Sunday, 31 January 2010

Sunny Sunday

It was pretty stunning today down by the banks of the Humber. Here are a few photos from my walk in the sunshine. Roll on summer, it was very sunny but still very cold!









What a contrast: up the hill from the allotments and we found this tunnel, undiscovered by us until now. Quite dark and long under the A15, I expect it would be a bit intimidating after dark.

Utterly full of graffiti, I have to say I was rather disappointed. There was no artistic quality or talent on display here, just garbled mess, names, references to drugs and 'I 'heart' Andy' and so forth.

I really do think that if people are going to scribe their thoughts on these walls, they really ought to make more of an effort to do something that is a bit artistic and interesting!


Monday, 11 January 2010

Open Mic Night at The Mill

Every other Sunday The Mill pub hosts a popular Open Mic night, which attracts a wide variety of musicians who are welcome to get up and play whatever they feel like. There are no huge egos here, just a mixture of ages and musicians all happy to play along and support each other. I recommend a trip down if you like live music and a relaxed atmosphere.

The next night is on Sunday the 24th, from 8.30pm. Everyone is encouraged to come and play, but equally simply to come and listen if you don't want to get up, there is no pressure.

So get yourself there on the 24th, the atmosphere is great and there is some fabulous music being played.

Lizi Jones and Steve Brailsford.

Missing Time.


Callum Stewart playing amazing Swing music.

59 Violets.


If you need any more information about Open Mic Night, contact Barney or June at The Mill on 01652 660333.

How to make bird cake

Sarah the warden at The Waters' Edge gave me this recipe for bird cake, which I thought you might find useful if you want to help the birds in your garden out while it's still pretty cold. The snow might be melting here in Barton, but I think the birds would still appreciate a little extra help, and it's fun to make this cake too, so why not do something good today. If you don't get birds in your back garden, or if you don't have a garden atall, you can always give the cake mixture to the wild birds in the Waters' Edge park.

The recipe has come from an RSPCA factsheet, so if you want more ideas I am sure there will be some on their website.

There are lots of different ingredients you can put into making bird cake, but bird cake must always have suet or lard in it to make it set. If you are using suet, meat suet is better than vegetable suet. Ok, so first problem there folks, the shop didn't have any lard, so I used 'I can't believe it's not butter'. Sarah says that's ok, but it won't set. But I figured the birds probably wouldn't complain too much.

Ingredients: Here are some of the many ingredients you can use to make bird cake:

• Wild bird seed
• Raisins and other dried fruit
• Fruit (e.g. grapes, apples etc - cut up into small pieces)
• Oatmeal
• Breadcrumbs
• Bacon rind
• Cheese
• Peanuts
• Unwanted Mince pies left over from Christmas

Containers: You can put bird cake mixture into lots of different containers to hang in the garden. Here are some suggestions:

• Yoghurt pot
• Coconut shell
• Old food container
• Old orange/grapefruit halves
• Plastic drinking cup
• Pine cones
• Half a tennis ball

What to do

1. Put all the ingredients into a bowl and mix them together.
2. Pour the melted suet/lard or butter/margarine if you can't get that over the mix and stir well. (Half the bowl should be ingredients and the other half should be the melted lard etc
3. Now the bird cake is ready to be poured into your chosen container.
4. Put the container with the cake inside into the fridge overnight to set. It will be ready to put out for the birds the next day.
5. The containers should not be re-used and will need disposing of carefully when they are empty.


The ingredients: I used 1.5 kg of butter, 2 left over Mince Pies, 2 Apples (English of course), mixed dried fruit, mixed nuts, oats, bread and wild bird seed.

First I put all the fat on to melt over a low heat.

In the meantime I crushed the nuts with a rolling pin until they were in small pieces.

Chopped up the apples into small chunks.

Crushed the old Mince Pies.

Broke up the bread into small bits.

Added the seed, dried fruit, oats and made sure it all added up to 1.5kg.

Mixed it all together.

Poured in the melted fat and stirred well.

Then dished out into various pots and containers.


And eh Voila, the next day the birds now have a feast to enjoy. If only they now spot it!


Sunday, 10 January 2010

Feeds the birds... 25p a bag

It's been a pretty rotten time for the wildlife during the cold snap, so this is a little reminder for you all to not forget about all the birds and other wildlife around Barton. If you go down to the Waters' Edge at the moment you will see that most of the pond by the visitor centre has frozen over, so the ducks, swans, geese and other birds are really struggling to find their natural source of food. So why not spend just 25p in the centre on a bag of food for them, and watch how they make a dash for it across the frozen pond; they really do appreciate it!

Tomorrow, I will post a recipe for scrummy bird cake.

The race for food; as soon as they see you coming they will all head over in hope that you might have a special bag of treats for them.

On the bank; all happily tucking in to a meal.

This duck, and many others thoroughly enjoyed my bird cake, which hadn't set yet but never mind it was delicious anyway. So they should as it contained Coop best mixed nuts and dried fruit!


Saturday, 9 January 2010

Ranger Ramble

The Barton Blog is back after a break over Christmas and the New Year, but let's be honest not much has been happening in Barton apart from snow, snow, snow.. so let's have some more snow with today's brilliant Ranger Ramble, organised through the Waters' Edge and led by their warden, Sarah. We walked for about 7 miles up towards South Ferriby and back, and trudged through some pretty thick snow. Still, there were eight intrepid explorers who turned out for the walk, and we were definitely not disappointed with the views.









Even the Humber is starting to freeze!



Sarah prepares to create a snow angel..



An old quarry.



The allotments.

Nearly there...

Aah, the pub.