DHL delivered my OU course package on Fossils today - two books, a DVD, some booklets and a box containing casts of four fossils. I’m very curious as to what we do with the casts I have to say. Still, all will become apparent in the fullness of time I’m sure. I can’t wait to get started though.
I may have got carried away, but there’s a series of short courses at the OU that I’ve been wanting to do for ages, but couldn’t really while I was committed to the CIM Professional Diploma. A couple of them are related to my new found, possible new hobby of stargazing, so I thought I’d look them up, see how much their price has gone up. It turns out they are running four of the courses I want to do for the final time this year, so I’ve got to get a move on or I’ll miss my chance.
Hence, I’ve signed up to two of them tonight. The first is Introducing Astronomy and the second is Fossils and the History of Life. I’ll do the one on Planets in May and the one on Understanding the Universe later in the year. I start in February and I’ve got five months to complete them. I’m very excited about getting back to learning about stuff just for pleasure and because I’m interested in it, not because work’s got my arm up my back!
I just have to hope now that I have passed the final CIM module or I’m going to be very busy studying three courses! Oh well, I’ve done it before and the reviews say on the one on fossils is really easy. It’ll be fine.
A friend bought me a book called ‘The Stargazer’s Guide’ by Emily Winterburn this Christmas. She said I’d once mentioned it as something I thought I’d be interested in but didn’t know where to start. I don’t recall that conversation but I’m glad she did.
It took me a while to get used to her style but have now voraciously read to whole book. It seems the winter is a good time to start with the persuit because it’s dark seemingly all the time.
Being trapped in the city centre isn’t as bad as it might seem either. The light pollution means you can only see the very bright stars. Apparently this is helpful to beginners because you get to learn the major constellations more easily - they’re the only ones you can see. Then once you’ve got to grips with the basics you need to find somewhere darker so you can start filling in the gaps.
Nor do you need a telescope. You should learn your constellations by eye first then maybe get a good pair of binoculars. If after a few years you want more then you can start saving for a telescope.
As it was a clear night tonight I figured there’s no time like the present. Our little terrace is surrounded by streetlights and buildings so I couldn’t see a great many stars (and the big fat moon didn’t help any either) but I could clearly make out the brightest stars in Orion, including his shoulders, belt and legs (but not his arms) and, I think, all of the constellation Auriga, the Charioteer. I’m fairly sure I also identified the stars Sirius, Procyon and Aldebaran.
Not bad for a first attempt. I’m rather pleased!
Or rather an old hobby revisited…
I bought a handbag to go with my wedding dress covered in little silver crystals but I felt it could be brightened up with some little blue crystals so I went to Hobbycraft and bought a little pair of pliers and a mixed bag of crystals. I’ve been toying with the idea of taking up jewellery making again (haven’t done it since I was a teenager) and thought this would be a good time to dip my toes in the water.
I really enjoyed it - it’s painstaking work but I’ve always been good at concentrating on fiddly tasks and it keeps my fingers occupied. All the time they are manipulating little beads and stones they are not reaching for the fridge door.
So I went back and bought a necklace making kit - I thought the necklace in question would go well with my bellydancing skirt and top. I’ve never actually made a necklace before (I always used to make earrings) but after a bit of practice tying the knots I made a pretty decent job of it. I don’t think you can tell it’s home made. Indeed I was admiring a necklace in Dorothy Perkins this afternoon that used just the same techniques.
I think a visit to the jewellery making bits and bobs section of eBay may be in order - it might help keep me from raiding the fridge over the Christmas holiday!
On our way home yesterday we decided to see ‘The Golden Compass’. I’ve read the books but Mark is new to the story.
I think Mark rather enjoyed it as he was talking about listening to the audiobook versions that I have over Christmas. I quite liked it too - I thought they’d tidied the story up nicely to fit on the big screen, and was glad that they’d left the big shock at the end of book one for the beginning of the second film. No-one likes to leave the cinema feeling sour. I thought the girl playing Lyra was excellent - very defiant, but the armoured bears really stole the show. Generally the casting was great and keeping the British luvvies in pocket money. I think it’s one of those films I’ll like better the second time though - sometimes I just need time to put my preconceptions to one side to enjoy a film properly.
Part of the fun of making liqueurs is knowing you can give them to your friends in little bottles, or big bottles. And if they don’t work you can always mix them with lemonade. It’s rare to find an alcohol that remains undrinkable after the addition of lemonade. Obviously not impossible though - nothing will ever make Pernod taste OK.
