A Suffolk Weekend

I find it's always helpful for the mental state to have something to look forward to. Luckily I was off work the day the WannaCry MalIware virus hit the NHS Trust where I work - believe me, it's not been pretty, so I was glad to have had a break when I arrived back for this last "challenging" week.  Anyway, it's become a bit of an annual treat to go to Southwold in Suffolk around the time of my birthday in May.  I love it because we camp on an unspoilt campsite by the beach which is surrounded by marshes and reedbeds which hold an amazing number and variety of birds. You wake to the sound of the waves and the dawn chorus and very little else.  We normally go between the two May Bank Holidays so the site is relatively quiet. A couple of years ago we got up at an hour I can't bring myself to remember and drove to the RSPB reserve at Minsmere for their dawn chorus walk with one of their managers.  It was fabulous to walk through the reserve before it officially opened for the public and hear about 20 different bird species.

On Friday, after a 5 hour drive from London (don't ask), the sun finally came out for the evening. No expense spared on home comforts.
  

A short walk to the Harbour Inn for a pint of Adnams and a fish supper followed by a stroll along the River Blyth.

Saturday morning we tried the new café which has opened in the perfect spot (i.e. near the campsite) in the harbour.

A trip across the river on the much-loved foot ferry (a rowing boat; £1 each way) and we arrived in Walberswick to visit another much-loved local, Sonia, and she took us for a beautiful walk along Hoist Covert with her dog, Alfie.  Stunning views across the marshes and dunes to the sea.  No sign of the local marsh harrier. Or any bitterns.

We came upon some traditional reed cutters stacking the reeds for roof thatching.  I would have loved take a photo but they had pitchforks and looked busy - didn't want to disturb! 

Back "home" to our private glade for a little siesta.  No chairs but got the important stuff.

The local wildlife isn't bothered.

Kestrel

Swallow

Out to one of our favourite restaurants in Southwold, Sutherland House.

Stopped for drinks on the way home at The Sail Loft.  Great views over the marshes from the back of the pub.

Sunday morning dawn chorus was very early so went for a walk between 5 and 8 a.m. to make the most of the beautiful sunrise over the reedbeds.

This reed warbler was making a LOT of noise.

Not sure what this is, possibly a pipt. Known as LBJ (Little Brown Job).

The Adnams brewery (founded 1872) is based in Southwold. "Southwold Jack", a medieval clock 'smiter' dressed in 15th Century costume is used as a symbol for the brewery (original in St. Edmund's next to the font).

The amazing Grade I listed St. Edmund's Church is a surprise (I've never seen it before even though I've visited the town a few times) hidden round the back of the High St. Built in 1460, funded by wealthy wool merchants. See link (here) for photos of the beautiful interior.

St. Edmund (Edmund the Martyr) was King of East Anglia from approx. 855 to 869.

Walk back to the campsite along the start of the Sandling's Walk, the perfect distance for a stroll between the town and the pub at the harbour.

The tea hut next to the campsite was much needed for a warm-up after putting away the tent in the rain.

The sun came out and time for another cheeky beer before lunch. Cheers!



Another favourite place: Sole Bay Fish Company. Packed full of people buying fish at the counter and enjoying lunch.  Make sure you book!

Strangely enough, there is an article in today's Telegraph talking about walking in Southwold and Walberswick.

Insomnia - Finally cracked it!

Since my first post about insomnia in January 2013, things haven't got much better. A good night is often just 3 or 4 h of uninterrupted sleep.  Until a few weeks ago, when - Eureka! I finally found something that helped me get a couple more hours of sleep each night.  It sounds ridiculous after trying everything under the sun: herbal pills, sleeping pills, lavender spray, chamomile tea (bleurgh), turning off screens and phones, hot baths, warm showers, cooling showers (to aid the natural night-cooling of the body), not drinking, drinking, healthy eating, exercise, relaxation, reading, music, etc, etc.  I thought I had exhausted all avenues.  But a chance discovery of a Virgin Airlines eye mask made me try it, not really expecting anything, but *choir of angels, Hallelujah*, it really seems to work.  I stupidly had assumed that because my bedroom curtains were lined, that my room was dark.  But actually it gets pretty light in the mornings.  The eye mask really allows me more time before I wake up, so even when I do wake in the night, I am more confident that I'll get more sleep in the morning. 

One other thing I have been doing which does seem to make an appreciable difference is increasing the amount of leafy greens I eat.  A bit of reading around the subject informed me that magnesium is important for sleep regulation among many other functions - see link here), so I include in my diet plenty of spinach, almonds, cashew nuts, avocados and pumpkin seeds. Apparently magnesium deficiency is pretty common but difficult to test for.  I have also just started taking a magnesium supplement.  
Good luck to anyone else trying to sleep, let me know if you have any other suggestions.

