30 Days Wild - Day 1

Nearly a year since I last wrote a blog post...  That said, I haven't neglected this blog totally as it's home to so many recipes I use often, so I do refer to it regularly (only last weekend I made the Rhubarb Flapjack Crumble I'd blogged about in 2012!). 

But I've decided to resurrect it at least temporarily, as this month, June 2015, I am taking part in the Wildlife Trust's 30 Days Wild challenge.  The idea is to 'do something wild every day for a month', get outside, engage with wildlife, enjoy nature.  This introductory video gives some ideas of the kinds of things you can try:

To be honest, this challenge isn't a huge stretch for us.  We are lucky enough to live in a village surrounded by glorious countryside, and Ted (3 this month) is a very 'outdoorsy' child; he and I are out and about every day as he regularly (as in twice a day!), rain or shine, asks to go on a 'ickle ork' (translation: 'little walk').  We grab his balance bike or his scooter and head off around the village.  90% of the time this is the same circuit, and 90% of the time we do the same things - look at the trout swimming by one bridge, see the ducks and swans on the lake, feed the village chickens, play Pooh Sticks at another bridge, race each other down a hill (him on a bike, me running.  He wins), back through a farmyard to view the tractor/telehandler/horse lorry/truck (whatever is in the barn at the time), across a couple of fields filled with cows (plenty of cow poo to examine on the way!), and back home across 2 more bridges (sometimes more Pooh Sticks is played). 

But I thought the challenge might just give me some new ideas.  I am really keen that Ted's interest in the natural world is encouraged; I grew up passionate about wildlife and, largely thanks to my Granny, pretty knowledgeable about it too, especially butterflies.  I'd love to impart some of this to Ted, but need a bit of a refresher course myself!  He's now pretty good at naming wild flowers (he knows daisy, buttercup, dandelion, cow parsley, clover, herb Robert and speedwell), but that's nearing the end of my own rather rusty knowledge too.  Having a focus each day might help us to see new things in the world around us, help us both to learn, and of course provide plenty of opportunity for more fun too!  Some days I'll try and plan something specific, other days we'll just see what happens.

So, here we go...

Day 1 dawned sunny and bright so I set off for a run.  Living in a rural area all my runs are in the 'wild'.  Today I did 5km, mainly on roads, but across a few fields too.  At 8am it was lovely and quiet apart from a couple of dog-walkers, and I loved just listening to the birdsong as I ran (it almost drowned out the sound of my gasping for breath!).  My exciting wildlife-spot was a pair of goldfinches!  As I was having a restorative cup of tea on my arrival home I looked out of the window and spotted a bullfinch - 2 finch-sightings in the space of 20 minutes!  Here's a slightly sweaty mid-run selfie:

Mid-morning Ted and I went for a cuppa with a friend, and from there we continued on around the village with Ted on his bike.  However, within minutes we found ourselves in a howling gale, looking at a very black cloud and feeling the rain starting.  We really weren't dressed for this, so quick turnaround and a very speedy dash back through the village just cemented our 30 Days Wild achievement as 'exercise in the wild'!  Not as exciting as it could have been for day 1, but fresh air and exercise nonetheless.  We arrived home just before the downpour, just as Rob arrived home from his bike ride too.

It's remained freezing and blowy this afternoon and I'm not ashamed to admit that I don't fancy heading out again, so that's that for today's wildness...  although I was delighted to find a CBeebies programme called 'Minibeast Hunt with Jess'.  Ted and I watched it and it was all about worms and how to find them.  I think that might be another 30 Days Wild activity we could do.

Back tomorrow (not all my entries will be this long!).

A Busy Few Weeks

Oops, 19 days since I last wrote on this blog!  I've been chivvied along reminded by Maya that I need to re-enter the 'blog-cave' again, so here I am.

So, what have I been doing in the last 2 and a bit weeks...?

1)  Working.  New class, new Principal, new role (Year Leader), lots of work.  The children are delightful, and just beginning to get into their new classroom routines.  Me too.  But I know that a good start to the year is invaluable so I don't mind spending time on this.

2)  Cleaning.  Because when you're temporarily without an Amah, if you don't clean the kitchen you get ants!  Who knew?!

3) Taking photos of babies.  Our 1-month-old neighbour for a start (and wow, babies are tricky to take photos of - they keep MOVING - hence the sleeping shot!):

But also this baby kingfisher we found in our street last week:

Poor little thing, we think its mother had been killed.  It was looking very lost, and sat here for ages (which at least allowed me to take a photo).

4)  Meeting the local wildlife.  I continue to be delighted and amazed by the wildlife here in Brunei (OK, not the ants.  I could do without wildlife in my kitchen).  This little fellow was lurking outside our door at the weekend:

5)  Pinning.  Have you found Pinterest yet?  It's a website where you can create virtual pinboards of all your favourite things.  Check it out - although be warned, it's totally addictive!

