Thursday 30 October 2014

Take 12oz of meat....

I never buy mince if I can help it, preferring instead to buy meat and process it myself. That way, I know what is in it, that it won't contain either fat, gristle or bits of bone, all of which I have found in the past, even in mince from a trusted butcher.

This was designated for chilli, no recipe here as such, as we all have our own. An onion was fried, meat browned, chilli, cocoa, stock cube added plus some cumin. One tin of tomatoes followed, along with some hot stock, 4 frozen cubes of tomato puree, carrots, frozen mushrooms and red kidney beans.

The whole lot was brought to the boil, simmered for 10 minutes then put in my thermal cooker. I'm not sure it is working quite right but anyway, after 6 hours, it was almost done. I put it back on the stove, thickened, adjusted the seasoning and brought it back to the boil. It then went back in the cooker for another hour. It was fully cooked then!

We served up one portion each (using 5oz of uncooked rice as we find that, once cooked, is enough for us both):
Another two portions each was put into those long, foil containers you can buy and frozen. From a meat cost point of view, each portion (6) came to 48p - not too shabby methinks!



Tuesday 28 October 2014

Walnuts finished processing - at last!

Whoopee, we have finally peeled, scrubbed, rinsed and dried all the walnuts we gathered. Some of the outer green skins were very hard and every sunny day we had, they sat out on the patio to mature.

Using plastic gloves we de-hulled them as and when ready, scrubbed off all the clinging bits, gave them a soak in mildly bleached water, rinsed them off.

You should have seen the state of the gloves and kitchen sink when we finished. Good job we were protected. Walnut hull stains take forever to come your skin so don't even touch them with your bare hands at all if you can help it.

The first batch are now fully dry and stored in an open weave onion bag:
The second (at the back) and third batches are still drying, having only been processed this weekend:
They will stay in the conservatory for a week or two then should be fine to put into nets. I inspect them every day for any that turn mouldy - bad nuts can be fatal.

I have just updated the menu tab above, with the meals and meat costs (for both of us) for the last week. Hope some of you are reading it!


Monday 27 October 2014

Well done Andy

Although we didn't have the means to watch you at your last two matches, we did follow you as best we could on-line.

Haven't seen you looking so tired but well done. It was a long hard slog, but you got there in the end.
Congratulations on both titles in your last two matches and your 3rd title in 17 days! Hope you can recover enough for Paris.

Saturday 25 October 2014

Bara Brith

First of all, welcome to Elizabeth Mears via Bloglovin.

Makes one cake in one 2lb loaf tin

Recipe Ingredients:

    320g plain flour
    125g soft brown sugar
    125g lard (softened and diced)
    100 ml butter-milk/watered down natural yoghurt, or just half milk and water
    195g currants/sultanas
    1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
    1 1/2 tsp cream tartar
    1 egg
    1 tablespoon black treacle
    1/2 tsp lemon juice (or white wine vinegar)
    120 ml of tea to soak the currants/sultanas in for 2 hours
    1/2 tsp ground mixed spice
Soak the currants/sultanas in the tea for two hours.
Grease one large 2lb loaf tin with lard/butter and line all around. Pre-heat the oven to 160C.

Using your fingers rub the lard into the flour, until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. 
Sift in the bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar, mixed spice. Add the sugar.
Add in the currants/sultanas, including any tea if left.
Beat the egg with the lemon juice (or white wine vinegar) and add to the mixing bowl, stir everything in and then add in the buttermilk/yoghurt/milky water. 
Finally add and stir in the black treacle.

Once everything is thoroughly mixed, and the batter is slightly on the wet side of a ‘dropping’ consistency, (add in a little more milk if the batter is stiff) put it into the prepared loaf tin. 
It should fill the tin to just under 1" from the top.
Put the loaf tin into the preheated oven to bake for 80 minutes.

After 80 minutes check to see if the cake has risen and is fully cooked in the centre by pushing in a skewer, if it comes out clean and hot the cake is ready, if not leave for another 15 minutes. If it looks like the top of the Bara Brith is browning too quickly, cover it in a piece of foil.

Once baked pull the Brith out of the oven and leave to cool for twenty minutes. After twenty minutes turn out the cake from the loaf tin, remove baking parchment and leave to cool on a wire rack. Serve slices warm or cold, sliced with a little butter and jam, or plain and on its own.

