I sent Andy to the shop to get some cream for some soup the other day, and he came back with this: Now, we tend to be pretty picky about what we buy, avoid processed food anything with too much junk in it etc, so I was quite surprised when he came back with this. Reading the ingredients: buttermilk (63%), hydrogenated vegetable oil (26%), vegetable oil (8.8%), buttermilk powder, lactose, emulsifiers, E435, E322 (from soya), stabilisers: E412, E410, Colour: E160a. IT'S NOT REAL FOOD! Andy said, 'I didn't think, it was just in the fridge, with the milk, I didn't realise'. Looking more carefully at the label you see it's not actually called cream, just 'Elmlea double'. They can't even call it cream, yet it's in the fridge fooling people into thinking it is. I wonder how many other people don't realise they're eating rubbish. I suppose you might get suspicious when you see the label with a best before date about three months away, but I doubt people really think about it, they'll just think, 'Great, I'll get this buy one get one free offer, it lasts ages!' Yeah, it last ages because it's mutant food! It's injected with chemicals and ...

Isn't this just the best thing ever?! I found it in a second hand shop in Campbeltown in Kintyre. It's amazing! So funny. It's the kind of thing you remember your Grandparents having when you go to visit as a child. I imagine I will have it on the dresser in my kitchen when I am on old granny and the grand children will come round and love it as much as I do. I wonder who's it was? And how could they get rid of it? I would advise you to scour all your local junk shops inthe hope of finding one of these little beauties, it will make you smile every time you look at it. If you manage to find one let me know. Here's a few egg recipes to keep you going as you happily fill and empty your egg head egg holder. Spanish Omelette Broccoli and Blue Cheese Quiche

Clachan was to be our next stop in Kintyre. We'd seen various posters about for a smallholders gathering to be held in their village hall. It was quite a way from our campsite, so I called the organiser to see if they knew of any good spots nearby where we could pitch a tent. In what now seems to be the theme of the trip despite them having absolutely no idea who we were we were told we'd be welcome to stay in their garden, or a friend's garden up the road. So when we arrived we pitched the tent in their garden, which promptly got invaded by some very inquisitive playful kittens. Very cute, however seeing them leeping around the tent, clawing at the ropes and running backwards and forwards in the gap between the inner and outer tent made us a little nervous that by the end of the night our reasonably expensive lightweight storm tent would be ripped to shreds. Our hosts kindly offered that we could sleep in their office, so yet again we found ourselves in a house for the night, rather than out in the tent. It's a hard life. This was the first year ...

I started this post weeks ago, then got distracted, so it's now well out of date and the recipe for summer pudding using the then seasonal fruits is not seasonal anymore, but since I've got his chance to catch up I might as well do it as it was really easy and a lovely treat. It's a couple of months since we were there now, here is a little post about our stay at Plan-it Earth in Sancreed, which is pretty much at Land's End in Cornwall. I think I might have mentioned it before, it's a seven acre small holding which runs eco-education courses and has two yurts for holiday rentals. We'd gone there wwoofing, intending to stay for just three days, but ended up staying over a week. It was a really great place. We learnt loads and had a great time. As an added bonus for the first couple of days we were able to stay in this lovely yurt before the next guests arrived. The first day there was a bit of a downpour and we spent most of the morning weeding the polytunnel, dashing out into the garden to pick artichokes and redcurrants in any dry spells. ...

The weather has finally caught up with us, it's pretty miserable outside and Andy is ill, so we've booked ourselves into a lovely B+B on Islay, one of the islands of the west coast of Scotland. I thought I'd take this opportunity to update things a little as it's nearly a month since I wrote anything. Where to start? The randomness has continued. We began our Scotland leg of the trip on Arran. Beautiful 25ish mile long island, "Scotland in miniature" it says in our guide book. It does seem to have it all. Beautiful beaches, seals, deer, eagles, lots of ancient sites, standing stones, forests, rivers and mountains, the tallest of which, Goatfell (2868ft!) we climbed for Andy's birthday. Anyway when we arrived we took a wrong turn looking for our campsite, stopped to ask a lady for directions and she told us we could camp the garden at her B+B for the same price as the campsite if we wanted, but then decided that as it was raining and the para-gliders who were meant to be staying hadn't turned up we'd might as well just stay in the house! She showed us around the house, which was ...