6)  Reading.  I've become mildly obsessed with the Mitford sisters, the eccentric aristocratic family who became notorious in their lifetimes for political reasons, but whose memories live on through their prolific writings - autobiographies, novels and letters.  They're a truly fascinating bunch.  I've been engrossed in this excellent biography, and felt quite miserable when I finally finished it...  so immediately went onto Amazon and ordered a book of letters between Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh - My next Mitford-fix!

7)  Cooking.  This weekend we had a pretty typical Brunei-shopping experience - carefully planning some meals and then discovering that crucial ingredients were nowhere to be found in the shops!  I had decided to make a chilli-con-carne, but there was no mince and no tins of kidney beans.  Correction, there was mince, but it was so fatty as to be almost white (ick!) and there were kidney beans, but they were in syrup (another ick!).  So I ended up making a chilli with diced steak and tins of lima beans instead.  I'm nothing if not adaptable!

I'm looking forward to a bowl of this for supper tonight (with chips and some grated cheddar - naughty but nice!) and then we'll fill the freezer with portions of it.  Over the last couple of weeks we've almost emptied the freezer of the 'ready meals' that we make andkeep for busy weeks, so it's satisfying to restock it.

This isn't actually the recipe I used (I don't usually use a recipe for chilli), but a friend posted it on our forum recently and I have been meaning to give it a try, if only for the name!

Cowboy Chilli

olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 or 2 red chilies, finely diced
salt
4 cloves garlic, finely diced
2 lb (1 kg) ground beef
6 strips (300 g) bacon, diced
1 x 14 oz (400 g) can of kidney beans, black beans or pinto beans
1 cup (250 ml) barbecue sauce
2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper (optional if you don’t want it too spicy)
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 x 12 oz (350 ml) beer
grated cheddar cheese, sour cream, diced scallions, tortilla chips, etc., to serve

Heat a splash of olive oil in a large pot over a medium-high heat. Add the onion, chilies and a pinch of salt (to stop the onions from browning) and cook for 10 minutes, or until the onions have softened. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Add the ground beef and bacon and cook until it’s nearly cooked through and browned, stirring occasionally.

Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer, then lower the heat to keep at a gentle simmer. Cook for 30 minutes to 1 hour – the longer you cook it, the more the flavors will develop – adding more beer or water if the chili starts to look too dry. Serve the chili warm with toppings of your choice.

Brunei Critters

Whenever I visit a new country (or even go to live in one!) it's often the wildlife that interests me most.  In Canada we would regularly cycle up to the pond to see the beavers swimming around, and never got over the excitement of seeing hummingbirds in our garden.  Seeing a black bear in the wild was also an amazing experience - although I still regret not managing to see a wild moose. 

Here in Brunei there are countless exciting creatures...  many of them living in and around our house!  However, last weekend we spotted a new critter.  We noticed a movement in the undergrowth near the path whilst walking at Tasek Lama, and a closer look revealed this curious chap:

He didn't seem bothered by me creeping ever-closer with my camera so I managed to get some quite detailed shots.

I love the blue flecks on his back, and his amazingly long tail.

We had never seen one of these before - I have no idea what it is...  any suggestions much appreciated!  I couldn't help but wonder if it was some kind of chameleon as it was so well camouflaged amongst the leaves, and it had those incredible 'swivelly' eyes.

Bizarrely enough, the following day - whilst at the Empire Hotel - we spotted a near-identical critter on the rocks by the beach.  Identical apart from the colour (lending weight to my chameleon theory perhaps?)

He had exactly the same loooooong tail:

And the same row of spines down his neck.  He's looking at me wearily and saying 'Bugger off!' here - I think he was getting heartily sick of me crawling across the rocks towards him, forcing him to keep scuttling away.

After our tea we came back out to sit and watch the sunset over the sea and were massively excited to see HUGE turtles swimming just off the coast!   No pictures I'm afraid - they bobbed up and down pretty fast, I'd never have managed to get a photo, and also the light was fading fast - but take it from me, it was a fantastic sight.

A Busy Week...

Since I last blogged...

* I've finished my first term teaching here.  So nice to have 4 weeks off - and we're looking forward to our holiday in Thailand in a couple of weeks.  We'll be spending some time in Bangkok, then a few days on Koh Samet.

* We've had a couple of exciting visitors to the house, one by day - on the pondok,

and one on the window by night.

 * We've dragged out the Christmas decorations and filled the house with fairy lights.

* We've decorated the Christmas pot-plant (they don't sell 'real' Christmas trees out here, and we didn't want a fake one).  There's lots of old favourites on the tree...

But the new decorations for 2010 are my mosaic baubles, made by me at our mosaic classes run by Paula.