Here is mine:

Friday 24 October 2014

A huge one

Nope, not talking about spiders although we have had our fair share of those this Autumn. We went to our local shop to get milk and inside, sitting on a shelf, marked at just £1, was the biggest butternut squash we have seen. Puts the ones in the big shops to shame.


It was roasted in the oven and what wasn't used up for a meal, got frozen for later use in a curry or with pasta, oh, and it weighed 5lbs after roasting.

Wednesday 22 October 2014

Pickling Onions

This is something I haven't done for a few years and we both fancied some so off we went.

We quickly topped and tailed some pickling onions, placed them into a bowl:
and poured boiling water oven them:
 A plate was placed on top to keep the smell in:
After about 20 minutes they were cool enough to handle, were drained and the skins just fell off. Some people recommend leaving them in the water to go cold but we don't as they can go soft.

Normally I would create my own pickling vinegar but this time opted for bought. Whilst the jars were warming in the oven, the vinegar was heated with 2 - 3 tablespoons of sugar. We like to sweeten the vinegar otherwise it is too acidic for our tastes.

When ready, the onions were stuffed into the jars, a whole dried chilli added, then topped up to just under the brim with the hot vinegar and the lids screwed on tightly. Once cold they were labelled and we'll start on them some time in December:

Tuesday 21 October 2014

Steamed Apple Lemon Curd Puddings

I usually start steaming mini puddings in Autumn, ready for use in the colder months. We only eat pudding on a Sunday, seems to help keep our weight on an even keel! I invested in 8 mini tins many years ago now and they have earned their keep.

Firstly, measure out 4 x 4" - 5" pieces of parchment paper, fold and cut them in half.  Now use as much parchment paper as needed to measure out enough to draw around the base of the pudding tins to give you 8 cut out circles. You should now have 8 small circles and 8 squarish pieces of parchment paper.

Now measure out similar pieces of foil, except this time, you will not need 8 circles for the bottom. Fold a crease into each parchment square and each foil square:
Grease each pudding tin and place one of the circles into the bottom of each - I'm showing 4 here to give you an idea if you have never done this before:
Now for the pudding mixture. Put 3 eggs on the weight end of some scales (or directly on if you have that kind and work out the weight). I have old fashioned scales so my eggs stay on the weight end!

Into a mixing bowl, put in the following, using the same amount of weight as the eggs:

S.R. flour, margarine and sugar (remove 2 tablespoons so it won't be too sweet), the zest of one lemon, 4 tablespoons of curd and the eggs themselves:
Beat it all together. Divide the mixture between the 8 pudding tins:
Place one piece of folded parchment paper on the top of each tin and squish it around the sides:
Repeat with one piece of folded foil, keeping the fold in the same direction:
Squish it around the sides and it should hold for the duration of the steaming.
Place 4 into each layer of a steaming pan, try to leave a small gap between each tin plus the sides of the pan if at all possible. Stack one pan on top and repeat. Now fill the bottom of the pan with 2" of boiled water and put the whole thing on to heat:
My steamer tends to let some of the steam out so once I am satisfied the steam is rising through all levels, I tie the handles together! Turn the heat down to a rolling simmer and steam for 1 hour. Remove one and check if it has risen and doesn't indent when you prod it with your finger. If not, then it is done, if it does not spring back up, give it a little longer, maybe another 20 minutes.

Here they are, fresh from the steamer:

I left them to cool for about 10 minutes, then used a small palette knife to ease them out of their tins:
They were then left to go completely cold. Six were wrapped individually in cling film and frozen, the other two we had with custard for our Sunday pudding.







Monday 20 October 2014

The new series of.....

Trust Me, I'm a Doctor began this week and some very interesting things were examined and discussed.

First of all though, a hearty congratulations to Andy Murray on winning in Vienna.

For any of you who have redheads in your family, take note. They fall into the category of 'high risk' for skin cancer caused by sunburn etc. If you have red hair you really need to slap sun screen on when you are out - in all weathers, face and neck but especially on the tops of your ears if you tend to wear a baseball cap in summer.

They also looked into people who work indoors all the time and did a trial after testing some office workers. Just under half of them were Vitamin D sufficient, more than half were deficient and 2 were dangerously low.

For 3 weeks, one group ate 100g of oily fish 3x a week, another group went outside in the sun during their lunch break for 10 minutes, the final group were given Vitamin D supplements.

