Return To Much Wenlock

Lovely Much Wenlock in pictures, maybe a few words.







My very favourite wool store in the world. Watch for the projects!



Pork Pies!




The best butcher shop in the world!



My first pork pie and I wouldn't lie....It was divine! (pork pie is cockney for lie)


Look at the size of those parsnips!




Almost the best bakery in the world, that is reserved for a bakery in Ludlow.

It Is A Biscuit Not A Cake!

I heard about something called a Shrewsbury cake in my research of Shrewsbury. I always like to find out highlighted foods from the places I visit. Further research led to pictures of biscuits not cakes atall - Surprise!




The biscuits are like shortbread with flavours of spices, the strongest profile being caraway seed.


There is whiskey in the recipe, as well. You know what that looks like, it is featured on here enough- Wink, wink.

The recipe:
100g (4oz) plain white flour
100g (4oz) white, caster sugar
100g (4oz) salted butter (very soft, works best)
1/4 teaspoon of grated (or ground) nutmeg
2-3 teaspoon rosewater
3-5 tablespoons whiskey
3 tsp. caraway seeds
optional: a little caster sugar to sprinkle on the top

Pre-heat the oven Gas 4, 350F or 180C. Put the flour, sugar and butter into a bowl and mix well with a fork. You should end up with fine breadcrumbs. Add the rosewater and enough whiskey to make a soft dough. Flour a surface and roll the dough out to about half a cm depth. Use a large cutter to cut the cakes. Space the cakes out on a baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove from the oven, cool.
Then transfer to a cooling rack. I made a dozen from this recipe.



Here is another recipe and a bit of Shrewsbury cake history from Baking For Britain:

http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/2007/05/shrewsbury-cakes-from-shropshire.html

With Christmas coming up, I am going to go bake for Britain right now!

Highlight Shrewsbury

Destination Shrewsbury, England!

Pulling into the station:



Ancient Britons called this place Penngwern meaning, "the Alder hill," and Anglo Saxons knew it as Scrobbesburh, "fort in scrub-land region." It became known as Sciropscire, "Shropshire." This changed over the years to Schrosberie and then to SHREWSBURY.

Shrewsbury- A medieval market town near the Welsh borders and in the county of Shropshire. The birthplace of Charles Darwin. Internationally known for beautiful flower shows. The river Severn loops Shrewsbury making for lovely walks and interesting bridges.

I heart Shrewsbury!




A foggy sort of day:





Shrewsbury castle:



Leaving through the gates at Shrewsbury castle:



All around Shrewsbury:



The Shuts:



The shuts are a throw back to the medieval days, how the town was first planned.



A maze of alleys through-out town connecting streets.




English Bridge:









Children In Need time!



A benefit held annually for needy children.



Getting ready for Christmas:

More Touring- Norfolk, UK

An iconic view of Norfolk has to be the windmills. The windmill pictured below is called Horsey Windpump in the village of Horsey, near Great Yarmouth. This windmill is a grade II listed structure in the care of the National Trust. The windmill was working until it was struck by lightning in 1943. It was restored in 1948 by the National Trust.



The inner and outer workings of the windmill:




The windmill is open to climb to the top which has a very small deck to view The Broads. The Broads are a network of rivers and lakes in Norfolk and Suffolk counties in England.

Read more:

http://www.broads-authority.gov.uk



Speaking of The Broads. Near Caister-On-Sea, we took a boat ride to see birds in sanctuary, A lovely, relaxing ride to look for elusive and rare birds.



...And speaking Caister-On-Sea, to the beach!




Great Yarmouth with a pier and market is a great day out just strolling the beach:






Here is a series of pictures from a canal- Potter-Heigham with plenty of boating action, not to mention fishing.





The reeds used for thatched roofs most commonly come from Norfolk. Here is a sample being used for a fence.







A drive-by photo of another windmill someplace in Norfolk:


A house that is the setting of one of my favourite television shows on The Beeb- 'Kingdom' with the wonderful Steven Fry. The house is located in the town of Swaffham. I was chuffed to see this! There is also a picture of the pub across the street that they use for the show, not sure what happened, but will add that later.

http://www.literarynorfolk.co.uk/kingdom_tv_series.htm

Edited to add pub picture:

Rounding Out My New Your State Trip.....

Cooperstown and Lake Ostego home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. It is said that native of Cooperstown Abner Doubleday invented baseball. The origins are more complicated than that, however.



Nearby is the Brewery Ommegang. This was a highlight of the area with wide range of Belgian style ales and a serious contender for best of that style of ale....I say this even though I am from Fort Collins, the home of New Belgium brewery.



....On to Saratoga Springs. A nice. if not a bit posh area with natural springs to tour and actually taste.

This particular spring is surrounded by a bed of deposits.





This spring is very popular and many line up to fill jugs to take home and use for drinking water. A good reason for this is, this water actually tasted good!





Lake George with more spectacular autumn colour action.


Lake George was originally named Andia-ta-roc-te. In 1755, British colonial forces renamed the body of water Lake George after King George II. After that, well that is history....



Speaking of history, Saratoga National Historical Park. A self-guided tour of the Saratoga battlefield. We drove the loop and saw how the lines of the war went down, marked by blue poles for the Americans and red for the British. There was a boot monument for Benedict Arnold and farm sites set up for fortifcations.




A blurb from the website states:

Here in the autumn of 1777 American forces met, defeated and forced a major British army to surrender. This crucial American victory renewed patriots' hopes for independence, secured essential foreign recognition and support, and forever changed the face of the world.

It is all more complicated than this, if you want to know more check this out:

http://www.nps.gov/sara/index.htm



I had to add this picture for Cait. She really likes this style of house and it shows more of the colour.