Recent content by nicksteele1990

No matter how long you cook them, they won't lose their crunch. I leave them on the tree

My grandad, being more efficient than sporting, used to use a dab of superglue to hold the peanut on the trap.

Dendrochronology is the study of tree rings. A more productive year means a wider ring, and you end up with a record of past conditions that you can understand climactic conditions from. The dendrochronological record goes back thousands of years more or less unbroken, and can be used to date...

From the IS pictures, I'm pretty confident that's elder. Useful features to see are the toothy edge to the leaves, and that the leaves are opposite each other on the stem. Have a read of this...

Yup. Lovely treat at the end of a walk.

Some of my favourite YouTube channels are on that list. Cody'slab is also worth a watch, as is Taofledermaus

Best guess for that particular bit of rock is a mixture of calcite, baryte, possibly some others. It looks a lot like the gangue (useless bits) from a hydrothermal deposit. If you can scratch it with a fingernail, if the scratch shows white, and if it fizzes in contact with acid, it's calcite...

The extra bit under the watch, that the main strap threads through is there to stop the watch from sliding up and down the strap, as I understand it.

I'd donate a quid to win a banjo. My wife would love it!

I tried the malbec the other day. It's ok, but I couldn't honestly say it's good. It seemed a bit thin. £2.45 per pouch I think, in Morrisons. The other thing is that they were loaded onto one of those vertical hanging strip things, through a hole In the tab at the top. Looks like people like...

Mud glorious mud, Nothing like it to boil the blood. Winter's unbearable, My lawn is terrible! Came back from a walk with the dog Looking like I've trekked through a bog. Sticky, filthy mud. Very sorry for the poetic skit, I'm not trying to wind you up, but I couldn't resist a little rhyme. I...

It's worth remembering also that slow cookers work a bit differently to cooking in the oven. In the oven, hot air across the food browns it and develops different flavours. In a slow cooker, the only flavours you get out are the ones you put in at the beginning.

Here's a video of one of these being opened: Edit: looking at the specks on the lid, looks like it's the actual tin from the first post that he opened!

I was lucky enough to get a Kelly kettle and a good for my Barbour raincoat from my parents, and a new pair of boots, some wooly socks, and some cold-weather trousers from the in-laws. So now I get to go out with all new gear :)

Yesterday's dinner was turkey lasagne, made by my wife, which was a lovely thing to come back to at 9pm when it was utterly freezing. She made the whole thing from scratch, even the cheese sauce. I'm well proud of her :) Tonight, beef cheeks braised for 3 hours in red wine, beef stock and...