Showing posts with label Cardigan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cardigan. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Bara BrithBara brith, also known as 'speckled bread' (the literal meaning of the original Welsh-language name), or Welsh cake, is a yeasty doughy type bread stuffed with dried fruit. It is traditionally made with raisins, currants and candied peel.

We bought a loaf in the town of Cardigan in Wales, but it traveled back to London with us. I still haven't tried it as I think there are too many raisins and dried fruits in it for me. Will wait 'til it hardens to a brick-like state and throw it at the neighbours when their TV is too loud! (which is almost every night, but when it gets warmer and they keep their windows open it sounds like open air cinema at the NFT - that speckled bread might scare them into turning it down, only if they hear the wallop when it hits their window?!)

I keep wanting to call it B'nai B'rith which is the oldest operating Jewish organisation in the world. Back home in Toronto, I used to drive by a B'nai B'rith sign every day around the very Jewish neighbourhood, Bathrust and Lawrence, which I lived on the border of.

The others enjoyed the bread/cake and the bakery, Y Popty, was busy selling many loaves of it, I love that bakery's name! You have to visit Wales once in your life or if you live in the UK, once a year to gaze at the signs and listen to the language.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Weekend in WalesSome pics from the weekend at Bergy's farm in Wales! There was lots of:
  • Free range chickens - eat your heart out Jamie Oliver, Bergy knows how to raise the loudest and funniest chickens in the UK, they have the best life and seem to love being there prancing around all day
  • Sheep and little lambs - Bergy saved one caught in a fence and they are in the 3 fields surrounding the house
  • Horses, tractors, vintage cars & donkeys - all at the parade held in Cardigan - it was a sight!
  • Laughs - if you know Berg and Princess K - need I say more?
  • Funny Welsh signs and speaking - could it be German with a lisp? It could be anything as I couldn't understand a word!
  • Big country, big blue skies, gorgeous sunshine and fresh air - which tired us city gals out for some strange reason?! We walked to the top of this hill.
  • Naughty animals - Dylan jumped on the turkey when I was giving it too much attention and while collecting eggs in the barn a cock pounced on my bucket full of eggs as it thought it was feed - the spilling of the bucket made a few eggs crack - Berg wasn't too pleased, but it was his errant bird's fault!
  • Big breakfasts - using the eggs I collected, Bun even had a blue goose egg!
  • Antagonizing the turkeys so they could make the funniest sounds - they loved it and so did we!
  • Hot flashes - the Aga replacement makes the house soo warm - is that what menopause would feel like? You could walk around naked comfortably.
  • Oohing and aahing - at the amazing renovation to the farm - we loved the enormous upstairs bathroom with standalone tub looking out over the fields. The renovator in pic below.
  • Oohing and aahing 2 - a little chick hatched out of the incubator and it was the cutest little thing to hold - all wet and scared, the next day it was a little bigger and a little fluffier. The pen with the day old chicks is the sweetest thing to look at
  • Welsh tea cakes - like little pancakes but you can bring them with you in a little bag and you don't need syrup they are sweet enough
  • Funny animal movements - from the peacocks jumping on the roof, cats sleeping in the trees, ducks waddling in a funny manner to escape being too close to us, turkeys strutting past a mirror thinking it was a potential new mate, cocks fighting, chickens sunbathing and Dylan finding furry treasures in the fields - the animals entertain all day with their quirks and behaviors


Funny ducks & gobbling turkeys!