Each group improved their levels but the best seemed to be the supplements (if I remember correctly) and more so if they also took a 10 minute break outside. They did suggest though that getting everything you need from diet is preferable to always relying on pills.

The final thing they looked at was levels of insulin after eating carbohydrates, especially pasta, rice and potatoes. They chose to look at pasta. If it is eaten as soon as it is cooked and ready, the levels of insulin rise very quickly. If any leftovers are eaten cold, they rise but not so quickly. The most interesting group was the re-warmed pasta meals.

They showed the slowest rise (and considerably less overall, than the other two ways of eating). Their conclusion was that eating rewarmed pasta was better for your overall health and digestion than the other versions!

Who would have thought it?

Also, a welcome to Van Gel Papadog via Bloglovin.

Saturday 18 October 2014

Menu tab updated and welcome

First of all, welcome to V. Papageorgiou.

Just a quick note to let you know I have updated my menu tab with the meals we have eaten for the last fortnight.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Friday 17 October 2014

Sweeping...

Welcome to Connie via Bloglovin.

Despite cleaning out the wood burner chimney when we finished using it in Spring, we like to do it again shortly after using it again in Autumn after a couple of fires. These help loosen anything still up there.

Getting the room ready requires protecting the carpet and anywhere the chimney rods are liable to touch when withdrawing them from the chimney. DB has made a board to go over the front, then a small hole was put in it to push the rods through once the first brush one is up round the back of the burner.

Remembering to always twist the rods clockwise to prevent them coming adrift up the chimney which would be a disaster, he pushed and pulled and we could hear more debris dropping:
It is a job that I love to do but he had already got his overalls on and I was busy in the kitchen so he did it. My job was to go outside and yell when the brush reaches the top of the metal cowl on the chimney!

Here it is just finished:
Quite a bit of debris fell, maybe a mug or two, just goes to show it is worth doing twice a year. Everything was put back together, he re-laid it and cleaned the glass front. Then I washed down the exterior and polished the hearth:
There we are, all ready for another Autumn, Winter and Spring. Talking of Winter, the winter bedding has gone on finally, after several nights of being less than warm. Winter clothing was brought down from its attic storage and the summer clothing put up in its place. Ah, that is so much better!


Wednesday 15 October 2014

Welsh Cakes and Apple Lemon Curd

Welcome to Dani.

I have had this Welsh Cake recipe for a long time, jotted down on the back of an envelope so have no idea of its origin.

225g S. R. Flour with a pinch of salt added.
100g butter
50g sugar - castor preferred
50g sultana's
1 medium egg
2 tablespoons milk
zest of 1/2 a lemon

Rub butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar, sultana's and lemon zest.
Bind together with the egg and egg. If it still doesn't come together to form a ball, add a little more milk but do not make it sticky!

Roll out on a floured surface to 1/4" or 1/2cm thick. Cut out in rounds. I used a 2" cutter but some people prefer them smaller.

Put a griddle or heavy bottom frying pan onto a high heat, when hot, turn down to medium and allow a few minutes to cool down. It needs to be hot but not too hot.

Lightly grease the surface with greaseproof paper and butter. Place one test cake in the pan and cook on each side for 2 - 3 minutes. It needs to have time to cook and rise but not burn. Cut it in half and check the inside is cooked. Once you get your first one correct, cook the rest in a similar way.

I put mine straight onto a cooling rack when ready. Some people like to keep them warm in a tea towel if serving straight away. Eat as they are, or warm tossed in sugar or treat like scones, butter them and or add a topping.

The lemon gives a nice but not over-powering taste, you can omit it if you wish.

Lemon and Apple Curd - This is the recipe I chose to use, but only half of it here

As this is a beta forum, you might want to nab the recipe before it is taken off.

You need the third recipe down by Kye. I did alter the method slightly. When you get to the part which says "until the sugar dissolves", change it to

"Allow the mixture to cool down a bit, then take one tablespoon at a time and stir it into the egg yolks. I held my breath here as it is the wrong way round to do things but I have done it before and it works. Then do this twice more. Once the apple puree is relatively cool but not cold, stir the egg mixture into it and mix well.

Reheat gently but do not let it boil. The mixture is ready when it is slightly thickened and coats the back of a spoon. I found it needed cooking for longer than I would expect. Pour into warmed sterilized jars right up to the brim. Put lids on immediately."

You need to store in a cool place and once opened in the fridge. Use it up within 4 - 6 weeks.






Monday 13 October 2014

Still processing apples...

