Berkeley Castle

Berkeley Castle 

I grew up living in the shadow of this famous old castle and because it was something I saw everyday, I did not really appreciate all the history that surrounded it. Of course as children we were fascinated that it had a dungeon and we all knew the legend about King Edward 11 being murdered there (red hot poker in a part of this anatomy that I will leave to your imagination...it seems more likely that he was suffocated; but legends are always better than reality!!!!!) 

The castle saw brief action during the English Civil War in the 1640's when it endured a three-day siege and capture by Parliamentary forces. Incredibly, Berkeley was one of England's few castles to withstand Cromwell's ruthless slighting campaign, which rendered them useless in further military action. At Berkeley Castle, the only damage of any significance is still visible: a 35 foot breach in the walling of the keep. In fact, even today, the Berkeleys are forbidden by law to repair the crack!

Inner courtyard, a lot of these rooms are bedrooms.

Looking through the arch on right is a gate to church, as children we used to stop the bridal cars here and it was tradition for a few coins to be thrown out!

The day we visited there were some ladies dressed in period costume. They looked very elegant and it was easy to imagine the castle as it had been!

Some of the old cannons

I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of one of these!!

View of one part of the garden taken from where the cannons were situated

Dungeon deep and dank not a place you would want to in!!

The room where Edward 11 was incarcerated until his death!

Drake's Room but it was never established that he actually stayed at the castle.

Drake's Chest

Now set out as a dining room but was originally the billiard room (clue being the lighting)

The great hall (my daughter taking pics and I tell you hers are so much better than mine!)

The Berkeley Arch

Not sure what the environmental health dept would make of these lead lined sinks in The Buttery!!

AddGood job we don't have to cope with one of these anymore!! (pestle and mortar!!)caption

Believe it or not these are picnic hampers...glad I don't have to carry them! They were apparently used by the family until relatively recently(this century)

One of the huge grates used for cooking. Imagine working here!!

House keepers room with old typewriter and sewing machine.

Wine and beer cellars. Some of the wine racks still had the original wine labels from 1800's (no wine though!!)

This is really only a little snippet but anyone interested should take a look at the link and in my opinion it is well worth a visit!!  Berkeley Castle

Day 18 Fun Monday = In the kitchen

I don't know if there was anyone suggesting a topic as it is Monday so just decided to do my own thing!
When Pamela commented (in a previous post) on space for storing gadgets, it actually made me take stock of my really messy kitchen. Once upon a time (sounds like I'm about to start a fairy tale!! LOL) it was neat and tidy and gradually I have let it go. When my mother was alive she needed things to be visible and in easy reach, now I don't really have that reason excuse!

So what better day than a Monday to begin a clean sweep...maybe that's going a bit too far but at least I made a start.  I have banished the bread maker, that was supposed to be Embee's toy! Years ago he regularly made bread in it and he said that he was going to do so again when he retired. However, as you've probably guessed it never happened so who would like a bread maker!!

I have managed to rearrange some of my cupboards and found space to store some items but I still haven't got room for all the dried food storage jars. Buying in bulk from the food co-operative is an excellent way to reduce costs but it does create other problems. Jars and tins etc no problem down to the cellar but I can't go up and down the cellar stairs every time I need to use oats, dried fruit, flour or any of the other things in storage containers that I don't want to get damp. Embee would not be happy if he couldn't get easy access to his nuts (cashew) or his dried figs!!

One of my cupboards now looks like this:-

Oh and one more thing what to do with tins of salmon that are outdated!!! Why you make fish cakes of course!!! If you don't hear from me again you will know we've been poisoned!!!!

The potatoes, we grew and the breadcrumbs I made (used up one full container so bit more space available). Here ends my Monday activities!!!! Wonder what everyone is doing today? Could be fun to find out!!!

Day 3...Favourite Kitchen Gadget

 Yesterday one of my FB friends posed the question "what is your favourite kitchen gadget" and that gave me a topic for today!

I'm not really sure I have a favourite but I chose my Remoska, which is an electric cooker, a one pot cook. So being a very lazy cook, and not really wanting to spend hours in the kitchen, this is a very useful appliance. I will be cooking our dinner in it this evening; in case you are curious as to what we will be having  lamb steaks, carrots, parsnips, potatoes. I will add to this broccoli cooked on the hob.. a little gravy for me  (Embee does not like gravy) and not to forget the mint sauce. I know exactly what Embee will say... a meal fit for a king!! Well not sure about that but not many pans to wash!!!

