Staveley Mill Yard

I haven't blogged about places lately, but Debbie suggested Staveley as a day-off trip out on Monday. It's just off the A591 Kendal-Windermere road. As you go through the village, the entrance to Staveley Mill Yard is quite an unassuming one. However it's worth persevering to explore this developing centre.

Within what initially looks like a little industrial estate is Wilf's Cafe, which does delicious food but not at full-on Lake District prices. Next door is the home of Hawkshead Brewery, which has a very stylish beer hall with all the ales on tap and in bottle. Nice pint of draught Red was enjoyed, and in bottles I recommend Brodie's Prime - all the proof you need that porter is an excellent drink.

Add to that the More? artisan bakery and some very pleasant riverside walks (which also generates a proportion of their electricity) it makes a worthwhile place to call at just a slight remove from the more picture-postcard locations in the Lakes.

I'll be back.

Radio 4 food

This evening we had stuffed onions with parmesan breadcrumbs. Not sure I got it quite right, but it still tasted very good and I even found everything I needed in Morecambe Morrisons. It wasn't in the plan, but they were referred to on Saturday Live this morning, and one look at the recipe meant it became the cooking to unwind to, following two weddings and a funeral visit.

Always worth keeping an ear open for Radio 4. Recipe is here.

Lent Blog 19: Obesity and the Last Supper

In a story that would have looked good for April 1, Cornell University reports that depictions of the Last Supper have had increasingly large food portions over time. In a, perhaps predictable, "life imitating art" story, they have studied 52 paintings and detect a significant increase in portion size over time.

The USA Today coverage notes the Gospels "mention only bread and wine, but many of the paintings have other foods, such as fish, lamb, pork and even eel, says Craig Wansink." Well, if it was Passover, then there would be quite a lot of other stuff on the table - bread and wine alone don't make a meal...

I think it was John Bell of the Iona Community who noted that Jesus is often depicted as thin, but he must have been well-built, as he was always at meals and parties.

Not sure any of that gets us anywhere with contemporary obesity problems.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Supersized Last Supper mirrors increases in appetites and food portions (telegraph.co.uk)

Good discoveries in Morecambe.

Encouraged by Bill Bryson's affection for Morecambe, despite its set-backs, I think we need to be talking the place up at every opportunity. Thought I'd mention a few early discoveries from my first few weeks here. There's obviously Holy Trinity, Poulton-le-Sands with St Laurence Church, but I'm biased! Here are some others in no particular order:

1) Morecambe Bay itself. The view across the bay (as seen at top of blog) is, of course, Morecambe's greatest asset. Every day is different - with the light constantly changing, and only a small change in the tide having substantial effects on the relatively level bay, it's fascinating (even in bad weather). Grange, Ulverston and Barrow in the distance can all be seen, but so can a range of Lakeland Hills. Fantastic to have it 3 minutes' walk away.

2) Friendly people. It's brilliant to find people who chat everywhere.

3) Kenny's fish 'n' chips, Euston Road. Edges it as the best shop we've tried so far (although the one by Morecambe FC is good, too.)

4) Food4thought community cafe runs in Poulton Memorial Hall Tue-Fri 12-2. Good cheap food and drinks. Friendly service and a good project.

5) Breeze cafe. Futuristic building next to West End Gardens. Very good range of smoothies, ice creams, milk shakes and Atkinsons coffee, served in big, wonderfully coloured cups.

6) Special mention in despatches for the Farmers Market at Christ Church URC, Broadway. 4th Thursday in the month 9am - 2pm. Yet to get there, but everyone keeps talking about it!

7) I've yet to try many of the local hostelries. Near to home is the Smugglers Den. A very compact old pub in the heart of old Poulton. Seriously committed to its real ales (10p per pint discount for CAMRA members it provides a really good friendly local experience. Looking forward to testing a few other venues in the coming weeks!

Lots more to discover, I'm sure, but Morecambe is well worth the visit!

Birthday out

Lovely day today. First part was a gentle drive north, calling in at the village of Beetham.
Never really noticed it before, but it has a Corn Mill, the Heron Theatre and the Wheatsheaf Inn amongst its highlights. Surprising amounts of stuff for such a small picturesque place.

We then moved on to Lower Sizergh Barn. It's a great place, full of lots of lovely local / organic / fair trade food, crafts, etc. Not cheap, but you get what you pay for. Fantastic place to go for some goodies round Christmas time, but a treat at any time. Had lunch in the cafe, which has windows overlooking the milking shed. Terrific quiche (you see, real men do eat it after all)

Went home to open some card and prezzies, and eat lemon cake from Sizergh. Evening grub in the Keys at Slyne with a pint of Golden Pippin from the Copper Dragon Brewery.

Nice!