First of all, welcome to Debs via here plus Sheena and Bnichols via Bloglovin!

By the weekend, DB had peeled, cored and sliced his way through most of the apples. 8 x 1lb bags were frozen for later use. That still left these few:
I had done a half sized trial batch of apple and lemon curd:
One went as a thank you to R for his lovely apples. I stayed in the kitchen after DB had done his bit, making up a half batch of granola:
Making a lasagne for tea and a snack the next day:
For a change, I used a supermarkets own bog standard , non-egg lasagne sheets, awful, shan't use those again. Overall it was tasty having roast vegetables in it. Trying something different,  I made a plain white sauce and just grated cheese on the top, worked out fine. It was just the pasta sheets which were hardly cooked, a bit too much al dente!

Ah well, you live and learn!

Another 2 x 1lb bags of apples were squirrelled away for winter, we ate the last few with some custard over the weekend.




Friday 10 October 2014

I'm wondering...

How long the BBC can keep on making decent programmes, when so many people are giving up their licence to watch catch up TV, on the iPlayer etc.

The BBC have had a freeze on their licence for some years now and as they rely on most of the fee to give them the money to make programmes, will they be able to keep up!

Here is an extract from their web site:

"The fee you pay provides a wide range of TV, radio and on-line content, as well as developing new ways to deliver it to you. All of this content – and the television channels, radio stations and on-line spaces where audiences can find it – is paid for by the licence fee, allowing BBC's UK services to remain free of advertisements and independent of shareholder and political interest. The Government has now frozen the fee at £145.50 until the end of the current BBC Charter period in 2016."

I can thoroughly understand people trying to save money, as until the Government put a stop to it, the licence was rising every year. Our internet reception, despite being broadband, is not over quick. As such, we would find it difficult some of the time to watch TV this way, much preferring to either watch live, or record as it is being transmitted. Also, the quality is far better. Even HD on the iPlayer is not as good as HD on the TV.

When you divide the fee by 365 days, it works out at just under 40p per day. I have no idea how much it will rise after 2016 but at the moment, other than reading a library book which is free, I can't think of many forms of entertainment that works out at less than 40p per day.

I guess you pays your money and takes your chance as they say!

Welcome to Rosemary via Bloglovin. Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Thursday 9 October 2014

Thanks R!


Coming back from our walk last week we pulled into our driveway and noticed our gardening neighbour R. in his garage. We always yell hi to him but on this occasion I yelled, "R, have you got any cooking apples going spare?" "Yes, I'll get you some next time I'm down the allotment. Do you want a marrow?" "No, don't like them".

He asked 3 more times about a marrow but finally gave up. One of his chaps came to cut our leylandii hedge (an annual task), as it is too big for us to tackle. The right side of the archway has got that flipping leylandii disease/bug that is killing it off!

Anyhow, we settled up the next day (has charged us the same price for the last few years) and Sunday night, the doorbell went. There he was, true to his word, holding a large Matalan carrier bag that was breaking under the strain:
I put a slipper next to it for size comparison! Monday morning, they were washed and left to drain before I decide what to do with them:

He thinks they are a mixture of Blenheim Orange, Howgate Wonder and Newton Wonder, all of which cook to a purée.


Tuesday 7 October 2014

It's that time of year again!

Yes, lighting the wood burner for the very first time this Autumn and Winter, which we finally did on Monday. Although the lounge was 17C, it just felt so cold:
There, now isn't that better, an extra 3 degree's in about 10 minutes. We have now turned it down to just tick over, giving us background heat rather than roasting us. You can just see a little of the cotton rag rug I made a few years ago. It helps protect the carpet underneath it from spitting wood or dropping embers when we open the door on the burner.

Having just come back from our holidays, and eaten loads of Welsh Cakes, thought I'd dig out my recipe and give them another go:
I'll add it to my recipe page sometime. It has the finely grated zest of 1/2 a lemon in it, which gives it a nice twist on the original flavour.

Also out of the cupboard to see the light of day, is my fleece rag rug for beside the bed:
I just have to finish the middle then it can be in use. Here is a close up of some of it:
I'm determined to finish it this year as I would like to make one for DS and FDiL.



Monday 6 October 2014

Pear Problems

Welcome to Retireewannabe and Tania Osborne via Bloglovin and The Saver of Suburbia from here.

