French cartoons and castles

We've just spent a week's holiday in the North Loire Valley, and here are the things we will now add to the list of "things that France is great for".

We were already aware of: nicer weather, more rock to climb on (see photo below from our day bouldering at Franchard), lovely pastries.

However, we are now also aware of:

1. The kids' cartoon "Linus and Boom". Sadly this is a French phenomenon and is yet to appear in the UK. Even the wikipedia page is in French.

2. The castle Guédelon. This is a castle that is being built using techniques from the middle ages. It's situated on a site of an abandoned quarry, in a forest, near some clay deposits, so they use all local materials, and process it on-site. This includes a blacksmith, stone masons, rope maker, tile makers, carpenters, etc. It's been going about 15 years and it be be fully built in about another ten years. There were loads of school kids there, learning about how things were done in the 13th century.

Note the two wheels that are part of the crane in the picture above. This is for people to get inside and use like hamster wheels to lift stuff up to the castle. Here's a shot of two blokes in it, providing the manpower. 

Lad's Leap fell race

Here's another video for you. I couldn't get to the same place to film the men's field, so it's mainly the ladies.

Mrs Noel was very pleased to finish fifth in her age category.

Starting again - Wolf's Pit Fell Race

Not training through the winter means I have to put up with the first few races of the year being a bit disappointing. I try to temper this disappointment and ready myself to be slower than the people I normally compete against. But it's hard.

In the future, I can see myself coming back from a winter off training and saying "I'm so far behind, I can't see how I can get back to where I was".

At Wolf's Pit fell race today. I went off a bit fast, so lost a few places in the second half of the race. However, I now see where I need to be, and I have the experience of past years to help me get there. The main question is "do I have the desire to put the training in?" The answer is a definite "Yes".

Mrs Noel continued where she left off last year, taking over three minutes of her previous time at this race.

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.