Ramsoned by Nature

Well, it's that time of year again when the ramsons or wild garlic are in abundance in the glen. Every year we have a large patch opposite the house on the other side of the sheep field and we tend to go a bit daft, adding wild garlic to just about everything. This year is no exception. Free, delicious and bountiful - what's not to like!

Ramsons or Allium ursinum AKA wild garlic, buckrams or bear's garlic

The Bold Foragers - that's me and our Effie - headed off earlier in the week with some plastic bags for a toddle round and half an hour of gathering the delicious leaves. 

Bold Forager Effie

Getting stuck in!

A Bold Forager heads home

Then home, where we washed the first lot, patted them dry and made some wild garlic pesto - this was served up later, swirled in some creme fraiche, with pan fried mushrooms on a bed of spaghetti.  In addition we quickly concocted some home-made garlic and ramsons bread - baked for 10 minutes in the oven, I have to say this was the best garlic bread I have ever eaten.

Washed, dried and ready to be made into Pesto

Last night saw prawns cooked in olive oil with shallots and minced wild garlic and chillies served with creamy mash that had some more chopped ramsons stirred through it and a baby leaf salad. See what I mean - mad for it!


Tonight, Spanish Tortilla with wild garlic and shallots, Feta, Wensleydale and Gran Padano cheeses served with baby leaf, spinach and wild garlic salad.


And so it will continue, adding it to fish dishes, baked new potatoes, soups, salads, whatever springs to mind; until we have run out of ramsons or gotten so sick of them that we give up! I reckon on the latter.

Delicious and free, straight from the field!

Urban

I'm not someone who makes it up to the Big City (aka Glasgow) on a regular basis, but last weekend I was treated to a night in a rather funky hotel - Citizen M - and dinner in one of my favourite restaurants - Rogano - by my lovely Mum and her nancies! There wasn't much time for mooching around the urban sprawl, firing of a few pics here and there but these four encapsulate a very nice time indeed:

Taken from the vantage point of a large, comfy hotel bed, late afternoon sun on the Theatre Royal

Sandstone and concrete - a contrast of styles and eras

Double meaning? Loud lorries or a bar that'll clatter the top of your cab!

The tower at the now derelict Ruchill Hospital looking splendidly creepy in the afternoon gloom

All in all, great nosh, exceptional company and some rapid retail therapy in the form of new school trainers, pants and pyjamas for the kids! A great time was had by all - well, me and my Mum!!

It's not all bad, really!

Yup, I may be losing my main source of income soon, my son is a raging teenager at nine years old, I am shortly to have the small bone on the top of my left small toe amputated - but hey, I get to live (and work) here, so not all bad as you can see:

Strathlachlan Mist 1

Full Moon over Bute

Tighnabruaich Sunset

Lochfynehead

Bury Me Here

Moo Coos with a View

Strathlachlan Mist 2

All images are available in various sizes as mounted and/or framed prints - please contact me at powanmedia@gmail.com or visit my portfolio at 500px for any further information.

Summer? What Summer?!

So I haven't blogged since June - scandalous! What have I been doing? Well not sunbathing - weather has been pretty poor and I've been working (very hard!) mainly at my real job (thank you KCF!) and brushing up on my photographic skills. I set myself a 30 day challenge in early July and didn't miss a day - the challenge was a new photo every day - more difficult than you think when you're rushed off your feet! I won't bore you with endless photos, ten of the best are below. In no particular order:

My Familiar - the owl cat

Sara's Sunflower

Whoopee!

Sploosh!

The Late Shift

Burn, baby, burn

Alien

"You ain't seen me, right?"

Girl on a Blustery Ferry

Three Oystercatchers

And there you have it - there are more pics at http://rainboweffect.500px.com/ or on my Flickr site! I'm also available for weddings, christenings and Bharmitzvahs!

It's all about cake!

Well, cake, what's not to like! On a recent flying visit to celebrate her 25th Wedding anniversary my best friend Vera and I were astonished by this amazing cake in the Ettrick Bay Tearoom:

The biggest Victoria Sponge in the World - well, Isle of Bute anyway!

Believe me, the pic doesn't do it justice - it was enormous and it tasted as good as it looked. Baked by the proprietor of the Tearoom, Alex, it was a revelation! Sponge light as a feather, fresh, thick and delicious double cream and delicious strawberry jam. Cannot recommend Alex and his cakes highly enough.

Just one slice - almost not enough!

And in celebration of Vera and Paul (her lovely hubby) I 'commissioned' 24 hand crafted cupcakes iced with buttercream the colours of Vera's wedding dress and her bridesmaids dresses (yes, I was one of her bridesmaids - the one and only time, it was a total honour). The result, baked, iced and decorated by Alison Hutchins of the Cairndow Cake Company was exquisite. 

Exquisite cupcakes

I had them delivered to Inver Cottage where we were having dinner (sublime!) and served before the dessert order. If I was delighted it was nothing compared with Vee's reaction!!

Almost too pretty to eat - almost....

See, cake - what's no to like!!!

We also managed to arrange a pretty Argyll sunset for the happy couple

P.S. Anyone wanting to order cakes form Alison please leave a comment and I'll pass your details on!

Pretty and Pink

I'm not normally given to musing about pink stuff, gender specifics and all that - having avoided it most of my adult life and worn a muted palette of black, black and more black in terms of clothes and accessories and rigorously dressed my baby daughter in anything but pink - I couldn't help but notice how much pink there actually is around. Starting with the obvious, flowers at the Tree Shop - loads and all vibrant, Mother Nature at her girliest and finest especially when set against lush green backgrounds or with amazing yellow stamens:

And suddenly, I was seeing it everywhere:

in the Aquarium at LFO

Bobby's pants!!

Bike helmets

Skool bags & gym bags

Even on me and Ronnie next door!

Yikes! I'm wearing this!

Sadly, I didn't get a pic of Ronnie in his pink teeshirt, but he looked a fine specimen of a Scottish manhood thus disproving the myth that pink is for lassies only. However, It may be the end of the world as we know it!! I'm off to find my black jeans.....

Ain't nature grand!

So, it all started when I went to the fridge to get a jar of ready-made pesto from a well known Supermarket. It looked like this, despite not being opened that long:

Yes, "We're not eating that" our Bobby rightly pointed out.

Ah, what to do - Mum's staple teatime dish, kaput - until I looked across the sheep field to the trees beyond and 'Voila', there was the answer to my problem - a big patch of Wild Garlic! So arming myself with Tupperware I yomped down the track, over to the trees and picked a big bunch of this delicious smelling and very tasty plant (is it a plant, dunno!). I headed back, and had the good fortune to have the rest of the ingredients I needed, otherwise the kids would have been eating pasta with blanched ramsons leaves cut into wee bits. Googling 'Wild Garlic Pesto' I found this recipe and adapted it to my own needs (pinenuts as no walnuts, but walnuts would be delicious! / no garlic / lots of pepper / didn't blanch the leaves as couldn't be arsed, just washed and pressed dry then shredded into the blender with all the other ingredients and walloped it all up together!!)

So from this

To this

And finally this!

all in the whizz of mini food blender and the shake of a local lambs tail! It was truly delicious, subtle and tasty. In fact it was so good, me and the Old Bugger had some for our dinner as well. I'll be making some more - we got through the first batch in two days and there is a truly huge patch of Wild Garlic to get through - Woop!

But it all goes to show, when the chips are down, it's Mother Nature that is the necessity of invention - especially when the nearest shop is a three mile drive away at 5.00pm teatime!

Y-U-M!!