while you're ahead...

– 67 – postcards from Shropshire

Monica Dunkley

April 22, 2017

… No 1 man-child needed to be picked up at the end of his DoE practice expedition… from the hills of Shropshire today (which incidentally is not so ’round the corner’ from here…), so my sister and I decided to grab a sandwich and ‘go for a walk’.

We had leftover tiramisu in a tupperware and a map too.

Sorted.

We arrived in the charming village of Church Stretton and parked in the Carding Mill car park, £3.60 will get you a spot all day (it’s free to National Trust members). It’s a charming place itself… a little stream runs through it, there are lovely spots for picnics not far from the carpark, great facilities…

The Long Mynd is a heath and moorland plateau that is part of the Shropshire Hills and there are plenty of paths and cycle paths.

What an amazing place. (They don’t designate places as AONB for no reasons… – Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). Apparently in August, when the heather in bloom the place turns purple… I’ll have to go back.

The national trust offers a few free maps for different routes. We felt fit and healthy and went for the big 8km one.

Yeah, about that…

Ask me tomorrow if it was a mistake… let’s just say that I’m not used to walk uphill and on such distances… ahem…

The air was fresh but the sun shone and the sky was sooooo blue… that dreamy uplifting blue…

We stopped for a picnic at the exact midpoint and made it back down in perfect time to pick up a… ‘fragrant’… No 1 and his enormous rucksack.

“Apparently” a change of clothes was not necessary and only extra weight…

Silly me.

Lilli, the ferocious beast, was very taken with the numerous sheep around us… and is now comatose on the sofa watching the rugby with Mr M.

I’m afraid I have a less then perfumed load of laundry to deal with… although I’m thinking the socks might need to be incinerated… or would that cause air pollution?

– 66 – Tiramisu’

Monica Dunkley

5 comments

April 21, 2017

How ‘mamma’ makes it.

500gr of mascarpone (or 250gr mascarpone and 250gr ricotta, for a lighter version)

5 eggs

5 tbs of sugar (I use caster sugar)

cocoa powder

4/5 cups of coffee (with milk)

Whisk the egg whites till you ‘cut them with a knife’…

In another bowl mix the yolks and the sugar:

then add the mascarpone cheese (and the ricotta if going that route), and mix really well till totally smooth.

Try not to eat it all at this stage.

By now your egg whites should be like snowy stiff peaks… gently fold them into the mixture

Gently.

A little at a time.

Oh boy.

This stuff is seriously good now.

In fact… you can put it into little bowls (I like the champagne cup look) and refrigerate for a few hours… then sprinkle a little cocoa powder and serve.

It’s delicious!

Or you can go the full shebang and take your ‘savoiardi biscuits’ or your sponge fingers or your lady fingers (I hate that name) if you can’t find the real thing…

… soak them in milky coffee… and layer them into your dish.

Biscuits/mascarpone cream/biscuits/mascarpone cream….

I normally do a couple of layers only, but you can do as many as you like… or even only one, why not!

(Just make sure those babies are well and truly drowned in coffee… don’t want a dry middle… equally… you don’t want a soup either… so… well use your common sense…)

Refrigerate your masterpiece for a couple of hours.

The top layer of mascarpone cream will be covered in cocoa powder just before serving.

Simple eh? No strange liqueur, no bits and bobs and weird variations… no chocolate chips or raisins or god knows what else people ruin it with.

Don’t blame me when you can’t stop eating or you need to loosen that top button in your jeans…

– 65 – postcards from Italy

Monica Dunkley

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April 20, 2017

… and then the weather changes…

and it’s time to come home…

– 64 – postcards from Italy

Monica Dunkley

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April 19, 2017

Boxing day Italian style (posted today because the wifi at my mother’s house was terrible!)

Mum and I spent the afternoon in the medieval village of Spello, in Umbria.

Magical place.

– 63 – postcards from Italy

Monica Dunkley

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April 17, 2017

THIS is what I call an Easter egg.

and let’s face it… if you’re eleven… would you want anything else?

Just when you think that all this goodness would be a spoiling experience, the ruin of every Italian child… there’s always the sobering reality of the awful surprises contained in each egg.

Seriously bad.

No 3 found a teenage mutant ninja turtles themed picture frame.

Yup. The randomness leaves you speechless.

… at least he’s left with two Kilos of chocolate to mitigate the disappointment…

– 62 – postcards from Italy

Monica Dunkley

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April 16, 2017

Planes, trains and automobiles…

– 61 –

Monica Dunkley

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April 14, 2017

Time stands still best in moments that look suspiciously like ordinary life…

Have a lovely long weekend. We’re taking it easy… I’m flying to Italy to retrieve No 3 from the spoiling arms of his grandparents, Mr M is flying solo with the other two (… interesting times ahead…).

– 60 – postcards from London

Monica Dunkley

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April 13, 2017

… you know what the say about buses… you wait for one for ages and then two show up at the same time? Well I can confirm it is also true about weekends away with your husband.