Yogn't - Looks like yoghurt but it isn't: My easy homemade dairy-free 'yoghurt'

A few of my cancer survivor friends gave up dairy after their diagnosis for various reasons. Whatever your reason, if you would like an easy, nutritious breakfast, dessert or snack, try this recipe which I adapted from "Strawberry and Chia seed pudding" in the Living Well with Cancer Cookbook (Fran Warde and Catherine Zabilowicz, 2016), which I recently reviewed for Macmillan and can highly recommend.

Yogn't

Ingredients (for one serving)

A handful of cashew nuts, soaked in water to cover overnight

Handful of raspberries or strawberries

Drop of vanilla extract (optional but adds a touch of sweetness)

2 tablespoons of chia seeds (for a cheaper alternative try Tukmaria seeds)

Oats (optional)

Instructions

Put the soaked cashews in a blender with the soaking water and blend to a creamy texture.

Add the vanilla and most of the raspberries (or strawberries), blend again.

Stir in the chia seeds (and oats if using) and leave for a minimum of 30 mins (to allow the seeds to swell).  The longer you leave the seeds, the thicker the texture.

Top with remaining fruit and enjoy.

The cashew nuts provide protein, to help keep you full.  The chia ("strength" in ancient Mayan) seeds are also protein rich and contain: omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, fibre, calcium, copper, phosphorus, magnesium, niacin, potassium, zinc, manganese, vitamins A, B, E and D...the list goes on (see link for health benefits of chia).  They are from the plant Salvia Hispanica, which is related to mint.  Tukmaria, or Sabja seeds, which are seeds from the sweet basil plant (recommended by my Gujarati friend who says they are used in a lot of Indian desserts and drinks) have similar water-absorbing properties to chia seeds, are full of vitamins and minerals and are good value from Indian shops.

I find this is a light but filling breakfast.  Raspberries produce a light pink, delicately flavoured yogn't, but strawberries provide a bit more colour, substance and texture.  The amount of water can be adjusted to your preferred consistency.

Do Something!

A cancer diagnosis left me feeling helpless and dismayed.  I always looked after my body - exercised, ate healthy food, etc. I felt many things were out of my control, after all if I had been doing everything "right", what was the point?  About 18 months post-surgery, I was physically improving but needed help with scattered and angry emotions. I have found a good way to create positive feelings is to use my experience to help others, by raising awareness and helping charities. I quite like the challenge of finding something useful I feel able to do.  I have selected a few charities that helped me personally and a couple of other related ones: Paul's Cancer Support Centre, a small local centre, Maggie's London and Ovacome, which jointly hold a monthly meeting for younger ladies with ovarian cancer, Ovarian Cancer Action, which focuses on raising money for ovarian cancer research, and Target Ovarian Cancer, who tend to focus on campaigns to lobby MPs and policy makers to improve diagnosis times and treatments.  

I took part in a bucket collection yesterday for Ovarian Cancer Action.  It involved standing in a cold Victoria station, shaking some sleigh bells and looking faintly ridiculous in a glittery teal (charity colour) Santa hat. It was quite a tough gig - people are understandably busy and concerned with looking for their trains.  I focused on getting people to look at us!  Earlier in the day, there had been a choir to help out in the morning, which had encouraged people to linger and donate some coins.  The chief fundraiser told me that one year a supporter had bought along a St. Bernard dog and her puppy, which had substantially increased donations with people wanting photos. Yesterday I took over from a lovely family with two young children who looked very cute jumping around with their jingle bells.  The little girl was very serious, telling her mum off for talking to me and encouraging us to "focus".  

The year before last I helped out at a bucket collection for the same charity - on Sunday 15th March, Mothers day.  It was very moving to receive small donations from the public - one man said he donated because he had lost his mum to the disease.  It was also lovely to have mums encouraging their children (or the other way round) to put some cash in my bucket.  But my main impression from the day was meeting Abbie, a lovely trainee nurse who had sadly lost her mum to ovarian cancer.  She was bravely taking part in fund-raising on Mother's day in her memory and was a real credit to her family.  It is  not easy standing there and talking to the public, especially if you have a personal connection to the disease, but it does make you more determined to do something.  Even if you only end up with a few pounds, you see people looking at your banners and badges and it helps to raise awareness.

