How to make Elderflower Fizz or Champagne

Elderflower Fizz recipe

How to make elderflower champagne - for all you foragers out there!

For each gallon of water, you need 4 or 5 big bouffy elderflower heads. Put them to one side on a flat surface (table, worktop, sink etc) for a while, then give them a shake so any insects have hopefully hopped off - although as you strain the liquid later it doesn't matter too much.

1. Boil a kettle, and dissolve 650 grams of sugar in a pan in a small amount of hot water. 
2. Add this to cold water in a stainless steel jam pan or plastic bucket to make up a gallon of water (or multiply the quantity if you want more than a gallon), and then add the elderflower heads.
3. Squeeze one lemon and add the juice and skins into the mixture. 
4. Add 2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar. Cover loosely and leave for 3 days when it should start to bubble.
5. Line a colander with a tea towel and strain it into a pan, and then decant into bottles. Screw top fizzy drink bottles are best as it's the easiest way to manage the gas build up. Store them in a shed just in case of any explosion!

It starts off like elderflower lemonade, and becomes more like champagne, and then more syrupy over time. On the left in the photo below, 3 years old - on the right, 6 years old and tastes like sherry!

Left - 3 year old elderflower fizz
Right - 6 year old elderflower sherry!

Today's rant - domestic violence and gold-diggers

I was just going to tweet about this, but I can't get my thoughts across properly in 140 characters. So I thought I'd rant on my very dusty blog...

This Johnny Depp / Amber Heard story is giving me the rage. I've just seen someone's (hopefully flippant) comment on Facebook that he can't possibly be guilty of violence (I was going to write 'domestic violence' but honestly, what's the difference?) because this person has had a crush on him for years. Oh right. So someone's level of attractiveness directly correlates to their ability to punch someone in the face, or intimidate them emotionally? Yes of course...

Then nosing around on Twitter, I see people comment that she's clearly made the story up to get money from him via the ensuing divorce. She's a 'gold-digger'. Yes of course - because she doesn't have her own money or career. And while she may have married him for the thrill of being with a high profile attractive actor who has the benefit of being rich, actually that's not a crime and many many people choose to do it, and their partners are entirely happy with that. Labelling someone a gold-digger doesn't make the fact they've been bashed around the head with an iPhone ok.

Someone else commented that it's her right eye that's bruised, and Johnny Depp is right-handed so it must be a fake injury. Because of course, she would have been sure to stand front-on when met with violence...

Another comment I saw was that 'well he was never violent in his previous marriage, and that lasted a really long time, so it has to be made up'. Do you know what? Some women choose to put up with (domestic) violence. Crazy as it sounds, some women blame themselves for their partner's angry behaviour, or they choose to keep quiet for the sake of their children and lifestyle, or wish to preserve their dignity over having their private lives splashed all over the world's newspapers and gossip mags (or the school playground rumour-mill, depending on their level of 'fame'). Also, living in rural France isn't anywhere near as intense as the media microscope of LA. So just because it hasn't been reported in the media in the past, doesn't mean it didn't happen. Or an alternative perspective is that different people bring out different reactions - it doesn't mean that they're not incapable of being violent. It depends on who or what 'pushes their buttons'. But button-pushing isn't a justification for violence.

I'm not saying that Johnny Depp is guilty of violence. I wasn't there. But reading the detail of Johnny Depp's behaviour in the restraining order posted online, I recognise all those traits. The traits of someone who has a lot of people telling them how amazing they are, when actually on a day to day basis, they can be just as rubbish and insecure as us 'normal' people. And the combination of those two things can be quite explosive. But that's another blog post...

A final visit to Jackson's department store, Reading

Jackson's department store in Reading closed down on 24 December 2013, after 138 years of trading. It was THE place to get your school uniform, balls of wool, and sensible underwear, among many other essential items.

All the fixtures and fittings are due to be auctioned inside the store on Saturday 4 January 2014, and with two public viewing days beforehand, I made a lunchtime visit to see and say goodbye to the store. It was quite an emotional experience, with many now-redundant members of staff on hand to answer questions as you walked around looking at the items up for auction. Some of the items are absolutely fascinating from a social history point of view, and I really hope these end up in the hands of Reading museum or similar. I can't make it to the auction on Saturday, but I just might bid on a certain lot online. You can view the full list of items up for auction here, and see pictures from my visit below :)

You can bid on a changing room!