My mum made raisin brandy last year as a bit of an experiment. Someone had suggested she make blackberry brandy, but she still had some brandy left over when she’d run out of blackberries. The raisins were just sat there in the cupboard so she mixed them up. Now it turns out that raisin brandy is considerably nicer than blackberry brandy.
Continuing the research (you never know what you might turn up) I’m making raisin and sultana brandy. I’ve added about 500g of raisins and about 500g of sultanas to 1.5l of cheap brandy. I’ve sweetened this mixture so far with about 200g of light brown sugar. I thought this would add some extra depth. Now raisins in particular are rather sweet and strong flavoured - and their flavour starts to leach into the brandy very quickly - you can see the colour change in a few hours. As a mixture this one doesn’t need sweetening as much as many others do.
You could probably make this one within a month or so, but I’m going to give it two. It would probably be even better made in January, bottled in April and left to mature until Christmas. The sultanas have a much more subtle flavour - I doubt if they’d work very well on their own - hence I’ve mixed them with raisins. As the fruit is dry to begin with I’d also expect this liqueur to be rather potent - not far from the original alcohol content of the brandy as there is no juice in the fruit to water it down.
I’ll keep giving the mixture a good shake a couple of times a week and then taste test it every two (this is the reason why liqueur making is so much fun!). A teaspoon or two will allow me to judge if the mix needs more sugar, or if it’s ready to be separated and bottled. At the end I’ll also be left with a large amount of plump, alcoholic fruit. I expect they’ll taste rather good with some custard.
Writing this has also given me another idea - raisin rum. Raisins and dark rum - it’s brilliant in ice cream - how good’s it gonna be as a liqueur?
I spotted some frozen cranberries in the supermarket yesterday and since gin is so lovely with fresh cranberry juice I thought I’d see if this mix makes a good liqueur.
I defrosted the cranberries and punctured them with a knife (I didn’t know cranberries had little air pockets inside - they splut juice at you when you puncture them). This makes sure that the juice can get out and the gin in. I dropped the prepared cranberries into a 1l jar, added maybe 100g of caster sugar and 750ml gin (cheapest gin I could find). then I gave it a really good shake until all the sugar had dissolved and shoved it in the back of the cupboard.
This mix is going to be one of those that takes a while - I reckon it’s going to need a good 3 months in the cupboard and quite a bit of extra sugar. I have to confess I don’t know if it will work - there might not be enough cranberries in there - they only about one third filled the container. A third is plenty for some mixes, but other need a good 50% - this might be one of them. Time will tell anyway.
Because there was so much mango juice in the mix I figured this liqueur wouldn’t take long to mature - so I only gave it a couple of weeks with regular shaking. I also added an extra 150ml honey after about a week because it wasn’t quite sweet enough. I strained it using a sieve, which means that the mixture still has quite a lot of mango pulp in it. The pulp settles so you have to shake the bottle before pouring your drink.
I got about 1.5l of mango and lemon liqueur out of the mix, which tastes more like mango and honey liqueur really, although the lemon was definitely necessary just to sharpen the edge a little. It’s really rather good - it’s very fruity with a strong taste of mangoes and isn’t overly sweet - the honey blends into the honey taste of the mango well. This would be very pleasant on a summer’s evening or when you’ve just come back off holiday. It’s nice and clean as well - sometimes new drinks give you a bad head - this isn’t one of them. Not really a drink for the winter/Christmas menu though and I don’t expect it to keep very well long term either - I reckon it’s probably best to drink it within a month or so.
As for percentage I’m not sure - I’d reckon 20-25% - it has a definite kick, but with all that fruit juice seems almost healthy.
Oh, and a pleasant side effect - the left over alcoholic mango pulp is really quite nice with greek yoghurt and a drizzle of honey.
Definitely one I’ll make again.
Today I thought I’d go tropical, since winter is drawing in and I could do with a taste of summer. So I’m attempting to make Mango and Lemon Liqueur.
I bought three large ripe juicy mangos and chopped them up into squares. They were so ripe that they disintegrated so I mushed them into mango pulp in the bottom of my 2.5l ex-gherkin jar. Then I added 1l of good quality light rum and topped the jar up with vodka. I would have used more light rum, but I’d run out. I toyed with adding caster sugar, but mangos taste slightly of honey so I threw caution to the wind and added 300g of honey instead. The mix already tasted pretty good, but was missing something - a bit of bite to counteract the sweetness - so I added the juice of two large large lemons as well.
I’m going to leave it for a few weeks in the cupboard giving it a good shake every few days. I don’t think this one will take long to mature as the mango juice is already mixed well with the alcohol.
Separating the two though - now that could be fun. I’m going to need some cheesecloth I think.