A Week With Emma

I arrived in Grantham on Bonfire Night. Im not entirely sure if we were celebrating or commiserating the death of Guy Fawkes, but either way it was a fun!

 It was also really nice to meet Emma's(right) Friend Joni(Left)

It was too bad the entire night was ruined by a dinosaur attack 

During the next week we visited some great places:

An old Pub (the oldest in England)

An old tree (The Great Oak in Sherwood Forrest)

An old church (Lincoln Cathedral)

and an old friend (Elliot)

It was so good to see Emma and meet her friends and family!

And what a great surprise to see the only remaining Sheffielder, Elliot!

Ariane, My Favorite East Anglian

I arrived to Ariane's after a 9 hour train ride across the entire island of Great Britain, longer than my flight from Chicago to London. 

It was so nice to see Ariane after more than two years . It was also great to see some of her friends again, and meet some new ones, especially Sebastian Ari's boyfriend.  

I would Like to thank s Mr. and Mrs. Nicholls for letting me stay in their cosy house! 

I stayed upstairs 

I also have to thanks Marcus, Ariane's brother, for letting me stay in his room while he was away in the North Sea on business. 

 Ariane's room was always a mess! I dont think she

 Ariane and Mrs Nicholls both cooked wonderful meals. Eating lovingly prepared food really made me feel at home.

 Between trips to Norwich for a night out, Great Yarmouth for mini gulf, a castle in south Suflok and and stately house in north Norfolk I always had enough to read.

The best part of the entire week was spending time with my very good friend Ari! Oh and beating her and Sebastian at mini gulf! I guess we Americans are just much better at most things. 

Wales

Pressing

Pressing the apples and collecting the juice, needless to say an important step in making cider.

Starts by "Scratting" the Apples. Breaking up the apples to release the juice.
The scratter is a mean looking machine!

What is left is called scrat or Pomase

This is taken to the press and put into "cheese cloths".
Each cloth holds about 150lbs of Pomase. A big press can hold up to 14 "cheeses"

Then we press, and the juice flows. 

It is then ready to be fermented. Depending on the style it could take a few weeks, but this cider will be in its oak barrels for at least a year.

Hiked Moelfre (thats the name of a hill)

Theres not much to say really so here are some nice picture.

 I brought a few bees along with me to collect nectar

Apple Collecting

Here are just a few of the apple varieties that we have collected. In total I think we got about 4,000 lb. of apples 

 Viv's Red: (Most years a bit more red from what I hear) medium tanin, medium acid, but pretty sweet a nice eating apple.

 After Bill gave the Viv's Red tree a good shake.

 Egremont Russet: Very Aromatic! Great for eating and will blend well for cider!

Viv's Black. High Tanins and Acid. Not much in the way of eating but should make good cider.

Welsh Folk Music

Saturday night I went to a Welsh folk music concert and saw a band I really liked. The CD cover does not look folky at all. But I still enjoyed the music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA9ourumUl4