Fig Tree Cottage

I seem to have been asked quite frequently "have you found that snake yet?" to which my reply has always been that I didn't expect to until the weather warmed.

I had a suspicion he was curled up somewhere and was keeping himself nice and snug whilst our house was a bit chilly.  The past few days things have started to warm up though, and the sun has started to show a little more during the day.  It has been so nice I had actually meant to jump into the loft and turn the heating off!

Maybe I was right too, cos on Tuesday Tash turned to walk up the stairs and stopped dead in her tracks.  "Should there be a snake on the stairs!?" she called out!

And there was Sherlock, just sat there halfway up the staircase.  Tash found an ice cream tub and we gathered him up so I could get his viv back up to temperature before he was reintroduced to home.  I took the opportunity to grab some photos of him too, something I really wished I had done when we bought him.  He had been missing almost exactly 2 months!




Once the viv was nice and warm I put him back in with just his warm hide, a bowl of water, and a furry.  Snakes can go ages without food so I wasn't too worried about his hunger but water is more crucial for them.  He went straight for the water bowl and proceeded to drink like a fish!


Happy that he was OK I left him alone for a while.  I popped my head back in to check on him about an hour later when Alfie went to bed and I managed to catch him just finishing off the furry!  Happy that he had eaten and drunk I reassembled his viv ... and made sure the new roof was 100% escape-proof!


I am so chuffed to have him back, it was the best way to start my birthday!  I'm gonna leave him alone for a few weeks and let him settle back in.  I imagine its been quite stressful for him.  Then I'll start to get him used to being handled which I cannot wait for!

I have wanted to go to Race Retro for a number of years, but for some reason things never seem to fall into place.  Its considered by many to mark the start of the show season, and its a real hub of activity and show stopping cars for the classic and retro enthusiast.


With all the 'show' it also tries to add a little 'go' with an operational rally stage, and this year a fire-up of some old Honda race bikes.  With me attending with an eye on the Gathering, and us having two kids in tow, it meant we decided to head up on the Friday (24/02) in an attempt to miss the crowds - but also knowing it would mean we would also miss the rally action too as that only ran on the weekend.

Once we'd managed to find the car park (some funny fcuker had been messing with their signage!) we got ourself inside and settled down in the cafe that is just inside the entrance.  It was feeding time for Esme and so as Tash got ready and I held Esme I grabbed a quick photo of the pair of us ... and then Alfie and I disappeared inside the first hall!


I spent a lot of time talking to people.  Either people who I already knew, or people who I thought could add something to the Gathering.  It meant I didn't get loads of photos, but there were a few times I went scrambling for the camera in my back pocket.  One such occasion was seeing the Porsche Group C cars and also the promotional stall for the various Classic & Sports Car series.


Alfie even presented me with one of those must have 'father-son' photographs when he sat himself down next to a single seater.


There is a fantastic selection of traders at the show and we even managed to find someone who was selling toy cars made by the French company Vilac.  We bought Alfie one of these when we were in Le Mans 18 months ago and jumped at the chance to grab another. 


Eventually we wandered into the hall that housed the two wheeled exhibitions and immediately Tash and I commented that this hall was 'much more us'.  It just felt more relaxed and laid back, and not quite so 'stiff upper lip' as the other halls had been.  Steve Parrish was there doing announcements and such like, but with it being Friday it was very quiet.  He was there with his old GP bike and I jumped at the chance to have a photo with him and Alfie and a quick chat about the forthcoming MotoGP season.  Incidentally, Alfie drew Steve into the thumbs up, I'm sure he doesn't usually go around looking super enthusiastic to the cameras!


We managed to time things perfectly, and within minutes it was time for the fire up of the old Honda.  I have to say they were immense.  Alfie loved them ... just a shame he freaked at the start and as a result we lost our space at the front. You may not be able to enjoy the video so much, but you can't help but love the audio!

I was just looking back through my recent photos and realised how much I need to blog.  Kinda conveniently its about a monthly worth so I reckon its worth just doing a bulk upload/catch up.

