Another Cycling UK group ride, and identifying the Stylish Bicycling Lady.

Recently I found myself wishing our local CUK group did mid-week rides, and thought of suggesting it, but happily at another unrelated local event other members happened to be there and told me that such a group was just starting up! The next ride was the following day, and I cycled in the 5 1/2 miles or so to join them at the start.

It was highly enjoyable - there were six of us, nothing too strenuous, and discovering some new roads. As the planned route was coming through my village, I had made chocolate muffins before I left, thinking I would offer the others a coffee stop here (and use of facilities...) instead of the planned stop at a nearby village's cafe. They accepted enthusiastically - and one of the other members also contributed home made gingerbread men. Pity I didn't take a photo!

Yesterday we had another ride, the first official one for this mid-week group. This time there were eight of us, and again we had another very pleasant ride of about nine miles around local routes. We stopped at the lovely Ardington shop and cafe for refreshments - and again used the all-important facilities! (On my way home a couple of hours later, the facilities were more bush-like....)

What is good is that even though these rides are all on roads I have ridden before, there is always some little bit I haven't discovered. I commit them to memory for future use.

I still find group rides a bit daunting, and I have to slightly force myself to do them, as I have thoughts of -

"Will I be able to keep up?" I did. This group's rides are not fast paced though.

"Will I fall off in front of other people and look a plonker....?" I did slip (wet leaves perhaps) turning a tight corner of a path but did not fall.

"Will I manage any hills?" There was only really one on this ride and no, I did not manage it, because I did not manage the sharp left turn onto it, and had to get off and walk, but it didn't really matter.

Having said all that, I have always ended up enjoying them. What I enjoy is the social side - riding alongside someone else who also enjoys cycling, and chatting, and then more chatting over some delicious refreshments!

After the ride, I cycled back into town to do some shopping. Being the fan of charity shops that I am, after parking my bike I thought -

"I'll just pop along to the Red Cross shop...."

And what was almost better than finding a bargain (which I did, incidentally - a nice linen East tunic) was meeting the lady who I think of as the Stylish Bicycling Lady. This is a lady who I have noticed because I love her vintage bike - green sit-up-and-beg with basket and bunting! -  and she is, you've guessed it, very stylish in her clothing, but in a charity shop sort of way. I'm sure she won't me saying that! I also dress in a very charity shop sort of way, but I am more along the lines of a bag lady!!! Some people have style, I don't.....

I told her I had always admired her bike and her style, and we fell into discussion of her bike. She finds it very comfortable to ride, so much so, that after one of the pedals broke, she has been riding it with only the spindle on that side because of difficulty with getting someone to fix it. I told her there was someone locally on Facebook who might be able to help, and although I hadn't got the name I said I'd try and found out and gave her my details in case she couldn't find the person herself.

I cycled on home later and thought what a good few hours I had had all because of cycling, and how, like small children and dogs, bicycles bring people together.

Curtains made from an £8 charity shop pair.

Not long after we moved to this house just over two years ago, I bought a lovely pair of interlined Laura Ashley curtains from a charity shop. From this pair I made a front door curtain, and a pair for our bedroom. However, ever since making the pair for the bedroom, I realized I'd made a mistake - the fabric was too thick, and the horizontal join I'd done meant the curtains didn't hang properly. They were also not wide enough and although they covered the window, every time I drew them I had to fiddle about making sure there wasn't a gap in the middle.

Last week I found a lovely pair of good quality lined curtains, in another charity shop, which I knew would go well with the colour of the wall in our bedroom. They were quite large - three widths of the fabric each and plenty long enough for our window. There was also a gathered pelmet; although I didn't need this it means I've got another three or four yards of header tape to stash away to use in the future. And all this for a mere £8!

I used to avoid making curtains, or at least for other people. I was always afraid of not getting the hems straight, or not squaring them up, or not matching up the pattern properly, but then a few years ago my daughter asked me to make some for her, and I decided it was time I faced the challenge..... I read the rules - !! - and bought a steel one metre ruler and a right angled one, and set to work. They were quite successful and I made a pair for my neighbour as well.

I no longer make them for other people, or at least only very small ones, as I simply haven't the space in this house. When I do make them, the whole process involves a lot of crawling around on the floor and apart from the discomfort of that, they might well end up not straight and squared up and while I can put up with that for us, it's not acceptable if I'm being paid for the job!

I was going to just make this pair narrower and shorter, but in the end I decided it was easier to take them apart completely and remake them. That way I would also have a spare width of fabric to do something else with.

 Even on the floor I only just had room to lay them out -

The next day I couldn't quite believe how much my legs were hurting from all the getting up and down! Good exercise I suppose.

It was hard to get good photos of the finished curtains, but here they are -

Oh the bliss of not having to fiddle about every night making sure there's no gap in the middle! Once again, it was hard to get a good photo -

I should add that we then sleep with them drawn back as I like to see the dark sky and to wake up with the natural light. We do get some light from neighbours across the road shining in sometimes but it's not too bad. In fact I hate sleeping with curtains drawn across, which is one reason why I hope we never have to live somewhere with streetlights outside. I'm all in favour of dark skies and think streetlights should be turned off after a certain time like they used to be when I was a child. (There - I've said it!)

I'm actually really pleased with how these curtains turned out - pretty straight and squared up considering how much crawling about on the floor I had to do. Not bad for, as I said, £8!

A bit of foraging and preserving, and Coffeeneuring 2018.

