Murky Day

All a bit grey here today with a heavy mist descending

Doesn’t stop a certain black dog from going for a walk

Found a friend, Tilly, from nextdoor

Happy, squirming dog

We have a new wind turbine …

and this is the stumpy, black knob that picks up Freeview, for those that have been asking

Adagio Tap now open

Yes, I know it’s sideways but that’s a fault of Tumblr – if you take a portrait photo it just will not rotate! Still, it does show that the beer is indeed a pale ale and pretty much clear, which is nice. The manufacturers did say they had a decent yeast strain that was good at flocculating. 

So, 40 pints to go!

Another Birthday

Viv’s fantastic cake – fruit, nuts, Drambuie (yes!), marzipan, icing and now a ScoobyDo candle

Not a very precise Mary Berry take off but no evidence of a soggy bottom

John & Christine from “Poppy Eyebright” popped in for a “Kaffee und Kuchen” – which was nice. Always good to soak up information from more experienced boaters. Time to walk Toby – there’s a great Millennium Garden on the route to Crick and then it’s down to the Wheatsheaf for a steak dinner tonight. Cheers

Got the decorators in

Well, all good cakes need decorating but I’m guessing that this will be the first & last time that Viv does this. “It’s not perfect but it’s mine!”

(Note for J & P – recognise the ribbon?)

Well it’s down to ffffffffreeeezing outside and it was 13 degrees in our cabin this morning.  Still, musn’t grumble, fire’s on and the CH fired up at 0730 and now the sun’s shining!

It’s the icing on the cake

A superb and royally iced cake plus a strange assortment of “men in snow” biscuits (No 84 out of 101 things to do with ginger biscuits)

Tomorrow we’ll decorate it …

Adagio Bakery

With someone’s birthday imminent, Viv has kept her promise and made a superb, luxury fruit cake.  Better than that, it’s going to marzipanned and then royally iced!

Next, the marzipan . . 

Looking good and not a soggy bottom in sight … just a rather sad and droopy Dalek (Steve, aged 57 and 72/73  made this and it’s NOT going on the cake)

Eggs – hermin  – ate!

The Adagio Brewery

After ten days the hydrometer read 1008 and it was time to keg the beer. This was one of the new types of beer kit that contains lots of real brewery wort, hops and a proper brewer’s yeast.  These tend to take a lot longer to ferment.  The kit also contains some hop “tea bags” that you add later in the fermentation process to impart hoppiness aroma. I’m using the Bulldog kits, see http://www.bulldogbrews.co.uk/ and this one is the American Pale Ale – Four Finger Jack: http://bulldogbrews.co.uk/products/premium-beer-making-kits/beer-kits-four-finger-jack-american-pale-ale.html

For the technical … the OG was 1052 and the final gravity 1008 – which makes it a 5.8% abv beer?  We’ll see. The two bags of hops added late were Zeus and Centennial.  Probably be 2 to 3 weeks to clear or explode, one or the other! If this is successful then I’ll have a go at some of the others.

One report for Penny & Jenny

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We had a stroll around the village of Lilbourne and came across an 8th century church – All Saints. (see http://www.lilbourne.com/index.php/churchhistory.html )

Of course the main reason we go to Lilbourne is for the house-that-turned-into-a-pub, the Head of Steam. No food, just a brilliant little pub serving lots of real ale. One such ale was called “ What the Foxes Hat?” an odd name but not one to shout too loudly or indeed too quickly!

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There’s a Motte & Bailey, in fact 2 of these! One was a siege castle. All very interesting. Our own village of Yelvertoft also has an All Saints church but much later – see http://www.yelvertoft.org.uk/All%20Saints  and http://www.britainexpress.com/counties/norfolk/churches/yelvertoft.htm

There’s quite a few ancient churches around – esp one at Ashby St Ledgers:  http://www.britainexpress.com/attractions.htm?attraction=4537

Plenty to entice you over here?  Cheers 

Wildlife in the marina

You only have to emerge from your boat and a flock will appear

Begging

This little lady seems to follow me around and is getting pretty bold at begging for food.

These two also follow us around and usually end up in all our photos …

And this little lady keeps popping up too – especially if there’s gin around!  Happy Viv!!

Chris’ Visit

Brother Chris came up for a couple of days before his planned trip down under. Just happened to find a big beer festival at the Merchants Inn.