At the end of January I saw the film 127 Hours after my mate Judgie told me it was on telly and gave me a brief synopsis of what it was about.  The film reminded me I needed to get a camera to take on the Gibraltar Cycle, a camera I could take out with me and not really worry about what happened to it.  I was actually researching with the laptop on my lap whilst the film was on!  I settled on a Canon A1200 - it had good reviews, would also shoot HD video, and I found it for just £60 ...the exact amount I had sitting on the bookcase! 

The following photo's and video were all taken with the A1200 as I've messed about with it over the past few weeks.  We took a few testers at home, so here's some of the rugrats to please the rellies who keep moaning I don't post enough photos of them!  In case you have forgotten what they look like Alfie looks like this;




And Esme has spent a lot of the month wrapped up like this.  Her beady eyes peaking out from either her snuggle bag (that our friend Cat kindly made for her) or the sling.




At the start of the February it snowed. 


And so I (foolishly) assumed Alfie would be overjoyed, and with that in mind dragged out Tash's old sledge from the barn.  The initial trial up the road was a huge success too.

And so we headed off into the fields, but kept the walk short so as not to turn out first born into an ice statue of doom, woes and terror.


Why do I say 'doom, woes and terror'?  Cos this is how much fun he had!


Once the snow had thawed Alfie had his first experience of mainsteam breakfast cereal.  And what better than Coco Pops?


Alfie has already become a wonderful big brother.  Whilst still his usual 'bull in a china shop' self, he is full of cuddles and kisses for his new little sister.


And when not with Esme he's liking nothing more than to turn every item into his latest play object.  Abel & Cole boxes included.

As for Esme, she's had ALL the new knitted clothes!

We also got the (somewhat expected) news that Tash is to be made redundant.  We knew that if it were to happen we'd try and take the positives from it.  With her not having a job it means we have no ties to our current location, and so we're spreading the search for her next role far and wide - and that has meant applying for jobs within the UK, in Gibraltar, and even further afield. 

OK, tomorrow is pancake day and here's my recipes.  With having chooks running around the garden it means we have chicken sh!t everywhere!  It also means we have a good supply of eggs, which in turn means we have pancakes every week, and usually more than once.

A little while ago I spent an AGE researching and trying out different recipes until I settled on this one.  I prefer a 'crepe' style pancake, and I don't think there is anything better than this!

Here's how.  In a bowl you want 300ml milk, 125g flour, 2 eggs, dash of sugar and a pinch of salt.  You can also add some melted butter or even a little vanilla extract if you fancy.  Whisk this up to make your batter.  The key to making the perfect pancake is to get a good heavy bottomed frying pan on a med-low heat.  Once up to temperature you put a small amount of sunflower/veg oil in the middle of the pan and use a piece of folded up kitchen paper to spread the oil around the base of the pan.  You want just enough batter in the pan to cover the bottom - which depends on the pan and ladle/spoon you use.  As the edges become done use a plastic spatula to tempt them away from the pan.  Once this side is done it should have come away enough for you to toss, and will then only need a minute or two on the second side before being done.  After the first two or three you will notice the pancakes are cooking quicker so drop the heat down a little bit to ensure consistency.

To finish lemon and sugar is fine, but bacon and maple syrup is the pancake of champions!

Ever since Arsenal moved from Highbury to the Emirates I've been longing to visit North London to see what the impressive looking stadium was all about.

Our train line into London runs right past it, and our numerous trips to Camden Town had hit home on the visual impact front.  And with it being just 25 minutes on the train it meant it was the closest stadium for me to be able to watch Villa.  I had been meaning to go last season, but my adventures in the Great British Bake Off meant I missed my chance and so when Villa were drawn against Arsenal in the 4th round of this years FA Cup I was straight on the phone to my Dad to see if he fancied it.

Tickets secured, the 29th January soon came round and before I knew it we were exchanging welcomes at Finsbury Park station. 

Following the crowds we made our way round to the stadium, and before long it rose from the North London terraces.


Once inside, and with a beer inside us, we made our way to our seats ... which were actually pretty good, even though we were tucked into the corner which can be a right P.I.T.A.