If you are wondering what "coffeeneuring" is, then have a look at this blog, Chasing Mailboxes, where you will find a full explanation. Here's a brief summary from the blog -

"The Chasing Mailboxes Coffeeneuring Challenge is a relaxed cycling endeavor for people everywhere, and it’s coming your way once again, starting October 12, 2018. If you like riding a bike and enjoy drinking coffee or tea (or even hot chocolate or cider), consider this fall challenge."

The challenge started in the US (the spelling gives it away...) but has spread to many parts of the world. Participants can join the Facebook group and post details of their exploits, or blog about them, or just record them on Strava perhaps (there has to be some proof that you've actually done what you say) and what is rather nice is that the number of people participating still seems small enough to almost get to know these people and their cycling and drinking habits. Interesting bits of discussion crop up on the Facebook group; never mind the order of scone/jam/cream discussion - does the cheese in beans on toast go on top of the beans or underneath?!?

 It's a very easy and pleasurable challenge - not like some cycling challenges, where hundreds of miles and probably lots of hills are involved. Having said that it can be a bit too easy to just cycle somewhere, have a cup of coffee/tea, 7 times in 7 weeks, so I like to add in a challenge within the challenge, as do some other Coffeeneurs. However I only came up with one the night before the challenge started, but, "Orf we jolly well go!" as I'm sure someone said, somewhere, once. Maybe it was my bicycling hero, Mrs Armitage, as it sounds like exactly the sort of thing she would have said. So, this is my challenge within the challenge -

Every Coffeeneuring trip has to be combined with a bit of foraging, and preferably for something different each time. 

Actually, I am using the term "foraging" rather loosely, and am including getting anything for free if it has been "foraged" is some way, like out of a skip, but I'm not including getting it for free via Freegle, as I would definitely deem that cheating. There are plenty of apples to be had locally,  but I have not picked anything else before at this time of year, so again that means the challenge will be more difficult. I have been looking up things that are available now, like chestnuts. All the hazelnuts have been taken by the squirrels. Sloes, haws and rowan berries are possibilities, none of which I have used before. [Update: On a walk yesterday I found some blackthorn bushes which were very heavily laden with sloes, so I am about to make sloe gin. Never had gin in my life.....]

And on that note of foraging, I have only made a few preserves since we moved to this house, and I have asked myself why this is, when in the old house I had made lots of jams, chutneys and syrups.  I realized that it's because I don't really like working in our present kitchen as much as I did in the old one, which was lighter and a squarer shape. Husband doesn't quite get this sort of thing and when I talk about what I would do to the kitchen if it was ours (it isn't!) his eyes glaze over. However, I resolved to ignore my feelings and make the effort, and have made elderberry and rosehip syrups. I had two foraging trips to pick elderberries, and one to pick rose hips, though I was very disappointed to find that just before I was going to pick rosehips the very bush that I had had my eye on for weeks was removed when I found that said bush had been ripped out in order to put a new fence in! Gutted! However, I managed to find enough from our own garden, and some from the side of a local track. There are still plenty to be had elsewhere.

I made a new jelly bag, from calico, as the one I had was rather small and not very well made, and I've always thought the stitching might not hold much longer and I would end up with an incredible mess to clear up and all my hard work gone to waste. I also had to find a new way to hang up the bag, as when we moved here two years ago I stupidly sold the stool I had used before, completely forgetting that I had used it as a jelly bag stand.

The thing that takes time with the elderberries is removing them from the stalks, with a fork, but I just turn the radio on, set my mind to it and think of the lovely syrup that's going to result.  With the rosehips it's the mincing that takes time. I don't have many electric gadgets in the kitchen as I like doing things manually, but I must admit that using my 1950s mincer (Ebay purchase) is very slow. Next time I shall try using our nut chopper. However, I got there in the end!

And here's the new hanging method, with the new bag -

After boiling the resulting juice with sugar, comes the bottling -

I'm still trying to find a source of more some small bottles. One pub has agreed to save some for me. There's a new cafe in town where I shall go and ask next time I'm shopping. Actually I think that might well come under "foraging"!!

I now have several bottles of both elderberry syrup - plenty to last us the winter I hope - and a few of the rose hip. Elderberry is absolutely delicious poured over puddings, particularly anything lemony or chocolatey. You can of course drink it as a cordial, and it also has medicinal benefits. The rosehip can also be used in the same ways, but Husband and I like to drink it neat, which sounds rather indulgent somehow! The first time I tasted it I wondered why the smell in particular seemed so familiar, and then my mind wandered back a very long way to the 1960s, when my mum used to give me a spoonful of it in the form of Delrosa. I had completely forgotten - it's fascinating how memories are stirred by smell.

I have read conflicting opinions about the effect of the boiling on the vitamin C. Apparently in the war they were very careful to use a method which hopefully wouldn't destroy too much of it, but here's an interesting extract from "Food for Free" by Richard Mabey -

I forgot to add that I added brandy to some of the elderberry syrup. I think I added about a tablespoon to a wine size (750ml) bottle, but that's bit vague so it might be best to find a more authoritative source for the quantity to use! You can see my recipe and more detail in this post. 

Here is my much annotated recipe for rosehip syrup -

Other preserves I have made this year have been -

Rhubarb and Orange Marmalade (back in the spring)

Sweet Pickled Damsons (September - another extremely yummy one!)

Apple and Onion Chutney (this week)

Hopefully my next blog post will contain details of the fruits of my Coffeeneuring labours!