Field Day

Haven't talked about my moggies for a while so I reckon a mention must be due (if only to bait cat-hating farmer Matthew Naylor).

So, two bits of feline news:

1. Parsley has made an appearance on Tom Cox's fab Little Cat Dairies blog (as a contender in the Hard Cats competition).

2. Both Nutmeg and Parsley are going to be featured in the August issue of Cat World (which goes on sale at the end of this week). And for a cat, that's the equivalent of getting into Hello! or OK!

I really must think about getting them an agent!

Milk-fed lamb and pickled conger eel with soy sauce, anyone?

Obviously the G8 leaders aren't following the trend towards simple food this week.

I've heard of lots of places to hold an art exbibition - but never in a cattle market.

This is what's happening, though, at Skipton in North Yorkshire on August 16-17, when the venue plays host to the 'Art in the Pen' fair.

Continue reading "Mart art" »

Forget snail caviar and crocodile steaks, we're getting less - rather than more - imaginative in the kitchen.

New research from Oxo shows that today's typical meal uses seven ingredients - half of what went into a 1950s offering.

Continue reading "Keeping it simple in the kitchen" »

You can find bats in the belfries of country churches - and, it seems, in bras.

If the sound of snail caviar appeals to you, then 'Alternative Meats' might be the sort of place you'll like to do your shopping.

They bill themselevs as being 'deliciously different' - and, with zebra fillets and crocodile steaks on the product list, I guess that's a claim they can legitimately make!

Students on the first year national diploma in land-based technology at Wiltshire College recently stripped and transformed a 1960 Massey Ferguson 35 tractor in just 22 hours.

Starting at 6am, staff and students got to work dismantling the vintage tractor donated by David Keene of Henley-on-Thames.

Continue reading "Students strip for charity" »

Talking of food, here's an odd one. I'm reliably informed that Harrods (not a shop I frequent very often, admittedly!) has a new delicacy on offer - snail's caviar. The price? It's £65 for 30g.

According to the swanky London retailer, snail's eggs are "reminscent of a walk in the forest after rain".

It'll take more than a bit of PR prose to convince me to try it, I'm afraid!

I find it hard to drive past a farmshop without stopping. And I had a rather splendid pork pie from this place recently - so if you're ever in that part of Cambridgeshire, it's well worth a look...