It was a hell of a day.  The 5000 away fans were immense, and the first 45 minutes were spent continuously singing songs and jumping about.  It helps when you go 1-0 up after 30 minutes, and then whilst preying we might hold on we go 2-0 up on the stroke of half time.  I completely missed Darren Bents goal too.  Villa hit Arsenal on the counter attack and with Benty one-one-on with the keeper his shot was saved.  I had my head in my hands kicking the seat in front when all of a sudden the Villa fans started celebrating.  At first I thought the ref had just blown for half time, then I wondered if we somehow had a penalty, and finally it dawned on me we'd scored a second!  I guessed that after his shot was saved it must have rebounded out and he tucked the second chance away from a tight angle ... but I never really knew till I saw the highlights that night!

Sadly we came out for the second half looking like we were just waiting for Arsenal to score.  And that they did.  Three times.  And so we lost 3-2, but after the poor attendances and atmosphere that has been witnessed at Villa Park sometimes this year it made a real refreshing change.  The result aside it was without doubt the most enjoyable day at the footy i've had this season!

It had been a while since I did an away game, and I didn't realise how much I missed the relentless away fan enthusiasm and banter.  Even for a McLeish managed Aston Villa!  It certainly won't be long until I'm visiting another away ground to see Villa play away cos its games like these that you remember for the rest of your life.

After visiting Evil From The Needle for my clown tattoo back in October I spent a while speaking to Tash about how I would love a piece from Mark Ford.

Mark has a real unique and crazy style, and pretty much everything I've seen via his blog or on Facebook has had my jaw on floor exclaiming how freakin' cool it is!

My problem was a lot of my ink is planned, and I couldn't work out what to have him do or where it would go.  But checking his blog a few days later had my mind buzzing - he was introducing "Freehand Friday", a time where he tattoos, on his day off, something he wants to do - freehand - and charges minimum price for.

We were back in Camden during November for Tash's birthday and I popped into the shop to have a chat with him to learn how he did things (re: Freehand Friday) and when we could arrange an appointment.

A date was set for early January, which got bumped a fortnight, and ended up being the 20th - two weeks ago.  I had thrown a few ideas his way, but was really flexible as I just loved the idea of letting him run wild with what he wanted  His artistic mind wanders down paths I never knew existed!  I can see how such a lack of guidance or direction from a client would really frustrate an artist, and I hope it didn't piss him off too much - but a week or so before the appointment I saw him post about his desire to do a skull jellyfish.  Now I like skulls.  And I like creatures of the seas.  So I threw him a message announcing my approval of that kinda idea.

Friday 20th rolled around and I was on a train as early as the family would allow and down to Camden in really good time.  Mark and I had a quick chat about the ideas we had discussed, and we agreed to opt for the Skull Jellyfish to be placed down my left calf.  Mark had even drawn up a stencil, which I really hadn't expected, and I could see straight away it was gonna be as mind blowing as all his other work.


Mark got his station set up and soon we were ready to get underway.

 
It was real nice for me to know that both of us had the day free, so there was no pressure coming from the clock, and I had the privilege of someone with his artistic talent running free on my leg with ideas that entered his head.

I've done a few long sessions in my time, but I think I must have been under the needle for about five hours - way longer than I had anticipated Mark to give me (in a good way) and the level of detail he put into it really blew my mind.  And here's the finished  piece.  I absolutely love it and I'm pretty sure it won't be the last time Mark makes my skin more colourful!


I walked home in complete comfort, amazed at how good my leg felt after the abuse it had taken.  And then had the next week of random shooting pains going down the back of my leg!  You just gotta love the healing process!

After our previous successes with the Racecar Shack I hadn't expected to do much until the Fig Tree was moved, freeing up space for us to comfortably finish off the roof.

But things have dragged on with getting the Fig Tree moved, and then a few weeks ago we had a number of very windy days which took developments out of my hands.  We had planned to move the enormous budlia, and in fact had hauled half of it down ourselves with a good piece of rope and a large amount of heave-ho!