Just out of interest (not that I want to bore you), I bought this on a whim, it was on the sale shelf of my favourite kitchen store  and my friend was encouraging me to buy it. She had a small one given to her by a friend but had never actually used, which I thought was amusing. There was another lady close by and she obviously heard me dithering and joined the conversation, explaining how she loved hers and it how marvellous it was. That sold it and I bought it, got a free cook book with it as they had lost the box with the instructions. I later bought a rack and a container to separate veg if needed. You can make cakes in it but I haven't tried doing that yet...well it's early days only had it a couple of years LOL.....and would you believe my friend still hasn't used hers!!!!

Wondering if anyone who reads this has a favourite kitchen gadget??????? Could have been a Fun Monday topic back in the good old days!!!!

Fun Monday # 104 Kitchen Counters

Today's hostess Ari-1965 over at Beyond My Slab thinks it's time for show and tell. She says:

What does your kitchen counter look like right now? (And no fair cleaning just for the picture!) Do you have any favorite or unusual items on your counter?

How could she do this to me! I have the most cluttered and untidy work counters you ever saw. I promise they were very neat once upon a time. My excuse is that my mother likes to have a lot of her things out and on hand and this takes up a lot of space (see third photo).

My kitchen is very dated as it has not been re-vamped since it was installed back in the 1980's. At the time we took out bright orange formica units and light oak was very fashionable so the kitchen looked good. Now I would love a light bright kitchen but I don't think it will ever happen.


Now this is the time of the year I usually give my kitchen a Spring clean. You can see from the area below, partially out of sight, around the corner of my cooker that it desperately needs clearing.My latest little addition below-not that I add that much salt to my cooking.

I know I'm going to have kitchen envy when I come visiting.

My Kitchen in June 2007 Fun Monday-20

Archives:
2008: Glamorous Great-Gran
2007: Signs of Spring

A busy Sunday

It's the end of a very long day so this will be a very quick post.

This date last year was very sunny and in fact yesterday was also a really hot day, but today it has been overcast and by the afternoon it was raining. This did not bother us too much as we were preparing for a family lunch. Sam did most of the cooking and anyone who read her post yesterday will know she was trying to create a meal from food that was sourced locally. I bet you are wondering if she succeeded well I'm not going to tell you today! What I will leave you with is a vision of my kitchen as it was this morning with Sam hard at work. The table set ready to go!! I am just about to go back to the kitchen to clear up. Now I'm not so sure it isn't better being the cook!!!!!

Archives:
September 23th 2006: Sunny Saturday

Fun Monday# 20 My kitchen

Joy at A Spot of T our host for today asked us to show our kitchens. If you head over there you will see the list of participants.

I have never really liked my kitchen and although it was the first room in the house to be renovated, that's now almost 21 years ago and so it is very dated. It was originally a small dingy room with orange formica units and there was a sliding door across the end of the kitchen which revealed a pink bathroom and you'll be horified when I tell this was a 'guest house' how they ever managed to pass health checks or to cook in it beats me. We knocked out the bathroom to give more space but I was still left with a galley style kitchen which does not have a lot of counter space and is cramped if more than two people try and work in there. It is also very difficult to photograph!
The kitchen faces North so its very cold and never gets any sun and this is the view.
You may have noticed the scales sitting on the unit, I don't use these often because Sam bought me new electronic scales. Tucked into this corner alongside my hob I keep storage jars, grinder and a bread maker (amongst other things).
Just out of view in the main picture I have all my cookery books at the last count I had over 80 and as you can see my more recent ones are just tucked alongside the microwave, which is even older than the kitchen, and could not be fitted into a unit. (No I would not part with it old and ugly as it may be it's very reliable). I really need to sort out the cookery books and get rid of some -oh but this is soo hard to do as many of them hold memories of the girls cooking as kids.
On top of the cupboards I display my stone jars- well not exactly display because you cannot really see them and all they do is gather dust but I like them and I get up there a couple of times a year and thoroughly clean it all- and this has reminded me it's due a clean anytime now. This stone hot waterbottle is a relic of my childhood. No central heating then and my mother used to wrap this in an old pillowcase to stop it burning my feet. I'm showing the oil jar because it really belongs to Sam and she left it here when she moved to San Fransisco so this is just to show her it's still here.
This is one of four majolica tiles depicting the seasons that I have decorating the walls (more examples of decorative tiles can be found here). This last view is of the breakfast room which leads off the kitchen and is where you would have to sit while I prepare the coffee and cakes!!
I'm looking forward to visiting everyone else for coffee so see you soon.