Tuesday 20 May 2014

Screaming from beneath the waves...

The other night I finally got to see one of my fave bands ever, Echo & The Bunnymen at Oxford O2. I have always liked them, however, in more recent years I have delved into their early work, and the deeper I delved, the more I adored them. 



I would say their earlier work is the best and I was apprehensive about seeing them live, thinking they wouldn't play that much old material. 


Ocean Rain and Crocodiles are masterpieces in my opinion, I also like the s/t album and I liked the stuff they released in the 90's as that's when I first got into them Nothing ever lasts forever era. 


I hadn't been to the venue before, but I had heard good things from my bro, who had seen Dinosaur Jr. there. We arrived very early, as it was advertised as an early gig, over by 10. 


I've never been one for standing right at the front, but for The Bunnymen after waiting all these years to see them I decided to. So we got to the venue for doors at 6, and got a place right on the barrier, at the front.


Support was from Black Submarine, which feature Nick McCabe and Si Jones formerly of the Verve. I already had the album which I like, they didn't disappoint they are very very 90s sounding though. They buzzed through a set of tracks from the album. They are very bass driven and sound like a less dancey Lamb, elements of Portishead too. The venue was pretty empty though which didn't create much atmosphere due to  the early start.





The Bunnymen kept us waiting and I wouldn't have expected anything else. About half an hour after the stage time, by now the venue was pretty packed. The lights went down, a choral piece kicked in loud.... The unmistakable sillohette of Ian McCulloch Swaggered to centre stage, through the smoke and blue glow.




The opened with the title track from the new record Meteorites the sound was pretty massive, they then kicked in to one of my fave tracks from Ocean Rain Nocturnal Me it sounded banging. They rattled through a set containing some of my fave tracks, Mac was struggling all the way through with a sore throat he was drinking honey, yet smoking an electric fag and caning the red. He had a bit of banter with the crowd, when a few Man City chants came over. 

I personally thought they sounded great and loved every minute they had to restart one song a few times as he wasn't happy that people were talking and in the end scratched it all together.







Stand out tracks included: My Kingdom, The Cutter, Killing Moon and they closed the set with Ocean Rain, probably my favourite which I had given up hope of them playing by encore two.


























"All hands on deck at dawn, 
Sailing to sadder shores, 
Your port in my heavy storms, 
Harbours the blackest thoughts."


Friday 9 May 2014

50 with one blow...

I recently visited the Ham wall and Shapwick Heath reserves with my spiritual shaman Kestrel. Although, I don't usually keep a track of how many species I see in a day, only keeping track of new species seen, I thought it would be fun to count how many I saw in a day, on this occasion.

I have got increasingly better, at identification on my own, including calls. However, having someone like Kes, who is a seasoned pro certainly makes it easier. We set out onto the Ham wall reserve fairly early, we were very lucky, as within a five minute walk from the road, we saw my first Bittern in flight, which circled right over us. 



As the sun came out, St. Marks and Hairy Dragonflies emerged, Kes said this was a good sign we would see Hobbies today. We saw a male and female Marsh Harrier displaying, which is an excellent sign, as they haven't nested at the Ham Wall site yet to date. 

From the first hide we saw Heron nests with young, Great Crested Grebe, Great White Egret (the only site where they nest in the UK) We could also hear Marsh Frogs calling all around. However, they are notoriously difficult to see. On the way to the second hide Kes pointed out a Swan on her nest and we also witnessed her turning the eggs. I also saw my first ever Reed Bunting.

 

From the second hide we saw a second Bittern fly overhead and land in the reeds nearby where it was possibly nesting.

As we left the hide and followed the path Kes spotted a Hobby overhead catching and eating St. Marks fly and Hairy Dragonfly on the wing. This was another first for me and within a matter of minutes there were three all over the same patch.

As the sun came out, it was also a good day for butterflies we saw Orange-tip, Speckled wood, Green veined, Brimstone, Burnett Moth, Common white, Cabbage white as well as Blue tailed and Common blue Damselfly.

As we strolled from Ham Wall to nearby Shapwick Heath we saw Cetti's Warbler, Reed Warbler, White Throat, Dunnock, Black Cap, we also saw at least four more Great White Egrets on the wing over the reserve.

On the Scrape at Shapwick Heath a great place to see Waders, there were Black tailed Godwit, Gadwall, Mallard, Pochard and Kes also managed to spot two Ringed Plover, another first for me.

At the first hide on Shapwick (Meare Heath) as we sheltered from the rain with a whiskey tea, with a few of the kind of birders I avoid (real tree camo, gigantic cameras trying to compensate for something) the others informed us there hadn't really been much around today. 

Within about ten minutes two Great White Egrets swooped in to land on the water and started catching fish right there. Whilst fixated on these I heard someone call "Otter!" A dog Otter, another first for me was swimming right towards the Egrets, it sort of sized them up, saw how big they were, changed its mind and swam off. As the Otter left, so did the Egrets one by one. No sooner had they gone than a Hobby flew in, lovely full view. within two minutes a Bittern flew in from the opposite direction, next a Kingfisher darted past. Just when we thought we couldn't get any luckier a male and female Marsh Harrier started displaying in the distance. All of the reserves most famous species in a matter of minutes.


We left and we walked to the Noah's lake hide, where we saw three different types of gull and some wigeon.


Opposite the hide is a viewing platform facing a known Marsh Harrier nest site. Male and female were displaying over the nest site and occasionally coming to rest on bushes in the distance. When one of them flew along the tree line, it disturbed a pair of buzzards one of which was almost entirely white. They then set about having a four way aerial display battle.



One bird we had heard, but had eluded us all day was the Cuckoo. On the walk back past the scrape we stopped to watch a Lapwing trying to fend a Crow away from its nest site. Just as we were about to leave Kes spotted a Cuckoo flying along the back tree line. The Cuckoo (another first for me) then flew straight towards us and right over our heads calling all the time, amazing. Just as we were thinking what an end to the day a second 
Cuckoo darted out chasing the first territoriality.

We ended the day over 50 species, loads of firsts for me, including my Otter. Sat in the Railway Inn with a pint of Gorge Best from the cheddar brewery.




Friday 2 May 2014

Smelly Tart

A few people have asked for the recipe for my Stilton and Garlic mushroom tart which I just made up, through various social media channels. Although, it's very easy to do it's probably best to put it here and share the link rather than clogging up peoples feed.

As I am almost always cooking for one or two, I always use shop bought pastry, I can make pastry however, it is an absolute ball-ache to do after work for a tart for two.

I buy ready rolled, chilled, fresh, puff pastry.

Recipe

Prep: 10 mins Cooking: 20-25mins

  • Cut your pastry to desired size and turn up the edges.
  • Cover with a thin layer of soft cheese (I used Laughing cow Emmental for this particular recipe) Also, a smattering of cracked black pepper.
  • Meanwhile cut some mushrooms up (I used buttons here as they were in the fridge, but I reckon Chestnut mushrooms would be even better) and finely dice a garlic clove. 
  • Put the mushrooms and garlic in a bowl, drizzle with a good glug of olive oil, salt & black pepper and stir to coat.
  • Microwave for two mins. (works even better baked in a ramekin in the oven for 15 mins, but here time was of the essence)
  • Spoon the mushrooms over the cheese topped pastry and then top generously with finely chopped, good quality Stilton. 
  • Bake in the oven for 20-25mins at 200 degrees.
  • Enjoy with some fresh steamed veg, pickled beets and roast pots.