walking along the coast or simply sitting on the beach and taking in the views. Maybe Morecambe has something after all.

Hat works

On the first day of my two weeks off work, I met up with a few friends in Stockport again. This time we were headed for the Hat Works, a museum dedicated to the hatting industry. At one time, amazingly, there were over 100 hat factories and businesses in the Stockport area! The museum itself is based in Wellington Mill which was one of those factories.

On the lower floor there are exhibits of different pieces of equipment like this bow which was used to separate out the strands of fur. The string was originally made of cat gut and would have been plucked with a wooden pin. The vibrating string was then passed through the fur causing the strands to separate and fly up into the air before settling back on the bench. It makes me want to sneeze just thinking of all that flying fur!

Further along was an example of a hatter's cottage. These are always one of my favourite bits as I like seeing how people used to live.

There were lots of pieces of machinery but I was more interested in the haberdashery shop. Look at the old till (from Dayton, Ohio), the wooden drawers and all the bits and bobs in the display counter. Lots of lovely things to tempt us.

Hands up if you fancy a pair of fleecy knickers!

Upstairs were lots of display cases of different hats. However, this is about the best photo I could manage due to a combination of dimmed light and glass cabinets.

Also upstairs was a special exhibition devoted to Lock & Co, the world's oldest hat shop which was established in 1676 and is still trading in London. This was one of their ledgers with an entry for an order from Charlie Chaplin for a French grey Homburg hat.

There was also this funny looking machine, a conformateur, which produces a reduced scale paper pattern of the shape of your head.

There were lots of examples of patterns signed by various politicians and celebrities but this is the one which caught my eye.

If you're ever in Stockport, Hat Works is well worth a visit and entry is completely free!

While in Stockport, we had lunch at the Plaza, a cinema and variety theatre built in 1932, which also has a cafe. If you watch the UK version of Who do you think you are? you'll have seen it in the episode with Minnie Driver recently as one of her ancestors performed there.

Like a lot of buildings it has been used for other activities during its life including being a bingo hall.

However, it's gradually being restored and reopened in 2009. There are some lovely art deco details around the building, particularly in the foyer area.

Not sure about the colour combinations but they were very striking.

Another great afternoon in Stockport. I really have been surprised how much there is to see and we're not done yet. At the end of this month we're visiting the air raid shelters! x

Lemon & maple syrup courgette cake

Last time I said I'd share the recipe for this courgette cake which I've made several times and is always reliable. It comes from the Maple Syrup Cookbook by Ken Haedrich which was given to me by my penfriend several years ago. Being American, the book uses cup measures but I've converted it all into standard measurements for you.

Ingredients
3 eggs
240ml maple syrup
120ml vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
Zest of 1 lemon
100g grated courgette
300g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160 Fan/Gas 4.
2. Beat the eggs for 2 minutes, then gradually add the maple syrup, oil, vanilla extract and lemon zest. 
3. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and stir until just combined. Pour into a prepared tin - I usually use a 1lb loaf tin with a ready-made liner but used a round tin this time so that it could be filled with lemon curd.
4. Bake for 50-60 minutes.

De-licious. Well, usually anyway. This time I used some roasted pecan pancake syrup which needed using up - we weren't keen on it as a pancake syrup but I thought the pecan might add a little something extra. However, although the texture of the cake was fine, it lacked flavour so I'll be sticking to maple syrup in future. To add some extra flavour, I split the cake and filled it with lemon curd and also drizzled it with lemon syrup (warm lemon juice and sugar).

So, that's my courgette cake recipe. Do you have one you could recommend? I actually made another one yesterday which includes chocolate but I'll tell you about it another time. First it's back to our travels. x

Courgettes

I've often thought I should write a book called '101 ways with a courgette'. Our single plant has been in overdrive this summer with all the lovely weather we've had. Although, courgettes seem to do their thing in abundance no matter how rainy or sunny it gets. Not that I mind as I love them but Chickpea has done her usual theatrical sighing every time one enters the house.

The first few are a novelty but it can then become difficult thinking of different ways to use them. In case you too are struggling to come up with ever more inventive ways to cook your courgettes, here's a few of the ways we've enjoyed our harvest this year.

Fried with rosemary and garlic to accompany lamb chops, houmous and green pepper (an odd choice I know but I just happened to have one which needed using up).

With chicken, sundried tomatoes and pasta.

With griddled halloumi, asparagus and salad leaves.

Halloumi again but this time with giant couscous and roasted vegetables.

Sausage, tomato and pasta.

And last but definitely not least, Green Thai prawn curry.

You may have noticed there are no sweet recipes here. Well, I do have an American recipe for courgette cake which uses maple syrup, but you'll have to wait for that until next time. x

Viking Sunday

It may be September outside but here in blogland, I'm still in August. The middle of August to be exact when we headed to Tatton Park for Viking Sunday which was being held in the grounds of the Old Hall.

Just after we arrived, the day's entertainment began with a bit of fighting between Vikings and peasants. They were all members of the Vikings of Middle England, a re-enactment society.

As well as fighting, they had set up lots of tents in the grounds to demonstrate various crafts and aspects of Viking life. It did get busier than this!

A young man explained all about the different kinds of arrows that might have been used during that period. I almost used this photo for 'sharp' in the August Scavenger Hunt.

On another stand they explained the use of herbs for medicine.

And at another one, a lady was demonstrating weaving.

There was also a replica ship though I think the real ones were probably much bigger.

We'd just finished looking round the stalls when it was time for the next event in the arena: a birds of prey demonstration by Gauntlet Birds of Prey. We were expecting the usual hawks and owls but were pleasantly surprised to see some more unusual birds like Spike, the seriema. Our favourite bit was watching him attack the rubber snake and bash it on the ground!

I didn't catch the name of this Hooded Vulture but we also saw Kit-Kat, the American vulture.

Entry to the Old Hall was included in the ticket price. We've done the tour a few times but it's always worth a visit. This is actually the exit but was a prettier view with the cottage garden along the wall.

Inside the rooms are laid out in different periods with the rooms downstairs mainly showing what it was like when it was still a farmhouse. When I was pre-school age (1970-ish), I remember watching my Mum doing the laundry in a washing tub with a mangle - thank goodness for 'proper' washing machines now!

As always it was the little details which caught my eye. I knitted a purple and white tea cosy in the same ribbed pattern as the one on the table. The crockery was lovely and particularly the cup and saucer in the photo at bottom right.

This is what I would have loved to have taken home though.

Having seen everything there was to see at the Viking event, we decided to head out to explore the park.

Lots of wide open spaces.

And at the end of the track, the mill pond. There were lots of damselflies darting around and I spent ages creeping around trying to get close enough to photograph one.

Finally I got lucky and was later able to identify this one as a Common Blue.

Next we headed over to Millennium Wood where they've planted over 30 native trees and shrubs. We particularly enjoyed the folklore on some of the information boards such as: if you suffer from gout, collect your fingernail pairings and leg hair, place them in a hole bored in an oak tree, seal up with cow dung and your cure is guaranteed!

I also loved that they'd planted so many bushes and trees with berries.

On the way out I noticed this tiny blue beauty. There was just a single flower and so far I've been unable to identify it.

We really enjoyed our day out. Tatton Park is one of our favourite places to visit and I'm sure we'll be back again very soon. x