Slow Life Blog from the Lake District
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Contact Me

‘Gardening Women’ by Catherine Horwood

30/12/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture

Picture
‘Catastrophe in the Conservatory’ by Thomas Rowlandson, c. 1816
‘The Horticultural Fate’ dedicated to the Rainer Family by Paul Pry, c. 1829

I have but three creatures in the world over whom I have a right to exercise any government, a foolish dog, a restive horse and a perverse gardener… In this small dominion I meet with as many difficulties as ever an indolent monarch did. The dog uncontrolled is for ever running after sheep, or jumping on me with dirty paws; the horse will by no possible persuasion go over the same ground twice; and the gardener is demolishing my beds of flowers, which I meant to have had enlarged.
         - Catherine Talbot 1747

When I took up gardening, about 12 years ago, I entered a world dominated by women. They looked after the National Gardens Scheme and they were in charge of the RHS shows. 

Read More
0 Comments

The Christmas Day Dahlia

25/12/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
Most of my dahlias are safely out of the ground and tucked up in pots in their shed for the winter. Those that I’ve left in the ground have been given a deep covering of cow manure to protect them from the frost.  All, that is, except for the tree dahlias, which are impervious to the early frosts and will carry on flowering until well into the new year. The first few weeks of winter this year has been pretty horrid, with a series of sharp frosts and some hefty storms, but that hasn’t deterred the tree dahlias, which have continued to thrive.

Read More
0 Comments

Matt and Magda

8/12/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
In 2003 Matt and Magda Wilczynski had good jobs in their home town of Cracow, Matt working as a paint sprayer in a garage, Magda as a biochemist in a lab. But they read that the minimum wage in England was due to rise to £4.20 a hour and that was enough incentive for them to throw up their jobs and make the move to England. They applied to work for me at the Damson Dene hotel, Matt as a handyman/gardener and Magda as a waitress. ​

Read More
0 Comments

Eating Japan Part 14 – Soba and Udon Noodles

2/12/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
One of the taboos drummed into every visitor to Japan is that you mustn’t blow your nose in public.  The Japanese find it disgusting.  They overcome the problem by sniffing, which is merely irritating.  It comes as a surprise to Westerners who are attuned to the heightened sensibilities of the Japanese to discover that they find nothing wrong about slurping their food, in fact they positively relish it, the noisier the better.  There’s a technique to it, which I’ve never mastered, but the place to practice is in a noodle restaurant.  ​

Read More
0 Comments

Eating Japan Part 13 – ‘Slow Food/Slow Life’

1/12/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture

Picture

When I spotted the restaurant sign saying “Slow Food Slow Life” I just had to eat there. Peeking inside, I could see that it was packed with young Japanese and no tables were free. But I went back the following evening, nice and early and grabbed a table. This was Okayama, off the beaten track, and none of the waiting-on staff spoke English. But a friendly crowd at the next table told me that the set menu consisted of a selection of Okayama specialities, so of course I ordered that. The photo below shows the first course. I’ve no idea what it was, and I can’t say it was delicious, but it was good to try it. Several more courses followed, including diced ham, and noodles with sliced pork, all of it good. The menu, for anyone who can read Japanese, is reproduced below. The cost of 3,500 yen equates to £21.
​
The idea of Slow Food/Slow Life is very appealing to the Japanese. The Slow Food movement is more popular in Japan than anywhere in the world outside Italy, and it’s easy to see why, because, like Italy, Japan is dominated by small organic farms. 

Read More
0 Comments

Eating Japan Part 12 – Spaghetti Vongole

1/12/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
Cafe Bientot in Okayama is a cosmopolitan place.  It has a French name, with an English-language menu, sells German beers and Italian food.  They have a set lunch of soup, salad and a small calzone pizza for 600 yen (£3.65) but when I eat Italian in Japan I always go for the spaghetti vongole.  In Japan, you can eat Italian, French or Chinese, just as in any other country, with one crucial difference – in Japan, the food is very rarely prepared by a native of the respective country – the chef will almost always be Japanese. ​

Read More
0 Comments

Eating Japan Part 11 – Catching a Fish and Eating it Alive

1/12/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture

At posh restaurants (but not in Japan) the waiter will sometimes come round with a tray of live lobsters asking you to choose one.  I’ve always suspected that this is a con, as you’ve no way of knowing whether the lobster which they bring you cooked is the one which you chose. There are no suspicions of this kind at the boat restaurant in Fukuoka, where you catch the fish yourself and you can watch it being cut up for you before being served raw to your table.  It’s a favourite restaurant for children.  The picture shows Max and his sister Maia, the children of my friends Phil and Yoko, gleefully celebrating a good catch which we later ate.  The children were asked if they wanted the fish cooked, but insisted that we had it raw.
​
This restaurant is more expensive than most – it cost £44 each, including booze, but for that you get a good deal of entertainment.  The video below shows one of the chefs demonstrating how to take a largish fish and slice it into sashimi, without killing the fish first. It needs a firm hand to turn a fish into fillets while it’s squirming beneath the knife.
0 Comments


    ​About Slow Life

    The idea of Slow Life is to take the principles of Slow Food, which are “good, clean and fair”, and extend them to life in general.

    Here in the Lake District, the air is clean, the pace is slow and the atmosphere is calm. If we don’t grow food ourselves, we can buy it in friendly small shops, where you know the quality is going to be the best.

    This blog is a celebration of the Slow Life, with forays into the world of design, music, the arts, gardens, and my particular weakness, Japan.

    Archives

    June 2017
    December 2016
    August 2015
    May 2015
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009

    RSS Feed

Home   |   About Me   |   Contact Me

Jonathan Denby's Slow Life blog from the Lake District

© Copyright Slow Life 2020. All rights reserved   |   cookie policy    |   Site by Treble3
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Contact Me