We are having problems with our trained pear trees. For the past few years one had brown, dying leaves. A professional gardening neighbour thought that although it looks like Fire-blight, the rest of the pear looked fine and suggested it was a bug problem such as pear leaf mite.

We have been treating it organically with a home made solution for a few years and this year, for the first time, most of its leaves were fine. However, as Autumn approaches it is going brown and speckly again! The treatment I made up consisted of pyrethrum powder with water, a few drops of liquid soap, some tea tree oil and some lavender oil and painted it on after stripping all the leaves off. It mega sulked for 2 years! As diseased ones appear, they are removed as soon as seen.

The trained pear tree, next to it, started sprouting white horns under a few leaves, this week. It apparently has become infected with Pear Trellis or Pear Juniper Rust see here

So far, I have only had to remove about 8 leaves. There is no proper organic cure for rust or the mites, so eventually, Imay have to use non-organic methods. Apparently I need to use something like Westland Fungus Attack on the Pear Trellis Rust as it has the correct chemical in it:(

Ah well, onward and upward.

In the rest of the garden, we have been busy tidying up for winter. The fruit cage roof has been rolled up out of the way so the birds can get in if they wish. All the Autumn raspberries have been dug up. Some were replanted into fresh compost in sunken containers, the rest given away. We were fed up dealing with the suckers.

My 28 leeks developed rust so I took rather drastic action. I pulled all the affected leaves off, then cut down their green shoots to just above the white bit. They had to take their chance. Here they are, a few weeks down the line:
Not too bad. Some rust is still present but I'm not too worried now. The raised bed with the carrots in is doing fine. We had one row of purple ones but there is still 2 rows of orange and some more purple to go:

Saturday 4 October 2014

Walnuts!

Welcome to Sue Blanchard via Bloglovin. I have just updated my menu tab above for anyone who is checking it out.

Having spied some walnuts trees whilst out on a walk a few weeks ago, we decided to check them out. Some were dropping, others opening, some closed. We had no idea about the closed ones but picked some anyway.

Once home, they were tipped into trays and left to dry out a little:
These are the nuts I managed to get out of the open and cracked ones, after they have been scrubbed clean:
Yes, we both used gloves. As a child I had picked some and in my ignorant bliss, used my bare hands. Took weeks for the stains to go!

I have no idea if the others will open. We shall store them in the garage and check on them every now and then. They are a right royal pain to deal with but DB had never had fresh ones and I wanted him to experience them before we get too old to deal with them.

A book we read suggested that if they float they are empty. Most of these floated but on checking a few, they were full, lovely fresh taste, nothing like the nuts you buy later in the year.

As it was such a nice day, I washed all our garden gloves - we have many:
Have a lovely weekend, despite the rain!


Friday 3 October 2014

Falling down Cadair Idris

Feeling well rested, with my thighs and calves returned to normal, we began the descent. The wind was by now blowing hard, everywhere was soaked - including us eventually. This was the last photograph I managed to take:
The clouds had descended but we could still see about 40' in front of us - to begin with.  About 1/4 of the way down, the rain got heavier, almost horizontal at times, stinging our eyes and eventually we could only see about 15' in front of us. Needing a call of nature, we strayed off the path just enough for cover and when wanting to return, called one of the dogs who found and returned us to safety. We had at this point gotten down far enough to be well away from the dangerous sides just in case you were worried! We got back to the halfway gate where we had met the other walkers relatively quickly - maybe less than an hour, and began the descent along the zig zag part once more. That is where the problems started for me.

Despite initially feeling fine my legs began to wobble (heart was fine), and as I took each step could feel that my knees were not locking into place to bring me back up (if you see what I mean). I realised later on that my thighs and calves were not working and it seems to be those muscles you need to work your knees!

Fall 1: was quite graceful, a gentle knee's down into some heather.
Fall 2: (shortly afterwards) was both knee's hard onto rocks with the left taking the brunt.
Fall 3: a knee's down then backwards fall onto my right hand which over-extended one of the fingers.
Fall 4: was DB who was struggling to keep me upright - a sort of graceful slide onto his bottom and back.

The first three happened on the zig zag paths. DB's fall as we began our descent through the fields.

By now I was in serious trouble with my legs refusing to work properly, even on the flat bits. I really thought they were going to have to get mountain rescue out!

Fall 5: was me desperately grasping the heather to stop myself - didn't work. Hard onto my shins.
Fall 6: was DB again, just after DS has said "Goodness, its like looking after 2 drunks", he slid slow motion onto his back on rather pointed rocks but somehow managed to land in-between them all.

