Following on from last year's, we had to make a regular thing of it! Unless
otherwise stated, choices apply to us both.
| Books |
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| Drink |
- Drink of the year (for cocktails): Benedictine - check out cocktail
recipes Bobby Burns
Cocktail, Rolls-Royce and
Tartantula
- A particular wine favourite is Fairview Peg Leg Carignan 2001 from
South Africa, made by Charles Back
- For whisky, Caol Ila has to be the
year's choice, with several different expressions shining through
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| Food |
- I've particularly enjoyed the challenge of developing a series of
risotto recipes
- Home-grown courgettes, French beans and baby carrots - no
shop-bought veg ever tastes this good!
- Towards the end of the year, we've had some wonderful Greek
weekends, courtesy of A Vegan
Taste of Greece
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| Moments |
- Early season walks, from the crispness of winter to full spring,
getting to know parts of the locale that we'd previously neglected -
it's amazing what you find so close to home.
- Visiting the 'Elizabeth' exhibition at Greenwich - the boat trip
down the Thames on a perfect summer's day, emerging from the exhibition
into a marquee suffused with a strange creamy-yellow light, the return
journey seeing the people on the bridges silhouetted against the late
afternoon sun, with the wonderful light-play on the river surface.
- Matlock Bath on the hottest day of the year - 'blue remembered
hills', misty on the horizon, the evening light making a visual treat of
the traffic passing through; then an autumn visit to see the
illuminations and cliff top firework display - a night of unparalleled magic.
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| Nature |
Every year, some species seem to have an annus mirabilis
before fading again for a few years; we thought it worthwhile recording
which:
- Skylarks - said recently to have been declining, they were
everywhere this spring, providing their ebullient accompaniment to our
early-season walks.
- Kestrels - usually only glimpsed hovering high in the sky, we were
lucky enough to have a fairly local nest and observe some of their
quotidian activity
- Autumn colours - outstanding this year, these provided many moments
of intense pleasure, especially the yellows and golds of the silver
birches against cold blue sky.
- Sloes - a strange blue-grey bloom on distant hedgerows would resolve
into individual fruits on closer approach.
- Barn owl - an occasional sighting during early-morning outdoor
rounds provided a spooky, privileged thrill.
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| Philosophy |
- Buddhism and the ideas of David Bohm have had a significant impact
on our world-views.
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| Plants |
- Aster
novae-angliae (variety unknown) - this aster has a sumptuous
claret-coloured flower which I find totally compelling - so much so that
I had to encourage a small piece of root to leave the garden in which it
was growing and come away with me! Well last year it flowered
delightfully for me and gave me a special pleasure in thinking of the
wicked way it was obtained!
- Dicentra spectabilis alba - I must admit to having failed at
several attempts to grow this beautiful plant from seed, having had
simply no germination whatever! I therefore, happily pounced on a
semi-dormant specimen I came across in my local DIY store! Though it
looked rather sorry for itself it soon responded to a little TLC and
actually surprised me by flowering for a prolonged period last summer
tucked away in its ideal position within my woodland area.
- Ipomoea 'Heavenly Blue'(morning glory) - a late season delight, providing a
breathtaking splash of colour into October. This was much hardier than
the blurb had led us to believe, and survived a few near-frosts. Plant
in July, somewhere you can see it from the kitchen window, to cheer up
the morning chores!
-
Meconopsis grandis - this year, it was the seed heads catching
the late evening sun that have propelled this perennial favourite into
the chosen few again.
- Primula vialii - possibly the most unusual and stunning member of the
primulaceae clan. The combination of red and mauve from the
half-opened flower spikes is rather wonderful and gives the plant an
orchid-like appearance. This is certainly not a difficult plant to grow
provided the seed is reasonably fresh, but be warned - it does have a
very late start in spring which, as Christopher Lloyd says "will send
you all of a twitter, thinking that winter has done for it". Be patient
though, and you will be rewarded by July with flowers from this very
elegant plant.
- Ricinus communis 'Impala' (caster oil plant) - I have grown this variety
of the caster oil plant for a few years now and have always enjoyed its
beautiful purple-bronze foliage and in good years its scarlet seed
heads. Due to last summer's high temperatures however, the seed ripened
for the first time and I was able to store away about a dozen hard
marbled seeds! If they germinate for me this spring I shall be proud
indeed!
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| TV/film/video |
- Lord of the Rings (part 2) - we waited till the queues had died down
to see this early in the year.
- Dan Pearson's 'The Garden' - we must have watched our video of this
series at least three times over the year: it's totally uplifting and
inspirational.
- BBC2's dramatisation of Philip Larkin's later life
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