The "joys" of camping

I’m waiting for the filling to cool before I insert it into a parcel of puff pastry. It’s Corned Beef Slice for dinner tonight.

As I do, one of the things that pass through my mind was one of the statements made in yesterday’s “Food Programme” on Radio 4. The theme of the programme was the joys of camping. I sympathised with the view expressed of camping being a nightmare. My one & only endeavour at camping involved hordes of biting midges & eventually being flooded out as the tent developed holes in the midst of a very heavy downpour. My friend & I sought sanctuary in a nearby YWCA.

However, at one point, it was commented that all magical childhood memories take place outside. I find myself thinking back to my childhood. My memories are of apple tree climbing, playing football & cricket, games of tag of one sort or another, getting stuck in a bog & losing a shoe in the process, & generally exploring the big outside world. However, not all my good memories took place outside. I remember hours curled up with a book inside, playing cards with my parents after weekend lunches, playing with Matchbox toys with my brother etc.

I can see the point that part of camping these days is getting the kids away from TVs & mobile phones, experiencing really dark starlit skies. The idea of singing & chatting around a camp fire sounds magical, though, I suspect even now I would say the image has greater appeal than the reality. The idea of getting down onto & off a camp bed is a nightmare as far as I’m concerned. I much prefer the idea of having a break in the comfort of a hotel or cottage any day.

Salad days

I’m utterly bemused to say we’re having a Crab Salad for dinner today. Why I am so bemused is that, until recently, the Fox was always reluctant to have a salad. I could hear the moan coming before I even announced  that that was what we would be having. Then, in 2015 we went on holiday to Austria. Every meal started with a salad buffet. The ingredients were always very fresh. They varied in range & there was always a selection of dressings. After over a week of such meals he actually came back home looking forward to the idea of a salad. Now he even asks for one even given a more cooked option. Today I was contemplating making some Potato & Crab Balls to fry up in the evening. But no, he preferred the idea of a simple crab salad even though we had two salads earlier in the week – one a Chicken & Avocado Salad & one a Mediterranean Bean Salad with tinned tuna.

It’s strange you would have thought this transformation would have happened a few years before, when we stayed in Molveno. Again dinners always started with a salad buffet. However, everyone started dinner at the same time. By the time the Fox had got me sorted, & got in the queue, there were only the last sad remnants to pick through. The locusts had already picked the choicest items.

For a while the Fox has enjoyed the occasional salad, a favourite being a Bean & Tuna one. On a self-catering holiday, particularly in the south of France, we often had a salad sat outside in the sun. Mainly because of the ease of making & the quality & freshness of ingredients in France. A salad always had more appeal when it was going to be eaten outside in the warm sunshine. But by the time he was home, a salad only happened on a very hot day & those don’t come often in an English summer.

So today it’s a crab salad. I will use the more classic ingredients of an English salad – tomatoes, boiled eggs, beetroot, some leaves, cucumber - with a vinaigrette dressing of some sort. I’m thinking of using some balsamic vinegar with the olive oil. The sweetness of balsamic I think should go well with the sweetness of the crab. We’ll see.

Oh, the young

We sit in the window at the golf club as we so often do. We look along the golf course at all that greenness. Just under the window there are some shrubs, then beyond some bird feeders. This is a favoured spot for nesting. The shrubs give plenty of cover, the feeders plenty of easy food.

As we watched one shrub became covered with starlings at various stages of plumage, obviously juveniles. They’d frightened away a sparrow that had been there. Soon the sparrow returned with some friends to retake the shrub. There was no actual fighting, just gentle nudging.

We often watch the sparrows, which nest in the shrubs, feeding their young. The young have such wide insistent gaping mouths. There is no peace for the adults. They seem to be permanently either feeding or rushing off for yet more food. Thank goodness it’s not quite as unremitting for humans, though the need to earn the money to buy the food can be equally gruelling.