Fall 7: was my final fall onto my knees, then wrists and almost face first into the heather. By now I was past caring. I righted myself back onto my knees, DS attempted to help me up. 3 attempts later I couldn't move. DB and FDiL all came over and eventually with lots of pulling by them, they got me upright again. We were probably 3/4 of the way down at this point. I could even see the car parking area, which gave me hope!

DS slipped once then eventually we came across him bent over. His left leg had gone into spasm and was shaking uncontrollably. It did make us all smile including him. After a few minutes it stopped and we carried on. In the end we decided the safest thing to do was for me to support myself using DS's shoulders and DB hold onto my coat or arm. It worked for the most part.

Anyway, after 3 hours, most of which was at my snails pace, everyone was soaked, the dogs were shivering and very cold, even their tails had stopped wagging. The rain kept coming down but we were down, safe with no bones broken and quite frankly, that was a miracle.

Want to see my bruises? The photographs don't really do them justice but give you an idea. They were taken daily from Wednesday through to Sunday:)





Good aren't they. Isn't it amazing how fat your legs look when you are bending over to photograph them! Despite all that and the fact I could only walk in slow motion for the next 2 days, we managed to go out every day visiting or walking. 

Anyhow, if you have the time to spare, take a look at this video, filmed in June last year but it does give you an idea of the climb watch here


Thursday 2 October 2014

Climbing up Cadair Idris

First of all, welcome to Jane via Bloglovin!

On the second day of our holiday, the sun was still out and we decided to climb the mountain named Cadair Idris - you can read the official jargon here

We started from the base of the Pony Path (as described in the here link above). It is a trek of 3 miles each way. The summit on this route is 2930 feet high! It took us 3 hours and 15 minutes to get to the hut.

The sun was shining as we started but it was forecast to be relatively cool with low cloud and rain coming later in the afternoon. DS and FDiL have climbed this twice before and had managed to get FDiL's parents up it the previous year and we had looked forward to doing the same. We choose the day mainly for the coolness as they had climbed it in heat and didn't recommend it!

This stone is near the start, a gentle climb through a woodland glade, leading up to fields - it kind of gently draws you in before punching you full in the face!

Standing close to the bottom, we could see the cloud was covering the top, which is apparently quite common:
Standing on the same spot, I took pictures of the surrounding countryside:


We ascended further up, all three dogs were with us, Master L, Miss S and Miss M (who was absent without leave on this photograph:
The cloud base shifted for a few minutes and there it was:
We were told the first bit wasn't too bad as there was two sets of zig's and zag's which would ease us into the climb - yeah right, that is fine coming from two young people. I had expected these four elements to be flattish, sort of circling the edge of the mountain. Nope, they were quite steep.

Considering I am prone to tachycardia I knew I would have to take it slowly. Not too bad at first, heart beat around 100 rising to 150. After the first of these two zig zag's,  I needed a decent rest as it was now hovering around 180. Anyhow, a few minutes resting, a drink of water and a piece of cake helped (for a while!).

About halfway up we met three walkers who were slightly lost. They thought they had come up the route we were taking but in fact, had walked up the other side. They said they had parked near a telephone box (which we had passed at the start) so showed them how to get down to it. It was only later on we realised where they had started from and would have had quite a hike to get back to their car. Oh well.

Not far from the top now, we carried on for many more metres, by now my thighs and calves were aching and I was puffing like a little steam train and I am reasonably fit! The clouds parted to show us this lake, Llyn y Gader:
This view to the right:
Another rest was needed here ready for the climax, a huge mass of boulders known as a scramble, where each step up was anywhere from 6" to 2':
At the top finally and we settled down inside this hut:
DS and FDiL had carted up a tiny camping stove, water and other supplies. We had bought sandwiches and more cake. Our sandwiches were squashed as DB had had a lay down inside a cairn and forgotten they were in his rucksack. Anyhow, they peeled apart successfully :-)

A lovely hot cup of chocolate helped and they had pasta mug things. We stayed there for about 40 minutes listening to the rain beginning to lash down. The dogs dried out enough from the cloud misting and we donned full wet weather gear (my shoes leak so knew I would be get wet feet), left the hut and climbed a few more feet to the trig point.

Forgot to take a photograph as it was too wet and windy and I needed to hang on in the wind and lashing rain! We then began our descent....