Meanwhile back at the coast . . .

July 4th, 2013 , 19:55

So I left the B&B and strolled along the seafront. It was quite cool as the breeze was blowing in from the sea with a slight mist. Passed over the old bridge which was build in 1877 and claims to be the first ever concrete bridge and then followed the coastal path around to the largest steepest hill in the UK. So far. This got me to the golf course where I followed the little white fossils through the golf course; there were a few people around on the course. Then I went into a series of wheat fields which was very pleasant – mist blowing in and birdsong. Finally got to a sign which told me once I passed I couldn’t get off – no sea or inland access (though I suppose you could turn around and flee if you want). Followed the coastal path and it immediately went into woodland and large hedgerows, in some places the hedgerows fully enclosed the path, like a tunnel, and the path is only one person wide. After a while the path started going up and down and entering the deep, dark wood, where I had to take off my sunglasses to see where I was going. Lots of roots and rocks in the path making the footing tricky and as I got further down it got quite muddy, from streams or where water has pooled. After about two miles of this, I got to where the large slip had happened, not that I could see much as the path is pretty enclosed. After the large slip the path flattened out but still enclosed by trees, so really not a good walk to see the cliffs! But a nice place for trees, irises, hollyhocks, and honeysuckle, with dogroses throughout. Get to the halfway point and there were some old ruins of a pumping station, then a steep climb and much the same as before to Lyme Regis.

I stopped and had a ginger beer at Lyme Regis. Looked at the map and decided to take the detour to Chamouth; the detour caused by the cliff collapse. After another walk along the sea front, it was another steep climb out of Lyme Regis. It spat me out onto a road for a bit, before taking me across another golf course; however, this one was much busier and I had to keep constant lookout and stop to allow play to go through or to make sure they’d seen me and waved me through. (Unfortunately I ran into the not so good golfers.) After dodging through, ducking under, and generally trying to avoid golf balls I ended up on the A35 following the main Chamouth Road to the beach. So much for a coastal path (mind you, it might be better when it’s not a detour.)

Got to the beach where I had a pork pie, cup of tea, and an ice cream. Then waited for Kathleen to finish her three course meal and come pick me up.

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The reason for the holiday

July 4th, 2013 , 19:30

So way back in December, we had a gift giving holiday and after much deliberation Joe decided I needed cooking lessons. So he got me a day of cooking at River Cottage and I booked it for 4 July (today) and we built a holiday around it. And this is why we’re pootling about the coast.

I had to be there at 9.30, so I had a small breakfast (or tried to, I got more than I thought I would!) Then headed out – we’d driven the route several times so I knew where to be. We had to wait a bit while everyone turned up – I was thinking it was a huge group, but turns out it was two groups, the cooking group and the beekeeping group. We went down in two tractor trips (tractor pulling a seating car). It’s a steep trip down to the farmhouse and the morning was quite cloudy and chilly.

So we get coffee and scones, which I skipped (breakfast!) and then we started our bread. We’d get a demonstration, then sent off to our work station to do. The space was very nice – all newly rebuilt and I think we were one of the first classes back in! The bread we made was malted wholewheat which I don’t work with (Joe doesn’t much like it) so that was fun. I made mine a bit wet and haven’t tried it yet, so we’ll see how it turned out! I can’t remember the order we cooked everything – some things we’d make a bit of and put to one side, like the panna cotta, others we just did and ate. So we had around lunchtime a loin of pork wrapped in home cured bacon, with sage. We also fried gem lettuce in the same pan which gave it a lovely flavour, with a squeeze of lemon. Very nice. Then for our three course meal around 5pm we had chorizo (which we made from scratch) with broad beans and poached egg; plaice baked oriental style with noodles; and elderflower panna cotta with strawberry syrup. All very good.

All the food was either from the farm (the strawberries were picked that morning, the broad beans were picked just before we used them) or from local producers (the plaice had come in either that morning or the day before and the pork had been butchered over the weekend).  It was a good group though a bit large (close to 20 of us), with four people per work station, and we all worked together (so one of us would get the food, another would get cutting boards, etc.).

We even got into the farmhouse and saw the famous farmhouse kitchen (very tiny, wonder where they put the cameras and lights!) and the dining room and the gardens. So got the tour and a cooking day!

So I’ve eaten my full today and am now in the pub with Joe having a drink.

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