Welsh as She is Spelled/Spelt

We've come across quite a few different spellings of words or names that we're already familiar with since moving to Wales. When they're explained to me and I read them out in Welsh, I realize that "hmm, that spelling works!" It's just not what I'm used to.

Gilhespy is a surname that we would write as Gillespie

Ifans is another family name, pronounced as Evans (Welsh f has a v sound)

Huw is another way of spelling the man's name Hugh

Sion can be a spelling of the boy's name Sean

Mail box in our town with King George VI cypher, dating it between 1936 and 1952

Welsh has between 8 and 13 dipthongs (vowel combinations) depending on the region, and they harvest them from 7 vowels - A, E, I, O, U, W, and Y - not 5, as in English. This obviously generates more variations.

So, our street name Coed Llan Lane, is actually said as Coyd (as in boy) Hlan Lane.

It's fun learning new things, but it's hard making them stick!

More 'Shrooms

 It's fall, so mushrooms are popping up everywhere.

It looks as if this mighty fungus has broken an old stump apart!

 

This miniscule one is easily overlooked, though it looks as if it's the perfect size for insects.

Harvest

Oi! The church bells of St. Myllin's rang out on Friday evening, not as part of the Sunday service, nor for Monday's practice, but for the crop harvest. The bells traditionally rang to give thanks for the bounty, and to ensure the preservation of the gathered crop.

So I thought I'd better get to work harvesting quinces from my garden, and make that quince paste (membrillo) and jelly I've been meaning to try. My quinces were small and hard, with lots of pips and minimal flesh. Still worth a try, I thought.

I plucked this heavy load in no time - the aroma is floral and fruity, so fresh!

I washed them all thoroughly - only 2 sowbugs, 2 snails, no worms or tunnels, and very little decay/degradation to avoid or cut away.

This is what they look like on the inside - no real flavor sampling was done though, as they're too hard, astringent and sour to be appreciated raw. It looks like a combination of a pear and an apple, and there are a lot of pips, which look a bit like popcorn kernels.

I decided not to peel them - that was just too much! The smell of them cooking is heavenly!

I drained off the juice, then added sugar for the jelly (left). The flesh went through the blender, and was then slow simmered with sugar to make a purée.

The jelly turned out well - it turns rosy pink during the cooking process. It's a tasty new flavor for our palette.

The membrillo paste had to be left overnight in the oven to dry out more. We sampled some with cheese and crackers - reviews were positive! 

Voilà! My first membrillo, or quince cheese ("a sweet and tart, thick jelly made of the pulp of the quince fruit. It is a common confection in several countries" - Quince cheese). 

The color of the paste is a little 'off' (not rosy pink) because I included the skins in my purée. 

This turned out to be a fun fall project. Though I really enjoyed trying something new and feeling successful at it, it was very messy and tedious. Everything was sticky afterwards - the purée bubbled up and exploded up into the hood filter and backsplash at one point when I chatted to a neighbor, and even the underside of my shoes made a tacky sound, so I had to mop the floor as well.

The purée is excellent stirred into yoghurt - ooh, man!

 

Black Jelly

This delicate swirling organism on our pond log is most likely a jelly fungus called witch's butter. (Exidia glandulosa). It produces fruiting bodies in autumn, and feels somewhat gelatinous and slimy to the touch. They occur on dead broadleaf trees and branches.

It was only by photographing the community of fungi growing on our dead log, that the black witch's butter came to my attention.