Cromer Fordsons.

One thing that I like about being in fishing towns is seeing rusty old tractors on the seafront. They do provide quite a contrast with the gaily clad daytrippers and remind us that these places are working towns, not just holiday resorts.
Fordson Majors seem to be the tractor of choice in many places, they just seem to keep going even when in what looks to be quite dreadfull condition.

Here's a selection from Cromer;

Here's something a bit bigger and a bit more modern;

I wonder if it will last as long as the Majors?

Whilst I was there I watched this Muir-Hill struggle up the beach, digging holes with its tyres;

A diff-lock would have helped.

Paul.

Rhubarb and date chutney.

And more chutney. This time I've borrowed a recipe from the BBC GoodFood website, adapted to my cheapstake way of thinking. I've swapped red wine vinegar for malt (red wine vinegar sounds way too posh for me), cranberries/raisins for sultanas ('cos I don't care for raisins), fresh ginger for ground and light muscavado sugar for soft brown.

Here's the adapted recipe;
1 tablespoon ground ginger,
300ml malt vinegar,
500g red onions,
500g eating apples,
200g dates,
200g sultanas,
1 tablespoon mustard seed,
1 tablespoon curry powder,
400g soft brown sugar,
2 teaspoons salt,
700g rhubarb.

Boil up onion, ginger and vinegar, simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the rest, except for the rhubarb, boil then simmer for another 10 minutes or untill apples are tender.
Throw in the rhubarb, simmer until chutneyish, about 25-30 minutes.

In the pan.

The fruits of my labour.

The results are rather tasty, and will only improve with age.

Apples are Jonagold as they were the cheapest in the shop, and the rhubarb came from the garden, one massive stalk in fact. Damn stuff's taking over the yard.

Paul.

Rhubarb chutney on the cheap.

Yesterday afternoon was spent on the pleasurable task of making chutney. One of the few things that will grow in our back yard is rhubarb, chutney is always best when you don't pay or grow your own for the main ingrediant. Unfortunetely our supply of free apples has dried up, and my attempts at growing marrows have all failed miserably.

Sacred rhubarb grove.

Ready for chopping.

All in the pan, a few more hours...

...and we get this.

I call it cheap because all of the ingrediants are relatively inexpensive, no red wine vinegar here just Aldi malt vinegar at 21 pence a pint. Even the sugar is plain old white granulated.
Here's the recipe, taken from an old cookbook in Mum's collection;

3lb rhubarb
12oz onion
4oz sultanas
1lb white sugar
3 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons curry powder
3/4 pint malt vinegar

Chop up everything that needs chopping and chuck it all in a pan (Mum's old jam pan in my case), bring to the boil, then simmer for a few hours until its thickened. Pour in jars hot from the dishwasher, job done. Leave for a month at least then enjoy.

Paul.

Leyland Clydesdale.

Sitting proudly next to the A5004 (Long Hill) just outside Buxton at Longhill Farm today was this elderly Leyland;

Apart from some missing trim on the front it looks pretty good, hopefully its being looked after and treated well.

Paul.

I scream...

Funny what you find in the corner of a Derbyshire field;

I can just imagine this being driven around at night with a scary clown at the wheel and some Norwegian Black Metal blasting from the speakers...

Paul.

Small Tortoiseshell.

Photographed in my back yard this afternoon;

White rendering is not a good background.

Paul.

Hurricane lamps.

I like old lamps, especially those that use paraffin. I bought a couple of hurricane lamps from a junk shop in Bedford at least 20 years ago, for the rather large sum (at the time) of £12 apiece. Now I look on Ebay and similar lamps are on sale for between £15 and £45.

My two were in fair condition, no paint just a coat of surface rust, so I took a wire brush to them and gave them a coat of black heat-resistant paint (much to the amusement of one of my neighbours), found some wick in a local hardware store, and then they found use giving me a little extra light when working on a private narrow gauge railway in the middle of nowhere in N. Beds (now moved).

The better of the two, which saw little use, is a Chalwyn 'Lynx';

The other is marked '"Star" No.111', and is a little scruffier;

This was the one that I used most, mainly due to the protective cage around the glass. The paint is bubbling around the top, from use, and the camera isn't lying, the body does lean over. I think that it must have been dropped at some stage, but it still works ok. I think that it may be made by Feuerhand.

Both are 'hot blast' lamps, the bodies are hollow and direct hot air from the top of the lamp down the 'arms' and feed it back into the burner to give a brighter flame.

The light output wasn't particulary great compared to my friends Tilley lamps, once I aquired a Tilley of my own these two just became ornaments.

Paul.