I find the collection days satisfying but not easy; however, there are obviously other ways to help charities.  An enjoyable thing I have found is to review books for Macmillan.  If you join their Cancer Voices network, you can select from a range of advertised opportunities that are listed for patients/survivors/carers/relatives to help other charities.  There are new relevant books published regularly which Macmillan ask to be reviewed in order to recommend them or otherwise to hospitals, support groups, doctors or nurses, etc.  You are sent a copy of the book and are asked to provide a review based on set questions, such as who do you thing the book is suitable for, what did you like about it, etc.

Other things I have done for charities include: bucket collections at Sainsbury's and the Royal Albert Hall; taking part in a focus group for Eve appeal (they were discussing the implementation of a helpline with a nurse to discuss people's concerns, this has now been put in place); signed an e-petition on Change.org 31st March as part of Ovarian Cancer Action's BRCA Right to Know campaign for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month 2015. It called for all women with a diagnosis of ovarian cancer to have access to BRCA gene genetic testing - a mutation in one of these genes increases the likelihood of developing ovarian cancer by around 50%; I have taken part as a catwalk model at Tea with Ovacome at the Mayfair for several years now; I have given talks to raise awareness with GPs and nurses, and also to a group of patients at St Goerge's Hospital.  

These things are not done totally altruistically, they ALWAYS help me to feel better about myself, to use my hideous experience and turn it into positive action.

Always a good idea to increase the cuteness factor when collecting!

L'Art de Vivre

The French have it.  The Italians have it.  I'm trying to cultivate it.  L'Art de Vivre - the art of living.  My Belgian friend Monsieur Koen Caremaans, who lives in France, tells me "No Frenchman ever died of stress"; he is also fond of telling me a French proverb which translates as "take it easy in the morning, not too quickly in the afternoon".  
There are certain things that concern the French, of course, such as "is this peach unripe, will the fishmonger be open tomorrow morning, is that croissant fresh?".  Somehow these things gain an importance when you focus on living well.  When you take time to appreciate these small but lovely things.   A beautifully fresh, crumbly croissant with your morning coffee can put you in a good mood for a long time (just until lunch, in fact).

It is noticeable in France that at 12 noon, lunch becomes the main occupation.  I enjoy sitting on trains travelling through France, and the rustling of lunch bags and the opening of napkins (yes, even on a train with your packed lunch) signals the time of day.  There is also NO SNACKING between meals.  This definitely increases the enjoyment of your meals - you are ready for them and have been looking forward to them.   Especially if you have taken the time to purchase some ripe fruit ("this one is for today..this one for tomorrow" said a grocer who sold me some nectarines) and fresh vegetables and cooked your dinner from scratch. 

An ideal morning!

My Favourite Day of the Year

My favourite day of the year doesn't have a date.  It has a smell and a taste.  The day of basil harvest and pesto-making.  My pesto recipe is from Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook. The book was published in 2007 and I've made the pesto every year since then  - the page has slight green smears as remembrance of pesto times past.
The basil has to be home-grown for extra smugness and satisfaction.  The good news is you only need a large handful of leaves to make a satisfying jam-jar full of greeny goodness. Don't be tempted to use lesser-quality ingredients, this is all about celebrating the best of Summer in every dish you add it to.  I use my best olive oil, fresh Parmesan (for extra points on the smug-o-meter it was sent from my kind brother-in-law living in Italy), large, thin pine nuts from a local Mediterranean deli. (expensive but worth it), beautiful juicy garlic, a pinch of Camargue sea salt.

Pesto then, or Genoese mixture, is the classic, unsurpassable dressing, a kind of panacea: “Just pronouncing it would calm a riot on board ship”, so I was told by an old sailor who was at the command of a steamship of immigrants at the time of Edmondo de Amicis’s “Oceano”.
“Oil wins over the sea and Pesto wins over long faces!” he said.

Add the basil, a pinch of salt, 120 mL virgin olive oil, 25 g pine nuts, 2 garlic cloves, 50 g Parmesan (Parmigiano-Reggiano) cheese and also 2 tablespoons Pecorino or Grana Padano cheese (for an extra tang of luxury) to a blender (apologies to traditionalists who say it MUST be done with a pestle and mortar to reduce shredding and oxidation of the leaves and ruining the flavour - to make up for it I have included a link to the Pesto world championship recipe...).  Mix to a nice grainy texture.  For extra nutrition, you could substitute or add some lightly toasted walnuts, cashews or almonds to the pine nuts.
Add to a clean jar (Bonne Maman jam jars are the perfect size and the red and white lids look pretty against the green - add extra Waitrose complacent points) and press down with the back of a teaspoon before adding another trickle of oil to just cover it; this prevents air getting to it and encouraging mould).  Keeps nicely in the fridge for weeks but rarely needs to!