It has now become apparent that our previous partial felling resulted in a slightly off-balance tree.  An off-balance that when attacked by a few very windy days (as we suffered over 6th and 7th January) would result in the remainder of the tree coming down.  On the plus side, this meant the tree was down!  On the down side it meant I had to do some fence repair and tree removal as we were now sharing our budlia with the Social Club next door.

I was heading out to walk Harry and I noticed how light and spacious the back of the shack looked.  And then I realised why!


And so I picked up the phone and rang Bill to see if he had plans for the weekend.  Cos we had some chopping to do!

The weekend arrived and we got stuck in.  When you jumped through into the Social it became appartent at just quite how large the budlia was!


Even as we got down to the larger branches there was still a huge amount laid the wrong side of the fence.


We got a little method worked and made pretty quick work of it.  Before long the main trunk of the tree had been stood back up and felled back on itself and into our garden.  This revealed the sorry state of the fence, and that the fence post had seen far better days.


I had an old fence post in the garden though, so although it meant more work it wasn't the end of the world.  Due to lack of space, and the old fence post remains, we were left to drive in the new fence post with sheer brute force.  The downwards end had a spike cut into it, and we then set about whacking the post into place.  With just a lump hammer.  Whilst stood on my wood chopping tree stump.  Which was balanced on a picnic table in the garden of the social.  But we got there though.  And then we fashioned together what we could of the old fence panel.


We realised this left a handy man sized hole in the fence.  Clearly we needed to patch this up to stop people coming through into the garden, but not before we made use of it to escape into the Social for a quick pint.

Our drinks were rudely interupted when my phone rang and my beloved wife informed me that our son had been creating mahem all afternoon and what the hell was I doing having a pint.  In truth she needn't have rung, we could hear her as clearly as if the properties had been terraced!

And so we finished off the fence, patched together with a few shelves that were previously in that unit by the back door.  There are no photos.  It had got dark whilst we were in the Social! 

Bill made a dash for home before we sat down for food as he had some of his own wind damage to repair, but as we neared the end of our meal it became very clear just how crazy had been during the afternoon.  He had properly worn himself out!

I realise that since posting about the planned cycle trip to Gibraltar I have been very shy of updates.

I don't really know why that is as loads has been happening.  My planned routine was to have a big ride on the weekend and smaller rides during the week.  My big weekend ride would increase by 10 miles each month, starting with 20 miles in September, then 30 in October, 40 in November and so on.

Training in September and October went really well, but things slowed a little during November and December due to Esme's birth.  Following Christmas I was back out on the bike with a 40 mile ride which seemed far more comfortable than I imagined it would.

I shifted my training plan slightly and now aim to ride 50 miles in January, 60 in February, 70 in March, 80 in April and then 90 in May which should see me being very comfortable for the days in the saddle during the cycle to Gib.

The New Year signalled just five months until the trip, and focused a lot of my thoughts onto what bike I would complete the ride on.  I had been training on my mountain bike, but I've known for a long time that I would look to ride a road bike on the journey. 


With sales everywhere, and Tash and I having a lot of time at the moment, I started looking at bikes.  More research than anything, but of course the inevitable happened.  I found something that was just what I wanted and at a fantastic price!   I sat on the 2012 Trek 1.1 which would have cost £550, but really wanted to step up to the 1.2 which came with extra kit (most notable a 9 speed cassette) but would have cost £700.  A bit of looking around and I found the 2011 model of the 1.2 for £500!  Bang on budget, and £50 less than the bottom spec 2012 model I was looking at!


Many thanks go to my Dad for helping me fund such a purchase at such short notice, and two days later my new set of wheels were parked up in the barn!


Keen to keep training, and get out on the bike, I did a ride last week one evening in temperature about 4 degrees.  I was actually warm enough, and still in shorts, although my feet certainly got cold!

The weekend arrived and I was planning my first 50 mile cycle.  I sorted a lovely route and Friday night sorted all my gear for an early start on Saturday.  I wanted to be on the bike by 7am, a time I found out when everything was going to be frozen and with the sun not yet up neither were the temperatures!  As a result I planned a pair of thermals for under my shorts, 2 pairs of thermal socks for my feet and a pair of socks to go over my cycling shoes!