* We've also had our Loan Service Christmas Ball, this year with a Medieval theme.  It was a superb evening, the Community Centre was brilliantly decorated, and everyone had made such an effort with their costumes.  I adapted an outfit I already had (adding sleeves and a pointy hat) and I made Rob's.

It was a bit of a sad time too as we had to say goodbye to Paula and John.  Saying goodbye to friends and neighbours is an inevitable and all-too-regular part of military life - and this goodbye was tinged with envy that John and Paula are heading back to live in lovely snowy Edinburgh!

They'll be much missed here, but I know they'll enjoy their new life back in Scotland - and I'm sure we'll meet again!

Wildlife River Trip

Yesterday we had an amazing day.  We've been here in Brunei for 2 months now and to be honest, we keep having amazing days!  Many people complain that Brunei is 'boring' and perhaps it is in some ways - it's a very small country, it can be quite restrictive for women, it's not great for some kinds of shopping.  But for us, so far, it's great.  We're both working full-time, I don't have a problem with not wearing shorts/vest-tops here, and my idea of a great day out doesn't involve trawling round shopping malls so we're finding plenty to keep us occupied.  Not that we're not living an entirely pleasant laid-back lifestyle here - we are - but we're just busy enough!

We did a day-long trip out to a part of Brunei called Temburong a few weeks ago (about which I will blog sometime, as that was another excellent day) but there is also a much more leisurely wildlife boat-trip, a couple of hours' long, that leaves from the capital Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB), and this is what we did yesterday with our friends Paula and John.

Brunei is part of the island of Borneo, home to a multitude of amazing wildlife, but one of the animals that only lives here on Borneo is the Proboscis Monkey.  Apparently these monkeys cannot even be kept in zoos, so living here in Brunei really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see them... and this trip didn't disappoint.

We set off from the jetty in BSB and headed first for Kampong Ayer, the largest water-village in the world.  Approximately 25,000 people live here - around a quarter of the population of the capital.  It's a vibrant community with houses connected by wooden walkways and boats serving as cars and taxis.

We stopped at one house to pick up our guide.  Many of the houses may look somewhat tumbledown from the outside...

But inside they have all the mod-cons you'd expect.  The extended family all live in this house which was clearly kept with great pride.

With our guide on board we headed off round the water village past schools, a fire-station, a police-station and several mosques.

Everywhere people smiled and waved at us.  As we motored past one of the primary schools I suddenly realised that there was of course no playground for the children...  but then I saw this boy on his makeshift swing on the balcony of his house - I guess children will make their own entertainment with whatever they have to hand!

Within 15 minutes or so we were clear of the city and into the jungle. 

It's always sad to see the sheer amount of rubbish that litters this beautiful country and indeed much of South-East Asia.  The beaches are covered in it, the water around BSB is full of bobbing garbage, and this river was also dotted with various plastic debris.  I know much is washed ashore from shipping, but it's also indicative of a lack of concern for the environment which is tragic anywhere in the world, but certainly in a country so rich and diverse in its wildlife as this. 

Still, that aside, we were soon on the lookout for any movement in the trees...  we were lucky to have an excellent eagle-eyed guide, but John and Paula (having done this trip several times before) were also pretty good at spotting well-hidden animals!

There were plenty of egrets around - although they're hard to photograph as they tend to over-expose a little, being so bright white.

This large Monitor Lizard was clearly in the pay of the guide - he posed for us for ages, sauntering along the bank as John and I snapped away with our SLRs!  

And not once, but twice, we happened upon a group of Proboscis Monkeys!   The first time they were quite close to the bank, but leapt off into the undergrowth before we could take many pictures.  However, the second group were happily eating in the trees giving us plenty of opportunity to use the zoom lenses.

The group was made up of females and youngsters, so sadly we didn't get to see any adult males who have the really pendulous noses, but I liked the profile of the females with their upturned noses searching for food.

They're really quite odd to watch as they move in a much more human way than the macaques that we see so often around our house.  These monkeys are larger and 'lope' rather than 'bounce', if that makes sense.  It's hard to explain.

Excitement over, we continued to scour the mangroves...  We thought that was it as we headed back towards town.

But then our guided suddenly spotted this young crocodile!  He was lurking in the shallows near the bank, clearly hoping for an unwary bird to pass by.  I'm sure he was pretty upset with us for spoiling his potential lunch, but we were very excited to see him.

The trip was only a couple of hours long, but felt like a real getaway as we headed off up the river into the jungle. We'll definitely be back in the hope of spotting more incredible wildlife.

A final treat was a quick ride past the city's Omar Ali Saifuddien mosque.  Commissioned by and named after the current Sultan's father it was completed in 1958 and its 52-metre high dome dominates the city skyline... and provides quite a dramatic contrast with the water village alongside.