Fanesca, bunny jumping and the Great Fen Project - Easter 2015

Lucy and the mass of ingredients for Fanesca

One thing about being retired is that bank holidays, which used to be so important, have faded to pretty much zero status.

I was having a haircut last week and Jason wanted to know (standard barber chat) what I was doing for Easter.

I told him the family was coming up and went through all the detail. I don't think he was paying proper attention because (10 minutes later) he asked me exactly the same question.

This time, I said: "Nothing much; truth is, when you're retired every day is a bank holiday." People who are still working don't want to hear that, but that's how it is. I haven't often appreciated how nice it is not to have work commitments, but I did then.

However, Easter was something to look forward to because Tom and Lucy, and Max and Inna were coming up for the weekend.

Lucy had been planning a special Ecuadorian dish for Easter Sunday. It's called Fanesca and comprises several types of bean and corn, vegetables and spices served with dried salt cod, also little, deep-fried pastries (called Empanadas) and plantains. Preparation took some days and some planning. There was one type of bean which is very bitter and has to be soaked, then boiled and cooled several times over several days in order to make it edible.

In Ecuador, you can buy these beans ready to pop into your Fanesca, but over here they are available only as a dried pulse, so the dish is a lot more work. The Ecuadorians also eat a lot of corn. This is like the maize or sweet corn that we eat over here, but the pieces of corn are much larger (as big as broad beans) and they are dropped whole into stews or soups. The Fanesca contains a good helping of these and they had to be imported from Ecuador (courtesy of Nidia, Lucy's mum).

We ate this on Easter Sunday and it was very good (also very filling). I'm not sure I liked the salt cod (first time I'd had it), but the rest was delicious. It was also the first time I'd eaten plantains (which are like large bananas, but taste like potato when eaten raw). These were shallow fried and floated on the soup, along with the Empanadas and sliced, hard-boiled egg.

Fanesca with egg, plantains, empanadas and salt cod floating on top

Lucy is now looking pregnant, there's a very obvious bump, and we know that she is having a baby girl. She is also feeling pregnant; she gets tired and can't walk as far or as fast as the rest of us. It's staggering to think that in 12 weeks (or so) she and Tom will be parents. I remember what a life-changing experience it was for me; it's going to be just the same for them.

Lucy is now at the reading and writing stage of her master's degree and no longer has to attend LSE for lectures. She's done well, being in the top two in her group, and has been accepted on the PhD course at LSE. She is funded by the Ecuadorian government, which is fantastic, but the downside is that for every year she is funded, she will have to spend two years working in Ecuador. She already owes two years and the PhD would add another eight years or so to that.

She had been hoping to get a scholarship, but unfortunately, missed out on the limited places. With a new baby to look after, it may be worth deferring the PhD for a year and applying again for a scholarship in 2016. I can't help thinking that being pregnant was a factor in her missing out this year. It shouldn't have made any difference, of course, but putting myself in the shoes of a sexist academic at LSE, I can't help thinking that it might have done.

Anyway, Ecuador is a lovely country, if not as rich as England and our grand-daughter (Julia or Henrietta) would be fine there. It would mean, however, annual trips to South America, via Madrid not Miami so Holly (and Holly's successor) would have lots of kennel time to suffer.

Apart from Fanesca, Lucy brought up her favourite board game, so Max, Tom and I played a lot of Catan and did a lot of losing. Inna refuses to play because it demands too much of a mean streak and so she became honorary banker. I didn't win any games (not mean enough). On Friday, we had a walk up to the allotment. Lucy is keen that I try to grow some Ecuadorian corn and she brought some that she had successfully germinated in London. They have underfloor heating in their kitchen and it seems to be the best thing possible for germinating seeds. I've planted some in pots under cover and will also sow some directly into the ground. Lucy has high hopes, but I suspect that giant corn used to the intensity of an equatorial sun, will struggle at our latitude. However, the proof of the pudding, as they say ...

Tom is also growing lots and lots and lots of chillies. He bought four up for me as plugs and I'll keep them in the kitchen for a few weeks until the weather is warmer and they can go in our little plastic greenhouse. Hopefully, I'll have my proper greenhouse erected soon and they should thrive in there.

On top of the motte at Fotheringhay Castle.

On Saturday, we all had a trip out to Fotheringhay Castle, which Inna found disappointing. When she heard we would be visiting a castle, she expected stone walls and tapestries. Fotheringhay's walls have long since been pulled down and all that's left now is a huge mound (the motte) and some artist's impressions of how it would have looked. Nevertheless, it's an impressive location by the side of the River Nene and an important place historically - being the birthplace of Richard III and site of the execution of Mary Queen of Scots (mother of James I).

Richard III is big news at the moment, his body having been discovered in Leicester and his remains now reburied in some style inside Leicester Cathedral. Richard and the other dukes and monarchs of the House of York also get a good showing in Fotheringhay church.

Holly has been going to a dog-agility class on Sundays and this week it was an Easter special with hunt-the-egg games and a bunny hop (essentially a long-jump for dogs). Holly went into the big dog group, but was out very quickly, being outclassed by labradoodle Jasper and another mixed breed. She did get a place in the small dogs group and beat a Jack Russell and a Cocker Spaniel to take first prize.

I'm not sure whether Holly will ever make it as an agility dog, but it's good for her to go and I think the mental, as much as the physical, exertion tires her out.

Tom and Lucy went back to London on Monday evening, but Max stayed on another day and on Tuesday, we all went to see the Great Fen project south of Peterborough. This is an ambitious attempt to convert a large tract of agricultural land back to fen (as it was before drainage). The site is adjacent to Whittlesey Mere, one of the largest tracts of inland water in Britain in the 19th century and controversially drained for farmland in the 1850s. Today, it would have been designated as a site of special scientific interest, but back then it was just development land (or water) lost at a huge cost to wildlife.

There are nature reserves at Holme Fen (where there's a large wood of silver birch) and at Woodwalton, where the Rothschild family established a nature reserve at the beginning of the 20th Century. The Great Fen project aims to connect these reserves (which are about four miles apart) and some farmland has already been bought and is gradually being converted back to hay meadow and fen.

We walked around one of the new areas and then through Holme Fen to the Holme Post, which was a wooden beam driven into the soil  and cut level with the ground. Erosion and shrinkage of peat exposed more and more of the post until it's now more than nine feet below the original land level. The original oak post has been replaced by a cast-iron post at the same level. Perhaps the project will stop further erosion.

At the north end of Holme Wood, there is a large mere and it was packed with noisy waterfowl. Holly could hear the noise from some way away and was desperate to get to them. She needed a tight lead. There were lots of cormorants, plus ducks and geese and the woods had a scattering of yellow Brimstone butterflies - signs that spring is here.

Balancing on a fallen trunk in Holme Wood and (below) on the
shore of a very noisy mere.