All that gear may sound stupid, and I bet I sure as hell looked it, but I hate the cold and I always get hit in toes.  I left on time and after 5 miles or so I'd warmed up my fingers and my feet were doing OK.  All that changed by the time I reached 15 though and my feet were really feeling it and I seemed unable to do anything to warm my toes.  I was cycling through lots of freezing fog which resulted in moisture forming on my eyelashes and my eyelashes freezing together!  I decided to turn around, happy with a 30 miles ride in such unfriendly conditions!

Maybe I sound like a wuss, but by the time I got home this was how my feet looked!


Yup, I had frost on the outside of my socks!  You can imagine how my toes were doing!

And I did the the majority of the ride without being able to refuel as my energy drinks froze up too!


I can see why Cavendish flies out to Italy for his winter training now!

Its Friday, you all want the day to end. Well waste 6 minutes watching this then!

I write this update with somewhat mixed emotions.

We had been down to one chicken since the end of last summer when one of our last birds was diagnosed with having mites.  Sadly, and obviously, she didn't make it and with the whole chicken run to herself our final bird went off the lay.  That is not why I am a touch sad though, that part comes later.

And so for a number of weeks I spoke about us acquiring a few more birds, and with winter approaching I wanted them not only for eggs but also for warmth for our current lone girl.  I was aware that a change in EU legislation regarding keeping battery hens was coming into force, but I didn't really know much about it.  But then just a few weeks before Christmas I got an email from the Battery Hens Welfare Trust saying something like "you've had chooks from us before, and due to the change of legislation we have a load of birds becoming available - would you consider taking on a few more?"  And of course I jumped at the chance, it was just what we were after!

And so we drove (the Benz scraped/ploughed) our way across the B roads of Britain to Bishops Stortford to grab our three new birds.  They settled in pretty quick, and have been on the lay since day 1!  With the coop now being cleaned out regularly with this anti-mite stuff I am hopeful they will be our longest surviving birds yet!  They only thing is that with three new scrawny birds (though they are much healthier than the three we got a few years back) it makes our 'resident' bird look exceptionally fit and healthy ... and plump and tasty! ;o)

Here the all are!


They get quite regular free time around the garden now too as Harry proved my earlier suspicions that he would be fine with chickens, if maybe a little excitable at times.  Though seeing a dog trying to sniff a chickens arse is a bizarre sight!

That period between Christmas and New Year can often be a bit 'nothing'.  Not really festive, but nothing really to do.  This year seemed really different though, and on December 28th we made a visit to the Koi centre which is just up the road from us.  We go there fairly often, previously when Neo (my Leopard Gecko) was alive for his food, and now just to show Alfie all the cool fish and reptiles.  There must be something about the inter Xmas/New Year period that leads me to have a desire to make rather impulsive reptilian purchases.  I acquired Neo at that time back around 1999, and on this day we walked out with a Anerythristic Corn Snake.  Alfie loved he, he actually chose it, and they are great pets for kids - and I really fancied a snake.  We had the viv, heating, hides etc ready to go and so went home to get it set up before collecting him that evening.

I then did a load of research and learnt how to let them settle, and most importantly that they are proper escape artists!  They can even flatter their heads which means they can get through gaps just a few mm big - and with ours being just 6 months old he's pretty small!  The viv is an old fish tank and so I made the lid temporarily escape proof before making a new lid.  I did this on Saturday (Jan 7th), but clearly there must have been a tiny gap somewhere as the bugger had packed his bags and gone to see the wider world by Monday morning!  I'm pretty gutted about it, and I'm preying he makes an appearance soon.  There are many tales of Corns disappearing for days/weeks/months on end so I am trying to keep positive that he'll reappear somewhere.  In the meantime there are water dishes everywhere, his viv is on the floor, his hide is on the floor with the heat mat under it, and there are many bottle traps been set.  The bottle traps have a furry in each one and as he is due to be fed today I hope he'll come out in the search for food soon!

And so if you happen to visit FTC please keep your eyes out for a snake who looks something like this chap.