Spare hands anyone?

Ledger for 16 February, 1917

I found a book of school blazer badges particularly interesting:

E P Collier primary school, Caversham

St Joseph's Convent Day School 1932

H & P (presumably Huntley & Palmers?) Boys Club, 1931

Reading University Swimming Club 1926

Kendrick School, 1932

Rough sketch of a badge for  the boarders at St Joseph's Convent

Reels of clothes labels

Porter's trolley

Scissors and a hat sizer

Da Boss's Office

Lovely hand-printed wallpaper. And some rat poison.

5 poodles, 3 cats, 7 pig banks, 2 terriers, 3 zebras, 1 panther. Etc...!

Headless friends

The legendary child mannequin they call Cruella

Considering bidding on this...

Love...!

The dumb waiter

Gas-fired iron warmer with irons

Staff room notice

The sewing room

Jackson's has its very own Tardis

Display toadstools

Looks inviting?

WOE IS ME

That solitary grey hair is rather odd!

<sniff> :(

Farewell x

A tale of forgotten poems

I've started a new blog - Poems from Mr Nash. It will be documenting a collection of nearly 100 poems my sister and I found inside books bought by our mother in the late 1950s/early 1960s, all written by a Mr Cyril Nash, who owned a bookshop in London which she regularly frequented.

The poems tell tales of her visits to the bookshop, the poet's admiration of her, and his general observations of the shop and life in general.

I'm thinking the blog will also profile our mother's life and love of books, as well as highlights from her book collection. Hopefully, with research, I'll also get a better insight into the poet, his bookshop, and other customers of the time.

I'd be very happy if you read the link, shared it, followed it on Twitter and Facebook. Don't ask much, do I? :)

Read the blog

Follow on Twitter

Like on Facebook

A visit to the Mulberry Factory Shop at Shepton Mallet

Yesterday, I happened to be cruising the country lanes of Dorset and Somerset, when I remembered there was a much fabled Mulberry Factory Shop in not-too-far-away Shepton Mallet, full of discounted and bargainous Mulberry bags, shoes, clothes and accessories. It was only right that I paid it a visit to see if anything needed buying...

The shop is in a converted infants' school dating from 1900, and has a large open-plan layout inside. The main part of the interior is devoted to women's clothes, shoes and handbags, with a men's leather goods section leading through to a coffee shop and women's sale items area.

Browsing the rails, there were loads of really beautiful and classic items to choose from - leather jackets (more on this topic below!), smart trousers, raincoats, cute dresses, soft tshirts, dainty skirts - all typically discounted by several hundred pounds from the full price tag, e.g. this midnight blue tshirt with sewn-on plastic stars seen here on the right - £79 reduced from £250.

Various different bag styles and sizes were in stock - including the Alexa, Bayswater, Effie, Evelina and Tillie - in a range of really nice muted colours and leather finishes, but also a few vibrant tones and more unusual materials too, such as a stunning and unusual 'red onion' (burgundy to you and me!) haircalf quilted Bayswater which was reduced by over £1,000. 

The most popular bags in the most popular colours were about £200 cheaper than their full RRP, so it's really worth a visit if you're after a Mulberry bag but can't quite / don't want to stretch to the full price latest style in the latest colour or material.

I happened to try on a studded leather jacket just to see how it fitted - as it was a 10, I wasn't actually expecting it to fit but it seems it did, and it somehow left the shop with me - whoops! It was discounted by £1,050 which in my book makes it a veritable bargain (well, almost...).

I've been looking for a classic biker jacket with a twist for a while, and this really ticked all the boxes. The quality of the leather, cut and finishing is far superior to other jackets I've been looking at costing not that much less than what I paid for this. So I'm happy. (Credit card less so, possibly...)

Here's a closer look at the jacket - black leather with black crystal and silver studs on the front, with quilted sleeve bottoms, pewter metal studs on the epaulettes, and zipped pockets. Quite the beaut!

Mulberry Willow bag - how gorgeous?!

I did ask one of the sales assistants if they ever get any Mulberry Willow bags in at discount prices, but sadly the answer was no - they've been flying off the shelves at full price retail stores since they were introduced at the start of this year - boo!

I'll just have to carry on stroking them lovingly every time I pass through Selfridges instead...