Wind on the river

Last night finished with a visit to Just Beer, a self styled micropub serving nothing but real ales. We'd heard that it was a bit cliquey so approached with a little trepidation, but once again found it to be somewhere we could thoroughly recommend, very friendly, and they did also serve individual bottles of wine and cans of Pepsi. It was a single room, which soon filled up. Bar snacks included Porters pork pies, pork scratchings and pickled eggs. I actually saw a woman eat a pickled egg, something I think I could quite happily go my entire life without experiencing myself.


At about eight this morning Dove and Trout headed back up the Trent, and an hour later we set off down again. It was a bright morning but the pleasure was marred somewhat by a cold wind. It took us roughly three hours to get to Torksey. The pontoon moorings in the lock approach, where we'd intended to stay tonight, were occupied.. well, sort of.. Three or four twenty foor cruisers, each moored two boat lengths apart. No one offered to move to make space and wary of getting into a row we stopped on the lock landing and radioed the lockkeeper in the hope that he might persuade them to move. Instead he invited us to come up the lock and moor on the (long and commodious) one hour facilities mooring - far more handy for the facilities and more pleasant too. So we have made a brief and short foray onto the Fossdyke. Next time we do a Trent thrash and get our next fix of Newark, we really must explore these waterways.

Amyway, it seems we were wise to avoid a confrontation as later in the afternoon there were four police cars in the car park, attending a fight on the pontoon below the lock, in which a weapon (most likely a knife) was involved.

I finally cooked the carrots and green spiral cauli (romanesco, Adam informs me, but I prefer Madcat's Martian cauliflower) using a technique culled from my ancient Stork cookery book, whereby it's cooked in butter in a heavy pan with a tight lid on the stove top. The carrots came out as if roasted, and the cauli, which I added later, was delicious and done perfectly.



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Location:Torksey Ferry Rd,,United Kingdom