Category Archives: Food

Slieve Muck, Moal Chobha???s Fort, Veering, Visibility Good

McEff is again let loose in the Mourne mountains . . . Continue reading

Posted in Climbing, Cookery, Environment, Food, Hiking, Mountains, Mourne Wall, Shipping Forecast, Walking, Writing | Tagged , , , | 23 Comments

Above Bethesda ??? Ancient and Modern

TO the south-west of Bethesda an open moor rises towards the clouded heights of Elider Fawr and Mynedd Perfedd. It???s a wild place dotted with occasional ruins and sheepfolds and crossed by indistinct trackways . . .

Posted in Archaeology, Climbing, Environment, Food, Geology, Hiking, History, Industrial archaeology, Mountains, Quarrying, Religion, Scotch pies, Slate quarries, Walking | Tagged , , , | 23 Comments

London 5: Butchers, Saints and Sinners

BLOWN on a thin wind around a corner from the Barbican tube station past a private park surrounded by private railings to a place where knights once jousted on a meadow called the Smooth Field ??? which was situated just … Continue reading

Posted in Beer, Cookery, Death, Environment, Food, History, Life, Pigeons, Politics, Religion, Walking, Writing | Tagged | 14 Comments

London 3: A Cold Wet Walk for Pie and Mash

THE worst weather is wet snow. It saps the spirit and soaks through to the shoulders. When it whips off a river on an easterly wind it stings and sucks life from fingers and feet. Just as well we???re searching … Continue reading

Posted in Beer, Environment, Food, History, Life, Ranting, Religion, Walking, Writing | Tagged | 7 Comments

In Praise of Scotch Pies and Carn ?? Chlamain

A man needs sustenance in the mountains. There is nothing finer than a Scotch pie . . . Continue reading

Posted in Climbing, Cookery, Cycling, Food, Highland Clearances, Hiking, Mountains, Scotch pies, Walking | Tagged , , , , | 31 Comments

London 2: Casting Bells, Fighting Fascism, Hanging Pirates

A walk through the East End in search of the unusual ??? and a good pint . . . Continue reading

Posted in Battle of Cable Street, Beer, Food, Hiking, History, Industrial archaeology, Politics, Prospect of Whitby, Ranting, Walking | Tagged , , | 16 Comments

Madeira: So Let Me Get Right to the Point . . .

A clifftop path through some of the most spectacular coastal scenery in the world . . . Continue reading

Posted in Cookery, Environment, Food, Geology, Hiking, Mountains, Walking | Tagged , | 16 Comments

The Quest for Breakfast Above Loch Lochy

ON the crest of a wet and desolate Cam Bealach, as rain streams in from the north, a desperate man wanders through the mire . . . Continue reading

Posted in Camping, Climbing, Cookery, Food, Hiking, Life, Mountains, Walking | Tagged , , , | 16 Comments

Mount Keen, The Mounth, and a Pan of Polish Borscht

Mountain climbed, you need good food to finish the day . . . Continue reading

Posted in Allotments, Beetroot, Borscht, Climbing, Cookery, Cycling, Food, Hiking, History, Mountains, Walking | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Bacon, Stob Coire Sgriodain and Chno Dearg

THERE???S snow on the tops and a delicious aroma of bacon drifting through the Highland community of Fersit. For a man who???s just eaten an unappetising pan of muesli made with cold water and powdered milk in a freezing tent … Continue reading

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Martindale Fells and the Three-Legged Pig of Prague

YOU think you know your parents. You presume that, after a lifetime of familiarity and togetherness, their lives, their characters and their pasts are so utterly immovable and unchangeable that they might as well be cast in stone. Then one … Continue reading

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A Mountain Ritual ??? Czech Cabbage Soup

A POOL of blue light, a hiss of flames, and the warming steam from hot tea as night closes in and swallows the mountains. Ah, this is the best part of the day. A wintry breeze blows cracked leaves through … Continue reading

Posted in Climbing, Cookery, Food, Hiking, Mountains, Walking | Tagged , , | 3 Comments