I eat it any time of day with anything - spread on toast, fish, chicken (eeek, not in Liguria! again apologies to my Italian ancestors...), stirred into rice or pasta, add to baked potatoes, soups, salads, sandwiches. The fruitiness of the Parmesan and the stinging kick of raw garlic really wake up your tastebuds while the clovey scent of fresh basil and the crunch of the salt entice your other senses.  I promise you will never go back to shop-bought once you have made your own. Let me know how you get on!

Nutritional composition of pine nuts (from Wikipedia)

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy	2,815 kJ (673 kcal)
Carbohydrates	13.1 g
Starch	1.4 g
Sugars	3.6 g
Dietary fiber	3.7 g
Fat	68.4 g
Saturated	4.9 g
Monounsaturated	18.7 g
Polyunsaturated	34.1 g
Protein	13.7 g
Vitamins
Vitamin A equiv. beta-carotene	(0%) 1 μg (0%) 17 μg
Thiamine (B1)	(35%) 0.4 mg
Riboflavin (B2)	(17%) 0.2 mg
Niacin (B3)	(29%) 4.4 mg
Pantothenic acid (B5)	(6%) 0.3 mg
Vitamin B6	(8%) 0.1 mg
Folate (B9)	(9%) 34 μg
Choline	(11%) 55.8 mg
Vitamin C	(1%) 0.8 mg
Vitamin E	(62%) 9.3 mg
Vitamin K	(51%) 53.9 μg
Minerals
Calcium	(2%) 16 mg
Iron	(42%) 5.5 mg
Magnesium	(71%) 251 mg
Manganese	(419%) 8.8 mg
Phosphorus	(82%) 575 mg
Potassium	(13%) 597 mg
Zinc	(67%) 6.4 mg
Other constituents
Water	2.3 g
Units μg = micrograms • mg = milligrams IU = International units
Percentages are roughly approximated usingUS recommendations for adults.

Got to get the bitter into my life, into my life

This week I had a beautiful, simple lunch of roasted chicken wings with a pile of interesting salad leaves and a mango and chilli dressing. I'd bought the leaves on a whim from a farmer's market.  They easily lasted all week in the fridge and were a collection of (in the producer's own words) "horse-radishy, mustardy, citrussy" flavours.  They were quite a revelation. That evening, coincidentally, I listened to a podcast by the Radio 4 Food Programme called "Bitter" and it discussed something that I hadn't really thought about - the lack of bitterness in modern food. People were remembering things like the bitter grapefruit they used to have for their breakfast (with a spoonful of sugar that was never enough!) - they don't seem to be available any more; you can buy grapefruit, sure, but they are the pink or red varieties that just don't have the same mouth-puckering properties.

Bitter melon

Italians still have a taste for bitter foods, with the common use of radicchio, chicory and aperitifs such as Aperol (contains bitter orange and rhubarb).  The bitter melon/bitter gourd is still popular in traditional Indian cooking which is based on Ayerverdic principles (all six tastes should be present in every meal to feel satisfied and for health) and in Okinawa, known to have one of the healthiest diets on Earth. But here in the UK, even our vegetables have been bred with a reduction of the bitter-tasting plant compounds that are actually very healthy antioxidants.  Are we breeding the health out of our food?  And the complexity?  There is even a process known as "debittering" used in the food and drink manufacturing industries.

The bitter compounds in plants are known as phytonutrients and act as natural protectants for the plants, reducing their attractiveness to animals.  They include phenols, flavenoids, isoflavones, terpenes and glucosinolates.  It is thought that some people are genetically more sensitive to the latter, which occur in Brussels sprouts, possibly explaining the distaste some people have for them.  However, some of the health benefits of bitter foods include anticarcinogenic and antioxidant properties, they are able to help moderate appetite and blood sugar and also help to stimulate the liver to produce bile which aids digestion.  

When we try something new, our brains reward us with a hit of dopamine, a pleasure chemical.  I certainly have been enjoying my leaves lately, especially with an added Cajun chilli hot sauce, which has been scientifically proven to be addictive - the nerve-jangling capsaicin is the hot tasting component that encourages our brain to produce endorphins as a way to numb the pain.  Bitter foods add complexity and a hint of novelty to our diet and balance out the sweetness that we are often eating and drinking without realising.  As one person says in the Food Programme, it's funny how something which immediately repels us (bitterness) is better for us than something which initially appeals like sugar.