Two weeks after the last one we found ourselves once again on a train speeding towards the capital .

Don’t you love train journeys? Whilst I still prefer the freedom of a car trip, there is something so relaxing and contemplative about looking out of the window without a concern. You simply sit and let it take you to your destinations, watching the world go by from a different prospective than the road side view we’re so accustomed to. It almost feels like you’re suspended in between places… where you’ve started from and where you’re going… time too stands still and then suddenly you’ve arrived and time, life, your journey begins again. Do you know what I mean?

(It is also a very good time for knitting…)

After a short walk through the busy city…

… we arrived to a very unhurried lunch which began with a really nice aperitif…

(The Ivy, London)

Then we strolled off the cocktail on our way to the National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Square and ambled through the Howard Hodgkin exhibition.

Absolutely fantastic show, made all the more poignant by the fact that Hodgkin died about five weeks ago… sad.

(Shhhh, you’re not supposed to take photos… but I love this one was much!)

After dinner,

we walked to the Royal Albert Hall (again… what did I tell you… it never rains or if it does it pours…) for a performance of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra… of James Bond music. Mr M’s choice… but it was a lovely evening regardless my slight reluctance. (Give me an English man who doesn’t think he could be the next James Bond… yup, impossible)

And then we had a mornig like this:

We stayed at The Mileston hotel… amazing.

(no, I didn’t stole the bunny… tempting as it was…)

The building is from 1689 and has had various reincarnations: a privato home, a school (apparently one of the French king – can’t remember which – was educated here) and even a lunatic asylum!

Anyway, after another quick stroll (gotta make those 10,000 steps a day folks!)

it was time to go back to the boys… and you know what?

We found ourselves empty nesters for the night: No 1 was at a party, No 2 went for a sleepover, No 3 is in Italy at my parents’.

So… just us… very weird feeling. Not sure I liked it.

– 59 – poetry Monday

Monica Dunkley

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April 10, 2017

The weather has been incredible this weekend…

The Sun (by Mary Oliver)

Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful

than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon

and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone–
and how it slides again

out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower

streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance–
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love–
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure

that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you

as you stand there,
empty-handed–
or have you too
turned from this world–

or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?

– 58 – Blenheim Palace

Monica Dunkley

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April 8, 2017

Amazing weather. Cloudless sky. Blue blue blue.

Mr M and I dragged two unwilling teenagers to visit one of the most iconic houses in the Britain: Blenheim Palace, home of the 12th Duke of Marlborough.

The land and the money to build the house was given to the 1st Duke as a ‘thank you’ for the victory over the French and Germans at the battle of Blenheim in 1704. Trivia no 1: the family pays the Crown a ‘peppercorn rent’ each year… on the anniversary of the battle a French flag is presented to the Queen… as rent. Not a bad deal me thinks! Trivia no 2: it is the only non-Royal house (… “house”…) which is allowed to be called palace (more appropriately)

Some of the house is open to the public and it’s still used by the Duke and Duchess and their children, mainly in the winter when it’s closed to the public. It is totally fascinating to see family photographs amongst oil paintings 200 years old. Contemporary novels on the bedside tables side by side to the chamber pot who’ belonged to Marie Antoinette. An iPod charger on ‘campaign furniture’ and a stack of shirts on a bed the exact copy of which belonged to the Napoleon Bonaparte…

the entrance hall

bottom left you can see a photo of the 12th Duke of Marlborough and his wife

Not a bad room for Christmas lunch…

Slightly bonkers. We took the extra tour of the Duke’s apartment and Charles the guide was brilliant and full of anecdotes… by this point even the grumpy teenagers had been converted.

The library was my favourite room (you can spot No 1 looking back at us with his body language saying… ok, we’ve done here, can we get some food?)

There was a ‘fashion’ exhibition throughout the house and apparently this room had been used by Dior for a fashion show at some point… part of the catwalk carpet was still there…

Not sure Monsieur Dior would have approved of my choice of footwear!

Also…

… the actual/real/not a copy outfit worn by Colin Firth in THAT scene was there!!

(ahem… the one on the left… just in case…)

Of course any self-respecting house needs a water feature…

or two…

The huge gardens had been landscaped amongst others by Lancelot (awesome name) Capability (slightly pretentious nickname) Brown… whose main achievement is the huge lake:

Then you have the ‘South Lawn’… what? you don’t have a south lawn? Pahhh…

Trivia No 3: that bust on top of house? it is the bust of Louis the XIV and was stolen by 1st Duke of Marlborough from the Belgians… and made to look out for eternity over the grand parklands of an Englishman victorious over his country… cheeky! (actually this time of formal garden is called a ‘patierre’ but I won’t bore you with my extensive knowledge… – also known as a husband who read from Wikipedia all the way from home to here whilst I was driving)

It was such a good day… a picnic surrounded by history, the sun, a walk, we laughed, we chatted…

I’m so happy.