Can you tell what is it yet?

A good snow covering meant more chance to build snow sculptures with the kids. This was meant to be various things throughout its creative development. These include: A playground, a seat, a dragon, a dog, an arch and an elephant.

They say a camel is a horse designed by committee*. I think this is the equivalent in snow animals.

*I always feel this maxim is very unfair to the brilliantly evolved camel.

Pooh hats

I've invented a new game that is ideal for children who live in windy places, or who are unable to play pooh sticks from bridges over rivers.
Step 1: Wait until it's very windy
Step 2: Go to a local monument (eg, Solomon's Temple near Buxton)
Step 3: Climb to the top and throw your hats into the wind
Step 4: Get Mrs Noel to chase them across a field, all the while cursing you for doing something so stupid with the children's hats.

In hindsight, I think it was a bit too windy. It very quickly turned from something a bit funny to amuse the kids into something a bit worrying with that feeling in the back of my mind that I would probably get shouted at. Luckily Mrs Noel did very well pursuing the hats, and we didn't lose any.

Oh, and... my hat won. In your face, kids :)

P.S. Having added the link to the Wikipedia entry for Pooh sticks, I am now aware that there is an annual world championships. When Pooh hats becomes as popular, I would like to propose Solomon's Temple, Buxton as one of the venues.

Date and cardamom chutney

We had a few apples left over from autumn, so I decided to make a chutney. I've been toying with the idea of using cardamoms for a while and I think it worked well. The apples were a mixture of cookers and eaters, so I guess you could use either. Here's the recipe:

1.7kg apples (cored and peeled weight)
0.5kg onions - chopped
600g sultanas
850ml malt vinegar
2 tsp salt
800g granulated sugar
500g dates (stoned and chopped)
2tbsp garam masala
20 green cardamoms (finely ground and the pods removed)
4 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
2 tsp hot pepper sauce (tabasco sauce would do)

• Chop and cook the apples in a little water until they're pulpy, then add the other ingredients.
• Cook for about 5 hours on a low heat stirring every once in a while to stop it burning to the bottom of pan.
• Once it looks like chutney, jar it. If it's taking too long, turn it off, and leave it overnight, then you can finish it off the following day - I often make chutneys over a few days as they need cooking for a long time. I managed to fill about 12 medium jam jars with this recipe.

Chutneys normally get better after about 4-6 weeks, as the vinegary taste subsides a bit.

On first tasting, I'm quite pleased by the results. The taste of cardamom is present but not overpowering. I could have ground the cardamom seeds finer, as the taste gets stronger in some mouthfuls - presumable as I chew on the larger lumps of cardamom seed. Personally, I quite like this, but it might not be to everyone's taste.

Enjoy!

Henry Moore reclining figure in snow

The kids have moved on from snowmen. I thought it best to capture this creative phase.

Here's the Moore original for comparison:

I think I preferred the dinosaur and men period of last winter. I'm looking forward to their surrealist offerings.

Famous Grouse

This race was the final Pennine championship counter of the year, so there were scores of Pennine runners. Mrs Noel's was due to do the race, but she felt a little ill on the day, so decided not to. It was lovely and sunny - as it always is on this side of the Peak District. Unfortunately, my camera didn't deal too well with the conditions, so everyone looks like they're glowing.

Dunnerdale Fell Race

Dunnerdale Fell Race was a Pennine club championship race again this year. This race is during my off-season, so it was great chance to watch the race, heckle, and video it. Can you spot yourself?

Shepherd's skyline video

Here's a video of yesterday's Shepherd Skyline fell race. Enjoy.