Ransoms Pesto

 For some years we have had Wild Garlic (Ransoms) growing in our garden.  We often try out a new recipe when it is in season.

The leaves and flowers are edible and have a mild garlic flavour. This time we made Wild Garlic pesto to put onto some Messicani that we have in the cupboard.

The ingredient list is:

    A few clean Ransoms leaves
    A few Cashews to be chopped up
    Good quality Olive Oil
    Grana Padano cheese
    Pasta of your choice.

And of course a mortar and pestle.

Start by removing the leaf ribs of the Wild Garlic.  They tend to be a bit chewy if left on.  Then chop the leaved into small pieces ready for macerating in the mortar with chopped up cashew nuts.  You can use pine nuts.

Grind up the mixture until a little fluid wets the mash.  That will help release the garlic oils.  To this, add a little Olive oil and some finely grated cheese and mix with a spoon.

Boil the pasta as required - the Messicani takes 12 minutes only - then drain it.

Add the sauce and mix in over the heat to coat all of the pasta.  The dish is ready to plate up.

A little more cheese finely grated on top finishes the dish.  Enjoy.

There is often a pair of curious eyes at the other end of our garden.

Foxes

 

The local Dog Fox is out early this evening.  He is looking healthy and agile and curious to see what I am doing in the conservatory.

Our neighbour had given us some out of date eggs, which I had placed on  the side lawn.  They did not stay there very long.

The Vixen was a little more cautious, but still trusting enough to move across the garden, knowing I was able to see her. These foxes are in their second year on this patch, so they are used to this garden being a safe haven in the city.

Senior Citizens driving licence.

 When I hit 70 years of age, I need a new reduced range driving licence. My current paper licence allows me to drive all but HGV vehicles and that is all to change.  I have 90 days in which to make my application and it goes a bit like this.

1. Fill out the form on the DVLC website for an application.  This can only be done within 90 days prior to your 70th Birthday.  The DVLC will send you an application form by post.

2. The application pack arrived in 6 days and it contained a form, a return envelope and an instruction sheet.

a. Fill in the form with my personal details - easy.

b. Take a current new passport size photograph of myself as specified in the form. Done.

c. Include evidence of original identity documents as specified on the form.  Done.

d. Have a witness sign my photograph and enter their personal details.

Now that last point was a challenge as the witness must be a current UK licence holder with a full photo driving licence.  Most of the people I know have a paper driving licence. My next door neighbours daughter kindly stepped up to the mark, so that is also done.

e. Return my current licence, cut in half (unless it has been declared lost).

f. Sign and date the form and submit it to DVLC by post.

3. The wait is now on to see if the DVLC can process my form within the specified time and deliver me a new photo card driving licence which will allow me to drive only vehicles within categories A and B on my old licence.  That is over 2 months away.

"Is it done yet"

Carsington Water

 We ventured a little way out of stoke to do some shopping. Popped into the RSPB shop at Carsington to pick up some bird food.  Then we popped down to the hides to take a few photos.

Great Crested Grebe

Little Grebe

Slovenian Grebe

Song Thrush

Redshank

This was just a sample of the interesting birds we spotted from the Hide.

Flying a Rally

I have just downloaded a Socata MS 893a Rallye to my X-Plane 12 flight simulator.  This is a new type to me so I am looking forward to a short Flight from Nottingham to Humberside.

This is a 1970's aircraft developed from a 1050's design for a small utility plane. It has basic instruments and a simple autopilot and navigation aids.

The instruments are basically the same as those found in a Cessna 172 of the same age.  Oops!  The altimeter setting is off the scale - the sim is remembering the settings from  my last flight in South Africa. Checks show everything else is running normally so off we go.

Climbing off of the runway in a north-easterly direction, the sky is clear and the sun is low in the sky over my shoulder.  I need to climb to 1500 feet and adjust my course to the required heading for my destination.

This is the view over Nottingham as I head north.  Once the autopilot is set, the main job is to watch out for other aircraft and make sure the aircraft is running efficiently.  This little plane is an easy one to fly.

After a simple cruise, the destination airport comes into view.  I need to contact the controller and make sure it is OK to fly the approach Circuit and turn in to land.  This is when the autopilot is turned off and manual instrument flying resumes.  The aircraft need to decelerate to around 100kts for approach and the crosswind turn before turning into the final approach.

On final approach with  runway alignment.  I am a bit low in the approach, but in a small aircraft it is just a case of flying over the runway and reducing speed until the wheels touch the tarmac.  Airspeed is the critical thing to watch and on a long runway there is little need for full flaps down in such a small aircraft.

Taxi to the allocated parking spot and shut down all systems. This is a nice aircraft model which flies very well in X-Plane 12.

https://xpfr.org/index.php?body=aero_accueil&av=82

This model was adapted to X-Plane 10 in 2013 and for X-Plane 12 by Antonio Fernandez Navarro in 2024.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Rosie said "What's that bird?" - I was looking at a pigeon on the lawn from the kitchen. "No the one on the Fat Ball". OK! I had my big lens nearby, waiting to be put away, so I extracted it from its case, opened the associated camera body case and mounter the camera body onto the lens, removed the locks and caps, set the focus and switched on the camera. The woodpecker was still on the fat ball.

I did not expect to be able to take this picture. It is hand held from the kitchen, through the length of the conservatory and a double glazed window and onto the top lawn.  600mm focal length on a half frame camera is more like an 850 mm lens on a full frame camera.

This super-zoom will go down to 150mm, so I turned around and took a photograph of the bread I had just baked, across the other side of the kitchen.

I do like this camera/lens combination.

Bird Spotting

The local Magpies have learned to use the fat-ball feeders. Now the squirrels have competition.

These Herring Gulls were seen at Westport Lake in the city.  They have been a common bird on this lake for some years now.

The Little Grebes (Dabchicks) are arriving and this is my first sighting this year.

I am always pleased to see s Song Thrush.  This one was one of a pair, hunting for worms and bugs on the Canal-side at Longport.

Now that the weather is warming, we are starting to see different bird activity in the UK. It will not be long before all of the Spring migrant species are around again.