Lent: Day 2

If you just want to view Lent posts, click Lent under the labels heading in the right-hand side-bar

Debbie was out last night, so whilst channel flicking I stumbled across something on BBC1 called the 34 stone teenager . It documented the story of Bethany, who is now 19 years old and weighs 34 stone (476 pounds/216kg). She was so dangerously obese that she took the decision to seek surgery to help her to lose weight. Until she was an adult, this was not possible in the UK.

It was almost terrible to hear the story of her eating, which often increased when she felt bad about herself or her appearance. She was trapped in a vicious circle of gaining weight, feeling depressed about weight and then comfort eating.

The surgery reduced her stomach quite drastically, and it was an operation with significant risks (1 in100 fatalities). In her case, all went well, and in the following weeks of recovery, Bethany lost about 4 stone. She was obviously impatient to lose more, but even that began to make quite a difference to her appearance.

One conversation she had was with another man who had had similar surgery. They touched on whether losing the weight was really the solution, and it was interesting to observe that Bethany was worried about how she would be when she was thinner, whereas the guy (who had already lost his weight) was feeling great and in a serious relationship.

It all seemed quite topical for Lent. What sort of changes do we want to make to our lives, and what's the best way to effect them. Clearly Bethany would rather not have been in the situation which required this drastic intervention. The question remained open as to whether the issues that have made her so unhealthy would disappear when she was in better physical shape. On the other hand, some external changes can really start to turn people's confidence around, otherwise 'Trinny and Suzanna' and 'You Are What You Eat' TV shows wouldn't work.

I guess Lent can be a time to make an intervention of change in our lives which may be contrived - giving up alcohol, chocolate, etc. We know it's temporary and short-lived, but it might open up some further questions about priorities and lifestyle which otherwise we would bury and ignore.

But maybe we should really be working on getting to a place in our lives where interventions aren't necessary; getting to a healthier place in our relationships and self-understanding that means that unhealthy or dysfunctional behaviour is no longer desirable.

Easier said than done, and I suspect we all sometimes need the metaphorical equivalent of Bethany's surgeon's knife. I hope she gets to where she wants to be, and most of all that she resolves the underlying issues.

15

Yes, the Rev Peatman and I have been married now for fifteen years (hard to believe we're that old, I know). So to mark this we went to the wonderful Zeffirelli's cinema and restaurant in Ambleside. One of the great perks of living in Lancaster is that you can have an evening out in the Lake District!

The restaurant serves wonderful vegetarian Italian food, and has a great atmosphere and look. The website can give you menu, wine list, photos, etc. They have a £15-95 deal for two courses and a movie ticket with a reserved seat in the cinema. The cinemas are relatively small and cosy, very comfortable and with an excellent quality of sound and picture (which I only realised was digital when I walked close to the screen to leave at the end. No pixels at normal range). If you're in the Lakes, it's well worth an evening out.

The film? Miss Potter. Well what else do you go and see out of the current releases whilst in Ambleside? It's not a hugely demanding film, but it's beautifully shot, nicely performed and Renée Zellweger has a remarkably good English accent for a Texan. I also thought it was good that it's a PG (not quite sure why it isn't U) so that kids who like the books could go and see, although it's obviously not a aimed at children.

Tagged

This is the blog form of a chain letter. The rules are fairly basic - you provide 5 facts about yourself and nominate five more people. I nominate Matthew (my chaplaincy side-kick), Andrew (used to work at smc before defecting back to Lancaster University), Emma (former SMC student) , Stephen (ditto) and Mark (he's a chaplain with a blog).

I have been tagged by Steve Tilley and you can refer back to his entry for more info on tagging. It should encourage a few new visitors, which makes the whole blog thing more satisfying.

So, here's an attempt at five facts.

1) I am an only child. Fortunately people don't seem to spot it up front, so it presumably didn't cause too much lasting damage. People say "didn't you get lonely?" I probably did, but thought it was normal.

2) One of my letters was read out on Home Truths by John Peel. Possibly my finest achievement.

3) I once sang through Helen Shapiro's tights. Perhaps I should explain.

I was helping a friend of mine, John Peters, to record some songs we used to perform at University. The studio engineer was adamant that the best way to avoid 'popping' on vocals when sings words with 'p' or 'b' in them was to use a metal ring with a pair of tights stretched over it in front of the studio microphone. The current pair belonged to Helen Shapiro. I still have the recordings, but seldom think about the tights.

Helen Shapiro had two number ones in 1961, and the Beatles first national tour was as her support act. Later on she converted to Christianity and has since recorded Christian music.

4) I can't stand the taste of beetroot.

5) I didn't drink coffee until I was twenty. The a friend of mine insisted I tried a black filter coffee and I was an immediate convert. I can just about drink a white coffee and keep it down on a funeral visit nowadays. (despite saying no milk, people often forget).

Ok, I will inform my friends that they are tagged, and I hope that's been worth wasting a couple of minutes reading.